Going West: True Crime - Betsy Aardsma // 157

Episode Date: December 15, 2021

In November of 1969, a 22-year-old Penn State student studying English had been in the basement of the campus library when she was attacked. One single stab wound penetrating her heart was discovered, but somehow, amongst all commotion of the crime scene, the killer was able to escape. This is the story of Betsy Aardsma. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Teef. And I'm your host Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. Thank you so much everybody for tuning in today. Today's case takes place in Pennsylvania in the late 1960s, but we do discuss a case that we covered about two years ago. It kind of happens around this time and the victim of this case is aware of those murders. So it's very interesting potential tie there. Yeah, there's like this slight connection between these two cases. So it's really, really interesting.. Yeah, there's like this slight connection

between these two cases. So it's really, really interesting. We're really excited to share this story with you guys today. Also, we do have some merch available on our website if you head over to goingwestpod.com. Click the shop tab. We've got a lot of like really warm, cozy things

for you guys to check out for this winter season. Yes, I know a bunch of you guys just got some merch for Christmas presents for people, so thank you guys so much for doing that, that's so exciting. And again, please share those photos with us because we love seeing them. Also, if you have photos of that going west merch with any of your pets, I'm literally obsessed. Someone just posted a photo of their cute little doggy on top of a going west sweatshirt, so I'm really, really excited to see more of your pets, please.

Yes, one of our listeners Stephanie just shared her adorable puppy Woodstock, a laying on top of one of our sweatshirts. It was really, really sweet. So thank you for sharing that, Stephanie. Thank you everybody who shares our merch. It's so fun to see. Yeah, it's literally something that I live for. So more pet photos, please.

Just dogs in general. Yeah. Also, we have Patreon episodes for you guys coming out. We have a really, really interesting case from Japan that we feel is extremely bizarre. So we're going to release that this week, so stay tuned. All right, guys, this is episode 157 of Going West, so let's get into it. In November of 1969, a 22-year-old Penn State student studying English had been in the

basement of the campus library when she was attacked. One single stab wound penetrating her heart was discovered, but somehow, amongst all the commotion of the crime scene, the killer was able to escape. This is the story of Betsy Ardsma. Elizabeth Ruth Ardsma, who went by Betsy, was born on July 11, 1947 to parents Esther and Richard Ardsma in Holland, Michigan. Betsy was the second of four children growing up next to her older sister and then her younger brother and younger sister, and her family was quite religious. They attended the Trinity Reform Church in Holland. Richard, who, again, is Betsy's father, worked as a tax auditor while her mother Esther was a homemaker and former teacher, and they both attended Hope College,

which is a Reform Church liberal art school, located right there in Holland. The town hosted about 25,000 residents back in the 50s and 60s, most of whom were Dutch descendants just like the Ardsmuz. And in fact, there was this saying that circulated the town which was, if you're not Dutch, you're not much. Holland mainly consisted of conservative family values at the time, but Betsy was a bit different. She wasn't particularly keen on becoming a housewife and she strived for knowledge.

So while attending Holland High School, Betsy was actually top of her class and she enjoyed English, biology and art, and she had one's plan to either become a physician or possibly a medical illustrator. Betsy also really loved poetry and she just had this incredible artistic side to her that most people admired. But she was also considered a looker with her long brown hair and piercing hazel eyes and she always had boys chasing after her.

Although she never dated any of them for too long and she didn't have a boy crazy bone in her body. Her best friend, a girl named Jan Sosamoto Brandt, was a Japanese American student who had moved with her family to Michigan during World War II when other Japanese American families were being placed in internment camps. She described Betsy as artistic bright rather than serious bright as she described herself, but they found a good balance in their friendship due to this.

In the fall of 1965, Betsy was convinced by her parents to attend Hope College, just like they had, but it definitely wasn't her first choice. She actually wanted to attend the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, but ended up at Hope, at least in the beginning of her higher education, because they apparently had a good pre-med program there anyway. But Betsy wasn't really that happy there, because again, it was a reformed church college, so the rules were super strict and Betsy did not like that, like lights out in the dorms at 9 p.m., no exceptions, and she had to attend chapel three times a week. Some of her fellow

students believe that Betsy was an early feminist because she was studying to become a doctor, which in that day and age was definitely out of the ordinary. Go Betsy. And in fact, all of the medical classes that she was taking were filled with mostly male students aside from Betsy and a few others. She was known to have a great sense of humor that could often appear dry, but extremely clever as well. She was doing okay in her classes when her sophomore year came around, but she was still unhappy at Hope College, and she started to feel like the medical field wasn't really her dream after all. So in the fall of 1967, she transferred to the University of Michigan, where she changed her

major to English. When Betsy arrived at her dream school that fall, the height of the anti-vietnam war movement was in full swing, and she embraced this culture. But she didn't find it all that easy to make friends, and she was a bit lonely in her first term there. Her best friend from high school, Jan Sosimoto Brand, was also attending U of N, but due to the fact that they attended different colleges right after high school, the two kind of just drifted apart. Also Jan was in

