SALEM, In. — For more than a month, investigators have been trying to learn more about a little boy found dead in a suitcase in the woods in southern Indiana.
While no one has come forward to identify him, people from across the state and beyond came together to honor him in a memorial service in Salem Wednesday.
They chose a name they thought would be fitting.
“This unknown angel has been adopted and beloved by Washington County, so ‘Angel’ is what we will call him through the service today,” said Todd Murphy, chaplain of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department.
Janet Irk of Salem wore a shirt that read, “Washington County’s Unknown Angel.”
“There are no words,” she told Spectrum News 1. “I’ve got great grandkids and I just, I don’t want to cry. It makes me sick.”
A man hunting for mushrooms discovered the body of the child in the woods of Washington County in April.
The little boy is described as approximately five years old, Black and about four feet tall, according to Indiana State Police.
Karen Lage of New Albany brought a bouquet to lie on his casket.
“It just broke our hearts that he was so disrespected and treated that way and we just wanted to honor him and honor his life and it’s been on my heart ever since I saw they were having a little funeral,” she said.
With no known family, members of the community paid their respects instead to the sergeant, who was first to respond to the scene. Sgt. Matthew Hein with the Washington County Sheriff’s Department.
People from across Indiana and beyond attended a memorial service in honor of an unidentified child Wednesday. (Spectrum News 1/Erin Kelly)
“We never knew him in life, but he has drawn us together with love and kindness,” he said during the ceremony. “We have put on display the very best qualities of our community as we think about and honor Angel. It makes me proud to live in this community and to serve it and to protect it.”
The child was buried in a private ceremony Tuesday in Crown Hill Cemetery.
His headstone reads, “In loving memory of a beloved little boy, known but to God.”
An autopsy report shows no “significant traumatic injuries” and attributes the child’s death to an “electrolyte imbalance,” according to Indiana State Police.
Anyone with information in the case is asked to call 888-437-6432.