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E116: Jeannette DePalma
1.8k Plays4 years ago
When a young girl goes missing and the police try to say she's a runaway, no one believes them. When she doesn’t turn up days, then weeks later, police begin to wonder. When a dog turns up with a severed arm, a search for a missing girl begins.
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Transcript
Starting a Podcast with Buzzsprout
00:00:00
Speaker
Sleuth Hounds, have you ever considered creating your own podcast? Have you been inspired by listening to some of your favorites and thought, I'd love to try this out on my own, whether it's a true crime podcast like ours, a motivational podcast, or maybe one filled with tips and strategies for those interested in the same activities you are?
00:00:19
Speaker
When Maggie and I first decided to start our podcast, we knew absolutely nothing about what podcasting would entail. But when we found that the platform Buzzsprout was one for which we didn't need any special equipment, just a computer microphone, some quiet space, and each other, we knew that this was the way to go. It is intuitive to use, fun to play around with, and so helpful in getting analytical data about our number of downloads to track trends,
00:00:44
Speaker
and from our listeners' hail. Best yet, Buzzsprout is affordable, even by our teacher salary standards. Buzzsprout will get your podcasts listed on every major podcasting platform. So, what are you waiting for?
Introducing Lori Morrison's True Crime Podcast
00:00:58
Speaker
Fulfill that dream of yours and start today. If you use our copying cases referral code,
00:01:03
Speaker
709-643, linked on Facebook and in our show notes. Not only will you help support our show, but you will receive a $20 Amazon gift card after your second month on a paid plan. It's that easy. Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners. Join over 100,000 podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world. Now, it's time for the world to hear what you have to say.
00:01:32
Speaker
Alison and I want to take a minute to introduce you to a new true crime podcast that we think you'll love as much as we do. It comes to you from Lori Morrison, a private investigator and the creator of a faith-based true crime podcast. So do yourself a favor and take a few minutes today and check her out. Here's a little bit about the show from Lori herself.
00:01:56
Speaker
Are you a true crime fan who would love to help victims in the stories that you hear, but you don't know how? You might not be sure that it's even safe to try. I'm Lori Morrison, a licensed private investigator and Christ follower, and I'm inviting you to join me on the UnLovely Truth podcast.
00:02:14
Speaker
Each week we dissect true crime cases and then explore ways that you can be a different kind of PI. A person of impact. Because I think we all long to make a significant impact in the lives of people who are hurting.
Stories of Caution from the Past
00:02:29
Speaker
And I've got some expert guests lined up to help me show you how to do just that. So meet me at the intersection of faith and true crime and together we will get out of the audience and into the action.
00:02:47
Speaker
I know this sounds crazy, but when my mom talks to me about growing up in the 1970s, it's like she's talking to me about growing up on a different planet. And yes, I know my kids will say the same thing. And my mom is probably one of the most cautious people you will ever meet. So when she tells me some of these stories, it takes me a minute to realize that they're coming from my mom. I think I've told you this story before, but once when she and I got a flat tire on our way to look at a wedding venue,
00:03:14
Speaker
She got concerned when the same truck passed us two or three times. Her concern grew when the truck pulled in behind us. As a man approached my window, my mom urged me not to roll the window down all the way, saying like, we don't know this man, Maggie. He could be dangerous and try to grab you. Just roll the window down a little bit.
00:03:31
Speaker
I complied through rolled eyes in her direction and he was just checking to see if we needed any help. I'd already called the sheriff's office, so I wasn't lying when I told him no. But as he walked away, my mom vividly recapped what he was wearing. The tattoos he had, his hairstyle, the truck making model, and part of his license plate number. I was dumbfounded and speechless. She told me that you could never be too sure. And in case she needed to know what he looked like to identify him,
00:04:01
Speaker
she would be ready.
The Case of Jeanette Del Palma
00:04:03
Speaker
This type of thing coming from my mom is normal but sometimes she tells me things that really surprise me like this story. When my mom and dad first got married my dad was in the army and was stationed in Washington state. My mom of course went with him and they moved into an apartment that wasn't in the nicest part of town but was affordable. My sweet quiet mother who until she married my dad had probably never been west of Louisville Kentucky
00:04:30
Speaker
If I had to guess, walked around Tacoma, Washington all by herself. She walked through bad neighborhoods to the laundromat, to church, and to the store when my dad would be out in the field. The same woman who memorized tattoos on a stranger walked the streets when known serial killers were roaming in her area.
00:04:51
Speaker
When I asked her what she could have possibly been thinking, she told me it was a different time. And I was like, obviously it was. The young girl at the center of today's case sounds much like my mother. Shy, smart, a good friend. So when she goes missing and the police try to say she's a runaway, no one believes them.
00:05:09
Speaker
When she doesn't turn up days, then weeks later, everybody begins to wonder why, police included. And when a dog turns up with a severed arm, a search for a missing girl goes underway. This is the story of Jeanette Del Palma.
00:05:40
Speaker
So.
00:06:00
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases, where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the case will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:06:20
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, and to follow us on Instagram at Coffee Cases podcast and on TikTok at Coffee and Cases podcast. Because as these families know, conversation helps to keep their missing family member in the public consciousness, helping to keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:06:48
Speaker
Okay. Shout out time, Allison. This has become my highlight of the week. Like sharing the love I have for our sleuth hounds. I love it. So can I go first? Yes, do it. Okay.
