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

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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
 
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http://www.zmescience.com/other/science-abc/about-mitochondrial-dna-42423/

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Mitochondrial DNA is a special type of DNA and many people are not even aware this type of DNA actually exists. The human cell has two type of DNA: Nuclear DNA and Mitochondrial DNA. We even have 2 separate genomes – the nuclear DNA genome(which is linear in shape) and the Mitochondrial DNA genome (which is circular). Mitochondrial DNA is pretty basic in that it only contains 37 genes. Compared to nuclear DNA, which contains some 20,000 encoding genes, we can see that MtDNA has limited but important protein-coding functions. 13 of the 37 genes carried on MtDNA are involved in enzyme production.

What is also peculiar to MtDNA is the fact that this DNA is maternally inherited – males and females inherit a copy of MtDNA from their mother. Nuclear DNA, on the other hand, is inherited equally from both parents; a child will inherit 50% of their nuclear DNA from the mother and the other 50% from their father.

A MtDNA copy is passed down entirely unchanged, through the maternal line. Males cannot pass their MtDNA to their offspring although they inherit a copy of it from their mother.

This mode of inheritance is called Matrilineal or Mitochondrial Inheritance. There are a mitochondrial DNA testing services available which can help determine maternal lineage or whether the people tested share the same maternal line. Lineage DNA testing using MtDNA is ideal for testing ancient biogenetic origins and tracing one’s unique lineage. For instance, scientists have used MtDNA to compare the DNA of living humans of diverse origins to build evolutionary trees. MtDNA analyses suggest humans originated in Africa, appeared in one founding population some 170,000 years ago, then migrated to other parts of the world.
 
https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/13111

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Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP13111 Male, White / Caucasian

Date Found February 25, 1957
Location Found Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Estimated Age Range 3-6 Years

Case Information

Case Numbers
NCMEC Number 1231830
ME/C Case Number 57-0863

Demographics
Sex Male
Race / EthnicityWhite / Caucasian
Estimated Age Group PreAdolescent
Estimated Age Range 3-6 Years
Estimated Year of Death 1957
Estimated PMI--
Height 3' 4"(40 inches) , Estimated
Weight 30 lbs, Estimated

Circumstances
Type Unidentified Deceased
Date Found February 25, 1957
NamUs Case Created November 18, 2014
Agency QA Reviewed--

Location Found Map
Street Address Susquehanna Road at Verree RdPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania 19111
CountyPhiladelphia County
GPS Coordinates--
Circumstances of Recovery A traveler along the Susquehanna Road in Philadelphia noticed a carton that contained the nude body of a small child. He was naked and wrapped in a faded flannel blanked with a geometric multi-colored pattern. His fingernails had been carefully trimmed. Hair appeared to have been recently but unprofessionally cut. The box was marked with “Furniture, Fragile, Do not Open with Knife.” It originally contained a bassinet

Details of Recovery

Inventory of Remains All parts recovered
Condition of Remains Recognizable face

Physical Description
Hair Color Sandy
Head Hair Description His hair had been recently cut in a way that suggested it was not the work of a skilled barber.
Left Eye Color Blue
Right Eye Color Blue
Distinctive Physical Features
Scar/mark
7 linear scars. Three appeared to be well-healed surgical scars: One on the chest, one on the groin and one on the left ankle. Additional scars: one scar on left side of the chest, one irregular round scar on the left elbow, and one scar on the chin.

Other distinctive physical characteristics
He had been circumcised. There were three small moles on the left side of the face, one tiny mole below the right ear, three small moles on the right side of the chest, and a large mole on the right arm, two inches above the wrist.

Investigating Agencies
CASE OWNER
Philadelphia Cnty Med Exmnrs Ofc
215-685-7458
Seth Ditzio, Medical Examiner
--
Case Contributors
Seth Ditizio, Medicolegal Death Investigator
Philadelphia Cnty Med Exmnrs Ofc
215-685-7458

Jamie Willer, Medicolegal Death Investigator
 
“The woman, the witness said, was between 40 and 50, of medium height and heavyset, wearing a checked winter cloth coat. Her boy companion appeared to be between 12 and 14, and was of about the same height as the woman.”

Hoffmann, Jim. The Boy in the Box: America's Unknown Child (3rd Edition): My Obsession with America's Greatest Crime (p. 38). Susquehanna Road Publishing. Kindle Edition.

