The following short essay about one of Philadelphia’s most haunting unsolved crimes first appeared in an issue of The Black Hood comic book by Duane Swierczynski, published by Dark Circle Comics under the watchful eye of editor Alex Segura. It also appears in my book The Throes of Crime.
Following the essay is a link to a new report about the case from reporter Claudia Vargas at NBC10 in Philadelphia.
The Boy in the Box
by Erik Arneson
For a terrible week in the late winter of 1957, two stories dominated the Philadelphia Inquirer’s front page: a missing four-year-old girl and a dead, unidentified boy in a cardboard box.
The girl, Mary Jane Barker, was found dead six days after disappearing. Police concluded she locked herself in a closet while playing in an empty house near her home.
The boy, four to six years old, has remained unidentified for nearly six decades.
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