00:07:06
Speaker
Our first shout out this week goes to one of my former students. And yes, she is just a lovely human being. So shout out to Jasmine Noe. She wrote, I love my weekly dose of coffee and cases. Keep spreading these stories and maybe we can solve these tragic mysteries. And I sure hope so, Jasmine.
00:07:33
Speaker
I do too, because that is the ultimate goal. All the things we have, the ultimate goal is to help bring closure. Our next shout out goes to Katie Holbrook, who wrote, thank you for all the laughs and entertainment, all my drive to and from school. As a fellow teacher in Kentucky, there are days your podcast is the only thing that keeps me sane. Thanks, Katie. And believe me, we understand. Yeah, we've all had plenty of those days.
00:08:04
Speaker
Our final shout out goes to Kara Johnson, a friend of Katie, and obviously a good friend, since Katie bought Kara a Patreon membership as a Christmas present. That's adorable, Katie. I know. Good job. That's a good friendship.
00:08:22
Speaker
Sarah wrote, quote, I received a Patreon as a gift from a great friend, Katie. I've loved all the episodes I've listened to so far. Can't wait for more. End quote.
00:08:36
Speaker
If you would like to get immediate access to bonus content just like Kara and Katie and Jasmine, and if you want to hear your name read on the show, be sure to subscribe to that Patreon page at patreon.com slash coffee and cases podcast all one word.
00:08:54
Speaker
And if you're already one of those Patreon members, but you have yet to fill out the shout out form, don't forget to do that because we want to announce your name or nickname or anonymous, but you want to give a little quote or whatever because we want to celebrate you. Yes, we do. And now we're done with shout out. So are you ready for this week's episode?
00:09:17
Speaker
uh especially with the severed arm got some intrigue there yeah yeah this one um is weird kind of i mean i don't know that we've necessarily talked about like some of the theories that's going to come up in this one but it did
00:09:35
Speaker
spark my like brain. And so now I have my first full length Patreon episode topic picked out and I started the research today. Really? This episode prompted the solved case that you're going to do. Yes, it did.
00:10:02
Speaker
All right, Jeanette De Palma was born on August 3rd, 1956 and lived in an upper middle class suburban area of New Jersey called Springfield Township. And Allison did, was my case last time in a place called Springfield? You've done the Springfield Three. Okay, that's probably what I was thinking of then. Yeah. Okay. But this town is actually only like
00:10:32
Speaker
10 or 15 miles away from where I taught in New Jersey. Then I know we've talked about it before because I think we've had this, I'm having deja vu, I feel like we've had this conversation. Well, we did when we did the watcher. That was also in New Jersey. Oh yeah, that was it.
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah. So Jeanette was the second youngest of seven. So she came from a pretty large family. Yeah. The town that she grew up in was like this perfect, like picture perfect little town. And I'm sure that because it was a picture perfect place to raise a family, that's why her family settled in the area in the first place. Mm hmm.
00:11:17
Speaker
Because you were close enough to New York City that you could go into the city, but you were far enough away that you seemed to kind of escape the worries of the city that they didn't really have like a lot of crime in Springfield. Like it obviously wasn't very busy. But I read that you could actually see the Manhattan skyline on a clear day from there, which I think is cool. That's cool. Yeah.
00:11:42
Speaker
Janette was raised along with her siblings in a very devout Christian household. I actually read or listened, I listened to a couple different podcasts on her case. But I think one said that her family was Catholic and then converted and went to like a different like denomination of Christianity.
00:12:06
Speaker
but her family was often described as quote-unquote Jesus freaks, which in that time and like the 70s was a derogatory name for people that kind of push Christianity too hard on other peoples, almost like a what we would call like a Bible thumper or something. Which I don't, I still have a problem with phrases like that. Yeah, they're very derogatory I think.
00:12:34
Speaker
On August 3rd, 1972, Jeanette turned 16 years old and unlike normal standards of today where sweet 16 parties are like these extravagant affairs where I feel like they're probably nicer than my senior prom was. Yeah. Yeah. Like the biggest day of your life. Better than my wedding day probably. Like I remember in middle school that was like a whole
00:13:04
Speaker
like TV series on MTV. Oh, yeah. I remember it. Yeah. Like that just unlocked a piece of my childhood I'd forgot about.
00:13:13
Speaker
But her birthday, for the most part, was pretty uneventful. But four days later, on August 7, 1972, things
Discovery of Jeanette's Remains
00:13:22
Speaker
kind of turned around and became pretty eventful, as you will see. Oh, no. I'm guessing that way. Yes. So Jeanette would walk out her door under the pretense of taking a train to visit a friend.
00:13:38
Speaker
in like the nearby town and then going on into work. So we actually know that she had not intended on taking the train at all. She had actually planned on hitchhocking into the town to visit her friend before going to her job. But I feel like that's such a common thing in the 70s, though, hitchhocking. Like, I feel like that was just a normal like mode of transportation.
00:14:08
Speaker
I just don't understand. And I also don't get it because, you know, we worry about everything. But one of the podcasts that I listened to actually talked about there's like no real significant like statistic among those that hitchhike and end up dead. Like we think there would be, you know. Oh, that's interesting because I would think that there would be.
