Police Seeking Help in Identifying Child found in 1998, Mebane, NC

[wheezer]

ORANGE COUNTY, N.C. -- The Orange County sheriff is turning to the public to try solve a nearly10-year-old mystery by identifying a boy's body found in September 1998 along Interstates 85 / 40.


Sheriff A.L. Pendergrass issued a press release Tuesday that offers a $5,000 from the Carole Sund / Carrington Foundation for information about the death of a 10-year-old boy, whose body was found in western Orange County along the roadway.

The Sheriff's Department says it has exhausted all leads in the mystery and would love to find anyone with information.

The background of the case is that a worker who was mowing grass along the interstate discovered the skeletal remains of the boy on the morning of Sept. 25, 1998, near exit 157 at I-85 / I-40 at the Buckhorn Road area. The body was located under a billboard, which was visible from the interstate.

The body was only about 50 yards from the southbound lanes of the roadway. The boy's body had been placed on his back with his arms slightly above his head. According to investigators, the boy had been partially clothed with boy’s brief-style underwear, Fox Polo name brand tan shorts with rider and horse emblem embroidered on cuff of leg with white socks and black and white tennis shoes.

An autopsy revealed that the boy was a white or Hispanic male about 10 years old. The boy had very dark hair of medium length. The report said the boy could have been dead as far back as April 1998.

Investigators said the boy's description does not match anyone in a missing person's report and his information has been added to the National Crime Information Center via the State Bureau of Investigation.

The Carole Sund / Carrington Foundation have offered the $5,000 reward for information. Anyone with information should call 888-813-8389 or call the sheriff's office at 644-3050 or 942-6300.


http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-05-0007.html

[KittyMom]

http://wwwcache.wral.com/asset/news/local/2008/02/05/2396544/boy-400x300.jpg

[KittyMom]

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/2396542/

Hillsborough — Orange County authorities on Tuesday announced a reward for information that would help them identify the remains of a boy found near Mebane almost a decade ago.

The Carol Sund/Carrington Foundation put up a $5,000 reward to help generate leads in the case, Orange County Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass said.

The skeletal remains were found on Sept. 25, 1998, near the Buckhorn Road exit off Interstate 40/85 by a worker mowing under a highway billboard. The billboard was on Industrial Drive, which parallels the southbound lanes of the interstate.

An autopsy determined the remains belonged to a white or Hispanic boy who appeared to be about 10 years old. He was about 4 feet, 11 inches tall and had dark brown hair about 3 to 4 inches long. White boys briefs, Fox Polo-brand tan shorts with a rider-and-horse emblem embroidered on cuff of a leg, white athletic socks and a pair of size 3 black-and-white athletic shoes with the brand “2XS” or “ZXS” were found on the remains.

Authorities said the body could have been under the billboard for up to five months before it was found. Investigators have long suspected foul play in the boy's death and said the boy probably was killed elsewhere and was placed there to hide his death.

If someone dumped the boy's body, investigators said, it's unlikely they stopped along the highway because there's a barrier fence off the side of I-40/85. The person would have had to exit at Buckhorn Road and then turn onto Industrial Drive before carrying the boy 76 feet to the clearing under the billboard, authorities said.

The boy's description has been listed in a national crime database for years, but Pendergrass said his investigators have had no success in determining the boy's identity and have received no reports of missing children that match of his description or time of death.

The Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation was established following the kidnapping and death of Sund, one of three women sightseers found slain near Yosemite National Park in February 1999. While the women were missing, Carole Sund’s parents, Francis and Carole Carrington, posted rewards both for their safe return and for information leading to the whereabouts of their rental car.

The foundation has paid $262,600 in rewards in dozens of cases since then, and the tips the rewards generated helped locate nine missing children and led to the arrests of 37 murder suspects and three kidnapping suspects.

Anyone with information in the case is asked to call Orange County Sheriff's Investigator Tim Horne at 919-644-3050 or 919-942-6300 the Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation at 1-888-813-8389.

