Snapped: Women Who Murder - Danelle Geier

Episode Date: August 30, 2026

A former professor mysteriously goes missing; police uncover clues to his untimely demise.Season 34 Episode 17Originally aired: Sun, Nov 3, 2024Watch full episodes of Snapped on the Oxygen app: https://oxygen.tv/watchsnappedSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A quirky college professor vanishes without a trace. You would have spotted him a mile away. He would have been wearing a Hawaiian shirt, flip-flops. He's not the type of person that would just go drive away someplace. So right away, I was in a panic. His body later discovered at the bottom of a cliff, police suspect foul play. There was a flock of vultures,

literally circling in the air. He'd been there for several days. It was our pathologist's conclusion that he had actually survived the fault. We need to determine whether it was a homicide, a suicide, or an accident. The investigation leads to one of the professor's most trusted friends.

And a terrifying story of manipulation, betrayal, and greed. A witness informed us that he did see a blonde female and a male at the scene. What they were really planning on doing was lowering him down to the beach, get him out into the water, and drown him. When schemes falter, they stop at nothing to get rid of him. To get in there, take advantage and gain his trust. That was part of the plan from the very beginning.

What was the plan? to take him up in the gory and push him up. Nestled in the lush Nittney Valley of Central Pennsylvania is the bustling town of State College. We're a university town, but the minute you step out of the town, we're a rural county with residents who have go-back generations. Over 8,000 of Penn State University's academic staff

also live and work in the area. But on August 15, 2016, one of them goes missing. State College Police Department received a call for a missing persons. A gentleman had lived in Lamont. The callers say they're friends of Dr. Ronald Bedig, a 55-year-old professor. They reported that Ronald Bedig had been missing for the entire weekend.

They were calling from their house on a Monday. Ronald Bedding and the callers would speak on a regular basis and had regular communication with him. They tell police that Ron had gone to the beach the previous week with his live-in girlfriend, Danielle Geier, and her uncle, George Ischler. They knew it he was supposed to come back on Friday, the 12th. Whenever several days went by and they had not heard from him, it caused them concern.

Our patrol officers responded to the event. Betteig residents to see, you know, if they could locate him or learn where he may be. When they arrived, Danielle Geyer and George Ischler were at the residence. Danielle Geyer described herself as Ronald Bettig's girlfriend. George Ischler described himself as Danielle Geyer's uncle and a friend of Ronald Bidig. George and Danielle confirmed they were the ones who went with Ron to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, a five-hour drive from State College. They stayed at a hotel for a few days

before returning with the professor on August 12th. Danielle Geyer indicated they had last seen Ronald Bedig on Friday, late Friday night into Saturday morning after they had returned from going to the beach. Danielle tells police they went to bed after the long drive and George returned to his home. But when Danielle woke up, Ron was gone. They were concerned about him, and they did find it also unusual that he had not shown up over the weekend.

And they also knew his vehicle was not at the residence. They had serious concern. They indicated he was depressed over the loss of his wife from several years prior. He was having some mental health issues. They thought that something bad had happened to Ronald Betting. The main issue was where was Ronald Beddick and where was his vehicle? Ronald Bedig was born in St. Joseph, Michigan in 1961, and grew up alongside a younger brother and sister.

He liked very simple things, wanting to be outside and being a part of nature and was very strong inside of him. His interest in academia was instilled by his mother, who held two doctorates in psychology. and education. Our parents were both immigrants. Honestly, what they ended up accomplishing

was pretty remarkable. And I think that's where all three of the children really had a drive to succeed and to work hard. Ron earned a PhD in communications, and in 1988, he was hired as a professor by Penn State University. He taught in the Media Studies Department,

and he specifically taught a political economy of communications. He authored two books related to that. Ron's lectures made him a popular, if eccentric, figure around campus. He didn't like a lot of the technology that was out there. He really was more wanting to interact with them and wanted to have these deeper conversations. You would have spotted him a mile away.

