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

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

 

[Akoya]

By the end of the autopsy, Dr. Spellman should have known exactly what the little boy had surgery for. That information has never been released. The Philadelphia Police Dept. contacted hospitals throughout the United States, but not a single hospital had records of a surgery or the baby. There were no footprints from hospitals that matched prints from the autopsy. The little boy was also being treated for an eye infection when he died.

 

[Akoya]

http://www.missingkids.com/poster/NCMU/1231830/1

Date Found Feb 25, 1957
Location Found Philadelphia, PA
Estimated Age4-6
SexMale
RaceWhite
Hair ColorBrown
Eye Color Unknown
Estimated Height 3'3"
Estimated Weight 30 lbs
A young unidentified boy was found in Philadelphia, PA on February 25, 1957. He was found inside a cardboard box with a blanket around him located in a wooded area of Northeast Philadelphia’s Fox Chase neighborhood, near the intersection of Verree and Susquehanna Road near Pennypack Park. The child had only been deceased a few days. He was estimated to be 4-6 years old, stood about 3’3” tall and weighed around 30 pounds. He appeared to be malnourished. He had short brown hair that was crudely chopped and buzzed. He had several small scars over his body. He had a small well healed scar under his chin and two small scars on his groin and left ankle that might have been from a prior medical procedure. The image above is a facial reconstruction created by a NCMEC forensic artist and depicts what this child may have looked like in life.

 

[Akoya]

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.


As a girl, she wouldn't have known the various sections of Philadelphia by name. Houses very close to the street are typical in many of the old working class neighborhoods of the city. There are so many places where this house could have been located.

 

[Akoya]

The Philadelphia Police went to big efforts to locate possible medical records for the boy. They had a project comparing prints from hospital nurseries, but they found nothing. They checked immigration records to see if he came from another country. They even checked groups of adoptees who came to this country after WW II. I can only imagine that maybe he was delivered by a midwife and the surgical procedures were performed illegally, on the side. I even wondered if a botched surgical procedure had caused anoxia and severe cerebral palsy or neurological damage. I'm sure the Medical Examiner has more information about what he found, but it hasn't been released. The little guy had been circumcised, but there weren't any records of footprints or surgery for him.

 

[Akoya]

A lack of oxygen could have occurred during a midwife birth or a surgical procedure outside of a hospital. CP is at the top of my list. I also think about the size and shape of his head. It's larger than usual and this could also indicate a developmental disability. Maybe it was a combination of CP and a developmental problem.

 

[Akoya]

When the boy was found, he was wrapped in a blanket and stuffed into a box. The blanket was actually a section, cut from a larger blanket. The blanket has been lost. The nearby home for women had no connection to the blanket. Philadelphia Textile Institute is now Philadelphia University. The origin of the blanket has never been identified and now it is lost forever.

The blanket found with the boy appeared to have been washed recently. It had been cut in two, one section measuring ing seventy-six by thirty-three inches, the other fifty-one by thirty-one. A swatch was missing from the smaller section. Had the swatch been cut away because it bore the label of an orphanage or other child-care institution? There was no way to tell, but it seemed a possibility.

Bristow, whose mind was imaginative as well as methodical, suggested that the blanket be sent to the Philadelphia Textile Institute. There, tests found that the blanket had been mended with poor-quality cotton thread, probably on a home sewing machine. The institute narrowed the possible manufacturers to a mill in Swannanoa, North Carolina, and one in Granby, Quebec. Hundreds of thousands of such blankets had been turned out by the mills and shipped to dozens of wholesalers throughout the United States. Finding the buyer seemed impossible. So the detectives on the Fox Chase case suffered an early disappointment.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 340-342). Kindle Edition.

 

[Akoya]

Susquehanna Rd, Philadelphia - 2017

 

[Akoya]

This is how the boy was found. It's a crime scene photograph.

 

[Akoya]

The boy's remains were exhumed to secure DNA samples and the remains were buried again in Ivy Hill Cemetery. His remains are very much degraded, although a tooth was found and has been used to obtain mitochondrial DNA. Nuclear DNA could not be obtained from the deteriorated remains.



Those in the room who understand the young science of DNA testing see that these remains may present a special challenge. Judging from the state of the remains, there may be a decent chance of extracting mitochondrial DNA, but much less chance of finding nuclear DNA.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 1787-1788). Kindle Edition.


Put most simply, nuclear DNA is inherited from both parents; mitochondrial DNA is passed down only from mother to offspring. And, crucially for the Boy in the Box case, mitochondrial DNA is generally easier to extract from hair, bones, or even teeth if the overall remains are badly degraded.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 1789-1790). Kindle Edition.


After several failed attempts, mitochondrial DNA has been obtained from the boy's tooth. If a female ancestor can be found, maybe the boy can be given his name at long last. And how will she be found? Perhaps by a computer check, or a long-suppressed memory, or a confession. Or dumb luck. But, of course, if a female ancestor had been found, investigators wouldn't need DNA evidence. And it's been forty-one years. (60 years, now)

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Location 1809). Kindle Edition.


Alas, the uncle was on Mary's father's side of the family, so the unknown child's mitochondrial DNA would be useless in trying to establish a relationship-if the uncle could be tracked down, that is.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 2208-2209). Kindle Edition.


