SPRINGFIELD – Forty-seven years ago, a decomposing human arm was found outside an apartment complex on Wilson Road.

According to police accounts reported in newspapers, the arm was carried by a dog to the apartments from the Houdaille Quarry – a former crystal and gravel quarry now bisected by Interstate 78 and nestled between the world-famous Baltusrol Golf Club and Watchung Reservation.

The arm was soon traced to a body that belonged to Jeannette DePalma, who was reported missing by her parents on Aug. 7, 1972 – four days after her 16th birthday. She was found dead atop a towering rock formation six weeks later Sept. 19, 1972, the day the arm was found.

Jeannette came from a Christian family and was known by friends to be devoted to her faith. Her family's home was on Clearview Road, in the hilly middle- and upper-class neighborhood of Springfield. On a clear day, Manhattan's skyline can be seen in the distance from the winding suburban streets.

No one was ever arrested in connection with her death and no new leads have ever been publicly reported in nearly a half century.

Her death occurred during the Jesus movement in the early 1970s and generated a multitude of newspaper articles speculating that she died as the result of an occult killing.

With a lack of any concrete answers, theories have abounded for decades, ranging from a satanic ritual sacrifice to a coven of witches practicing black magic.

The mystery is partially why Edward Salzano has taken a passionate interest in the case.

Salzano sued the Union County Prosecutor’s Office in hopes of compelling the agency to test Jeannette's clothing for DNA.

In the lawsuit, filed on June 18, Salzano claimed he met with the Union County Prosecutor's Office in April to discuss Jeannette's case and deliver documents that he said Jeannette's nephew, John Bancey, a close friend, gave him before he died.

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"I asked if Jeannette's clothing would be DNA tested and I was told 'NO'," the lawsuit states.

The prosecutor's office filed a motion for dismissal, citing "lack of subject matter" and "failure to state a claim."

In its brief, the Union County Prosecutor's Office said it appears Salzano is seeking to compel the law enforcement agency to "re-investigate the death of Jeannette DePalma, who died mysteriously 47 years ago."

A judge denied the DNA test in August.

The Office of the Union County Prosecutor confirmed that the Homicide Task Force’s investigation into the tragic death of Jeannette DePalma remains open and has never been closed, according to spokesman Mark Spivey. Anyone with information is urged to contact Lt. Jose Vendas at 908-358-3048.

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Different theories

There are many theories about Jeannette's death, but no one agrees which is the truth.

The truth is, no one knows what happened to Jeannette after she went missing in August 1972.

Death records, however, provide a small glimpse into the mystery that has shrouded Jeannette's case.

Jeannette was found in the Houdaille Quarry near Shunpike Road "lying face down with a rock formation surrounding the body," according to the Union County Medical Examiner's report completed by Dr. Bernard Ehrenberg on the day she was found 47 years ago.

Jeannette was identified through dental records as her body was too badly decomposed, according to the medical examiner's report. Her body was so decomposed that an autopsy could not be performed. X-rays of her skull were taken, though, and there was no evidence of fractures, bullet holes or traumatic injuries.

The cause of death has never been determined. Samples of Jeannette's clothing were packed up and sent to the federal government for further analysis.

According to the FBI crime lab report on Jan. 3, 1973, officials tested Jeannette's clothing, including her blouse, slacks and underwear, as well as the soil from the scene, and compared them with hairs collected from her dresser drawer and on her body.

The FBI's microscopic and chemical analysis found that were no "apparent foreign hairs" found among Jeannette's clothing.

The lab workers didn't find drugs or poison in any of the samples.

There were, however, stains found in her underwear, bra, blouse and slacks that "were too decomposed for conclusive blood and semen examinations," according to the crime lab report.

At the time of Jeannette's death, the nation was in the midst of a Christian revival known as the Jesus movement, as the hippie generation was mellowing, and families were turning to evangelical beliefs.

Jeannette's family, according to newspaper articles, belonged to the Assemblies of God Evangel Church in Elizabeth.

Despite the turn to evangelical faith, it was also a period marked by a paranoia of satanism and witchcraft. Jeannette's death occurred three years after the infamous Manson Family murders.