He probably would have been wearing a Hawaiian shirt, flip-flops, and a pair of shorts. Longish hair, you know, looks like somebody who grew up in the 60s. He was a friendly individual. He was the kind of guy who gave you the shirt off his back if you needed it. Over the course of his 30 years teaching, Ron was married twice. He had a son and daughter with his first wife. He met his first wife once he went away to college. They were not getting along as well and decided to divorce and went their separate ways.

He then met the woman who would become his second wife, Jeannie. He became involved with a colleague that was also at Penn State teaching there. I knew that he was really happy with the way that things were going with him and Jeannie together. Their interactions were very loving. With his second marriage, I think there was a lot of parts of him that really started coming alive. Though the couple amicably divorced in the late 90s, they remained very very. close. But in 2011, tragedy struck when Jeannie took suddenly ill. She was very sick and he took her to the hospital and later that night or the next morning,

she passed away. They were together probably for 10 years. He would tell me all the time how much he missed her. He was losing weight and he wasn't going out. And that's also the point where he started to have some memory issues. Four years after Jeannie's death, the professor took a sabbatical from work. By the time you get to 2014 and 2015, he's not doing very well. He's not able to teach.

While on sabbatical, Ron was befriended by a shop worker named George Ischler. George was working at this tobacco shop on College Avenue and State College. Ron would stop in there frequently, and they struck up a friendship based on their mutual interest in marijuana. As their friendship deepened, George confided in Ron about the struggles his niece Danielle Geyer was facing. She comes up here in February 2016. She doesn't have a place to live. She's got a young baby and no way to support herself. I remember him calling me and saying, you know, the thought,

of a person living in their car with a young child is just something that I can't let that go. In 2016, Ron gave Danielle and her child a room of their own in his house, and having people around gave Ron something in return. The life force was starting to come back into him. He had purpose. As he started having more and more conversations with Danielle,

I think that he also was starting to have feelings for her as well. After a few months, Ron's relationship with Danielle became romantic, despite their 23-year age difference. He was very attentive to my sister and the baby. He was a very good man. He was always helping my sister get the things she needed. What Danielle Geyer was to Dr. Bedding was that kind of that bright light. He was no longer alone.

he was in love. After seven months of living together, Ron has now gone missing. Danielle tells police she's been trying to help Ron with his memory loss and keeping track of his medications. Though George lived separately, he came over that morning when he learned of Ron's disappearance. Now she and her uncle are afraid he's wandered off on his own. They mentioned that he had marijuana plants, that he would hike and take care of the plants.

After the patrol officers returned back to the police station, I was immediately assigned as the detective. A lot of times, cell phone information can be a valuable way to quickly identify and locate somebody. In this case, Ronald Bettick did not have a cell phone. It did not use one. When officers check Ron's bank records, they find cause for concern.

Ron's credit card had been used pretty regularly up until that weekend, and then all activity had just stopped. There had been no purchases on it. If he was traveling, gas, food, lodging, at some point in time, he would run out of cash. He's not the type of person that would just go drive away someplace. So for him to be missing from home right away, I was in a panic.

I started asking, what's happening, what's going on. Coming up, two days after the professor's disappearance, investigators make a gruesome discovery. At the top of the quarry, they find a handrake, a water bottle, and a flashlight. She says that she's forced to help him stage the scene so it looked like an accidental fall. After speaking with Dr. Ron Bedig's friends and family, State College Police open an official missing persons investigation. We listed him and his vehicle in a national database.

We also did a media release on hopes that if anyone saw the vehicle or had contact with him, it would generate people calling in. Obviously, the longer a missing person's case goes, the more concern we have. So every day that went by without finding him or finding the vehicle, that concern became greater. Investigators are able to locate surveillance footage from the trip to Rojobith Beach, confirming Danielle and George's timeline of Ron's disappearance.

On day three of the search, investigators get their first lead. On Wednesday the 17th, first thing in the morning, I was advised by our 911 dispatch center that Ronald Bedig's vehicle had been located on a remote country, road. Investigators drive 10 miles outside of town. A vehicle was parked, unoccupied, and off to the side of the road, and it appeared to have been sitting there for several days.

