By Matt Bean
Court TV

There are more than 4,900 John and Jane Does registered in the United States today, many of them children. While adults can often be tracked down through dental records, employment histories or even criminal histories, children have less of a chance to make an impression on the world. As a result, they often leave the thinnest trail when they are gone. Here are just a few of the so-called "Child Doe" cases that remain unsolved.

The Boy in the Box

A police sketch of the Boy in the Box

The Boy in the Box has come to symbolize the plight of Child Does. Surrounded by trash in an abandoned lot, the small child of 4 or 5 years of age was found stuffed in a J.C. Penney's box. The box had been dumped in a field in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia. In 2001, Philadelphia homicide detectives reopened the case and exhumed the boy to take a DNA sample from his remains. According to media reports, a woman close to the killer came forward with a grisly tale of the boy's last days, although her story has not yet been confirmed.

Precious Doe

An artist's model of Precious Doe

Precious Doe was found outside of Kansas City, Mo., on April 29, 2001. No older than 5, the girl was beheaded and left in a wooded area near the local zoo. Her head was found separately, still with cornrows in the hair. The FBI checked the girl's DNA against 27 other black girls that went missing in recent years, to no avail. Few other clues were available to police, but facial reconstruction has helped them generate a bevy of leads.

The Girl in the Cooler

Later renamed "Baby Hope," the girl of 4 or 5 years, first called the Girl in the Cooler, was found on the side of a Manhattan highway on July 23, 1991. She was bound and wedged into a blue cooler. According to police, she had been beaten, starved, sexually abused and suffocated before her death. Manhattan homicide detectives in the 34th precinct spent thousands of hours digging up clues, and donated money to have Baby Hope buried.

Little Jane Doe

A pair of rock hunters discovered the skeletal remains of "Little Jane Doe" in Tempe, Ariz., in 1979. The girl was buried in the riverbed beneath the Tempe bridge in a pit lined with remnants of old newspapers. Some of the newspapers bore a dateline from The Arizona Republic, one from June 6, 1966, and another from Oct. 2, 1966. The child, who is thought to have died around 1966, could have been buried in the shallow, makeshift grave one to 13 years from her death, according to the local coroner.

An artist's rendering of Princess Doe

Princess Doe

"Princess Doe" was discovered in a wooded area of Blairstown Cemetery on Route 94 in Blairstown, N.J. She was partially unclothed and had been beaten severely before her death. Thought to be a runaway, the girl of 14 to 20 years may have worked as a hotel housekeeper in Ocean City, Md., from 1979 to 1982. A girl matching the description of Princess Doe worked at the hotel during those years and used a number of aliases while employed there.