ACTEL (SURNAME NOT REVEALED) ('DUPAGE JOHNNY DOE'') - Aged 2 years - DuPage County in Naperville Township, Chicago (USA)

Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:11 am Post subject: Unknown boy - Napperville (USA)

Sad story

Chicago Tribune

11:52 AM CST, November 28, 2007

Study raises hope of identifying boy found in DuPage field

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-babydoe_webnov29,1,1029249.story

Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:57 pm posted by hope4maddy

Here we go again...another poor baby! This is indeed sad. I would probaly speculate that he is Indian too, since a lot of Indians are around the Michigan/Canadian area.

Mon Dec 03, 2007 1:00 pm posted by pam supportfromireland

Forensic artist's clay mask of an unidentified boy whose partially decomposed body was found Oct 8, 2005 in unincorporated DuPage County in Naperville Township



Daily Herald Chicago

30 November 2007

Study shows unidentified dead boy spent short life in northern Illinois

<snippet>

Over the course of 40 years, scientists have created a map of North America based on particular types of oxygen isotopes, Schwarcz said. While the map can't pinpoint exact locations, it can narrow things down.

Using one of the boy's primary molars, Schwarcz was able to determine that the child's mother had lived in a particular area of Canada or even possibly the Upper Peninsula of Michigan while pregnant. Because the tooth was formed in utero, it carries the mother's information.

An analysis of the boy's bone determined he had spent most, if not all, of his life in northern Illinois. Schwarcz said bones collect oxygen isotopes that act as geographic markers throughout a person's life.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=85576&src=2

Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:52 pm posted by crys Post subject:

No news on this unknown child? the poor baby.

Anyone able to find anything on this case?

Unidentified boy was laid to rest on 15 October 2007.


Chicago Local News

15 October 2007

'DuPage Johnny Doe' Buried In Wheaton

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/dupage.johnny.doe.2.374583.html

America's Most Wanted

6/11/2008

Unidentified Boy Found Dead Near Chicago; Still No Answers

(snippet)

No cause of death has been determined, the possibility of a natural or accidental death has not been ruled out, nor has homicide. Authorities are awaiting results of forensic tests to better determined the manner in which this precious child died.

(...)

Police hope that as the story of a boy who was found dead and abandoned in a Chicago suburb gains national attention, that someone will come forward who knows who the boy is, someone who can maybe help solve the mystery surrounding his death. They also fear the little boy's parents may be in danger as well, and want to find answers as soon as possible.

http://www.amw.com/features/feature_story_detail.cfm?id=889

My Fox

Sunday, 04 Oct 2009, 5:56 PM CDT

By BILL BIRD

Four Years Dead Boy Still Not Identified



(snippet)

"Johnny" has likely been gone now for as many or more years as he was alive. Police, despite dogged efforts, find themselves no closer to knowing his real name or learning how he came to be forsaken on a lonesome patch of land in an unincorporated area of Naperville Township.

And while many people undoubtedly doubt the existence of guardian angels, Johnny without a doubt has at least three guardian mortals looking out for him, in the form of three determined DuPage County Sheriff's Office detectives.

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/Dupage_Johnny_doe_unidentified_dead_boy_Naperville_Illinois_faded_glory_tree_creek_bed_Dupage_Sheriff

The imperfect parent

18 February 2011

Body of boy identified after 5 years

The identity of a 3-year-old boy found dead in DuPage County, Illinois, in October of 2005 has finally been revealed.

After an investigation by the Chicago Tribune, a source close to the investigation surrounding the boy’s death told the paper the child’s name is Atcel, and that authorities had actually identified the boy over two years ago after they discovered a DNA match but declined to make the information public.

The Tribune obtained a document from the U.S. Justice Department that shed more light on the investigation, which contained a statement by Atcel’s 14-year-old sister. The young teen told investigators that she had been continuously abused by her stepfather, often kicking her with steel toed boots and whipping her with a belt “almost every other day.”

She also claimed that when Atcel went missing, she was told by her grandmother that her stepfather had killed him “and dumped him” in a laundry bag. A body of a young boy stuffed in a laundry bag was found on October 8, 2005, by a man walking his dog.

Sources reportedly say that the stepfather escaped to Mexico City with Atcel and the girl’s mother, who is also wanted for questioning. Neither have yet been charged with Atcel’s murder, and the cause of the boy’s death remains unknown due to the badly decomposed condition in which the body was found. He was buried as “Johnny Doe” just over two years after he was discovered, at a public funeral attended by approximately 150 people.

http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2011/02/18/body-of-boy-identified-after-5-years/

Chicago Tribune

18 February 2011

Mystery solved: Boy's body identified
Sister implicates stepfather in death of boy whose unidentified body was DuPage mystery

After a worried friend tipped off school officials, the 14-year-old girl began to tell secrets she had been too frightened before to share.