Dr. Bedig's vehicle has been a turnout next to a farmer's property, and to the left and up the hill is an abandoned quarry. Myself and my supervisor respond to the location. We also notify at that point in time, this Pennsylvania State Police. The vehicle appeared to be in good condition. It was not broken into. Obviously, the next step was trying to figure out and determine if Ronald Bedig was in the area. Investigators and state police conduct a search

around the edge of the deep quarry. It's a limestone quarry that's being dug out, and it's an 80-foot drop from where they were to the bottom. It was just wooded area. that ended up right out of cliff's edge and easily you could have fallen over. At the top of the quarry, they find a handrake, a water bottle,

a bag of water softener, and a flashlight. It's unclear if the items belong to Ron, but their attention is drawn to something else. There was a flock of vultures, literally circling in the air. And the trooper said that I'm pretty sure if we look underneath where that flock of vultures are, we're going to find Professor Bedding.

We proceeded to enter the quarry from the bottom. We found a clothed body laying at the rocks. It was very obvious that this was Dr. Beddick. If you ran his driver's license record, he was literally wearing the same Hawaiian shirt in that picture. The state police took over the investigation and the crime scene processing at that point in time, it went from being a missing person's case to a death investigation.

So we're now shifting gears and trying to figure out what happened to Ronald Bedig. We just did a basic cursory exam there. We could see that he had obvious fractures of his extremities. We felt that he came off the top of the quarry. He had been there for several days, so he was decomposing. We was going off the assumption that the individual that we had was the missing person. The medical examiner conducts the autopsy later that afternoon. The findings were that Dr. Bettig's, both of his feet, were terribly crushed,

that his both femurs were symmetrically broken in very remarkably similar ways. He had no head injury. His heart and lungs and no evidence of any trauma. He had no cracked ribs. So all of his vital organs were functioning. We felt that given the fractures where he was located, that he hit feet first, it was approximately 90 feet. And the cause of death was determined to become a blunt force trauma.

It was our pathologist's conclusion that, he had actually survived the fall for approximately two days. Stranded without medical care, the professor eventually died from the effects of the fall. To find out his approximate time of death, investigators call in a forensic entomologist. There was maggots crawling all over him indicating he had been there for several days. With the weather, the warmer it is, the quicker, the insect. The flies will arrive and then they'll lay their eggs. The entomologist dated the larvae based on how old the larvae were at the time of the autopsy.

He determined that the body had probably been there approximately three to five days. But there's one answer the autopsy can't provide. At this point in time, we could not determine from what we found at the scene, whether it was a homicide, a suicide or an accident. And that's why we decided that we would need to re-interview everybody and see if their stories matched up with the evidence and what we were finding at the scene. The evidence, the information we had, it did make sense.

After finding Dr. Ron Bedig's body at the bottom of a quarry, investigators are searching for potential witnesses. One of our officers had conducted a canvas of the area near the quarry and located a gentleman who was mowing grass near the quarry during the time frame that Ron Bedig's car would have been arriving at the scene. That witness informed us that he did see a blonde female with a child and a male driving the bronze vehicle. Detectives are stunned by the new development knowing exactly who matches that description.

Now, the police want to go back and talk to Danielle. While they're planning to do this, Detective Chris Weaver from the State College Police Department gets a call from George Ischler. George Ischler had reached out to me and indicated that he had learned through the media that Ronald Bedig had been found. He seemed upset. He indicated that he started having concerns about Daniel and why she hadn't reported Ronald Betty. missing sooner. George tells investigators that on the ride home from Rehoboth Beach the previous Friday, tensions were high between Ron and Danielle.

