The “boy in the box” — a child who was killed more than 60 years ago — finally has a name.
In February 1957, a college student found a child’s dead body inside a cardboard box, hidden in a wooded area in northeast Pennsylvania. The boy’s identity has remained unknown for over 60 years. It was the Philadelphia Police Department’s oldest unsolved homicide, per ABC News.
The boy has now been identified as Joseph Augustus Zarelli, born Jan. 13, 1953. He was 4 years old when he died, Philadelphia Police officials said at a news conference on Thursday, reports The New York Times.
“For sixty-five years, the story of America’s Unknown Child has haunted this community, the Philadelphia Police Department, our nation, and the world,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at a news conference on Thursday, per CNN.
Police uncovered the child’s identity using DNA and genetic genealogy techniques, which have transformed cold case work during recent years.
The DNA-led investigation began in 2019, when a court granted police investigators approval to exhume the child’s remains to perform modern DNA analysis. Genetic analysis allowed officials to hunt down the boy’s parents, who are deceased, as well as living siblings, whose names remain private, reports The New York Times.
Although police officials discovered the boy’s identity, the case is not closed. Police Capt. Jason Smith said officers still do not know who killed the boy or how he died.
“We have our suspicions as to who may be responsible, but it would be irresponsible of me to share these suspicions as this remains an active and ongoing criminal investigation,” Smith said, per The New York Times.
History of the ‘boy in the box’
When Zarelli’s body was discovered in 1957, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, he was naked and wrapped up in a flannel blanket. His hair looked like it had been recently cut “unprofessionally” and his fingernails were freshly trimmed. The boy was in a cardboard box labeled, “Furniture, Fragile, Do not Open with Knife,” and he appeared to be emaciated.
Outlaw told reporters on Thursday that based on the state of his body, it was clear he had “experienced horrors that no one, no one should ever be subjected to,” per CNN.
He had been “severely beaten” Smith said, per CNN. His body was covered in bruises and based on an autopsy the child had “sustained multiple abrasions, contusions, a subdural hemorrhage and pleural effusions,” Smith said.
Investigators followed several different leads during the decades after the boy’s body was found, but none of them led to any real conclusions.
Officials weren’t even sure when he died, because the cold winter weather slows the rate at which bodies decompose, reports The New York Times.
Police checked orphanages and hospitals, placed photos of the boy in local newspapers and hung his photo on posters in storefronts — to no avail.
Eventually, the child’s body was buried with a gravestone that read “Heavenly Father Bless This Unknown Boy,” per The New York Times.
“I want to thank all who have worked tirelessly since 1957 to give Joseph Augustus Zarelli his voice back,” Outlaw said, per ABC News. “We will NEVER stop seeking justice for victims.”