this week on BuzzFeed unol we covered the unfortunate murder of the unknown boy in the Box this case has been highly requested and is as bizarre as it is mysterious I love bizar and I love mysterious so I am titilated yeah you look like you're excited to hear about this boy and his box yeah okay I am well let's get into it on February 25th 1957 the body of a boy was found in a box in an illegal Dumping Ground near very Road in Philadelphia the boy was estimated to be around 4 to 6 years old weighed 30 lb and stood 3 3 in he was found naked but wrapped in a blanket the boy's hair was cut and his body was recently washed there were small scars in several places including his chin groin and left ankle some of which suggested he underwent a medical procedure head injuries were determined to be the cause of death and there were no Witnesses wait so I was excited to hear about this boy who lived in a box I told you it's not as magical as it they just found a dead kid in a box that's it yeah I mean I'm sure there's going to be more weird details but I thought it was going to be like oh and he boy did he not like his box and he spent years in his box not liking his box I mean this was the tit moment we just went over why this boy was in a box cuz he was dead what else do you want well the boy in the bubble the movie starring John Travolta he spent so much time in that bubble see a lot of bubble content you have a habit for citing movies as I've never seen this movie I just know it's about John Travolta and he can't go out because germs are will kill him and he has to stay in plastic and he kisses a girl R the plastic we're moving on okay the body was first found by a young man who was walking through the abandoned lot strangely this man waited a full day before tipping off the police and even stranger it turns out that a second man had previously found the boy's body but had not contacted the police because he claimed he did not want to get involved that's fair yeah I I I thought that was odd and maybe damning at first but now that I think about if I found a boy in a box you immediately make yourself a suspect when you say I found this boy in this box I found a boy in a box I had nothing to do with it and then the police sergeant and the other line's like you're like oh tell me more about this boy in the Box does he like his box he's like no he he was it he was dead because he's dead exactly with the cold weather at the time of year and the delayed phone call from the person who found the body it wasn't possible to accurately estimate when the boy had passed away in hopes of finding his identity the police kept the boy at the mor while visitors from over 10 different states tried to identify the boy by looking for any significant marks to no avail police sent out 400,000 Flyers of images of the boy to police stations post offices and cour houses all over the country even the American Medical Association sent out a description of the boy but it led nowhere what kind of description are they sending out it's just oh it's a boy he was in a box I mean they have like a finding you know kids have faces I know but they all kind of look the same when babies are born everyone goes oh what a cute baby that's a baby either your baby's ugly or normal I mean when you came out I imagine they go wo huge Noggin I was a very ugly baby I imagine your first steps with your head dragging along the floor like some kind of crab creature okay well that is not true is that enough head jokes for you yeah that's plenty okay the police compared the child's Footprints to hospital records in the area fingerprints were taken of the boy but no record was found to prove the boy ever existed I mean it's strange to just see that no somebody's completely off the grid What kind of box are we talking I know this isn't it's funny you would ask that because that's exactly what we're about to get into I have the mind of a a detective yeah it's the first clue good you don't have the mind of a detective you just I think I do you stumbled upon a good a question for once that you know actually pertain to the story you could sip your tea all you want I'm just saying it's clearly a coincidence let's run through some of the key Clues left at the scene of the crime one promising clue came from the actual box itself the Box contained a serial number which allowed investigators to pinpoint the shipment who were able to trace it back to a JC Penny store 15 miles away eily before the boy the box was used to ship a bassinet the store had shipped 12 of these boxes of bassinets however all of the purchasers paid in cash leaving no record eight purchasers ended up contacting the police when they read about the story in newspapers to go on record that they either still had the boxes or had put the boxes out for trash collection though the police were able to determine that the box was shipped to Upper Darby Pennsylvania this all makes sense what do you have against Pennsylvania I don't know it's quiet up there people got too much free time you know what happens next what do they even do what's Pennsylvania known for what putting Boys in boxes I don't think that's I wouldn't say that pennsylvanians are have a proclivity for I think if you look at their state flag