"The Doe Network" : International Center for Unidentified & Missing Persons
Case File: 1901UMPA

 The Doe Network

Identified...Identified...Identified

NO IMAGE


Unidentified Male

  • Date of Discovery: May 23, 1965
  • Location of Discovery: Thornhurst, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
  • Estimated Date of Death: 1-5 months prior
  • State of Remains: Unknown
  • Cause of Death: Unknown
  • Physical Description
    ** Listed information is approximate

  • Estimated Age: Newborn, less than 1 week old.
  • Race: Unknown
  • Gender: Male
  • Height: Unknown
  • Weight: Unknown
  • Hair Color: Unknown
  • Eye Color: Unknown
  • Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown
  • Dentals: Not available.
  • Fingerprints: Not available.
  • DNA: Unknown
  • Clothing & Personal Items
  • Clothing: Unknown
  • Jewelry: None
  • Additional Personal Items: Unknown
  • Case History

    In 1965, two cottages sat in isolation at the end of rural Bear Run Road in Thornhurst. The Meyers' cottage was used in the winter as a hunting cabin, but was also their summer residence. On Sunday, May 23, 1965, Mr & Mrs Meyers were cleaning the cottage, getting it ready for summer. They hadn't been there since the previous December.

    When Mrs Meyers went to clean the outhouse, she found a small, cloth covered bundle on the outhouse floor. She called to her husband, who came out, unwrapped a plaid shirt and pillowcases, revealing the badly decomposed body of an infant.

    A ladies cloth belt, about 42" long and 3/4" wide, had been wrapped twice around the baby's neck and tied in a knot. An autopsy confirmed that the cause of death was strangulation. Decomposition was so severe that the child's gender could only be guessed at through examination of the bone and hip structure. The coroner stated that it appeared to be a full-term male, and he had been alive at birth. He was less than a week old at the time of death and could have been dead from one to five months.

    State Troopers interviewed residents throughout the area. The most viable lead led to the woman who owned the other cottage at the end of Bear Run Road, about 100 yards from the outhouse where the child was found. It is possible that she had taken in pregnant women and investigators in 1965 noted that the shirt the baby was found in may have belonged to someone in that family. But the owner and her family, who were all at their permanent residence in Idaho at the time the child was discovered, were unable to shed any light on who the child was. The owner of the other cabin has since died.

    Forty-three years later, on Wednesday, October 15, 2008, the baby's remains were exhumed from his unmarked grave in Fairview Memorial Park, near Moscow.

    Pennsylvania State Police reopened the case, hoping that today's technology may be able to reveal more about the infant than what was possible four decades ago. The remains will be sent to the University of North Texas' Forensic Anthropology Unit for examination, definitive determination of the child's gender and DNA extraction which could, finally, help investigators find out who the child is.

    Investigating Agency(s)
    If you have any information about this case please contact;

  • Agency Name: Pennsylvania State Police - Troop R - Dunmore
  • Agency Contact Person: Criminal Investigations Assessment Unit
  • Agency Phone Number: 570-963-3156

  • Agency Case Number: N/A
  • NCIC Case Number: N/A
  • NamUs Case Number: Not listed
  • Former Hot Case Number: 1307
  • Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

    Information Source(s)
  • Pennsylvania Missing

  • Return to the Unidentified Victims' Index

    Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team

    Last Updated: 2/28/13 - By: DD / Hot Case Coordinator


    Copyright © 1999 - 2010 by The Doe Network

    All photos and information contained within this Web site are the properties of the listed information sources within the case files.