THE brutal murder of a teen girl over 50 years ago has been brought back into the spotlight as a group demands justice for her killing – which was sensationalized at the time as a work of witchcraft.
Jeannette Depalma, 16, was missing for six weeks before her body was found in 1972 at a rock quarry in Springfield, New Jersey, which is just an hour outside of New York City.
Jeannette DePalma, who was murdered in 1972[/caption]
Holly Zuelle, left, and Edward Salzano holding a picture of Jeannette DePalma[/caption]
The Houdaille Quarry, where Jeannette DePalma’s body was found in 1972[/caption]
Redacted crime scene pictures from where Jeannette DePalma’s body was found[/caption]
Her body, found face-down without her cross necklace that she usually wore, was discovered after a dog wandered home with the teen’s decomposed arm that had been torn from her body – but her killer was never identified.
The mystery is analyzed in Hulu’s Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal, a series exploring eight true crime cases that might be related to supernatural activity.
Decades later, DePalma’s cause of death is still pending further study. Justice for Jeannette, a group dedicated to keeping DePalma’s memory alive and searching for answers in her death, says police dropped the ball starting at the crime scene.
“It was so rushed and bungled,” Ed Salzano, who runs Justice for Jeannette with his partner, Holly Zuelle, told The U.S. Sun.
“In the coroner’s report, it says that there were stones around her head and if you look at the pictures, there aren’t stones around her head!”
The redacted death scene pictures show the outline of DePalma’s body without one arm lying in tall grass atop a cliff in the quarry, which locals are said to have called Devil’s Teeth.
The Springfield Police Department’s report of the scene said DePalma was found with stones and sticks placed around her head in an eerie manner, but the pictures didn’t show any formations.
An autopsy couldn’t be performed because the body was so decomposed, so the death was listed as “suspicious” instead of a homicide.
“Jeannette’s death certificate still says pending further study 52 years later,” Zuelle told The U.S. Sun.
“It’s really atrocious. The medical examiner said it can’t stay this way, so the case needs to be investigated.”
DePalma left her home on August 7, 1972, to meet her friends.
Her family filed a missing person’s report with police the next day and her body was eventually found on top of a cliff in the quarry on September 19, 1972.
Justice for Jeannette also pointed out the suspicious nature of a small dog returning home with DePalma’s arm in its mouth.
Cops believed that the dog might have torn the teen’s arm from her body in the quarry.
However, Salzano and Zuelle pointed out that the foliage around DePalma’s body seemed undisturbed in the redacted crime scene pictures – which would be “impossible” if the dog wrestled the limb away.
“Her arm was already off,” Salzano said.
Ed Salzano, left, and Holly Zuelle on Hulu’s Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal[/caption]
Pictures from where Jeannette DePalma’s body was found, showing undisturbed foliage around the teen’s remains[/caption]
The small town of Springfield was rattled by the news of DePalma’s death – and rumors instantly started swirling that witches were involved.
Local headlines at the time referred to the case as the “witchcraft” death as outlets reported on “wooden crosses” being found near DePalma’s body, according to the Hulu series.
‘WITCHCRAFT’ BLAMED
“I heard that some people from the department supposedly brought a witch out there, but I know nothing about it,” George Parsell, then-Springfield Police Chief told the Associated Press at the time.
“We always want to rule out witchcraft, but you really can’t because it was going on,” Salzano said, though he noted that it was “way before satanic panic.”
National hysteria was starting to rise just a few years after the infamous Manson Family murders, where cult leader Charles Manson killed nine people in Los Angeles.
One town over from Springfield six months earlier, serial killer John List murdered his family in plain sight and later wrote he was “saving their souls” from the devil.
“It was pretty out of control here,” Salzano said.
RELIGIOUS TEEN
DePalma was a religious teen who attended church every Sunday and was known for evangelizing to her peers.
However, her diary revealed that DePalma also attended high school parties where she drank alcohol and kissed boys, the Hulu series showed.
DePalma’s mom, Florence DePalma, pulled the teen out of her high school and moved her to another school in an attempt to rescue her daughter from dark influences, Salzano said.
Speculation about witchcraft being involved in the evangelical teen’s death grew when it was revealed that the Satanic Bible written by Anton LaVey was found in DePalma’s room after she went missing.
I think there’s something very sinister that went on here.”
Ed Salzano
However, Justice for Jeannette insists that DePalma was targeted for her faith by other teens.
“She was a good person, and all she wanted to do was help people,” Zuelle said.
Salzano was a close friend of DePalma’s nephew John Bancey.
Bancey, Salzano, and Zuelle started Justice for Jeannette together about nine years ago in hopes of finding DePalma’s killer.
Before Bancey’s death in 2017, he gave Salzano and Huelle a box of documents regarding DePalma’s murder.
Salzano and Zuelle now continue the fight to exhume DePalma’s body in the search for answers – and they believe police might know more than they said.
Police records shown on the Hulu series revealed that an officer picked up DePalma’s pocketbook at the scene, but it was never submitted into evidence.
“We know who did it, but we can’t prove it unless her evidence is tested and her body is exhumed,” an online petition created by Justice for Jeannette says.
‘TAKING IT TO THEIR GRAVE’
Retired police officer Ed Kisch, one of the cops who discovered DePalma’s body, told Hulu producers that the answers might never be found.
“The cops are only as good as the evidence left behind,” Kisch said, according to Hulu.
“In Jeannette DePalma’s case, there was zero evidence left behind.
“Kids don’t talk. Whoever has knowledge, if they’re dead, they’re taking it to their grave.”
Salzano insists that people are still covering up the truth today.
“I think there’s something very sinister that went on here,” he said.
“Enough to cover it up forever and for people that we’ve talked to to be still afraid to talk about it.
“For this to be as covered up as it’s been… no one’s ever done anything about it. Whatever the reason is, it’s very sinister.”
Zuelle said the group is at a “crossroads” with the prosecutor’s office as they fight to exhume DePalma’s body and reopen the investigation.
“She deserves justice and that’s why we’re pushing for it,” Zuelle said.
Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal is available for streaming on Hulu.
