I’m not sure about if JAZ had developmental disabilities or not but….I’ve been reading quite a bit about my local
“State school” where children with all kinds of disabilities were sent.
It was encouraged to send special needs kids away in this time period. I feel like if he was unwanted and had disabilities he could have easily been put in a similar place at any age with no one questioning it. I think a single mom would have been pushed especially hard by the doctor to do so. I think we will eventually learn there’s a different explanation or excuse.
Of course we don't know if Joseph was in a facility or with parents, biological or otherwise, but had he been institutionalized he may have been known by a lot more people. I think the odds of someone recognizing him in the media blitz that followed the discovery of his body would be fairly high under those circumstances.