Episode 56 Doe ID 'The Boy In The Box' Joseph Augustus Zarelli
On February 25, 1957, the badly beaten and naked dead body of a little boy was found discarded in a box on the side of Susquehanna Road, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His death was ruled a homicide, and police worked feverishly to ID him using all of the tools available to them at the time. Although some of the clues that they had to work with seemed promising, they failed to ID the child, and he was buried without his name. Over the decades that followed, the story of 'The Boy In The Box' touched countless people. Finally, in the Fall of 2022, DNA & genealogy combined to solve the mystery of who this child was. He was identified as Joseph Augustus Zarelli. But finding out who Joseph was was only one part of the mission, police also wanted to find out who killed him and discarded him like trash. To date, that has proven to be a challenge, and that part of the mystery remains unsolved. We may not know who murdered The Boy In The Box, but we now know his name; to be Joseph Augustus Zarelli and this is his story.