[ohorribleworld]

An innocent baby. Hope the perpetrator is tortured in hell.

[weekendpyro]

They finally solved the case! I was going to share a picture, but I don't know how lol

[sophia1993]

Update! The boy in the box has been identified. His name is joseph augustus zarelli.

https://www.inquirer.com/news/live/b...outputType=amp

[Pyramid_Head]

In Nov. 2021 I said I doubt they would ever solve it and now here in Dec. 2022 I'm very happy to be eating my words.

Both of his birth parents are dead as expected, let's hope the murderer is alive to face some form of punishment. I'm happy this child finally got his name back after 66 years!

[SavageGlow]

I never dared to hope this could be solved in my lifetime.

It feels like every mystery has a possible attainable unraveling at the tip of our fingers.

[sarahowen662]

I'm pretty certain the parents are Augustus (Snr) Joseph Zarelli & Cynthia (nee Pashko) were responsible.

The children they had:
Peter (1952)
Joseph (1953-1957)
Augutus L (1959)
Baby Michael (1960-1960)
Baby (unnamed) (1961-1961)
Jeanette (1962)
Cynthia (1965)

All children can be traced via ancestral trees, public records etc, including the two dead babies, except for Jospeh who apart from the birth cert, has no other recorded entries anywhere. He simply vanished.

Augustus Snr also had a brother Michael (1928-2007) who also had children (all lived and can be traced).

There is the thought that he was born to an unwed mother at the local school for wayward girls. Thinking about this route, Augustus Snr had two sisters who were obviously born Zarellis as well, but this train of thought is quickly ruled out as Palma Zarelli (1919-1982) and Catherine Zarelli (1922-2011) were both married, settled and had kids of their own before little Josephs birth and the female children from these two were only a few years old themselves.

The other train thought was that he was from a foster home. If this was the case, surely the parents or authorities would have known he had been missing and filed a report. And if he was fostered, why was he but not his older brother Peter?

The only other plausible possibility is 'M' of Ohio, claimed that her abusive mother purchased the unknown boy from his birth parents in the summer of 1954, subjected him to extreme physical and sexual abuse for two and a half years, and then killed him in a fit of rage, by slamming him to the floor after he vomited in the bathtub.
When questioned by police in 2002, she told them that she had lived in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania in the 1950's (at the time of Josephs birth & death, Augustus & Cynthis lived in Callowhill, a few kms away).
Her parents were both employed by the Lower Merion school district. Her mother was a librarian and her father was a science teacher. She told the investigators that the unknown boy's name was "Jonathan". She said that "Jonathan" was very frail, mentally handicapped, and could not speak (of 7 children born to Augustus & Cynthia, 2 definetely had some malformations, handicaps etc at birth, as they died after only a few hours - Michael of multiple congenital defects and lung atelectasis and un-named baby (see photo attached) so its possible that Joseph also had some issues.
She told the investigators, in August 1954, when she was 10, her mother drove her to a home, where she picked the boy up in exchange for an envelope which she assumed contained money. She claimed that her mother regularly sexually abused her and purchased "Jonathan" so that she could sexually abuse him, as well.
For two and a half years, "Jonathan" was raised in squalor in the basement of the Lower Merion home. He slept in an empty refrigerator box amid dusty coal bins and used a floor drain as his toilet. "Jonathan" was never allowed to go outside or even be seen by visitors to the home.
According to "M", after her mother killed "Jonathan" in February 1957, she cut his long hair to conceal his identity. "M" trimmed the boy's nails. Then they wrapped the boy's nude body in an old blanket, placed it in the trunk of their car, and drove into Philadelphia, looking for a suitable place to dump the body. "M" said that they eventually arrived at Susquehanna Road, a narrow, secluded country lane in the sparsely-settled Fox Chase section of northern Philadelphia. It was ideally suited for their purpose. "M" recalled that, as she and her mother were preparing to remove the boy's body from the trunk, a male driver unexpectedly stopped and asked them if they were having car trouble. They quickly turned their backs to the man, and said nothing. They were careful to block the man's view of the license plate on their car. After a few anxious moments that must have seemed like an eternity, the man continued on his way. ("M's" account almost exactly matched the confidential testimony of the anonymous male witness who had originally reported this incident to the police in 1957.) After the man drove away, "M" and her mother removed the boy's body from the trunk and placed it in a large cardboard box that they found at the scene.
Investigators checked but could find no evidence to support M's story and the fact she had some mental problems, all but completely discounted it. (If what she said is true about the abuse, then its no wonder she had some mental health problems)

If 'M' is right and it was in fact Jospeh that she remembers, why did none of the Zarelli family (Gus Snrs and Cynthia siblings and parents) not think it was strange that Cynthia had been pregnant, carried to term and then suddenly the child dissapeared?

On he other hand, if her story/recollection was in no way connected, little Joseph had an older brother - if he had in fact stayed with the parents until his death at nearly 4 years of age, surely his older brother would have remembered him?
The only conclusion i can think is that he did stay with his parents, who abused and beat him (possibly because he had some health issues - see the link attached for the case summary) and told the family he had died. (although not sure how they would have got away with it without a burial)

Full case summary is here
http://www.americasunknownchild.net/summary.htm

Ive tried to read the cause of death for un-named baby Zarelli but im at a loss

[ilovecops32]

Originally Posted by Pyramid_Head ↗

I'd be shocked if they manage to solve this one.

Consider yourself shocked because they found out who the kid was. Didn’t necessarily “solve” the case tho. His name was Joseph Zirelli I believe

[evabraun]

As of December, 2022, this little boy has his name back - Joseph Augustus Zarelli. Both birth parents are deceased. It's sounding like birth father and mother were not married. Both birth parents went on to have subsequent families and spouses. Unclear yet if boy was just given away or adopted out...to abuse. Bless his little heart. Half-siblings and other relatives are living. Birth father's family (Zarelli) is denying little Joseph is their half-brother. DNA doesn't lie.

[IdyGal]

He's been Identified as Joseph Augustus Zarelli, 4 years old.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...-old-rcna60630

[jesuswept]

sarahowen662
Thanks for all your work looking into this case!!
I think the cause of death written on the Certificate of Death is prematurity.