BOSTON (AP) – In her computer-generated image, she is the picture of innocence: a 4-year-old girl with long brown hair, chubby cheeks and expressive brown eyes. The image has attracted a staggering 45 million views on Facebook as investigators try to identity the child whose remains were found on a Boston Harbor beach nearly two weeks ago.
The mystery of Baby Doe began on June 25, when a woman walking her dog on the western shore of Deer Island called 911 and reported finding a trash bag containing the girl’s body. The child was wearing white leggings with black polka dots. Inside the bag with her remains was a zebra-print blanket.
Police immediately appealed to the public for help in identifying the girl. Using photos of her remains, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created a composite image of what the girl may have looked like when she was alive.
After that image and photos of the leggings and blanket were posted on the Massachusetts State Police Facebook page, investigators were astonished by the number of views and shares the posting received. As of late Tuesday, more than 45.4 million people had viewed the image.
But authorities still haven’t identified the girl.