I’d like to think the parents weren’t involved, but the police haven’t released the parents’ names “out of respect for” the surviving siblings.
Is that standard operating procedure?
Just how many Zarellis are there in that area?
There was a similar case in Chicago a couple decades ago, with the body of child found buried in a narrow gangway between two apartment buildings. The detectives tracked down the family based on old-fashioned detective work, interviewing everyone that lived in the buildings until someone remembered a family with children who kept to themselves and didn’t appear to attend school. Eventually they tracked down one of the parents and some surviving siblings who were living out of state and the siblings talked and confirmed that the parents were abusive and covered up the death. But the surviving parent was a terminal cancer patient with months to live, so they were never charged.
“Both parents are dead, he said.”
So releasing the names probably won’t do anything but help people figure out who the siblings are which opens them up to harassment. So it seems sensible to me in this circumstance.
My understanding is both parents are dead. The boy have been 69 last August.