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DNA breakthrough IDs boy found dead 53 years ago in Lorton, turns up more unanswered questions
WTOP-News ^ | August 04, 2025 | Thomas Robertson

Posted on 08/05/2025 6:51:44 AM PDT by Red Badger

A 4-year-old boy who was found dead in Lorton, Virginia, more than 50 years ago, and whose name has remained a mystery, has finally been identified after a flood of tips, a series of DNA tests and decades of twists and turns.

Fairfax County police Chief Kevin Davis announced the breakthrough Monday, saying the child’s identification has led police to two people who are believed to have been involved in his killing, and another missing boy whose body has never been discovered.

The case of the boy, identified as 4-year-old Carl Matthew Bryant, confounded police and the public for decades. According to Assistant Chief Brooke Wright, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received more tips on Bryant’s case than any other in the state of Virginia.

Bryant’s body was found under the Old Colchester Road Bridge in Lorton on June 13, 1972, by a boy who was biking home from school. Bryant was killed by blunt force trauma and remained unidentified, as there were no matching missing person reports.

Police examine the scene where Carl Bryant’s body was found in 1972. (Courtesy Fairfax County police)

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In 2003, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children put out a computer-generated sketch of the boy that led to numerous tips, but no answer.

Police then turned to the smallest clippings of hair, which one of the original case detectives saved during the child’s autopsy. The hair was barely visible — no more than specks resembling razor stubble, but the FBI was able to extract some DNA from the hair in 2004.

“Why he collected hair back in 1972? He certainly wasn’t forecasting, I believe, that science would be available down the road, but maybe it was just the hair color. Who knows why he did it, but thank God he did do it,” Davis said.

Still though, initially no match was found, and the case stalled.

“There was no match, so I want to say 2016, they tried to get more DNA, so we thought to try to exhume Carl’s body from Coleman Cemetery in Alexandria, but unfortunately his tombstone had been washed away from the derecho that happened in 2012,” cold case detective Melissa Wallace said.

Then, recently, a breakthrough. A forensics company called Astrea was able to use genetic genealogy to trace the boy’s DNA to his mother, a woman named Vera Bryant, who had died in 1980.

She lived in Philadelphia, and relatives told police that on June 13, 1972 — the day Carl Bryant was found dead — she had driven from Philadelphia to Middlesex County, Virginia, with her boyfriend James Hedgepeth and her son Carl Bryant. But there was another passenger police hadn’t known about, 6-month-old James Bryant, Vera’s second son.

The route that Vera Bryan and James Hedgepeth likely drove on June 13, 1972. The location Carl Bryant’s body was found is noted along the route. (Courtesy Fairfax County police)

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When James Hedgepeth and Vera arrived in Middlesex to meet with Hedgepeth’s family, the couple had no children with them, according to Assistant Chief Wright. On Thanksgiving that same year, Vera’s children were not with her, and she told her family her boys were with Hedgepeth in Virginia.

It was a disturbing twist in the case. After speaking with Vera’s relatives, police discovered it wasn’t just Carl who was gone, but baby James Bryant, whose body still hasn’t been found.

Vera Bryant and James Hedgepeth are both now dead, leaving police with unanswered questions as to what happened on that trip from Philadelphia to Virginia, and how 6-month-old James Bryant could disappear without a trace.

Authorities did extract DNA from Vera’s remains and confirmed her as the mother of Carl Bryant, bringing a decades-old mystery to a close while unearthing entirely new ones.

According to Wright, police believe both boys were killed on that road trip down the East Coast, and that 6-month-old James Bryant’s body was also discarded along the way. Upon discovering Carl Bryant’s body, police had searched the area in Lorton for days, but did not find any other remains, nor did they know there was a second child they should have been looking for.

“We ask the public’s help in filling in the missing information,” Wright said. “Perhaps somebody witnessed something along that route that day, or maybe Vera or James confided in someone before they had died. Maybe another jurisdiction had recovered a 6-month-old baby’s remains, and didn’t have any way to tie it to this case.”

Chief Davis said police want to know much more about James Hedgepeth, but what they do know is that he was previously convicted of murder in 1962 and had served time in prison. He met Vera after that prison stint, according to police, and was not the father of either of her boys.

“In the event that he shared any information with family or friends since 1972, even though he’s now deceased, we’d like to know about that,” Davis said. “Our plea is for people to come forward, even if they think they know him but they’re not sure what information about him would be helpful, call us anyway.”

With baby James’ body missing and Carl’s tombstone swept away by a storm, police have also talked about a way to memorialize the case with a bench in Coleman Cemetery.

“This case was always important to me,” detective Wallace said. “To see the extent of that boy’s injuries and what he had suffered through, I’m happy to be here today announcing that at least we’ve identified him. He can have his name, we can get him his name back on his gravestone, and the family can have some semblance of closure.”


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; History; Outdoors; Society
KEYWORDS: 19720613; astrea; carlbryant; carlmatthewbryant; coldcase; colemancemetery; dna; fairfax; fairfaxcounty; forensics; genealogy; geneticgenealogy; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; jamesbryant; jameshedgepeth; lorton; middlesexcounty; momoftheyear; oldcolchester; pennsylvania; philadelphia; roadbridge; science; thomasrobertson; verabryant; virginia
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1 posted on 08/05/2025 6:51:44 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

What “family” is left that is presumably still “seeking closure”?


