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Police press conference in Philadelphia: Papers with the blond boy's face were distributed across the city after the alleged murder
Photo: Matt Rourke/AP
In one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in the history of the US metropolis of Philadelphia, the investigators have made potentially decisive progress: the police identified the child's body found in 1957 as that of Joseph Augustus Zarelli, as the investigators announced on Thursday.
The case became known as "Boy in the Box".
The body was found in a cardboard box in what was then a rural area outside of Philadelphia.
"We may not arrest anyone"
DNA analysis led investigators to the identity of the boy.
Through this, relatives of the previously nameless boy were found and a birth certificate was also found.
The family came from the area west of Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania.
Zarelli was therefore born on January 13, 1953.
The parents are now dead, but a number of siblings are still alive.
The investigation into the murder case is not yet complete.
It is hoped that the publication of the name would lead to new clues.
However, investigators warned that the passage of time was making the task more difficult.
"It will be an uphill battle for us to finally determine who caused this child's death," said investigator Jason Smith.
“We may not arrest anyone.
We may never identify anyone.
But we will do our utmost to try.”
Investigations without breakthrough
The unclothed body of the then four-year-old boy was wrapped in a blanket and showed signs of being beaten several times when it was found more than 65 years ago.
"Cause of death was blunt trauma," a now-retired investigator told CBS in 2021.
In addition, the victim had been washed and had his hair cut.
The investigations, which dragged on for years, brought no breakthrough for a long time.
Papers with the blond boy's face were distributed all over the city to ask the population for help.
The child also became known as "America's Unknown Child" - as it is written on the boy's headstone in Philadelphia's Ivy Hill Cemetery.
The remains were last exhumed there in 2019 to take DNA samples, it said.
bbr/dpa/AP