you'll see a boy in a box false no don't okay you the blanket was examined by the Philadelphia textile Institute which believed the blanket was made either in gramby Quebec in Canada or swanana NOA North Carolina but there was no way to tell where this particular blanket was purchased since thousands were made and sold ultimately the blanket lead was a dead end poor guy working on that lead yeah I'm you're really you're going to find some with these blankets if you just follow the trail and they're like all right just we're doing some work here it looks like it was made in the country of Canada they only made a few thousand of them another propitious clue was a hat found 15 ft near the Box a blue corduroy ivy league style cap size 7 and 1/8 it was labeled Eagle hat and cap company and made by the small company owner Mrs Hannah Robbins in South Philadelphia dump a hat dump a boy people dump things in Lots there's a boy in a box in a lot also not always intentionally you lose a hat in a lot well I'm pretty sure the boy in the Box was dumped there intentional no one's like dragging a boy in the box and then like after they get home they're like I'm forgetting some Janet we left the we left the bo our boy was in that box Mrs Robins remembered the man who purchased the Hat because she had customized it for him the man who was described as Blonde between the ages 26 and 30 requested that a leather strap and buckle be added to the Hat he paid in cash and she never saw him again detectives visited over 100 stores within the area but nobody recognized the Hat nor the boy there was also strands of hair found on the boy's body suggesting a hasty haircut and one forensic artist named Frank Bender believes the boy was possibly raised as a girl in fact Bill Kelly an original investigator of the case recounts that in 1957 and 1958 a West Coast artist did circulate a rendition of the child as a girl but it never produced any leads wow they're really going all out for this so could have been a girl in the box but it wasn't it was a boy maybe he had like long hair hair or maybe like I cut my hair throughout most of college my own hair I mean it's cheap you did yeah how' that turn out do we have any pictures pretty good people were actually pretty impressed when I told them with all these dead ends let's get into the theories of what could have possibly happened to this boy and who he could be the first Theory comes from authors Lou romano and Jim Hoffman who came across a lead from a man in Philadelphia who said that his family once rented a place to a man who sold his son possibly the boy in the Box who sold his son yeah so he rented a place to this guy who sold his son he sold his son which is weird because unless he was there to actually see the sail go down that's not something you really tell somebody in passing know wow the place is beautiful I'm selling my son tomorrow I'll take it how much is it how many bedrooms only one of bucks can you believe it how much is rent again a forensic pathologist looked at photos of the boy's potential father and possible brother and agreed that similarities would warrant further Laboratory Testing he found similarities in the facial structure the Helix of the right ear and the nose a DNA sample was taken from the man they believed to be the brother oddly investigators on Philadelphia police did not say whether they would test DNA to compare the potential brother to the DNA of the boy in the Box they only said they would quote investigate further end quote okay here's what I don't get about that if we had a possible match on this boy in the box and you had an opport to compare it to DNA of a suspect or a a person as possibly a relative why not just do it how much do the DNA test cost that's true it doesn't make sense to me but apparently nothing came of you know maybe they did do it and nothing came of it and they just didn't report it could be or it's just you know bureaucracy man or a cover up or a cover up the second Theory comes from medical examiner Remington Bristo who investigated the case for over 36 years Bristo gathered newspaper clippings of the boy and spent thousands of dollars of his own money and countless hours trying to identify the boy he traveled all the way to Arizona and Texas for leads Bristo even consulted with a psychic who held Staples from the bassinet box hoping he or she could gather some Clues Bristo went even as far as carrying a mask of the boy's face in his briefcase okay let's think about some things here the last two went a little off the edge yeah especially the lad that doesn't even seem helpful so would you wear it and go to people and be like you you know do you know me do you see my little boy face does this look familiar to you you know what's even weirder even if he didn't open with that and he's like interrogating someone like you seen this kid no no all right let me pull out one more thing clip clip now now have you seen him and they're just like no could you please leave my home please leave Bristo theorized that the boy died accidentally his freshly cut hair and nails indicated that he was well taken care of perhaps the boy's family never came forward because they did not want to be charged with murdered based off of a psychic's clue Bristol