The biological parents of the ‘Boy in the Box,’ Joseph Augustus Zarelli, have finally been identified

Betsy — that’s what everyone called her — liked skating, and dancing, and swooned over Italian boys, wearing out the needle on Frank Sinatra records at her home in the Tioga neighborhood of post-World War II Philadelphia.

“She was a real beauty,” a close family member recalled this week.

Gus was a concrete-and-stone mason, a hard worker in a proud family of Italian immigrants in West Philly.

Augustus J. “Gus” Zarelli and Mary Elizabeth “Betsy” Abel conceived a child in the spring of 1952, and the boy’s short, painful life, became one of Philadelphia’s greatest unsolved mysteries. The Inquirer, based on interviews with members of both families and sources close to the investigation, now knows that police believe that Zarelli and Abel are the parents of Joseph Augustus Zarelli, a child known for 65 years only as “The Boy in the Box.”

Betsy would have been 21 when Joseph was born Jan. 13, 1953. The close relative, who asked not to be identified, said she could have put him up for adoption because she had done that before, with a daughter. The Inquirer has been unable to confirm whether someone adopted Joseph.

A police spokesperson declined to comment on The Inquirer’s findings.

» READ MORE: After nearly 66 years and thanks to DNA advances, Philly’s ‘Boy in the Box’ has a name: Joseph

Mary Elizabeth “Betsy” Abel graduated from Murrell Dobbins Career & Technical Education High School in North Philly in 1949 and, like most graduates at the time, was quickly thrust into adulthood. A couple of years after she was planning proms, she was dealing with a pregnancy. A daughter was born in 1950 and immediately put up for adoption. The relative believes a Catholic organization handled it.

Abel went on to become a cashier at the Goldman Theater, one of Center City’s late, great movie houses, on 15th Street. John J. Plunkett, a man she’d later marry, according to her obituary, was its manager.

The relative does not recall her pregnancy at the time but expressed doubt that she was involved in the mistreatment or death of Joseph.

“Betsy? No way in the world,” the relative said. “There was no cruelty, no meanness or cruelty that swelled within her heart and soul.”

» READ MORE: What helped ID Joseph Augustus Zarelli? His mother’s family dabbles in genetic genealogy.

Joseph’s body was discovered in a bassinet box in a weedy Fox Chase lot, far from West Philly, in February 1957. Investigators said the child died from blunt-force trauma, and for six decades, no one stepped forward to identify him.

On Dec. 8, 2022, police announced the boy’s name for the first time, citing DNA evidence from both the paternal and maternal sides, along with a birth certificate that slightly misspelled the father’s name. Police said at a news conference that the boy lived around 61st and Market, that they had their “suspicions” about his final days, but little else, and while they didn’t name either parent publicly, the Zarelli surname is uncommon in Philadelphia.

The media, along with internet sleuths and genealogists, quickly discovered the small, tight-knit family in the region. Gus Zarelli’s four children have not responded to repeated requests for comment, but on Thursday, Dan Bush, a West Chester attorney representing them, said in a statement to The Inquirer that both Gus and his family have been “attacked in every possible social media outlet, suggesting the most awful of things, all of which are baseless.”

“Each of his children is extraordinarily sympathetic to the death of this young boy, and horrified by the events that are being discussed,” Bush said in the statement. “However, until recently, they had never heard of any of this. They have never been shown anything that links their father or any member of their family to this.”

» READ MORE: How an at-home DNA kit helped identify the ‘Boy in the Box’

The Inquirer confirmed that Gus Zarelli’s niece submitted DNA that matched Joseph’s. Before that, Abel’s relatives had uploaded their DNA for genealogical research. Misty Gillis, a forensic genetic genealogist and cold-case liaison with Identifinders International, built out Betsy’s extended family tree.

Eventually, police came knocking on doors to talk to her relatives. They asked about the five Abel sisters, including Betsy. Who was pregnant and when? What, if any, connection did they have to West Philly?

The close relative of Betsy’s, who declined to be identified, said the Abel family learned the investigation was about the Boy in the Box only 48 hours before the news conference.

“I was stunned,” the relative said. “I remembered the story. We used to get utility bills with his face on it, asking if anyone recognized him.”

The Zarellis, according to Bush, have received “scant” information from police and they “continue to investigate whether there is any merit to Augustus John Zarelli being the father of this boy.”

“There has been no credible allegation by anyone, including the Philadelphia Police Department, that their father knew of the birth of this child, or had anything to do with the life of this child, and certainly nothing even remotely suggesting that he knew of or had anything to do with any harm having come to this child,” the attorney said.

While police have said Joseph lived in the 61st and Market area in West Philly, directories show the Zarelli family lived on the 6300 block of Callowhill Street.

» READ MORE: Joseph Augustus Zarelli is only one of Philadelphia’s children whose killing needs to be solved

What remains unclear, for now, is how or where Zarelli met Abel, whether he knew she’d been pregnant and had a child. Zarelli was five years older than Abel and still living in the Callowhill Street home with his family in 1950. Abel’s relative said one of her sisters may have lived in West Philadelphia. Abel did, too, the relative said, on the second floor of a walk-up apartment with Plunkett and their daughter, who was born in December 1956. The couple later moved to Ruffner Street in Nicetown. Plunkett drove a cab. They had four children together, one of them dying in childbirth.

Gus Zarelli went on to marry in 1958, leaving Callowhill Street. The family’s businesses blossomed into a lucrative construction and real estate operation in Chester County, where most of his children still live. By all accounts, he was beloved by his children, well-respected by peers, and showed signs of grace in difficult times.

In 2014, when Zarelli died at the age of 87, tributes on Legacy.com mentioned his “strength and character.”

“The world has one less good soul,” one mourner wrote.

On Jan. 13, some paternal relatives of Joseph attended a rededication of his headstone at Ivy Hill Cemetery. Some of them are trying to do their own research into the case.

“Our family was blindsided by this,” one family member said at the grave. “We want to honor him by finding out his entire story. We want to put a real closure to the story.”

» READ MORE: What we know and don’t know about Joseph Augustus Zarelli, also known as the Boy in the Box

Abel’s relative said she later worked at Crown Can company and other warehouses on Erie Avenue. She died in 1991 as Mary E. “Betsy” Plunkett after a “prolonged illness,” according to her obituary. Her relative said she died of lung cancer, likely from asbestos exposure.

“She was kind and quiet,” the relative said.

The death of Joseph A. Zarelli, who was 4, remains an active homicide investigation.