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

[littlehorn]

Bringing up your post from a few days ago....there really might be something to the Ann Arbor or University of Michigan connection. We know that Betsy was a medical student there (didn't she also work in a hospital there?) We know that she left medical school to obtain a graduate degree in English at Penn State. It was stated because she wanted to follow her fiance David Wright to be closer to him.

You do have me thinking though. And I'm really wondering why she changed her mind about finishing the medical studies. You gave me something to :waitasec:

That's the type of thought that is really helpful here. Honestly, no one has ever asked that question before, and I had never really considered it -- just assuming that her past was irrelevant to what happened in the library.

I'll have to see what I can find out about why the change from medicine to English, if any reason can be found publicly (i.e., since her parents are passed away, etc.).

I know someone who has talked to David Wright, her fiancee...Perhaps he might have shed some light on the issue.

Derek

 

[littlehorn]

Absolutely.
It does make a certain sense if you look at it from a 'terrorist/statement' point of veiw.
Especially it explains why such a risky location.
Whoever did it whether the target was Betsy or the school or something else it was certainly worth it to the killer to take such an incredible risk to do it in such a public place.
Its almost like it was a statement either way you look at it.
Of course there are so many contradictry elements.
You have the almost 'sentry kill' efficent method of murder though as ive stated before I think you have to have a head full of some kind of steam to ram a blade into somebody but nonetheless it still almost speaks of a certain impersonality yet then you have the '94 shrine which indicates quite a bit of emotional investment.(And I would still bet the house and lot that shrine was indeed placed by the killer)
The ironic part is whatever point the sick intended to make was certainly lost on everybody(especially me.)
I still think the Homosexual/drifter angle may have some merit though if the problem had gotten so extreme they were having to take such drastic measures as removing doors from the mens room stalls.
It places things in an interesting context at any rate.
(Just a disclaimer:I have no doubt by tommorow I will have worked my way through all the possible scenarios until Im convinced it was a totally personal crime aimed at Betsy specificly again.
At least for a few hours until you guys come up with another compelling possibilty then Ill change my mind again.This case is maddining.)

Agreed, enough to drive you completely insane.

If the killer had any point besides creating fear or a legacy, I agree, it is lost on me as well.

But the fear/legacy thing is not. You can't read about Penn State's library without Betsy's death being at least a blurb in the article.

Plus her story is passed down from generation to generation as a scary story in the college community.

So in a way he has colored Penn State forever with her blood.

Derek

 

[littlehorn]

It was meant to be a Statement and the answer was absolutely nowhere in the Victim's back story which may well be the case with Betsy's murder.
It would certainly explain the why depite so much effort so much of it is still a mystery.

You know, that's what also bothers me about the homosexual theory. Without something serious to lose (did she catch the president of the college and the head of the alumni association playing pocket pool in the stacks??) what motivation would two random gay men or two guys selling weed have had to snuff her like that?

Even back then there were thousands of students, so the odds of her knowing them were slim, and the odds of her reporting them, even less. Also, it would be her word against theirs. I have talked to several former students at PSU from that era and the University's discipline policy was mostly in-house and secretive. No lasting career/record effects for being busted, and no public humiliation.

Derek

 

[MaryLiz]

MaryBeth,

Bringing up your post from a few days ago....there really might be something to the Ann Arbor or University of Michigan connection. We know that Betsy was a medical student there (didn't she also work in a hospital there?) We know that she left medical school to obtain a graduate degree in English at Penn State. It was stated because she wanted to follow her fiance David Wright to be closer to him.

What if there was more to it than that? Betsy is said to have interests in many different things but I wonder why the switch from medical to english studies. Was there another reason to leave Michigan?

Maybe you are on track about someone following her to Pa. They might not have ever dated but that doesn't mean he couldn't be obssesed with Betsy. Maybe he was attending classes there and found out that Betsy was going to Penn State the following year. Maybe he applied to Penn St. then, too.

Betsy and David were engaged, but weren't making it official until the holidays--does that mean she didn't have a ring yet? Could she have been wearing it and 'he' saw it? Maybe he overheard her at one point talking about planning the wedding. Enough to make an obssesed person snap? I don't know, MaryBeth, but it is something to consider.