a sorority at the time, so she was a bit preoccupied with that, and had less time to reconnect with Betsy. But despite the somewhat lonely spell that Betsy went through, it was on that campus in Ann Arbor that she finally decided what she wanted to do with her life. She always had a soft spot for the less fortunate, and wanted to make a difference in the world. So when she started looking into the Peace Corps, she knew that it was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. But in her senior year of undergrad, which was 1969, she was living with a few girls in the bottom section of a two-story apartment when she met her neighbors, a group of fraternity boys who lived upstairs and among them, one of them stood out to Betsy,

and his name was David L. Wright. So Betsy and David hit it off and began dating that year, but this kind of threw a wrench into Betsy's plans. Because like he's just said, she had her mind set on joining the Peace Corps and spending a year in Africa after graduation, but she didn't want her relationship with David to end either.

And interestingly enough, in the spring of 1969, there was another worry on Betsy's mind. A series of brutal murders were taking place near the Eastern Michigan campus, as well as the U of M campus, and young college women began to fear for their lives, including Betsy. In July of that year, it would come to light that a young, good-looking 30-year-old man named

John Norman Collins was the perpetrator behind the murders, killing seven in total using various different methods, which is pretty unusual for a killer. He was eventually dubbed the Michigan murderer and the Ipsilanti Ripper. And for anyone that's interested in hearing more details about that case, we covered it in episode 55 of Going West. So that case is very interesting and devastating. But anyway, let's get back to Betsy's story.

So in the spring of 1969, David Wright, Betsy's boyfriend, had found out that he was accepted into a very prestigious medical program in which he was one of 64 students at the Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania. And this was of course big news for him, and definitely the opportunity of a lifetime, but again, Betsy had her sights set on the Peace Corps. She graduated that spring with a distinction in honors degree in English, and the next step of her in David's relationship was at that point still kind of unknown.

And this created a lot of tension that summer. But after a few months of uncertainty, Betsy finally asked David if he would be willing to wait for her while she was away in Africa for a year. But his response wasn't exactly what she was looking for. He explained that he cared for her a lot, and he loved her, but he quote, just didn't know what will happen. With that, Betsy had the hard decision of choosing between the Peace Corps and the guy she saw herself starting a life with. And her mind, David, was way more important.

So she decided to forego her dream and follow her boyfriend to Pennsylvania where she enrolled at Penn State as a graduate student. And by the way, at this point, Betsy is 22 years old. And I mean, I do get it in a way. I'm sad for her that she didn't go off to the Peace Corps, but I mean, she's 22, this her first serious relationship. And this is also the 1960s.

So in her eyes, she's probably like, you know, even though she does really seem to be this feminist and this woman who wants to be independent and wants to do her own thing, maybe she also had this part of her that was like, I need to have a man and settle down, you know, and that's why she made that decision, but also because I'm sure she loved David very much.

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, maybe in her mind, she's thinking, you know, it's not the end of the world. I can always join the Peace Corps later if I want to. This will just give me time to kind of figure out what's going on between David and I. And the problem was that even though David and Betsy were in the same state after she transferred,

David was at the campus in Hershey and Betsy was at the main campus in state college, Pennsylvania, about 100 miles northwest of David's school. So, they're really not that close anyway, but she still felt like, you know, they could make this work. this work. So Betsy decided that she was going to become a teacher just like her mother and sister had done. And she moved into a dormitory located in Atherton Hall in late September of 1969 with her new roommate, a woman named Sharon Brandt, who has no relation to her best friend, Jan Sosimoto Brandt. And although she wasn't able to see her boyfriend David very often, she was able to send

him letters that let him know that she loved him and missed him pretty regularly. But by the way, I mean, they did see each other a lot on the weekends. Yeah, he would either travel up to State College, or she would take the bus and go see him in Hershey. So Betsy began taking graduate English classes and was immersing herself into the counterculture movement. One professor described Betsy as having, quote, the deep sensitivity of an artist for others' feelings. She became active in the anti-Vietnam war movement

with a fellow classmate and friend named Linda Marseaux, who considered herself a political radical on campus. But by October of that year, it was clear that something was bothering Betsy, because she told her boyfriend David that she wished to move to Hershey and emrolling classes there instead of continuing her education in state college. David later reflected on this and considered either A, she wanted to be in Hershey to be closer to him, and just kind of move their relationship to the next level or b, there was some unknown threat on campus that worried and concerned her.

But of course at the time she's saying this, she's not really explaining why she's just saying I want to be in Hershey. Yeah, she's kind of just saying like, I'm unhappy, you know, I don't know if I want to be in state College anymore. And remember, you know, she made this really quick decision like, hey, I'm going to follow this guy out to Pennsylvania from Michigan, which is my home state. And, you know, and now she's got to kind of figure everything out. Well, especially because, you know, yeah, now she's on a completely different path than she had planned. She wasn't planning to go to a different college and study English at all because she wanted to go

the Peace Course. And I was like, she's all this stuff to figure out, like you said. Yeah, exactly. And one class in particular that had Betsy Buried in research was her English 501 class taught by a renowned and brilliant professor and pianist named Harrison Messerall.

