05-08-2025
1972 murder victim identified 50 years later as Carl Bryant, a 4-year-old boy from Philadelphia
A body found in a Washington, D.C. suburb more than 50 years ago has been identified as a 4-year-old boy from Philadelphia, police said this week.
Fairfax County, Virginia, police said advanced DNA testing and genome sequencing led to a positive identification on the body of a juvenile homicide victim found in 1972 in a creek in Lorton, an area south of the capital just off Interstate 95.
The boy was found June 13, 1972, in Massey Creek, and his cause of death was ruled to be blunt force trauma. Several efforts were made to get tips from the public on a possible identity for the boy, but there were no viable leads.
Efforts to create a computer-generated sketch of how the boy looked and match strands of his hair to DNA existing in a national database were also not successful.
Eventually, a small strand of hair was recovered from the remains and sent for a chance at genome sequencing, which turned out successful.
"The lab, Astrea in California, had said that normally they require at least 2 centimeters of hair to do testing. And I said, 'Well, I don't know if I have even 2 millimeters of hair to send you,'" Detective Melissa Wallace said in a news conference Monday. "They said well, send it anyway and we'll see what we can do."
From that tiny sample, Astrea was able to get a DNA profile that pointed to a Vera Bryant, who used to live in Philly. Vera Bryant's body was later exhumed to confirm the DNA link.
On July 1, DNA from Vera's body was confirmed to match the remains found in Virginia.
Investigators believe Vera and her boyfriend James Hedgepeth, both of whom are now dead, were involved in Carl's murder — and that Carl's infant brother James was killed around the same time.
The killings are believed to have occurred somewhere between Philadelphia and Middlesex County, Virginia.
Relatives told police that Vera Bryant was Carl's mother and that Carl disappeared after they left for Virginia in 1972.
Police believe James Bryant's body could have been discarded somewhere along the route of the trip to Virginia.
Authorities are still asking for help in the investigation — seeking tips from any law enforcement agency with unidentified infant remains from the 1970s, or any individual who remembers the family.
Tipsters can contact the Fairfax County Police Department at 703-246-7800, option 2 or Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS.
