A 1959 cold case involving a missing seven-year-old came to an end last week through DNA identification, decades after charges against the boy’s adoptive parents were dropped due to a lack of physical evidence.
On October 4, 1959, a human skeleton was discovered on the side of the road in Mequon, Wisconsin, which researchers determined to be the skull of a child between 6 and 8 years old.
Markku Jutila.
At the same time, Mequon police officers were following leads on the skull, while officers in nearby Houghton County, Michigan, were investigating the disappearance of an adopted child, Markku Jutila, whose parents fled to Chicago.
Relatives of William and Hilja Jutila became suspicious of the child’s whereabouts after the Jutilas moved from the Michigan area to Chicago. The Houghton County Sheriff’s Office began working with the Chicago Police Department on the matter.
According to the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin, the couple was interviewed in Chicago and admitted to dumping their adopted son’s body in a ditch in Mequon.
“The mother, Hilja Jutila, admitted to physically beating her son to death,” the sheriff’s office said.
Case files from the original investigation were not available to authorities, the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office said. Much of what they know from the investigation is based on newspaper articles and some court records.
The Jutilas were indicted in Chicago on March 28, 1966 and extradited to Michigan. Both William and Hilja Jutila underwent psychological examinations during which they claimed their adopted son was ill for several days before they found him dead in his bedroom.
“They claimed they were afraid of what was happening and decided to leave their home and go to Chicago, dumping Markku on the side of the road along the way,” the sheriff’s office said.
The skull found in Mequon had similar characteristics to Markku Jutila, but charges against the Julitas were later dismissed because prosecutors lacked corpus delicti – the legal principle that there must be sufficient evidence that a crime occurred, such as a body, before someone can be prosecuted. before it.
And because the prosecutor could not definitively identify the skeletal remains as Markku, the charges were dropped.
The case lay dormant until last year, when Wisconsin Department of Justice agents began working with the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory to identify the remains.
“It was determined that investigators would attempt to identify the individual using DNA recovered from the skull and conduct investigative genealogy,” the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office said.
A DNA profile was completed in May, but it does not match profiles in the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). However, additional skeletal remains in the possession of the University of Wisconsin were found to match the skull, leading to more evidence in the case.
“Further examination of these remains was conducted and it was determined that the individual most likely suffered from significant neglect based on dental health and new bone formation resulting from infection, trauma to the periosteum, or hemorrhage,” the Sheriff’s Office said Ozaukee County Office. .
Investigators were able to piece together part of the case with the help of Michigan State Police, who tracked down Markku Jutila’s adoption records.
The boy was originally born Chester Alfred Breiney in 1952 and lived at the Good Will Farm orphanage, which has since been renamed. Presumably his name was Markku at the time of his adoption.
During the genealogical investigation, the DNA profile recovered from the remains showed “several similarities to relatives of the Breiney family,” the sheriff’s office said. His biological mother, Josephine Breiney, died in 2001.
Both of his adoptive parents, William and Hilja Jutila, died in 1988 and therefore cannot be charged in his death.
Authorities decided to hold a funeral for Chester on Friday in Port Washington, Wisconsin. He will be buried in St. Mary’s Parish Cemetery, just off the coast of Lake Michigan.
“Although no one will be prosecuted for the death of Chester Alfred Breiney, Chester can now rest in peace now that the truth about his death is known,” the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office said. “No child should have to leave this earth like Chester did.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