[Texas53]

He was a cute boy, whoever he was. I hope they can solve the puzzle soon. I wonder if it was a kidnapping by unknown persons or a parental kidnapping and the parent snapped and killed the child. :1222423:

[KittyMom]

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/131331/

Posted: Sep 27, 1998

MEBANE — Orange County Sheriff's deputies are trying to identify the badly decomposed body of a young boy found Monday. Officials say the Caucasian or hispanic boy was between 10 and 12 years old.

Investigators say there was no sign of blood or trauma, but they suspect foul play.

Deputies say their biggest problem is they have no reports of any missing children in that age group anywhere in the area.

The North Carolina Center for Missing Persons has joined the search, pulling up 42 missing children cases that could be a match.

But if the child has never been reported missing, the search gets much tougher. Experts say a reconstruction may be necessary.

Jane Davison, of the N.C. Center for Missing Persons, said either a sketch or a clay reconstruction could be made from the skull, to try and get a sense of what this child may have looked like. Davison said the likeness could then be put on a show like "America's Most Wanted."

Davison says this is the first unidentified child case she's seen in the six years she's worked at the center. "I don't know that it would be that unusual across the nation, but in North Carolina, in my experience, it's unusual."

"Kids are thought to be rather innocent and somewhat defenseless," said Lt. Bobby Collins. "When you find a child like this about ten years old, you're obviously upset."

Investigators say the child's badly decomposed body spent up to four months in the spot where it was found. Authorities believe they can use dental remains from the body to identify it, as long as the child had dental records.

The Center for Missing Persons recommends all parents get their kids' dental impressions. They say parents can use the Styrofoam trays meat is sold on. They suggest washing the tray, cutting a small section, then having kids bite down on it. The impression that's left should be sufficient for identification.

The body was found Monday morning, when a worker mowing grass saw the white athletic shoes the boy was wearing. They were stamped with the letters "ZXS" on the heel.

The worker saw the bones next, then realized he had found human remains.

The child's remains were found just inside some woods along a lightly travelled service road. The road is on the outskirts of Mebane and parallels I-85/40.

International Fiberoptic Technologies, Inc. sits right next to where the body was discovered. Workers are still trying to come to grips with what happened.

"Of course we are shocked to find out that a body has been laying there for months," said Mebane resident Glenda Carlyle. "This is a very quiet community. You just don't expect things like that to happen here." The neighbors say they are disturbed that the victim was a child.

"Children are so vulnerable," said Carlyle. "To see somebody take advantage of a child like that, I can't imagine a child being missing. I don't know how you'd even react if you had a child missing much less to have a child turn up dead."

If you know anything about this case, please call the Orange County Sheriff's Department. ,Julie Moos

[Nut44x4]

He was a cute boy, whoever he was. I hope they can solve the puzzle soon. I wonder if it was a kidnapping by unknown persons or a parental kidnapping and the parent snapped and killed the child. :1222423:

I knowwwww....isn't he cute!! :cray: I so hope he can get his name back. So many cases and all just so sad and yet they make me so angry at the same time!!

:madranting94dp: I will never understand how anyone can kill a child :mad:

I'll continue to search for a name for this boy :1187603408.CR.Mothe

[Roamer]

What a sweet little face!! God bless you, little one. :1222423:

[packy]

How sad and they think his body could have been there for several months. So maybe missing mid '98 or sooner.

[nicky]

This is just a theory, if he is hispanic, is it possible he died while being brought into the US by coyotes? If that is the case, he may never be identified unless someone who knew him is now a legal citizen. How sad!

[Nut44x4]

Program hopes to connect the dots on unidentified remains

April 17, 2009 - 5:42 PM

Somewhere in the state Medical Examiner's Office in Chapel Hill, dozens of unidentified remains are waiting for a name. Among them are the skeletal remains of a boy found in Mebane in 1998.

