Philadelphia residents gather to celebrate The Boy in the Box's 71st birthday

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Dozens of people gathered at Ivy Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia on Sunday to remember what would have been Joseph Augustus Zarelli's 71st birthday.

Zarelli, widely known as 'The Boy in the Box,' was just 4 years old when he was found badly bruised and inside a box in a wooded area of Philadelphia's Fox Chase neighborhood.


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It happened back in 1957.

Zarelli had been wrapped in a blanket and placed inside a large JCPenney bassinet box. Police say he was malnourished and he'd been beaten to death.

The case is one of Philadelphia's oldest unsolved homicides, and Zarelli's identity only became known in December 2022.
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Next month marks 67 years since the remains were discovered.



Police have previously said both of Zarelli's parents were dead by the time his identity was discovered, but he has living relatives.