Doe ID 'The Boy In The Box' Joseph Augustus Zarelli
DNA: ID
AbJack Entertainment
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On February 25, 1957, the badly beaten and naked dead body of a little boy was found discarded in a box on the side of Susquehanna Road, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His death was ruled a homicide, and police worked feverishly to ID him using all of the tools available to them at the time. Although some of the clues that they had to work with seemed promising, they failed to ID the child, and he was buried without his name. Over the decades that followed, the story of 'The Boy In The Box' touched countless people. Finally, in the Fall of 2022, DNA & genealogy combined to solve the mystery of who this child was. He was identified as Joseph Augustus Zarelli. But finding out who Joseph was was only one part of the mission, police also wanted to find out who killed him and discarded him like trash. To date, that has proven to be a challenge, and that part of the mystery remains unsolved. We may not know who murdered The Boy In The Box, but we now know his name; to be Joseph Augustus Zarelli and this is his story.
For all things DNA: ID, visit the show's homepage:
DNAIDpodcast.com
To Support DNA: ID on Patreon, visit this link:
https://www.patreon.com/DNAID
To buy DNA ID Merch, visit this link:
https://www.customizedgirl.com/s/dnaidpodcast
Follow DNA: ID on Social Media
on Twitter at- https://twitter.com/DNAIDPodcast
on Facebook at- https://www.facebook.com/DNA-ID-True-Crime-Podcast-103667495017418
on Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/dnaidpodcast/
This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4720335/advertisement
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're listening to DNAID. |
| 0:03.0 | Brought to you by Abject Entertainment. |
| 0:05.3 | Be sure to check out some of the other great true crime podcasts from this network, |
| 0:09.7 | including The Murder in My Family, Missing Persons, Scene of the Crime, |
| 0:15.0 | Zodiac Speaking, Beyond Bizarre True Crime, Citizen Detective, and Campus Killings. |
| 0:21.9 | All of these podcasts are available for you to binge on right now, wherever you listen to podcasts. |
| 0:27.4 | Subscribe where you're listening to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. I'm I'm I'm |
| 0:38.3 | I'm |
| 0:39.3 | I'm |
| 0:40.3 | I'm |
| 0:42.3 | I'm |
| 0:43.3 | I'm |
| 0:44.3 | I'm |
| 0:45.3 | I'm The case of the boy in the box is one of the nation's most well-known, unidentified person's cases. |
| 1:14.1 | The tragic tale of the murdered little boy discarded in a cardboard box captivated America's |
| 1:19.4 | heart for decades. And now that we know who he is, hopes are high that his killer will be identified |
| 1:25.2 | as well. The Boy in the Box was initially found by Frederick Benonis, a LaSalle College |
| 1:31.3 | Jr., who was walking in the small patch of woods along the side of Susquehanna Road, |
| 1:36.3 | a country lane in the Foxchase area of northeast Philadelphia. |
| 1:41.3 | It was February 25, 1957. The area was sparsely inhabited, but the house of the Good Shepherd home for, quote, wayward girls, was nearby. |
| 1:52.8 | Frederick later told police he was in the area chasing a rabbit he saw run into the woods. He came across a battered cardboard box lying on its end in a thicketed area |
| 2:03.3 | that was something of a dumping ground for locals and was studded with muskrat traps. Peking inside the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from AbJack Entertainment, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of AbJack Entertainment and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.