Dolores Della Penna

The murder of Dolores Della Penna is an unsolved murder case dating from July 1972 in which a 17-year-old high school graduate was abducted, tortured, murdered and dismembered by an unknown number of individuals in Kensington, Philadelphia. Her dismembered torso, arms and legs were later discovered in New Jersey, although her head has never been found.

Although the motive for Della Penna's abduction and murder remains unclear, investigators believe she may have been targeted by drug dealers either due to her being falsely blamed by former roommates for the theft of drugs or in an act of revenge against her boyfriend relating to an unsettled drug debt. The case itself has been described as one of Philadelphia's most gruesome and enduring unsolved murders.

Early life Dolores Marie Della Penna was born in Tacony, Philadelphia on December 13, 1954, the second of two children born to Ralph and Helen ( DiMichele) Della Penna. Her father was a chemist, and her mother a homemaker. The family resided in a semi-detached house in a blue-collar section of Tacony composed predominantly of families of Polish or Italian ancestry. By 1971, Della Penna's older brother, Ralph Jr., had married and moved into his own house.

An honors graduate of St. Hubert Catholic High School for Girls, Della Penna was described by her parents as a "kind, obedient and family-oriented" girl who was markedly studious and refrained from conflicts. She held aspirations to attend college in September 1972, with aspirations to ultimately become a radiographer. Della Penna did not own a car, although unbeknownst to her, her parents had plans to purchase a car for her eighteenth birthday. Della Penna, pictured at her high school graduation ceremony, June 1972.

Graduation Della Penna did not attend her high school prom following her June 1972 graduation, and according to her sister-in-law, Della Penna viewed the summer following her graduation as one which she intended to take full advantage of as it would be "the last summer she could enjoy before she had to work for the rest of her life".

Shortly after her graduation, Della Penna and three female friends with whom she had recently become acquainted opted to rent a bungalow upon Forget-Me-Not Road in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey, with view to renting the property solely for the summer of 1972.

In late-June, Della Penna learned her parents, older brother and other family members planned to visit Walt Disney World. According to her mother, upon hearing this, Della Penna informed her, "You're not going without me." The entire family commenced their 10-day vacation on July 1, returning home on July 10.

Abduction At approximately 8 p.m. on July 11, Nichols remained aboard the Route 5 trolleybus.

Della Penna is known to have boarded the next Route 56 trolleybus to arrive at this bus stop at approximately 11:39 p.m. The driver of this trolleybus, Joseph Kilcoyne, would later inform investigators the girl alighted his trolleybus at the corner of Knorr Street—three blocks and approximately one mile from her home—sometime between 11:50 and 11:55 p.m. Della Penna was attacked by a slender, brown-haired white male aged between twenty and twenty-five after she had walked approximately one block from the trolleybus stop. into a maroon 1965 or 1969 model Chevrolet parked close to her own home and hastily driven from the scene. The sole evidence recovered at the site of Della Penna's abduction was her maroon jacket, door key, a small cross and a crucifix which had been gifts given to her by friends at her high school graduation.

Initial investigation The circumstances regarding Della Penna's disappearance led police to rapidly determine she had been abducted, and numerous investigators were assigned to the investigation into her abduction. In addition to the eyewitness testimony pertaining to her being beaten and hastily forced into a Chevrolet containing more than one individual, several local residents also informed investigators they had heard a young woman's high-pitched screams emanating from the vicinity of Tulip and Rawle Street—corroborating the actual eyewitness's account of her actual abduction. More than 20,000 circulars describing the abduction vehicle were distributed across Philadelphia in efforts to trace the vehicle and identify Della Penna's abductors in the weeks following her abduction, although this initiative failed to bear fruit.

Subsequent leads garnered would extend inquiries as far afield as New York, although all leads of inquiry ultimately proved fruitless. A substantial reward for her safe return was also offered, to no avail. —were questioned with regards to Della Penna's disappearance. Several are known to have failed polygraph tests, and these individuals were typically involved in the usage or trafficking of narcotics, leading detectives to suspect a conspiracy of silence; however, investigators found no evidence Della Penna had herself used or sold drugs.

Discovery Della Penna's mutilated torso and severed arms were discovered by a man walking his dog through a wooded area close to Oakwood Avenue in Jackson Township, New Jersey on July 22, 1972; (A forensic pathologist would determine Della Penna's arms and torso had lain at this location for a minimum of eight days prior to discovery.) Her body was formally identified on July 24 via X-ray records of her spinal column taken while a patient within Nazareth Hospital in 1970.

An autopsy was unable to determine the cause of death nor whether Della Penna had been sexually assaulted, Furthermore, her fingertips had also been severed from her hands after death in an evident effort to prevent identification. Della Penna's head has never been recovered. Family and friends of Delores Della Penna, pictured outside her home in Tacony four days after the discovery of her body.

Funeral Dolores Della Penna was laid to rest on the morning of August 4, 1972. Her interment followed a 9:30 a.m. concelebrated Mass held at the Galzerano Funeral Home and Our Lady of Consolation Church in accordance with her Roman Catholic faith. She was laid to rest within Resurrection Cemetery in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Further investigations The disappearance of Della Penna and the subsequent discovery of her dismembered body generated intense press and public interest. Following the discovery of her remains, the Philadelphia Police Department, the New Jersey State Police and the FBI launched an intense, coordinated manhunt to apprehend the individual or individuals responsible.

On what would have been Della Penna's eighteenth birthday, the Philadelphia Daily News increased a previously offered reward of $4,000 to $10,000 for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of her murderer or murderers, with the periodical assuring the public they could remain anonymous in submitting any information should they wish. The actual abduction had occurred close to the Della Penna household just before midnight, with two of the perpetrators standing outside the kidnap vehicle with the vehicle's hood raised in order to deceive Della Penna into believing they were fixing their vehicle as she approached.

Della Penna's murderers would later learn she had actually been innocent of the drugs theft. By the twenty-fifth anniversary of her death, several of the prime suspects had themselves died.