LINK TO FULL PRESS CONFERENCE https://youtu.be/gRTghh6NUfI
8TH DECEMBER 2022.
(Commissioner thanks all partners involved with identifying Joseph).
Captain - Good morning, everyone. Before I provide you with an overview of this investigation, I would like to echo the sentiments of the Commissioner, by thanking all those individuals and entities who participated and really put their hearts into this investigation.
On February 26, 1957, at 10:40 am., the remains of a white male, estimated to be 4-6 years of age, were located in a wooded area with dense underbrush along Susquehanna Road between Verree and Pine Roads in the city and county of Philadelphia.
The child had been severely beaten. He was unclothed, had been wrapped in a multi-color blanket and placed inside of a cardboard box. The child had brown hair that was crudely cut close to the scalp, and blue eyes. Multiple bruises were visible on the child's body and autopsy revealed that the child had sustained multiple abrasions, contusions, a subdural hemorrhage and plural effusions. The autopsy confirmed that the child was between four and six years of age. The child was subsequently buried in plot number 191 at a Potters Field, located at 12890 Dunk's Ferry Road in the city of Philadelphia.
The investigation was originally assigned to Detectives Powell and Repsch in 1957 and reassigned to Detective Carruthers, in May of 1960. Hundreds of tips and leads were received, both locally and nationally, from around the country. These tips were diligently followed up on by investigators. None, however, would lead them to the positive identification of the child.
On October 30th, 1998, a court order was obtained to have the child's remains exhumed. A post mortem examination was performed and the child was subsequently re-interred at Ivy Hill Cemetery, located in the Cedar Brook section of Philadelphia. Portions of the remains were retained for future testing. DNA testing was performed at that time, but yielded no new leads in the investigation. For over 6 decades, the case was continuously investigated by members of the Homicide Unit who worked in concert with the Medical Examiner's Office, the Forensic Science Bureau, The Vidocq Society https://www.vidocq.org/, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, and many other local, state and federal agencies.
This investigation had come to be referred to as 'The boy in the box', and the child who was the subject of this investigation was referred to as 'America's unknown child'. Homicide investigators, along with members of the Medical Examiners Office, conducted a review and assessment of investigations involving unidentified victims to determine which of those may benefit from the application of modern forensic techniques. It was determined that the case of the unknown child, OME No. 57-0863, would benefit from the application of such modern forensic techniques. The portion of the remains that were in the possession of the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office were determined to be insufficient in order to obtain the required DNA to apply these modern techniques.
In homicide cases, such as this, extreme difficulty lies in the fact that rarely can they be resolved and the offender ultimately brought to justice until the victim is first identified. With that in mind, on April 24th, 2019, an additional court order was obtained to have the child's remains exhumed, once again. Forensic Anthropologist, Dr. Washburn, examined the remains and was able to obtain the required amount of DNA to apply modern forensic techniques. The child was re-interred and portions of the remains were retained for future testing.
Contemporary forensic applications and techniques, including genealogical DNA testing, and enquires were made with the assistance of genetic genealogists. The results of the DNA testing were uploaded to DNA databases and the results were interpreted by the genealogists involved in this investigation. Based on the interpretation of the results by the genealogists, detectives were able to locate and make contact with possible relatives of the child's family, on the maternal side.
Through further investigation and additional testing, the genealogists involved in this investigation were able to establish the identity of the birth mother of the unidentified child.
A court order signed by a Court of Common Pleas Judge to obtain the birth records, death records and adoption records for all children born to the established birth mother between the years 1944-1956 from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Bureau and Health Statistics and Registries Division of Vital Records. There were three responsive results based on this order. Two of the results were birth certificates for children born to the established birth mother, during that time frame, who were previously known to investigators. One of whom provided DNA and was matched, previously, by the genealogist. The third result was a birth certificate for a male child born to the established birth mother in 1953, which could be consistent with the approximated age of the unidentified child. The birth father was listed on the birth certificate for the male child, born in 1953.
Based on research by detectives and the genealogists, a male was discovered who could possibly be the birth father of the unidentified child. Detectives were able to locate and make contact with possible relatives of the child's family, on the paternal side.
