Criminal cases · Philadelphia and Ocean County
Dolores Della Penna: the 1972 case and later searches
No arrests reported in 2020 · Later official status unverified
Dolores Della Penna disappeared in Philadelphia in July 1972. Parts of her remains were recovered in South Jersey; investigators revisited the case decades later, but the reported leads did not result in charges.
A disappearance crossing state lines
Dolores Della Penna was seventeen and had recently graduated from St. Hubert’s High School when she disappeared in Philadelphia in July 1972. A July 1996 UPI report says parts of her remains were found in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The sources inspected here do not independently establish each recovery location. Discovery in South Jersey does not prove where she was killed.
A 1990s lead that did not yield charges
UPI summarized a 1996 Philadelphia Inquirer investigation in which police sources described a theory involving a group they believed responsible for her death. District Attorney Lynne Abraham told Della Penna’s parents that more investigation was needed before anyone could be charged, according to that report. The alleged motive and participants came from reported witness accounts, including prisoners, and have not been established in court. No person is identified here as her killer.
The 2020 excavation
In February 2020, FOX 29 reported that detectives searched beneath the concrete floor of a Philadelphia garage. Tenant Frank Yang described an eight-hour operation involving police and a dog. The station said investigators found nothing there and that no arrests had been made. It also reported that a grand jury had investigated the case years earlier. The search shows that investigators continued to test leads; it does not validate the 1990s theory.
Sources and research limits
- UPI, “Drug gang suspected of 1972 killing,” July 10, 1996 — summarizes a contemporary Philadelphia Inquirer report and quotes the district attorney’s refusal to charge without further investigation. The underlying Inquirer article was not inspected.
- Dave Schratwieser, FOX 29, February 21, 2020 — garage search, negative result, grand-jury history and no arrests at that date.
Both reports spell her given name “Delores”; this archive uses Dolores. No grand-jury transcript, forensic report or current official case statement was inspected.