And by the way, this class is essentially like a boot camp to like English courses. So basically, what this class is about is they teach English students how to do extensive research. So there's a lot of time spent in the library and just digging through different, you know, books and research papers.

And one student actually later recalled of this class, his course was really tough and required a lot of work in the papers. And one student actually later recalled of this class, his course was really tough and required a lot of work in the library, and oftentimes a lot of digging in the library. But Betsy's one escape from all of her work was when she was able to visit David on the weekends and her she like we mentioned. She would either take the bus to see him, and on rare occasions, he would come up to state college to visit her. But for some reason, Betsy was still unhappy, and she had expressed this to her mother in

a letter where she wrote, �I don't know why I'm here. I have this weird feeling about being here.� David later explained that he had planned to propose to Betsy during Christmas that year, and plan a wedding in the summer of 1970, but we're really not sure if Betsy and David had ever discussed this. One rumor was that Betsy was nervous that David would possibly leave her

if she stayed in state college. And the reason this circulated was because there was actually a Hershey Medical Student Wives Club, which stated that their club's purpose was to prepare members for their roles as physicians' wives. I just, I mean, wow. It's just the most 1960s shit ever. It really is.

But I mean, Betsy was not in this club, by the way. So another thought was that, you know, maybe it was the other way around that Betsy was unsure if she wanted to solidify her life under the label of Housewife or Physician's wife, but rather chase her dreams and become an independent woman with her own career, which we know, Betsy is kind of like that, which is awesome. So on November 27th, 1969, Betsy, David, and a group of other medical students all got together for a friends-giving dinner in Hershey, at David's shared house, by the way, where they cooked and drank and discussed the future of

their relationship. David asked Betsy if she could stay the weekend with him in Hershey, but unfortunately, Betsy was swarmed with work back in state college, so she had to decline his offer. That night, after the party had ended, David drove Betsy to the bus station, located in Harrisburg, 1969, with a massive research to work on, so her plan was to spend most of the day in the library. She and her roommate, who again was Sharon Brandt, got dressed and right around 4pm, they headed out the door in the direction of Patie Library, which today is known as Patie

and Paturno Library. For those of you who are, you know, Penn State football fans, you probably know Joe Patrano. So this library was actually named after him. The pair briefly stopped in Burows Hall to speak with a professor named Nicholas Jekowski, who actually taught Betsy's English 501 class alongside Harrison Messerall. After that quick stop, Betsy and Sharon finally made their way over to the library, and at that point they just parted ways, but they had plans to meet up later and head to a local movie theater to catch a showing of either Easy Rider or the film Take the Money and Run. Betsy then spoke to friends Linda Marsa, who we previously mentioned,

and Robert Steinberg, who was with Linda, and they spoke for just a little bit before Betsy headed inside. Once inside the library, Betsy continued on into the basement where Professor Messerol's office was located to speak with him about her research project. Messerol was the chief bibliographer for the Journal of Modern Language Association, so he needed to be near books, so it only made sense that his office was downstairs in the basement. Especially because he also, because he gave his students so much freaking reading and research and library work.

Yeah, exactly. So that day, Betsy was dressed up wearing a red sleeveless dress with a white, thick, turtleneck sweater, and her hair was pinned up nicely. And this was something that Professor Messerall noticed and complimented her on and after the short exchange Betsy walked down another flight of narrow stairs that led her into the dimly lit and cramped stacks. And for those of you who don't know, the stacks are basically a room with rows and rows of bookshelves that stretch

from the floor to the ceiling. So to kind of paint the scene, there's levels of the actual library, like Core 2, Core 3. The stacks are in the basement. So the professor's office is down in the basement. There's other stuff down there, including this very large room that's essentially like an additional library where it's very dimly lit, we will post photos and Heath actually did a good job of explaining the light switch thing to me. Oh yeah, so essentially each row of bookshelves,

like there's an aisle between the bookshelves, obviously. Each row has its own light switch. So most of those light switches were actually turned off. You had to turn them on manually. So if somebody wasn't in that particular row, that light switch would usually be off. So it's really kind of secluded and dimly lit and quiet. Why does this exist?

Why isn't this just another story of a library? Why does it have to be down in the basement when there's no lights? I think probably because they needed to expand the library at some point, and they needed to add more space for more books. So they're like, okay, well, we have this basement area that we can utilize.

So again, there's the core two and the core three. Obviously, I've never been to this library, so I'm doing my best to explain what it looks like. But- And who knows if it still looks like that exactly today? Because it's just a while ago. And also there's levels of this basement. There's levels of the stacks itself.

So at 4.30 p.m., Betsy entered level two of the stacks and check the card catalog for a specific book that she was looking for. And then she placed her purse, jacket, and a book inside a carol that was assigned to her before making her way to Rose 50 and 51. And by the way, for anybody who doesn't know what a carol is, you know how in libraries, there's typically those desks, they have walls, they're like lined against each other.