00:14:34
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm wondering if maybe it's just like medias like since like sensationalized by the media, maybe. I still am not going to accept a ride from a stranger, even if my car is broken down, I will gladly just sit with my car. I did that one time and it was really scary. And the only reason I did it was because I was with like five other girls and the girls car that we got into was like 20 pounds. It was really scary, though. And on the worst day of my life,
00:15:02
Speaker
Which is a story that I told on Patreon. I did sit in a stranger's car. That's true. But it ended up okay. You'll have to check out the Patreon episode if you haven't listened to it. Exactly. Because it's a doozy.
00:15:19
Speaker
Well Jeanette never made it to the friend's house and she never made it to her job and she was never seen again. When Jeanette missed her curfew and was late to return home her mom started to worry and she grew more worried still when she didn't receive a call from her daughter letting her know that she was running late. So at first she's like okay maybe she's like held up at work she's gonna call and let me know but she never gets the call saying hey mom I'm running a
00:15:48
Speaker
like a little bit late, I'll be home later. That never comes. She's like processing all of the logical reasons. Yeah. Yeah. And we've talked a lot about like you do that as a person, like you don't want to accept that something could potentially be bad or dangerous. Right. Right.
00:16:06
Speaker
But finally reaching her breaking point, she did report her daughter as a missing person to the Springfield Police Department the following day. So she doesn't wait super long for Jeanette to come home before she reports her missing. Allison, I didn't read anywhere where initial searches, like I didn't find anything that had like, you know,
00:16:31
Speaker
50,000 flyers were passed out to the people within the community. I didn't read any of that. Like the things that took place or what happened in the days and then weeks after Jeanette's disappearance. I do know that initially police believed she was a runaway, which I feel like was a really popular like scapegoat in that time.
00:16:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Almost like we were talking about her parents thinking, oh, she's just running late. It's like we just want to think the best case scenario, which would be she's a runaway. Especially for teenagers.
00:17:08
Speaker
Exactly.
Exploring Theories and Satanic Panic
00:17:09
Speaker
And they thought that despite the fact that no clothes were missing from her room and like she had never talked about wanting to run away. She'd never threatened to run away before and she's 16. So I feel like she would have had those like little instances where she's mad and she's like, well, I'm running away. But she had never had anything like that. Yeah, I feel like most 16 year olds aren't shy about sharing when they're the teenage angst comes out. Yeah, exactly.
00:17:38
Speaker
Well, like we said, I'm sure her parents, you know, were just sure that she was going to come home. I'm sure they prayed for a safe return of their daughter. I'm sure they long to see her like walk through the door to hear her voice. But as the days turned into weeks, I can only imagine that reality slowly set in as they realized the likelihood of seeing their daughter alive again was growing slimmer each day. Oh my gosh.
00:18:01
Speaker
Especially with the theory of the runaway because we know the first 48 hours are the most important and if we're assuming she's ran away, we're losing valuable time. Exactly.
00:18:13
Speaker
According to an article called The Unsolved Jeanette Del Palma, it's posted on Morbid Library. It took six weeks for any sign of Jeanette to turn up. And six weeks is a long time for anybody to wait to hear anything. But on September 19th,
00:18:32
Speaker
the crazy and unthinkable happened so there are two like sort of varying accounts of this and so i read about some of them and then some of the podcasts that i listened to mentioned something different so i'm gonna talk about both they both result in the same thing it's just okay different like it's different how i got there okay yeah
00:18:57
Speaker
So one account says a woman was walking her dog near this rock quarry when her dog like ran off and the woman can't catch the dog. So she returns back to her apartment, which wasn't very far away. And reportedly in this, this version of things, the dog returns later to her apartment complex with a human arm in its mouth. So a right human arm.
00:19:27
Speaker
I would vomit.
00:19:30
Speaker
So some sources say the dog under made the discovery. Others say that it was actually the owner of the apartment complex just stumbled upon this arm that the dog had brought into like the courtyard area of the apartment complex. So either way the dog finds it. Yeah. Initially. It's just varying reports on what person the dog brought it to. Yeah, exactly.
00:19:58
Speaker
And immediately though, upon the discovery of this arm, whoever it was, someone called the police and they're like, okay, well, we have a body we need to be looking for because we have their right arm. So we need to be looking for someone. We need to find who it's to.
00:20:17
Speaker
In my daily news states, quote, it wasn't long before they found the rest of the corpse face down on the top of a steep cliff. At first glance, it was impossible to tell if the person was male or female. Still, there was reason to believe the body was all that was left of a local girl who had gone missing six weeks earlier.
00:20:35
Speaker
Jeanette Del Palma, end quote. And we know that this was her and they actually had to end up using our bread and wine source, dental records to be able to identify her. And in true crime all the time, they actually covered her case too. The host stated that the body was found the same day that the call went in about the missing arm. So very quickly she is found.
00:21:05
Speaker
So, I mean, thankfully, because if this dog hadn't found the arm, then I feel like they wouldn't have known where exactly to look. So that was good at least. Yeah, because it kind of narrows down the search area. Her body was found lying face down with the left arm like kind of tucked under her head, but like
00:21:32
Speaker
kind of laying over a log at the same time and obviously the right arm was missing confirming that this was the body to the arm that the dog had. Right. The body was wearing tan pants and navy top and sandals and that was the exact same outfit Jeanette had been wearing the day she left home. Okay so this seems easy open and shut at least we know where she is.
