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

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sam269 said:
I wonder two things:

1. whether there might be a connection to the Amish community. Registered births might not have been a thing for them at that time period
2 can his DNA be put into ancestry.com to see his background might help narrow down family members
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Genetic genealogy is being done on him. It's not done through Ancestry though. It's done through third party websites like GEDmatch. Ancestry/23andme can't be used because of their terms of service and also because you cannot upload raw DNA data there like you can with GEDmatch. Ancestry/23andme requires you to spit in a tube, which Does cannot do.
 
In 1957, a young muskrat hunter set out to check his traps, set near a park just north of Philadelphia. As he moved through the brush, he found a small cardboard box, lying discarded on the ground. Inside was the naked body of a boy, wrapped in a plaid blanket. Fearing that the police would confiscate his traps if he alerted them to the box, the young hunter ignored it, and resumed hunting.

Several days later, a college student driving down the road noticed a bunny running alongside the highway. The student knew there were traps in the area, and stopped to make sure the animal was safe. As he sifted through the underbrush searching for traps, he came across the box. Though he too feared interaction with the police, the student reported the body to them.

boy-in-the-box-crime-scene.jpg

In February 1957, the boy's body, wrapped in a plaid blanket, was found in the woods off Susquehanna Road in Fox Chase, Philadelphia. The naked body was inside a cardboard box which had once contained a bassinet of the kind sold by J.C. Penney. The boy's hair had been recently cropped, possibly after death, as clumps of hair clung to the body. There were signs of severe malnourishment, as well as surgical scars on the ankle and groin, and an L-shaped scar under the chin.

The police received the report and opened an investigation on February 26, 1957. The dead boy's fingerprints were taken, and police at first were optimistic that he would soon be identified. However, no one ever came forward with any useful information.

More articles and videos talking about this case:
Boy in the Box (Philadelphia) - Wikipedia
The Creepy Murder Mystery Of "The Boy In The Box"
https://www.youtube.com/c/BuzzFeedUnsolvedNetwork/videos?view=0&sort=p&flow=grid
The Boy In The Box
The above links contain theories, suspects, and more information about the case than just this one post. Please learn about this case before commenting upon anything.
 

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We have a well-developed, ongoing thread for this set of remains. Search tells me that the words are too short or too common to function in Search.

PA - PA - Philadelphia, 'Boy in the Box' WhtMale 4UMPA, 4-6, Feb'57 #2

Unless the forensic genetic work is paying off & announcements will follow???

Reporting my post to ask if a Mod thinks the threads should be combined.

jmho ymmv lrr
 
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thebodyfarm said:
In 1957, a young muskrat hunter set out to check his traps, set near a park just north of Philadelphia. As he moved through the brush, he found a small cardboard box, lying discarded on the ground. Inside was the naked body of a boy, wrapped in a plaid blanket. Fearing that the police would confiscate his traps if he alerted them to the box, the young hunter ignored it, and resumed hunting.

Several days later, a college student driving down the road noticed a bunny running alongside the highway. The student knew there were traps in the area, and stopped to make sure the animal was safe. As he sifted through the underbrush searching for traps, he came across the box. Though he too feared interaction with the police, the student reported the body to them.

View attachment 306592

In February 1957, the boy's body, wrapped in a plaid blanket, was found in the woods off Susquehanna Road in Fox Chase, Philadelphia. The naked body was inside a cardboard box which had once contained a bassinet of the kind sold by J.C. Penney. The boy's hair had been recently cropped, possibly after death, as clumps of hair clung to the body. There were signs of severe malnourishment, as well as surgical scars on the ankle and groin, and an L-shaped scar under the chin.

The police received the report and opened an investigation on February 26, 1957. The dead boy's fingerprints were taken, and police at first were optimistic that he would soon be identified. However, no one ever came forward with any useful information.

More articles and videos talking about this case:
Boy in the Box (Philadelphia) - Wikipedia
The Creepy Murder Mystery Of "The Boy In The Box"
https://www.youtube.com/c/BuzzFeedUnsolvedNetwork/videos?view=0&sort=p&flow=grid
The Boy In The Box
The above links contain theories, suspects, and more information about the case than just this one post. Please learn about this case before commenting upon anything.
Click to expand...

I had opened another thread for this and it got merged into this one
 
The murder room
AGettler said:
A member of the Vidocq Society believes the boy in the box case is solved. A woman came forward years ago and told a story of a boy that was kept in her home and ...
I can't remember the rest, but she feels this boy is the boy in the box and a Vidocq member also believes her. The Vidocq guy wrote a book, having trouble finding it on line.
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It is the "Martha" theory. Still wont be solvable then if true, since the boy was an illegal foster child
 
Susikatze said:
It is the "Martha" theory. Still wont be solvable then if true, since the boy was an illegal foster child
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I'm actually hopeful that they can.

I recall that something about a woman calling in to a show who gave a street and town name and a year, and stated one of her school friends had a boy who was kept locked in their house there/then.

IIRC, it was a couple years later that "M" told her story. Apparently the town and street and year given by "M" matched with info the earlier witness provided but the issue back then was there was no way to identify him due to no family connection/illegal adoption etc.

I will dig through the internet to see if I can find where I read that for sourcing. May have been a book as I've read a couple on this case over the years.

I would hope that if they are able to identify him, they would then be able to make a connection between him and the "address"/adults at street and town for the year given by the two above to identify suspects. I do not have hope that the perp(s) are still around to pay for it though.

I wonder if the box, blanket and clothing are still around and whether they have ever tried to get DNA from those as well for a possible perpatrator.

Edit to add this link:
Boy in the Box by Silvia Pettem - Defrosting Cold Cases

This is not where I originally read the above as the link will take you to a new book on the market by Silvia Pettem, Defrosting Cold Cases. I note that Silvia Pettem is also a member of the Vidocq Society so suspect it was one of the other society members' previous books on this case where I may have initially seen this info.
This write up states:
One tip from the show, however, opened up a promising new lead. It came from a woman who, years earlier as a schoolgirl, knew another girl whose parents secretly kept a boy in their home. In 2000, two years after the first woman’s call, another woman (identified only as “M”) called police and told a horrific story of her own mother “purchasing” a little boy on the black market and sexually abusing him. Both stories referenced the same year, on the same street in the same suburban neighborhood. Unfortunately, in order to prove this scenario, the boy’s DNA was of little use to police as the boy had no biological connection to the women’s families.
Click to expand...
It's also mentionned that he was apparently "purchased on the black market", so I misremembered that as "illegal adoption".

I'm still holding out hope. Also think that I will have to buy this book.
 
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Hoping for a miracle for America's unknown child!

This article goes over what is known about the case. Many dismiss 'Martha', I find it curious that she mentioned several details such as, he ate beans and threw them up - it is confirmed he had beans in his stomach, the foster mother cut his long hair - he had a bad hair cut and someone in 2008 had a theory he was raised as a girl (theory was 'thought about' AFTER Martha mentioned his long hair being cut.)
Neighbors not seeing a 'little boy next' door should not have been enough for the police to drop the investigation. As we all know, there are many stories of abuse, kidnapping, etc where neighbors 'had no idea'. That was poor police work. Police mention in recent update (April) that the perpetrator could still be alive. In my opinion, not likely this is a 67 year old case, the boy would have been in his early to mid 70s. The perp would be in his/her 90s at best.

https://www.truecrimeedition.com/post/the-box-in-the-box
 
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