Lying near the edge of the woods and about 76 feet from the road, the boy's body was partially clothed when a crew mowing grass around a billboard on Industrial Drive found him. A pair of underwear, khaki shorts, black and white sneakers and white socks were found with the bones.

Patches of dark brown hair could be seen near the skull. In his pocket, $50 neatly folded. His legs were together and the arms were slightly extended above the head. Detectives assume the child died somewhere else and was later brought to the location where he was found.

Despite continuous efforts from investigators to determine the identity of the boy, they are not any closer now than they were almost 11 years ago.

Tim Horne was one of several Orange County investigators who spent the morning of Sept. 25, 1998, removing the remains from the scene. Since then, he has spent many hours trying to determine who the boy is and what may have happened to him. He has run several scenarios in his head.

"There are so many variables in this case," he said.

Was the child abducted somewhere else and his body later dumped on the side of the road? Were the caregivers involved in his demise?

He has been unable to match the boy's description to a missing persons report. He is not even sure if his family ever put one out or whether they lived in the area at the time.

It is a frustrating process that repeats every time a body is found by law enforcement and identification cannot be done.

"There are so many ifs" in these types of cases, Horne said. "There are a lot of unknowns."

People like Daphne Owings are trying to close those gaps.

Owings is the North Carolina director for the Doe Network, an international nonprofit with the goal of helping law enforcement identify the nameless and return the missing to their families.

Among other things, Owings said, they try to accomplish this goal by giving the cases exposure on their Web site, www.DoeNetwork.org, and by having volunteers search for clues, as well as making possible matches between missing persons with unidentified remains.

In November 2006, Owings was instrumental in helping the Alamance County Sheriff's Department match a missing persons case from here with a set of unidentified remains found near Atlanta.

In April of that year, Rigoberto Anzaldo Lara and friend Horacio Meza Torres left their homes in North Carolina hoping to find a better job in Atlanta. Each one was carrying $200 to $300 in cash. When they couldn't find a job, they decided to head back to the Alamance County area, where their families lived.

They never made it back.

Owings was aware of the missing person cases in Alamance County, so when she read that Atlanta authorities had found the remains of two men - who they believed to be Hispanic - near the area where the missing North Carolina men were last seen, she started making phone calls.

Eventually, one of the bodies was identified as Anzaldo-Lara. No information is available as to the identification of the second body.

Owings said that since she joined the network in 2003, she's been able to match 10 missing person cases to unidentified remains. In eight of these cases, the missing person was found in a different state. These identifications took from one month to 16 years after the person went missing.

OWINGS SAID DISCONNECTS of information are not rare in these types of cases. For instance, she said, if the estimations of age, weight or height of the unidentified person are off, finding a match with a missing person is almost impossible.

"It can fall through the cracks," she said.

In the case of the John Doe from Mebane, investigators were not even 100 percent sure the remains belonged to a boy. It took some time for DNA tests to confirm the gender.

Later tests revealed his age to be between 8 and 11 years. His weight was estimated to be 50 to 80 pounds and his height 4 feet 7 inches to 4 feet 11 inches. Based on the bone structure, he could be white or Hispanic. Dental evidence showed he did not have cavities or previous dental work except for preventive clear sealant.

Though the body was not found until September of 1998, it is estimated that he could have been dead as early as April of that year. The body did not present any signs of trauma, but detectives are treating the case as a homicide because of the age of the victim and the way he was found.

Horne believes the child was likely Hispanic. He points to the dark hair and the brand of clothes he was wearing - Fox Polo Club, a Ralph Lauren knock-off brand that was being sold at the time at the nearby Buckhorn Flea Market, which is known to be frequented by Hispanics from the area.

He also believes the child is not from this area, which may explain why he hasn't been able to find a missing-person report matching the child's description.

Horne said new technology can determine almost with 100 percent certainty what part of the world the boy had lived in prior to his death. Though the tests are available, the money to pay for them is not.

