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Four year old boy found dead in a box 65years ago identified
Posted on 12/8/22 at 3:49 pm
Posted on 12/8/22 at 3:49 pm
Joseph Augustus Zirelli's body was found one month after his 4th birthday.
Through maternal DNA his Mother was identified and his Father's name was on his birth certificate.
The police say three siblings are still alive.
Finding his mutilated body in a box shocked Philadelphia; no name was ever found back then and no one reported him missing.
Through maternal DNA his Mother was identified and his Father's name was on his birth certificate.
The police say three siblings are still alive.
Finding his mutilated body in a box shocked Philadelphia; no name was ever found back then and no one reported him missing.
Posted on 12/8/22 at 3:51 pm to real turf fan
quote:
no one reported him missing.
Found out who the murderers are in case they are still looking.
Holy shite things used to be more graphic.
This post was edited on 12/8/22 at 3:52 pm
Posted on 12/8/22 at 3:52 pm to real turf fan
Wow, can't wait to hear what the siblings have to say..
This post was edited on 12/8/22 at 5:53 pm
Posted on 12/8/22 at 3:58 pm to real turf fan
I remember coming across this while surfing Charley Project like 15 years ago. It's stuck with me and now I'm very happy to see him identified.
Now - as he was never reported missing, let's cut to the chase and name his piece of shite parents as the most likely suspects. I know they're dead so they got away with it, but this kid deserves this crime to be solved. Judging by the scars he had all over his body, it was a terrible and horrifying way for a 4 year old to die.
At least he has a name now, and it's Joseph Zirelli. God rest his little soul.
Now - as he was never reported missing, let's cut to the chase and name his piece of shite parents as the most likely suspects. I know they're dead so they got away with it, but this kid deserves this crime to be solved. Judging by the scars he had all over his body, it was a terrible and horrifying way for a 4 year old to die.
At least he has a name now, and it's Joseph Zirelli. God rest his little soul.
Posted on 12/8/22 at 4:09 pm to Giantkiller
I have a 4 year old son. I can't imagine ever hurting him. Some fricked up people out there, but at least the John Doe has a name.
Posted on 12/8/22 at 4:22 pm to real turf fan
quote:
and no one reported him missing.
this only happens when one of, or both the parents killed him 100% FACT
Posted on 12/8/22 at 4:23 pm to real turf fan
With DNA databases becoming what they are I wonder if we will ever have an unknown victim again.
Posted on 12/8/22 at 4:24 pm to keakar
(no message)
This post was edited on 2/9/23 at 4:05 pm
Posted on 12/8/22 at 4:31 pm to TigerIron
quote:
Or the siblings did.
yep, but then the parents have to know or they wouldnt have not reported him missing
someone in that family unit killed him and the parents know who it is
Posted on 12/8/22 at 4:33 pm to Areddishfish
quote:
Holy shite things used to be more graphic.
People used to be hard.
Now they are soft as cottage cheese.
Posted on 12/8/22 at 4:36 pm to keakar
quote:
someone in that family unit killed him and the parents know who it is
And at least one of the siblings knows the name of that tune.
Posted on 12/8/22 at 5:28 pm to Hangit
From most recent comments on that article in the Daily Mail linked above
quote:
From genealogy websites, it looks like the poor child had two siblings that died at or near birth in 1960 and 1961. And when his father died in 2014, it looks like there were 3 living siblings or half-siblings at the time.
Posted on 12/8/22 at 6:15 pm to real turf fan
According to FoxNews Philadelphia
Elsewhere it was reported last week that the family the boy had been a part of were well known in Delaware. Elsewhere a mention that the family were in construction.
FWIW
quote:
relatives from the boy's paternal side were contacted.
Elsewhere it was reported last week that the family the boy had been a part of were well known in Delaware. Elsewhere a mention that the family were in construction.
FWIW
Posted on 12/8/22 at 6:36 pm to real turf fan
Ive seen this boy’s case pop up so many times in true crime circles.
It is so so good that he finally has his name and some dignity back. I hope this leads to answers for relatives who may have had questions years ago but weren’t able to ask them. I hope any of the siblings or relatives that have information about what happened finally come forward with it. Joseph deserves his story to be told and for some form of justice.
It is so so good that he finally has his name and some dignity back. I hope this leads to answers for relatives who may have had questions years ago but weren’t able to ask them. I hope any of the siblings or relatives that have information about what happened finally come forward with it. Joseph deserves his story to be told and for some form of justice.
Posted on 12/8/22 at 6:38 pm to Water
Maybe some closure for someone? I hope so.
Posted on 12/8/22 at 6:41 pm to keakar
Was he given up for adoption or does the “M” story from early 2000s (?) figure into it? The one where he was purportedly sold to M’s mother. Some details of that story ring true. I suppose if a mother gave the child up for legit adoption at birth she wouldn’t have recognized him at age 4 and couldn’t be held responsible. But if she sold him, that’s another thing altogether. So very sad.
Edit: fixed typo
Edit: fixed typo
This post was edited on 1/20/23 at 1:50 pm
Posted on 12/8/22 at 6:49 pm to real turf fan
Twitter thread
People in comments saying that these two were married in 1959, after Joseph’s death, so this may not be his mother but that this is his father.
This post was edited on 12/8/22 at 6:53 pm
Posted on 12/9/22 at 3:11 am to Water
That Twitter has a lot of convolutions. Not resolutions.
Posted on 1/20/23 at 9:49 am to real turf fan
Philadelphia Inquirer
Still unanswered questions as to what happened to the child but new info from all too rare investigative journalism.
