HUNTER: Joseph Augustus Zarelli named as Boy in the Box murder victim

He is no longer known as America’s Unknown Child.

The four-year-old boy so viciously murdered on a cold February day 65 years ago has finally been given his name back.

He is Joseph Augustus Zarelli. Born on Jan.13, 1953.

The Boy in the Box has been one of America’s most elusive unsolved murders. A case that vexed and haunted generations of Philadelphia homicide detectives.

Cops never got much headway on Joseph’s killer despite heroic efforts over decades, because they could never identify him. That changed last week when cops said they had identified the boy.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle for us to definitively determine who caused this child’s death,” homicide Capt. Jason Smith told reporters.

“If this technology had been available to us 20 years ago, it might be a completely different story — because once you identify who the child is, you start (interviewing) family members. Well at this point in time, a lot of the family members who would have been old enough to have a memory of any incident that might have occurred are normally long gone.”

Smith would not go into detail about the boy’s family, only to say he had siblings on both sides of the family, and grew up in West Philadelphia.

On Feb. 25, 1957, around 10:40 a.m., the body of the little boy — believed to be between the ages of four and six — was found inside a cardboard JC Penney bassinet box in a wooded area of Philly’s Fox Chase neighbourhood.

The boy was naked and had been severely beaten. His body was covered in bruises and he had suffered severe head trauma. He was also severely malnourished, weighing just 30 lbs.

Despite relentless flier campaigns and press coverage, no one ever came forward to identify the little murder victim who became known as the Boy in the Box.

“There is a profound sadness,” Philly’s Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw told reporters. “His entire identity was taken away. No one should have to wait this long for the story of their life to be told.”

Joseph’s resting spot was in plot 191 in one of the city’s potter’s fields. Homicides detectives served as his pallbearers and paid for a headstone.

These tireless cops became the tragic little boy’s guardians, the parents he never had in life. And they desperately wanted to catch his killers.

In 1998, his body was exhumed with the purpose of extracting DNA. There wasn’t enough and he was reinterned, this time at Ivy Hill Cemetery — again, under the loving eyes of Philly’s homicide unit.

With forensic science changing every day, he was exhumed again in 2019. This time, genealogists used the boy’s DNA to research possible relatives and eventually established the identity of his birth parents.

No Social Security number was ever issued for Joseph, Smith added.

“This time detectives were able to locate relatives on the maternal side and identify his birth mother,” Smith said, explaining the paternal part of the equation followed.

Adding that the case remains an active investigation, Smith offered few details about the probe going forward. He noted that both the boy’s parents were dead and he would not release their names at this time.

“We have our suspicions as to who may be responsible, but it would be irresponsible of me to share these suspicions,” Smith said.

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Now, as they did in 1957, cops are turning to the media and the public for help. Smith said he expects an “avalanche of tips” now that detectives have put a name to Joseph’s broken, tiny body.

“In that avalanche, there might be a diamond in the rough,” Smith said. “I’m hopeful there is somebody … who remembers that child.”

Generations of Philly homicide detectives never gave up hope that one day they’d have the elusive answers they so desperately sought.

The presence of hope, thank god, hasn’t changed since that heartbreaking day in 1957.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun