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

[Susikatze]

Who knows. The center may have just sent her nice xmas cards to raise money and she could have decided to give her annual charity money to them.
A friend or relative might have worked there or treated there.
Her children may have picked the charity for her after she passed.
I doubt there is a direct connection to JAZ

 

[HarmonyE.]

Who knows. The center may have just sent her nice xmas cards to raise money and she could have decided to give her annual charity money to them.
A friend or relative might have worked there or treated there.
Her children may have picked the charity for her after she passed.
I doubt there is a direct connection to JAZ

I agree. Joseph had been dead a long time by 1991.

 

[Rolypolyoly]

Who knows. The center may have just sent her nice xmas cards to raise money and she could have decided to give her annual charity money to them.
A friend or relative might have worked there or treated there.
Her children may have picked the charity for her after she passed.
I doubt there is a direct connection to JAZ

I believe that at least one of her sisters went to live in Alabama so it's entirely possible that the connection is through the sister. I think it's a big stretch to try to link it to any condition Joseph may or may not have had. We haven't seen anything to suggest that Joseph had any type of condition at all. All MOO

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Her father was from Alabama, maybe someone here knows if she was born there too?
MOO

Mary/Betsy was born in PA. Her father was born in the same town as the Snellgrove Civitan Center.......... but Why after all her life in PA, was this where they wanted donations to go?

 

[iamshadow21]

Not telling anyone how to post, but I don't think the rules on sleuthing have changed since we all got spanked and the thread got shut down last time. As you were.

 

[GumShoelace]

<snip> I wondered about compulsory school age for children in Pennsylvania & more specifically Philadelphia. JAZ was 4 when he died. Most children are 5 when they go to kindergarten. So could his age have become a stressor to whomever was caring for him? If he were enrolled in school any kind of abuse would have been much more obvious.

It doesn't seem like Joseph was enrolled in school. Colleen Fitzpatrick of Identifinders, who worked with investigators on the case, didn't seem to think he was when she was interviewed on the "Mind Over Murder" podcast.
Even now, Philly compulsory school age is 6.(Kindergarten is still not compulsory.)

And from personal memory (as of late 60's): Philly kids had to turn 5 by Jan 31st to go to kindergarten. Assuming same rules in the late 50's, Joseph would have been eligible for kindergarten in Fall '57, but not actually required to go to school for at least another year.

 

[DSCrime]

It doesn't seem like Joseph was enrolled in school. Colleen Fitzpatrick of Identifinders, who worked with investigators on the case, didn't seem to think he was when she was interviewed on the "Mind Over Murder" podcast.
Even now, Philly compulsory school age is 6.(Kindergarten is still not compulsory.)

And from personal memory (as of late 60's): Philly kids had to turn 5 by Jan 31st to go to kindergarten. Assuming same rules in the late 50's, Joseph would have been eligible for kindergarten in Fall '57, but not actually required to go to school for at least another year.

Thnx for answering my question. I didn't think he was enrolled in school but I wondered if he was approaching the age in which he had to be registered. Seems there was a lot of time before he was required to go.

 

[Susikatze]

Mary/Betsy was born in PA. Her father was born in the same town as the Snellgrove Civitan Center.......... but Why after all her life in PA, was this where they wanted donations to go?

Not necessarily. My grandmothers donations when she passed were decided on by my uncle and aunt, who supported a specific charity in Ukraine and listed it. Grandma was not connected to it but occasionally contributed a bit of money via my uncle.
There is not always a personal connection.

 

[clorenc]

Not necessarily. My grandmothers donations when she passed were decided on by my uncle and aunt, who supported a specific charity in Ukraine and listed it. Grandma was not connected to it but occasionally contributed a bit of money via my uncle.
There is not always a personal connection.

Yes, was probably her kids, but were they all living in PA?

I briefly considered that maybe Mary was under the impression that JAZ was being sent there, but it was somehow derailed and she was unaware. Might explain why she didn’t think the boy in the flyers was him — she thought he was in another state. BUT if the center didn’t open until the year before he was found, he would’ve been old enough by then for her to recognize him. And I’d think she certainly would’ve found out by the time she died that he hadn’t been there.

So it doesn’t seem likely to me that the center had anything to do with JAZ. Maybe a weird coincidence, but likely some other familial connection.

 

[Daphne1972]

I don't know if you've seen the postmortem photographs, but the bruising is too extensive, and too widely spread all over his body for this to be anything other than what it has ALWAYS been called, for all the decades this case has been open - a homicide. Blunt force trauma is what killed him, possibly with an instrument rather than a fist, but it was no simple fall.

