Joseph Zarelli

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Boy in the Box
Discovered	February 25, 1957
Unidentified for	67 years
Sex	Male
Location	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Age	3-7
Race	White
Height	3' - 3'3
Weight	30 pounds
Body condition	Recognizable face(B)
Postmortem interval	2 days - 3 weeks
Cause of death	Beating

Boy in the Box (also known as America's Unknown Child and The Fox Chase Boy) is the nickname given to a boy found murdered in the Fox Chase area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1957.

In 2021, a break was announced in the case by authorities that genealogy research would begin after exhuming his body for DNA.

Case

Due to the cool weather, a time of death could only be given between a couple of days to a few weeks. However, due to the rain between the week of February 18-25 (and the lack of water damage to the card board box he was discovered in), it is hypothesized he was killed in the timeframe of the earlier estimate.

The child's body was found nude, wrapped in a Native American style blanket cut in half. He was placed in a cardboard box, which led to his nickname. The body was found by a college student walking around in the area. He waited an entire day to call police, due to the fact that he was stalking women, and didn't want to get arrested. It turned out that another man who was looking at his illegal cage, found the body first, but never told police. The boy had been beaten severely, as many bruises were visible on his body. Severe bruising of the face pointed to blunt force trauma as the cause of death.

Despite an exhausting investigation of countless leads by police and high publicity of the case, the boy still remains unidentified, and the case is considered cold. However, there exists a 24-hour hotline to a special task force in charge of the case to provide tips, and callers can remain anonymous if they wish.

Exclusions

• Frederick Holmes
• Steven Damman

Gallery

NCMEC reconstruction

Reconstruction by M.A. Ludwig

Sketch of the child as a girl by Frank Bender

Reconstruction by Joseph McGillen

McGillen's sketch depicting long hair

4UMPA19.jpg

Boy in the Box2.jpg

Death mask

Sculpture of man possibly seen with child

Sketch of man reportedly seen with the child

Blanket

Color photo of blanket sample

Original image of cap

Color version of cap (unknown if enhanced)

Shipping label

Original headstone

The Face of America's Unknown Child (Artistic Reconstruction)

Reconstruction process by M.A. Ludwig (contains postmortem photos)

Media

• His case appeared on America's Most Wanted

Sources

• Boy in the Box on Wikipedia ^{GRAPHIC POSTMORTEM WARNING}
• Joseph Zarelli at the Doe Network
• Joseph Zarelli at NamUs ^{GRAPHIC POSTMORTEM WARNING}
• Joseph Zarelli at NCMEC
• Website ^{GRAPHIC POSTMORTEM WARNING}
• CBS Local ^{GRAPHIC POSTMORTEM WARNING}
• CBS Local