Philadelphia’s ‘Boy in the Box’ identified as Joseph Augustus Zarelli

Police in Philadelphia on Thursday publicly identified a four-year-old child killed in the city in 1957 as Joseph Augustus Zarelli — giving a name to the person long known only as the “Boy in the Box.”

Mr Zarelli was killed in 1957 and found lying wrapped in a blanket in a box in a then-sparsley populated, forested area of northwest Philadelphia. Police at the time were unable to identify him or track down his killer, and the case currently remains open and unsolved.

But the identification of Mr Zarelli, made possible through advancements in DNA technology, represents a landmark breakthrough in the ongoing quest to figure out how the four-year-old was killed and find whoever was responsible.

This story will be updated.