Journalist Sarah Weinman (who also writes this blog) explores the case of America’s Unknown Child, the story of a boy found in a cardboard box that originally held a bassinet in the woods of Philadelphia. This boy, believed to be between four and six years old was never identified. As the 50 year anniversary of this case draws near, so too does new news coverage of the decades-old case.
It’s interesting to note that most of the investigators involved believe that had the case occurred now or up to twenty years ago, the case would have been solved. Forensic science has advanced tremendously from the days that the most you could hope to get from a corpse were some fingerprints, dental records and a crude (by today’s standard) blood typing.
Even if you don’t watch CSI, it seems new forensic technologies pop up daily. For the crime writer, it can be daunting to keep up with all of them. I had an editor ask me once to put more forensics in a story, since readers like that. Believe me, I put in all that I could. But when you’ve got a story that takes place within days it’s not that easy. For one thing, it’s not like on TV where the test results come back within minutes or hours instead of days or weeks–and that’s once the lab gets around to performing them. In a city like New York where most of my books are set, you’re not going to get instant answers, no matter what they say on Law and Order.
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