Police Spent 53 Years Trying to Identify a Deceased Boy — They Learned a Disturbing Family Secret By Sean Neumann

A mystery that haunted Virginia detectives for more than half a century has finally been solved — though it’s too late for justice.

The Fairfax County Police Department announced Monday, Aug. 4, that it solved the mystery surrounding the death of a 4-year-old boy found in Massey Creek under a bridge in Lorton, Va., in 1972.

The boy, who was never identified until forensic genealogy recently helped crack the case, had been found beaten to death in the creek on June 13 of that year, according to police.

“An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma, ruling the death a homicide,” Fairfax police said Monday. “With no immediate leads, a local church group gave the unidentified child the name ‘Charles Lee Charlet’ and arranged for his burial at Coleman Cemetery in Alexandria, Va. The case remained unsolved for over 50 years.”

But in its news release Monday, the local police department said detectives recently caught a break using forensic genealogy testing, ascertaining the boy’s identity through DNA recovered off “just a few millimeters of hair” from his body.

Fairfax police explained that the DNA led detectives to a family in Philadelphia, who told authorities that their deceased relative, Vera Bryant, had a 4-year-old son who went missing after she and her boyfriend left with their two young children for Virginia in 1972.

The boy’s name was Carl Matthew Bryant, detectives learned.

“Detectives then exhumed Vera Bryant’s body to confirm the maternal link,” the Fairfax Police Department said in a news release. In July, testing confirmed that Vera was the unidentified boy’s mother.

Fairfax officials said that after identifying the boy and his mother, and speaking with their modern relatives, detectives “believe that Vera Bryant and her boyfriend James Hedgepeth” were responsible for Carl’s killing. 

Vera died in 1980, and Hedgepeth — who officials said “was previously convicted of murder and had a violent criminal history” — is also dead.

While the mystery surrounding young Carl has finally been solved more than five decades later, there are more that remain. Primarily, detectives said they want to find the body of Carl’s younger brother James Bryant, who was 6 months old when he disappeared around the same time as Carl. Detectives believe the boys’ parents were also responsible for James’ death and that he was dumped somewhere along the same route they traveled in 1972 when Carl’s body was dumped in the Massey Creek.

But Fairfax police marked Monday’s announcement as a milestone, finally closing a cold case whose answers had evaded investigators for 53 years.

“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,” Fairfax Police detective Melissa Wallace said at a press conference Monday. “He can have his name, we can get him his name back on his gravestone and the family can have some semblance of closure or resolution.”

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