PA THE BOY IN THE BOX: WM, 4-6, found in Philadelphia, PA - 25 February 1957 *JOSEPH ZARELLI*

America's Unknown Child

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.
www.namus.gov

jKmmZsq.jpg



www.crimewatchers.net

America's unknown child, the Boy in the Box, was found in Philadelphia, #PENNSYLVANIA in February of 1957 & identified in 2022 to be Joseph A Zarelli!

An unidentified Caucasian male, probable age 4 to 6 years, whose nude body, wrapped in a cheap flannel blanket, was found lying face up inside a large cardboard carton.
www.crimewatchers.net www.crimewatchers.net
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Click to expand...
Mel70 said:
I'm still just in shock. It's amazing. Like "Little Miss Nobody", Being identified when there seems such little hope of identification.i really want to know the whole story. The siblings may be able to fill in some information about his/their life. I think there's little doubt that the parents were responsible. There is also little doubt by just looking at his picture he was beaten to death. He was malnourished, Pattern of continuous abuse. I bet it was the same as so many other cases that they didn't mean to kill him. But the physical assault went too far. That someone can keep doing that is unbelievable. He was too young for school still until the fall. I bet the siblings can remember plenty of things about what happened in that household.
Click to expand...
I remember discussing this case with you and that it was one that bothered you. What great news.

The child was never reported missing and to me, that is about enough to land hard on the parents right there.

While it could be one parent or the other, what is said is this child suffered horrors in his life no one ever should have to suffer so it is pretty difficult to believe even if one parent was more the abuser, both were well aware of it over his four short years of life.

I can understand giving the surviving siblings a bit of a short period to come to terms with this but the parents are the parents and if a current case, and they never reported a child missing, their names would be out. Therefore, I would hope they are only talking a short term holding back of the parents' names. If they want more info on Joseph (so NICE to have a name for him), then naming the parents would contribute to that and anyone who remembers them or knew them.
 
Today is the day! The truth will be told.

Good to see you @Akoya! When I heard his name was being revealed, I thought of you immediately! Hope you are doing well today.

@Kimster

Thank you. For two years, I have been in a nightmare. I fell on the stairs and had surgery for a badly broken arm. I had a problem with the anesthesia. I have been intibated. I have been in two hospitals. I have been in hospice. I am finally home. I am still in contact with one of the authors and I continue to feed information to Vidocq. This story is not over, yet.
 
www.inquirer.com

How an at-home DNA kit helped identify the ‘Boy in the Box’

A Christmas break up and a DNA kit helped identify one of Philadelphia's most notorious unidentified victims.
www.inquirer.com www.inquirer.com

It was nearly Christmas in 2017. Justin Thomas was doing some holiday shopping on Amazon when he saw a deal of the day for Ancestry.com and decided to buy a DNA Activation kit for his girlfriend as a gift. But soon after the kit came in the mail, they broke up and Thomas figured, why not try it himself?

After taking the test, Thomas said he learned a little bit about his family’s lineage – many of his distant relatives hailed from Italy. He didn’t think much more about it, he said.

Then, last year while he was at work, Thomas said he got a “random phone call” from a woman who identified herself as Misty Gillis, a forensic genealogist and cold case liaison with Identifinders International. She said he was a match to a “cold case in Philadelphia” but she needed more DNA to crack the case. Thomas called his mom who agreed to provide a sample.

Then yesterday when news broke, “I saw ‘Zarelli’ and my mouth kind of hit the floor,” Thomas said, recognizing a close family name.

Thomas said his family believes that the boy is likely a first cousin to his mom.

(more at newspaper site)
 
I didn't know the neighborhood. My mother drove for quite a while, but we were still in Philadelphia. I'm pretty sure. The houses were close together, and close to the street. Close enough so I could hear after my mother parked the car in front of this one house. My mother went up and rang the bell. The door opened, and I saw a woman standing there. She was holding a baby in diapers. She and my mother talked, just for a second. Then there was a man's voice, from inside. "Did you get the money?" the man said. I thought he was talking to the woman standing in the doorway. But right then my mother took an envelope from her purse and handed it to the woman. Oh, I thought. The man was talking to my mother.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 1914-1919). Kindle Edition.


1670631102056-jpeg.18433
 
Mel70 said:
He just turned 4 the month before. I never thought in a million years they would identify him. I found his case so incredibly sad and haunting. Rest in peace Joseph. :cry:💖
Click to expand...
I always had hope but with so many Years gone by I started to.lose a little hope. Family genealogy is instrumental in all these cold cases now. And I'm so grateful for the collaboration between these companies and law enforcement
 
Akoya said:
I didn't know the neighborhood. My mother drove for quite a while, but we were still in Philadelphia. I'm pretty sure. The houses were close together, and close to the street. Close enough so I could hear after my mother parked the car in front of this one house. My mother went up and rang the bell. The door opened, and I saw a woman standing there. She was holding a baby in diapers. She and my mother talked, just for a second. Then there was a man's voice, from inside. "Did you get the money?" the man said. I thought he was talking to the woman standing in the doorway. But right then my mother took an envelope from her purse and handed it to the woman. Oh, I thought. The man was talking to my mother.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 1914-1919). Kindle Edition.


