Symbols, crosses and pentagrams
In 1972, a small New Jersey suburb in the United States was shocked by the mysterious murder of 16-year-old Jeannette De Palma. On August 7, a girl from a very religious family with many children left the house and disappeared. No one else has seen him alive.
Before leaving, Jeannette had warned her mother that she would be visiting friends in a nearby town by train. The teenager was supposed to call his parents and tell them he was there, but that never happened. Later, her family contacted the police, and De Palma was put on the wanted list. Volunteers, dog cops, and friendly neighbors were looking for him.
Six weeks later, the girl’s body was found deep in the forest, near the old quarry that people call Devil’s Teeth. The dog of a local resident found the body, which allowed him to go for a walk – the pet rushed into the house, carrying part of a human hand in his teeth.
When they arrived at the scene, the police found a nearly decomposed corpse, lying face down, left arm tucked under the head, right arm missing. The first version of the police – the murder was associated with a secret ritual. It is reported that Jeannette was surrounded by wooden crosses and logs arranged in the shape of a coffin, and demonic symbols were carved into the rock. Eyewitnesses told local newspapers that the body was lying on a drawn pentagram and there were dead animals around – this information was not confirmed.
No wounds, only lead
Forensic experts were not immediately able to identify the murdered woman – the body had decomposed too much. I had to check the dental formulas, then the body turned out to be that of the missing girl.
How the young man was killed was also a mystery. No obvious signs of violence were found on the body, there were no stab or bullet marks, no broken bones or bruises. The toxicological examination also did not reveal the presence of alcohol and drugs in Jeannette’s blood.
The only thing that surprised the experts was that the tissues contained a large amount of lead.
“High levels of lead in the victim’s body can also indicate the ritualistic nature of the murder. Many destructive cults of Satan use lead in their rituals, including sacrifices. In occult practices, lead refers to base metal, bodily consciousness, an unrenewed person who still needs to be transformed and transformed. In some rites of initiation or sacrifice, the use of low, dark lead symbolizes the death of the novice, who will have to transform into a new spiritual quality, a new body, ”explains Igor Ivanishko, forensic scientist in the field of non-traditional religious cults and extremist communities.
Even in ancient times, lead was considered a witchcraft, a metal with magical powers: curses for enemies were engraved on lead plates, and lead sand was used for spells. According to the ancient tradition, which was formed in ancient Roman times, when large quantities of lead were added to drunk or drank wine, it could get into Jeannette’s body, if external contact of the metal with the girl’s body was excluded. Ivanishko added that it was forcibly poured onto a person participating in the ritual.
As a result, the coroner, who could not find any other cause of death, stated in the cause of death column that it was drowning. Although there was no evidence of this particular version—a report of a broken hyoid bone from, for example, throwing a noose or hanging up—the researchers decided to focus on it.
They even attracted a witch
At this point, chaos began in the media – more and more material appeared that the murder of Jeannette was a demonic sacrifice. There were calls to ban access to books that might even contain a hint of the occult.
On October 4, 1972, an interview with Father James Tate was published in one of the publications, who insisted that a local group of cultists killed him while trying to enlighten Jeannette and put them on the path of faith. “He was so religious that he often talked about God with friends and acquaintances,” the priest said, noting that when pagans were lectured on the power of Christ, “his bigotry showed up and they killed him.”
This version also gained support because near the forest where the body was found was the Watchung reservation, which neo-pagans often used to practice their naturalistic beliefs. The police were so convinced there was a link to Jeannette’s death that they commissioned the witch to investigate the case further.
The local police department even got some tips from citizens in the form of anonymous letters claiming that a local Satanist group is planning to kill a child on Halloween.
“Ritual sacrifices, as a rule, use an innocent sacrifice, not burdened with sin. In judicial practice, it is not uncommon for sectarians to kidnap a child or young person to perform rituals, including rituals with a fatal outcome.
For some groups of Satanists, the best proposal is considered a girl who is physiologically clean, without any obvious injuries or other defects, as a virgin.
According to the teachings of most demonic groups, a woman is a better conductor of energy and strength than a man, so it is a girl placed on the sacrificial altar of Satan and Beelzebub. The forensic expert noted that 16-year-old Jeannette De Palma fully complied with the requirements of a ritual sacrifice.
I’m still looking for answers
After months of investigation, the first and only suspect was a local homeless man who often wandered into the woods and rock where Jeannette’s body was found. It was nicknamed “Red” because of its appearance. According to eyewitnesses, she disappeared immediately after it became known where the girl’s body was. However, the police were unable to prove his involvement in the murder after catching the man.
After that, several attempts were made to investigate the crime – for example, stains were found on De Palma’s clothes, but the genetic material was so damaged that it was not even possible to determine whether it was blood or sperm.
Gradually, interest in the case waned, but in the late ’90s, a group of venture journalists tried to revive the investigation after several letters came to the editorial office, where there were details for the authors: Mark Moran, editor of Weird NJ magazine, and writer Jesse Pollak. Based on their research, they wrote a book about the Jeannette case, Death in the Devil’s Teeth.
The authors write about several suspects unknown to the police, evidence of a cover-up, and even links to other previously unsolved murders.
Law enforcement did not follow his lead and continued the investigation – citing, among other things, the fact that most of the evidence was destroyed by Hurricane Floyd, which hit in 1999. Moran and Pollak did not stop such a statement – they continued to search for the killer for almost 30 years.
After Ed Salzano, who runs the Justice for Jeannette De Palma social media page, filed a lawsuit against the county in February 2021 for extracting evidence and DNA samples from the victim’s clothing, Moran and Pollak finally received lawsuits from the Union County Attorney’s Office under Freedom of Liberty. Information Law.
“According to some researchers, the first falsification and concealment of the ritual nature of the murder of Jeannette De Palma was due to the fact that on the eve of the murder, residents were already in shock at the brutal, religiously motivated criminal act. Of John List, who killed all members of his family.
“An attempt to defuse the social panic by hiding important facts that point to the religious element of the murder has turned into a protracted fight between police and witnesses, human rights activists and journalists.”
There are many versions, but no doubts
Many versions still circulate around the Jeannette De Palma case – the most publicized case in which witches or satanists sacrificed a girl. However, there are others that are more “usual”.
For example, he went to visit his girlfriends, used drugs there, and then overdosed and died. His friends got scared and threw the body into the forest. This theory is usually disproved by a medical examination report stating that no foreign substance other than lead was found in the blood.
Another version says that Jeannette left the house that night to go to the train station, but was confronted by an unknown person who attacked and killed her. Either someone was following him on purpose: a friend, a classmate, a churchmate, or a passerby who had seen him several times.
Until now, neither the police nor journalists can give a clear answer to the question of what caused the death of a religious girl – the case of Jeannette De Palma remained a mystery even after almost 50 years.