Overview

• Fairfax County investigators used genetic genealogy to name the 1972 John Doe as 4-year-old Carl Matthew Bryant of Philadelphia
• A 1972 autopsy determined that blunt force trauma caused the boy’s death and ruled the case a homicide
• Detectives secured a DNA profile from just a few millimeters of hair and confirmed the match by exhuming his mother’s remains
• Police suspect the victim’s mother, Vera Bryant, and her then-boyfriend, James Hedgepeth, in the killings of Carl and his infant brother
• Authorities have launched a renewed probe into the disappearance of six-month-old James Bryant and are urging anyone with information to contact Fairfax County police