The Boy in the Box: America's Unknown Child

Vidocq Email Q&A: Various Theories

A/N: Emails to and from the Vidocq society.

Q

A

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I feel strongly that this poor child was being passed off as a girl while he was alive. I was relieved to see that somebody else had also had that thought.

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He was most definitely beaten by a family member or someone close to him. Severe beatings resulting in death are usually done by someone close to the victim. They usually take out their rage/love on the victim. A child of that age could not have possibly knowingly offended an adult to the extent that such a result was inevitable. The offender, undoubtedly a male, used the child to vent his anger, possibly anger directed towards another.

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I have come up with a compilation of theories that I feel address a wide range of the possibilities. He lived at the foster home, and was-in-fact the son of the daughter and step-father. It was a home birth and therefore no documentation was found or record kept of his birth. The possibility of a cross-sex upbringing is interesting but doesn't change my thought on what happened. The boy had medical problems that needed attention and since they did not have the resources, they decided to attempt a home treatment of the boy's illness. And the 7 (already healed) scars may very well been treated in a hospital or at an established medical facility, but repeated doctors and activity in the public eye may have deterred further necessary trips to a professional. Instead of a doctor, they tried to perform what they had earlier seen being done to the boy by medical professionals. I don't believe any of these people had a very extensive medical background or certification of any kind. So when the boy began to struggle and thrash, the father held him and tried to control him through force. Whatever they were trying to do to the boy, maybe something medical or just basic grooming, the boy was not happy with the situation and was killed in the struggle. Seizure could have been a possibility. If these people didn't care at all for the boy they wouldn't have clipped his nails and let him play in the pond. But if your child had died by your own hands accidentally, you'd be scarred too. With little education and not many resources they probably figured that they would discard the body temporarily, but were caught too soon to do anything about it. There were cut blankets and a J.C. Penney bassinet. HELLO! There you go! My question is, why weren't these people more closely monitored or interrogated? This is baffling! You'd think that they would have been prime suspects. Malicious, no. Violent, yes! Cruel and cold-hearted, yes! Unmoral and completely unjust and barbaric, yes! The state probably couldn't afford to lose a person who was willing to operate a foster home due to all the children floating around, so they probably cut some kind of deal. That makes the most sense to me.

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The crude haircut looks actually as though the head was partially shaved. This made me think that someone may have tended to his head injuries.

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I get the feeling that this child was from some institution or orphanage. He was not treated for injuries outside of the place where he was. Probably this child was abandoned at birth and ended up in a custodial setting. Checking nearby facilities, probably something investigators already did, would be my first thought. Perhaps this child was from Canada or of foreign parentage and then abandoned. But I still say check the institutions.

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Did they search in Canada, Nova Scotia, or perhaps American Indian links in that part of New York that borders on Pennsylvania? I feel strongly that there is an American Indian link for some crazy reason. I looked at the boy and at his eyes and that's the first thing I thought of. He looks like he is part American Indian. I know there were tribes in that area. I believe there were Lakowaxon up near Colombia County, New York. Lakowaxon is somewhere on the New York/Pennsylvania border. It's his eyes. Has anyone else thought of that?