You do have me thinking though. And I'm really wondering why she changed her mind about finishing the medical studies. You gave me something to :waitasec:

I haven't completely given up on this theory either. I thought it somewhat odd that she switched from studying medicine to English but when you really think about it, students change their majors all the time, so I tried not to read too much into that. It would be helpful though to find out why she switched. It may mean nothing and it may mean everything. The theory of someone following her from MI to PA also fits in with my original thought that it could have been someone who was either studying medicine or had studied it at one time if it was someone she went to school with at U of M. Maybe there was another reason Betsy didn't go home for Thanksgiving if there was someone from MI bothering her. Maybe he expected her to be there for the holiday and when she decided not to come he went there, possibly with the intention of just talking to her at first.

The one thing that could speak against my theory is that if someone was obsessed with her from MI and bothering her, I would think she would tell her fiance, another family member, a close friend...somebody, and they would have mentioned it to investigators.

I don't entirely rule it out though that this could have been done by someone from Michigan. It's definitely something to look into.

 

[littlehorn]

I haven't completely given up on this theory either. I thought it somewhat odd that she switched from studying medicine to English but when you really think about it, students change their majors all the time, so I tried not to read too much into that. It would be helpful though to find out why she switched. It may mean nothing and it may mean everything. The theory of someone following her from MI to PA also fits in with my original thought that it could have been someone who was either studying medicine or had studied it at one time if it was someone she went to school with at U of M. Maybe there was another reason Betsy didn't go home for Thanksgiving if there was someone from MI bothering her. Maybe he expected her to be there for the holiday and when she decided not to come he went there, possibly with the intention of just talking to her at first.

The one thing that could speak against my theory is that if someone was obsessed with her from MI and bothering her, I would think she would tell her fiance, another family member, a close friend...somebody, and they would have mentioned it to investigators.

I don't entirely rule it out though that this could have been done by someone from Michigan. It's definitely something to look into.

Yes, she may just have decided that she had a better chance at a satisfying career as an English professor, than as a nurse (as a female she was probably less likely to get a job as a doctor in that time period). I have a call in to a friend of mine who may be able to shed light on the subject of why she switched.

Again, though, the odds of him coming from MI, finding her in the library when she wasn't supposed to be there, etc., are pretty long....

Derek

 

[MaryLiz]

Yes, she may just have decided that she had a better chance at a satisfying career as an English professor, than as a nurse (as a female she was probably less likely to get a job as a doctor in that time period). I have a call in to a friend of mine who may be able to shed light on the subject of why she switched.

Again, though, the odds of him coming from MI, finding her in the library when she wasn't supposed to be there, etc., are pretty long....

Derek

I know, and I agree that no one knew where she was going to be that day. I'm sure I'm way off base but it just crossed my mind.

One thing though that you have to keep in mind with stalkers, I don't know how they do it, but if someone is obsessed with someone else and is stalking them, they seem to know where the person is going even before the person themself knows. I've seen it on countless TV shows and read about it too. The stalker virtually knows where their prey is at all times. Like I said, I am probably way off base with the idea that someone was obsessed with Betsy, but at the moment I just can't think of any other scenario other than a random attack, that might fit with what happened. I'm sure I'll change my mind tomorrow after reading through newspaper accounts again...LOL.

 

[littlehorn]

I know, and I agree that no one knew where she was going to be that day. I'm sure I'm way off base but it just crossed my mind.

One thing though that you have to keep in mind with stalkers, I don't know how they do it, but if someone is obsessed with someone else and is stalking them, they seem to know where the person is going even before the person themself knows. I've seen it on countless TV shows and read about it too. The stalker virtually knows where their prey is at all times. Like I said, I am probably way off base with the idea that someone was obsessed with Betsy, but at the moment I just can't think of any other scenario other than a random attack, that might fit with what happened. I'm sure I'll change my mind tomorrow after reading through newspaper accounts again...LOL.

You make a good point there. Although, I don't know how they did it in the days before the internet, which made it so much easier.

The hardest part about the stalker theory is that none of her friends, fiancee, roommate, etc., had any knowledge of her being in any distress, etc.

Even her diaries, which were removed from her room by the police, made no mention of any issues. One officer was quoted as saying "There was nothing in her room you couldn't give to her parents."

I would think someone of the obsession level that would consider killing her would have made himself known to her and perhaps upset her at one point or another.

