Identified! PA - Philadelphia - 'Boy in the Box' - 4UMPA - Feb'57 #3 - Joseph Augustus Zarelli

[CCJD]

Genetic Genealogy uses different kinds of DNA, including mtDNA. The part you bolded (and the quote) doesn't tell us which type of DNA was used. Indeed, mtDNA genealogical analysis is quite a well known and well studied system.

Yes, I'm aware of mtDNA. Just pointing out that it was the GG and the building of the family tree that led to his ID.

 

[10ofRods]

I don't think it's possible to use only mitochondrial DNA for genetic genealogy, though? It's shared with all of your maternal relatives. And by that I mean going back through one's mother's side thousands of years, and all the maternal offspring from all of these. You can't really use it for genetic genealogy because it just traces your maternal line back through history and essentially that tells you nothing because thousands of people will descend from the same maternal lines. From my understanding of genetics/DNA they must have gotten at least some autosomal DNA info.

Yes, you can. And then, if possible you can add in autosomal DNA. Now it's true that only the mother's side will be known - but of those women's live histories are known, most of the story will be there.

It's very likely there's also autosomal DNA available (a little anyway), but that can be highly inconclusive as many of us share very similar alleles at particular spots in the genome. Minor variation in some unusual locii (such as the gene for hemoglobin) can be very revelatory.

No one wants to go back a thousand years in any of this analysis - four generations is usually enough to give a picture. Keep in mind that even with a better sample, it's often not possible to narrow down to one suspect using any form of genetic analysis.

(I'm new to this case and do not know yet how the genealogical analysis would be applied - but it would certainly give a picture of moms, siblings, aunts and uncles on mom's side, grandmothers and great-aunts on mom's side, etc). Quite a family tree - and a very well known system that helps locate ethnicity as well.

 

[Friday Fan]

Paywalled, but paraphrasing:

Testing led to maternal relatives, including JAZ's mother
Court order issued for birth, adoption and death records between 1944-1956
3 birth certificates came back
Two came back from children they already knew about, including one who had already provided DNA.
The third was for JAZ
Based on the birth father's name as on the certificate, LE found paternal relatives.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/08/boy-in-the-box-name/

 

[IDK]

In the press conference yesterday, the detective mentioned they are sending an item of clothing that was found with JAZ for additional DNA testing. Is he referring to the cap or something else? Maybe a piece of clothing that was held back from previous descriptions?

 

[Incomprehensible]

Article about the man whose DNA test helped lead to the identification. Philly police identify the ‘Boy in the Box’ from notorious 1957 homicide

Fascinating

 

[txsleuth70]

In the press conference yesterday, the detective mentioned they are sending an item of clothing that was found with JAZ for additional DNA testing. Is he referring to the cap or something else? Maybe a piece of clothing that was held back from previous descriptions?

One of the articles states a child's size 4 shirt was found separately and a tan scarf. Mentioned shoes found separately nearby but were wrong size. The article didn't mention any pants or underpants.

 

[Alleykins]

People honor Joseph Augustus Zarelli at Ivy Hill Cemetery

CBS3's Joe Holden was the first to tell you about the breakthrough in the Boy in the Box case. The 4-year-old was found dead 65 years ago, his body stuffed in a cardboard box.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[CCJD]

In the press conference yesterday, the detective mentioned they are sending an item of clothing that was found with JAZ for additional DNA testing. Is he referring to the cap or something else? Maybe a piece of clothing that was held back from previous descriptions?

From Doe Network:

Clothing & Personal Items

Clothing: A tan child's scarf and a boy's yellow flannel shirt were also recovered at the scene. Investigators determined that the size four shirt matched the child's size at the time of his homicide. A child's pair of black shoes were also located, however, they did not fit the unidentified boy.

4UMPA

 

[breachtones]

One of the articles states a child's size 4 shirt was found separately and a tan scarf. Mentioned shoes found separately nearby but were wrong size. The article didn't mention any pants or underpants.

This reminds me of another thing that makes me think M's theory is more plausible, the fact that the child was unclothed. If he had died during a bath, there would be no reason to dress him up just to dump his body. Thing is that I'm not sure how much of the stuff recovered at the scene is associated because it's sort of a place where local residents would throw their trash.

 

[Jen Walters]

I can tell you that when I was born, in Ohio, in 1977, my parents weren't married and they made my mother give me her last name. I don't know how common that was, or if it applied to PA as well. My parents married a year later and my last name was changed, I actually didn't know anything about it until I needed a birth certificate for some reason and I saw my original BC and SS card with my mom's maiden name.

It was not common in pa in the 1970s. It was unheard of in pa in the 1950s.

 

[azure]

I do not think JAZ was adopted or "sold", because if he were, I think LE would have stated that to stop the speculation about the bio family. I am all but certain LE would have put the adoption front and center in the presser to stop the amateur sleuthing and people reaching out to JAZ's living relatives.

 

[steff13]

My opinion is that LE referred to them as biological parents rather than just parents because he was not raised by them. Whether he was formally adopted or placed in foster care it just given to another family to raise, perhaps time will tell.

What we do know for sure is that he was never reported missing and he was never claimed. So almost certainly he was killed by whoever his caretakers were.

