Identified! PA - Philadelphia, 'Boy in the Box', WhtMale 4-6, 4UMPA, Feb'57 #2 - Joseph Augustus Zarelli

[citizen_sleuth]

Question: If Joseph was adopted, why only release his biological name? Unless he kept his biological name after being adopted, I would think using the last name of his biological father rather than his adoptive last name might make it less likely to jog the memory of any surviving neighbors or friends?

 

[Nell91]

I'm on my phone atm and not sure how to successfully link using Chrome, but Martha's story is very well documented if you'd like to Google.

 

[Tarahhhh8]

Very believable especially since during the press conference the police captain said there are siblings "on both sides" inferring each parent has separate children not children together. I mean its not specific but he let that out. that is typically how people describe half siblings. I say, I have 2 brothers from my dad's side and a sister from my mom's side. just saying. I think that was telling what he said.

 

[Mama-dukes]

I honestly have no clue what's going on in the thread at this point.

I’m also lost

 

[spacedcurls]

There was mention of the spelling on the birth certificate being different than the actual spelling (or something like that), and I'm wondering if maybe Zarelli is spelled incorrectly on the birth certificate, sort of like how we saw a ton of spellings of it here when the name was first announced. Perhaps birth mother listed father on the birth certificate and gave Joseph his last name, but had spelled it incorrectly on the birth certificate?

 

[Nell91]

Does anybody know anything about old birth certificate laws? Here in the UK, a father cannot legally be put onto a birth certificate unless the parents were married, if unmarried, the father must have been present at the point of registering the birth.

 

[Alleykins]

@Ms Suzanne
Colleen Fitzpatrick stated this was the most difficult case she ever worked on. It took over 2 years to get the DNA data because his DNA was so degraded.

 

[squish]

Just to be clear, there is some over-enthusiastic sleuthing on this thread (guilty as charged!), but absolutely no one is harassing the family, or suggesting doing so.

 

[Hochman]

Again, i don't believe this biological parents have anything to do with his death. However, i wonder if they've already found the foster/adopted parent responsible for his murder. If so, i wonder if frank bender's sculpt of the suspect is accurate (if the suspect is ever made known to the public, that is).

 

[glorias]

I think a reporter asked if the name on the birth certificate was exact, and the police spokesperson didn't answer directly, and then handed it over to the DNA expert who said the identification of the parents came from DNA and was therefore confirmed.

 

[squish]

The policeman confirmed the birth certificate was "not exact"

 

[WildhorseC]

Yes he does but it needs to be the correct story. Not the story ppl are putting together with assumptions. I hope one day they do tell us Joseph’s story. Maybe one of his siblings will feel the need to let everyone who loved him know

 

[18thcenturylady]

So happy poor little Joseph was identified after all these years!

IMO

Why mention a “ prominent family” connection if they weren’t going to bring it up at the pc? Unless they are hoping to smoke someone out.

Parents doesn’t mean they were necessarily a couple.

The wife of the man mentioned in the obit may not be the bio mother. Perhaps the bio mother was a teen or young person from a prominent family. Perhaps she ( or her family) sold/gave the Joseph to a seemingly upstanding family once his possible disabilities came to light.

Just my .02

I agree with you.

 

[Delphine1981]

Does anybody know anything about old birth certificate laws? Here in the UK, a father cannot legally be put onto a birth certificate unless the parents were married, if unmarried, the father must have been present at the point of registering the birth.

That is how it was in 2012 when I had my first child. I am in the US. I did marry her dad a year later and had another baby with him, but he was present at the birth and assumed all responsibility and signed the BC. Otherwise they wouldn’t have put him on it. With my son it wouldn’t have mattered bc we were married then. And now we’re not ha.

 

[Tarahhhh8]

<modsnip - quoted post was deleted>
I'm new hear and just like to talk about theories. do people actually take it upon themselves to contact people discussed on this forum?! that is too scary. I don't' want to encourage anyone to harass people or pretend like they are detectives themselves. Can you imagine the horror of finding out you are related to this tragedy and then on top of that dealing with psychopaths' from the internet. no thanks.

 

[LovesPeace2]

I am so glad that Joseph has his name back, but we honestly have no idea on the parents ,the mothers last name could of been zarelli or he could of been named after a family member, hopefully his story gets told but I am just so glad he has his name jmoo

 

[Sweetluv]

RIP sweet Joseph....you were never forgotten about, discovering who you were just took a little extra time!
I consider my location fairly local to this case..it warms my heart to know that so many Websleuthers, outside the US, took an interest in this little boy.

 

[Nell91]

That's another point, the mother's surname could have been Zarelli and the parents were unmarried at the time, therefore Joseph took his mother's name and his father's is something else entirely. We could be wildly wrong.

 

[WildhorseC]

The policeman confirmed the birth certificate was "not exact"

I think they confirmed the fathers name on bc wasn’t correct -not the rest of it. I took it as maybe it was misspelt

 

[MeadowMuffin]

I can't catch up.

How do we know that the Zarelli wasn't the mother? And IF the baby were born out of wedlock, HER maiden name is put on the birth certificate as the baby's last name. Father's name is on the borth certificate too, but was not given to the baby. To me it seems to be a more modern thing to put the baby's last name as the unwed father's, but back then it wasn't.