PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Mourners gathered on Saturday for a graveside tribute at Ivy Hill Cemetery in East Mount Airy, to commemorate what would have been the 71st birthday for Joseph Augustus Zarelli, known for decades as “The Boy in the Box.”
For 65 years, investigators worked to identify the little boy known as America’s unknown child. Investigators finally discovered his identity in 2022, thanks to both modern technology and genealogy records.
“It's very important to understand that with forensic genetic genealogy, even if we don't have any idea who this person is [or] their DNA is not in a database, we are able to construct a genealogy profile and figure out who this individual is,” said Dr. Michael Rieders.
Rieders is commissioner of the Vidocq Society, which offers pro bono assistance to law enforcement agencies on cold cases and buried Zarelli at Ivy Hill after he was identified. He says the tribute at Zarelli’s grave sends a message.
“Children and those who are victims of homicide, hundreds of thousands of them sadly in America, will not go unsolved, will not go uninvestigated,” Rieders said.
Former homicide detective Bob Kuhlmeier spent 15 years working to identify Zarelli, and admits the case was personal to him. “I live in the neighborhood where this boy was discovered,” Kuhlmeier shared, “so that story was a folklore story to me when I was 10 years old.”
Rieders believes this Philadelphia case captivated the nation, “because here's this little boy tragically found in a box deceased, and in terrible condition.”
And while Zarelli was only 4 years old when he was discovered in 1957, Vidocq Society chaplain John Mullineaux says the boy’s life — and death — had a purpose.
“Joseph Zarelli’s death, as horrible as it was and it's painful, led to children being watched better. The concern of children coming into school with bruises and bone breakage,” Mullineaux said. “Parents became more aware that there are not nice people out and you have to protect the weak from the evil.”
Most of those in attendance were connected in some way to the investigation, but showed up in the way a family member might show up to remember a loved one.
“Often victims don't have family,” said Kuhlmeier. “There's no one to step forward for them. So the homicide detectives fill that void.”