She revealed to a social worker at Unity Junior High School in Cicero that her stepfatherhad kicked her with his steel work boots and slapped and whipped her with a belt "almost every other day," according to a state agency report.

Then the girl shared an even darker secret. She said her little brother was missing and that her grandmother told her the same man had killed him, according to state and federal records that detailed the April 2008 conversation.

The teen said her grandmother told her in 2006 that the stepfather put the boy in a bag "and dumped him," according to a U.S. Justice Department document obtained by the Tribune. The document said the teen's mother was also wanted for questioning in the boy's death.

The girl said she and her siblings were forbidden from asking about the missing boy and were physically punished if they disobeyed, the federal report states.

Although never publicized, the teen's grim revelations and fears about her brother led to a crucial break in one of the Chicago area's most haunting mysteries: determining the identity of a young boy whose badly decomposed body was found stuffed in a laundry bag Oct. 8, 2005 in DuPage County.

The dead child's name is Atcel, according to records and sources close to the investigation. He was almost 3 years old.

DuPage Sheriff John Zaruba has declined to comment publicly or discuss his reluctance to reveal the boy's identity, which was confirmed more than two years ago through a DNA match with one of the boy's five siblings, sources said. When the five-year anniversary of the discovery passed in October, and the Tribune wrote a front page story about it, authorities still did not reveal who the boy was.

Sources said the 36-year-old stepfather fled with the children's mother to the Mexico City area and that it was feared publicizing details about the case would hamper efforts to find them.

But several sources with knowledge of the case said they were answering the Tribune's questions because of their frustration with the lack of progress in the investigation.

The Tribune is not naming the stepfather or the children's mother because prosecutors have not charged them with Atcel's death.

The boy's remains were so decomposed that the cause of his death remains unknown, said DuPage Coroner Pete Siekmann.

The newspaper's review of the federal document, reports from the state and interviews with more than a dozen sources with knowledge of the case shed light on Atcel's short life.

A Bolingbrook man walking his German shepherd had stumbled across the boy's remains in a drawstring canvas laundry bag. The bag was in a roadside thicket near Interstate Highway 88, a quarter-mile west of Illinois Highway 59 in Naperville Township.

Forensic experts and artists later offered this portrait of the child: a preschool-age boy who had black hair and a wide smile, weighed 38.5 pounds and was about 3 feet tall. Sheriff's detectives put out national alerts and followed more than 100 leads, including telephone tips from California to New York, officials said.

They traced the boy's blue shirt and pants to a Forest Park Walmart, but the August 2005 purchase, which included other children's clothing, was made in cash, leaving no trail.

DuPage Johnny Doe, as he came to be known, was buried Oct. 15, 2007, during a public funeral, where nearly 150 mourners turned out to say goodbye. Ted Bruder, who found the body, was among them. Mourners prayed the boy's family would claim his remains.

Six months later, Atcel's big sister began to tell her story, the records show. It was April 14, 2008, her 14th birthday. Instead of having a celebration, she was pulled out of bed by her stepfather at 2:30 a.m., she said, and told that if he had to get up early for work, so did she.

Later that morning at school, the teen began detailing how the stepfather kicked, slapped and whipped her and two other siblings, according to the reports.

Child welfare officials quickly placed the girl and all of her siblings in protective custody. Doctors determined that two of the other children showed signs of similar abuse. One of them said the stepfather beat her too, the records said.

In foster care, the oldest girl began to share more details about Atcel. She said her mother and stepfather had brought the boy and a younger sister to live in Cicero, temporarily leaving her and the other children with relatives in the Mexico City area, records show. The teen told police that when her mother and stepfather returned to Mexico, Atcel was not with them and they were ordered not to speak about him.

The description and time frame the teen provided fit that of the unidentified boy, sources said. Cicero police reached out to DuPage County sheriff's officials. Forensic experts later gleaned a DNA match after comparing genetic profiles from one of the siblings to deep thigh tissue from the remains, several sources confirmed.

The stepfather, they said, moved to the Mexico City area after the girl's April 2008 abuse complaint and before he was named in a federal indictment targeting members of a fraudulent identification ring in the Little Village neighborhood.