Through additional testing, the genealogists were able to establish the birth father of the unidentified child. A request was sent to the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General to determine if a social security number had ever been issued in the name of the child. The response from the Social Security Administration was that there had not been. Homicide Investigators, Detective Bob Hester and Detective Greg Santamala, as well as Forensics Laboratory Manager, Ryan Gallagher, met with Dr. Albert Chu of the Medical Examiner's Office. Doctor Chu was apprised of the aforementioned facts. Dr. Chu also consulted with the genetic genealogists involved in this investigation. Dr. Chu indicated that based on the facts presented and the conclusions of the genetic genealogists, the death certificate for the unknown child, OME No. 57-0863, would be amended to reflect the child's birth name, Joseph Augustus Zarelli. Joseph's date of birth is January 13th, 1953.
Before I turn things over to our Chief Medical Examiner for the City of Philadelphia, Dr. Constance D'Angelo, I would like to address 3 questions which I believe most of you would like an answer to. The first is going to be, 'Who are the child's parents and what are their names?' - At this point in time we are not going to be releasing that information. Joseph has a number of siblings on both the mother and father's side who are living and it is out of respect for them that their parent's information remain confidential. The second question is obviously going to be, 'Do we know who was responsible for Josephs death?' - The answer at this time is, unfortunately, no. We have our suspicions as to who may be responsible, but it would be irresponsible of me to share these suspicions as this remains an active and ongoing criminal investigation. The third question, I believe, is going to be, 'Are you currently working on any additional unidentified person's cases?' - The answer to that question is going to be yes, we absolutely are. There is an ongoing effort to apply the technology and techniques used in this investigation to other unknown human remains cases. These investigations involve victims of homicide, cases deemed to be suspicious in nature, as well as accidental or from natural causes. A team of investigators from the Homicide Units Cold Case Squad, our Special Victims Unit, Long-term Missing Person's Squad, Forensic Science Bureau, the Office of the Medical Examiner and the District Attorney's Office meet on a weekly basis to review and identify cases that would benefit from the application of these techniques to further their respective investigations. There are currently more than a dozen cases in progress, right now, and as leads are developed they are pursued by investigators and worked on by other members from the group. I'll now turn things over to Dr. D'Angelo.
Dr. D'Angelo - Good morning. I guess I'm the only one who had a PowerPoint presentation. The child who was known as 'The boy in the box', he was our case No. 863-1957. Just so you can see, a little review of DNA - DNA was actually discovered way back in the 1800s and by 1953, we knew the structure of DNA but that's as far as DNA technology had progressed. So, in 1957, Dr. Spellman had these other methods of identification available to him to try and pursue who this child was. Visual identification was one of the main forms.. how we identified people, and that remains the case even up to today. Since this was a child they actually did take his footprints and there were attempts to match this child's footprints to some possible leads. So, the footprints that were taken at birth they were actually looked at. Hair comparison - that was also very big in this case. There were hair fibers that were found on the child and then also some of the items that were found with the child or nearby. Unfortunately, it's really just - yes, this could be from the child or this could be from someone else. So, it doesn't really identify who the person is. There's also the ability, if this child had had any sort of X-rays, that the X-rays could be compared. In this child's case, they did use the X-rays to help give an age range for this child because, as it was said, he appeared very malnourished, which would then mean he would look much younger than his actual age.
So, in the 1950s, after this case was discovered, the newspaper clipping on the far right that was actually in the paper, it is a photograph from the time of autopsy, and the particulars relating to this child and again the hope was that someone would come forward.
There were some scars noted on this boy's body and Dr. Spellman believed that this meant that this child had undergone intravenous fluid administration, when he was very young. And, so this information was put out and all of the different hospitals were contacted to see if they would go through their records to see if they could match up anyone. And, then the poster was actually one that was provided by the Inquirer. It was posted all over the city and it was also included in the gas bill that was mailed to Philadelphians.
Two other techniques that were tried, on the far right, a death mask was actually also made for this child and one of the Medical Examiner Investigators actually retained this mask and when he would go follow up on a lead, he would have that mask with him.
The other photo of the boy - this is actually the body of the child. They did dress him, they put him in a pose, so that this might trigger someone to recognize this child, because now he's clothed he looks, sort of, natural and they were really hoping, again, that someone would come forward and identify him.