1670631102056-jpeg.18433
Click to expand...
That passage from that has always gotten to me and now with the info we have, i have absolutely no reason to not believe her and did even before we had the info we have now.
 
GrandmaBear said:
Through a court order, detectives were then able to obtain from the state the birth, death and adoption records of all the children born to the mother between 1944 and 1956. The order yielded “responsive results:” the birth certificates of two children born to the mother and who were previously known to investigators, one of whom had provided a DNA sample, Smith said.

This is curious. Since they say "all" children born to the mother, does this mean some of her children were adopted out?

I also wonder what they mean of death records of the children. Maybe it just means all these years later some of her children have died.
Click to expand...
Then from the Google map of the street is not the people I strongly suspected. But like all of us want to know more. Who these evil people were. How someone could and who could do that to him. It reminds me of the case of "Dennis Jurgens". Except the LE and ME didn't state it was suspicious and the adoptive mother did it. A 1960's case that was reopened in the 80's. And he was bruised everywhere and died of a perforated bowel.
 
I don't really know who is left in the peodphile group to arrest. M's mother, the librarian, and M's father have been dead for years. M did tell the police that a group was involved with the abuse of Joseph. Both of Joseph's bological parents are dead so they can't be arrested for selling him. M knows who the pedophiles were. She informed the police years ago.

Joseph was found in a JC Penney bassinete box. For many years, there was a JC Penney store on 69th Street, not far from where Joseph lived.
 
I remember they dismissed M's allegations. Saying they were too outlandish. There was a foster home in the area that nought the same bassinets. The daughter of the couple that ran it became pregnant 2 or 3 times. She was mentally challenged. It was highly suspected the father was the father of these babies. The mother died and the daughter and father got married. The house was gray stone and reminiscent of a castle. I thought they were the perpetrators of this. I also thought M's accounts were too out there. Physical abuse to this magnitude and neglect is bad enough but assaulted by multiple people. It's so sick. Poor boy. So much suffering in 4 short years.
 
Mel70 said:
I remember they dismissed M's allegations. Saying they were too outlandish. There was a foster home in the area that nought the same bassinets. The daughter of the couple that ran it became pregnant 2 or 3 times. She was mentally challenged. It was highly suspected the father was the father of these babies. The mother died and the daughter and father got married. The house was gray stone and reminiscent of a castle. I thought they were the perpetrators of this. I also thought M's accounts were too out there. Physical abuse to this magnitude and neglect is bad enough but assaulted by multiple people. It's so sick. Poor boy. So much suffering in 4 short years.
Click to expand...
Courts do not lightly order DNA testing of someone, especially cially if that person has not been accused of a crime. But in 2007, a judge agrees that there are sufficient grounds to obtain a DNA sample of Anna Marie Nagle Nicoletti. One day in autumn, three detectives (two from Philadelphia and one from Bucks County) visit the nursing home where she may spend the rest of her life. Anna Marie looks old. She seems only dimly aware of her visitors' presence. In truth the detectives have no wish to disturb whatever peace the woman has found, now that her mind is adrift. With the help of a nurse, and a minimum of fuss, swabs of the old woman's saliva are taken. They will be sent to a laboratory to see if there is a link to the unknown boy found a half-century ago after being killed and abandoned by people who have lived a long time with the burden of what they did. That is assuming, of course, that they

The taking of Anna Marie's DNA has been kept secret. If the lab tests show that she was the mother of the Boy in the Box-well, that would be one of the biggest stories of the decade. There would be no keeping that a secret, not that the investigators would want to. And if the tests are negative, if the Boy in the Box remains unidentified, the men of faith among the investigators can tell themselves that their child, nameless or not, has company pany wherever children dwell after this life.
One day in October 2007, Bill Kelly gets a call from a Philadelphia delphia homicide detective. "Bill, I don't know how to tell you this ..." Easy enough, Kelly thinks. Just tell me. "The DNA test results are in," the detective says. "Anna Marie was not the mother of the unknown boy."

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 2334-2336). Kindle Edition.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 2264-2267). Kindle Edition.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 2258-2263). Kindle Edition.
 
