They find with DNA technology the identity of the boy who was murdered 65 years ago

Philadelphia Police Department Chief Danielle Outlaw announced at a news conference that the identity of the child victim in the city’s oldest unsolved murder was learned thanks to DNA technology.

The Outlaw said the murder victim, who caused public outrage and was remembered for generations as the “kid in the box,” was named Joseph Augustus Zarelli.

Noting that the investigation is still ongoing, Outlaw appealed to the public for help in obtaining information, while refraining from giving details about the boy’s family and motive for the murder.

In February 1957, the body of a boy, about 5 years old, was found wrapped in a cardboard blanket in a wooded area in the Fox Chase neighborhood of Philadelphia.

The case of the identity and murder of the boy, who was believed to be beaten to death, with scars and blows to his naked body, had been discussed for many years in the city.

The little victim’s body was buried in a local cemetery with a headstone reading “Unknown Child of the United States.” (AA)