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E101: Betsy Aardsma
1.4k Plays3 years ago
Betsy Aardsma had dreams of changing the world. She originally planned to join the Peace Corps, but then decided to be an educator. Who would’ve ever thought such a loving and world-changing young girl would be murdered by a single stab wound to the chest in her university library?
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Transcript
Podcasting with Buzzsprout
00:00:00
Speaker
Sleuthhounds, have you ever considered creating your own podcast? Have you been inspired by listening to some of your favorites and thought, I'd love to try this out on my own? Whether it's a true crime podcast like ours, a motivational podcast, or maybe one filled with tips and strategies for those interested in the same activities you are,
00:00:19
Speaker
When Maggie and I first decided to start our podcast, we knew absolutely nothing about what podcasting would entail. But when we found that the platform Buzzsprout was one for which we didn't need any special equipment, just a computer microphone, some quiet space, and each other, we knew that this was the way to go. It is intuitive to use, fun to play around with, and so helpful in getting analytical data about our number of downloads to track trends,
00:00:44
Speaker
and from where our listeners hail. Best yet, Buzzsprout is affordable, even by our teacher salary standards. Buzzsprout will get your podcasts listed on every major podcasting platform. So, what are you waiting for? Fulfill that dream of yours and start today. If you use our coffee and cases referral code,
00:01:03
Speaker
709-643, linked on Facebook and in our show notes. Not only will you help support our show, but you will receive a $20 Amazon gift card after your second month on a paid plan. It's that easy. Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners. Join over 100,000 podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world. Now, it's time for the world to hear what you have to say.
Childhood Memories and Bookstore Love
00:01:29
Speaker
For a book nerd like myself, there is little that compares to the thrill of entering a bookstore or a library. The rows of books, the ideas of countless adventures awaiting me, I even like the smell. One trip to a bookstore that I will never forget is the first time I walked into Joseph Beth bookstore.
00:01:48
Speaker
This particular trip will always be one that I remember for so many special reasons. Living in Eastern Kentucky meant a lot of things. And as our long term listeners know already, it meant that I grew up with a strong sense of connection to my family. Secondly, it meant that the closest bookstore to me housed maybe 200 books and was about the size of my childhood bedroom.
00:02:12
Speaker
My aunt loved reading and instilled that love in me. From a young age, she always was putting the most random and exciting books into my hands. She bought me my first Harry Potter set. She made sure that I fell in love with reading over and over again. When I was probably about eight or nine, she planned my first trip to a big bookstore. She packed me, my mom, and my mammy into her Ford.
00:02:38
Speaker
And we set off from Pikeville to make the three hour trip to Lexington, which at that time I had also never been to. I distinctly remember my aunt pointing out a green tin roof building
00:02:49
Speaker
telling me that was where we were going. She even called it the land of Oz and honestly to me it really was. I remember the smell that day, a smell I often crave to remember simpler times. I spent half the day in that bookstore with her and we probably looked at every single book in that place and we each lived with a pretty large stack.
00:03:10
Speaker
She let me get every book I wanted and on the way home. I got carsick reading the wind and the willows. I'll never forget that day and now at almost 31. I still find peace and solace in the walls of Joseph Beth bookstore that love follow me to college. I tried to force myself to be a biology major, but after my midterm.
00:03:30
Speaker
I quite literally ran to change my major to an English major. As a result, I spent countless hours in the school library reading and writing papers.
The Case of Betsy Hardsmuth
00:03:39
Speaker
Because of this, I see myself and the victim of today's case. She was a book lover and was eager to learn. She found peace in the library, but one day that peace was stolen. This is the story of Betsy Hardsmuth.
00:04:28
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases, where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Alison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron.
00:04:37
Speaker
We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the case will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.
Engaging with Listeners
00:04:49
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page.
