ORM630723, July 23 1963

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By Anita Burke
August 03, 2008
Investigators and funeral directors gather on the lush green lawn of Hillcrest Memorial Park as a workman's shovel cuts through the turf.

In a row of children's graves marked by bronze and concrete plaques from the mid-1960s, this patch of grass bears no memorial.

Related Stories
DNA evidence given priority as recent law changes state proceduresNobody's Child How to help
Anyone who knows

anything about this case is asked to call the

sheriff's department's

tip line at 774-8333.

Tips can be anonymous.
On July 23, 1963, the body of a toddler pulled from Keene Creek Reservoir earlier that month by a fisherman but never identified was put to rest there in a plastic casket, at a cost of $144 to Jackson County.

Jackson County Sheriff's Department investigators hope that now, 45 years after the unidentified toddler was buried at the cemetery on Medford's eastern edge, they can determine who this little boy was, and maybe even what happened to him.

They've read old reports and tracked down colleagues who worked in the Rogue Valley decades ago to see what they could remember about the case, but have come up with nothing. On Friday, they exhumed the tiny body to tap the latest technology — DNA testing and facial reconstruction from the skull.

They are sharing the story with the public in hopes of sparking memories that might still hold a vital clue.

"We owe it to this little boy to get him identified and to connect him to his family," said Jackson County Sheriff Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan, one of a team of investigators that has rejuvenated the case, which had languished in the county archives.

Eleven paper boxes marked "old sheriff cases" were uncovered in the archives last year and Fagan asked special investigator Jim Tattersall to sort through them to see whether there were any that needed to be followed up or entered into computer databases.

Tattersall retired from a career in law enforcement and private security and has helped investigators at the sheriff's department a few days a week since 2004. He pitches in on tasks, like this one, that the busy detectives just can't get to.

He paged through reams of case reports — burglaries, stolen cars, "a lot of suicides, a few homicides," a whole variety of felonies. And one about a little boy with no name.

"All of them had a conclusion," he said. "But this one just stopped."

It started July 11, 1963.

Roy Roberts, a Rogue River man who worked at the Green Springs Lumber Co., was fishing in Keene Creek Reservoir along Highway 66 in the mountains east of Ashland with his wife and two co-workers on a Thursday evening when he hooked what he thought was a blanket roll.



But the bundle, a blanket and quilt wrapped with wire, contained a boy's body.

Roberts reported his shocking discovery to a fire warden at Lincoln, who relayed the report to Oregon State Police. The Jackson County Sheriff's Department ultimately took the case, but OSP and the FBI assisted.

"They used the best technology of the day," Fagan said.

An autopsy performed the day after the body was found estimated the boy was 22 to 26 months old when he died. His death likely happened after October 1962, a sheriff's report said. Winter's freezing temperatures could have helped preserve the body, but the medical examiner couldn't be sure. The condition of the body prevented him from determining a cause of death.

Looking back, Fagan said the death could have been accidental, but someone feared facing repercussions. It could have naturally occurred in a family that didn't have the means for a conventional burial. It could have been a homicide someone hoped to hide.

The report listed the lad as 321/2; inches tall, weighing between 19 and 30 pounds, with longish, light-brown hair and eight upper and eight lower teeth. He wore a red, long-sleeved pullover shirt with thin white stripes, gray corduroy trousers with an elastic waist and a buckle for size adjustments, and a cloth diaper fastened with blue diaper pins and covered with plastic pants. The clothing likely was from J.C. Penney, police reports said. He also wore anklet socks and white walker or learner shoes known as "Jumping Jacks" that possibly had been bought at Noble's Shoes in downtown Medford.

The child's footprints were taken with the help of the FBI, and deputies spent days with magnifying glasses comparing them with imprints taken of newborns at local hospitals around the time they estimated he had been born.

The body was wrapped in an aqua blanket and a handmade patchwork quilt that included lots of red, including red gingham squares. Two iron assayer's molds were wrapped in the quilt, apparently to weigh the body down. Thin brass wire and several loops of copper wire with a lead sheath and rubber insulation secured the bundle.

"This was as though someone was saying goodbye," Fagan said.

Reports indicated that both the molds, designed for refining and casting metal, and the telephone wire were once common, but already old and seldom used by the time the boy was found.

"Maybe someone had found them lying around in an old barn or cabin," speculated Jackson County Deputy Medical Examiner Tim Pike, who also is part of the team that has taken up the old case.

Photographs of the molds were featured in the Medford Mail Tribune and the Ashland Daily Tidings, which both carried the story with regular updates through July and August 1963.