So you kind of have your privacy, it's like a private little desk, that's what a Carol is. So a few minutes later, a fellow student who had classes with Betsy named Mary Eardley heard what she thought was a gasp, and then the crashing sound of books hitting the floor. Mary was just around the corner from the row that Betsy was standing in, and due to the noise she rose from her desk or her carol, and made her way towards the sound. But when she rounded the corner, she saw two men standing over Betsy's body, which lay limp on the floor. It appeared that Betsy had pulled some books off the metal shelving before falling to

the cold tile floor. One man yelled out, somebody better help that girl, before running in the opposite direction towards the exit, concealing his right hand. The other, whose name was Joao Wafinda, who was one of only a small group of black students on campus, had seen this other man leave the scene. So he decided to follow him in order to get a better description. Go Joao, that is amazing. Yeah, and remember, at this time, you know, it's 1969, so there is not a lot of black students

on this campus. So the man who ran towards the exit was white, and he looked to be about six feet tall with a medium build, and he was wearing khaki slacks, a tie, and a sports jacket. He had well-kept brown hair and was wearing glasses and looked to be about 25 years old. Joao, who was a foreign exchange student from Mozambique and whose native language was Portuguese,

had a difficult time explaining exactly what he saw later on in English, but he was able to communicate that he saw the unknown man try to evade him through the core and eventually he did just that, losing Joao who was in pursuit. Betsy lay on the floor between two bookshelves in the stacks and a puddle of her own urine. At first, nobody really understood what had happened. There were probably about nine students down in the stacks and various sections while Betsy was there,

but none of them heard a scream. The library patrons just assumed that maybe Betsy had a seizure or that she possibly fainted. One bystander, a 52-year-old man named Richard Sanders Allen, had explained what he saw that day. He was on campus because he was visiting his son Robert, who was a student at U-Pen. And while he waited for his son to get out of class that day, he decided to do some research in the library for an upcoming book that he was going to release.

He was using a coin-operated photocopy machine near Row 50 when he heard a man and woman speaking and a stack quietly before the crashing sound. And it didn't sound like the pair were in an argument, which seemed kind of odd considering the circumstances that we're going to get into. Mary Eardley desperately called out for other students to help her for about 15 minutes while she attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until a library employee decided to call the written-hour student health center for assistance at 5 p.m. And this is really sad because, you know,

the way they explained it is that she, you know, other students were passing by her while she was trying to help Betsy and they just didn't do anything. She was like, hey, like please, like help me, like this girl is, you know, fainted or what they believe that she had fainted, but nobody was doing anything. Well, good for Mary for trying to do something.

So the call that was placed indicated that a girl quote, fainted. And about five minutes later, two student paramedics were dispatched to the scene. The paramedics placed Betsy onto a gurney and used a service elevator to remove her from the library and transport her to a written-hour medical center. So at this point, I mean the student paramedics had no idea what had happened. I mean nobody knew what happened. And based on the call they received, they still thought that Betsy had fainted and that her injuries were non-fatal.

Betsy was still unresponsive though, and the paramedics performed CPR in hopes of reviving her. But when Betsy had finally made it to the medical facility that day, it was clear that she had passed away, and a physician pronounced her dead at 5.19 pm. Prior to Betsy's death, a lead medical individual had asked the student paramedics to stop performing CPR, but they noticed something strange. A very small amount of blood was seeping through Betsy's white sweater, and when her clothes were cut from her body to conduct an autopsy, one small stab wound was revealed.

Betsy's autopsy was conducted by Dr. Thomas Magnani at 11pm that night, and he explained that a single stab wound had pierced Betsy's breastbone, reaching her heart and severing her pulmonary artery, and this caused hemorrhaging in her chest. So she essentially drowned in her own blood and had likely been dead within 5 minutes of the stabbing. It's just so crazy to think that this happened right there in the library in a public place. I mean again, we are in the stacks, we're in the basement. But still, this is a public place.

There are people just a couple rows away from you. Like this is just so shocking. I think that that's what makes this case so intriguing is that it just happened around so many people. And then the killer was able to run away and get away without really being seen, despite Mary and Joao getting this basic description of the guy which is amazing, but the fact, I mean, this is just crazy.

I know it's really hard to wrap my hat around this whole situation, but you know, going back to the scene, there was no sign of sexual assault, although we can't say that that wasn't the intention of the attacker. And the reason why bystanders believe that Betsy had only fainted was because her thick white sweater had stopped the bleeding, and the little amount of blood that did make it through had blended in with Betsy's red dress. Which is insane. Yeah, it's so, it's so crazy to me like,

this was- She got stabbed in the heart. Yeah, this was such a precise stabbing that there really wasn't all that much blood to begin with. But then on top of that, having her sweater like stop the blood, and then you know the blood, and then the blood blending in with her red dress is just so crazy, like nobody knew that she was stabbed. And you probably wouldn't guess that anyway, because like I said, we're in a public place,

we're in a library, why would that happen? It makes sense that they thought she fainted, especially if she had urinated, that it just connects, but God, so sad. Yeah, I mean, you would expect when you hear somebody being stabbed, you're like, oh, there must have been like a lot of blood. But yeah, very little blood in this case. Betsy also had some minor bruising to her right ear, but it was determined that she suffered that injury when she hit her head on the floor