00:21:58
Speaker
Yeah. And she'd been missing for a while. So, you know, you could chalk her arm up to wildlife. The body was badly decomposed. So, you know, we can, we can make sense of that, but oddities start popping up in the case. Um, or I guess I might want to say rumors of oddities were beginning because from whom?
00:22:24
Speaker
Well, you're gonna come to see that many of the claims are disproven now, but at that time they weren't, and it was just kind of like the community and the media kind of helped put fuel on fires that probably shouldn't have been lit, if that makes sense. Ooh, okay, I'm ready to hear it.
00:22:53
Speaker
Okay, so Allison, Jeanette's body was found in a peculiar position, which we'll talk about in a bit has led to some strange theories. Reports vary wildly based on rumor. So remember that what I'm telling you is based in rumor, but the most agreed upon set of rumors. So again, we're talking like, not facts, rumors. We cannot confirm.
00:23:22
Speaker
Yes. Well, we kind of can deny it now, but we'll get there. Okay. Okay. So the most agreed upon set of rumors is that the body was surrounded by logs laid out in a coffin shape, that there were several makeshift crosses nearby. Some rumors even said that there was a crucifix directly above Jeanette's head. And then even further, some say that there was like a sort of halo made around her head with rocks.
00:23:52
Speaker
This is sounding very like Blair Witch Project. Yeah. And initially we even have reports of investigators following carved arrows into trees up this hillside to where her body was found. And to add to the hat, according to an anonymous writer on the website, Weird NJ, quote, all around her body were dead animals tied to trees with strings and some in jars, end quote.
00:24:22
Speaker
So basically sounding super ritualistic. Yeah. And that is kind of the biggest theory you're going to hear surrounding her death is that it was like she was killed in like sometime type of witch sacrifice or satanic sacrifice.
00:24:45
Speaker
And it doesn't help because the officers at the scene of the crime can't immediately determine a cause of death because her body was so badly decomposed. So they have to order an autopsy, like she's identified by these dental records. And even when we get the autopsy report back, investigators still really are no closer to finding the cause of death for her.
00:25:11
Speaker
She didn't have any broken bones. There were like no nick marks on her bones. That would indicate stab wounds. She had no bullet wounds. No bones were fractured or broken. They did a toxicology screen. It showed no drugs in her system. It did, however, detect a strangely high level of lead, which I'm not sure. Would that be like a decomposition thing, maybe? I'm not sure.
00:25:41
Speaker
I don't know how that works, but she did have high levels of lead in her system. And for undisclosed reasons, the coroner named her cause of death a strangulation. So I'm guessing we now know that that's wrong? Not really. Oh, we just don't know. We just don't know.
00:26:02
Speaker
So with this official ruling being strangulation, we would think naturally that we're going to have suspects that the police were looking into because she didn't strangle herself. We don't think someone strangled her, but that really wasn't the case. I only read were like two, I believe,
00:26:22
Speaker
like people were ever really looked into. One suspect I saw named was this homeless man who was seen residing near this rock quarry and the rock quarry led up to this cliff. He was referred to as Red. He gained attention when he like allegedly fled his campsite in the woods shortly after Jeanette went missing.
00:26:43
Speaker
Um, this lead initially looked promising, but then the prosecutor's office determined that he had nothing to do with Jeanette's death. Hmm. We talk about that as well. Like probably because he's homeless, he becomes, can become a scapegoat. Yeah, for sure.
00:27:06
Speaker
And another one, I think, kind of is the same thing. It was the security guard. So while he's not homeless, still, you know, just your everyday...
00:27:15
Speaker
man. And he was a security guard from this rock quarry located near where her body was found. But he also was never like, you know, implicated in anything to do with her disappearance or death. And so investigators continue to attempt to find leads, but due to lack of tips from the public, because, as you mentioned, her
00:27:44
Speaker
position as we know it now with the information we've been given does seem very like satanic or witchcrafty. So I kind of think that made the public kind of leery to come forward with anything. So along with few tips from the public, inconsistent stories told to the police by her family, friends, and peers, her case starts to grow cold.
00:28:10
Speaker
So remember this is all like 1970s and we'll kind of talk more about that time period here in a little bit. Her case does gain more attention when weird NJ published an article on her case in 1997 and then again in the mid like 2000s. So they get a lot of tips from the 97 publication and then they get a lot more tips from the mid 2000s publication. Okay so some tips.
00:28:37
Speaker
Yeah. And those tips prompted Mark Moran to investigate the case on his own. And he would eventually team up with a weird NJ correspondent. And the two actually would go on to even write a book about Jeanette's case. Oh.
00:28:56
Speaker
Yeah. So cool. But we're going to discuss, I'm going to do a little differently this time. So we're going to discuss some theories that we have on this case, no matter the validity. Okay. Because we're going to talk about the theories and then we're going to talk about the discrediting of the theories as we go. And then we're going to talk about just some like strange things beyond the supposed like location of her body and stuff.
00:29:26
Speaker
Okay. So the first theory we're going to discuss is that Jeanette was killed in a satanic cult ritual. Cause I feel like we have to talk about that one because with all the rumors about how her body was discovered, that's what everybody kind of believes happened to her.