Tips came in and deputies recorded them in a special log book dedicated to what they called a homicide case involving the found child. Pages and pages of reports, letters and telegrams to neighboring jurisdictions and photographs stacked up, but no answers emerged.

In the days after the child was buried, a bouquet of sweet peas appeared on the grave, which was marked with a flat metal marker that one police report said read, "John Doe, name known only to God."

Detectives queried cemetery sextons and florists to determine where the blooms had come from, hoping that a bereaved family member might have surfaced. They concluded that the flowers were likely meant for another new grave, a Central Point baby buried nearby at about the same time, but the giver hadn't paused to decipher the hard-to-read temporary markers.

Some leads were listed as unfounded, but no details were provided on why they hadn't panned out, Fagan said.

He noted that the investigators of the day clearly worked hard on the case and did all they could. However, differences in processes — such as referring to people by title, first initial and last name instead of full name and identifying women by their husband's names — have frustrated current investigators.

In one tantalizing example, a deputy wrote that Mrs. Cecil Johnson, on Route 1 in Central Point, reported that the child's description matched that of a "welfare baby" she had taken care of for more than two years. The report said the child had been born "at Fairview Home to a 14-year-old mentally retarded girl" and brought to the Johnsons when he was 10 days old. On Jan. 31, 1963, "Mrs. Uridel, of the welfare," had come to collect the baby because she heard the Johnsons were having money problems, the report said. When picked up, the child was wearing a red-and-white striped T-shirt, corduroy pants and white shoes, Mrs. Johnson told the deputy. She was also suspicious because no one had come to collect the child's clothes and medical records from her.

The file contained no other information about this report.

"We'd sure like to know who Mrs. Cecil Johnson of Route 1 was," Pike said.

With no likely leads left in the old file, the team turned to technology that the original investigators — for whom notes show a long-distance phone call was an extraordinary event to be scheduled — couldn't have imagined.

The University of North Texas operates the Center for Human Identification, funded in part by the National Institute of Justice, to help law enforcement agencies nationwide utilize DNA evidence. For missing-person cases, it collects DNA from relatives of the missing and from unidentified remains, then works to match them.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offers investigators resources for creating three-dimensional models of facial features from old remains.

Pike obtained a permit from the Oregon Department of Human Services Center for Health Statistics to exhume, transport and reinter the boy.

"What we want is a proper burial with a proper casket, ideally with his name on the headstone," Fagan said.



Officials at Hillcrest waived all fees for Friday's exhumation and have promised to provide a new marker at cost.

Crews dug through heavy clay soil studded with rocks, unearthing a metal marker for the unknown baby and a rusted flower receptacle before their shovels thumped against a white plastic vault protecting the tiny casket.

"Everything will be very well intact," predicted funeral director Jed Ramey, standing by to oversee the project.

Cemetery worker Robert Johnson hoisted out the mud-stained casket, an elegant box just 27 inches long, 12 inches wide and 9 inches deep.

Investigators and funeral directors carried it to a work area at the cemetery for an initial examination.

"This is amazing," Pike said after his first look.

He said the remains were in far better condition than investigators had hoped for and should yield "great" forensic evidence.

The casket and remains were taken to the deputy state medical examiner's laboratory for a more thorough examination. A state anthropologist will assist in the evaluation so the best DNA samples can be collected and a reconstruction can be done. Those results won't be available for months.

Despite the potential for quality forensic work, Pike still hopes for help from the public.

"I think if we have any chance of solving this case it will be through the public's help," he said. "Someone may remember this child, this case."

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail aburke@mailtribune.com.



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[PorchlightUSA]

Photos from the Jackson County Sheriff's Department files showing the shoes worn by the child, one of the two assayer's molds that was bound to the body to weigh it down and flowers which were left at the grave. Jim Craven 8/1/2008


Attached Image

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Jackson County Deputy Medical Examiner Tim Pike, left, examines something that appeared to have been placed on top of the casket. Others are Deputy Medical Examiner investigator Randy Arnold (with camera), Travis Hartzell, manager of Hillcrest Memorial Park and Jed Ramey, funeral director of Hillcrest. Jim Craven 8/1/2008



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DNA evidence given priority as recent law changes state procedures
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By Anita Burke
Mail Tribune
August 03, 2008
An Oregon law that went into effect in January pushes investigators to collect DNA and other potentially valuable evidence early in every missing-person case.

"This has changed the way missing-person cases are handled," Jackson County Sheriff's Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan said.

Related Stories
Nobody's Child The law outlines an aggressive set of questions investigators must answer early in any missing-person investigation so they have details that will be useful in finding and identifying the person. It then requires increased cooperation and information sharing among agencies.

