Without a name

He was given a proper funeral, and over a hundred people showed up to mourn the little boy. There were flowers, teddy bears, balloons and tears offered in a display of grief for the toddler. The eulogy given by the reverend touched everyone in attendance. The only thing that was missing- was the very thing that made the occasion even more somber... there was no name to etch into his tombstone. The little boy, whose body was never claimed had been found dead two years early.

The unidentified boy, believed to be 3 or 4, was laid to rest in a section of Assumption Cemetery in Wheaton known as "Holy Innocence," among the remains of 200 other children who died too soon. His gravestone says simply: "Son Unknown -- But Not Forgotten Oct. 8, 2005."

It was on that date that Ted Bruder of Bolingbrook found the child's decomposed remains while walking his dog, Buddy, near Route 59 and I-88 in a wooded area between Naperville and Warrenville. Bruder knelt by the gravesite Monday to say a final goodbye to the little boy he found.

We should never have to bury a child without giving him the respect of having his name known. He deserved better than to have had his body, laying lifelessly, found along the side of a road as if he'd been nothing more than a discarded piece of trash.

The toddler had black hair, weighed 38.5 pounds and was about 3 feet tall. He appeared to be of either Asian, American Indian or Hispanic descent. His badly decomposing body was found in a blue canvas laundry bag.

For two years, the DuPage County sheriff and coroner's offices tried to solve the mystery. An autopsy did not find obvious signs of trauma.

Sheriff's detectives put out national alerts and chased more than 100 leads, including telephone tips, from California to New York, while forensic scientists worked with the remains to extract DNA. Other experts in areas from bones to bugs were brought in to find answers. Artists came up with various sketches of the boy's face.

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