There are fingermarks on his head from an adult hand gripping it. Black eyes, bloody lips. A deep, dark contusion at the base of his skull the size of an orange. A deep, dark bruise on his upper arm, the right place and size to be left by an adult hand gripping hard enough to leave a bruised band several inches wide right around it. Countless bruises up and down both his legs. And those are just the ones obviously visible on the low res photos publicly viewable. There is nothing, absolutely nothing accidental about what happened to this child.

Wait, fingerprints on his skull?? Could you give me a link?

 

[Daphne1972]

I agree with this.

However, how would Colleen Fitzpatrick know anything about where Joseph stayed in his short life? How could she know anything about the unknown boy who Martha's said her parents took in? Surely this is far outside of her expertise. It's sounds like Martha's parents unofficially took in a boy who was not related to them. I don't see how any of this can be on public record for it to be searchable.

I totally agree.

 

[iamshadow21]

Wait, fingerprints on his skull?? Could you give me a link?

Fingermarks, not fingerprints. Small, oval shaped bruises across his forehead. They're clearly visible in the postmortem photographs.

 

[Daphne1972]

Fingermarks, not fingerprints. Small, oval shaped bruises across his forehead. They're clearly visible in the postmortem photographs.

Ok I see. But did the coroner mention that?

 

[Daphne1972]

‘Boy in the Box': Naming America's Unknown Child

In 1957, a young boy was found dead and beaten inside a box in Philadelphia’s Fox Chase neighborhood. The investigation into his death became one of the nation’s most notorious cold cases. Now, 65 years later, police finally know the boy’s name: Joseph Augusuts Zarelli. The NBC10 Investigators...

www.nbcphiladelphia.com

About 22:03 mark. What? Joseph was born to a couple living at see attachment. Couple?? And this is not the 61st street/Market street area. Is this where MEAP and JJP lived?

 

[Susikatze]

I checked whether we can tell if the abuse was done by a man or woman by the spacing and size of the fingerprints.
I have a 4 year old about the same size as JAZ was. I am a woman with very small hands. I touched her head the same way. It was definitely smaller hands who touched him.
My blood froze realizing that.

But it does not necessarily mean it was the mother, even though I do not know why she is protected so much (her living adult kids have nothing to do with anything she may have done).
At least once she went back to work JAZ must have been in someones care during her (i guess evening) work hours.
If she did it permanently or just for the hours she worked, not clear.

Is there any evidence left? After such a long time, it is probably full of DNA that is from everybody who handled the items over the decades.
Were there any fingerprints on the box? Or hair that was not his?

 

[Daphne1972]

I checked whether we can tell if the abuse was done by a man or woman by the spacing and size of the fingerprints.
I have a 4 year old about the same size as JAZ was. I am a woman with very small hands. I touched her head the same way. It was definitely smaller hands who touched him.
My blood froze realizing that.

But it does not necessarily mean it was the mother, even though I do not know why she is protected so much (her living adult kids have nothing to do with anything she may have done).
At least once she went back to work JAZ must have been in someones care during her (i guess evening) work hours.
If she did it permanently or just for the hours she worked, not clear.

Is there any evidence left? After such a long time, it is probably full of DNA that is from everybody who handled the items over the decades.
Were there any fingerprints on the box? Or hair that was not his?

But which fingers? I only see smudges on the photos which I assume to be said finger marks.

 

[Susikatze]

But which fingers? I only see smudges on the photos which I assume to be said finger marks.

There are many details ln the site americas unknown child, including autopsy reports and photos. They state it is fingerprints from an adult hand.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Investigators who revealed Joseph's name declined to identify his parents, out of respect for their living relatives. They have since been named as Augustus J. 'Gus' Zarelli and Mary Elizabeth 'Betsy' Abel

Inside the 65-year probe to identify Boy in the Box murder victim

For 65 years, the identity of Philadelphia's Boy in the Box remained a mystery - until a breakthrough in October 2021 revealed his name: Joseph Augustus Zarelli.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Susikatze]

I think LE statement sums it up and that is why there is no more information: "Indeed, Captain Jason Smith, head of Philadelphia PD's homicide department, told the press conference which disclosed Joseph's identity: 'We have our suspicions as to who may be responsible, but it would be irresponsible of me to share these suspicions as this remains an active and ongoing criminal investigation."

 

[azure]

Investigators who revealed Joseph's name declined to identify his parents, out of respect for their living relatives. They have since been named as Augustus J. 'Gus' Zarelli and Mary Elizabeth 'Betsy' Abel

Inside the 65-year probe to identify Boy in the Box murder victim

For 65 years, the identity of Philadelphia's Boy in the Box remained a mystery - until a breakthrough in October 2021 revealed his name: Joseph Augustus Zarelli.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Joseph looks very much like his mother, he has her mouth.