It also requires the collection of DNA from evidence the person might have left behind or from family members. That DNA evidence must be submitted to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification for inclusion in a national database.

Investigators are using those same tools in hopes of identifying a toddler found in Keene Creek Reservoir 45 years ago.

Fagan said the sheriff's department handles about 100 missing-person cases each year and only a few remain open. Most of the current cases that remain unsolved lacked an early aggressive effort by investigators.

"Kaelin Glazier is a good example," Fagan said.

The 1996 investigation into the missing teen whose remains were discovered this spring got off to a slow start because investigators didn't know whether she had run away or met with foul play, he said. He added that the case is moving forward now with a person of interest identified and prosecutors reviewing evidence.

"Now we are funded to make every missing person a priority, from the search-and-rescue effort to criminal background checks" that start immediately, Fagan said.

The new law was proposed in honor of Miranda Gaddis and Ashley Pond, two Oregon City girls who disappeared in 2002 and were later found to have been murdered by a neighbor.

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http://www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=8797803

Investigators in Southern Oregon still working on cold case





Associated Press - August 6, 2008 11:15 AM ET

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) - Forty-five summers ago, the body of a toddler was pulled from the Keene Creek Reservoir in Southern Oregon.

The young boy was found bundled in blankets bound in wire and weighted down with iron molds.

Decades later, investigators are still trying to crack the case.

Now, a team from the Jackson County Sheriff's Department has come up with some new details that could finally pinpoint the child's identity.

In 1963, Beulah Johnson told police that the description of the boy's body matched that of a foster child who had been removed from her care.

Her daughters still living in the Rogue Valley, and are helping police with the ongoing investigation.

The child, Cecil Roy Rapp, lived with the family for a short time until he was taken away by state officials.

The Johnsons were never able to track down what became of him, and now police are hoping to trace him through public records.


Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[oldies4mari2004]

Unidentified Male Child


The victim was discovered on July 11, 1963 in Jackson County, Oregon
Estimated Date of Death: after October 1962


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vital Statistics


Estimated age: 22-26 months old
Approximate Height and Weight: 32 1/2"; 19-30 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: Longish, light-brown hair.
Dentals: Eight upper and eight lower teeth.
Clothing: He wore a red, long-sleeved pullover shirt with thin white stripes, gray corduroy trousers with an elastic waist and a buckle for size adjustments, and a cloth diaper fastened with blue diaper pins and covered with plastic pants. The clothing likely was from J.C. Penney. also wore anklet socks and white walker or learner shoes known as "Jumping Jacks" that possibly had been bought at Noble's Shoes in downtown Medford.
DNA: Pending


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Case History
The victim was located in the Kenne Creek Reservoir, along Highway 66 in the mountains east of Ashland. A man fishing in the area hooked what he thought was a blanket roll. But the bundle, a blanket and quilt wrapped with wire, contained a boy's body.
An autopsy performed the day after the body was found estimated that his death likely happened after October 1962. Winter's freezing temperatures could have helped preserve the body, but the medical examiner couldn't be sure. The condition of the body prevented him from determining a cause of death.
The child's footprints were taken with the help of the FBI, and deputies spent days with magnifying glasses comparing them with imprints taken of newborns at local hospitals around the time they estimated he had been born.
The body was wrapped in an aqua blanket and a handmade patchwork quilt that included lots of red, including red gingham squares. Two iron assayer's molds were wrapped in the quilt, apparently to weigh the body down. Thin brass wire and several loops of copper wire with a lead sheath and rubber insulation secured the bundle.
Reports indicated that both the molds, designed for refining and casting metal, and the telephone wire were once common, but already old and seldom used by the time the boy was found.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Investigators
If you have any information about this case please contact:
Jackson County Sheriffs Office
Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan
774-8333
You may remain anonymous when submitting information.

Source Information:
The Mail Tribune


http://www.doenetwork.org/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[oldies4mari2004]

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[ELL]

Search continues for identity of tiny body
Remains of a young boy found in Keene Creek Reservoir in 1963 may hold forensic clues that could solve mystery
By Anita Burke

September 14, 2008
Investigators working to identify a boy found dead in Keene Creek Reservoir 45 years ago have dipped back into old case files while they await results from new forensic technology.

In August, a Jackson County Sheriff's Department team exhumed the toddler, whom a fisherman had pulled from the reservoir in the hills east of Ashland in July 1963, from an unmarked grave at Hillcrest Memorial Park.