He said a test like that would cost several thousands of dollars, something his department does not have at this point. "It's very difficult to find resources," he added.

Owings said she is looking into whether there are grants out there that could pay for the tests needed.

In the meantime, the boy's information has been entered into the National Crime Information Center twice. The second time was a couple of years ago, when Horton realized that due to a logistical mistake, the case had been booted out of the system.

Owings said they were lucky to at least have DNA information on the boy. The other unidentified remains case Orange County has currently open was not that lucky.

The victim in that case is a woman who was found on Sept. 9, 1990 on an embankment near the New Hope Church Road exit on Interstate 40.

She too was found by a mowing crew. She had a bra and a pink T-shirt with three bunnies on the front - two on a bicycle, one on a unicycle - pulled over her head when she was found. She also had a pair of white anklet socks.

Because the discovery was before the DNA testing era, her body was cremated following the policy of the time before a test could be done. A partial test on some hairs did not produce conclusive results, Horne said.

Detectives believe she was last seen walking along the highway near the Alamance Road exit in Alamance County. She had shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair and her age was estimated to be between 15 and 21 years.

Investigators at the time were able to develop a person of interest: a cab driver who had been seen in the vicinity of the where the woman was last seen begging for money.

Sadly, that person committed suicide before investigators could interview him about the case.

Owings believes the Jane Doe was 17 or 18 years old based on dental records (her wisdom teeth had not erupted yet).

Horne is hopeful that new technology will allow them to find out more about her identity in the future.

"What may be nothing today may be a whole new lead tomorrow," he said.

THESE DAYS, HORNE hasn't been able to do much with the John Doe case. But that doesn't mean he has forgotten it.

"I leave it under my desk," he said of the box containing all the information he has gathered throughout the course of the investigation. "It doesn't go away."

As his own son approaches his eighth birthday, Horne cannot stop thinking about what could have happened to the boy.

"This kid was not just wandering in the woods," Horne said. "Somewhere there is a relative who would have noticed that he was gone.

"We want to find out who the child is and get the remains back to the family. Before I retire, I'd like to reunite the child with his parents and develop a suspect," he added.

Horne said that it means a lot to the families of missing persons to receive the remains because it allows them to grieve. At least then, he said, they can lay flowers on their graves.

Owings said that though finding out that a loved one who has been missing is now dead can never give family closure, it does gives relatives an answer. At the same time, it brings a new set of questions, she said.

In the case of homicides, knowing the identity of the victim gives families and investigators a new direction.

"It's rare to get justice when you don't know who the victim is," she said.

Owings said people are still encouraged to call investigators with clues about these two cases, no matter how faint the memories may be.

"If anybody thinks of anything, call it in," she said. "Even if you don't think it's anything."

She said efforts are under way to establish national standards for missing person reports. Medical examiners across the country are also putting together a national database that will allow law enforcement to have better access to information outside their jurisdiction.

Owings said there are an estimated 40,000 unidentified remains in the country. About 5,000 of these are children. At the same time, there are 150,000 missing persons cases open nationwide.

In North Carolina, there are 2,000 missing person cases that have not been resolved in the past 10 years. To read about cases in Alamance County, click here.

"There is a lot of work to be done," she said.

http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/unidentified_24291___article.html/connect_dots.html

[Nut44x4]

I stumbled on this today and decided to post.

https://identifyus.org/cases/5971
Estimated age PreAdolescent
Minimum age 10 years
Maximum age 12 years
Race White
Ethnicity
Sex Male
Weight (lbs) 0, Cannot Estimate
Height (inch) 49, Estimated
All parts recovered
Body condition Complete Skeleton
Probable year of death 1998

Location Where Found
GPS coordinates
Address 1 Industry Dr.
Address 2 Near I40/85
City Meband
State North Carolina
Zip
County Orange

Hair: Dark brown about 3 to 4 inches long
Clothing with body: Khaki shorts w/"Fox Polo Club" label sized 150(13). White boys briefs, no label.