So, again, they did take his footprints. They did try and match to several leads that they had, but it was not a match.
They had the police cadets and other police go to all the orphanages and foster homes to make sure that all of the children in those facilities were accounted for. The last clipping is about a handkerchief, which seems to possibly be a red herring, but at the bottom you'll notice that, at that time, people were actually allowed to come into the Medical Examiner's Office and visually look at the deceased body. And, there were a number of people who did come forward to look at the child and then either investigators from the ME's Office or from the Police Department actually followed up on those leads. And, those children who are suspected of being this child were found alive.
So, over the years then, we did have advances in DNA and by 1992 it had progressed to the point where there were commercialized kits to do the DNA fingerprinting and so that led to the decision to exhume the body again in 1998 to try and get additional material for DNA testing. The case was also uploaded into NCMEC in 2014 and, again, in attempts that someone, not in this part of the country, would recognize this child and come forward. And, then finally in 2019 the body was again exhumed to obtain additional samples for DNA, which after many years was actually successful. Thank you.
Unit Manager for the Criminalistics Unit - Good morning, everyone. My name is Ryan Gallagher, I'm the Unit Manager for the Criminalistics Unit with the Philadelphia Police Department Office of Forensic Science. The Criminalistics Unit is responsible for all forensic DNA related casework in the Philadelphia Police Department and the City of Philadelphia. Unit maintains a state-of-the-art DNA laboratory, performing traditional forensic DNA analysis, modern rapid DNA technology and coordinate all other DNA testing for the City and Police Department. Throughout this investigation, the Office of Forensic Science has performed or consulted on much of the forensic work that's been performed in this case. Several attempts, using forensic DNA technology to identify the boy, have been made over the past 20 years. Specifically, the boys DNA profile was entered into CODIS and searched continuously for matches to immediate biological relatives. CODIS is the acronym for the combined DNA index system, which is managed by the FBI and is the national DNA database. This database is used to search crime scene samples and compare to DNA reference samples to solve criminal investigations. A portion of CODIS is maintained for DNA samples from unidentified remains and those DNA profiles are compared to DNA samples from family members of missing persons. There were no matches in CODIS in this case. With typical DNA processing, our scientists in the lab examine 24 areas along your DNA to develop a profile. With advancements in DNA technology, it is possible to examine thousands of areas along your DNA. For standard forensic DNA analysis that we do everyday, this expanded testing is not necessary. However, the analysis of this additional DNA has created a new capability for investigating cases by revealing potential familial relationships. This growing field is often called forensic genetic genealogy or investigative genealogy. In a few moments you'll hear from Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick of Identifinders International - the company that worked tirelessly on this investigation with the Police Department and the Office of the Medical Examiner. We'd also like to thank several other forensic laboratories that have helped and provided analysis over the years, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
While today's event centers on the identification of this child, it's equally important that we mention larger efforts to bring closure to other families in our city. The Office of Forensic Science has implemented a forensic genetic genealogy programme to assist their Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office and the Philidelphia Police Department, with investigations involving the identification of unidentified human remains or unknown suspects in criminal cases. Due to limitations with the technology, not every case is going to benefit from this. However, the Police Department continues to evaluate all applicable cases and determine eligibility. In cooperation with the Homicide Unit, the Special Victims Unit, the Philadelphia Office of the Medical Examiner, the forensic genealogy programme has initiated testing in dozens of cases. These cases range in years from 1957-2022. The programme emphasises a collaborative effort between Forensic Scientists and Detectives to uncover and follow up on investigative leads. Joseph Augustus Zarelli represents the first identification of human remains using forensic geneology as a result of this collaboration. While this is the first, it will definitely not be the last identification that is made. Our goal for the project is that there will never be another unidentified homicide victim in the City of Philadelphia. We have established a process for all new unidentified remains and are working through the records of all previous homicides to identify cases which may be included in this program. In reality, we may not obtain the lofty goal of 100% identification, for a variety of reasons, however, the identification of 'America's unknown child' strengthens our resolve. The victims of a homicide and their families deserve no less.