After discovering the case in a box of old files last year, investigators decided to turn to technology such as DNA testing and facial reconstruction from the skull to see whether they could give the boy, thought to be about 2, a proper burial under his own name. They also hoped someone might come forward with new details in the old case.

Jeanne McLaughlin, a forensic anthropologist from Lane County, has examined the remains and is preparing a report on what the tiny body told her, Jackson County Sheriff's Department Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan said.

She repaired the skull, carefully gluing in teeth and reattaching the jaw, to prepare it for experts at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The Alexandria, Va.-based center creates three-dimensional models of facial features from old remains for investigators. That process can takes weeks or even months, Fagan said.

In the meantime, Jim Tattersall, the department's volunteer special investigator, has combed through the file again looking for loose ends.

"In reviewing the case, we have questions that it's unclear if they investigated in 1963," Fagan said.

He and Tattersall reiterate that the investigators of the day were thorough, tracking clues from Washington to California with letter-writing campaigns, telegrams and phone calls. While some tips generated sheets of notes and reports, others left no record. Perhaps pages were lost through the years or maybe the lack of information wasn't worth documenting.

"Those are leads we definitely need to follow," Fagan said.

One of those tips came from Erma Long, of Phoenix, in the days after the unidentified toddler was pulled from the reservoir, bundled in a blanket and quilt and wrapped with wire. She said she had cared for a little boy from June 6 to 29, 1963, then the child's father, John Augard, came to collect the child and take him to his parents' home in Cottage Grove. Investigators noted that discussions with Long "failed to reveal any definite similarities" between that boy and the found body.

However, the case files give no indication that anyone checked in Cottage Grove to confirm that the Augard boy was alive and well, so Tattersall would like to double check now.

A tip from Pauline Grant, of Medford, led to a similarly vague conclusion. Grant said she had cared for a little boy, Gaylen Earl Fish, from May 1962 until January 1963, and had last seen him in February or March 1963. She said the boy's mother was Geraldine "Gerry" Woods and his stepfather was Fred Klooster. His grandparents, Beulah and Richard White, lived in Jacksonville.

The case notes include no mention that detectives contacted any of those relatives. The only follow-up said that Gaylen had short blond hair, not a match with the dead child's longish, light-brown hair, and that Grant didn't recognize any of the clothing or blankets as Gaylen's.

The little boy pulled from the reservoir was wearing a red, long-sleeved pullover shirt with thin white stripes, gray corduroy trousers with an elastic waist and a buckle for size adjustments, anklet socks, white walker or learner shoes, and a cloth diaper fastened with blue diaper pins and covered with plastic pants.

An investigation in Idaho briefly intersected with the Keene Creek case in 1964, but the files here don't indicate what the detectives in either state ultimately found out.

The Kootenai (Idaho) County Sheriff's Department was investigating the death of a child in Worley, Idaho. The mother of that child, Enid Langworthy, told police that she previously had a child fall out of a high chair and die of a fractured skull in Oregon. Authorities in Idaho contacted their counterparts across Oregon to get details.

A Feb. 21, 1964, letter from the Jackson County sheriff back to Idaho notes that the Oregon State Bureau of Vital Statistics found no record of a Langworthy child having died in Oregon since 1951. The letter asks for any additional information to see whether Enid Langworthy could be linked to the boy found in the reservoir, a child who apparently had died in Oregon but didn't have a death certificate with a name on it.

No reply can be found in the case files, but investigators would still like to know that answer. Fagan said DNA tests on Langworthy family members could help make the determination.

DNA is the other lead investigators are chasing. A state law that went into effect in January requires police to collect DNA samples from relatives of missing people and submit them to a national database. The University of North Texas operates the Center for Human Identification, funded in part by the National Institute of Justice, to help that effort.

McLaughlin helped collect DNA from the boy's exhumed body and Tattersall hopes to track down families who could be a match and collect samples from them.

Anyone who knows anything about this case is asked to call the Sheriff's Department tip line at 774-8333. Tips can be anonymous.

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail aburke@mailtribune.com.
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../NEWS/809140328

[ELL]

By Anita Burke
Mail Tribune
Investigators on a quest to identify a little boy whose body was pulled from a mountain reservoir more than 45 years ago still don't know his name, but now they can see his face.

And they hope someone will recognize him.

More online
For a complete list of stories and a video on this case, go to www.mailtribune.com/nobodyschild

p
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has created a series of detailed images to help Jackson County Sheriff's Department investigators as they work to close a case they found lingering unresolved in a box of old files.

Tucked among records of car thefts and burglaries, the case of a child's body found in Keene Creek Reservoir east of Ashland by a fisherman in July 1963 but never identified caught the attention of special investigator Jim Tattersall.

