‘It’s hard to explain’: Police still trying to identify remains of 4-year-old boy found behind Cleveland home

Authorities in Ohio are once again making a public plea for information regarding the remains of a young boy discovered last year behind a residence in Cleveland.

According to WTOL, the 4-year-old boy’s body was found discarded in a black trash bag and has led investigators on a fruitless search for his identity ever since.

“It’s hard to explain the sudden absence of a child like that,” said Cleveland Police Detective Tim Entenok.

The circumstances of the case are unlike anything he has seen in his career, he added.

“I mean, all of a sudden, a kid was just gone,” Entenok said.

The inability to identify the child is in itself a tragic anomaly for the detective.

“I’ve been in homicide for almost 17 years and this is the first case that I’ve had with a child skeletal remains,” he said. “I’ve had a couple adults that we couldn’t identify but never a child.”

As WJW reported, a landscaper found the bag in September as he was doing work in the yard of a home on Longmead Avenue. When he opened it and found the skeletal remains, he contacted authorities.

The investigation resulted in a facial reconstruction sketch released last month in hopes of identifying the child.

With no tips originating locally, authorities are investigating the possibility that he was from outside of the region.

“The Longmead address is in close proximity to 71 and 480 so maybe someone was passing through looking for somewhere to dump the child, we don’t know, we are just open to everything,” Entenok explained.

Cleveland police are asking anyone with information relevant to this investigation to contact detectives or call Cuyahoga County Crime Stoppers at 216-252-7463.

[Featured image: Cleveland Police Department]