Body of young boy found dead in Indiana was inside suitcase, troopers say

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ind. (WAVE/Gray News) - Indiana State Police said the body of a young boy who was found dead in the woods in eastern Washington County was found inside of a suitcase.

The new detail was confirmed to WAVE by Sgt. Carey Huls Tuesday evening. Troopers released a picture of the suitcase to the public with the hope that someone brings new information to investigators.

Huls said the suitcase with the boy’s body inside was found in New Pekin in the woods about 80 feet off of East Holder Road in the 7000 block.

Officials said the boy’s autopsy was also completed on Tuesday afternoon. The body did not show any obvious cause of death, so Huls said investigators will now rely on toxicology reports to see if the child had drugs in his system when he died.

The boy’s body was found Saturday around 7:30 p.m. by a person who was mushroom hunting in the area, according to investigators.

Huls said the child is described as a Black boy around 5 years old. The boy had short hair, a slim build and was around 4 feet tall.

“This obviously could be a national thing,” Huls said on Monday. “It could be a child from any location. We’re not going to preclude anybody, and we’re going to look at any information that comes in that could answer the question of the identity of this child.”

Police said they requested the assistance of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s forensics services team in the case.

ISP created a tip line specifically for any information in relation to the death investigation at (888) 437-6432. So far, more than 200 calls have been received from the public but none have led to the identification of the child, according to Huls.