Footwear: Black and white athletic shoes w/the label "2XS Sports" sized 3. White athletic socks

Other: Two $20 bills and a $10 bill

Dental and DNA available
https://identifyus.org/medias/show/2825
FULL CASE REPORT>
https://identifyus.org/cases/full_report/5971

[Nut44x4]

Look above the arrow and see EXIT 157 reduce map to show general area

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=Cheeks%20crossRoads%20NC

[Nut44x4]

There is a weigh station at exit 157 North and Southbound ...scanning for photos now.

[Nut44x4]

Northbound exit pix
http://www.southeastroads.com/north_carolina085/i-085_nb_exit_157_03.jpg

[Nut44x4]

Can't find southbound pix. Looking for the billboard....

[packy]

Northbound exit pix
http://www.southeastroads.com/north_carolina085/i-085_nb_exit_157_03.jpg

I got the message, "403 error, you are trying to access a _____which you don't have privilege.

[Faith]

I got the message, "403 error, you are trying to access a _____which you don't have privilege.

I fixed it.

[Faith]

http://www.ncwanted.com/asset/2008/02/05/2398358/MebaneJohnDoeBoy-WebFeature-510x191.jpg
Tips Needed to Identify Boy's Remains From NC WANTED Staff and WRAL Reports
Posted: Feb 5, 2008
Updated: Feb 6, 2008

ORANGE COUNTY — Orange County authorities on Tuesday announced a reward for information that would help them identify the remains of a boy found near Mebane almost a decade ago.

The Carol Sund/Carrington Foundation put up a $5,000 reward to help generate leads in the case, Orange County Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass said.

The skeletal remains were found on Sept. 25, 1998, near the Buckhorn Road exit off Interstate 40/85 by a worker mowing under a highway billboard. The billboard was on Industrial Drive, which parallels the southbound lanes of the interstate.

An autopsy determined the remains belonged to a white or Hispanic boy who appeared to be about 10 years old. He was about 4 feet, 11 inches tall and had dark brown hair about 3 to 4 inches long. White boys briefs, Fox Polo-brand tan shorts with a rider-and-horse emblem embroidered on cuff of a leg, white athletic socks and a pair of size 3 black-and-white athletic shoes with the brand “2XS” or “ZXS” were found on the remains.

Authorities said the body could have been under the billboard for up to five months before it was found. Investigators have long suspected foul play in the boy's death and said the boy probably was killed elsewhere and was placed there to hide his death.

If someone dumped the boy's body, investigators said, it's unlikely they stopped along the highway because there's a barrier fence off the side of I-40/85. The person would have had to exit at Buckhorn Road and then turn onto Industrial Drive before carrying the boy 76 feet to the clearing under the billboard, authorities said.

The boy's description has been listed in a national crime database for years, but Pendergrass said his investigators have had no success in determining the boy's identity and have received no reports of missing children that match of his description or time of death.

The Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation was established following the kidnapping and death of Sund, one of three women sightseers found slain near Yosemite National Park in February 1999. While the women were missing, Carole Sund’s parents, Francis and Carole Carrington, posted rewards both for their safe return and for information leading to the whereabouts of their rental car.

The foundation has paid $262,600 in rewards in dozens of cases since then, and the tips the rewards generated helped locate nine missing children and led to the arrests of 37 murder suspects and three kidnapping suspects.

Anyone with information in the case is asked to call Orange County Sheriff's Investigator Tim Horne at 919-644-3050 or 919-942-6300.
If you have any information on the boy's identity, call NC WANTED toll free at 1.866.43.WANTED (1.866.439.2683) or click on "Report a Tip" (http://www.ncwanted.com/nc_wanted_root/page/1619010/) Your identity can be kept confidential.


http://www.ncwanted.com/ncwanted_home/story/2397005/


Link to poster

http://www.ncwanted.com/asset/2008/02/05/2397806/%27John_Doe%27_Unidentified_Mebane_Boy_NCMEC_POSTE R.pdf

[LiveLaughLuv]

Unbelievable that a parent who is missing a child did not step up..