after the attack. So, of course, the Penn State campus was in complete disbelief and shock, and Betsy's parents were absolutely distraught. Because you know, before Betsy had moved to Pennsylvania for Michigan, her parents were worried enough that she would become a victim of the Michigan murderer, and they felt like she would be safer at UPEN. But little did they know that a few months later, their daughter would be the victim of

another killer, one who was still on the loose, which to me is also insane because she was worried about the Michigan murder her parents were, and she didn't become a victim of that, but then became a victim of another murder at her college in a different state like what are the chances? So Richard and Esther Ardsma flew to state college Pennsylvania to bring Betsy home and give her a proper burial. And on December 3, 1969, a memorial service was held at the Ardsmah's local church in Holland, and David Wright, her boyfriend, also attended, placing a single red rose in Betsy's hands in her coffin. Betsy's death seemed like such a senseless crime that took place in, again, I mean,

such a public place. So, investigators were initially able to find out that about 90 people had gone in and out of the library the day that Betzy was killed. But this wasn't very typical because on a normal day, between four and 500 people would have gone in and out. But Betsy's murder again happened the day after Thanksgiving. So most students were still on break visiting friends and family. And you would think this is a good thing. I mean, there's way less people to interview. Yeah, less people to investigate.

But as you're gonna go into, it's still like really tough. Yeah, and about 35 officers were actually assigned to Betsy's case in the following days. And they even set up a headquarters in the campus book building while they conducted interviews, gathered evidence, and searched for clues. Each student that had been discovered to have been in Patee Library on the 28th had been interviewed by police. But police didn't consider any of them to be viable suspects. It'd make matters even worse? Because bystanders believed that Betsy had only fainted and not been killed,

the crime scene had been compromised with footprints and fingerprints that made investigators job so much harder. But again, those bystanders had no way of knowing the circumstances. They had no way of knowing that she was dead. A $25,000 reward was offered in exchange for information that would lead to the killer's arrest, but sadly, no one came forward. Mary Irle and Joao Wuffenda helped police create two composite sketches of the killer,

but only Mary's was released to the media, and we'll post photos on our socials for you guys to see those two composite sketches. A library janitor had also possibly compromised the crime scene when he was ordered to mop up Betsy's urine, but there was a small lead, and really the only one that detects his head, that was a trail of small droplets of blood that led up a staircase and into the level 3 core stacks, which indicated to them that the killer must have taken this route to escape the library. So they're like, oh well, we're just going to follow these little droplets, oh okay,

that's probably how the killer got out of here. But beyond that, there wasn't much else to go on, and detective searched the campus tirelessly for a murder weapon, but it was never located. So, police believe that it's possible that Betsy knew her killer, because an altercation had not ensued, and it didn't appear that Betsy had argued with her attacker prior to her death. Also to give you more of a visual of the scene, the aisles in between the bookshelves are very narrow, making it so only one person could comfortably walk the row at a time.

If two people had been in an aisle, they would have to turn sideways to pass each other. Also, the stacks of bookshelves not only extend from Florida ceiling, but also all the way to the wall, meaning there's only one way to escape a particular row. So is it possible that Betsy was being held at knife point and that are killer, you know, maybe threatened her not to scream? Absolutely. But we can't see for sure, and we also can't rule out sexual assault as a motive, even though that apparently had not occurred. So one really interesting story that we came across in the potential theory is that Betsy may have stumbled across either a homosexual encounter or possibly someone masturbating

in a row of stacks and the killer ended her life to silence her. So this is so crazy. Before you comment us, this is not our theory, it's actually the original investigators who worked on the case, this is their theory. So they believe that this is a possibility because a few rose down from where Betsy was murdered. Police noticed a desk with the seat pulled backwards, and on top of the desk was an empty can of soda, as well as a stack of heterosexual and homosexual pornographic magazines.

So, it appeared that someone had been sitting there, having a soda, and reading pornographic magazines, so it appeared that someone had been sitting there having a soda and flipping through these magazines. So there were also pornographic magazines hidden between books in multiple shelves. But not only this, when police investigated the area, they found a large amount of semen on the walls, floors, and even the shelves. And one officer later stated in an interview that there was semen practically everywhere, which I just how I don't understand like who the hell is Jay and off in the library like why are you doing this? I understand I mean, I don't understand it at all. I understand it more in the stacks because remember,

this is where there's less people, there's less lighting. Yeah. But what the f1 and 2, how is it everywhere? Like, you just let it go, you're just letting it go, wherever it needs to go? Yeah, I don't know. Honestly, just go do that at home. I mean, come on, like, why are you in the library doing this?

