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

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves
As the site was apparently a dumping ground in 1957, maybe whoever dumped the box there also dumped other rubbish there too along with the box. Also, just because the store was 17 miles from the site, doesn't mean whoever bought/received the bassinet lived 17 miles away.

But it was a cardboard box sitting outdoors in PA in winter. IMO it wasn't in the condition it would have been in if it had been left outside for very long. I think Occam's Razor applies here - he was most likely transported in the box. It's unlikely someone who is dumping the body of a child finds a random box at the dump site and decides to take the time to put the child in the box when they're out there in the open.

The Boy in the Box book (I just started it, highly recommended) says that a nun from the girls' school came over to see what was going on when the police found JAZ. So clearly the area was visible to the school. It was also an area frequented by hunters and fur trappers. IMO it would have been much less of a risk to dump what appears to be an empty box than take a body wrapped in a blanket out there and just rely on there not being anyone there to witness it.
 
But it was a cardboard box sitting outdoors in PA in winter. IMO it wasn't in the condition it would have been in if it had been left outside for very long. I think Occam's Razor applies here - he was most likely transported in the box. It's unlikely someone who is dumping the body of a child finds a random box at the dump site and decides to take the time to put the child in the box when they're out there in the open.

The Boy in the Box book (I just started it, highly recommended) says that a nun from the girls' school came over to see what was going on when the police found JAZ. So clearly the area was visible to the school. It was also an area frequented by hunters and fur trappers. IMO it would have been much less of a risk to dump what appears to be an empty box than take a body wrapped in a blanket out there and just rely on there not being anyone there to witness it.
I definitely think he was brought there in the box.
 
I would also like to add that the Good Shepherd School that was located near the site where Joseph was found was for ”wayward”/troubled girls, not unwed mothers. There seems to be a lot of misinformation about this. However, there apparently was a home for unwed mothers that was much further south than Fox Chase/the Good Shepherd School, and is so far south that it’s almost Delaware County. Now that I look at it, the home for unwed mothers (St. Vincent Home & Maternity Hospital, I believe it was called - certainly St. Vincent, but I’ve seen the rest of the name as different things) is only about 3 miles from Upper Darby and where the JC Penney was…
I find this very interesting....
 
My entire town was basically a giant dump a long time ago. They made wooden foot bridges to walk over the trash ditch until roads were built. How many JC Penneys were there in the area at the time? Don't think dumpsters were as common as one might think either. It was obvious people used that site for refuse. They found 12 of those bassinets were sold from the same JC Penneys. Maybe all locations didn't carry the same products.
Which town?!
 
Hmm. Wonder what the odds would be of JAZ's mother being at a home for unwed mothers for a second unwed pregnancy? As in, maybe she kept JAZ with her after her first pregnancy, but then turned up pregnant a second time and returned to the home for unwed mothers? Maybe a caretaker in the home abused him and killed him. Then drove him in the box from Upper Darby to the location where he was found outside of Fox Chase. Seems like a long shot, but it would make sense that whoever discarded him with the box would want to do so far from its' place of origin.

I saw someone elsewhere mention they thought his hair was crudely cut due to lice. That would seem plausible based on the pencil sketch of his head and face from 3 sides, but the photo of him in the box shows a full head of hair. Lice would definitely be an issue in any type of residential facility or home for groups of children. Sorry if this topic has previously been brought up.
Yeah I don't get the full head of hair! How can there be a discrepancy between the pic of him still in the box and the later pics??
 
But it was a cardboard box sitting outdoors in PA in winter. IMO it wasn't in the condition it would have been in if it had been left outside for very long. I think Occam's Razor applies here - he was most likely transported in the box. It's unlikely someone who is dumping the body of a child finds a random box at the dump site and decides to take the time to put the child in the box when they're out there in the open.

The Boy in the Box book (I just started it, highly recommended) says that a nun from the girls' school came over to see what was going on when the police found JAZ. So clearly the area was visible to the school. It was also an area frequented by hunters and fur trappers. IMO it would have been much less of a risk to dump what appears to be an empty box than take a body wrapped in a blanket out there and just rely on there not being anyone there to witness it.
This is sound logic, and your reasoning has swayed me personally - I think he was brought in the box. I was already leaning in that direction because when weighing all probabilities, what were the odds that the killer selected a dump site across town where there just happened to be a box big enough to contain the remains of a child?
 
Regarding Joseph's hair: In the picture of him in the box we are only seeing the very top of his head. Imo, it's impossible to tell how much hair he has. And if sunlight is shining on it, it could look like more than it is with blonde hair. In the post mortem photos we never really see him from the same angle, so there may not be any discrepancy at all.

I love being able to call him by his name. Those pictures remind me too much of my own sweet boys at that age. I can't even look at them anymore (the pics, not my boys, lol). Look up thread to see them.
 