00:04:53
Speaker
Coffee and cases podcast and to follow us on instagram at coffee cases podcast and on tiktok at coffee and cases podcast Because as these families know conversation helps to keep their missing family member in the public consciousness Helping to keep their memories alive. So sit back sip your coffee and listen to what's brewing this week
00:05:16
Speaker
So Alison, before we get started, have you loved also reading all the results of the, are you like Maggie or Alison game that we played on the bonus episode? Yes, I know I, I don't know why I'm so entertained by it. But I really want to know like, which one of us all of our listeners are like? Yeah, I checked that post, like, obviously, well, not today, before, because, you know, Facebook was down for like,
00:05:45
Speaker
all day, but most days I check it at least twice to see if anybody else has commented on it. But doing that bonus episode was just like what my heart needed. I was so tired and that was like the pick me up that I needed. Yeah, we laughed a lot in it. And we read some sweet, sweet comments. So that was nice. It was good for the heart. Yeah.
00:06:13
Speaker
Like me, Allison, I think that you are going to share a lot of the same traits as Betsy in today's case.
Betsy's Background and Traits
00:06:20
Speaker
And as you all know, like this is totally random.
00:06:23
Speaker
like my brain sometimes I think like I really might have like dyslexia because sometimes like I can read things but then I like I know what it says but I cannot say it like I'll say it backwards and like I don't know I'm just weird and I do not want to call I know this says Betsy but I want to say Nancy why
00:06:47
Speaker
Why am I the way I am? I know it says Betsy, but every time I see her name, I have to really tell myself, OK, you have to say Betsy now. So if I say Nancy, just correct me. OK, I got you. So anyways, you are going to have a lot of similar traits as Betsy because you and I are a lot alike. Yes. So I'm going to give you kind of like
00:07:17
Speaker
some background on Betsy before we talk about like what happened to her. Okay. So Betsy was born like the second child of four children. She was born in Holland, Michigan to Esther and Richard. Her family would have been considered middle class. Her father was like a sales tax auditor, which kudos father. I worked at the Kentucky Department of Revenue for like two years of my life and it is
00:07:47
Speaker
quite literally and figuratively taxing. It's a lot. I caught what you did there. Yeah, it was funny. But he worked for the sales tax auditor at Michigan State's Treasury Department. Her mom I read at one point was a school teacher. But I think for the yeah represent
00:08:08
Speaker
But I think for the majority of Betsy's life was a homemaker. OK. Betsy was raised in a religious conservative household on West 37th Street in Holland, Michigan. OK. Very much like me during her childhood, Betsy could be found writing poetry. And I did this. Did your mom, like my mom, y'all, she
00:08:35
Speaker
She's such a good mama. Like today, she was like, you're just so capable of anything. You're so talented at so many things. I'm like, you the best mom. Right. Like I need to call you more often. Yeah. But like she literally kept all of these poems that like
00:08:54
Speaker
wouldn't probably make me cringe now. Looking back on them, like I'm sure she thought I was gonna be like a child poet prodigy. She like kept all of them. I love that. I'm sure they're cringe worthy, but that love for poetry has always followed me. I force it on my students in the classroom. So, but very unlike me and I think unlike
00:09:22
Speaker
Well, you had really pretty like handwriting, but Betsy could draw like she was a really talented artist. Oh, yeah. From all accounts, it seemed that for the time because Betsy was born like in the late 40s, she developed somewhat liberal views. And I do have to say like liberal for 1940 and 1950 and 1960.
00:09:45
Speaker
is not necessarily how we would define liberal today. So liberal for her or in that time period meant that she believed in equal rights for women, so like women's equal pay, and that she had a great concern for the poor and the underprivileged.