In an article published on Sept. 30, 1972 in the Home News Tribune, the Associated Press wrote local authorities were "investigating the possibility that black witchcraft and satan worship were involved in the death" of Jeannette. The report was attributed to an article in the Daily Journal of Elizabeth that was published a day earlier.

According to the now-defunct Daily Journal, the searchers who located Jeannette's body said they found "pieces of wood were crossed on the ground over her head. More wood framed the body 'like a coffin,'" the paper said.

The article also quoted Jeannette's parents, as "someone who tried to lead others to Jesus" and said that she was involved in community work to aid drug addicts and planned on attending a Bible college.

According to the newspaper's report, "a number of sacrifices involving dead animals" were reported around the Watchung Reservation, which was less than 2 miles away from where Jeannette was found. In the park around the same time, Union County Park Police had found "burning candles, a bowl of blood and feathers and pigeons with their necks snapped."

On Oct. 3, 1972, the Courier News ran an Associated Press article reporting that Union County law enforcement officials may have brought a witch to the site of Jeannette's death.

"I never did hear if the witch found anything," the family's pastor, Rev. James Tate of the Assemblies of God Evangel, was quoted, "but I know she was there at the scene."

According to newspaper accounts and interviews, there were self-professed witches and warlocks in New Jersey at the time. An Associated Press article published on Halloween in 1972 interviewed a woman named Lilith Sinclair who founded her own "grotto," or group of satanists, as an off-shoot of the San Francisco-based Church of Satan.

By all accounts, Sinclair's grotto was based in the small Middlesex County borough of Spotswood and had more than 30 members. The witch who was reportedly brought to the site of Jeannette's body was never named.

Donald Schwerdt, though, was one of the Springfield police officers on the scene when Jeannette was found.

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'A great big mound'

"I'm the one who found the body," Schwerdt said.

Even though he's been retired for three decades, Schwerdt, 91, said the case still stands out in his memory.

"It was hard," he said. "I had five daughters, and this could have been one of my daughters, you know?"

Jeannette was found on top of a "great big mound" in the quarry, Schwerdt said.

"When I got up there, the body was lying right there," he said. "She had tan pants and a navy-blue shirt."

Schwerdt, who was a patrolman at the time, doesn't buy into reports trying to link the death to occult sacrifice and satanism.

He said he believes that rumor started after other law enforcement officials were radioed and began climbing the rock face, and "one guy noticed some rock or little stones around her head and all that and he made a remark that it looked like Satan stuff," Schwerdt said.

"There was nothing to that," he added. "I don't know what happened. There's a lot of theories out there, a lot of people speculating this and that — I don't buy it."

Schwerdt's own theory, from the way her body was positioned, is that "they were probably doing drugs and she OD'ed," although there is no evidence of drug use in the medical examiner's report.

"Somebody had to be with her with her because she had flip-flops," Schwerdt said, "and I had hiking boots on and I had trouble getting up that little hill up to where she was laying."

He said there could have been more than one person with her "because with flip-flops, she would have had a hell of a time getting up that hill."

Schwerdt, who rose through the ranks to lieutenant before retirement, said police knew that some of the kids who hung around with Jeannette were "drug addicts."

"We figured after this period of time somebody would maybe have a heart and say, 'I was there,’" he said, "or 'I know what happened, here's the truth,' but nobody's come forward."

Salzano, who, together with Holly Zuelle, runs the Justice for Jeannette DePalma Facebook page, can't say with certainty what happened to Jeannette, but he does believe some suspicious characters were involved.

"There was a really bad group of people here in town," Salzano said. "There was some evil stuff going on here, and there was a lot of people caught up in it, and LSD was being basically introduced for the first time."

Salzano doesn't believe Jeannette was doing drugs but did say "there was just a series of unfortunate events, and she got mixed in with the wrong people, and they killed her."

He grew up nearby and was always fascinated by the case.

"I know a lot about her," Salzano, 56, said. "I live here in Springfield, I'm from Maplewood. I've known about this case my whole life."

