- Madeline Halpert
- BBC News, Washington
image source, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
The boy’s face was reconstructed by a forensic artist.
Police have identified a boy who was found dead in a box in the city of Philadelphia, United States, more than 60 years ago.
The boy, known for generations as the “boy in the box,” was identified as Joseph Augustus Zarelli.
Police say DNA technology and detective work helped them finally come up with the name in what remains the city’s oldest unsolved murder.
The mystery had “haunted this community,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said.
At a news conference on Wednesday, police said they would not release the name of the boy’s parents and declined to say who was responsible for his death.
The case remains open, police said, asking for the public’s help in filling in the details of the boy’s life.
image source, Getty Images
Philadelphia police worked for decades to finally identify the “kid in the box.”
Detectives had tried using DNA evidence to identify the boy from his remains before, but the sample was insufficient.
A forensic specialist was later able to use the same DNA sample to identify the boy’s relatives.
Authorities searched birth and adoption records to connect the boy with his relatives. He was born on January 13, 1953, the police department said.
open case
In February 1957, the remains of a child believed to be between the ages of 4 and 6 were found wrapped in a blanket inside a JC Penney department store cardboard box in a wooded area of the Fox Chase neighborhood of Philadelphia.
The boy, who was naked and badly bruised, weighed just 30 pounds and had several small scars on his body, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. He was beaten to death, according to police.
At that time, posters with the child’s photo were distributed throughout the city.
Local police, medical examiners and DNA analysts have tried for decades to crack the case, following hundreds of local and national leads.
The riddle also became a fascination for volunteer professional detectives, including a group called the Vidocq Society, whom police thanked for their help during a news conference on Wednesday.
Detectives have followed thousands of leads to no avail, including that the boy was abducted from a supermarket on Long Island, New York, and that he was a Hungarian refugee.
The boy’s remains were buried in a local cemetery with a headstone reading “United States Unknown Child.”
No one should “have to wait that long” for their name and life story to be told, Outlaw said.
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