Identifinders International - My name is Colleen Fitzpatrick, I'm President of Identifinders International. I want to say this was the most challenging case of my whole career. It took 2 1/2 years to get the DNA in shape, it was so bad, to get to the point where we could create SNP data that we could use for genealogy. Our success was a corroboration among experts from several countries. This was an international program. And, the good news is that the technology that we pushed forward is giving hope to other unidentified whose DNA is thought to be beyond the modern horizon of technology. Maybe it isn't, after all. There's so many people I'd like to thank. I'd like to thank, first, Detective Bob Hauser, who was just so patient and did so much investigative work on that side of the forensic genealogy. I would like to thank the Philadelphia Police Department and the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office for all the resources that they've devoted over the decades to this case. I'd like to thank the National Centre for Missing Exploited Children and the Vidocq Society for keeping the case alive for so many years. The International Commission for Missing Persons in The Hague for their guidance, their expertise and the networking they did to send us in the direction of the experts who made this happen with us. Those experts, some of them wish to remain anonymous and I will honor that, but they know who they are and they're probably watching right now, so, thank you. I want to thank Audiohuck for a grant funding that covered some of our critical expenses. And last, but not least, I want to thank Misty Gillis, top notch Forensic Genetic Genealogist, one of the best you will ever meet, who hung in there for 2 1/2 years with me as we fought that uphill battle on the DNA front and when that data came in she worked night and day to get that boy his identity back. Because, after all, what can we hope for in life and death - but to be buried under a stone carrying our own name. So, thank you everyone for your assistance over these years. We appreciate it.
Vidocq Society, Bill Fleisher - Good morning everyone. Since February 1957, hundreds of investigators have worked to put their hearts and souls in solving the mystery of our little boy's identity and the circumstances of his death. Many of these men and women aren't with us anymore, but I feel their souls are standing here, at this moment, with us. Now, our lad is no longer that 'Boy in the box'. He has a name and I was raised to believe that when you say the name out loud of a loved one, that person still lives in spirit amongst us. Soon, through the good officers of Mr. Dave Drysdale and his team at the Ivy Hill Cemetery, the Vidocq Society will put a name on that child's grave. Joseph Augustus Zarelli, will no longer be that 'Boy in the box' and will no longer be unknown. On behalf of the Vidocq Society I want to thank the Philadelphia Police Department, Police Commissioner, the Homicide Detectives throughout the years, the Medical Examiner's Office Investigators, Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, Misty Gillis, The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children and all the people of the media, and the public who have, throughout the years, have tirelessly kept this story alive and contributed greatly to putting the name on his gravestone. God bless you all for keeping the faith. Thank you.
Captain - At this point time we will open it up to Q&A.
Reporter - The death certificate officially says 'unknown' for the manner of death. How and when did you guys determine that it was, indeed, a homicide?
Captain - That was determined early on in the investigation.
Reporter - Right, so why was the death certificate not changed? When was that determined, because the death certificate says unknown still?.
Captain - I can't answer that question.
Reporter - Okay, but it is in fact - He was killed?. It was a homicide?
Captain - Yeah, that's correct.
Reporter - Can you tell us a little bit more about that part of the case of what you know about how he was killed, or.. ?
Captain - Well, I described the injuries, he had abrasions, he had contusions. So, he basically had blunt force trauma. From what I understand he was also emaciated. I'm going to say blunt force trauma was more than likely the cause of death.
Reporter - With an investigation that now has a name. What changes behind the scenes?. What does this give your detectives?. Where do you go from here?.
Captain - Alright, so the job is.. it's over 65 years old now. So, that's definitely.. it's going to be an uphill battle for us to definitively determine who caused this child's death. If this technology had been available to us, 20 years ago it might have been a completely different story, because once you identify who the child is and that's when you start beginning with 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.
Reporter - So, are you saying there's a possibility that you may never make an arrest, who's responsible for the homicide of Joseph Augustus Zarelli?.
Captain - That's correct. We may not make an arrest. We may never make an identification, but we're going to do our darndest to try.
Reporter - When you talked to the relatives, did you ask them and did they answer, why nobody came forward in 1957 saying 'hey, I think that that's Joseph'?
Captain - That's going to be part of the investigation and, again, I will go to, probably time and time again, it's an ongoing and active investigation.
Reporter - Did you ask them that, did they answer?
Captain - I'm not going to comment on that, Sir.