Is it pretty much an agreed upon fact that he arrived at fox chase in a car? So can we assume the perpetrator either owned a car or had easy access to one?

And, piggybacking off of that... The homes in the area of 61st and Market don't have much room for cars. Did people have garages somehow accessible in the backs? Or did they park on the street all year long? How many homes actually had cars in the 50's?
 
This is sound logic, and your reasoning has swayed me personally - I think he was brought in the box. I was already leaning in that direction because when weighing all probabilities, what were the odds that the killer selected a dump site across town where there just happened to be a box big enough to contain the remains of a child?
Plus you need to conceal the body while putting it in the trunk.
 
Regarding Joseph's hair: In the picture of him in the box we are only seeing the very top of his head. Imo, it's impossible to tell how much hair he has. And if sunlight is shining on it, it could look like more than it is with blonde hair. In the post mortem photos we never really see him from the same angle, so there may not be any discrepancy at all.

I love being able to call him by his name. Those pictures remind me too much of my own sweet boys at that age. I can't even look at them anymore (the pics, not my boys, lol). Look up thread to see them.
Agreed. I think a lot of it is different lighting, but if you look at the picture from the crime scene, then look at the poster they put out with the face in profile on both angles and front on, his hair IS thicker and darker down the middle of the top of his head. It's severely short on the sides, which you cannot see in the crime scene photo, because you're seeing the direct crown of his head. Though they're very blurry, you can also see thicker hair on top of his head in the photos they took of him dressed, both lying down and seated upright. Also, there's a postmortem photo of him lying mostly on his front, I think to record the very large bruise at the base of his skull. It also shows that though the hair is very short at the sides, it's much thicker down the centre of his skull, almost like he's been given a modern style undercut. It's still short, but not almost bare to the scalp like it is on the sides above his ears.
 
Plus you need to conceal the body while putting it in the trunk.

True. A box in the trunk would prevent him from rolling around. Also, his arms were crossed across his chest before he was wrapped in the blanket; I imagined that was to make him more "compact" to fit in the box, i.e., arms across your chest take up less room than arms at your side.
 
Am not sure,if this is posted before…but a recent 22 min. video — with old footage of the area and a good overview of the case.

After 65 Years, Police ID the Boy in the Box as Joseph Augustus Zarelli

“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 unveil the decades-long process it took to finally identify the “Boy in the Box.”
 
Am not sure,if this is posted before…but a recent 22 min. video — with old footage of the area and a good overview of the case.

After 65 Years, Police ID the Boy in the Box as Joseph Augustus Zarelli

“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 unveil the decades-long process it took to finally identify the “Boy in the Box.”

So, is that building behind LE when they're at the location the girls' school? If so it's really close.
 
Is it pretty much an agreed upon fact that he arrived at fox chase in a car? So can we assume the perpetrator either owned a car or had easy access to one?

And, piggybacking off of that... The homes in the area of 61st and Market don't have much room for cars. Did people have garages somehow accessible in the backs? Or did they park on the street all year long? How many homes actually had cars in the 50's?
My impression of the homes in the 61st and Market area are "NYC style rowhouses", not much room for vehicles. No garages, no alleys either. Homes are about 100 years old. St Donato's Church was founded in 1910.

Between 1910 and 1950, Philadelphia was the third most populated city in the US. (Aka: a mass transit city)

Currently there are "garages" a block away, but we don't know if those are converted storefronts and what they were in the 1950s. When I saw the documentary about St Donato's, I had a hard time imagining those 1950's Italian working class families not owning vehicles.



However, wikipedia does give reference to garages in this area, although I don't really see them. There is street parking though and people and I assume many people who live there now own vehicles.

I believe this describes the homes in the general area:
The western reaches of West Philadelphia included miles of two-story rowhouses with bay windows above classical columned front porches. What resulted was a collection of Colonial Revival houses with Arts and Crafts influences, which reflect the sophisticated tastes of post-World War I Philadelphians. For the first time in West Philadelphia, houses had garages.
An image in the wikipedia entry shows a rowhouse with a bay window that looks just like the homes in the area of 61st and Market. (It's the second to the last image of a home structure)
 
Last edited:
And, piggybacking off of that... The homes in the area of 61st and Market don't have much room for cars. Did people have garages somehow accessible in the backs? Or did they park on the street all year long? How many homes actually had cars in the 50's?

We don't know for sure where that address came from, but my guess is that unless LE has info they have not shared, it had to have come from the birth certificate. Who knows where he was living four years later, especially if his mother was unwed and gave him up.
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
108
Guests online
201
Total visitors
309

Forum statistics

Threads
608,565
Messages
18,241,381
Members
234,401
Latest member
CRIM1959
Back
Top