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This photograph of the librarian is in the possession of Bill Fleisher and the Vidocq Society.
 
Weeks later Augustine is accused of using cocaine. He insists that the random departmental test came back wrong. But never mind, he says. He doesn't want to spend time and money fighting it. Because of his exemplary record, he is allowed to retire.

David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Locations 2255-2256). Kindle Edition.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Fri, Dec 22, 2006 – Page B06
 
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David Stout. The Boy in the Box: The Unsolved Case of America's Unknown Child (Kindle Location 2209). Kindle Edition.


Hypothetical bust of what the unknown boy's father may have looked like, by forensic sculptor Frank Bender, V.S.M.

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Science teacher as identified by "M", to the Philadelphia Police Department.

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He said he was driving along Verree rd. when he spotted the car 100 feet west on Susquehanna rd. - the street on which the boy's body was found at 10: 20 A.M. Tuesday, two mornings later.”
The news story continued... “Thinking the occupants were having tire trouble, he slowed down, but the woman - who he said was ‘groping’ in the car's trunk - and the boy turned their backs on him and stood in positions to hide the license number. He drove on after noting that none of the black-walled tires was deflated.”


“The woman, the witness said, was between 40 and 50, of medium height and heavyset, wearing a checked winter cloth coat. Her boy companion appeared to be between 12 and 14, and was of about the same height as the woman.” (Philadelphia Inquirer 1957) I asked the unidentified motorist if he could add anything to the description. He replied succinctly that the woman’s checked coat had squares that were approximately three by three inches, and that “the collar had a European flair to it. It was conservative looking.” I asked him to explain his meaning of the flair and he replied, “the collar did not have a Philadelphian flair to it.” The unidentified motorist qualified his opinion by telling me that he had once worked in a German deli and knew the difference.

Hoffmann, Jim. The Boy in the Box: America's Unknown Child (3rd Edition): My Obsession with America's Greatest Crime (p. 37-38). Susquehanna Road Publishing. Kindle Edition.

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The librarian who was identified by "M" to the Philadelphia Police Department.
 
Her father was a science teacher, her mother a librarian for the Lower Merion School District.

Hoffmann, Jim. The Boy in the Box: America's Unknown Child (3rd Edition): My Obsession with America's Greatest Crime (p. 63). Susquehanna Road Publishing. Kindle Edition.

The woman handed over the child. As of late, those investigators who tend to believe “M”’ s story, believe that "money
exchanged hands, but it could have been reimbursement of expenses, it could have been a stipend of some sort.

Hoffmann, Jim. The Boy in the Box: America's Unknown Child (3rd Edition): My Obsession with America's Greatest Crime (p. 63). Susquehanna Road Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Perhaps most shocking was “M”’ s assertion that her mother severely abused her and the boy physically, as well as sexually. “M” claims the boy was purchased essentially to participate in lewd acts with her mother, a public school librarian, and her mother’s “evil circle of friends.”

Hoffmann, Jim. The Boy in the Box: America's Unknown Child (3rd Edition): My Obsession with America's Greatest Crime (p. 63). Susquehanna Road Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Enraged, the mother grabbed the boy and threw him onto the floor, beating him over and over, then slamming his head, over and over, onto the bathroom floor.

Hoffmann, Jim. The Boy in the Box: America's Unknown Child (3rd Edition): My Obsession with America's Greatest Crime (p. 64). Susquehanna Road Publishing. Kindle Edition.

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The librarian and her mother as reported by "M" to the Philadelphia Police Department.
 
http://americasunknownchild.net/summary.htm


Evidence Obtained From The Victim's Body (1998):

DNA technology did not exist in 1957. Forty-one years later, after the long-dormant case was reactivated, the boy's remains were exhumed for the purpose of obtaining tissue samples for DNA analysis. Investigators hoped to compare the boy's nuclear DNA profile against the DNA profiles of current and future suspects & claimants. Unfortunately, by that time, the remains were far too degraded to permit extraction of viable nuclear DNA. However, after several failed attempts, tissue samples were sent to an independent DNA laboratory, which successfully extracted mitochondrial DNA from the boy's teeth. Although a mitochondrial DNA profile is a less useful forensic tool than a nuclear DNA profile in certain respects, it can never-the-less be used to confirm or rule out a genetic relationship through maternal lineage. The victim's mitochondrial DNA profile has already been used to rule out the possibility that he was Steven Damman, a missing New York boy who was kidnapped in 1955.
 