I just, oh my god. But I do wonder because if someone's doing that, obviously, and she stumbled across them, you know, it's, who would want to be caught for doing that? Yeah, and when I first read this, I was like, this cannot actually be true. I was like, somebody must have made this up, but no, yeah, investigators literally found

a bunch of semen, like just all over the library. Yikes. So anyway, let's get back to the story. So, police questioned David Wright to see if he possibly had anything to do with Betsy's murder, like maybe they had an argument and he killed her in the heat of the moment. But, David's alibi checked out,

and he was actually in Hershey, Pennsylvania, again, 100 miles away when Betsy was killed. Then investigators thought that Betsy was maybe involved in a drug deal gone wrong. But although she did smoke cigarettes and drank on rare occasions, everyone who knew her including her roommates and her friends said that Betsy did not use drugs, so that theory was pretty much quickly ruled out. Robbery was also off the table because Betsy had placed her purse in an assigned carol

before even entering the stacks that day. Even the university president at the time, Eric Walker, conducted his own private investigation, but it never really led to anything, and gradually less and less investigators were assigned to the case of the following months after no clues were uncovered. Betsy Ardsmas' case sadly went cold and still remains that way today. Before we go into the potential suspects, I just, something that both Heath and I wonder that we weren't really able to discover is if you had to check into the library, if you were going in, or if you could just walk in, like, could anybody walk in?

Or was there somebody sitting there, you had to show your student ID or whatever, and you had to sign a logbook, or could you bypass that? Like we are not sure. I remember, in school libraries growing up, you had to show your student ID and sign a book, but I don't know if it was like that in this case in the 1960s. One thing that we do know is that Richard Allen had been in the stacks that day, and he was a 52 year old. His son was a student. So unless he had like a visitor's pass or something like that. Yeah, so I don't know, maybe it was just open.

And I think some university libraries are actually open to the public. Like, I remember I had gone to a library on the University of Oregon campus. I wasn't a student there, but I had gone in to like do some research. That's true, that's true. Yeah, so I'm kind of assuming that it is generally open

to the public and you may not need to sign in. But that leads me to wonder how police were able to find out that, you know, 90 people had gone in and out the day that Betsy was killed. Well, so maybe you did have to sign a book, but maybe you could get away with not signing it, or someone put down a fake name. Like, I mean, there's so, there's so many possibilities with that. So, I mean, I wish we had more information about that because if you had, had, had, had to sign this logbook, then does that mean that one of the 90 people on that list has to be the killer? Yeah. I mean, I would assume so, right?

Definitely an interesting thought. Yes. So now let's talk about potential suspects who have surfaced over the last 50 plus years. So the first suspect that we want to talk about is a man named William Spencer. William was a 40-year-old sculptor who had moved from Boston to Pennsylvania in the late 60s with his wife who was working on our PhD. William was teaching sculpting classes at a local college near Penn State during Betsy's murder. And he came under suspicion when he told colleagues at a faculty Christmas party that year that

he quote, killed that girl in the library. Why would you say that? Why would you tell your colleagues? I think your colleagues. I think this is, to me, it seems like a cry for attention, but we'll get more into that. I mean, still, what a weird-ass thing to cry for attention for. I mean really? So, he was questioned numerous times in 1970 and explained that he became acquainted with Betsy

after she agreed to pose nude for one of his classes. Again, he's a sculptor and he was going to give just some cash, so she would have some extra spending money. He explained that he was innocent, but that he was in the level two course stacks the day that Betsy was murdered, and he had even seen her killer whom he described as wearing an overcoat. Remember Mary and Joao said he was wearing a sports jacket, so I mean, maybe they go hand in hand, I don't really think so, though. So his claims that Betsy offered to pose nude for him were never corroborated.

And furthermore, friends who knew Betsy said that she would have never done that and they described her as quote, prudish. Yeah, so investigators minds, they're like, yeah, I think this guy's kind of full of shit. It's just weird, why would you make all this up? Why would you tell your colleagues that you murdered a young woman, these people you work with, and then you're gonna say, yeah,

I was in the library that day and she said she was gonna pose nude for me. Why would you make all that up though? Yeah, I don't know, and there's actually really no evidence that he knew Betsy at all. I just feel like he has a career, he's a married man. Like why would you go around spreading these lies? Which that doesn't mean that they have to be true, but what the hell? Yeah, I mean we do have to remember that this murder was huge, huge news. So you know, just like any other murder, there's likely people who are going to try to insert

themselves into the investigation. But then also as we know, some killers like to brag about what they do. So another suspect on police's radar was a fellow student in somewhat friend of Betsy's named Larry Marr. Larry became acquainted with Betsy just a few weeks before she was murdered and on one occasion he'd even taken her out to coffee. Now Larry was also in Betsy's English 501 class, and he was identified as being in the stacks at the same time that Betsy was murdered. Some described him as being off or strange,

and apparently was fixated on Betsy, who rejected his advances. He was also known as a country boy, who always carried a hunting knife with him, and after Betsy's murder, he abruptly left Penn State to join the army. That's another thing we have to remember is this person was just carrying a knife. So if they didn't play in this, then they carry a knife on them. And if they did, they knew Betsy was going to be there.

It's like, that's a heart thing. We really, we don't know which way it goes. Exactly. So, after the army, Larry ended up working for the National Security Agency, where he spent a long career. In an interview with an author of a book called Murder in the Stacks, this author explains that when he tried to reach out to Larry Marr, he seemed coy as if he was playing around and seeking attention from the murder.