The children's 32-year-old mother also is wanted on a June 2008 warrant alleging she endangered the life of at least two of her children by not intervening during abuse, court records show.

The teen said her mother, who was in the country illegally, pressured them not to tell anyone after they were beaten, according to state reports.

The mother wept after learning her children were being placed in a foster home and came for supervised visits in the following weeks, the records state. But by June 2008, her whereabouts were unknown.

The 14-year-old girl told authorities she believed her mother was saying goodbye the last time they saw her. The teen said she told her children, "to remember her, that she loved them and will miss them."

The stepfather had been arrested more than a dozen times under various identities from 2000 to late 2007, according to court records.

Besides the federal charges, he has an outstanding DuPage County battery warrant from 2000 for a fight outside his apartment. He also was charged with beating up the teen's mother in 2003 and 2006, but prosecutors dropped domestic battery charges in both cases after she failed to show up for court, according to records.

By fall 2008, the man had been charged with conspiring with nearly two dozen other defendants to illegally produce and sell false identification documents in Chicago, according to a federal complaint.

DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin confirmed this week that no murder charges are pending against the man or the teen's mother, but he said the investigation is continuing.

Atcel was laid to rest in a coffin the size of a toy chest. A teddy bear was tucked under the left arm of his blue blazer, and he was covered by a blue-and-white checkered blanket with stars, clouds and a little plane. A message on the blanket read, "Sweet Baby Boy."

His gravestone at Assumption Cemetery in Wheaton reads: "Son. Unknown. But Not Forgotten." It does not name him.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-02-18/news/ct-met-unidentified-boy-20110218_1_stepfather-young-boy-laundry-bag/2

Chicago Sun-Times

18 February 2011

Authorities silent on case of dead boy - Naperville Sun
‎
Local, state and federal authorities all refused to comment Friday on a published report that partially identifies a boy found dead more than five years ago in Naperville Township and details the circumstances surrounding his death.

“We are currently investigating” the 2005 death of the boy, said Dawn Domrose, spokeswoman for DuPage County Sheriff John A. Zaruba. “It’s an open investigation for the sheriff’s office, and we don’t comment on active investigations.”

Spokesmen for other agencies also refused to discuss a report in the Chicago Tribune concerning the little boy. His body was found Oct. 8, 2005, inside a laundry bag that had been dumped on a creek bed near Ferry and Meadow roads in an unincorporated area of the county near Naperville’s far northwest side.

http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/news/3899319-418/authorities-silent-on-case-of-dead-boy.html

ABC 7

18 February 2011

Report: Boy found dead in 2005 ID'd



In 2005, the body of a young boy was found in DuPage County.

Now, there has a major break in the investigation into who that boy was and what may have happened to him.

According to the Chicago Tribune, investigators have identified the boy found stuffed in a laundry bag along a roadside near Interstate 88 between Naperville and Warrenville.

A sheriff's spokesperson would not confirm or deny the Tribune's story.

No one ever came forward and there were no family members claiming to know who the boy was. The Tribune is reporting that state and federal records identify the boy as a 2-year-old named Atcel. A last name was not revealed. His DNA has been matched to siblings in foster care.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7966388

Facebook

Dupage Johnny Doe (Justice for Atcel)

https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=66413280978

Naperville Sun

Authorities silent on case of dead boy

18 February 2011
Updated 4 August 2011

Local, state and federal authorities all refused to comment Friday on a published report that partially identifies a boy found dead more than five years ago in Naperville Township and details the circumstances surrounding his death.

“We are currently investigating” the 2005 death of the boy, said Dawn Domrose, spokeswoman for DuPage County Sheriff John A. Zaruba. “It’s an open investigation for the sheriff’s office, and we don’t comment on active investigations.”

Spokesmen for other agencies also refused to discuss a report in the Chicago Tribune concerning the little boy. His body was found Oct. 8, 2005, inside a laundry bag that had been dumped on a creek bed near Ferry and Meadow roads in an unincorporated area of the county near Naperville’s far northwest side.

With no one in authority quoted on the record and citing numerous unnamed “sources,” the Tribune reported the boy’s unidentified 14-year-old sister implicated her stepfather in the child’s death. The boy’s identity was confirmed more than two years ago through DNA testing involving one of his five siblings, the newspaper reported.

Other authorities, like Domrose, would not comment Friday on the contents of the Tribune article or its accuracy.

“There is no comment on that story,” said a spokeswoman for Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, The woman declined to be identified.

http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/news/3899319-418/authorities-silent-on-case-of-dead-boy.html