http://americasunknownchild.net/Archives11.html#PPDNA

Police plan DNA test in probe of 41-year-old slaying
Philadelphia Inquirer (11/04/98)

The young victim -- who had come to be known as
"The Boy in the Box'' -- was exhumed yesterday.
By Thomas J. Gibbons Jr.
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A murder mystery that riveted the city 41 years ago and has perplexed city detectives ever since is about to be reexamined with the help of modern technology.
After securing a court order, homicide detectives yesterday exhumed the body of a never-identified youngster who has come to be known as "the Boy in the Box."
The investigators had gone to the potter's field in the Far Northeast to get DNA from the remains -- an investigatory avenue that was unavailable to detectives more than a generation ago.
"Hopefully, with this new evidence, this DNA evidence, we'll be able to positively link somebody or rule somebody out," said Lt. Kenneth Coluzzi of the Homicide Division, "so we won't just be chasing lead after lead."
At this point, however, investigators have no leads.
The discovery of the body of a young boy in a brown cardboard box left in a wooded area off Susquehanna Road -- then a lonely country lane between Verree and Pine Roads in Fox Chase -- on Feb. 25, 1957, generated widespread interest and frustration.
There was little to help identify the boy. He was clean and he had a crude haircut. He was wrapped in a cheap, colorful cotton blanket that had been cut in half. Investigators believe he was about 4 years old. He had head injuries, but the exact cause of death was never determined.
Yesterday, investigators went to the potter's field, near Mechanicsville and Dunks Ferry Roads, and in the chill fall air located the grave marker that reads: "Heavenly Father, Bless This Unknown Boy."
A backhoe sliced into the earth.
Inspector Jerrold Kane of the Homicide Division said the remains were taken to the Medical Examiner's Office. Once testing is completed, they will be reburied Nov. 11 -- only this time in Ivy Hill Cemetery off Easton Road in the city's Northwest section.
The cost of the burial, according to Kane, will be borne by the Vidocq society -- an association of professional sleuths long interested in the case. The reburial will be done by Craig Mann, of Mann Funeral Home on Tabor Road, whose father handled the original burial.
Once DNA is harvested it will be stored in the event that someday a lead will pan out. Coluzzi, overseer of the division's cold-case files, thinks DNA could be the key to solving the case.

"Hopefully we can put a name to this little boy. Give him the respect and dignity he deserves," he said, "and then find out who killed him."
 
http://americasunknownchild.net/Archives11.html#CHDNA

Cops Hope DNA Will Identify Boy Slain In 1957

By Nicole Weisensee
Daily News Staff Writer

For 41 years, the boy in the box has rested in his pauper's grave -- unidentified, his murder unsolved.
Yesterday, in a final attempt to find his killer, police removed him from his solitary grave in a potter's field in Northeast Philadelphia.
They took his body to the medical examiner's office, where technicians will try to extract DNA from his remains. They hope such evidence will help identify him and eventually help nail his killer.
"It's hard but it's been done before," said Lt. Ken Coluzzi, head of the special investigations unit at the police Homicide Division. "You should never give up hope. There's a possibility the person who did this is still alive so we should do the best we can."
It was the morning of Feb. 25, 1957, when police responded to the report of a doll in a box. They found the boy, who was 4 to 6 years old, in a cardboard box in a trash-strewn lot off Susquehanna Road near Verree Road, in Fox Chase.
His nude body, covered with dark bruises, was wrapped in a checked, flannel blanket. He was bathed and his nails were clean. The medical examiner determined the cause of death was multiple blunt-force trauma.
On Oct. 3, Fox's "America's Most Wanted" aired a segment on the boy in the box and unveiled a sculpture by Philadelphian Frank Bender showing what the blond boy's father might have looked like.
As a result of the publicity, homicide investigators received dozens of tips, Coluzzi said. Although none of them has panned out, investigators decided to exhume the body to try to extract DNA.
"Now that we have DNA that we didn't have in 1957, we thought it was time to secure it," said Homicide Inspector Jerrold Kane.
The boy will be reburied at 11 a.m. next Wednesday at Ivy Hill Cemetery on Easton Road by the Vidocq Society, a crime-solving organization made up of forensic professionals. Craig Mann, whose father originally buried the boy, is donating a coffin as well as the burial services, said Dick Lavinthal, spokesman for the Vidocq Society.
Lavinthal also said the public is welcome to come to the burial.
From now on until he's positively identified, this will no longer be the boy in the box," he said. "He will be America's unknown boy."