Tattersall, a retiree who volunteers with the Sheriff's Department a few days a week, brought the case to Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan and a team took it up.

They wanted to know who the child was, and, if possible, they wanted to determine what had happened to him that left him bundled in blankets and wire, weighted down with assayer's molds designed for refining and casting metal, in Keene Creek Reservoir.

They pored through old files and tracked down original investigators to query them over details. In August, they exhumed the tiny body from an unmarked grave at Hillcrest Memorial Park for DNA testing and facial reconstruction from the skull and shared the story with the public, in hopes someone would come forward with new facts.

Tips poured in, helping investigators identify people mentioned in old reports and wrap up loose ends. The information even helped reunite a foster family with a child they had worried about for decades after he left their care.

But the identity of the boy pulled from the water remains a mystery.

"It's driving me nuts," Tattersall said. "I keep thinking each thing will be the key and then it isn't."

The team's latest hope for unlocking the mystery is the series of sketches from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

A forensic artist there created the images by combining precise measurements from a magnetic-resonance imaging scan of the skull with standardized data based upon the average thickness of soft tissue at various points on the skull and jaws for people of that age and sex, Fagan explained.

Forensic artists generally warn that their images aren't an exact representation, but should show some resemblance. They don't add hair or eye color to the rather ghostly images so people don't get distracted by superficial details that artists could get wrong.

"If you knew this child, you likely would recognize him," Fagan said.

Investigators said the boy, who was about 2 and likely had been dead for months when he was found July 10, 1963, had longish, sandy blond or light brown hair and brown eyes. He wore a red, long-sleeved pullover shirt with thin white stripes, gray corduroy trousers with an elastic waist and a buckle for size adjustments, a cloth diaper fastened with blue diaper pins and covered with plastic pants, anklet socks and white walker or learner shoes known as "Jumping Jacks."

Tattersall took the new sketches to the Greensprings area to show to people who had lived there when the toddler was found. Some had been children at the time and didn't recall details. Others had moved away, suffered age-related memory problems or died.

"It was a close-knit community, but people didn't recognize this boy," Tattersall said.

He still hopes to learn more about an encampment for the families of forest workers that sat near Highway 66 just over the county line in Klamath County. That could have been home to people who had few resources for a proper burial and wouldn't necessarily have been familiar to established families in the area, investigators speculated.

They also have one other physical clue noted by Jeanne McLaughlin, a forensic anthropologist from Lane County, who examined the body last fall. She pointed out that the boy had a distinctive and rare tooth deformity. One of his lower front teeth is bifurcated, having two roots and a surface split by an odd groove.

Fagan said McLaughlin also saw characteristics of Down's Syndrome or other developmental abnormality, but her final report isn't complete yet. If the boy did have a developmental disability or genetic abnormality, it could have played a role in his death, Fagan said.

While investigators primarily want to find out who the child was and hope the reconstructed images help, they say good already has come from their work.

"This is a good learning experience," Fagan said.

The department has improved its cold-case management, creating case books with summaries of open missing-person and homicide cases. Information regularly is updated and shared with other agencies, he said.

Investigators also have started entering information in a national database of missing-person cases and are encouraging more extensive use of a state database, too.

After the investigative team found that state law mandates the disposal of all medical examiner records after 20 years — resulting in the loss of the original autopsy report on the toddler pulled from Keene Creek Reservoir — they contacted State Sen. Jason Atkinson to propose a change in the law. The senator is studying options for protecting files linked to unsolved cases, Fagan said.

Investigators have compiled lists of apparent clandestine gravesites — most of them burial sites for dogs or other animals — so when hunters or hikers report gravesites or bones, officials can quickly determine if further investigation is needed.

"We are trying to do our part and this little boy has helped," Fagan said.

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail aburke@mailtribune.c
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Attached Image

[PorchlightUSA]

Nobody's Child
45 years later, a new attempt will be made to solve a nagging mystery: Who was the little boy discovered dead in Keene Creek Reservoir?


August 03, 2008

By Anita Burke
Investigators and funeral directors gather on the lush green lawn of Hillcrest Memorial Park as a workman's shovel cuts through the turf.

In a row of children's graves marked by bronze and concrete plaques from the mid-1960s, this patch of grass bears no memorial.

Related Stories
Search continues for identity of tiny body'PeeWee' alive, wellWas 'PeeWee' the boy in the reservoir?DNA evidence given priority as recent law changes state proceduresVideo: Nobody's Child How to help
Anyone who knows

anything about this case is asked to call the

sheriff's department's

tip line at 774-8333.