Derek

 

[Talisman]

Again, though, the odds of him coming from MI, finding her in the library when she wasn't supposed to be there, etc., are pretty long....

Derek

*snipped*

Just a thought, What if the guy was in her 501 class and overheard her talking about staying over break and then later hears her talking to the professor about going to the library. Maybe farfetched, but it is possible. Many people do eavesdrop on others. Betsy could have casually mentioned it to one of her friends while the creep was in earshot.

 

[cbcrime]

I've been reading this and it has me hooked. Just a thought what if the shrine in 1994 wasn't about Betsy - but about the murder. In other words it was the act that was important and not necessarily the victim. This would mean the murder was not necessarily personal. The last statement "I'm back" seems to make this more about the murderer than the victim.

I'm not saying this is the case - but I think that it could be looked at both ways the shrine made it a personal murder and the shrine makes it a random crime and more about the murder itself. I hope that makes sense.

The fact that the clippings were original tend to make me think it was the murderer that created the shrine.

 

[littlehorn]

*snipped*

Just a thought, What if the guy was in her 501 class and overheard her talking about staying over break and then later hears her talking to the professor about going to the library. Maybe farfetched, but it is possible. Many people do eavesdrop on others. Betsy could have casually mentioned it to one of her friends while the creep was in earshot.

This is possible, although I believe the police thoroughly investigated everyone in the 501 class, even extending to years down the road -- like the FBI inquiry into the guy who had joined the Navy and was later caught with drugs.

The class was an evening class that met one night a week for 3 hours. The second to last or else the last class, six teams of two police investigators came in and took 6 students out into the hall at a time. Each team interviewed a single student for 15-20 minutes. They also interviewed the professor and co-professor (it was a team-taught class).

I have to think that they would have uncovered something from that if it were someone in her class who killed her. Although...Anything is possible with this case.

The class itself was a requirement and was also a high-attrition class. Meaning that, of the 60+ students who started the semester, only about 40 ended up finishing the semester. Some students took it 2-3 times before passing. I have often wondered if perhaps one of the students who was in the class initially, but then washed out partway through, may have harbored some ill feelings toward Betsy. However, I would assume the police looked at anyone who had been registered for the class that semester as a possible suspect.

My mind keeps going back to the fact that maybe it was someone you wouldn't expect. I don't know. It's all so confusing. Every time I read the articles I get a different feeling.:bang:

Derek

 

[littlehorn]

I've been reading this and it has me hooked. Just a thought what if the shrine in 1994 wasn't about Betsy - but about the murder. In other words it was the act that was important and not necessarily the victim. This would mean the murder was not necessarily personal. The last statement "I'm back" seems to make this more about the murderer than the victim.

I'm not saying this is the case - but I think that it could be looked at both ways the shrine made it a personal murder and the shrine makes it a random crime and more about the murder itself. I hope that makes sense.

The fact that the clippings were original tend to make me think it was the murderer that created the shrine.

This makes a lot of sense. I definitely believe the murderer created the shrine. It has too odd of a feeling to have been done by a friend or classmate. The original newspaper articles lend credence to this idea as well -- at that point it was already 25 years down the road. Who keeps newspaper clippings for 25 years? Someone who has a highly vested interest in what those clippings represent.

I think that perhaps the shrine was an attempt to create drama at that time. Much coverage was given to the 5, 10, and 15 year anniversaries -- but by the 20, things were starting to wane, people were starting to forget, and in 1987, Dana Bailey was murdered, and besides mention of the Aardsma case in one article on my site, there was not much coverage. If that is the case, the killer failed as the shrine was quickly covered up. I have confirmed that it existed but my previous information had only been second-hand as few of the library employees of that time will talk about it.

I think your point is well taken that perhaps to him the shrine represented not a memorial to Betsy, but a memorial to his crime or a memorial to a place where he felt safe, or sexually excited, or nostalgic -- Not emotions normal people would associate with a murder site, but hey, obviously the guy was a bit off from the start.

The more I find out about Betsy's character and habits, the more I believe that she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and caught someone's eye.