Akoya said:
Courts do not lightly order DNA testing of someone, especially cially if that person has not been accused of a crime. But in 2007, a judge agrees that there are sufficient grounds to obtain a DNA sample of Anna Marie Nagle Nicoletti. One day in autumn, three detectives (two from Philadelphia and one from Bucks County) visit the nursing home where she may spend the rest of her life. Anna Marie looks old. She seems only dimly aware of her visitors' presence. In truth the detectives have no wish to disturb whatever peace the woman has found, now that her mind is adrift. With the help of a nurse, and a minimum of fuss, swabs of the old woman's saliva are taken. They will be sent to a laboratory to see if there is a link to the unknown boy found a half-century ago after being killed and abandoned by people who have lived a long time with the burden of what they did. That is assuming, of course, that they

The taking of Anna Marie's DNA has been kept secret. If the lab tests show that she was the mother of the Boy in the Box-well, that would be one of the biggest stories of the decade. There would be no keeping that a secret, not that the investigators would want to. And if the tests are negative, if the Boy in the Box remains unidentified, the men of faith among the investigators can tell themselves that their child, nameless or not, has company pany wherever children dwell after this life.
One day in October 2007, Bill Kelly gets a call from a Philadelphia delphia homicide detective. "Bill, I don't know how to tell you this ..." Easy enough, Kelly thinks. Just tell me. "The DNA test results are in," the detective says. "Anna Marie was not the mother of the unknown boy."

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 2334-2336). Kindle Edition.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 2264-2267). Kindle Edition.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 2258-2263). Kindle Edition.
Click to expand...
Yes. That is who I suspected. I googled her name and it showed the house I was describing and she was the stepdaughter and married her stepfather after her mother died and ran a foster home about a mile and a half from where they found him. I had never seen that they took a sample to test DNA and she was ruled out.
 
Here's his mother's "Find a Grave". Not what I expected at all. Nothing about her eyes. And we don't even know exactly what she did. But every part was horrific. And she did do something.
www.findagrave.com

Cynthia C. Pashko Zarelli (1931-2018) - Find a...

There is absolutely no evidence that Cynthia is the mother of Joseph Augustus Zarelli (1953-1957) at this time. When definitive evidence surfaces, then a revisit to the issue will occur. Efforts have been made to remove the erroneous link. Cynthia C. Zarelli (nee Pashko), on April 1, 2018...
www.findagrave.com www.findagrave.com
 
I love on her "Find a Grave" it states there is absolutely no evidence that she is the mother of a "Joseph Augustus Zarelli". Really?. When did they put that note in there naming him and year of birth and death. Well. There's evidence now!
 
Mel70 said:
I remember they dismissed M's allegations. Saying they were too outlandish. There was a foster home in the area that nought the same bassinets. The daughter of the couple that ran it became pregnant 2 or 3 times. She was mentally challenged. It was highly suspected the father was the father of these babies. The mother died and the daughter and father got married. The house was gray stone and reminiscent of a castle. I thought they were the perpetrators of this. I also thought M's accounts were too out there. Physical abuse to this magnitude and neglect is bad enough but assaulted by multiple people. It's so sick. Poor boy. So much suffering in 4 short years.
Click to expand...

One Philadelphia detective refused to believe M because he said that she was not stable. He campaigned about her being inaccurate. Actually, she was very accurate. M was seeing a psychiatrist. She had experienced Joseph's life and death in their home. She was sexually abused by her parents and their friends. She was engaged to be married, but her fiance was MIA in Vietnam. She had a lot on her plate, but that didn't mean her information was bad.
 
Akoya said:
One Philadelphia detective refused to believe M because he said that she was not stable. He campaigned about her being inaccurate. Actually, she was very accurate. M was seeing a psychiatrist. She had experienced Joseph's life and death in their home. She was sexually abused by her parents and their friends. She was engaged to be married, but her fiance was MIA in Vietnam. She had a lot on her plate, but that didn't mean her information was bad.
Click to expand...
I didn't say it was at all. No. It just seemed very outlandish IMO compared to the people I was sure who did it, And they didn't. She was telling the truth. Which makes his death even more tragic of what he had to endure.
 
Akoya said:
One Philadelphia detective refused to believe M because he said that she was not stable. He campaigned about her being inaccurate. Actually, she was very accurate. M was seeing a psychiatrist. She had experienced Joseph's life and death in their home. She was sexually abused by her parents and their friends. She was engaged to be married, but her fiance was MIA in Vietnam. She had a lot on her plate, but that didn't mean her information was bad.
Click to expand...
I do remember they considered her "Unstable". I guessed she was going to be another victim too. They had to have preyed on her. So sick. I'm sure she is very deeply effected. But who declared her "Unstable"? A mental health specialist?. Because anyone else doesn't qualify to properly judge that, They shouldn't. Leave it up to the specialists. And because of the interpretation. She was lucid enough to remember things and they were not planted memories. She was telling the truth. So anyone shouldn't have dismissed what she was saying. And the LE. Geez.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
3,030
Messages
243,691
Members
981
Latest member
Alicerar
Back
Top Bottom