The author, whose name is David Decoke, doesn't believe that Larry is the prime suspect, but he believes that police think that he is. The author believes that investigators don't like that regular citizens had come up with other suspects that are not Larry Marrer, because it just kind of makes them look bad. Larry also had blonde hair and witnesses describe the attacker as having brown hair. So it's kind of an interesting thing here like, obviously it's weird that he left Penn State, you know, directly after Betsy's murder.

He did no Betsy, of course, and he was in the snacks that day. Which isn't nothing, so it's definitely possible. So that leads us to our final suspect, a man named Richard Charles Halfner, who at the time of Betsy's murder was a 25-year-old geology student at Penn State. He was well respected but socially awkward, and he was known to convince women into platonic relationships to conceal his homosexuality. In 1968, he even traveled unannounced to Massachusetts from Pennsylvania to tell a girl that he loved her, but when he arrived, she slammed the door in his face.

Richard lived in the dormitory directly across the courtyard from Betsy, and strangely enough, he was even the roommate of Larry Marr, who was also a person of interest in this case as heathed just one into detail on, which is, I mean, it's kind of weird. So apparently he did know Betsy and the two were briefly friends before she ended the friendship prior to her death. Also, Richard was typically known to wear khaki pants and a sports coat, and he kept his appearance very tidy, especially his short brown hair, so this description does match up. Richard was known to have bouts of explosive anger as well, and had often showed erratic

behavior. And Betsy's roommate, who again was Sharon Brandt, explained that Richard had visited their apartment on a few separate occasions in the weeks before Betsy was murdered. It's believed that Richard had tried to entice Betsy into dating him to cover up his own sexuality, and she turned him down and ended their friendship when he became more persistent. So definitely sad that he feels like he has to do that, but it seems like he was really aggressive about it. Yeah, and we're going to go into this here in a second,

but he also believes that he and Betsy dated. I can't find any information that grooves that they dated, but that's his claims. Well, and also she was dating somebody else, so. Yeah, so I don't know. So Richard was questioned in December of 1969. It admitted that he and Betsy had socialized prior to her death,

but he never admitted to being in the library the day that she was killed. He told investigators that the day after Betsy's murder, he was in the student union building eating dinner when he heard the news that Betsy had been killed, and that he had become physically ill when told his, quote, former girlfriend was killed. And also, you know, just to mention, his appearance at the time was very spot on when compared to the composite sketch released to the media. And we'll definitely obviously show you guys a photo of what Richard looked like. And, you know, to me, it's very spot on. So years later, a geology professor named Lauren Wright, no relation to David Wright, had been at

home at 6 p.m. on November 28th when Richard Houghner showed up to his house unannounced, and in a panic state shouting out, have you heard? A girl I dated was murdered in the library. Richard stayed at Wright's home for a short period of time, and then he eventually just left. And by the way, if you're confused, Lauren Wright is a guy. And I mean, this completely contradicts what Richard originally told investigators

that he had found out about Betsy's murder the day after it occurred. When in fact, he knew about it shortly after it happened at the very least at least. And it's believed that Professor Lauren Wright hid this information from police for years because Richard may have had some damning personal information on him. And it's believed that Professor Lauren Wright hid this information from police for years because Richard may have had some damning

personal information on him. And he was, after all, Richard Thesis advisor at Penn State and professor in 1969. So Lauren Wright also knew that Richard always carried a knife for protection, and Lauren only went to police after Richard had become physically threatening towards him years later in 1976. So, you know, maybe years later, he's like, okay, this guy has, you know, aggression issues. And now maybe I'm worried he did kill that

girl. Yeah, and the really unfortunate thing about this is that he didn't go to police until years and years later, which I mean, that sucks. So the night of the murder, after Richard left the right home, Lauren and his wife were so confused at Richard's behavior that they actually had a conversation about whether or not Richard killed Betsy. So even in that moment, when Richard came over saying,

well, did you hear? They were like, that was weird. Did he do think he did it? Which, that says a lot. Yeah, because it's kind of weird. It's kind of, you know, out of the blue. Why is he going over to his professor's house to tell them this frantically?

But this definitely wasn't the only disturbing information that police uncovered about Richard Haffner. In 1975, two young boys who worked at Richard's family's rock shop assembling rock boxes which would later be shipped to the Smithsonian Institution accused him of sexual assault And while working as a geology professor at the University of South Carolina He was arrested and charged with involuntary deviant sexual intercourse and

Corrupting the morals of a 12-year-old boy. So messed up. Oh my god, yeah. It just gets worse with this piece of shit. So shortly before this, Richard had been offered a job at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, but couldn't take the position because of his allegations. His trial ended up in a hung jury, but he was fined $500 and sentenced to one month in jail for contempt of court when he yelled at the judge that he, quote, past a lie detector test. God, this guy's so annoying, are you kidding? Yeah. Like, this is all you get?