looked into a foster family that lived nearby where the boy was found the Foster family had already been interviewed by the police at this Foster family's 1961 estate sale Bristol found a bassinet that he believed could have previously been stowed in the Box the boy was founded they don't know what the other bassinets looked like that's weird yeah I guess I guess there must nothing must have came of that because it's like it may have looked like it then again keep in mind this is not an official investigation yeah I know this is just a man with a passion I'm passion for justice yeah respectable Bristo then began to theorize that the boy was an illegitimate child of the daughter of the Foster family and was perhaps abandoned by the daughter so she would not be revealed as a single mother Bristo would eventually pass away in 1993 but shortly after Philadelphia Detective Tom Augustine took up the case where Bristol left off on February 23rd 1998 detective Augustine went to the home of Arthur nicoletti the man who led the former Foster Care Home nicolle's wife Anna Marie was the woman Bristo theorized to be the mother of the boy in the Box in addition to being nicoletti's wife Anna Marie was also nicolle's stepdaughter so he married wait what wait hang on what you're you're bra is imploding right now I need like a visual here so his wife When a Man Loves a Woman and so all right but it's it's his it's his wife yeah it's not incest technically because it's not yeah anytime you have to say it's not incest technically that's not great Ryan true but it isn't it's not his blood okay Anna Marie told Augustine that she did have a boy who passed away in bizarre fashion with morg records supporting her statement his cause of death was electrocution from a nickel ride outside of a store once again leading to a dead end that's pretty funny do you think she was like hey here's a nickel Timmy I'm going to go inside and get some groceries I'll be right back or the more horrifying version of that do you think she made him ride the ride and sat there and watched as he was apparently having too much fun and got really excited was like yeah and then you think he screamed like R2-D2 see that's kind of horrifying when you think about that one sure is but there was a moment where she was probably like wow he's really enjoying that ride yeah it's just one of those unfortunate deaths where obviously it's a tragedy but boy oh boy is that a laugh Riot the third and final Theory comes from a woman named Martha a psychiatrist from Cincinnati contacted Austine and said one of her patients insisted on speaking to the police the patient patient went by the name of Martha and said that when she was 11 years old her mother took her to a house where she handed an envelope over for a boy did you just realize something what just happened well remember in the first Theory I said there was the guy who said he sold his son yeah did you just not realize that until now though yeah because Jesus I've never seen you you you could put a light bulb can we play that back and put a light bulb over Ryan's head when that happens was that clear that what the connection I made there was a guy who they thought maybe sold a son yeah and here's the purchase happening and you didn't make that until you read it just now I'm so in each Theory yeah you didn't you didn't like them Martha said that she was sexually abused by her mother and the mother wanted to do the same to the boy Martha said her mother beat the boy to death after struggling to bathe him and drove Martha and the boy to Philadelphia to abandon him Martha spoke with investigators Tom Augustin Joseph mcgillan and William Kelly mcgillan and Kelly were one of the first on the boy in the Box CR crime scene all three were allegedly convinced by Martha's story according to Bill fer a retired FBI agent details of Martha's Story add up the testimonies addresses and descriptions it is a strong Theory but even with Martha's lead the police were not able to verify if the boy was Who Martha claimed he was did I actually just saw something I think you did to be honest I may have just saw something oh my God you've done it Ryan but if it would if that's the case then the police would have just released it so obviously this this is not [Music] right feels right wow not doesn't take a lot to convince you either way to this day the boy's identity remains a mystery his grave is marked as America's unknown child at the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia Adelia to this day people are mystified as to why nobody had come to claim him perhaps someday we will learn who this boy was and what happened to him but for now the case remains [Music] unsolved I'm going to still say this is very unsolved but for a moment there I thought I had solved something yeah you could see it in your expression the day you solve something I'll give you $500 oh wow $500 real dollars yeah I could go to Disneyland with that kind of money that'll last me a couple days maybe thank you Shane let's make it$ 200 $200 that's still good oh my you're so generous is too much I got groceries to buy okay well there you have it Jane's going to set me for life if I ever saw something with that 500 big ones 200 Queens baby 200 shekels