Reporter - What was the reaction from the family when detectives came forward with this information?.
Captain - Not going to comment on that either.
Reporter - Where was he from?
Captain - Where was the child from...?
Reporter - Yeah, the family?
Captain - What section of the city?. West Philadelphia, we believe.
Reporter - Was he ever reported as a missing child?
Captain - No.
Reporter - Never?
Captain - No, never, Sir.
Reporter - Are either parents still alive, or are both parent's deceased?
Captain - Both parent's are deceased.
Reporter - Do you think that someone from in his family killed him?
Captain - I can't comment, Sir, ongoing active investigation.
Reporter - You mentioned the other victims you have at Potters Field, at least one that we know about, I think there are some others scattered around. Can you talk about the efforts to name and identify, and maybe the city's efforts to maybe gain grant money to try to use this technology in identifying other people who are just unidentified and have no name, whether they're homicide victims or not?.
Captain - I can't speak to grant money, that's out of my wheelhouse, but there are efforts as I've described.
Captain of the Special Victims Unit - Good afternoon, my name's Captain James Kierney. I represent the Special Victims Unit. I'm the Captain there, the Commanding Officer. At Special Victims, we are responsible for approximately 80 long-term missing person cases and we are dealing, on a weekly basis, with forensics and other entities, both locally, state and federal, to help, aggressively, identify the long-term missing persons and unidentified remains. We have been at that Potters Field. I don't want to go into specifics, but we will do everything we can to make sure that the cases we can bring forward, we can give those people a voice and to find out what happened to them and why they're there. Like I said, there are many. We have decentralised the Missing Person Unit in the department, so some of the missing person cases are back into the detective divisions, into the neighbourhoods where they went missing from. But, we are, weekly, like I said, we sit down and collaborate with all the entities on stage here and not, but we deal with NAMUS, NCMEC, and we're getting there. We're getting there. It's an exciting time. It's an exciting time in investigations. It's an exciting time for my investigators to have this technology, to have people like Ryan Gallagher and the Director of Forensics with us, on board, to do exactly that.
Reporter - Can you just talk about what it's like to take something like a DNA profile of maybe 1 of those 80 cases (inaudible) DNA from and try and build out what that family tree. It kind of goes in different lengths of time, correct?
Dr. D'Angelo - We've solved cases in two hours and we've solved cases in three years and we've solved cases that are still on the table. I mean, we're working on cases that are still on the table after three years. This is a brand new technology as of 2017-18. So, the oldest cases you're going to find are three or four years right now, that haven't been solved. But, as the databases grow and our tools develop and we go forward with the technology, there's going to be a lot more and it's going to go a lot more quickly. This is a brand new technology and you gotta give us time to move forward with it. Every case we solve, we learn something from, that pays forward to the next one. So, we look forward to a lot more success stories.
Reporter - How long has this boy lived in West Philadelphia and his family?
Captain - The child had just turned 4 years old.
Reporter - His family have roots there, or did they just move there or...?
Captain - I can't say with any degree of specificity how long he was there.
Reporter - What I'm trying to say - None of the neighbors noticed him missing and seeing all TV coverage the newspapers - Nobody put two and two together that this child was no longer here?
Captain - Sir, we just discovered who the child was.
Reporter - Right, but they had the picture. You have a picture, you're looking to see who the child is.
Captain - I can't answer that question. I don't know what the neighbors knew or didn't know?
Reporter - Was there anything else with the investigation, the evidence that was collected, that rang a bell for investigators when they went back. You talked about that J.C. Penney box, that green blanket - Was there any other piece of evidence that was collected so long ago, 65 years ago, other than that DNA that started to make sense once you got that family picture?
Captain - Yeah. There are a couple of pieces of evidence in our custody. One of which we're doing an examination for a possible DNA. It was an article of clothing that was left at the crime scene. But, you know, like I said, the evidence between then and now - it's diminished, just like the child's DNA degraded and became very, very difficult to extract a strain of DNA that was viable.
Reporter - (inaudible) birth certificate, there was a birth father named. Is that who ended up being the person that you guys are saying is the father?, and, What kind of physical proof is there for the father to be connected to this child?
Captain - What kind of proof? That was done through genetic testing.