00:10:06
Speaker
which I think we should all feel, but that was what they considered liberal at that time. Oh yeah. I mean, my mom told me stories and I mean, she was born in the mid fifties and when she was in high school, she told me that she got detention because she wore pants to school instead of a skirt. Yeah, my answer told me that. Yeah. So yeah, liberal then
College Life Reflections
00:10:31
Speaker
is far different than
00:10:33
Speaker
now. Right. And Betsy was a great student in 1965. She graduated Holland High School with honors. She attended Hope College in the fall of 65 and at that time had aspirations to become a doctor. Wow, that's really good. Yeah. And I don't know about you, but I definitely
00:10:56
Speaker
like kind of debated on what I wanted to do with life. Like I wanted to be a like speech pathologist, then I wanted to be a lawyer, and then I wanted to teach. So it like teaching wasn't the first thing on my path when I was in college.
00:11:15
Speaker
So, like, obviously, where you went to undergrad is much different, but Pikeville was a smaller college. And so, I remember going to the auditorium, like, I had already declared, like, my little biology major, right, because I wanted to be a speech pathologist, and that's what they had told me to do. And so, like, I remember signing up for, like, all these classes with my little advisor that was, like, a chemistry man or something.
00:11:39
Speaker
And so I took biology one and I struggled the entire time. I hated it. And when we took the lab midterm, okay, the bio two kids were in the same lab as by one. So I guess like maybe some of them had to do a makeup or something. I don't know. Regardless.
00:12:00
Speaker
They were dissecting cats. Oh no, Maggie. And I literally, cause I had gone back and forth. So I had a professor, Dr. Freeman, who I love. And she had talked to me like quite a bit about like, you should consider being an English major. And I was like, no, Dr. Freeman. And then like, after that, I was like quite literally ran and changed my major to English. This is a Dr. Freeman that we realized we both know because she and I were in grad school together.
00:12:29
Speaker
Yeah. She's like, she's the best. Yeah. Love her. And then like, sometimes we still meet up and I still call her Dr. Freeman. And she's like, you can call me by my first name now. And I'm like, no, I can't. No, I really can't. Which I've gotten better about it, but okay. I digress. So you saw them dissect a cat, which we all know. And especially if you listen to the bonus episode, how much you are an animal lover.
00:12:55
Speaker
Yeah. So then I was like, there's literally, I can dissect a pig. I did that in middle school. I cannot dissect a cat. Yeah. So I went and changed my major. Yeah. And Betsy too, had a change of heart because she only stayed at Hope college for two years. And then she enrolled at the university of Michigan in 1967. And when she enrolled there, she enrolled to study art and English. I like that. I like that choice.
00:13:23
Speaker
Me too. I mean, financially, I get it wasn't the smartest choice. Right. But if it warms the soul. Yeah. Do what makes you happy. That's right. So at the University of Michigan, she did really well. The university obviously at that time was buzzing with anti-Vietnam movements. And it was known to have more liberal politics within the school.
00:13:52
Speaker
She quickly though found a group in which she felt she belonged and that was with the Peace Corps. And while I think we both see ourselves in Betsy, this is like a very Maggie's mom thing. Like she's told me her biggest regret in life was not joining the Peace Corps. Like she wishes she would have done that. I think that was like a really big thing in this time. Because it talked about in some of my research that John F. Kennedy like an
00:14:21
Speaker
gave like an impromptu speech about like joining the Peace Corps to help poverty-stricken nations in the third world. So like Metzy was ready to answer the call.
00:14:38
Speaker
Just like most people do, she did drift away from some of her friends, you know, ones that joined sororities or ones that stayed back home, but she did keep in touch with many of her Holland friends via mail. One quote about her said intellectually, or one quote she said, said intellectually, this place is not as alive as it should be. And she said that in the letter to one of her friends named Peggy in September of 1967.
00:15:04
Speaker
I think she was craving a little bit more than what was their intellectual stimulation. Yeah, yeah. And at the time that she was there, she shared an apartment with three girls that she was friends with and below them.
00:15:19
Speaker
And I can only imagine this was an apartment filled with four boys that were in the alpha delta five fraternity. So I bet that their dorm was loud. Yeah. One of them that's name was David Wright. He was senior and pre-med. They were thinking about.