Tips can be anonymous.
On July 23, 1963, the body of a toddler pulled from Keene Creek Reservoir earlier that month by a fisherman but never identified was put to rest there in a plastic casket, at a cost of $144 to Jackson County.

Jackson County Sheriff's Department investigators hope that now, 45 years after the unidentified toddler was buried at the cemetery on Medford's eastern edge, they can determine who this little boy was, and maybe even what happened to him.

They've read old reports and tracked down colleagues who worked in the Rogue Valley decades ago to see what they could remember about the case, but have come up with nothing. On Friday, they exhumed the tiny body to tap the latest technology — DNA testing and facial reconstruction from the skull.

They are sharing the story with the public in hopes of sparking memories that might still hold a vital clue.

"We owe it to this little boy to get him identified and to connect him to his family," said Jackson County Sheriff Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan, one of a team of investigators that has rejuvenated the case, which had languished in the county archives.

Eleven paper boxes marked "old sheriff cases" were uncovered in the archives last year and Fagan asked special investigator Jim Tattersall to sort through them to see whether there were any that needed to be followed up or entered into computer databases.

Tattersall retired from a career in law enforcement and private security and has helped investigators at the sheriff's department a few days a week since 2004. He pitches in on tasks, like this one, that the busy detectives just can't get to.

He paged through reams of case reports — burglaries, stolen cars, "a lot of suicides, a few homicides," a whole variety of felonies. And one about a little boy with no name.

"All of them had a conclusion," he said. "But this one just stopped."

It started July 11, 1963.

Roy Roberts, a Rogue River man who worked at the Green Springs Lumber Co., was fishing in Keene Creek Reservoir along Highway 66 in the mountains east of Ashland with his wife and two co-workers on a Thursday evening when he hooked what he thought was a blanket roll.



But the bundle, a blanket and quilt wrapped with wire, contained a boy's body.

Roberts reported his shocking discovery to a fire warden at Lincoln, who relayed the report to Oregon State Police. The Jackson County Sheriff's Department ultimately took the case, but OSP and the FBI assisted.

"They used the best technology of the day," Fagan said.

An autopsy performed the day after the body was found estimated the boy was 22 to 26 months old when he died. His death likely happened after October 1962, a sheriff's report said. Winter's freezing temperatures could have helped preserve the body, but the medical examiner couldn't be sure. The condition of the body prevented him from determining a cause of death.

Looking back, Fagan said the death could have been accidental, but someone feared facing repercussions. It could have naturally occurred in a family that didn't have the means for a conventional burial. It could have been a homicide someone hoped to hide.

The report listed the lad as 321/2; inches tall, weighing between 19 and 30 pounds, with longish, light-brown hair and eight upper and eight lower teeth. He wore a red, long-sleeved pullover shirt with thin white stripes, gray corduroy trousers with an elastic waist and a buckle for size adjustments, and a cloth diaper fastened with blue diaper pins and covered with plastic pants. The clothing likely was from J.C. Penney, police reports said. He also wore anklet socks and white walker or learner shoes known as "Jumping Jacks" that possibly had been bought at Noble's Shoes in downtown Medford.

The child's footprints were taken with the help of the FBI, and deputies spent days with magnifying glasses comparing them with imprints taken of newborns at local hospitals around the time they estimated he had been born.

The body was wrapped in an aqua blanket and a handmade patchwork quilt that included lots of red, including red gingham squares. Two iron assayer's molds were wrapped in the quilt, apparently to weigh the body down. Thin brass wire and several loops of copper wire with a lead sheath and rubber insulation secured the bundle.

"This was as though someone was saying goodbye," Fagan said.

Reports indicated that both the molds, designed for refining and casting metal, and the telephone wire were once common, but already old and seldom used by the time the boy was found.

"Maybe someone had found them lying around in an old barn or cabin," speculated Jackson County Deputy Medical Examiner Tim Pike, who also is part of the team that has taken up the old case.

Photographs of the molds were featured in the Medford Mail Tribune and the Ashland Daily Tidings, which both carried the story with regular updates through July and August 1963.



Tips came in and deputies recorded them in a special log book dedicated to what they called a homicide case involving the found child. Pages and pages of reports, letters and telegrams to neighboring jurisdictions and photographs stacked up, but no answers emerged.

In the days after the child was buried, a bouquet of sweet peas appeared on the grave, which was marked with a flat metal marker that one police report said read, "John Doe, name known only to God."

