To whom it may concern: You still have not claimed your son

Nobody enjoys being ignored, unless you are a corrupt politician, driving under the influence, having an affair or a tax cheat.

Children especially don't like to be ignored. They will sometimes cry, whine, carry on, or spin around on the carpeting just to get some attention.

News reporters don't like to be ignored either. We want readers and viewers to notice what we write and put on TV. When things change for the better because of something that we have reported, we enjoy it. That's why most of us go to work every day.

This morning, I am sad because the mother and father of a 3-year-old boy are ignoring their final obligation as parents ... to attend his funeral.

I am also angry because the boy's parents, other relatives, friends and neighbors are ignoring me.

Next Monday, it will have been two years since a little boy's remains were found in unincorporated Naperville, stuffed into a blue laundry bag like dirty clothes.

A few weeks later, as DuPage County Sheriff's Department investigators struggled to figure out who the boy was and how he ended up there, I wrote a column to the child's parents.

"Your little boy has been found," I told them.

"Some guy out walking his dog in a field near Warrenville spotted him.

He was still wearing those blue pants and shirt that he had on when you last saw him. Don't you remember?

It's odd that you hadn't reported him missing. Usually, when a 3-year-old is gone for just a minute or two, people go kind of crazy. You know, there are a lot of perverts out there.

What about the neighbors? Didn't they notice your boy was gone?

How in the world did he end up in such an out-of-the-way place anyway? Unincorporated DuPage County, west of 59 before the railroad tracks? I know there is an amusement park nearby. Had you taken him there? Maybe that's how you knew about the spot.

I just have so many questions about what happened.

Was there some horrible accident? Did you panic?

Certainly couldn't have been self-defense. We're talking about a 25-pound kid.

Did he cry a lot? Or spill his cereal? Sometimes those things can get to you. Was that it?"

I never heard a word from the parents. Neither did the cops.

What I wrote then, is still true now:

"No missing kid reports seem to match. No dark-haired, 38-inch-tall boys last seen wearing navy blue nylon pants and a collarless, three-button blue top in size 2T made by some company called Faded Glory.

And you know what? Three-year-olds don't live on their own.

So what are we to think?

If it wasn't you, then who was it? And why, then, didn't you report him missing?"

I ended the column back then by telling the boy's parents that the least he deserved was a decent burial. Two weeks from today, he will be buried at Assumption Cemetery on Winfield Road in Wheaton. The plot and the arrangements are being donated by the Diocese of Joliet and the DuPage County Funeral Directors Association.

It will be decent, but not right.

In death, the 3-year-old has probably received more attention than he ever did in life ... from sheriff's deputies and now from the Catholic Church and funeral directors.

But even as the day approaches when he will be returned to dust, the cute little dark-haired boy is still being ignored by his parents.

Ignored.

It's such a nasty word, especially when you're talking about a 3-year-old left to rot in a field.

Fittingly, it is also the root word of ignorance.

Of course, there are a few other "I" words that seem apropos to describe those responsible for the unidentified little boy.

Idiot and imbecile would be among them.

I'll leave the rest of the alphabet up to a higher authority.

Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached at chuckgoudie@gmail.com.