"The Boy in the Box" ID leaves cemetery workers emotional
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- For decades, workers at the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Mount Airy have lovingly cared for a gravesite that has always read "America's Unknown Child." Soon, that gravestone will read Joseph Augustus Zarelli.
CBS3 was there for the touching moment when cemetery officials learned his name.
Dave Drysdale shed a tear after finally hearing a name and putting it with a gravesite he's taken care of for decades.
"For us here at the cemetery we always know him as the boy and the employees kind of took him under their collar and watched after him and now that we know it's Joseph it's just overwhelming means a lot to us," Dave said.
During a press conference crowded with law enforcement and forensic experts, Philadelphia police finally revealed a 65-year-old mystery, naming Joseph Augustus Zarelli as the murdered child once known only as "The Boy in the Box."
Drysdale is the secretary and treasurer at Ivy Hill Cemetary and is one of many cemetery workers who have cared for Joseph's final resting place since he was exhumed from Potters Field and buried there in 1998.
Last week, CBS3 Investigations broke that detectives discovered the identity of the 4-year-old child and there's been a steady stream of community members coming to pay their respect.
Rita Ovary is one of them.
"I come up here couple times a year, always my mom and dad are in the other cemetery, but I always come back here too," Ovary said. "I just feel bad for him he's such a beautiful little boy and why somebody would do a horrible thing like that is horrible."
Flowers, wreaths and heartwarming momentos clutter the gravesite of a boy we now know as Joseph. He will finally get the dignified burial he deserves with his name etched in stone.
"I can't wait to put it on there it'll be wonderful," Drysdale said.