00:29:43
Speaker
There's an article called Inside Jeanette De Palma's Mysterious Death and why it was blamed on Satanist. I know that had this quote, at the time of Jeanette Del Palma's death, the infamous satanic panic of the 1980s was yet to come. But still the publication of a satanic Bible, the popularity of the film Rosemary's Baby and the freshness of the
00:30:08
Speaker
Manson Family Murders and the collective cultural zeitgeist contributed to a growing belief in a sinister force from the underworld permeating American culture." So a lot of big words in that. Very educated author there. So with everything culturally that's happening,
00:30:30
Speaker
It's like just perpetuating this fear of satanic cults and how they could be anywhere, even your next door neighbor, which is making people then think this is obviously what happened to Jeanette.
00:30:45
Speaker
right because we're not at the height of the satanic panic yet because that was like in the 80s when you know literally anybody would go missing they were like satanists right for rituals or whatever yeah um which which statistically is a very low amount of murders happen as a result of some type of religious cult sacrifice ritual yeah
00:31:11
Speaker
but we're like on the cusp of this satanic panic. And some cases close to Jeanette's town could have sparked this panic within Springfield. There are two that I'm going to briefly talk about that I think will help make more sense as to why her town was kind of so almost hell bent on that it was Satanist or witches. So one was a
00:31:37
Speaker
New Jersey murdered that left a community in a fearful grip of Like satanic youth. Oh Yeah creepy The following comes from a website called my central Jersey and we are going to be talking about Patrick Michael Newell three names But he was 20. He's not he's not
00:32:05
Speaker
A serial killer? He was the murderer. But he was 20 years old when his friends bound his arms and legs behind his back, threw him into a sandpit pond in Millville, and waited for him to drown. And this is according to this article, and then they got their information from an article from New York Times. Okay, first of all, this is serving. Second of all, what is a sandpit pond? So I'm wondering if it's almost kind of like quicksand.
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah. Oh my. Okay. And his friends tell police that Patrick belonged to a satanic worshipper sect and felt that if he died violently, then he would be in charge of these 40 leagues of demons. Oh, that's even more disturbing.
00:32:57
Speaker
So he actually, according to his friends, like push his friends like to do this. Like he, they murder him, but they, it's almost like assisted suicide instead of murder, right? They claim he urged them to bind his hands and feet, which they did, performed a satanic ritual, which they did. And then they pushed him into the pond so that he could be over these demons, which like,
00:33:27
Speaker
scares the crap out of me. Yeah, I'll have nightmares tonight. Thanks Maggie.
00:33:34
Speaker
You're welcome. And these allegations were enough to call in the criminal investigation section of the New Jersey State Police to investigate the existence of a possible voodoo cult.
Investigation Challenges and Public Perception
00:33:48
Speaker
Both teens were eventually convicted of his death. So that kind of has the community a little on edge, as you could guess.
00:33:58
Speaker
Yep, I could see that. Yeah, I can see that. And then one year before Jeanette's death, John List in nearby Westfield, New Jersey likes their fields. They do. Westfield. South Plainfield. That's where I taught. They need some more diversity in their names. But this man, John List, carried out a planned murder of his family.
00:34:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And according to again, my central Jersey list shot his wife, his mother and his two children in the head one by one. Then after driving his son home from a soccer game, shot him multiple times in the chest and face, which
00:34:49
Speaker
Sad and scary. These family annihilators. Gosh, wow. And remember, I don't know which one of us did this case, but we talked about like some of the reasons that
00:35:05
Speaker
family annihilators exist and they're like, I killed my family because I'm cheating on my wife and I didn't want my family to be embarrassed or we're going bankrupt and my family doesn't know. So this saved them from starving or whatever. And he is a textbook family annihilator. So he intricately places each of the bodies in sleeping bags. He arranges them in a line on the ballroom floor of their Victorian mansion.
00:35:35
Speaker
except for his mother, whom he left in her apartment in the attic. What's crazy is the bodies went undiscovered for nearly a month. And Liszt, who assumed a new identity and life in Virginia, wasn't arrested until 1989. Oh, my gosh. And this happened in the 70s. So he went almost two decades undiscovered. Uh-huh. Oh, my goodness. That's scary.
00:36:06
Speaker
Yeah. In an article written by the United Press International in April of 1990, the doctor who examined Liszt after his arrest said that the husband turned family annihilator had recently lost his job.
00:36:22
Speaker
And he would go on to tell the jury, quote, that Liszt believed doing what he did to his family was allowed because he was sending them to join God and saving them from the embarrassment of having to be on the public dole. So obviously, there's no clear thinking going on.
00:36:45
Speaker
But others said, and again, this is rumor, that one of Liz's daughters was rumored to be a practicing witch and that realization kind of helped push him over the edge. Liz was convicted in 1990 of five counts of murder and was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences. He died in 2008 while still imprisoned. So like this idea of satanic cults being responsible for the murder
00:37:15
Speaker
of yet another individual was sensationalized by the media because they're saying was his daughter and all of this and it kind of pushed him over the edge so it was a common scapegoat in that time. Yeah so that does make sense then why when here's yet another murder and with the rumors of how she was found why they would then jump to that conclusion.
00:37:40
Speaker
Right, and remember that her family was closely tied to their faith and because of this many rumors spread that she was killed in some sort of cult ritual. In fact, her pastor would say on television that he knew Satanists were responsible for her death and that she was killed because she was like basically witnessing to these people.