How can someone just dump a child on a road?

:45024:

[Nut44x4]

New facial reconstruction could help solve decade-old mystery into death of young boy

February 02, 2010 5:01 PM

Authorities hope a 3-D facial reconstruction of a boy who was found dead on the side of a Mebane road more than 11 years ago will bring them closer to finding the child’s identity.
http://images.onset.freedom.com/gaston/medium/kx8ipd-kx8im8mebanebodyfound.jpg
The sculpture, perhaps one of the last works by renowned forensic artist Frank Bender, will be unveiled during a ceremony Saturday night at N.C. State University, said Leslie Denton, who works for Guardian Digital Forensics in Raleigh and is a member of N.C. Swift Missing Abducted Response Task Force, N.C. SMART for short, which is sponsoring the event.

Denton said the group, which provides forensic technology services to law enforcement agencies statewide in missing and unidentified cases at no cost, contacted Bender last year after learning about this cold case.

The artist, who has assisted the FBI and the “America’s Most Wanted” television program on several cases across the country and around the world, agreed to make the sculpture at no cost, Denton said, adding that the group was responsible for providing Bender with the necessary materials.

Denton said the unveiling will have a dual purpose: to show the new 3D image in hopes that someone will recognize the boy and as a tribute to Frank, who was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in September.

During the unveiling ceremony, N.C. SMART will present Bender with the Frank Bender Award, a recognition that will be given every year after that to an artist who has helped to bridge the gap between forensic science and art to assist law enforcement in solving these types of cases, Denton said. Among the officials who have been invited to attend the event are Gov. Beverly Perdue, Attorney General Roy Cooper and Department of Justice Director Robin Pendergraft.

Tim Horne, a detective with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said the bust will provide the closest representation of what the boy looked like when he was alive. Because it is a 3D rendition, Horne said it will showcase certain details that previous drawings were unable to show, such as the boy’s overbite.

“Hopefully, somebody will recognize him,” he said.

HORNE WAS ONE OF several Orange County investigators who spent the morning of Sept. 25, 1998, removing the skeletal remains found by a crew mowing grass around a billboard on Industrial Drive in Mebane. Years later, after he took over the cold cases in Orange County, Horne spent many hours trying to determine who the boy is and what may have happened to him.

The boy’s body was partially clothed when it was found. A pair of underwear, khaki shorts, black and white sneakers and white socks were found with the bones. Patches of dark brown hair could be seen near the skull. In his pocket, $50 was neatly folded. His legs were together and the arms were slightly extended above the head. Detectives assume the child died somewhere else and was later brought to the location where he was found.

Though the body was not found until September 1998, it was estimated that he could have been dead as early as April of that year. The body did not present any signs of trauma but detectives are treating the case as a homicide because of the age of the victim and the way the body was found.

After several forensic analyses, authorities determined the boy’s age to be between 8 and 11 years. His weight was estimated to be 50 to 80 pounds and his height 4 feet 7 inches to 4 feet 11 inches. Based on the bone structure, he could be white or Hispanic. Dental evidence showed he did not have cavities or previous dental work except for preventive clear sealant.

NC SMART member and co-founder of Public Safety Dogs Mike Craig said the key to finding what happened to the child is finding out who he is. That’s why the sculpture is so important, he said. He added that the group is currently in talks with a company that has created a DNA database that can determine not only the race of a person but also what part of the world the person comes from.

“Somebody somewhere is wondering where this child is,” he said. “We are going to keep trying until we either make a difference or exhaust all possibilities.”

