What you'll learn

• 1 (00:47) **The Boy in the Box is Found** - The episode introduces the 1957 discovery of a dead boy in a cardboard box outside Philadelphia, a case that would become a decades-long mystery.
• 2 (02:44) **Frederick Bononis Discovers the Body** - The story begins on February 25, 1957, when a college student stumbles upon the boy while cutting through a wooded lot.
• 3 (05:02) **Officer Palmer Works the Scene** - Police arrive on February 26th and find the boy naked, wrapped in a plaid blanket, curled on his side inside the box.
• 4 (06:31) **Physical Evidence at the Scene** - Investigators find a man's blue corduroy hat with a local shop label and the worn plaid blanket, giving them multiple leads to trace.
• 5 (08:53) **The Autopsy Reveals Contradictions** - The medical examiner finds the boy was malnourished, covered in bruises, and died of blunt force trauma to the head, but also shows signs of care.
• 6 (11:19) **Investigators Chase the Surgical Scars** - Police take the boy's photo to hospitals and clinics across Philadelphia, but no doctor or nurse recognizes him or his scars.
• 7 (12:31) **The Hat Lead Goes Nowhere** - The shop owner who sold the hat remembers the buyer: a blonde man in his mid-to-late twenties who asked for a custom strap, but he gave no name.

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