After 65 years, the cold case of a boy, seven, discovered dead in a Wisconsin ditch has finally been solved

Wisconsin police have solved a 65-year-old cold case involving a missing Michigan boy thanks to DNA evidence.

The case involved a missing 7-year-old boy named Markku Jutila, whose birth name was Chester Breiney. According to USA Today, on October 4, 1959, the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office in Port Washington discovered a child’s skeleton in a culvert near Mequon, approximately 20 miles north of Milwaukee.

When discovered, the victim was estimated to be between the ages of 6 and 8.

Detectives at the time learned that the Houghton County Sheriff’s Department in Michigan, about 300 miles north, was looking for a missing child named Markku Jutila.

Relatives of the boy’s adopted parents, William and Hilja, alerted Houghton County deputies and Chicago police to the strangeness of his disappearance.

The couple was unable to account for their son’s whereabouts and eventually admitted to police that they dumped his body in a ditch in Mequon before relocating to Chicago. The mother also admitted that she beat her son to death.

The couple was arrested in 1966 and extradited to Wisconsin, but charges were dropped because prosecutors were unable to establish a clear link between the recovered body and the adopted boy.

Advances in DNA analysis enabled police to reexamine the remains, which they identified as Chester Alfred Breiney, whose birth mother died in 2001.

In July 2024, the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office asked Othram, a DNA testing lab that has helped solve numerous cold cases, for assistance with the case.

Further investigation confirmed that the boy had a healed broken rib, which was consistent with the mother’s account of beating him, and that he died as a result of severe neglect.

Police used DNA from a skull fragment to confirm that the remains matched members of the Breiney family, confirming after 65 years that the body was indeed that of the missing boy.

The sheriff’s office stated that no charges will be filed in the case because everyone involved in the boy’s death has already died. The boy’s adoptive parents died in 1988.

“Although no one will be prosecuted for Chester Alfred Breiney’s death, Chester can now rest in peace because the truth about his death is known. “No child should leave this world as Chester did,” Sheriff Christy Knowles said in a statement.

“All investigative parties involved in this case worked tirelessly to bring Chester justice, beginning in 1959 when he was discovered. Chester was murdered 65 years ago, but he has never been forgotten.

Source

Note: Thank you for visiting our website! We strive to keep you informed with the latest updates based on expected timelines, although please note that we are not affiliated with any official bodies. Our team is committed to ensuring accuracy and transparency in our reporting, verifying all information before publication. We aim to bring you reliable news, and if you have any questions or concerns about our content, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!