PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – In the summer of 1963, a fisherman on Keene Creek in southern Oregon hooked a small wrapped bundle.
Inside the bundle was the fully clothed body of a small boy. There was an inner blanket, and wrapped on the outside, very carefully, was a patchwork quilt covered with wire, to make a very tight package.
No one knew who the boy was, and the case went unsolved. The body of the little boy was buried in a grave at Medford's Hillside Cemetery.
The headstone with the inscription, "Baby Doe, known only to God," always haunted Detective Fagan, who is now retired.
"We are not interested in prosecuting this case. We have a responsibility to identify the unidentified remains, and that's what this case is all about," Fagan said in 2009.
In 2008, detectives had exhumed the body and obtained DNA from the femur. They submitted it for matches, but nothing came back.
Until now.
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In 1963, the body of a fully clothed boy was found wrapped in a bundle by a fisherman at Keene Creek in southern Oregon (2009, KOIN file) -
In 1963, the body of a fully clothed boy was found wrapped in a bundle by a fisherman at Keene Creek in southern Oregon (2009, KOIN file) -
In 1963, the body of a fully clothed boy was found wrapped in a bundle by a fisherman at Keene Creek in southern Oregon (2009, KOIN file) -
In 1963, the body of a fully clothed boy was found wrapped in a bundle by a fisherman at Keene Creek in southern Oregon (2009, KOIN file) -
Jackson County Detective Colin Fagan points to the spot in Keene Creek where the body of a boy wrapped in a bundle was found in 1963 by a fisherman (2009, KOIN file)
A private company contracted to check familial DNA with companies like 23AndMe confirmed a match. The little boy has been identified as Stevie Crawford.
Stevie had family members in New Mexico who told detectives the boy had Down Syndrome. His mother returned from a trip and told family members they wouldn't have to worry about Stevie anymore.
The mother has since died.
Fagan told KOIN that Stevie's family members plan on returning his remains from Medford back to New Mexico to be buried in a family plot, 58 years after his body was found in a bundle in Keene Creek.
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