07/09/2009

Associated Press

Two Medford dentists have done their part to help the Jackson County Sheriff's Office solve a mystery that has stumped investigators for almost a half-century.

Dentists Hal Borg and Greg Pearson volunteered to examine the skull of a toddler pulled from a reservoir east of Ashland in July 1963.

Investigators exhumed the body from an unmarked grave last summer, hoping DNA testing and facial reconstruction could solve the mystery of the child's identity.

Reconstruction illustrations by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released in March didn't offer any firm leads, and DNA collection and matching has yet to be completed.

Borg and Pearson helped police learn more about an unusual tooth deformity — a bifurcated lower front tooth that has two roots and a surface split by an odd groove. Borg, Pearson and their technicians stayed after work one day to make film and digital X-rays of the toddler's teeth and jaws, Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan told the Mail Tribune newspaper.

They determined the boy was 1 year and 11 months old, at the low end of the range estimated by investigators in the 1960s. They also concluded that the child had characteristics of Down syndrome, as well as birth defects and developmental problems consistent with congenital syphilis.

Syphilis transmitted through the placenta to the child before birth could have led to his death, but investigators can't determine how likely that is, Fagan said.

Investigators are also getting help from KOIN Channel 6, the CBS affiliate in Portland that has an occasional series exploring cold cases from around the state. Fagan said the station's past stories have generated tips, and investigators were eager to have details of the toddler case reach an audience outside southern Oregon.

"It will reach an area we haven't connected with," Fagan said.

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Information from: Mail Tribune, http://www.mailtribune.com