00:38:02
Speaker
And that that's why she was killed. We don't really know if that is factual because he and I think it was true crime all the time. They actually went on to say that he made another public appearance on TV or whatever and said that she was part of this satanic cult. Oh, no. So he's just
00:38:28
Speaker
even if he's initially trying to help, it's just spreading rumors. Yeah. And that was, you know, what we talked about earlier, one of the reasons why her case has kind of been so baffling because accounts of her have varied from people that should know her so well. Like I feel like your pastor should know you and he clearly didn't. Right.
00:38:54
Speaker
It didn't help at that time that there was a nearby reservation and this area was commonly used to practice these sort of pagan rituals. And so police were convinced that there was a connection between this reservation and her... What happened to Jeanette? Yeah.
00:39:19
Speaker
And some people even said that, like, do you remember the anonymous quote that was like, there were animals in jars and tied up trees? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:39:28
Speaker
Yeah, so we actually believe now that they may have just been remembering something that they saw rumored to be happening on the reservation, not necessarily where Jeanette's body was found. So I think people were kind of getting the two places confused. But police were so convinced that the two were connected that they even brought a witch in to investigate the case further to the surprise of Jeanette's family. Yeah, that's an odd
00:39:58
Speaker
Yeah, we've heard of, you know, psychics being brought in and people being like, you know, put into hypnosis, but I don't think we've ever had a witch brought into it. No, we haven't. This is the first for everything.
00:40:12
Speaker
Yeah. According to all things interesting, the media ran with every bit of speculation surrounding this alleged satanic sacrifice of this pretty young teenager. And why would they not? Because that's going to sell way more newspapers than posting something normal.
00:40:29
Speaker
Right. Jeanette's article on all things interesting quoted a newspaper from the time that she went missing as saying, quote, While Union County authorities declined comment on the mysterious death of Jeanette Del Palma, informed sources confirmed there's evidence to indicate the involvement of teenage satanic worshippers, end quote. So again, just continuing like the sensationalism about the case.
00:40:56
Speaker
Weird NJ, who's been working closely with this case for some time now, doesn't buy into this satanic ritual theory. In fact, in an article that they published on her case, they wrote, quote, even a casual glance at crime scene diagrams drawn by UCPO investigator Glenn Owens shows these supposed signs, air quotes, of
00:41:20
Speaker
Air quote, black magic and Satan worship are teeny as at best. The two pieces of wood crossed on the ground over her head were actually parallel to Jeanette's body with her right arm resting on a vertically parallel log and the other horizontal log laying just beyond her head. Both logs were much larger than Jeanette's entire body. So, so these are like logs and they don't even make a cross.
00:41:50
Speaker
And they're saying like, oh, two pieces of wood crossed above her head when it logs. Yes. And when I, like, so when I first hear that she's in a coffin, right? I'm picturing like one of those old timing coffins that has like, you know, one, two, three, four, six sides. That's what I was picturing. Like hound chock chockula coffin. Yes, exactly.
00:42:21
Speaker
wooden Yes, and they even say that the coffin is an exaggeration at best and like when I think of crucifixes or crosses around her body like I think of intentionally placed twigs Yes limbs off trees. Obviously, I feel like the people that first
00:42:46
Speaker
saw this and thought, oh my God, that's a cross. Have never been in the woods a day in their life because if you were in any wooded area, trees fall, limbs fall out of trees and they fall on top of each other. Sometimes they cross pattern. That doesn't mean that
00:43:10
Speaker
They were intentionally placed that way. They just failed that way. Okay. So what about this coffin then? Like, I don't feel like a coffin is something that you could just fall into.
00:43:24
Speaker
And Weird NJ says that Owen's diagram shows that the branches fell in a way that roughly resembles an open rectangle, not like a trapezoid, like the six-sided thing. But considering that this is like a densely overgrown patch of wood, they are saying on Weird NJ, it's probably safe to say that the quarry was filled with countless other branches that would have also fallen into common shapes. Oh, so this is a...
00:43:51
Speaker
not even a rectangle, an open rectangle. So instead of saying like a coffin, they should have said a U shape. Yeah. And like if she was intentionally placed in this like sort of coffin, I don't think her arms would be over the side and like one kind of like tucked in behind her head. That's true. I feel like she would be placed differently.
00:44:16
Speaker
Yeah, if the items around her were arranged, why was her body not staged? Yeah, agreed. And while this satanic ritual theory is the most popular, there are other theories that we're going to discuss because I just don't buy into the satanic ritual theory. I feel like investigators wasted a lot of time with this theory that could have been better spent actually figuring out what happened to her.
00:44:47
Speaker
But I digress. One of the more rational theories was that she was a victim of opportunity. Many people think that maybe she ran into someone who was looking for a young woman to hurt, potentially rape, as she was walking to the train station or even hitchhiking. It is not believed in this theory that Jeanette knew her killer. It is believed that this was just a random encounter.
00:45:13
Speaker
So this person may have planned to take someone far in advance, or they may have acted on impulse when they saw her alone. I did read in my research that stains were found in her underwear, bra, blouse, and slacks, but they were, quote, to decompose for conclusive blood and semen examinations, end quote. So we have- Which makes sense, because if they couldn't even tell if she's male or female, then
00:45:42
Speaker
You know, I feel like that makes complete sense why they couldn't gather any viable DNA from that. Yeah. So we know that there are stains in there, but we don't know what they're from. I did read that they had taken samples from underneath her fingernails, but I haven't read where anything has been released about what those samples found. Okay.