Craig said providing free forensic services to police is getting harder since funds are low due to the economy. But he said that even when donations were down they have managed to help all the agencies that have requested their help during the past year.

He said putting the case in the national spotlight will also help investigators get the word out. He and Denton said they are working with Bender to try to get the case profiled by “America’s Most Wanted.”

For Horne, the hope is that the sculpture will spark a memory in someone who may have seen the boy prior to his death but did not recognize the previous drawings.

“I want someone to see it and say, ‘my gosh, I know who that is,’” Horne said.

Anyone with information about this case can call the Orange County Sheriff’s Department at (919)644-3050. To know more about NC SMART, contact Craig at 578-8538.

http://www.gastongazette.com/news/reconstruction-43257-boy-facial.html

[Nut44x4]

I am not sure why they are calling this a 'new reconstruction'. I have seen this before, a long time ago....I remember thinking how cute he was.

[Nut44x4]

This title should read MEBANE

[Nut44x4]

OH Geeeeeeeezeeeeee......we have 2 threads, no wonder it looked familiar, lol.

http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2045&highlight=CAROLINA

merge please

[KittyMom]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585045,00.html?test=latestnews

The News & Record of Greensboro reported that officials unveiled a facial reconstruction by renowned Philadelphia artist Frank Bender.

"This is the last one," Bender said in a telephone interview from his home. "Most people with terminal cancer and eight months to live might not have even attempted this. But I didn't want to turn this down if I could help identify him."

On Sept. 25, 1998, a groundskeeper for a billboard company was mowing along the Interstate 85/ Buckhorn Road exit and discovered something in the long summer grass at the edge of the woods.

It was the scattered remains of a skeleton, a 10-year-old child, with tube socks and new boy's sneakers still on the child's feet. Folded neatly in the pocket of a pair of khaki shorts was $50 — two $20s, one $10.

[KittyMom]

http://common.onset.freedom.com/images/copyrighted.gif

Artists drawing of boy.

[KittyMom]

http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/reconstruction-31370-facial-finding.html

This link provides more info on the child's case.

The boy’s body was partially clothed when it was found. A pair of underwear, khaki shorts, black and white sneakers and white socks were found with the bones. Patches of dark brown hair could be seen near the skull. In his pocket, $50 was neatly folded. His legs were together and the arms were slightly extended above the head. Detectives assume the child died somewhere else and was later brought to the location where he was found.

Though the body was not found until September 1998, it was estimated that he could have been dead as early as April of that year. The body did not present any signs of trauma but detectives are treating the case as a homicide because of the age of the victim and the way the body was found.

After several forensic analyses, authorities determined the boy’s age to be between 8 and 11 years. His weight was estimated to be 50 to 80 pounds and his height 4 feet 7 inches to 4 feet 11 inches. Based on the bone structure, he could be white or Hispanic. Dental evidence showed he did not have cavities or previous dental work except for preventive clear sealant.

[KittyMom]

http://mm.news-record.com/drupal/files/imagecache/nrcom_article_image_landscape/Images/COLD_NK_COLD_101.jpg
Sculpture of Child

http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/02/06/article/dying_sculptor_hopes_to_learn_child_s_name

[KittyMom]

The artist did a great job with the reconstruction of the child's face. I can't imagine doing that type of thing for a living. It has to be terribly difficult.

[Nut44x4]

http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/ap_John_Doe_Artist_100209_mn.jpg
This sculpted bust by Frank Bender shows what he believes John Doe, a boy found in 1998 in Mebane, N.C., in 1998 looked like at the time of his death. Bender, 68, has helped identify numerous murdered and missing people in his career, but the case of the boy in Mebane will be his last, as he is suffering from terminal cancer.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/dying-sculptors-effort-find-murdered-nc-child-forensic/story?id=9800993

[packy]

So sorry that Mr. Bender has terminal cancer. Bless him for all the help he has done in helping find some identities through his sculpting. Hope his sculpture of this boy will also help find his family.