It's difficult because of her age to maintain such a clear personality -- we automatically assume that because she was a young woman, there may be motives like an affair, an ex, a stalker, etc. It has helped me to view Betsy just like a child abduction -- someone who was selected, not based on anything she had done, but for her looks, her vulnerability, or the chance that existed that she would be a "successful" victim in that case. Whoever the predator was, I don't believe that he knew Betsy in a personal sense, or that Betsy knew him, except maybe in passing as a face she had seen before somewhere on campus -- because obviously he was familiar enough with the campus to not only kill there, but to escape.

Derek

 

[cbcrime]

I'm tending to feel that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A big question for me is - was it dumb luck that his strike killed her or did he know exactly where to stab. Was he knowlegdable or lucky?

 

[littlehorn]

I'm tending to feel that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A big question for me is - was it dumb luck that his strike killed her or did he know exactly where to stab. Was he knowlegdable or lucky?

I'm starting to believe that it was luck. Calculated luck, but luck. 1/2 inch in either direction and Betsy would have likely lived.

I think he was working in the right direction, meaning that I think it's basic knowledge that if you stab someone in the heart, there's a better chance that they will die. But I don't believe given the tight time schedule that he even hung around to see if she was dead.

Paraphrased from the 1987 article: She was seen at 4:30 in the card catalog. Around 4:45, the stacks supervisor sees her in one aisle of the core, and sees two other men a few aisles over. He heads back upstairs to his desk on level 3 in time to hear books falling at about the same time that a girl 60-70 feet away on level 2 heard "muffled screams and books falling."

The call goes out to Ritenour at 5:01 pm that they need an ambulance.

So assume that it took 5-10 minutes to shelve the books and for him to get upstairs at a reasonable pace and you only have about 5-6 minutes before it is called in. Take into account the "Somebody better help that girl" guy coming out, and the call going in 5 minutes or so later, and there would have been no time for the killer(s) to stick around and check their work.

It would have been wham, bam, gone as she hit the floor.

That's what leads me to believe the killer got lucky. Even a couple of minutes of her alive would have given her (theoretically) the chance to identify her killer, especially had the wound not bled out into her lungs, so she couldn't speak.

 

[pittsburghgirl]

T
It's difficult because of her age to maintain such a clear personality -- we automatically assume that because she was a young woman, there may be motives like an affair, an ex, a stalker, etc. It has helped me to view Betsy just like a child abduction -- someone who was selected, not based on anything she had done, but for her looks, her vulnerability, or the chance that existed that she would be a "successful" victim in that case.

There have been too many smart points in the discussion since yesterday! No way to respond to them all. So I will stop with littlehorn, here, who has a good point. I think he offers a good explanation of the type of "randomness" we see in this murder.

I am interested in the question of whether the perpetrator(s) ever murdered again. We know that there aren't other "college library murders." But what about other knife murders of young women starting in central PA? Either before or after Betsy was killed?

 

[MaryLiz]

But what about other knife murders of young women starting in central PA? Either before or after Betsy was killed?

I wondered about that..I even wondered if one of the murders littlehorn posted the website to on here was related.

www.lindyandchristy.com

 

[Talisman]

There have been too many smart points in the discussion since yesterday! No way to respond to them all. So I will stop with littlehorn, here, who has a good point. I think he offers a good explanation of the type of "randomness" we see in this murder.

I am interested in the question of whether the perpetrator(s) ever murdered again. We know that there aren't other "college library murders." But what about other knife murders of young women starting in central PA? Either before or after Betsy was killed?

So glad you came back!! All I seem to do is go down one dead end after the other.

I am chiming in with MaryBeth here...I seem obsessed with this case. Betsy has captured my heart.

 

[pittsburghgirl]

I can't figure out why I missed it when it happened; her murder surely would have been in the Pittsburgh papers.

In one of the articles, a police spokesman said that the solution to the case was in the information they already have--which goes to support littlehorn's wish to look at those files. It would be nice to see a top-flight cold case unit take a shot at it, along with Vidocq. You know how easy it is to have an answer right in front of you but you can't see it. I am so glad that littlehorn started this thread.

 

[Talisman]

I can't figure out why I missed it when it happened; her murder surely would have been in the Pittsburgh papers.

In one of the articles, a police spokesman said that the solution to the case was in the information they already have--which goes to support littlehorn's wish to look at those files. It would be nice to see a top-flight cold case unit take a shot at it, along with Vidocq. You know how easy it is to have an answer right in front of you but you can't see it. I am so glad that littlehorn started this thread.