00:46:10
Speaker
So could she maybe have possibly been a victim of sexual assault and then murdered? Because I mean, obviously she's taken to a remote area. Yeah. And we're going to talk kind of about that here in a little bit. Okay. And I can't remember if I actually wrote it in the case, but I am going to bring it up because it, I think it will make a difference in the theories. Okay.
00:46:36
Speaker
Another theory mentioned on Morbeth Library was that Jeanette's death was a result of a tragic attack. So this theory proposes that she was being followed then that night by someone she knew, like a friend, a classmate, maybe even somebody from church. It's theorized that this person would have been like kind of obsessed with her, be excited on her. Perhaps they saw her out that night and followed her.
00:47:00
Speaker
maybe even going ashore to make a pass at her that she refused or she possibly ignored them all together and they in this theory people are saying that that refusal of attention made that stalker so mad that he attacked her and killed her. That's very lovely bones to me. Yeah, it definitely is. Yeah.
00:47:23
Speaker
Another theory states that Jeanette overdosed that night. This theory seems particularly popular with investigators. Really?
00:47:35
Speaker
Yeah, because I don't see it. Well, I've listened. One of the podcasts I listened to, and I don't remember now which one it was, said that her sister was in rehab. And that while her family, like her parents were devout Christian, she was still trying to kind of figure out who she was and like,
00:47:57
Speaker
went to church because that's what her family wanted her to do like was attending a bible college after graduation because that's what her family wanted her to do um but again i didn't find that in the like physical research that i read just in that podcast that i listened to um but to me it doesn't really fit and to many others it doesn't because we know there was no drug paraphernalia found in her system
00:48:24
Speaker
They did a toxicology report and they found nothing.
Inconsistencies and Theories
00:48:28
Speaker
There weren't like there wasn't evidence of needles or you know anything like that around her body that would have indicated that she was at like maybe a party doing drugs because this
00:48:42
Speaker
Area according to investigators was like a party spot But we're gonna use those air quotes lightly Yeah for party spot She was not known by her friends or family to have used any recreational or prescription drugs other than like occasionally smoking marijuana socially which again was like a Really big thing in the 70s. Yeah. Yeah and beyond speculation. There's no real support to this theory. Mm-hmm
00:49:13
Speaker
we that's just kind of again like another rumor that has been spread. In fact, Weird NJ has been told time and time again by retired Springfield PD investigators that the spot where she was taken was this party spot and that she likely overdosed while partying there with several other teenagers and they're like you know all of these teenagers have
00:49:36
Speaker
kept their mouth shut all these years. They fled out of fear and then they just have kept their mouth shut this entire time. But one problem I have with that is this has been a long time now. This happened in the early 1970s. Somebody somewhere by 2022 would have said something to someone. I agree.
00:50:00
Speaker
out of guilt, you know, her family is like her nephews that have never even met her are still making pleas to the public for information so that they can finally know what happened to their aunt. So like, I feel like by this time, if it was a group of so-called friends, somebody would have had enough guilt on their conscience to come forward. Also, this party spot, and this is what I was going to talk about, doesn't look like a party spot to me.
00:50:30
Speaker
so it is like when they say cliff i'm talking like it's a cliff oh it's not like a mountainside or a hillside it's like it's like wiley coyote and the roadrunner
00:50:46
Speaker
Like Cliff. Yeah, like you like I read somewhere that somebody that went up there needed like hiking boots to get up there and she was in sandals. Oh, no. First of all, teenagers. Listen, I was one. My little sleuth hounds about to be one. You're raising one. Yeah. Yeah. They're not the kind who are going to have to go hiking to get to a party spot.
00:51:14
Speaker
And like at first I was like, maybe that's why those arrows were carved into the trees, right? Because maybe that's like a path for people to know they're going the right way to this party spot. But weird NJ said that it was much more overgrown than would have been like the investigators previously described, like large plants, large bushes surrounding the remains. Yeah, if they were a party spot, all that would be trampled.
00:51:43
Speaker
Yeah. And how did she get up there with sandals? If people that are going to investigate it need a talking booth. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. And in the pictures, because eventually we do finally get pictures of the crime scene and we'll talk about that in a little bit, but with the pictures, there's no evidence of a party or any type of social gathering. So like,
00:52:09
Speaker
I don't know where the party spot thing came from because you don't see it when you're looking at the pictures. Right. But then again, like if it is on a cliff, who's going to be strong enough to carry her all the way up there? I mean, she wasn't big, but even carrying a tiny person up a steep cliff, I feel like would be hard to do. Yeah. Yeah.
00:52:33
Speaker
Well, now that we've talked about theories that none of which I really know that I'm 100% sold on, which is usual for us. Right. Yeah. We're going to talk about some interesting points in her case that I haven't mentioned as of yet. So maybe three. So auditing one, police claim that Jeanette's file was lost in floodwaters due to Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
00:53:03
Speaker
which in and of itself isn't odd because that can happen. But according to Weird NJ, after a decade of working with Weird NJ, the correspondent, remember Jesse Pollock, who co-authored this book called Death on the Devil's Teeth. That was the name of this cliff, by the way, was Devil's Teeth. So I thought that probably led to some of the satanic ideas.