Before his interest in the case turned into a mission, Salzano worked as a private investigator in New York City with a specialty in locating runaway children. He was on an A&E television show, "Runaway Squad," that searched for missing children.

Salzano questions a lot about Jeannette's case, but that's because there's been so few answers.

For one thing, he questions the narrative of the arm and the dog, and instead said he thinks someone could have placed the arm near the apartments to have Jeannette's body located.

He also said he wouldn't rule out the occult, pointing to the infamous List murders of Westfield and Patrick Michael Newell's murder in Millville.

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List and Newell

One year before Jeannette's death, John List in nearby Westfield carefully carried out a plan to murder his family.

List shot his wife, mother and two children in the head one-by-one. Then, after driving his son home from a soccer game, he shot him multiple times in the chest and face. He intricately placed each of the bodies on sleeping bags and arranged them in a line on the ballroom floor of his Victorian mansion — except for his mother, whom he left in her apartment in the attic.

The bodies went undiscovered for nearly a month, and List, who assumed a new identity and life in Virginia, wasn't arrested until 1989.

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In an article written by the United Press International in April 1990, the doctor who examined List after his arrest said the husband-turned-murderer had recently lost his job, telling the jury in Union County Superior Court that "List believed doing what he did do 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."

List's defense attorney, Elijah Miller Jr., tried to introduce testimony that List's daughter, 16-year-old Patricia, was "a practicing witch," but with each attempt Judge William Wertheimer barred the testimony from the record, according to the article.

List was convicted in 1990 of five counts of murder and was sentenced to five consecutive life-sentences. He died in 2008 while still imprisoned.

Just months before the List case, another New Jersey murder left a community fearful of Satan's grip on youth.

Patrick Michael Newell was 20 years old when two friends bound his arms and legs behind his back, threw him into a sand pit pond in Millville, and waited for him to drown, according to a July 1971 article in The New York Times.

One of his friends told police that Newell "belonged to a 'Satan worshipers sect' and felt he had to die violently in order to be put in charge of '40 leagues of demons,'" according to the report.

The teen said Newell had "urged the two friends to bind him, which they did, performed a 'Satanic ritual' and then had them push him into the pond," according to The Times. The allegations were enough to call in the Criminal Investigation Section of the New Jersey State Police "to investigate the possible existence of a voodoo cult."

Both of the teens were eventually convicted for Newell's death.

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Searching for answers

One person who's dubious of the occult's involvement in Jeannette's death is her own nephew.

Ray Sajeski, 44, the son of Jeannette's older sister, Gwendolyn, said the reports of satanism can be chalked up to newspaper sensationalism.

"I don't think that's true," he said. "Not at all."

He also believes Jeannette's death was not an overdose.

"That's not what happened," he said. "My aunt was no angel, but she wasn't a drug addict. It was the '70s, a lot of people smoked pot, it was normal. But no, it wasn't drugs. No way."

He does, however, believe that Jeannette was murdered.

"Whoever did it knows they did it," Sajeski said, "and I don't even know if they're still alive."

Despite the case remaining cold into its 47th year, Sajeski is hopeful it can still be solved.

"I don't think it's too late," he said. "They solve murders way older than this."

Although Sajeski never met his Aunt Jeannette, he remembers that his mother always had her framed photograph on the end table in their living room. Without ever knowing one another, Jeannette's presence was always there.

"I didn't know my aunt, but I feel sad for my family," Sajeski said. "I saw what it did to them, my mom and her sisters. That was their little sister, and it affected them the most."

Jeannette grew up in a large Italian family, one of five daughters of Salvatore and Florence DePalma. She also had three brothers.

Sajeski, who noted his family is not working with Salzano, is hoping that anyone who may know about his aunt's death will come forward and share information with the police so that his family may finally have justice.

"I wish the people who actually really know the facts would come forward," he said. "I want to know what happened."

Staff Writer Nick Muscavage is an award-winning watchdog reporter whose work spans many topics and has spurred the creation of a state law. Contact him: 908-243-6615; ngmuscavage@gannettnj.com; @nmuscavage.