It kind of makes you want to go :banghead::banghead: doesn't it?? Some words written on some papers buried in a file could solve this.

I agree about littlehorn, I cannot praise him enough. He is helping Betsy have a 'voice'.

 

[pittsburghgirl]

It kind of makes you want to go :banghead::banghead: doesn't it?? Some words written on some papers buried in a file could solve this.

I agree about littlehorn, I cannot praise him enough. He is helping Betsy have a 'voice'.

Yes, indeed.

Now, I noodled around on Google and turned up a few tidbits that littlehorn no doubt knows but are worth dragging out to look at.

First are the murders of two female college students 5/30/69, 6 months before Betsy, in Somers Point, New Jersey. Elizabeth Perry was killed by a stab wound to the lung, Susan Davis by a slashed larynx. Susan was from Camp Hill, Pa. The article I read implied that Elizabeth's stabbing involved a single wound, but I never trust the internet unless I know the source. This case may have suggested the Ted Bundy link, as he has been named as the killer. I read other accounts that dispute Bundy's guilt in this case. Littlehorn has said that Betsy's case does not follow Bundy's modus operandi, so he know doubt will no more about the Perry/Davis case.

Another famous campus stabbing involved Cheri Bates who was stabbed 10/31/66 on the Riverside City College Campus in California. She was found fully clothed between two buildings; she told her father "she was going to study in the library." This one is generally thought to be linked to the Zodiac killer. Someone purporting to be the ZK sent a note a few years later taking credit for the murder.

As littlehorn would say, my pattern-forming brain notes that all three of these killings happened at the end of a month. In two of three, there was at attempt to "take credit" for the murder and sex in the usual sense was not the motive. (I don't yet know enough about the Perry/Davis case to reach a conclusion about that one.)

What I am more and more convinced of is that this was the work of someone who thinks like a serial killer. Perhaps he didn't continue because he was stopped ( he died or developed an illness that precluded serial killing, he was arrested for another crime) or he continued with a different method or in a different location. Or he moved from location to location.

I look forward to other sleuths poking some holes in this idea.

The other thing I found was a site for Overbrook Press which shows a book about Betsy's case: Murder In Happy Valley, by someone named William M. Earley. There is an image of a book cover, but no expected release date or ordering information. The book promises '"startling information" or some such thing. There is something posted that might be part of an introduction to the book or in the book.

I am up way past my bed time!

 

[kline]

You make a good point there. Although, I don't know how they did it in the days before the internet, which made it so much easier.

The hardest part about the stalker theory is that none of her friends, fiancee, roommate, etc., had any knowledge of her being in any distress, etc.

Even her diaries, which were removed from her room by the police, made no mention of any issues. One officer was quoted as saying "There was nothing in her room you couldn't give to her parents."

upset her I would think someone of the obsession level that would consider killing her would have made himself known to her and perhaps at one point or another.

Derek

Yes.
In my mind you hit the nail right on the head as far as a stalker being the perp.
Thats one thing that doesnt change for me.
Anyone with that kind of emotional investment obsession should have left a trace in her life for investigators to pick up on.
Which is baffling because it would be real easy to visualize a Robert Bardo type,the freak who killed actress Rebbecca Shaffer doing something like this.
He just walked up to her apartment in broad daylight rang the buzzer and shot her when she came to the door then walked off.
However...he wrote to her numerous times ,tried to get into the studio where her TV show was filmed and asked numerous people who remembered him how to locate her.
He also talked about her to friends and family incessently and was found after the crime back home in Arizona wandering around in traffic.
(Im happy to report by the way that quite recently one of Bardo's fellow inmates very nearly turned him into a Julienne Fry with a homemade shank.)
Anyway...how do I keep getting off on these tangents?
Boy, you are also right about the legacy our killer left at that college.
It makes me mad that he hijacked Betsy's whole essence and turned into that.
Im sure the legacy that she would have made with her life, while probably not as infamous would have been of much finer stuff.
She should have had that chance.
Also I think you guys are very probably right on about the shrine being a memmorial to the crime not to Betsy.It was probably the watershed moment of the killers worthless existence.
Must be something to bench mark your life as before and after you snuffed out an innocnet girls whole existence.How sick.