Boy in the box

Since being discovered in 1957, the "Boy In The Box" case baffled Philadelphia police. But thanks to genetic testing, the four-year-old victim has been revealed to be Joseph Augustus Zarelli. In the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Cedarbrook, Philadelphia, there is a headstone that reads “America’s Unknown Child.” It’s a permanent reminder of the child who lies beneath it, a boy who was found beaten to death in a box some 65 years ago. Since then, he’s been called the “Boy in the Box.” One of Philadelphia’s most famous Wikimedia Commons The boy in the box, depicted on a flyer sent out to residents of surrounding towns. But thanks to genetic genealogy and some old-fashioned detective work, the Boy in the Box finally has a name. In 2022, he was finally identified as four-year-old Joseph Augustus Zarelli. The Discovery Of The Boy In The Box On February 23, 1957, a student at La Salle College noticed the Boy in the Box for the first time. The student was in the area hoping to catch a glimpse of the girls enrolled at Sisters of Good Shepard, a home for wayward youths. Instead, he noticed a box in the underbrush. Though he saw the boy’s head, the student mistook it for a doll and went on his way. When he heard about a missing girl from New Jersey, he returned to the scene on Feb. 25, found the body, and called the police. As the Associated Press reports, police responding to the scene found the body of a boy, between the ages of four and six years old, in a JCPenney box that had once conta...

Ray Liotta's cause of death confirmed a year after he died, more news Betsy — that’s what everyone called her — liked skating, and dancing, and swooned over Italian boys, wearing out the needle on Frank Sinatra records at her home in the Tioga neighborhood of post-World War II Philadelphia. © Monica Herndon/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS A photograph of Joseph Augustus Zarelli on display during Mass at Saint Cecilia Church in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia, on Wednesday, December 28, 2022. Saint Cecilia Parish and Saint Timothy Parish, both located in Northeast Philadelphia, offered Masses on the Feast of the Holy Innocents for the happy repose of the soul of Joseph Augustus Zarelli. “She was a real beauty,” a close family member recalled this week. Load Error Gus was a concrete-and-stone mason, a hard worker in a proud family of Italian immigrants in West Philly. Augustus J. “Gus” Zarelli and Mary Elizabeth “Betsy” Abel conceived a child in the spring of 1952, and the boy’s short, painful life, became one of Philadelphia’s greatest unsolved mysteries. The Inquirer, based on interviews with members of both families and sources close to the investigation, now knows that police believe that Zarelli and Abel are the parents of Joseph Augustus Zarelli, a child known for 65 years only as “The Boy in the Box.” Betsy would have been 21 when Joseph was born Jan. 13, 1953. The close relative, who asked not to be identified, said she could have put him up for adoption because ...

The Inquirer said that Gus Zarelli’s four children responded to interview requests through their attorney, Dan Bush, of West Chester. Bush told the paper that Zarelli and his family have been “attacked in every possible social media outlet, suggesting the most awful of things, all of which are baseless.” Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved ( The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. YouTube’s privacy policy is available Ad Choices

Joseph Augustus Zarelli Born ( 1953-01-13)January 13, 1953 Status Died February 1957 (aged 4) Causeof death Body discovered February25, 1957 ;66 years ago ( 1957-02-25) Resting place Monuments • Grave memorial engraved with "America's Unknown Child" • Sign memorial where the victim's body was found Othernames • Augustus John Zarelli • Mary Elizabeth Plunkett Joseph Augustus Zarelli (January 13, 1953 Boy in the Box", " Boy in a Box", or " America's Unknown Child", was an American 4-year-old boy whose naked, extensively Despite the publicity and sporadic interest throughout the years, the boy's identity remained unknown for over half a century. On November 30, 2022, the Discovery of the body [ ] The police received the report and opened an investigation on February 26, 1957. The dead boy's fingerprints were taken, and police at first were optimistic that he would soon be identified. However, no one ever came forward with any useful information. The case attracted considerable media attention in Philadelphia and the In 1998, his body was exhumed for the purpose of extracting Identification [ ] The child was an Investigators were finally able to identify him after a cousin uploaded DNA to a public database. Theories prior to identification [ ] The foster home [ ] This theory concerns a In 1960, Remington Bristow, an employee of the medical examiner's office who doggedly pursued the case until his death in 1993, contacted a New Jersey Upon attending an estate sale at the foster...

