Years passed, and the boy’s case remained cold. In 2007, the case was reopened, and detectives had his body exhumed the following year to extract his DNA. The passage of time meant that there were new techniques that investigators could use to identify the child. His DNA profile was uploaded to an identification database, but there was no match, as reported by Law and Crime. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created a composite sketch of the boy in 2009 in hopes that someone would recognize him, but that did not provide leads either. Again, the little boy’s case went cold until 2018, when the Medical Examiner’s Office in Oregon was given a grant to use a new DNA technique on skeletal remains from unidentified victims in unsolved cases.

In 2020, detectives worked with Parabon NanoLabs and extracted a suitable DNA profile from the child’s bones, which allowed them to accurately determine the child’s ancestry, as well as other details including the skin, hair, and eye color. A report from the Oregon State Police read, “This child was of Northern European descent, with very fair skin, brown eyes, and brown to light blonde hair.”