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Est. 2009

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You are here: Home / Cold Case News / Adam has been identified

Adam has been identified

September 27, 2011 By Alice

Torso "Adam" BBC“The five-year-old’s identity has remained a mystery after he was smuggled into Britain and murdered in a voodoo-style ritual killing. He was drugged with a ‘black-magic’ potion and sacrificed before being thrown into the Thames, where his torso washed up next to the Globe Theatre in September 2001. 

Detailed analysis of a substance in the boy’s stomach was identified as a ‘black magic’ potion. It included tiny clay pellets containing small particles of pure gold, an indication that Adam was the victim of a Muti ritual killing.”

Pollen recovered in the boy’s stomach showed he was alive when he arrived in London and stayed there for several days before being murdered. From tests on mineral levels in the boy’s bones, forensic scientists were able to establish that Adam spent his life in a 100-mile stretch of land in Nigeria, near Benin City in the south-west of the country, before he was brought to Britain. Metropolitan police travelled to Nigeria and launched a campaign to track Adam’s parents. Despite visiting primary schools and looking at reported missing children in the region, there was no success.

In 2011, it was discovered that the torso belonged to Ikpomwosa (6) after a TV-Crew managed to track down a woman who used to care for him in Germany because his parents were deported back to Nigeria. In 2012, Joyce Osiagede revealed that the boy’s real name was Patrick Erhabor and not Ikpomwosa. Read more here!

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Filed Under: Cold Case News, Forensics Tagged With: Adam, Autopsy, Child Abuse, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Police, UK, Unsolved Homicide, Victim

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Dina Fort

Author Notes

Since 2009, I write about unsolved cases that need renewed media attention. I only do research and leave active investigations to the authorities.

My posts cover homicides, missing and unidentified people, wrongful convictions, and forensics as related to unsolved cases.

On book reviews: I only review select works of true crime, crime fiction, and historical fiction/mysteries. The stories have to fit my website's theme, tone, and research. It is my prerogative to not review a book. Please check the FAQ page for more.

My databases are free to the public. Cases are sorted by the victim’s last name.

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Thank you,

Alice de Sturler

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