Current Cases

America's Unknown Child

Please help the Philadelphia Police Department and the Vidocq Society solve one of America's greatest mysteries, the 1957 death of a young boy whose identity has never been determined. 

In October 1998, the award-winning Fox television program America's Most Wanted featured the bizarre unsolved 1957 death of "The Boy in The Box" and numerous leads have been funneled to the Philadelphia Homicide Division.  Vidocq co-founders Bill Fleisher, V.S.M., and Frank Bender, V.S.M., along with now-retired Philadelphia Police Intelligence Bureau officer (and Vidocq Society Member) Sam Weinstein, who was the second to respond to the roadside crime scene in 1957, were seen on the program, along with Richard Walter, V.S.M., a forensic psychologist and Vidocq Society co-founder.

Bender is the famed artist/sculptor responsible for what is probably the most famous capture by America's Most Wanted: family killer John List.  Bender's "aged" bust of List was so uncannily accurate that shortly after its broadcast a viewer was able to direct authorities to the murderer. In the October broadcast Bender displayed bust that he created just for the program that revealed how he believes the young victim's father may have looked in 1957.

The case, featured on the the TV program's former website, profoundly affected viewers around the country. As a result, the case's America's Most Wanted chat room remained open for more than three weeks, three times longer than normal.

Chat room participants, unknown to each other before the TV broadcast, also created a special private e-mail ring to share theories and suggestions. All case-germane postings in the AMW chat area and e-mail ring postings shared with the Vidocq Society were reviewed by the Philadelphia Homicide Division.

On Nov. 3, 1998, pursuant to an Orphans' Court order, the boy's remains were exhumed for DNA analysis. He was reburied with full honors as "America's Unknown Child" in services at beautiful Ivy Hill Cemetery on Nov. 11.