By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer
Nov. 11 was a bittersweet day for Bill Kelly, members of the Vidocq Society and all of those who have ever investigated the case of the Boy in the Box.
That day, they gathered once more at Ivy Hill Cemetery in West Oak Lane to remember the young victim of the infamous 1957 homicide case that has stymied many of the nation’s most accomplished criminal investigators.
While Kelly and his colleagues could rejoice that as recently as last year, they made great strides in their quest to find out the boy’s name and the circumstances of his death, they could only lament that they had not brought their probe to its rightful conclusion.
So many questions remain, and the time to get answers is growing ever thinner.
“It’s kind of like a mixed-emotion thing,” said Kelly, a Northeast Philadelphia resident and former civilian forensics expert for the Philadelphia Police Department.
“We feel we have a closure with the information we have, but not a positive identification. (But) we feel good it was the closest we’ve come to identifying the child.”
Nov. 11 marked the fifth anniversary of the reburial of the boy’s remains at Ivy Hill following their exhumation from Potter’s Field in the Far Northeast and the extraction of DNA samples.
The cemetery, a local funeral director and a local headstone maker all contributed goods and services to the 1998 ceremony.
The Vidocq Society, a private organization comprised of detectives, forensics experts and others with investigative expertise, sponsored the exhumation with the endorsement of the police department, as well as the reburial ceremony.
The group even renamed the mystery boy “America’s Unknown Child” as a memorial to all young victims of violence.
The death of the Boy in the Box has long been attributed to blunt force trauma to the head.
He was about 4 at the time.
But it wasn’t until summer 2002 that investigators felt comfortable with any explanation for how the boy suffered those wounds and was ultimately dumped among piles of trash along Susquehanna Road in Fox Chase.
The boy was found inside a cardboard box by a passer-by.
The boy was naked except for a blanket.
That was on Feb. 25, 1957.
Kelly, then 30, was summoned to join the investigation five days later.
He has been involved with it since.
At one time, with publicity about the case stretching across the country and internationally, investigators figured an answer would surface in due time.
“Years and years ago, a good detective friend of mine said to me, ‘This case is like ice,’” Kelly recalled.
“It’s out there in the ice, then the ice melts in the sun. He said, ‘I believe this very well may be a deathbed confession.’”
Much time has passed, perhaps too much time, with no such confession.
“Time is the enemy, and it has been for many years now,” Kelly said.
Last year’s revelations stemmed from a claim by a woman in Ohio who said her mother killed the boy when she stuck his head against a bathroom floor in their Lower Merion home.
The witness was 12 or 13 at the time.
She said the boy’s name was Jonathan and that her parents had purchased him and kept him inside a box in the basement.
That’s why neighbors didn’t miss him when he was gone.
The woman’s mother died in 1985.
Kelly, retired medical examiner’s investigator Joe McGillen and active Philadelphia homicide Detective Tom Augustine conducted the interview.
The men generally believe the witness’ story.
But from a scientific standpoint, nothing has been proved.
Also, they’d still like to find out the boy’s full name and identity.
“In many ways, I feel more at ease with what we have now,” Kelly said.
“And we have a few more leads that we’re pursuing. We’re leaving no stone unturned.”
Anyone with information about the Boy in the Box case is asked to report it to police at 215-686-3334. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com