Still unanswered questions as to what happened to the child but new info from all too rare investigative journalism.
quote:
Betsy — that’s what everyone called her — liked skating, and dancing, and swooned over Italian boys, wearing out the needle on Frank Sinatra records at her home in the Tioga neighborhood of post-World War II Philadelphia. “She was a real beauty,” a close family member recalled this week. Gus was a concrete-and-stone mason, a hard worker in a proud family of Italian immigrants in West Philly. In spring 1952, Augustus J. “Gus” Zarelli and Mary Elizabeth “Betsy” Abel produced a child whose short, painful life, became one of Philadelphia’s greatest unsolved mysteries. The Inquirer, based on interviews with members of both families and sources close to the investigation, now knows that police believe that Zarelli and Abel are the parents of Joseph Augustus Zarelli, a child known for 65 years only as “The Boy in the Box.”
quote:
Betsy would have been 21 when Joseph was born Jan. 13, 1953. The close relative, who asked not to be identified, said she could have put him up for adoption because she had done that before, with a daughter. The Inquirer has been unable to confirm whether someone adopted Joseph. A police spokesperson declined to comment on The Inquirer’s findings.
quote:
Mary Elizabeth “Betsy” Abel graduated from Murrell Dobbins Career & Technical Education High School in North Philly in 1949 and, like most graduates at the time, was quickly thrust into adulthood. A couple of years after she was planning proms, she was dealing with a pregnancy. A daughter was born in 1950 and immediately put up for adoption. The relative believes a Catholic organization handled it. Abel went on to become a cashier at the Goldman Theater, one of Center City’s late, great movie houses, on 15th Street. John J. Plunkett, a man she’d later marry, according to her obituary, was its manager. The relative does not recall her pregnancy at the time but expressed doubt that she was involved in the mistreatment or death of Joseph. “Betsy? No way in the world,” the relative said. “There was no cruelty, no meanness or cruelty that swelled within her heart and soul.”
quote:
The media, along with internet sleuths and genealogists, quickly discovered the small, tight-knit family in the region. Gus Zarelli’s four children have not responded to repeated requests for comment, but on Thursday, Dan Bush, a West Chester attorney representing them, said in a statement to The Inquirer that both Gus and his family have been “attacked in every possible social media outlet, suggesting the most awful of things, all of which are baseless.” “Each of his children is extraordinarily sympathetic to the death of this young boy, and horrified by the events that are being discussed,” Bush said in the statement. “However, until recently, they had never heard of any of this. They have never been shown anything that links their father or any member of their family to this.” The Inquirer confirmed that Gus Zarelli’s niece submitted DNA that matched Joseph’s. Before that, Abel’s relatives had uploaded their DNA for genealogical research. Misty Gillis, a forensic genetic genealogist and cold-case liaison with Identifinders International, built out Betsy’s extended family tree. Eventually, police came knocking on doors to talk to her relatives. They asked about the five Abel sisters, including Betsy. Who was pregnant and when? What, if any, connection did they have to West Philly? The close relative of Betsy’s, who declined to be identified, said the Abel family learned the investigation was about the Boy in the Box only 48 hours before the news conference. “I was stunned,” the relative said. “I remembered the story. We used to get utility bills with his face on it, asking if anyone recognized him.”
quote:
What remains unclear, for now, is how or where Zarelli met Abel, whether he knew she’d been pregnant and had a child. He was five years older and living in the Callowhill home with his family when the 1950 census was taken. Abel’s relative said one of her sisters may have lived in West Philadelphia. Abel did, too, the relative said, on the second floor of a walk-up apartment with Plunkett and their daughter, who was born in December 1956. The couple later moved to Ruffner Street in Nicetown. Plunkett drove a cab. They had four children together, one of them dying in childbirth. Gus Zarelli went on to marry in 1958, leaving Callowhill Street. The family’s businesses blossomed into a lucrative construction and real estate operation in Chester County, where most of his children still live. By all accounts, he was beloved by his children, well-respected by peers, and showed signs of grace in difficult times.
quote:
On Jan. 13, some paternal relatives of Joseph attended a rededication of his headstone at Ivy Hill Cemetery. Some of them are trying to do their own research into the case. “Our family was blindsided by this,” one family member said at the grave. “We want to honor him by finding out his entire story. We want to put a real closure to the story.” Abel’s relative said she later worked at Crown Can company and other warehouses on Erie Avenue. She died in 1991 as Mary E. “Betsy” Plunkett after a “prolonged illness,” according to her obituary. Her relative said she died of lung cancer, likely from asbestos exposure. “She was kind and quiet,” the relative said. The death of Joseph A. Zarelli, who was 4, remains an active homicide investigation.
Posted on 1/20/23 at 9:58 am to lachellie
Find A Grave
Biological mother’s obituary from 1991. Census records indicate her father was from Alabama and I read last night that was where she died, but buried in Pennsylvania. (I didn’t see a source for her place of death, just Reddit.)
Interestingly, the Snellgrove Civitan Center in Gadsden, AL serves mentally handicapped people. There has been speculation that JAZ might have had a mental or developmental handicap.
Biological mother’s obituary from 1991. Census records indicate her father was from Alabama and I read last night that was where she died, but buried in Pennsylvania. (I didn’t see a source for her place of death, just Reddit.)
Interestingly, the Snellgrove Civitan Center in Gadsden, AL serves mentally handicapped people. There has been speculation that JAZ might have had a mental or developmental handicap.
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