2 posted on 08/05/2025 6:56:33 AM PDT by desertsolitaire
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To: desertsolitaire
What “family” is left that is presumably still “seeking closure”?

But the "family" apparently didn't file a missing person report.

3 posted on 08/05/2025 7:03:51 AM PDT by libertylover (The HBM (Has Been Media) is almost all AGENDA-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
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To: Red Badger
There are some things in this world that I will never understand, and killing a little boy is one of them.
4 posted on 08/05/2025 7:05:18 AM PDT by libertylover (The HBM (Has Been Media) is almost all AGENDA-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
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To: Red Badger

For just reading this article, it sounds like mom wanted to start over with no previous attachment


5 posted on 08/05/2025 7:05:21 AM PDT by mware
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To: desertsolitaire

53 years later probably all uncles, aunts are either senile or dead. Maybe some cousins around. Now that they have the DNA, maybe they can find some living relatives, but still doubt full about any “closure”.


6 posted on 08/05/2025 7:07:45 AM PDT by Omnivore-Dan (have to )
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To: libertylover

I’m guessing their ages meant not in schools yet and thus no truancy investigation or child health and welfare bureau visits to follow up? Was there a child protective services department of state governments back then? I could see if they were both school age and suddenly stopped attending school that that might trigger questions as to where they had gone and their well-being....


7 posted on 08/05/2025 7:10:39 AM PDT by desertsolitaire
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To: mware
For just reading this article, it sounds like mom wanted to start over with no previous attachment

And conveniently was attached to a convicted killer.

8 posted on 08/05/2025 7:11:13 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Red Badger

Pure evil. They murdered the children, and they never had to answer for their crime. So sad for those little ones...


9 posted on 08/05/2025 7:13:27 AM PDT by Tired of Taxes
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To: Red Badger

Watched a show on Hulu last night called “Naming the Dead” - it deals with cold cases that are decades old. The one featured was from the early 80s, the killer was caught but some of hi victims were never identified - they were all hitchhikers.

Using genetic genealogy, the victim was finally identified as a 17-year old black male - the family was contacted and they said they’d filed a missing person report at the time and contacted the police, but the case went cold and no one was interested in looking for their lost loved one.

The family was very grateful for the remains to be returned, had a memorial service and buried what was left of the skeleton with his mother.


10 posted on 08/05/2025 7:13:51 AM PDT by Bon of Babble (You Say You Want a Revolutioan?)
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To: Omnivore-Dan

Getting closure in 2025 seems more like a, see if we can get a whitey to blame. Like really who spends this $$$ so far out?


11 posted on 08/05/2025 7:14:09 AM PDT by George from New England (escaped CT back in 2006)
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To: Red Badger

I wonder what the cause of death was for Vera Bryant.


12 posted on 08/05/2025 7:15:48 AM PDT by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPetty)
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To: FamiliarFace

I don’t know, but I hope it was painful.............


13 posted on 08/05/2025 7:17:45 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Omnivore-Dan

Closure of the case is huge.

This reflects so very well in law enforcement personnel

Closure is important for all who read sbout it.


14 posted on 08/05/2025 7:17:50 AM PDT by Seeing More Clearly Now
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To: Tired of Taxes

“...they never had to answer for their crime.”

Not in THIS LIFE anyways, but God has His ways..............


15 posted on 08/05/2025 7:19:12 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

If she was murdered by the boyfriend, perhaps it was painful.


16 posted on 08/05/2025 7:21:34 AM PDT by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPetty)
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To: desertsolitaire

Back in the mid-’70s, I spoke to an 90 year-old man who lived and had grown up in rural west Virginia. I asked him what the greatest change was he had witnessed in is lifetime. He told me that back when he was young, the police never investigated anything, while now, even if a stranger is found dead in a field, they will work on the case until they know who it was and what happened to him. Back in his day, they would just bury the body as best they could and move on. As an example, he told me that there was an Italian shop-keeper in his town who gave credit, but if someone fell too far behind, they would just disappear: no body, no evidence, no clues. Everyone knew what was going on, but no one, except the relatives, ever seemed to care.


17 posted on 08/05/2025 7:25:16 AM PDT by PUGACHEV
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To: Red Badger

I grew up in a more developed area just north of there. That area was almost “Deliverance” territory back then with the “Hillbilly Heaven” night club nearby on RT 1 that could have been the template for Porky’s. As teens, we stayed the heck away from Hillbilly Heaven. Must have happened at night because it would have been difficult for blacks to be in that area at all at that time, much less dumping kids’ bodies.


18 posted on 08/05/2025 7:29:29 AM PDT by mikey_hates_everything
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19 posted on 08/05/2025 7:29:59 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The moron troll Ted Holden believes that humans originated on Ganymede.)
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To: FamiliarFace; Red Badger
If she was murdered by the boyfriend, perhaps it was painful.

I am guessing that her entire life was painful as long as her boyfriend was alive.

My guess is that she lived in terror that she would end up the same as her boys.

If you look for someone to blame for the boys death you might blame the father or the boys that left them for someone else to raise.

The greatest danger to a child is mommy's boyfriend

20 posted on 08/05/2025 7:54:43 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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