Yeah, exactly. But Richard appealed his sentence and won and ended up only serving two weeks. That's bullshit. A complete bullshit. Richard then went on to file lawsuits again, just about everyone involved in his sexual allegation case, including the city, court reporter, and even the police department.

But almost all of those lawsuits were thrown out, except for one, which he filed against the museum in Los Angeles, who was set to hire him but declined to do so because of his allegation. No, should they don't want you anymore? Yeah, I don't know what he's thinking. But crazy enough, Richard actually won and received $300,000 in compensation. That's so twisted.

God, the system is really messed up. Yeah, and it's, Richard just gets so much worse. Well, I mean, I just like already, you just, you just hate this guy, and it's, Richard just gets so much worse. Well, I mean, I just like already, you just hate this guy and it just really makes you wonder of what he is capable of because he's so like off the rails. So even after all this, I mean, Richard just couldn't stay at a trouble.

So he was cited in 1981, so about, you know, 12 years after Betsy's murder for causing a disturbance in the Lancaster newspaper lobby. Then, in 1994, police responded to a domestic disturbance call at Richard's home, in which he ended up being charged with aggravated assault, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, and hindering an investigation. But this would not be the last run-in with authorities,

because in 1998, Richard was involved in an argument with a woman in a liquor store parking lot in Delaware that ended up becoming violent. When the woman tried to walk away from the argument, Richard smashed a liquor bottle on the woman's car, and the woman tried to get his license plate number when he went to flee the scene. So he got out of his car, pulled her out of her car by her neck, and began to repeatedly

bash her face into the hood of her vehicle. Like what the hell? Yeah, he's clearly a psycho with anger issues. Absolutely. So he punched and kicked her, which dislocated her jaw, and loosened several of her teeth. But get this, so Richard then filed a lawsuit against her, claiming that she had been the one who attacked him, but luckily that lawsuit was thrown out. God, this guy's just full of lawsuits.

This is the worst person ever. So former neighbors of his later explained that they detested him. How could you not? And on one occasion, when a neighbor asked him to pick up his dog's feces from their lawn, he picked it up with his bare hands and chucked it through the neighbor's car window. And they said that on numerous occasions, Richard was extremely threatening. But, I mean, just because Richard's this huge piece of shit doesn't mean that he's a killer? Well, Richard's own cousin Chris recalls a conversation that occurred between Richard and his mother in his garage back in 1975. He's tell us what they talked about.

So, Richard's mother had become angry about his sexual molestation charges against him. And although Chris couldn't hear the entire conversation, he did overhear Richard's mother explain that after covering for him once, he put everything on the line once again. Oh man. Yeah, so. That sucks.

If that's what, if she means put everything on the line, like she knows that he killed Betsy, fuck her. Yeah, true, yeah, very true. So the conversation went on to what Rick had done to that girl at Penn State. Chris also remembers Richard's mother saying, you might as well kill me too, Rick. This is pretty incriminating.

Yeah, it kind of is. So, but obviously this is just Richard's cousins here say right so Richard Halfner actually died of a heart attack in the Mojave Desert in 2002 while he was on an assignment studying rocks there but sadly police are still apprehensive at naming him a suspect. It's hard to understand why someone would kill such a bright and beautiful woman with her whole life ahead of her, but for Betsy's family, it's just been decades of torture and heartache. Betsy's case still remains unsolved to this day, but investigators are hopeful that someone may still have information about the case that was never shared, even

after 50 years. If you or anyone you know has any information about Betsy's murder, please contact the lead investigator currently assigned to the case, whose name is Kent Bernier, at 814-355-7545, or you can send him an email at kBernier. Or you can send them an email at kBernier, that's k-b-e-r-n-i-e-r at state.pa.us. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. I really think that Richard is the main suspect here, but I gotta say I also have my slight

concerns about her professor Harrison Messerall, and I'm not like saying that he did it at all, but I think it's interesting that, you know, we find out later that he complimented her dress and her outfit, and we know that he worked in the basement, so he could have gotten away easier. Again, I'm not saying he did it. I do really think it was probably Richard, but I wonder if he really came up at all for investigators if they had any suspicions towards him. Yeah, I'm really not sure if they did. I mean, I would assume that probably a lot of the students in the stacks would have recognized him. That's true, that's true.

So, my mind actually goes to more so to Larry Marrer, but yeah, I still believe that Richard is the main suspect here. Yeah, again, like I don't know anything about Harrison and good wishes to him if he had nothing to do with this, which he more than likely did not, but I think you're right that people would have recognized him very easily. So thank you guys so much for listening to this case.

Hopefully one day it gets solved because it just feels like so surprising that it's not. Yeah, it's one of those cases that you're like, how is this not solved? Like, there's so many people around, it was in a public space. Like, they even had a description of the killer. Yeah, well, yeah, exactly.

It's just hard to imagine why it hasn't been solved yet, but hopefully, like you said, it will be solved one day. So we really appreciate you guys listening. Head on over to our socials to check out photos from this case and other cases. Also, head on over to patreon.s to check out photos from this case and other cases. Also, head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast if you want more bonus episodes. Oh yeah. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Thank you. you