DNA breakthrough leads to identity of Philadelphia's Boy in the Box cold case victim

Police have reportedly made a major breakthrough in a cold case that has stymied investigators for decades after DNA identified the 1957 child murder victim known as the 'Boy in the Box.'

The Philadelphia Police Department plans to publicly reveal the young victim's name at a press conference next week after DNA evidence led to the boy's birth certificate, sources told WCAU-TV on Wednesday.

For six decades, the victim's headstone has simply identified him as 'America's Unknown Child,' and police hope that with his identity in hand, criminal charges could still be brought.

The shocking case unfolded on February 25, 1957, when the body of a boy, aged between three and seven, was found severely beaten and stuffed in a cardboard box in Philadelphia's Fox Chase neighborhood.

Police composites show the likeness of the child victim found stuffed in a box on the side of the road in Philadelphia in 1957. DNA has led to an identification of the victim

The boy's funeral service is seen above. The Philadelphia Police Department plans to publicly reveal the young victim's name at a press conference next week

The box had originally contained a bassinet, purchased from a JC Penney store in Upper Darby for $7.50. 

The body, which was found naked, showed signs of severe malnutrition, along with bruising all over and fatal head trauma. 

Near the body was found a man's newsboy cap in royal blue corduroy, which police believe may have been tied to the killer. A flannel blanket, recently washed and mended, also covered the body and offered another clue.

Investigators made extensive appeals to the public for information, but through the years the boy's identity remained a mystery, and the case gripped Philadelphia and the nation. 

The child's body has been exhumed twice, and DNA was extracted in both cases.

Police are believed to have used genealogical DNA research to identify the boy, by searching for distant relatives in public databases and reconstructing the family tree. 

Mourners gather for the 1957 funeral by a gravestone reading 'Heavenly Father Bless This Unknown Boy'

In 1998, the boy's remains were transferred from Philadelphia's Potter's Field to the Ivy Hill cemetery, where a new gravestone carried the inscription 'America's Unknown Child'

In 1998, the boy's remains were transferred from Philadelphia's Potter's Field to the Ivy Hill cemetery.

On Wednesday, workers at Ivy Hill spoke out expressing gratitude that the victim's gravestone will soon carry the boy's real name.

'I think it's wonderful,' Dave Drysdale, Ivy Hill's cemetery secretary and treasurer, told KYW-TV. 

'Some day, there will be a name on there and it will be great,' Drysdale said. 'It will be great.' 

'I just wish that the police officers and all the people involved who long passed away were still here to see it because that was one of their goals, and a couple of them said "I hope they live long enough to see a name put on there."'