Detectives queried cemetery sextons and florists to determine where the blooms had come from, hoping that a bereaved family member might have surfaced. They concluded that the flowers were likely meant for another new grave, a Central Point baby buried nearby at about the same time, but the giver hadn't paused to decipher the hard-to-read temporary markers.

Some leads were listed as unfounded, but no details were provided on why they hadn't panned out, Fagan said.

He noted that the investigators of the day clearly worked hard on the case and did all they could. However, differences in processes — such as referring to people by title, first initial and last name instead of full name and identifying women by their husband's names — have frustrated current investigators.

In one tantalizing example, a deputy wrote that Mrs. Cecil Johnson, on Route 1 in Central Point, reported that the child's description matched that of a "welfare baby" she had taken care of for more than two years. The report said the child had been born "at Fairview Home to a 14-year-old mentally retarded girl" and brought to the Johnsons when he was 10 days old. On Jan. 31, 1963, "Mrs. Uridel, of the welfare," had come to collect the baby because she heard the Johnsons were having money problems, the report said. When picked up, the child was wearing a red-and-white striped T-shirt, corduroy pants and white shoes, Mrs. Johnson told the deputy. She was also suspicious because no one had come to collect the child's clothes and medical records from her.

The file contained no other information about this report.

"We'd sure like to know who Mrs. Cecil Johnson of Route 1 was," Pike said.

With no likely leads left in the old file, the team turned to technology that the original investigators — for whom notes show a long-distance phone call was an extraordinary event to be scheduled — couldn't have imagined.

The University of North Texas operates the Center for Human Identification, funded in part by the National Institute of Justice, to help law enforcement agencies nationwide utilize DNA evidence. For missing-person cases, it collects DNA from relatives of the missing and from unidentified remains, then works to match them.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offers investigators resources for creating three-dimensional models of facial features from old remains.

Pike obtained a permit from the Oregon Department of Human Services Center for Health Statistics to exhume, transport and reinter the boy.

"What we want is a proper burial with a proper casket, ideally with his name on the headstone," Fagan said.



Officials at Hillcrest waived all fees for Friday's exhumation and have promised to provide a new marker at cost.

Crews dug through heavy clay soil studded with rocks, unearthing a metal marker for the unknown baby and a rusted flower receptacle before their shovels thumped against a white plastic vault protecting the tiny casket.

"Everything will be very well intact," predicted funeral director Jed Ramey, standing by to oversee the project.

Cemetery worker Robert Johnson hoisted out the mud-stained casket, an elegant box just 27 inches long, 12 inches wide and 9 inches deep.

Investigators and funeral directors carried it to a work area at the cemetery for an initial examination.

"This is amazing," Pike said after his first look.

He said the remains were in far better condition than investigators had hoped for and should yield "great" forensic evidence.

The casket and remains were taken to the deputy state medical examiner's laboratory for a more thorough examination. A state anthropologist will assist in the evaluation so the best DNA samples can be collected and a reconstruction can be done. Those results won't be available for months.

Despite the potential for quality forensic work, Pike still hopes for help from the public.

"I think if we have any chance of solving this case it will be through the public's help," he said. "Someone may remember this child, this case."

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail aburke@mailtribune.com.

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../NEWS/808030322

[ELL]

Cold case gets help from Medford dentists





Associated Press - July 9, 2009 1:35 PM ET

ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) - Two Medford dentists have done their part to help the Jackson County Sheriff's Office solve a mystery that has stumped the department for almost a half-century.

Dentists Hal Borg and Greg Pearson volunteered to examine and X-ray the skull of a toddler found in a reservoir east of Ashland in 1963. Investigators exhumed the body last summer, hoping DNA testing and facial reconstruction could finally solve the riddle of the child's identity.

The boy's name has yet to be learned, but the dentists concluded he was 23 months old and had characteristics of Down syndrome.


Information from: Mail Tribune, http://www.mailtribune.com/
http://www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=10670467

[ELL]

Cold case gets help from Medford, Ore. dentists

07/09/2009

Associated Press


Two Medford dentists have done their part to help the Jackson County Sheriff's Office solve a mystery that has stumped investigators for almost a half-century.

Dentists Hal Borg and Greg Pearson volunteered to examine the skull of a toddler pulled from a reservoir east of Ashland in July 1963.

Investigators exhumed the body from an unmarked grave last summer, hoping DNA testing and facial reconstruction could solve the mystery of the child's identity.

Reconstruction illustrations by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released in March didn't offer any firm leads, and DNA collection and matching has yet to be completed.

