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In September 2001 a gruesome discovery was made in London's River Thames.
The hideously mutilated torso of a small black boy was found floating through the
city. The boy's arms, legs, and head had all been hacked off. So began a stranger-
than-fiction detective story that led U.K. investigators into a macabre netherworld
of witchcraft and child sacrifice.
Murder squad detectives had nothing to go on: There were no reports of a
missing child and no witnesses or crime scene. No face, fingerprints, or dental
records remained that could help identify the boy. The police simply called him
Adam. He was believed to have been between four and seven years old.
The investigation to discover Adam's true identity and bring his killers to justice
is the subject of a National Geographic Explorer documentary, to be aired on the
National Geographic Channel in the U.S. this weekend. It tells how the latest
advances in forensic science led detectives across two continents in their
dogged quest to solve Adam's murder.
"It is one of the most astonishing, horrible stories to happen in years and years in
this country," said Richard Hoskins, who worked on the police investigation team.
The autopsy report concluded that Adam's throat had been slit. His body was then
deliberately drained of blood. With no clear leads, murder squad detectives at
Scotland Yard in London called in forensic experts who used the latest scientific
methods to examine Adam's bones, stomach, and intestines for clues. What they
discovered became central to the investigation. Ken Pye, a forensic geologist at
the University of London, analyzed Adam's bones for trace minerals that are
absorbed from food and water. Levels of trace minerals vary depending on which
part of the world a person comes from. Pye's tests revealed levels of strontium,
copper, and lead two and a half times higher than would be normally expected in
a child living in England. Using these trace minerals as his guide, Pye gradually
narrowed down Adam's likely geographic origin to West Africa. Stomach Contents
Extensive analysis of the contents of Adam's stomach and intestines pointed
detectives in a similar direction. The forensic team found a strange,
unidentifiable plant material. There was also a sandlike mineral and a substance
that resembled small clay pellets. Added to this bizarre mixture were tiny particles
of gold. Plant anatomists were brought in to help identify the plant. The closest
match, it turned out, was the Calabar bean—an obscure but highly toxic type of
climbing vine from West Africa. This proved a major breakthrough in the
investigation, as it linked Adam's death to witchcraft in a region that's regarded as
the birthplace of voodoo. Wade Davis, an anthropologist and explorer-in-
residence at the National Geographic Society, says dozens of poisons are
traditionally used in West Africa. Continued on
Deviant Practices Davis added that deviant practices are most likely to occur in
countries where there is civil unrest, poverty, and violence. "It wouldn't surprise
me if this strange, cultish behavior emerged out of the chaos and madness that is
modern Nigeria," he said. In parts of Africa, most notably southern Africa, child
parts are sometimes used by rogue witch doctors in a traditional form of medicine
known as muti. "It is felt by some that to kill a living person solely for the use of
medicine is the most empowering form of medicine imaginable, and within that
the most extreme form of all is to kill a child," Hoskins said. The special police
unit that investigates muti killings in South Africa estimates that there may be as
many as a hundred such murders in the country each year. Yet the West African
connection was further strengthened when bone samples arrived from Nigeria
for comparison with Adam's remains. Ken Pye and the forensic team were able to
pinpoint Adam's birthplace to a region near Benin City in southwestern Nigeria.
The closest match to Adam's bone chemistry came from Benin's main mortuary.
This bought another crime into the scope of the investigation—human trafficking.
West Africa is one of the areas that are the most exploited by criminals who sell
people into modern-day slavery. According to the United Nations Children's Fund
some 200,000 children are trafficked out of western and central Africa each year.
UNICEF defines child trafficking as the transportation and exploitation of
unwilling or unknowing children, often for slave labor or sex work. Police now
suspected that Adam was brought to the U.K. by a child-smuggling ring, but not as
child labor. Adam had been earmarked for human sacrifice. To find out why and by
whom, murder squad detectives traveled to Nigeria and the city of Benin. They
were beginning to close in on Adam's witchcraft killers, thanks to the clues
revealed by forensic science. While police have yet to secure a conviction for
Adam's murder, they have succeeded in breaking up a major trafficking operation,
possibly saving many other West African children from a life of slavery,
prostitution, or even worse. With the trafficking gang's ringleader now in jail,
detectives remain hopeful that Adam's killers can finally be brought to justice.