Teen hit by train exhumed nearly 100 years later for chance to ID him

GEORGETOWN, Ky. (WKRC) - “Some Mother’s Son” is the only name on the engraved headstone of an unidentified teen buried in Georgetown, Kentucky in 1921.

He got there by riding the rails of a passenger train out of Cincinnati. Back then, people who did that were called Hobos, but clues showed the brown haired, blue-eyed teen around 17-years-old led a privileged life. Friday, March 10, his body was exhumed from the grave where he was buried after no one could identity the young man. What investigators did know was he rode the Southern Railway’s Royal Palm passenger train out of Cincinnati that traveled between Midwest cities including Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, and Cincinnati; ending up in Jacksonville Florida.

ox car April 1, 1921, and ran to catch a slow moving passenger train on another track. He likely didn’t even see the train that hit him.

Emily Craig is a forensic anthropologist and works special projects of NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, and said, "We don’t think he rode the rails like a hobo, he was dressed well and groomed. Not that someone like that deserves more attention, that means someone more likely is missing him.”

He wore tailored clothes, with monogrammed buttons, the clothes had a laundry mark that said “ Jones” and he had a watch with W.A. engraved on the back, and L.H.D. engraved inside the time piece.

John Goble, the Scott County Coroner, said, "His mother and father have passed away, of course, but he could have nieces, nephews and cousins; His mother and father are buried somewhere, we want to get him back to his parents.”

The FBI has agreed to pay for DNA testing. A tooth found during the exhumation of his grave will help with that. Then the profile will be entered into the DNA database to see if it links to any relatives. If not, there are other options.

Was he a runaway headed to Florida for spring break? Or was he out for an adventure? The only thing that is certain is that he is some mother’s boy.

Coroner Goble said, "He deserves to be buried with his family.”

[katrinkasanfranciscobayare]

They identified him as Frank Haynes and he's going to be reburied next to his family.
Bless these people

[idleonlooker]

I'm glad an attempt is being made to identify this unknown boy - as should be for all unidentified people.

[moewilson]

My mom had a baby brother that died at birth. In the 1930's, the depression. The family had no money and had to surrender the baby to the city, who buried little David in an unmarked grave. Before my mom passed in 2010 we looked into where he had been buried. We knew the cemetery and hoped to put up a family marker. Unfortunately, my sister was shown a large patch of bare grass where many others had been buried by the city with no records or markers as to who is buried where. I still think perhaps some money could be raised to put a common marker on this patch of grass to acknowledge those there, even if unnamed. Unsure on the cemetery's policy. It is just the living paying respect to the dead and an acknowledgement that these people were alive and mattered at one time. I get why the town is hoping to name this soul now that we have advanced technology to do so. Respect.

[Trackside]

"going to Florida for spring break"? Give me a break. There was no spring break in 1921 and hardly anyone lived in Florida besides alligators.

[sfolksss]

1:41
"But someone like that someone is more likely to be missing him" So because he was Wealthy means his parents would be miss him more than a not so wealthy parent?

[WiIdbiII]

I'm sure the poor and middle class would miss their loved one too .

[mikerca]

They play a sound of a diesel train whistle while a picture of a steam locomotive is shown ! Geniuses.

[hbic]

Wait, so he's wearing a suit with a name in it that doesn't match the initials on the watch and it never occurs to them that he stole them both?

[leaturk]

shame the same effort is not made for the homeless...

[Pisti]

"He led a privileged life", what an asinine the to say about some poor kid who got killed by a train.

[TheRhNegative]

That train horn was unnecessary to insert. It was so loud it was nauseating.

[kdl]

I wish someone would do that for 'the boy in the box' fron Pennsylvania . So sad for anyone to never have a name. Known only to God.

[CryptidWalks]

My Grandma had two brothers that jumped a train for California during the Great Depression from Missouri, they never heard from them again. Wrong year of course. But similar fate.

[sheilagoddard]

So wonderful that you folks are trying to send him home. God bless you.

[gazzybishop]

No disrespect meant towards this kid, but what about all of the unmarked military graves that are all over the country? Why can't we find out who these men are that fought for our country first and then figure out later who this teen is that got hit by a train?! 😨

[johnk]

I do not get this He is long dead his parents are long dead let him rest in peace let the past be the past

[houndgal]

My grandfather(RIP) hopped the trains in the midwest as a teen and young adult. About the same era this child got struck. He loved to travel this way during the depression. This was not uncommon for young men in the midwest.

Indeed the great American Songwriter Woodie Guthrie also jumped freight trains and traveled all over America back then.

[mrfester]

A remarkably noble gesture by people who who obviously are very caring and mean well but I think it's very misguided. The victims parents are long since dead so to "reunite" him with his parents in the grave belies a belief in the hereafter. If the hereafter is a fact then the boy in the grave has probably been reunited on the other side anyway.
These people should direct their caring spirit towards people who are still alive and suffering. There are more than enough poor souls like that who are still living to go around.

[damesaphira]

This breaks my heart....but the people that cared enough to give him a grave stone with "Some Mother's boy" those amazing people that paid for that deserve a blessing. Each one of you that did that....thank you.

[shadowrider]

It's more respectful to let the dead rest and not disturb their burial.