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Breakthrough in case linked to Boy in the Box mystery

A major breakthrough is being reported in the disappearance of a boy whose case was long linked to Philadelphia's half-century old Boy in the Box mystery.

A flier distributed around Philadelphia seeking to solve the infamous 1957 case commonly called "The Boy in the Box."
A flier distributed around Philadelphia seeking to solve the infamous 1957 case commonly called "The Boy in the Box."Read more

A major breakthrough is being reported in the disappearance of a boy whose case was long linked to Philadelphia's half-century old Boy in the Box mystery.

Steven Craig Damman was 2 1/2 when he disappeared from in front of a Long Island supermarket on Halloween 1955.

But the New York Daily News  is reporting today that a man in Michigan has come forward saying he believes he is Damman and that DNA tests are being conducted to determine if that is indeed the case.

In 2003, tests of DNA taken from the exhumed remains of Boy in the Box and Damman's sister ruled out any connection.

But until then some believed the body of a boy was found in a JC Penny crib box in Fox Chase in February, 1957,  might have been Damman, largely due to a similarity in appearance.

The Daily News says the results of the Michigan man's DNA test are due in about a month.

The Philadelphia police homicide squad still has a detective assigned to investigate the Boy in the Box, who is now buried at Ivy Hill Cemetery under a headstone that says, "America's Unknown Child."