00:53:27
Speaker
Okay. But according to their information, her nephew, so Jeanette's nephew, was finally able to obtain copies of her case file from the Union County Sheriff's Office. So if you got copies, that means it wasn't lost.
00:53:46
Speaker
Right, and after years of denials from the previous acting prosecutors, Jesse Pollock was able to consult with the former Director of Communications in 2019 to submit a detailed file request under the Open Records Act.
00:54:04
Speaker
So why this lie cover up whatever you want to call it about lost files because the files were released crime scene photos were released. And again all of these were deemed lost but they're suddenly not. Yeah you can't release something that isn't there anymore. So.
00:54:24
Speaker
Mm-hmm. So were they maybe just misplaced and they were like looking through boxes and found them. I don't know but Weird to me and it's because of these photos that we're able to roll out certain theories like that satanic ritual because we Yeah, the logs have been laid. We know it doesn't look like a party took place there We know there's no drugs around her. So it's just weird Mm-hmm
00:54:51
Speaker
Audity number two is Jeanette's purse. So in the released reports, we are given the contents of her purse. Weird and Jay stated that it was apparently never recovered. And they say, quote, despite previous accounts given to us by the responding officers on that day. So at first they're saying they recovered her purse, but they never really did. Wait, then how did they give a list of the contents of her purse?
00:55:21
Speaker
So about eight feet south of where her remains were found, they found the contents of her purse dumped into a small pile. And to me, that makes it seem like someone was sorting her belongings or going through things, you know? Yeah.
00:55:39
Speaker
Enlisted in the evidence reports are a pack of tissues, an inhaler, a compact, lipstick, a comb, a key on a ring, and a clear vial with an unknown substance. What? What could that be?
00:55:59
Speaker
Well, according to her mom at the time, so back in the seventies, she had a cold the day that she went missing and the mom is saying this was like medicine that she had put in like a vial so she could take it later and not take the whole bottle. Oh, okay. Cause she was, she told her mom she was going to go to work. Yeah.
00:56:21
Speaker
So in the podcast, I think it was suspect zero, they said, and I didn't find this anywhere else, but they said on their show that whatever was in that vial also had high contents of lead.
00:56:37
Speaker
but I didn't see that anywhere else. And then like, I think in that same podcast, it said that lead is somehow sometimes used in like these rituals of the occult or whatever. But again, I didn't find that anywhere else. Right. What's odd though, is that her purse was nowhere to be seen in any of these photos.
00:57:01
Speaker
Even though police said that they recovered it so we know that they haven't so the purse itself was missing along with her money and her wallet and Something else that's missing again playing into this satanic cult idea was her like crucifix crucifix cross necklace So many Speculate that these items were taken as souvenirs. So what are your thoughts?
00:57:31
Speaker
Okay. Well, I think it's weird that somebody would dump out her purse and not just grab the wallet, but actually still take the purse. That's odd to me. The cross I could explain away because I'm guessing it would be made out of gold or something. And if they took her wallet and her money, that is also something of value.
00:57:55
Speaker
So I think I can take that but I feel like obviously normally when you hitchhike you ride with a stranger and I don't know if this Corey was like on the way to the train station or her friend's house or read that wherever she was going because that would I guess make me
00:58:16
Speaker
decide whether I thought that the person who did it was a stranger or someone she knew, because I feel like if it were a stranger, then she would have immediately, you know, started feeling frightened or whatever if the stranger is driving in the opposite direction of where she's asking to go.
00:58:33
Speaker
Um, but then with a friend, she might just be like, Oh yeah, we're just hanging out. But you brought up a fantastic point Maggie. And that is that where her body was found, if it is a hike, then this is not necessarily a place where you could like easily carry someone, which I feel like if this were a stranger, they would have had to have done because she would have been fighting the whole way.
Call for Public Engagement
00:58:58
Speaker
And how would you willingly convince her? Like some people have said she could have had help getting up there, which is true. But like, under what pretense are you convincing her to go up there? I feel like it had to have been someone she knew.
00:59:13
Speaker
because a stranger wouldn't be able to convince, you know, I'm already nervous though, hitching the ride with a stranger, but I feel like even back then, even if you were hitchhiking, you're not, if a stranger is like, hey, let's hike into the woods to the edge of a cliff that's out in the middle of nowhere, that you would be like, sounds good, you know? Count me in. Yeah, so I feel like it had to have been someone who she knew.
00:59:43
Speaker
and she's not gonna go there alone. Yeah, I agree.
00:59:48
Speaker
Even though Jeanette's case is old and it may appear we're never going to know what happened to her, her case has actually never been labeled a cold case. Weird and Jay made a commitment to continue looking into this tragic case back in 2004, and they say they're not going to stop until Jeanette's remaining family knows what happened to her. They say, quote, we will continue to do our best to bring answers and justice to Jeanette, her family, and their memory, end quote.
01:00:16
Speaker
If you have any information about this case, the mysterious death and disappearance of Jeanette Del Palma, please contact the Union County Prosecutor's Office at 908-527-4500 or you can even reach out to Weird NJ at editor and that's E-D-I-T-O-R at Weird NJ
01:00:41
Speaker
They say all requests remain anonymous will be honored by Weird NJ. Be brave and step out. Say something and give this family some peace.
01:00:52
Speaker
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01:01:13
Speaker
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