Our Press Advisory Yesterday
Vidocq Society NEWS Advisory
UNRESTRICTED IMMEDIATE RELEASE
6 PM TUESDAY - 1998 - NOVEMBER 3rd
Further Information: Dick Lavinthal 215-545-1450

PHILADELPHIA, PA. Philadelphia Homicide Division detectives today executed an Orphan's Court order that takes one of America's greatest crime mysteries to a new milestone.
Using hand tools and a backhoe they exhumed from potter's field the coffin containing a never-identified four-year-old boy whose nude body was placed in a cardboard box and tossed onto a roadside trash heap in 1957.
The sad case of this unknown boy was reopened earlier this year by Philadelphia Homicide detectives. The Vidocq (pronounced "Vee-Dock") Society is supporting the investigation. A retired Philadelphia police intelligence unit detective who was the second patrolman to respond to the crime scene in 1957 is among the Vidocq Society Members helping with the revivified police investigation.
America's Most Wanted featured the case on Oct. 3rd after the Vidocq Society convinced the Fox Television program that the child might be identified by someone outside of Philadelphia. As a result, numerous fresh leads have been received by Philadelphia Homicide detectives, leading to today's exhumation. The broadcast has peaked investigator's hopes that a solution of the decades-old case could be close.
After the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office obtains tissue samples for DNA analysis the boy's body is to be re-buried at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11th but not in potter's field. Instead, the boy will be interred in Ivy Hill Cemetery, 1201 Easton Rd., in Philadelphia's Mount Airy section. A solitary bagpiper will play and Philadelphia Police department chaplains of four faiths (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim) will offer prayers for the boy.
In a wonderful act of charity Craig Mann of the Mann Funeral Home (whose father originally buried the dead boy in 1957) has donated the coffin, burial vault and funeral services. The cemetery, on Easton Road in Philadelphia's Mt. Airy section, is donating the burial plot, according to David G. Drysdale Sr. and Jr., managers. The FBI Evidence Recovery Team also assisted at today's exhumation.
"No longer shall the child buried in potter's field be called 'The Boy in the Box,'" Vidocq Society Commissioner William Fleisher said. "After this ceremony, and until he is identified, he will be known to all of us as 'America's Unknown Boy.'
The public is invited to attend the graveside services. Philadelphia Police Commissioner John F. Timoney will attend. Ben J. Ermini, Director of the Missing
Childrens Bureau at National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in suburban Washington will represent the internationally-known organization. Also attending will be Police Detective Thomas Augustine and all key members of the law enforcement team that is conducting the investigation.
"Because he is America's Unknown Child everyone who has been touched by this sad story can pay respects to a child whose plight has transfixed the Delaware Valley for more than 4 decades," Fleisher said. "I am predicting a large turnout because few persons over 40 who live in the Delaware Valley are not aware of the case and the extraordinary lengths to which The Philadelphia Police Department went to solve the case in the1950s."

The Vidocq Society (http://www.vidocq.org), established in 1990, is a non-profit organization of active and retired forensic, law enforcement and other experts who volunteer their services at no charge to help solve unsolved murders.
 
http://americasunknownchild.net/Archives11.html#CHDNA

Authorities using DNA to identify boy killed in '57
Philadelphia Tribune On-line Edition - November 6, 1998
Chad G. Glover - Tribune Staff

