When they found the little boy's battered body 27 days ago, tossed like litter into a cherry hedge in a Miami Beach garden, the horror of his death seemed boundless. But with each passing day, it is overshadowed by the horror of his anonymity.

And so the days fly by, and the cops track lead after lead into dead end after dead end, but nothing fits, and the child's body lies in the morgue because they can't even bury him until they find out his real name.

For now, the cops call him "Baby Lollipops."

All they know about him is that he was born two or three years ago, he was gradually starved and beaten down to 18 pounds, and then he died.

Wednesday, about 100 people, 30 of them police officers, gathered to pay tribute to the boy with two top teeth knocked out, the boy nobody will claim. The mayor, Alex Daoud, got choked up. Strangers bowed their heads and prayed for a youngster they've known only through a coroner's Polaroid.

"Today we are devoid of promise and of hope, " the Rev. Garth Thompson told the crowd at the 21st Street Community Center in Miami Beach. "How terrible that this little boy remains unknown. No name. No family. No home."

Ever since Nov. 2, when the boy's body was found by a Florida Power & Light crew off North Bay Road, publicity about the tragedy has stunned the community, even the nation. For a small group of people, each particularly involved, the case has taken a heavy toll.

Dr. Bruce Hyma, the associate medical examiner, who performed the autopsy:

"A child's death is always disturbing. I'm a father myself, and this death occurred on the day of my youngest son's birthday, so it certainly touched me in a sensitive spot.

"The fact that he's still unidentified tells us that this child certainly wasn't wanted and had no worth to whomever was taking care of him. I can't imagine a fellow human being could do something like that. Even animals don't treat their young this way.

"We have a number of unidentified male and female adults here, but it's rare that we have children unidentified because they are always wanted. They always have a caring adult who knows they're missing. I guess this little guy had nobody."

Paul Miller, local spokesman for the FBI, which is helping with crime-scene analysis:

"This is an abominable case. I mean, it's heart-wrenching what happened to this child. It's the most despicable case we've seen in many years, and the sooner we can catch the people who did it, the better we'll all feel. What happened to this child is a disgrace. We are all emotionally involved in this.

"In the FBI, we don't often see cases of child abuse, but the abuse this child suffered in his short lifetime was obvious."

Sgt. Joe Matthews, case supervisor for Miami Beach police:

"I think about it 24 hours a day. As an investigator, it's a very interesting and unique case. But I'm also the father of four, and while you try to separate your emotions from this work, the emotional part has been tough. There've been many occasions where we thought we were about to identify the child, only to be let down.

"How he got a nickname is a beautiful story. We were doing an area canvass, and I told this lady that if we ever want to bury this baby, we first have to give it a name. And a little girl about four standing next to her looked up and said, 'I can help.' I knelt down and asked her how, and she said, 'I could give the baby a name.' I said, 'What name would you give it?' and she said, 'I'd call him Baby Lollipops.'