Unknown Joseph Zarelli Killer- Pennsylvania- 1957

The Press Conference announcing the boy’s name will be tomorrow at 11:00 EST. Additionally, it was just revealed the boy does still have family members in the area.

The boy has now been identified as Joseph Augustus Zarelli, born on Jan. 13, 1953. Anyone with information on his homicide is asked to call the Philadelphia Police Department at 215-686-TIPS(8477).

abcnews.go.com/US/boy-box-victim-finally-idd-philadelphias-oldest-homicide/story?id=94687156

The boy’s parents have not been named. There is speculation (I cannot confirm) that two individuals with obituaries online are indeed the parents. If they are, the father died in 2014, and the mother in 2018. They were NOT married at the time Joseph’s body was discovered. They married in 1959.

Assuming their remaining children (and they do have several children still around) were all born in wedlock, that would explain why the police implied that the children didn’t know about this (since they wanted to protect their privacy at the conference today).

If this is indeed what happened, I feel sick for those children of this couple. I am not going to name that couple here because the police didn’t identify them and I think their next of kin have suffered enough if the police were referring to their parents.

Sadly, I don’t think this little boy will have a single photograph of his existence other than the coroner’s photos, and that’s heartbreaking. I believe that’s the case because his parents never reported him missing, and he had been significantly abused. We also know he never had a Social Security number assigned to him. You know, the folks at the NCMEC deserve a ton of credit for their rendering. Their composite made Joseph look almost lifelike, and in my opinion, even though the main purpose of that composite was to identify Joseph, it helped give him some dignity he did not have in death.

You are right, Scumhunter: this little boy will finally have a marked grave. I hope the people of Philadelphia will take proper care of his burial site (I have a lot of confidence that they will), and I hope that plenty of people will visit his gravesite and give him the love and compassion he likely never received while alive.

Update: the parents have been identified by the Philadelphia Inquirer. I owe an apology to the family of the parents. New evidence indicates that Joseph was sent to an adoption agency. The family of the mother (who died in 1991), are absolutely adamant she would never have harmed Joseph. There is also evidence that his father may not have known he had a son. This article is from a different site:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11658871/amp/Parents-Phillys-boy-box-revealed-property-developer-beautiful-woman.html