What Happened to Betsy Aardsma?
Aardsma had been stabbed once through her breastbone with a hunting-style blade. It had severed her pulmonary artery and pierced her heart. The wound caused severe internal bleeding, filling her lungs with blood. The small amount of blood that leaked through her clothes was masked by her red dress.
She was pronounced dead at 5:50 p.m. The investigation that ensued has lasted 56 years, involved countless investigators and civilian sleuths, and left a lasting effect on the students of Penn State and the surrounding community. But the case remains open.
The library staff, under the impression that Aardsma had fainted or had a seizure, asked a janitor to clean the area, unintentionally scrubbing it of potential evidence. Eyewitness accounts varied—some people said they saw one man leaving the area, others said two. A librarian described a man, similar to the one Erdely and Uafinda encountered, rush out of the stacks where Aardsma lay and head toward the main exit of the library. But blood spatter was found on the wall in the western passageway of the library, on the opposite side.
Aardsma’s personal life didn’t offer many clues, with one original investigator describing her as “so damn squeaky clean.” Former Pennsylvania State Trooper Leigh Barrows, who worked Aardsma’s case from 2008 to 2014, echoes this sentiment decades later. She tells A&E Crime + Investigation: “Everybody you talk to always had something good to say about her. They missed her. They couldn’t understand how somebody could do this to her.”
This included Aardsma’s soon-to-be fiancé, Penn State medical student David Wright, who planned to propose over the upcoming Christmas break. Aardsma had spent the Thanksgiving holiday at the Hershey, Pa., campus with Wright the previous day. Anxious to catch up on her assignment, she headed back to University Park in the afternoon. Wright was initially a suspect due to his knowledge of anatomy, but he was quickly ruled out with an alibi.
Aardsma was laid to rest in her hometown of Holland, Mich., on December 3, 1969, holding a single rose from Wright in her hands.
Mulling Possible Suspects—Including Ted Bundy
The case grew cold, but theories proliferated. That section of the stacks was a notorious hookup spot. Did Aardsma happen upon an illicit tryst? The Pattee stacks are so narrow that two people cannot pass each other without both turning sideways. Whoever stabbed Aardsma was either face to face with her or came up close behind her, using an enormous amount of force to pierce her breastbone. Was it someone she knew? Could she have been a victim of serial killer Ted Bundy, who attended Temple University in 1969?
Aardsma’s roommate, Sharon Brandt, alerted police to one suspect who now dominates reports about the case: Richard Haefner. Haefner was a geology grad student who typically dressed in khakis and flannels and lived in the same dorm as Aardsma. He had taken Aardsma out a few times that fall, before she became engaged to Wright.
There’s no known physical evidence tying Haefner to Aardsma’s murder, and he claimed to be in his hometown of Lancaster, Pa., over the holiday until the day after crime occurred.
In the mid-70s, geology professor Lauren Wright (no relation to David) came forward to say that Haefner had shown up at his house, disheveled and distraught that a girl he had dated had been murdered in the library. But Wright could not say for sure whether this happened the night of the murder or the next day, when news of the murder had already broken.
A 1975 argument between Haefner and his mother, during which she accused Haefner of killing “that girl” at Penn State, proved even more damning.
Haefner also had a history of criminal activity. Several teenage boys accused him of molestation and in 1975, Haefner was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and corruption of a 12-year-old boy. This charge ended in mistrial, and he was never convicted on any of the allegations. He was, however, convicted of assaulting a woman in 1998, after dragging her from her car and beating her until he dislocated her jaw.
Haefner died in 2002 when a tear in his aorta caused him to bleed into his lungs, the way Aardsma did after she was stabbed.
The Mystery Persists
Haefner was known to be litigious, frequently suing his accusers. He harassed his neighbors and seemed to have few friends, but whether he murdered Aardsma remains in question.
“He is the best suspect,” Sascha Skucek, an alum and teacher at Penn State who has been researching Aardsma’s case for nearly 30 years, tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “But I don’t like that people act like it’s been solved. There is not a smoking gun that says he did this.”
Barrows expresses similar frustration: “This is still an active case.” She had a college-age daughter of her own when she worked the case, and she kept a photo of Aardsma on her desk. “It involves a family. It involves somebody that lost their life. We want answers,” Barrows says. “People want to know.”
This impact is echoed in the greater Penn State community. “People are interested in this story,” Skucek says. “There’s this pain, this dishonor about the whole thing. They thirst for it. They want to know: Are we on the right track?”
When asked what it would mean if Aardsma’s case were closed, Barrows concludes: “I would feel like finally Betsy could be at rest. It would mean the world.”
Ever introspective, a poem Aardsma wrote in 1965 alluded to a darkness that loomed over her: “I am living in preparation for death/What I live for will last/And increase in the face of eternity.”
Fifty-six years after her murder, with the thirst to know the truth still ubiquitous, her words ring true.