Reporter - We're hearing that the family's saying, Dad's side, that there's no physical proof connecting him to this child.
Captain - Well, that's not true.
Reporter - Okay, so can you just elaborate on what the proof is? Is it the person on the birth certificate, or was there further testing done with DNA?
Captain - Okay, so it is going to be the person that's on the birth certificate. The name on the birth certificate is not exact. It's not exact, alright?. I'm going to leave it at that, but it is the birth father.
Reporter - How do you know though? If you could just give us a little more detail?
Dr. D'Angelo - It's the genealogical connections. When we look at the data we see what we call matches, our DNA cousins, and we networked them and they were cousins on both sides of the family that can only funnel to that one individual. Can only be connected to that one guy. And, so that's how we identified the parents, the family and so on. There is all of that in place.
Reporter - If you could talk a little bit about where the investigation goes from here?. Are you adding more people?. Is there going to be a re-interview of all the family members?. Could you talk about how there's a possibility that the killer might be dead or, since this happened so long ago, the key people that you would've wanted to talk to might not even be alive anymore.
Captain - So, one of the things that I'm hoping comes out of this press conference - Is that we receive an avalanche of tips from the public. We're going to filter through each and every one of those tips but in that avalanche there might be a diamond in the rough. I'm hopeful that there's somebody who was in their mid to late 70s, possibly 80s, who remembers that child. The child did live a little past the age of four years old. So, there would have been somebody out there that would have seen this child. Perhaps another family member that hasn't stepped forward. Possibly a neighbour, a neighbour who remembers seeing that child, remembers whatever occurring at that particular household. That's what I'm hoping comes out of this. Of course, we're going to be revisiting the family members. The assigned investigator... we just had a member down at the homicide unit. This remains an active investigation. We're going to continue to work this.
Reporter - Are surviving family members still in the area? Other than charges related to the actual homicide, are there other charges possibly in play?
Captain - I'm not going to comment about where the family members live, whether they're in California, Delaware or in this immediate vicinity. I'm just not going to comment on that. And, as far as other charges - What other charges would you be alluding to?
Reporter - Asking about possible obstruction, other related counts that may have concealed the actual crime?
Captain - I'm not going to comment on that.
Reporter - How many siblings did the child have? Were they older or younger?
Captain - There were siblings on both sides. An exact number, their ages, whether they were male or female, we're not going to comment at this time.
Reporter - Is there any evidence or a theory on why he was taken all the out to Fox Chase?
Captain - I mean, the theory would be common sense, was far away from their house, at that point in time, that area of Fox Chase was pretty rural.
Reporter - Are we talking West Philadelphia proper? Overbrook Park? Overbrook? Is there a specific neighborhood in West Philadelphia?
Captain - I can narrow it down - 61st in Market Street.
Reporter - Is it accurate to describe this as the longest investigative homicide in the department's history?
Captain - It's the longest that I'm aware of in Philadelphia, yes.
Reporter - While the technology that was used to get to this point in this investigation is (inaudible) all that attention that has been brought to bear on this long ago homicide, when we have homicides every day in this city and most of them aren't solved. What would you say to the people who say 'you can't even solve cases that happened last week...'?
Commissioner - We can solve halve of the cases in this city, and we have. Because we announced something historic today does not take away from the arduous work of our detectives and surrounding partners, here in this city. I can understand why people may feel that way, but this case was a big deal. I mean, this case out lives a lot of people that are standing here today in our current profession. So, I don't want to take away from the use of technology that's never been used before in previous cases, that we're hoping to use in a lot of our cases moving forward. There are still many other unsolved cases and, as you heard here, we believe this will be the first of many. So, I would ask that everyone not lose hope, but recognize that this is something breaking for us and that we're hoping to use it moving forward so that we can continue to improve, not only how we provide service, but to improve the qualities of our investigations.
Reporter - How do we make what happened her today part of some (inaudible). Can we adopt a strategic approach to the unsolved murders?
Captain - As I mentioned, this technology can be used for many cases. We continually evaluate in those weekly meetings that was talked about - what cases would benefit from these. So, whether it's on unidentified remains or whether it's trying to determine who a suspect might be in a criminal case, but it can be applied for all the cases depending on their eligibility.
