Boy's Murder Solved After 53 Years, 2nd Child Homicide Uncovered

FAIRFAX, VA — With the help of DNA testing and forensic-grade genome sequencing, Fairfax County Police detectives have identified the body of a young boy found 53 years ago in Lorton. However, the investigation also uncovered a second suspected homicide of an infant related to the boy.

"After more than 50 years, cold case detectives have identified the murdered boy that was found in Lorton in 1972 as 4-year-old Carl Matthew Bryant, born May 26, 1968," said Assistant Chief Brooke Wright of FCPD's investigations division, during a news conference Monday at police headquarters.

On June 13, 1972, police responded to the report of a body being found below the Old Colchester Bridge in Massey Creek in Lorton. A boy riding his bike home from school spotted the body and told his mother about it. She contacted police.

"Detectives responded out to a child who was unidentified," Wright said. "They didn't have any missing children reports to match up to who this child might be. He was unclothed, and it was ruled that he had died as a result of a blunt force trauma. So, it was ruled a homicide."

With no leads to his identity, a local church gave the boy the name "Charles Lee Charlet" and arranged for a burial at Coleman Cemetery in Alexandria.

Fortunately for cold case detectives, their counterparts in 1972 thought to save samples of the boy's hair, which the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children used in 2003 to create a computer-generated photo. Although the photo garnered more tips than any other cold case in Virginia, none of them turned out to be viable leads, according to police.

In 2004, the FBI extracted mitochondrial DNA from the hair samples and added the information to the national database, but investigators found no matches, according to FCPD.

However, in 2016, the DNA helped detectives rule out a connection to two other missing children, Soloman Rose and George Barksdale.

The big break in the case came in 2021 when Detectives Melissa Wallace and Jon Long of FCPD's Cold Case Squad requested a new DNA test by Astrea Forensics.

"When we got the hair and opened the package, it was literally little specks like razor stubble," Wallace said. "The Astrea lab in California had said that normally they require at least 2 centimeters of hair to do testing. And I said, 'Well, I don't know if I even have 2 millimeters of hair to send you.' And they said, 'Well, send it anyway. We'll see what we can do.'"

After obtaining a new genetic profile from Astrea, the detectives traveled to Philadelphia to interview members of the Bryant family. They confirmed that Vera Bryant had a 4-year-old child who disappeared after she and her boyfriend left for a trip to Virginia in 1972, police say.

In addition to searching historical records and birth certificates, the investigators obtained DNA samples from family members of Carl Matthew Bryant's suspected father. The boy's mother, Vera Bryant, died in 1980, so her body was exhumed and a sample of her DNA was also obtained.

After studying all the samples, Astrea confirmed on July 1 that the body found in Lorton in 1972 was that of Carl Matthew Bryant.

"Vera Bryant was a woman who lived in Philadelphia in 1972," Wright said. "Relatives knew that she had traveled by car with her boyfriend, James Hedgepeth, her son, Carl, and her 6-month-old son, James Bryant."

Investigators believe that Vera Bryant and Hedgepeth, both of whom are deceased, were involved in the deaths of the two brothers, according to police.

"They were traveling on that day in June from Philadelphia down to Middlesex County, Virginia," Wright said. "When the couple arrived in Middlesex County, Virginia, they met with James Hedgepeth's family. The couple did not have children with them. Vera visited relatives that Thanksgiving in 1972. She did not have children with her. … She explained that her children were with James' family in Virginia."

Neither Vera Bryant nor Hedgepeth reported the two boys as missing. Investigators believe both boys were killed on June 13, 1972, between Pennsylvania and Virginia. The original autopsy estimated that Carl Matthew Bryant had died within six hours of his body being discovered, according to Wallace.

"The baby may have been discarded along the route also, but he has not ever been located," Wright said. "The area in Lorton was searched for several days. Detectives put a lot of work into the case, but they never found any other persons, and at that time, they also didn't know that they were looking for another child."

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Hedgepeth served time in prison after being convicted of murder in 1962, according to police. Once he was out of prison, he met Vera Bryant. He is not the father of either of the two boys.

"We spotlight this case to finally recognize Carl Matthew Bryant's identity," Wright said. "We asked for the public's help in filling in the missing information. Perhaps somebody witnessed something along that route that day, or maybe Vera or James confided in someone before they had died. Maybe another jurisdiction had recovered a 6-month-old baby's remains and didn't have any way to tie it to this case, as we didn't know that there would be any relation to this case."

Anyone with information about this case, including any law enforcement agency that has recovered or documented an unidentified infant in the 1970s, especially in Virginia or the Philadelphia area, is asked to contact the Major Crimes Bureau at 703-246-7800, option 2.

Tips can also be submitted anonymously through Crime Solvers by phone – 1-866-411-TIPS (866-411-8477), and by web –Click HERE. Download the ‘P3 Tips’ App and follow the steps to “Fairfax Co Crime Solvers.” Anonymous tipsters are eligible for a cash rewards. Leave contact information if you wish for a detective to follow up with you.

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