What happened to the 2 children found dead in Stanley Park? An update on an old Vancouver cold case

The site of the discovery of the 'Babes in the Woods' remains is seen in an image from Vancouver police.

A grisly discovery was made at the site of one of Vancouver's most popular tourist destinations nearly seven decades ago.

The bodies of two young boys, believed to be below the age of 10, were found in Stanley Park on Jan. 15, 1953. The boys had obvious head wounds and their bodies were covered up.

A woman's fur coat, a picnic basket of food and a hatchet that was likely the murder weapon were found nearby.

Who were they? It's still not known 69 years after the boys' remains were found. It's not even known when exactly the boys were killed, as their remains were already skeletal when discovered by a park groundskeeper.

The remains of the so-called "Babes in the Woods" have been examined several times over the years, but they've never been identified, beyond that they were half-brothers.

As far as cold cases go, this one is pretty frosty. But is it possible the case is starting to thaw?

Last year, Vancouver police announced a partnership with an American genetic genealogy company, saying they hoped the group would be able to figure out more about the children, maybe leading police to further answers. 

Officers said last spring they hoped advanced DNA testing and tracing would reveal the boys' identities, or link them to someone who knew their story.

The skulls of Vancouver's 'Babes in the Woods' are seen in a display at the Vancouver Police Museum.

 

The team that may be able to connect police to the boys' relatives is Redgrave Research Forensics Services.

In October, the Massachusetts-based company posted in an update on its website that, sadly, the first attempt to sequence DNA data collected from the remains was not successful. But it was told that a lab at Lakehead University, in northern Ontario, was able to get a more substantial extraction, and the team was feeling optimistic.

A picnic basket tied to the 'Babes in the Woods' case is seen in an image from Vancouver police.

No updates were posted after that, until last month, when Redgrave shared some positive news for those hoping for answers.

In January, the team was notified by yet another party working on the case – Saber Investigations, a company that works on cold cases and helps adoptees find their birth families – that a second attempt to sequence the DNA of the older of the two boys had been a success.

A belt associated with the 'Babes in the Woods' case is seen in an image from Vancouver police.

As a result, Redgrave Research was able to upload his DNA data to GEDmatch, a website that allows those who've taken a DNA test to compare their results to others around the world. The site compiles results from other companies including 23andMe, Ancestry, LivingDNA, MyHeritage and more.

"Our team of forensic genetic genealogists got to work analyzing the DNA profile and building our trees of cousin matches right away, and we are feeling very optimistic," Redgrave Research wrote in a post on its website. 

"We are fully dedicated to reaching an ID, and hope that we will have more good news to share with you on this historic case soon!"

So for now, questions remain. But the answers are starting to seem less distant.

A hatchet believed to be the murder weapon in the 'Babes in the Woods' case is seen in an image from Vancouver police.