He did mention that on the way back, that there was an argument between him and Ronald Bedig over Danielle Geyer and the way that Ronald Bedig was treating her. Basically, he's looking back now in hindsight saying that he's now seeing and thinking that something was going on with Danielle. He also suggested that Danielle had had another ban over to Ron's house while Ron was missing that weekend, and really seems to start to turn suspicion on Danielle

as being responsible for Rob Bedick's death. The following morning, which would have been now Thursday, the 18th, we went unannounced in the hopes of catching Danielle alone at the home. She seemed a little nervous. She didn't seem... distraught. We interviewed her starting from the beginning. Danielle tells detectives that before she met Ron Bedig, she hadn't known much kindness in her life.

Daniel had a very tragic childhood and upbringing. She was repeatedly sexually abused and physically abused. My understanding of her familial atmosphere was negative. I don't think that she was taught morals or value of herself. She met her first husband, Thomas, in high school. I always liked her in school. I just never told her. So I didn't know she felt the same until a friend of ours hooked us both up together. We got married in 2003. The marriage was great up until we had our son. After he was born is when our relationship. Our relationship,

relationship really started falling apart. We started going through custody proceedings. After a bitter separation, Danielle lost custody of her son. She was traumatized when she lost custody. She didn't have the financial means to challenge the custody issues in court in Florida. In her trauma, Danielle moved quickly from one relationship to another. She met her next boyfriend Brandon with whom she had a second son.

The relationship with Brandon was very chaotic. They were lovey-dovey at first when a baby was first born, but after that it was nothing but fights. When the relationship ended in 2016, Danielle was desperate to get back on her feet and returned to Pennsylvania. She was always constantly living with people. never had an apartment of her own. She was bouncing between my house, my mom's house, and her dad's house.

She had two children. One of them was still in her custody, a young toddler. She was near homelessness, and that's when Ron took Danielle in. Danielle told us that Ron took care of her, fed her, and gave her shelter, and was paying for much of the items

needed for raising her child. Danielle tells investigators she's often talked to her family about how much Ron means to her. So when he disappeared, she was frantic. She basically gave the same version and a very consistent version of what she had told the first time to the patrol officers. After Danielle commits to her story, detectives reveal Ron's body has been found. We alluded to Danielle that George was pointing the finger and telling us that he was suspicious of her.

And he's also adding that there was an unknown male with Danielle over the weekend that concerned her and she became emotional. Danielle denies the accusations. But her reaction tells investigators there is more to the story. I asked her, what concerns you? She answered with, she was concerned for the safety of herself and her son. I told her that we could ensure her safety, but she needed to tell us what happened. At that point in time, she immediately made a statement that George had murdered Ronald Bedding and had pushed him off the quarry.

When she initially blurted out, it was surprising, but as she began to tell what happened, it was. it was consistent with our suspicions. Coming up, the investigation becomes a case of he said she said. She asked, where is Ron? He said, I killed him. I killed him, and if you say anything to anybody about it, I'm going to kill you too. And police hear the details of Ron's terrifying final moments. What were you to do in Rojobez?

Kill the professor. According to Danielle Geyer, her uncle George Ischler is the one who killed Juan Bedded. And now that she's told them, she's afraid she'll be next. She said she had nothing to do with it. She says that George Ischler has threatened to kill her, that she's afraid. She's afraid for the life of her child. So at that point in time, she agreed to go with us to the Pennsylvania State police barracks. Danielle tells the story that George Ischler is going down there to get money

because he owes the professor money. He was mad at George Ischler because he discovered the fact that he had been using his credit card for purchases that he wouldn't have authorized. Though the professor had given Danielle access to his credit card for necessities, she had abused his goodwill by allowing George to use it without Ron's consent. Ron made it clear George would pay the money back. George had told Danielle that he had loaned some money to someone in Delaware,

and if they go there, he could get some of that money back and pay part of the debt that he owed Ron. According to Danielle, George was unable to collect the money, so on the ride back, he made a peace offering. George was now telling Ron that he had marijuana plants growing near a quarry, and they could go there and harvest these plants. Ron agrees to this. They get to the quarry mid-afternoon on the 12th,

