An advocacy group is insisting that the truth behind a brutal murder that occurred over 50 years ago — which was chalked up to an act of witchcraft at the time — is being covered up as the case sparks controversy again.

Justice for Jeannette, a group dedicated to keeping the memory of Jeannette DePalma alive, believes the investigation was “rushed and bungled” as one of its founders argues that the cops overlooked crucial evidence.

Ed Salzano believes “something very sinister” occurred that’s prompted people to “cover it up forever” and to scare people he said he and his partner, Holly Zuelle, have spoken to as they attempt to get to the bottom of what happened.

The teen’s body was discovered without an arm and face-down, and there were initial claims that she was found with stones and crosses in a ring around her head ( Image: Facebook)

“For this to be as covered up as it’s been… no one’s ever done anything about it,” Salzano argued. “Whatever the reason is, it’s very sinister.” The group is reportedly at a “crossroads” with prosecutors as they fight to have DePalma’s body exhumed and the investigation reopened, Zuelle told The U.S. Sun.

DePalma, 16, was missing for six weeks before investigators found her body at a rock quarry in Springfield, New Jersey, about an hour from New York City, back in 1972. She was found face-down without the cross necklace she usually wore, and her body was only found after a dog wandered home with the teen’s decomposed arm in its teeth clutched in its mouth.

The arm had been torn from her body, and when her body was discovered, it was missing the arm. Her killer has never been found. And there are some discrepancies in reports versus the evidence that was actually collected, Salzano and Zuelle told The U.S. Sun.

For starters, it was a small dog that was found carrying the arm of DePalma’s body, and there wasn’t any scuffing around the crime scene that would have indicated the dog’s attempts to rip the arm off her body. There was also indication in the coroner’s report that there were stones around the teen’s head, but in the official but redacted crime scene photos, there weren’t any stones or wooden crosses, Salzano said.

The police report about the discovery also details the rocks and crosses, but no pictures show such formations. They were what likely led to the rumors of witchcraft being involved in the girl’s murder.

An autopsy wasn’t able to be performed due to the decomposed nature of DePalma’s body, too, so the cause of death was simply dubbed “suspicious” instead of a homicide officially, and her death certificate still says “pending further study,” Zuelle said.

DePalma went missing after leaving home on Aug. 7, 1972, to meet up with friends. Her family filed a missing person’s report the next day, and then her body was discovered on Sept. 19, 1972.

The teen was described as religious, but she succumbed to what her mother reportedly said were dark influences like drinking and kissing boys, prompting the mother to cause her daughter to transfer high schools. She reportedly went to church every Sunday and was known for evangelizing to her peers, which caused her to be teased endlessly by some of them.

Ed Kisch, a retired police officer who discovered DePalma’s body, said in a Hulu documentary about the case that the answers in the case may never be found, stating, “The cops are only as good as the evidence left behind.” He said there wasn’t much evidence left behind in DePalma’s case, adding that kids tend not to talk and that whoever had knowledge of what may have happened would be taking it to their graves.