After 65 Years, the ‘Boy in the Box’ Has a Name
Capt. Jason Smith said officers did not yet know who killed the boy or the circumstances of how he had died, and that investigations would continue.
“We have our suspicions as to who may be responsible, but it would be irresponsible of me to share these suspicions as this remains an active and ongoing criminal investigation,” Captain Smith said.
The steps that ultimately led to Joseph’s identification began in April 2019, when a court granted investigators approval to exhume his body and apply modern DNA analysis. This helped them track down relatives, including his mother and father, who are now deceased, investigators said. He has living siblings, but the police declined to release their names, in order to protect their privacy.
The genetic genealogy technique worked where the use of hair comparisons, footprints, X-rays and other methods had failed over the years. At the news conference, law enforcement officials also pledged to use the genetic genealogy techniques for other unidentified remains and unsolved cases in Philadelphia.
In an interview with The New York Times published in 2007, Elmer Palmer, the first officer to arrive at the scene on Feb. 26, 1957, said he thought at the time that the case would be solved quickly. But many of the investigators who worked on the case over the years died themselves without seeing it solved, officials said Thursday.