and when they get there, Danielle stays with the car and the baby. George and Ron disappeared into the woods heading towards the quarry. Danielle tells investigators that George returned alone. Danielle told us that she had asked George where Ron was. George said, don't worry, he's tending to the plant. We will come back for him. And they departed the area of the quarry and headed back to Ron's house. It wasn't until back at the professor's house when she noticed a dirt on George's knees

that she started to suspect that maybe George had done something. And that's when she asked George, where is Ron? He said, I killed him. I killed him. And if you say anything to anybody about it, I'm going to kill you too. And I'm going to kill your son. She was terrified. She says that she's forced to help him get the professor's car out to the crime scene,

park it so that George could stage. the scene so it looked like an accidental fall when the professor went back out to tend to his supposed marijuana plants. Danielle says George coerced her into planting water bottles and a flashlight to make it look like Ron went there by himself. Police hypothesized that this is when the witness saw the pair in Ron's vehicle. It's very possible that when George and Danielle went back to plant the items that Ron was still alive at the bottom of that quarry. Investigators can't be sure Danielle is telling the truth, but for now they have no evidence she was directly involved with Ron's death.

Danielle had no motive whatsoever to take his life. But George and the professor were arguing over money that George owed the professor. George didn't want to pay it back or couldn't pay it back. She was released that night, knowing that she would likely come back for a follow-up interview. It's decided at that point in time that we're going to try to reach out to George Ischler. It's now 11.30 at night,

but we decided just to see if he would be willing to come in. Without hesitation, he agreed. When we started to speak about Ron's death and about the scene to him. We told him that we didn't feel that he was being truthful with us. Then he changes his story and then says, Ron and I were messing around, wrestling around to top of the quarry, and he fell.

And I posed the question, did you hurt the professor? And he said no. From that point on, he became a little more defensive. I think he was slowly starting to realize that Danielle had told us the majority of what had occurred. We became more confrontational. I explained to George the first thing he needed to do was to start being honest with us and tell us exactly what happened with the death of Ron Bedig. His next statement was, Daniel talked me into it.

Danielle convinced me to kill him. In the early morning hours of August 18th, six days after Ron Bedig fell to, his death, his friend George Ischler confesses that his niece Danielle Geyer was the driving force behind Ron's murder. He said it was because Danielle wanted his money because of the will. We did not know what he was referring to when he mentioned the will. He explained to us that he had wrote a will knowing that Ron's mental state seemed to be diminishing and Ron had signed it.

The well says that Danielle will inherit Ron's house and that George will become the executor of the remainder of his estate. Danielle Geyer thought he had about a million dollars in Disney stock, and she believed that she was going to be a recipient. The Disney stock that they thought was worth a million dollars, that was worth about $50,000. According to George, his and Danielle's plan to kill Ron was accelerated when Ron found. out how much they'd spent using his credit cards. They were wrecking up debt. The professor had discovered they had used his credit card after opening up a credit card statement and seeing all these charges that he wasn't aware of.

So both Danielle and George knew that the gig was about up. The whole thing was coming to an end and Danielle was not going to have anywhere to go and be out in the street with her baby. That was what compelled the trip. to Rojobahe beach. What were you to do in Rojavith? I'd kill the professor. What they were really planning on doing

was luring him down to the beach and drowned him and kill him. George goes as far to tell us that he did attempt it while they were in Rojobath. He says he put his hands on Ron and dunked him once, but he couldn't do it. Did you return to Pennsylvania after? that? Yes. What was the plan to take him up into quarry and push him off?

He told Ron that he had marijuana plants at the top of this quarry. What happened while you were up there? The professor and I struggled and then I ended up pushing him up. I looked down afterwards I thought he was dead. At that time of this interview, it was about 6.30 in the morning on Friday morning. George was placed under arrest and subsequently charged with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit murder, and tampering with evidence. But before investigators can arrest Danielle, they have to corroborate George's statement. They obtain a search warrant for George's cell phone and find an incriminating message.