For 41 years, no one knew his name, age, or where he was from. But last Tuesday his body was removed from its resting place in a Northeast Philadelphia cemetery and sent to the medical examiner's office in an effort to identify him using DNA testing.
Authorities called him the "Boy in the box" because they didn't have anything better to call him. No family members came forth to claim him. No neighbors lamented his absence on the city streets.
"Hopefully we can put a name on this little boy," said police Lt. Ken Gozzi in published reports. "Give him the respect and dignity that he deserves. And then find out who killed him."
The boy was found in 1957. His hair sloppily trimmed and his arms folded neatly on his chest. He was swaddled, nude, in a cheap flannel blanket.
His nails were trimmed and his bathed body lay peacefully in a cardboard box. In a nearby thicket lay a brand-new cap. It looked like someone had prepared him for burial, only to leave him in a trash-strewn lot.
His naked body was, however, covered with dark bruises. His eyes had been sealed shut, his eyeballs drawn deep into their sockets.
Medical examiners determined that he had died of blunt-force trauma. Police estimated that he was between 4- and 6-years-old.
His death shook Philadelphia. He came to embody lost innocence in an era characterized by sock-hops and "I Love Lucy." His tragic story was on the lips of every Philadelphian, but still no answers came. The leads the police did receive were eventually dead ends.
The "Boy in the box" was buried in a potters field beneath a marker reading, "Heavenly Father, Bless This Unknown Boy." With the exception of the chain of investigators who worked the case, Philadelphians eventually forgot about the boy. However, a forensic bust of the boy, and one portraying what his father may have looked like rekindled interest in the boy after it was aired on the Oct. 3 episode of "America's Most Wanted."

On Nov. 11, the boy will be reburied at Ivy Hill Cemetery under the name "America's Unknown Boy."
 
http://americasunknownchild.net/recent.htm

February 2000: The crime lab was unsuccessful in its attempt to obtain a valid DNA sample from the core of one of the unknown boy's teeth. The investigators may send the tooth to an independent state-of-the-art DNA testing laboratory for further study, including mitochondrial DNA analysis. Mitochondrial DNA exists in a little organelle outside the nucleus of a cell. The likelihood of recovering mitochondrial DNA in small or degraded biological samples is far greater than for nuclear DNA because mitochondrial DNA molecules are present in hundreds to thousands of copies per cell compared to the nuclear complement of just two copies per cell. Therefore, muscle, bone, teeth, hair, skin, blood and other body fluids, even if degraded by environmental insult or time, may provide enough material for mitochondrial DNA typing.

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In this diagram, females are represented by circles and males by squares. All individuals shown in blue should have identical mitochondrial DNA sequences because they share the same maternal lineage. Thus, all three first-generation children have the same mtDNA sequences, which they inherited from their mother, but in the succeeding generation, only the children of the first-generation females share the same mtDNA sequences. The children of the first-generation male received their mitochondrial DNA from a different maternal lineage.

Sam Weinstein, V.S.M. resigned his position as head of the Vidocq Society's Boy in the Box investigation due to medical reasons. The project will now be jointly directed by William H. Kelly, V.S.M. and Joseph McGillen, V.S.M. Both of these men have long and distinguished careers in law enforcement. Mr. McGillen is a former investigator with the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office, and Mr. Kelly was a police Identification expert. William Kelly participated in the original investigation of the Boy in the Box case in 1957.

In addition, mitochondrial DNA is inherited from the mother only, so that in situations where an individual is deceased or otherwise not available for a direct comparison with a biological sample, any maternally related individual may provide a reference sample (see diagram, below).
 
http://americasunknownchild.net/recent.htm


April 2001: The investigators revealed an important breakthrough in the case: Last fall, an independent laboratory finally obtained a mitochondrial DNA profile from the unknown boy's teeth. (Previous attempts to obtain a valid DNA profile had failed due to the badly deteriorated condition of the boy's remains.) The investigators plan to compare the boy's DNA profile against tissue samples they hope to obtain from individuals who either claim to be, or who are suspected of being related to the unknown boy. Such tests should confirm or, alternatively, rule-out any alleged relationship. Additional details about this dramatic new development were not revealed. Of course, we will be following this story closely, and will promptly report any new information that is disclosed to us.
 
http://americasunknownchild.net/recent.htm


November 2005: Although infrequent "tips" and potential "leads" are still received by the investigators, none of them have proven to be of any value in helping to solve the case. No further progress has been made during the past year. 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.
 
http://americasunknownchild.net/recent.htm

November 2005: Although infrequent "tips" and potential "leads" are still received by the investigators, none of them have proven to be of any value in helping to solve the case. No further progress has been made during the past year. 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.




Please understand that nuclear DNA for Jonathan was not possible in 1998, due to the condition of his remains when they were exhumed. mtDNA for Jonathan has been on file since 2000. Jonathan's case is an open criminal investigation. The Philadelphia Police Department has been using Jonathan's mtDNA as a forensic comparison for eighteen years. Please do not donate money to any person or DNA analysis company who claims to be funding DNA results for Philadelphia's Boy in the Box.
 
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