The decomposed body of a 3-year-old, discovered by a passerby walking a dog Saturday in a grassy, isolated area of Naperville Township near Warrenville, was clad in a navy blue shirt and pants, size 2T.
Authorizes know the child had black hair, weighed 38 1/2 pounds and was about 3 feet tall. But how he died and why his body was left in that isolated spot near Ferry and Meadow Roads off the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway remained a mystery Monday, prompting police to summon forensic scientists to help piece together his identity and when he died.DuPage County sheriff’s police also are seeking the public’s help in identifying the boy, whose race is unknown. No children fitting his description have been reported missing in the immediate vicinity, police said.
“It is difficult. It’s so unusual in DuPage County,” said Coroner Pete Siekmann.
The DuPage County sheriff’s office has asked a forensic artist who specializes in facial reconstruction to draw a sketch that might help identify the child. The reconstruction will begin Tuesday and can take a week or longer to complete.
The department has turned to a forensic entomologist to help determine how long the body lay in a thicket bordering a dry creek bed.
Forensic experts say the types of insects found with the body, along with the coroner’s decomposition estimates, can help determine time of death. Police still are investigating the cause.
The body was discovered Saturday afternoon wearing a collarless navy blue shirt with three buttons and navy blue pants with a nylon-cotton blend shell with a white liner. The brand name of the clothing is Faded Glory.
The body lay yards from Meadow, a narrow curbless country lane with thin gravel shoulders and houses set back far from the pavement. Ralph Mull has lived 28 years in the sparsely populated neighborhood where 30-year-old homesteads on large wooded lots are interspersed with new, towering all-brick homes.
He estimates he must have driven past where the body was found 40 times in the last two weeks or so. He wondered, “Who could do this to a little boy?”
Randy Eilks moved to the neighborhood two years ago because it was out of the way, and that may be just what prompted someone to dispose of a body there, he said.
“This isn’t supposed to happen here. It’s not supposed to happen anywhere, but it isn’t supposed to happen here,” he said.
Anyone with any information or who knows of a missing child fitting the description is asked to call the DuPage County sheriff’s office at 630-407-2323 or 630-407-2400.
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