 

[Friday Fan]

I do not think JAZ was adopted or "sold", because if he were, I think LE would have stated that to stop the speculation about the bio family. I am all but certain LE would have put the adoption front and center in the presser to stop the amateur sleuthing and people reaching out to JAZ's living relatives.

MOO There would be no proof if he was "sold". (Since any transaction would have been illegal)

However, I don't think it's likely that he was sold.

If he was formally adopted they likely would have indicated. They said that adoption, death and birth records resulted in three birth certificates. Identified! - PA - Philadelphia - 'Boy in the Box' - 4UMPA - Feb'57 #3 - Joseph Augustus Zarelli

Was he informally "adopted" aka in someone else's care? Nobody has said anything, so we don't know. MOO

 

[HarmonyE.]

If LE knew the boy was not living with his bio parents at the time of his murder, nothing would have stopped them from id'ing the family and stating they had no reason to believe they were involved. Instead they are protecting his bio parents' names because of his surviving siblings. For me that says a lot.

The real mystery for me is how a child went missing and no one outside the family noticed he was gone or connected him to the well-published story of the boy in the box. It's not like they were living in a remote area of the world.

 

[steff13]

We'll have to agree to disagree. LE may have simply wanted to protect the existing bio family, which is basically what they said. And if he was given away somehow at birth, that explains how no one from that bio family knew of his existence, and hence didn't come forward.

 

[10ofRods]

It was not common in pa in the 1970s. It was unheard of in pa in the 1950s.

You're saying that no unmarried mothers from PA ever used their own names on the BC?

 

[airportwoman]

I can tell you that when I was born, in Ohio, in 1977, my parents weren't married and they made my mother give me her last name. I don't know how common that was, or if it applied to PA as well. My parents married a year later and my last name was changed, I actually didn't know anything about it until I needed a birth certificate for some reason and I saw my original BC and SS card with my mom's maiden name.

In 1982, a teenage friend of the family had a baby out of wedlock, and the baby was given his father's last name. (The birth announcement in the paper also listed "Jane and Thomas Smith of XYZ address", Thomas Smith being HER FATHER, and the newspaper had to print a big old retraction on that one! She still lived with her parents, and since she was a minor, her parents had to get her admitted to the hospital. The next day, it said "Jane Smith of XYZ Address and Robert Jones of ABC Address....." (Back then, the birth announcements in the paper had their addresses, or at least did in that city.) They married a few months later, and no, the father did not have to adopt him as my mother had wondered.

They totally beat the odds, and are still together.

 

[10ofRods]

'Boy in the Box' is Identified as Joseph Augustus Zarelli

After 65 years,

www.forensicmag.com

(^article on the genetic trail that the researchers followed)

With this quote:

//Eventually, Fitzpatrick and Gillis gave the Philadelphia Police Department leads for the maternal side of the child’s family. Detectives made contact with the family, obtaining a DNA sample from a living relative. After further testing, Fitzpatrick and Gillis were able to confirm the identity of the child’s birth mother.

This cracked open the case and made people invest the time to piece together SNP markers, leading to more information.

(And no one is "pure Albanian" because either people came there after the first Europeans arrived circa 40,000 years ago OR they share what is called "Older European" or "Paleo-European" markers which are not specific to any group and which nearly every single European has (except for people arriving later).

Albania has been inhabited since the Paleolithic, is what I'm saying. And with some stable elements in their genome which they share with non-Albanians.

 

[loveplace]

Paywalled, but paraphrasing:

Testing led to maternal relatives, including JAZ's mother
Court order issued for birth, adoption and death records between 1944-1956
3 birth certificates came back
Two came back from children they already knew about, including one who had already provided DNA.
The third was for JAZ
Based on the birth father's name as on the certificate, LE found paternal relatives.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/08/boy-in-the-box-name/

I think your next to last sentence is everything here.( two came back from...)

Edited for clarity

 

[airportwoman]

i don’t post often but is it known that PA has badly kept records or is it that common of all states?

Maybe not so much badly kept, as that they may not be as readily accessible as they are in other areas?

Regarding genetic genealogy (GG) and adoptions, I have a friend who was adopted, and her origin is so mysterious, she literally does not know her exact date of birth! They were able to narrow it down to a few days, so the most likely date, based on the way her umbilical cord was healed, is her de facto birthday. She was literally left on the doorsteps of a convent, and then legally adopted later on. AFAIK, she has never had any desire to search for her birth family.

I know another woman who, in the 1990s, decided to do genealogy research because there was a major branch of her family tree that she really knew nothing about. Her biological grandmother had died around age 30 from cancer during the Depression; her mother and uncle were preschoolers, and her grandfather remarried and had a very happy second marriage that lasted more than 50 years. Anyway, she knew that her bio grandmother was one of 15 children, but she had never met any of them - and doing genealogy revealed why. Most of them were not people that her relatives wanted the kids exposed to, mainly due to chronic alcoholism, and her mother was one of the few kids who managed to escape and have a decent adult life, short as it was. (IDK what kind of cancer she had; most likely, at that age, it was either ovarian cancer or Hodgkin's disease, which was a death sentence at the time.)