The "Little Miss" Mystery...!

One of the saddest things I can think of is the disappearance or death of someones' child.

Perhaps it's made even more heartbreaking when a child is killed and cannot be identified for some reason! Such is the case of today's mystery.

Little Miss 1565

The tragic Harford circus fire has made an appearance on Listverse before: On July 6, 1944, a performance of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus was interrupted by a blaze that killed over 160 people. Easily the most tragic death was that of “Little Miss 1565,” a blonde girl of only a few years whose identity remains unknown. Police investigated for decades, and the child’s picture was printed in newspapers across the country, but she remained unidentified. “1565” was merely the number provided to her corpse in the city’s morgue.

Over the years, several have claimed that her name may have been Eleanor Emily Cook. Eleanor Cook was killed at the scene, but her body was never identified. She was likely one of the two children burnt beyond recognition in the fire. Although Eleanor’s mother vehemently denied that the mystery child was her daughter, the body was eventually exhumed and buried next to Edward Cook (Eleanor’s brother, who was also killed in the blaze). It is likely Little Miss 1565’s true identity will never be known.

I can't imagine what suffering the family must have gone through over the years. I believe that the not knowing for sure must be the worse part. Hopefully, none of us will ever have to go through that!

I got this story from the folks over at Listverse.

Coffee in the patio, but if starts to rain again, we'll move to the kitchen.