PA PA - Betsy Aardsma, 22, murdered in Pattee Library, Penn State, 29 Nov 1969

[J. J. in Phila]

There is one thing I just don't understand about the theory that Haefner killed Betsy...She moved to Penn State to be near her boyfriend and supposedly decided against other alternatives in her life to be near him. So, how/why was she dating other people? Didn't her boyfriend state that he was likely to propose at Christmas (a month after she was killed)? Wasn't it a serious relationship? One where she had chosen to follow her boyfriend? So where does her "dating" Haefner fit in? This doesn't make sense to me given what we know about Betsy???

1. Since they were not formally committed, she might have felt it was okay.

2. They might have gone out, but the relationship might have been platonic. Further she might have regarded it as friends going out, while he might have regarded it as something more.

I would note that Hershey was not exactly "close" to State College. It is about a 2 hour drive today, and may have been slightly longer in 1969. "Old Route 22" was a regular highway that went through a a number of small towns, and is not a limited access highway.

I don't think Ms. Aardsma had a car.

 

[Pink Panther]

Longhorn/Sherwood's posts describe Betsy as having dated Haefner. I just can't understand or place such a thing with so many other reports that state that she went to Penn state to be closer to her boyfriend and that she was so "squeeky "clean"" the investigators didn't know where to look. It just doesn't add up for me unless the "dating" was some delusional thinking on Haefner's part. How did the author's come to the conclusion that she had dated Haefnerr?

 

[Pink Panther]

Bump for Betsy.

 

[Richard]

Robert Daniel Corriveau, Corporal, USMC murdered 18 December 1968

Could this case possibly be related to the murder of Betsy Aardsma?

Corporal Corriveau, a US Marine who had been wounded three times in Vietnam, went missing from the Philadelphia Naval Hospital. After 30 days, he was administratively declared a deserter. The same day that he went missing, the body of a young man was found near the Downingtown, PA exit of the Pennsylvania turnpike. He had been stabbed once through the heart and showed no other signs of injury.

The weapon used may have been either a knife or a sharpened object like a screwdriver.

He remained unidentified until this year when it was determined that he was indeed, Corporal Robert Daniel Corriveau.

Does anyone know if Richard Haefner had any military connection or if he was in any way associated with the Philadelphia Naval Hospital, or if he worked/traveled in its vicinity?

Link to websleuths thread on Downingtown John Doe/Robert Daniel Corriveau thread:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97828&page=5&highlight=robert+corriveau

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Robert Daniel Corriveau, Corporal, USMC murdered 18 December 1968

Could this case possibly be related to the murder of Betsy Aardsma?

Corporal Corriveau, a US Marine who had been wounded three times in Vietnam, went missing from the Philadelphia Naval Hospital. After 30 days, he was administratively declared a deserter. The same day that he went missing, the body of a young man was found near the Downingtown, PA exit of the Pennsylvania turnpike. He had been stabbed once through the heart and showed no other signs of injury.

The weapon used may have been either a knife or a sharpened object like a screwdriver.

He remained unidentified until this year when it was determined that he was indeed, Corporal Robert Daniel Corriveau.

Does anyone know if Richard Haefner had any military connection or if he was in any way associated with the Philadelphia Naval Hospital, or if he worked/traveled in its vicinity?

Link to websleuths thread on Downingtown John Doe/Robert Daniel Corriveau thread:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97828&page=5&highlight=robert+corriveau

Littlehorn is the expert, but from I recall, Haefner had no connection with the military or the Naval Hospital.

 

[Pink Panther]

Littlehorn is the expert, but from I recall, Haefner had no connection with the military or the Naval Hospital.

Littlehorn hasn't posted here in quite a while. I wish he would...

The book is out. Maybe there is no longer an interest?

 

[Pink Panther]

Bump.

 

[Pink Panther]

Didn't mean to scare everyone away???

: (

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Didn't mean to scare everyone away???

: (

PP, we are following it, but there is nothing new.

 

[Pink Panther]

Bumping for Betsy.

 

[Pink Panther]

Here's hoping that Littlehorn might provide a small update...

 

[J. J. in Phila]

I just wanted to point out that we are about 8 days away from the 44th anniversary of Ms. Aardsma's murder.

The possible murderer Littlehorn identified is dead. An 18 year old in 1969, which is the youngest age a murderer would probably be, would be 62.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/08/author_david_dekok_a_live_chat.html

The killing, and the subsequent police investigation, which failed to find the culprit, is the subject of "Murder in the Stacks: Betsy Aardsma, Penn State University, and the Killer Who Got Away," a new book by former Patriot-News investigative reporter and current Reuters correspondent David DeKok.

Helped by the original investigators of the case, the book delves into the intensive but failed investigation of her murder, the frustrations state police faced, and how the failure to solve the case can be laid at the feet of Penn State University.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/08/author_david_dekok_a_live_chat.html

The author named the same person, Haefner, as Littlehorn did.

I wonder if he has more?

 

[morf13]

Haefner, is certainly, the most obvious of Suspects

 

[J. J. in Phila]

I think Littlehorn demonstrated that Haefner was in proximity to Pattee Libriary when Aardsma was killed, and that he knew Aardsma. I'd like to see a bit more.

 

[Pink Panther]

http://thepennsylvaniarambler.blogspot.ca/2014/03/who-killed-betsy-interview-with-derek.html

 

[Ghetto Spaghetti]

Reading the DeKok book now and it is really, really good! Very informative and thorough. Highly recommend it to anyone interested in this case.

This was an older topic in the thread, but I don't put any credence in the two-perpetrators theory. I think one of the two would've talked by now. I think we are looking for sure at a one man attacker, most likely Haefner, but possibly a random person. She wasn't over-killed in the way you might expect from someone who had strong personal feelings one way or the other for her. But then again, if Haefner needed a female "beard", so to speak, to mask his pedophilia from those he so desperately wanted to impress, and he couldn't keep one, this may have sent him into a blind rage.

 

[Richard]

This month marks the 45 year anniversary of Betsy's death.

Betsy Aardsma was from Michigan and had attended the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), where she completed her Bachelor Degree in spring of 1969. She transferred to Penn State University in the summer of 1969 for Graduate School.

At the time she attended the U of M, there had been a series of murders of girls and young women in the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti area. By July 1969, John Collins had been arrested and he was later convicted of one of those murders. Some of the other murders were eventually connected to other killers, while others remain officially unsolved.

Betsy was killed at Penn State University in the library over the Thanksgiving break in November of 1969. Some have speculated that her murder might have been connected in some way to the Michigan murders.

It is also possible that Richard Haefner was her killer. He certainly was a strange and violent person who was in the area at the time. His behavior immediately after Betsy's death is suspect. He seemed to know intimate details before anyone else did.

The case of Corporal Robert Daniel Corriveau, USMC (mentioned in a previous post above) is still an unsolved homicide. Corporal Corriveau was killed in a manner very similar to Betsy with a single stab to the heart. His body was found near Downingtown - halfway between Lancaster and Philadelphia near a highway access. Lancaster was the home town of Richard Haefner. Corriveau was murdered almost exactly a year before Betsy, on 18 November 1968.

It might be noted that Haefner always carried a sharpened screw driver "for protection". He was known to have threatened someone with this weapon at one point and to have punctured tires with it during another incident.

 

[charminglane]

My Aunt was at Penn State at the time of Betsy's murder.
All she remembers is the library having a section blocked off and off limits for a bit.
I know it sounds callous, but the school apparently didn't make a big deal out of it.