Paperback: As a writer for the magazine Weird NJ, I am always on the lookout for new, unusual stories to tell. Back around 2002, the publication began receiving vague and anonymous letters about a grisly murder that had taken place some thirty years prior. My curiosity was sparked and I decided to piece together as many of the facts of the cold case as I could find. That task, as I soon would discover, would be a much more daunting challenge than I ever could have foreseen.
The all-but-forgotten unsolved case began in 1972, when the body of a teenage (sixteen-year-old) girl was discovered atop a cliff, high above an abandoned quarry in the township of Springfield, New Jersey. The corpse was found thanks to a dog that had brought home to its master a badly decomposed human forearm. The arm along with the corpse, would later be identified as having belonged to Jeannette DePalma, a local teenager who had been missing for six weeks.
The details that first drew me to the sad story of Jeannette were the lingering rumours around Union County alleging that the disappearance and subsequent murder had ritualistic overtones. The remote hilltop location where the body was discovered was said to have been strewn with cult-related symbols - a wooden cross over the Jeannette's head that was made out of two sticks and some stones arranged around the top of her head in the shape of a semicircle almost like a halo - and the body of the young girl was rumoured to have been placed on a makeshift altar in the woods. This discovery would become a matter of controversy and intense scrutiny over the next four decades.
There was also something strikingly different about the scene - something eerie.
The various versions of the Jeannette DePalma story that I heard blamed either a coven of witches or a local group of Satanists who had sacrificed her. The strangest thing that I encountered in my investigation of the mystery was that after more than thirty years, most people who remembered the crime were still too frightened to speak about it. Everyone I questioned about the murder seemed to recall the same scant and gruesome details but nobody wanted to go on record or have his or her name published in my article - including members of the Springfield Police Department.
The general consensus of the people I interviewed in regard to Jeannette's murder seemed to agree on certain points: that the killing was in some way cult related, that the Springfield Police Department had covered up certain facts of the case and that Jeannette's killers were most likely still at large. They also shared the desire to see the killer or killers brought to justice so that Jeannette might finally rest in peace.
Aside from her life, the only thing taken from Jeannette DePalma on that lonely, desolate mountaintop in 1972 was a gold cross that she always wore around her neck. The necklace was never found. Back at her home, Jeannette's bedroom was decorated with all manner of religious symbols and posters. One poster bore a picture of Jesus Christ and proclaimed, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."
Hopefully through this book, the truth will become a little more known, and Jeannette and all those who mourn her shall finally be set free. - Mark Moran, February 2015
About the authors: Jesse P Pollack was born and raised in the Garden State and has served as a contributing writer for Weird NJ magazine since 2001. Also an accomplished musician, Pollack's soundtrack work has been heard on Driving Jersey, an Emmy-nominated PBS documentary series. He is married with two children. Death on the Devil's Teeth is his first book.
Mark Moran graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City, where he studied fine art, illustration and photography. In the early 1990s, Moran teamed up with Mark Sceurman to create Weird NJ magazine, the ultimate travel guide to the Garden State's local legends and best-kept secrets. The magazine has since spawned several books and a History Channel television series. Moran lives with his wife and their two daughters in suburban New Jersey.
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