Philadelphia police identified the Police said during a Thursday morning press conference that they will not be identifying the boy's parents at this time out of respect for Zarelli's siblings, some of whom are still alive. At the time Zarelli's body was found, his age was estimated to be between 4 and 6, police said Thursday. The gravesite of an unidentified child, "Boy in the Box," at Ivy Hill Cemetery in 2022. The inset shows a reconstruction of what is believed he looked like. TheXuitts/Wikimedia Commons; CarlK90245/Wikimedia Commons Zarelli's body was first located on February 26, 1957, inside a box in a wooded area in northeastern Philadelphia, police said. "The boy appeared to be malnourished, and his body bore the signs of recent and past trauma," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. "In his very short life, it was apparent that this child experienced horrors that no one, no one, should ever be subjected to." Outlaw said authorities asked for help from the public to identify the boy but that "no one ever came forward to claim the child." The case has become one of the city's oldest unsolved homicides. "For 65 years, the story of who would come to be known as 'America's unknown child' has haunted this community, the Philadelphia Police Department, our nation and the world," she said. Several investigators have handled Zarelli's case over the years, and some passed away before they could see the child identified, Outlaw said. The case remains an "ac...

Patrolman Elmer Palmer was one of the first officers to arrive on the scene. The box was located on a dirt road, which was commonly used by local residents as a dumping ground. In addition to a variety of other trash, Palmer found the box the student called to report. Unfortunately, it did not contain a doll. Instead, the patrolman confirmed it was the body of a young boy. A medical examiner determined the boy was 3'3 and weighed 30 pounds. As he had not lost any of his baby teeth, it was estimated that he was between the ages of four and six. However, as he was severely malnourished, they were unable to determine his specific age at the time. Although he was nude, Philadelphia Magazine reports the boy's body was wrapped in a brown and green blanket, which had a The "Boy in the Box" did not match any descriptions of missing children in the area and no forms of identification were found with or near the body. Authorities hoped someone would eventually come forward to report the boy missing, but that never happened. In an effort to identify the child, Philadelphia Magazine reports authorities distributed an estimated 400,000 According to Although there were few clues at the scene, law enforcement officials hoped they had enough information to get some kind of lead. In an attempt to find the doctor who may have performed the surgical procedures on the boy, authorities contributed to an article in a popular pediatric journal. Unfortunately, Authorities also determined the manu...

"It’s going to be an uphill battle for us to definitively determine who caused this child's death," Smith told reporters. "If this technology had been available to us 20 years ago, it might be a completely different story — because once you identify who the child is, you start [interviewing] family members. Well, at this point of time, a lot of the family members who would have been old enough to have a memory of any incident that might have occurred are normally long gone." Hopes for 'avalanche of tips' The boy was born on Jan. 13, 1953. Police declined to reveal any details about the victim's family or even characterize the reaction of Joseph's loved ones when detectives told them about their findings. “Joseph has a number of siblings … who are living, and it is out of respect for them that their parents’ information remain confidential,” Smith said. “Do we know who is responsible for Joseph’s death? The answer, at this time, is unfortunately ‘no.’ We have our suspicions as to who may be responsible. But it would be irresponsible for me to share those suspicions as this remains an active and ongoing criminal investigation.” Detectives hope the news of the boy's identification will jar someone's decades-old memories and lead to an "avalanche of tips" from the public, Smith said. “We’re going to filter through each and every one of those tips, and in that avalanche there might be a diamond in the rough," Smith said. "I’m hopeful that there’s somebody who is in their mid-, ...