Borg and Pearson helped police learn more about an unusual tooth deformity — a bifurcated lower front tooth that has two roots and a surface split by an odd groove. Borg, Pearson and their technicians stayed after work one day to make film and digital X-rays of the toddler's teeth and jaws, Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan told the Mail Tribune newspaper.

They determined the boy was 1 year and 11 months old, at the low end of the range estimated by investigators in the 1960s. They also concluded that the child had characteristics of Down syndrome, as well as birth defects and developmental problems consistent with congenital syphilis.

Syphilis transmitted through the placenta to the child before birth could have led to his death, but investigators can't determine how likely that is, Fagan said.

Investigators are also getting help from KOIN Channel 6, the CBS affiliate in Portland that has an occasional series exploring cold cases from around the state. Fagan said the station's past stories have generated tips, and investigators were eager to have details of the toddler case reach an audience outside southern Oregon.

"It will reach an area we haven't connected with," Fagan said.

___

Information from: Mail Tribune, http://www.mailtribune.com
http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories.../D99B31080.html

[PorchlightUSA]

X-rays, TV may help ID remains of childAn analysis finds boy had Down syndrome, syphilis
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Respond to this Article July 09, 2009
By Anita Burke
Mail Tribune
Attempts to identify a little boy found dead roughly 46 years ago in a reservoir in the hills east of Ashland are getting a potential boost from dental X-rays and television cameras.

A Jackson County Sheriff's Department team trying to find the name of a toddler discovered wrapped in blankets and wire in Keene Creek Reservoir in July 1963 is getting help from a Medford dental practice and a Portland television station.

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A face to the caseSearch continues for identity of tiny body'PeeWee' alive, wellWas 'PeeWee' the boy in the reservoir?Nobody's ChildDNA evidence given priority as recent law changes state proceduresVideo: Nobody's ChildLast summer — 45 years after the child was found, then buried in an unmarked grave at Hillcrest Memorial Park — the team exhumed the body. With DNA testing and facial reconstruction from the skull, team members hoped to unravel the mystery that had stymied their predecessors' best efforts decades earlier and sent the case deep into the department's forgotten archives, where sheriff's department volunteer special investigator Jim Tattersall discovered it and brought it to light.

Reconstruction illustrations by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released in March didn't offer any concrete leads, and DNA collection and matching still is under way at Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas, investigators said.

Although they haven't yet cracked the case, tips and offers of help continue to pour in from diverse sources, Jackson County sheriff's Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan said.

In May, Hal Borg and Greg Pearson, dentists at East Main Dental Clinic, volunteered to examine and X-ray the boy's tiny skull to help confirm his age and learn more about an unusual tooth deformity — a bifurcated lower front tooth that has two roots and a surface split by an odd groove.

Borg, Pearson and their technicians stayed after work one day to make film and digital X-rays of the toddler's teeth and jaws and evaluate them, Fagan said.

They concluded the boy was 1 year and 11 months old, at the low end of the range estimated by initial investigators in the 1960s and a forensic anthropologist who examined the body last year. Looking at the boy's tooth development, the dentists were confident that they could peg his age at his death to within one week, Fagan said.

They also determined the child clearly had characteristics of Down syndrome, as well as birth defects and developmental problems consistent with congenital syphilis.

Syphilis transmitted through the placenta to the child before birth could have led to his death, but investigators can't determine now how likely that might have been, Fagan said. The possibility probably wasn't even considered when the boy was found. The condition of the body at the time prevented finding a clear cause of death in an autopsy or even concluding how long the body had been in the water, original case files said.

Fagan said the team plans to seek additional medical expertise to pursue details.

Investigators also expect to seek help from the dentists again in future cases.

"Now we have another resource," Fagan said.

Jackson County Deputy Medical Examiner Tim Pike said their specialized knowledge would benefit his office's efforts to identify victims.

"This case has been a conduit to improving (our work on) all missing-person cases," Fagan said.

The case also caught the eye of a Portland television anchor and reporter, Jeff Gianola. He has an occasional series exploring cold cases from around the state with in-depth stories and decided to feature the unknown boy in the reservoir.

Fagan said Gianola's past stories have garnered tips for police, and local investigators were eager to reach the large audience of KOIN Channel 6, a Portland CBS affiliate with a network of translators that spread its signal into Washington and across Central and Eastern Oregon.

"It will reach an area we haven't connected with," Fagan said.

Gianola and a cameraman came to Southern Oregon last month to film investigators, old records and key locations from the cold case, Fagan said. The feature they produced is set to air today at 11 p.m. there and likely will be shown in Southern Oregon later.

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail aburke@mailtribune.com.
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../NEWS/907090318

[PorchlightUSA]