Sketch shows boy found dead on Texas beach as police try to determine his identity

The Galveston Police Department released a sketch of a young boy whose body was found on a Galveston beach on Friday. (Galveston Police Department)

Authorities in Texas released a sketch Sunday afternoon of a young child whose body turned up on a beach in Galveston late last week, as they urged anybody who might recognize his face to step forward.

The boy, estimated to be somewhere between 3 and 5 years old, was found early Friday evening by a passerby, according to the Galveston Police Department. Officers said there have been no children reported missing in Galveston.

The department described the child as a “white male child … approximately 3’ tall with a slender build, black hair, and brown eyes.”

Investigators said they’re still waiting for autopsy results, but are treating the boy’s death as a homicide “until we can unequivocally prove otherwise.”

“This is an extremely unusual case for Galveston Island, and the circumstances surrounding this death grow more and more suspicious as time goes on,” the department wrote on Facebook Sunday.

It remains unclear how the child’s body ended up on the beach.

"The Galveston Police Department is currently scouring missing person records in an attempt to locate a report with a matching description. We are also working with surrounding agencies including the US Coast Guard to ascertain whether they have received any reports of missing persons that would match this description," the department said in a press release Friday.

The Galveston Police Department requests that anyone with information call 409-765-3776.

An image of unidentified "Baby Doe" went viral in 2015. (Suffolk County District Attorney via AP, File)

Back in 2015, a computer-generated image of a girl known only as “Baby Doe” went viral on social media after her remains turned up in a plastic bag in Boston Harbor. Investigators ultimately identified her as Bella Bond. Her mother was sentenced earlier this year to time served plus probation for her role in disposing the body, while the woman's ex-boyfriend got a life sentence for murder.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.