The Billboard Murder

Bobby Whitt, 10, was discovered dead under a billboard in California in 1998 by a landscaping team. When the body was located, it was identified as a John Doe. Nobody had reported a missing youngster, and there was no evidence of who he could have been. His identity was not revealed until 2019.

Police investigated a link between the boy and the case of an unidentified woman discovered in South Carolina the same year. DNA comparisons confirmed the woman had been the mother of the boy. Myong Hwa Cho had told friends she was returning to South Korea, so when she was not seen again, no one noticed. DNA was able to locate her relatives and then John Russell Whitt, whom she met while stationed in South Korea and who was the boy's father. Whitt was already serving a term for armed robbery when the murder convictions were added to his record.

Date: 1998