Known for The Unknown Child Name Eino Panula | Parents Maria Emilia Panula Date killed April 15, 1912 | |
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Born 10 March 1911 Yliharma, South Ostrobothnia, Finland Other names Eino Viljam Panula
Eino William Panula Relatives Juho, Ernesti, Jaakko, Emma, Lyydia, Juha, and Urho Panula (siblings) Died April 15, 1912, Atlantic Ocean Similar People Sidney Leslie Goodwin, Isidor Straus, Edward Smith, John Jacob Astor IV, Ida Straus | ||
Eino Viljami Panula (10 March 1911 – 15 April 1912) was a young Finnish boy who died during the sinking of the RMS Titanic. From 2002 to 2007, he was believed to be "The Unknown Child", the name given to the remains of a small boy recovered after the disaster.
RMS Titanic
Eino was traveling with his mother, Maria Emilia Panula (born Maija Emelia Ketola-Ojala), and four older brothers, Ernesti Arvid (born 18 May 1895), Jaakko Arnold (born 8 February 1897), Juha Niilo (born 1 September 1904), and Urho Abraham (born 25 April 1909). Three other children died before the voyage: Juho Eemeli (23 October 1892 — 23 December 1892), Emma Iida (24 February 1901 — 8 April 1910) and Lyydia (17 June 1903 — 23 December 1903).
The family was heading to Coal Center, Pennsylvania to join their father, Juha. All six members perished in the disaster.
The American PBS television series Secrets of the Dead played a key role in the initial 2002 identification of Panula's identity as the "Unknown Child" when they featured the story of the unknown Titanic victim on an episode and traced the child's DNA to a Finnish woman by the name of Magda Schleifer whose grandmother's sister was Maria Emilia Panula. Another relative of the Panula family, Hildur Panula-Heinonen has written several extensive articles related to the family.
On 1 August 2007 it was reported a test on the child's HVS1, a type of mitochondrial DNA molecule, did not match the Panula family. The original DNA testing was proved wrong and researchers from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario identified the boy as a 19-month-old English child, Sidney Leslie Goodwin, who was traveling on the Titanic with his family to start a new life in America.
Eino Panula's body was never recovered.