The Murder of Joseph Augustus Zarelli 2

Wow, they’re really going all in on this. It could have been a girl in the box, but it wasn’t – it was a boy. Maybe he had long hair. I mean, I used to cut my own hair throughout college — it’s cheap.

Really?

Yeah.

How’d that turn out? Got any pictures?

Actually, people were kind of impressed when I told them.

With all these dead ends, let’s dive into the theories — what might’ve happened to this boy, and who he could’ve been.

The first theory comes from authors Lou Romano and Jim Hoffman. They came across a lead from a man in Philadelphia who claimed that his family once rented a place to a man who sold his own son — possibly the boy in the box.

He sold his son?

Yeah. He was renting from this guy and told him he sold his child. Which is odd, because unless you literally saw it happen, that’s not something people usually mention in passing.

“Wow, the place looks great. I’m selling my kid tomorrow.”

“Cool, I’ll take it. How many bedrooms? One box included?”

“How much was rent again?”

A forensic pathologist later examined photos of the possible father and alleged brother, and said there were enough facial similarities to justify further lab testing — things like the shape of the face, the helix of the right ear, and the nose.

A DNA sample was taken from the man believed to be the brother. Oddly, Philadelphia police didn’t say whether they’d test this DNA against the DNA of the boy in the box. They simply said they would “investigate further.”

Which… doesn’t make much sense.

I mean, if you’ve got a potential match and you’ve got DNA — why wouldn’t you run the test?

How much could that even cost?

Right? Maybe they did test it and didn’t get a match — and just never reported it. Or maybe it’s bureaucracy.

Or a cover-up.

The second theory comes from Remington Bristow, a medical examiner who worked on the case for over 36 years. He collected newspaper clippings about the boy, spent thousands of dollars of his own money, and dedicated countless hours trying to solve the mystery.

He even traveled as far as Arizona and Texas to chase leads. At one point, he consulted a psychic, giving them staples from the box the bassinet came in, hoping they could sense something.

Bristow even went so far as to carry a mask of the boy’s face in his briefcase. Let’s take a moment to process that. That’s… a bit much.

Especially the last part — it doesn’t even seem helpful. What, did he wear the mask and go up to people like: “Do you recognize me? Look at this little boy face — ring any bells?”

Or even creepier — imagine interrogating someone:

“Have you seen this boy?”

“No.”

“Okay, let me just show you one more thing...” [pulls out mask]

“Now?”

“…Sir, please leave.”

Bristow believed the boy had died accidentally. His freshly cut hair and nails suggested he had been well cared for. Perhaps the family didn’t come forward because they feared being charged with murder — a theory Bristow developed partially based on the psychic’s clue.

The Investigator Remington Bristow decided to look into a foster family that lived near the location where the boy’s body was discovered. This family had already been interviewed by the police, but in 1961, during an estate sale of the foster family's belongings, Bristow found a bassinet that he believed might have once been shipped in the same box where the boy was found.

There was no conclusive proof that it was the same bassinet, but to Bristow, it seemed like a potential lead. It's important to remember that this wasn’t an official investigation—it was a private pursuit, driven by a deep sense of justice and commitment.

Later, Bristow developed a theory that the boy was the illegitimate child of the foster family’s daughter, and that he may have been abandoned by her to avoid being exposed as a single mother.

Bristow passed away in 1993, but shortly after his death, Detective Tom Augustine from the Philadelphia Police Department picked up the investigation right where Bristow had left off.

On February 23, 1998, Detective Augustine visited the home of Arthur Nicoletti, the man who once ran the former foster home. Nicoletti’s wife, Anna Marie, was the very woman Bristow believed to be the boy’s biological mother. Notably, Anna Marie was also Nicoletti’s stepdaughter.

Yes—it’s as complicated as it sounds: he married his stepdaughter. Technically not incest, but certainly unusual.

Anna Marie told Detective Augustine that she had a son who died under strange circumstances, a story that was supported by morgue records. According to those records, the boy had died from electrocution after riding a coin-operated amusement ride outside a store.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be another dead end.

The Third and Final Theory

This theory came from a woman named Martha. A psychiatrist in Kentucky contacted Detective Augustine and said that one of her patients—who went by the name Martha—insisted on speaking with the police.

Martha claimed that when she was 11 years old, her mother took her to a house, where she handed over an envelope in exchange for a boy.

(This connected back to the earlier theory in which a man said he had sold his son—suggesting this could be the same child being “purchased.”)

Martha went on to say that her mother had sexually abused her, and had planned to do the same to the boy. According to Martha, after her mother had trouble bathing the child, she beat him to death. She then drove with Martha and the boy’s body to Philadelphia, where they abandoned it.

Martha gave her testimony to Detective Tom Augustine, as well as Joseph McGill and William Kelly, two of the original officers who responded to the crime scene in 1957. All three investigators reportedly found her story convincing.

According to retired FBI agent Bill Fleischer, the details Martha gave—addresses, names, descriptions—all lined up with known facts of the case. Her story is considered one of the strongest theories.

However, despite the compelling details, police were never able to confirm whether the boy was indeed the same one from Martha’s account.

His grave at Ivy Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia bears the words:

“America’s Unknown Child.”

To this day, people remain puzzled as to why no one ever came forward to claim him.

Perhaps one day, we’ll finally learn who he was and what truly happened to him.

But for now,

his story remains a mystery — and the case remains unsolved.