CRIME
Cold case breakthrough: Child found in Fairfax County creek identified after more than 50 years

The decades-long mystery was solved thanks to advanced DNA technology and dedicated investigative work.

Author: Matt Pusatory (WUSA9), Troy Pope
Published: 5:50 AM EDT August 4, 2025
Updated: 5:22 PM EDT August 4, 2025

LORTON, Va. — A mystery that haunted Fairfax County investigators for more than half a century has finally been solved. Police announced Monday that they have identified the young boy found dead under a bridge in Lorton in 1972 as Carl Matthew Bryant, a 4-year-old from Philadelphia.

Carl’s body was discovered on June 13, 1972, by a boy riding his bike home from school. The child spotted the body beneath the Old Colchester Road bridge and alerted his mother, who called police. Carl was found unclothed, and an autopsy later determined he had died from blunt force trauma approximately six hours before his body was discovered.

At the time, investigators had no missing persons reports that matched the boy’s description. He remained unidentified for decades, buried in Coleman Cemetery in Alexandria under a headstone that was later washed away in a 2012 derecho storm.

A breakthrough from a strand of hair

The case saw renewed momentum thanks to the foresight of crime scene officers in 1972 who preserved a small sample of Carl’s hair during his autopsy. That sample—less than 2 millimeters in length—was stored in the case file for decades. In 2004, the FBI extracted DNA from the hair, but no match was found.

{snip}


Credit: Center for Missing and Exploited Children

{snip}