Appearance of Mysterious Statue Possibly Related to 70's Dismemberment Murder

Appearance of Mysterious Statue Possibly Related to 70’s Dismemberment Murder

mysteriousstatue

A mysterious statue placed quietly at a construction site has employees of a New York Library asking a lot of questions, and appealing to the public for help solving the mystery.

The director of the East Hampton Library, Dennis Fabiszak, told Patch that the strange statue was left on an old fountain in the library’s construction area sometime in the wee hours of last weekend, but they haven’t the slightest clue who it could have been or why. It’s fairly light for a statue, weighing in at about 50 lbs, and seems to be made out of red clay that has been painted over. It’s not a particularly new creation either, as at one point a piece had broken off and birds made a nest in the back. It could also be hollow.

dellapennaBut perhaps the most intriguing part of the odd find is the inscription on the back of the statue, a well worn and barely visible cursive scrawling of the words “My Wife Forever Della Penna”.

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The library staff have reached out to the public via their Facebook page in an effort to see if anyone might have any clues about the disembodied gift, and one of the possible answers is certainly an eerie one.

Local man Steven Rothman pointed out that the name Della Penna matches the victim in a grisly murder that occurred just a few hours away in the 70’s, a murder that to this day has not been solved. From wikipedia:

Dolores Della Penna (December 13, 1954 – July 1972) was a 17-year-old Philadelphia schoolgirl who was tortured, gang raped, murdered by dismemberment and beheaded in the Kensington neighborhood in July 1972. Della Penna’s torso and arms were later located in Jackson Township, New Jersey, while her legs were found in neighboring Manchester Township near the border with Jackson.

Resemblance? Photo of Deborah Della Penna

Resemblance? Photo of Deborah Della Penna

The young girl’s head is believed to be located within a wall in “Turtles” former home in Tacony and the house has yet to be searched by law enforcement, and no bikers have yet been arrested in the case.

Official police reports state that Miss Della Penna was killed by drug dealers who believed that her boyfriend had stolen some of their drugs, but as the crime has remained unsolved this version of events will not be verified by law enforcement and is hotly contested.

Please note the fact that the girl’s head is still missing. The library might want to go ahead and have that statue x-rayed before they decide to put it up for display. Maybe it’s a stretch, but bodies encased in statues are nothing new. And hey, it happened on the X-Files once.

Do you have any thoughts on the strange statue left at the East Hampton Library? Could the mysterious bust be a clue in a half a century old cold case? Should the library staff get it analyzed? Chat with us on Facebook, tweet us @Whoforted, or leave a comment below and let us know what you think. If you want to pester the library staff, you can do so here.

UPDATE: Huge thanks to Raven Storm for passing along the hard to find photo of Deborah Della Penna. I have to admit, there does seem to be some resemblance between her and the statue, though it’s almost as if the bust was meant to be an older version of her. But hey, I’ve seen some bad art too. Thoughts?


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