We uncovered a text message that Danielle Geyer had sent to George Ischler. The text message said, I'm so ready, I'm pissed off. This text message was determined to be sent while they were in Delaware. There's concerning texts between Danielle Geyer and George Isler. They raise real questions. Not until police read those texts where there's something concrete, to suggest that Ms. Geyer is deeply involved in a conspiracy to commit murder. So now on Saturday evening, on August 20th,

we make contact with Danielle Geyer and have her come back in for a follow-up interview. After hours of questioning, Danielle finally confesses. She finally breaks, and she admits her involvement in Rod's death. They thought they could get some money from this, and that they didn't like the way Ron was talking to them. He was being taken advantage of for his money. She was placed under arrest in charge with first-degree murder,

aggravated assault, and third-degree murder. To prosecutors, the case appears to be open and shut. But before a trial date can be set, Danielle and George both submit motions to suppress their confessions and plead innocent to the charges. The police had interrogated her for hours. They were all just, you know, very soft, very defeated sounding yes and no answers. And the police took that to be a confession.

After Danielle was arrested, the counselors made arrangements to have a psychologist come in and meet with her. She had a hard life, you know. She said that she had been sexually abused, Ron had taken her in and she was in trouble. A lot of people were really, really, really concerned that a jury was going to feel sympathy for an empathy for her. So that was the most important thing in this trial, was that that she not get away with this. In April 2018, more than a year and a half after Ronald Bedig's death,

Danielle Geyer and her uncle George Ischler stand trial for his murder. Danielle's case was joined with George Ischler's case. So whenever we went to court, she had to sit at the same table as George. She had to look at George. It was very, very intimidating. Danielle and George claim their confessions were coerced and are therefore inadmissible. But when the judge rules against them, their attorneys must restrategize. We not only had one, but we had two.

defendants that testified and actually took the stand themselves. When George takes the stand, the story he tells is different from the one he gave to investigators. He said that the professor actually committed suicide. George Isler testified that when they were at the quarry wall, at the cliff ledge, that the professor literally almost like a cartoon character started acting. delirious and out of sorts, that he stood there, and then he jumped off sideways. It was the craziest damn thing you've ever heard. Daniel Geyer's strategy was much clear.

It was to paint George Isler as a murderer and just an evil, dangerous human that Daniel Geyer was very, very afraid of. Danielle testifies she was unaware her uncle was planning to kill Ron and that he forced her to help cover it up. Danielle said there had been no agreement, no conspiracy. George acted on his own. As for the text message, allegedly proving Danielle was the mastermind, her attorney argues the prosecution is reading too much into it. I believe that the statement or her text message was,

I am pissed, I'm so ready. The police read into that that she was so ready to kill the professor. That's not Danielle met by that at all. Yeah, she was pissed. They had driven all the way from State College to Rojobith Beach, and they had been in this motel room for several days. She was pissed at George for doing whatever George was off doing. She was ready to come back to stay college.

On cross-examination, she admitted that the professor would have never gotten in the car if she had not been there. I asked her at the very end, did I hear you say correctly that if you had not gone to Rojobith Beach, the professor Betty would still be alive, and she said yes. After a six-day trial, the jury renders its verdict. Both defendants were found guilty of first-degree murder, and in Pennsylvania that's a mandatory life sentence

without the possibility of parole. There was such relief, you know, if you can call it relief, you know, it doesn't bring anybody back, but at least you feel like somebody will pay for what had happened. I believe that George Ischler got what he deserved in the end. I don't believe that Danielle Deghara got what she deserved. Had the jury heard the psychological testimony,

I think the outcome would have been different. Why did Danielle snap? She lost custody of her kid in Florida, and she needed money. She wanted that kid back desperately. She thought Dr. Betty was a million-dollar price tag. I think that was part of the plan from the very beginning for her to get in there, form of fake relationship and gain his trust,

and then they were going to exploit that. Ron was a very intriguing and complex person, and he had this one side of him that was like just brilliant, intelligent, just have this great sorrow of what happened. You always look at things that way in hindsight and just say, if only I had done this or if only I had done that. But our whole family has tried as best we can to, you know, put the past in the past and to move forward

and to instead celebrate the goodness that Ron brought this world.