On Christmas Eve 1985 a passing motorist in Chester, Nebraska, found the body of a young White boy in blue pajamas. The child was about 9 years old and remained unidentified for two years; the community called him Matthew and buried him as Chester’s Little Boy Blue.

A Reader’s Digest story in 1987 produced a lead: a Wyoming couple recognized the boy as Daniel Stutzman, who had been cared for at the request of his father, Eli Stutzman. Eli was located and arrested in Azle, Texas. He told investigators Daniel died in his sleep while they were driving through Nebraska and that he panicked and left the body at the roadside. The autopsy was inconclusive, and prosecutors in Nebraska could not prove murder; Eli was convicted only of abandoning a body and concealing a death and received an 18-month sentence.

Nebraska investigators suspected foul play. Eli Stutzman had earlier family and criminal incidents that drew attention, including his wife Ida’s death in a 1977 barn fire and the May 1985 shooting death of his Texas roommate, Glen Pritchett, in which he later became a suspect. Does anyone have memories or information about Daniel’s life before 1985 or his movements in the months leading up to that Christmas Eve?