"No further progress has been made during the past year," the society says. "However, the investigators have begun a new initiative. They are trying to determine if the DNA profile of America's Unknown Child matches any of the DNA profiles in a national mitochondrial DNA database."

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 2249-2250). Kindle Edition.


"The DNA test results are in," the detective says. "Anna Marie was not the mother of the unknown boy." (Anna Marie Nagle)

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 2335-2336). Kindle Edition.

 

[Akoya]

"No further progress has been made during the past year," the society says. "However, the investigators have begun a new initiative. They are trying to determine if the DNA profile of America's Unknown Child matches any of the DNA profiles in a national mitochondrial DNA database."

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 2249-2250). Kindle Edition.

 

[Akoya]

There isn't any callous development on the boy's feet, so it appears that he didn't have the ability to walk. It doesn't look like the skin on his feet ever had the skin exposed to friction for callouses to form.

 

[Akoya]

The problem with deterioration of the child's remains seems to be the result of the time when he was originally buried in Potter's Field in NE Philadelphia. After Mitochondrial DNA was located in a tooth, the remains were reburied in the Ivy Hill Cemetery, in a a really nice location.

It is hardly a surprise that the coffin has not entirely withstood stood the forces of time and the elements, not after lying in Potter's Field rather than in a sturdy vault in a regular cemetery. etery. As the coffin rests on a worktable in the medical examiner's office, no one has to say that this is no place for the squeamish. As he watches the lid being pried off, Bill Kelly cannot help but think, Rem Bristow should be here. The child is not ashes, not dust. He is simply an assortment of bones. The suit he was buried in has gone to rags. It was the gift of a detective way back then, a suit the detective's own boy had outgrown.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 1781-1784). Kindle Edition.

 

[Akoya]

My concern is not that the boy didn't have a birth certificate or a record of his birth. I am more concerned that someone did surgery on him and there are no records of the procedures. He was a little boy who could have had developmental disabilities from utero. Cerebral Palsy, though, is caused by too little or too much oxygen at birth or with anesthesia. Some medical hack could have fried his little brain and caused even more problems. He was subjected to the worst of society from birth until his death.


Which they surely did, he found as he examined the little body in detail. The doctor soon noted three small scars, one each on the chest, groin, and left ankle. Dr.Spelman had seen many such marks: the ones on chest and groin looked like surgical incisions, while the one on the ankle was the type left by cuts to expose a vein for a transfusion or infusion.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Location 259). Kindle Edition.

 

[Akoya]

No, she acknowledges, she has no hard evidence. But she recalls that her uncle was especially attentive and affectionate toward the child whenever he visited the home of Mary's parents. Alas, the uncle was on Mary's father's side of the family, so the unknown child's mitochondrial DNA would be useless in trying to establish a relationship-if the uncle could be tracked down, that is.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 2207-2209). Kindle Edition.

 

[Akoya]

http://www.cerebralpalsy.org/about-cerebral-palsy/definition

Current research suggests the majority of Cerebral Palsy cases result from abnormal brain development or brain injury prior to birth or during labor and delivery. Accidents, abuse, medical malpractice, negligence, infections, and injury are some known risk factors that may lead to Cerebral Palsy.


http://www.birthinjuryguide.org/birth-injury/causes/anoxia-hypoxia/

Birth injuries are not something to take lightly. Sometimes a birth injury is so severe that a child can become permanently affected, either with cerebral palsy, with paralysis, or with a birth injury. Sometimes a birth injury is severe enough to shorten a child’s lifespan, and if the injury is too severe, a child may not live past a few days. So how do these birth injuries happen to children? One such birth injury is related to a condition called anoxia and hypoxia –something that could be one of the most dangerous and life affecting of the birth injuries.

Anoxia is known as the absence of oxygen.

 

[Akoya]

A view of Susquehanna Road looking east from a point approximately 35 yards west of the entrance to the Good Shepherd School.

 

[Akoya]

The Saturday Evening Post

The boy's original tombstone. The body was re-interred at Philadelphia's Ivy Hill Cemetery in 1998.

NBC10.com

Current headstone

 

[Akoya]

The boy in the box was buried twice. The first was on July 24, 1957, in Philadelphia. All of the people who attended were the investigators of the case.

 

[Akoya]

The circular bruises on the boy's forehead are from the tips of adult fingers.

 

[Akoya]

http://hiddencityphila.org/2014/07/remembering-the-citys-last-potters-field/

At the intersection of Dunks Ferry and Mechanicsville roads in the Far Northeast, not far from the Philadelphia County line, a weathered utility pole endures the sun. The shadow it casts makes a cross in the grass between a gravel parking lot and a lonely soccer field with overgrown weeds and a single goal. On the utility pole, someone has spray-painted, in big black letters, the word “POTTER’S.

Back then, in the 1960s, the potter’s field at Dunks Ferry and Mechanicsville contained a single headstone. The inscription read, “Heavenly Father, Bless This Unknown Boy, February 25, 1957.”

The unknown boy, like the other people buried in this city cemetery, was never claimed. He was found in a cardboard box in Fox Chase and despite an investigation that lasted decades, was never identified. In 1998, his body and headstone were moved to Ivy Hill Cemetery. Now, in the center of the field, right about where the stone stood, a pair of groundhogs peak out of a hole leading into a network of tunnels in a mound of lumpy earth.