00:15:40
Speaker
Yes. And they met as juniors and they were friends for some time, but by her senior year, um, she, they both just kind of felt like they had a stronger chemistry than friends and he became, um, one of her, like her first serious boyfriend. Okay. Yeah. They had strong
00:16:01
Speaker
chemistry yes and he was pre-med yeah see i i don't know i tried to do it too it wasn't as funny maggie's the funny one i mean i just i try you're funny whatever
00:16:17
Speaker
But she graduates in 1969. That same year, David is one of 64 people that is accepted to only the third class at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania, home of the Hershey's Chocolate Factory. I've been there. I have not been there.
00:16:37
Speaker
The town smells like chocolate. The town that we moved from before we moved here, smelled like bourbon, which can smell good, but sometimes it smells bad. But I feel like if I always lived near Krispy Kreme and I could smell that, I would just gain weight from the smell. I know. I'd be like on the lookout for the hot sign. Yeah.
00:17:00
Speaker
and see it glowing through the window. Oh, gotta go. Time to make a trip. Yeah. And even though her heart longed to join the Peace Corps, I don't think that she or her boyfriend David were very happy about spending a year apart. She had already been accepted and was supposed to go to Africa, had even told one of her friends, I can't be in your wedding, I'm sorry, but I'll already be gone.
00:17:24
Speaker
But kind of at last minute she had a change of heart so she decides to stay behind and In one interview David said quote She asked if I would wait for her and so forth and I sort of selfishly said I just don't know what will happen in quote
00:17:41
Speaker
Oh man I'd be heartbroken. I mean like when I first read that because like some of the articles said that David told her he didn't know if he could be faithful and I was like well you're a jerk but then when I read this like that doesn't sound like that to me that just sounds like I don't know if we can last a whole year without seeing each other which I do think would be hard.
00:18:05
Speaker
It is a fair statement, especially because they are young. I get it. It would still break my heart. Yes.
00:18:14
Speaker
I do think she found happiness despite canceling her Peace Corps plans. She follows David to Penn State and she actually enrolls in their graduate English program. And like her mama, she wants to be a teacher. So she actually was on the main campus at Penn State and he was on the Hershey campus. But it was like about 100 miles apart. So it's not like something that would have been super difficult to go back and forth to see each other.
00:18:43
Speaker
So she lived with her roomie whose name was Sharon and Sharon would later recall like they lived in a dorm that Betsy wasn't really involved in extracurricular activities and spent much of her free time studying and traveling to Penn State Hershey to see her boyfriend but really like that isn't weird to me.
00:19:03
Speaker
I completed my master's online. You did your master's on campus and I feel like being antisocial and like studying and rotting kind of comes with the territory.
00:19:15
Speaker
Yeah, my dad when I was in college literally called me all the time and he was like, what are you doing? And I would always say I'm studying or I'm writing a paper or I'm sitting in my dorm or whatever it was And he would say go to a party like that's pretty bad when your parent is like go to a party So I think you're right. I think it just comes with the territory and also like I
00:19:39
Speaker
I feel by the time you're in a master's program like you already did the college thing like you already have your college friends you're just kind of done with it and ready to get over like being in school so I can see why she didn't want to waste a lot of time like doing extracurricular stuff
00:19:55
Speaker
Plus what time of year or like, is this story taking place? Um, like what happens to her takes place around Thanksgiving. So she'd been at school for weeks or something like that. I'd say, but like end of the semester. Yeah. Almost. Yeah. Cause that's in like early December. And I know when I was in grad school, all of my classes ended with a 20 page paper. So, you know, I mean, you're, if you're taking like four classes and you have four 20 page papers.
00:20:25
Speaker
That's a lot. Well, I low key feel like feel like the master's program that I was in. I just had to pay a lot of money to get like a diploma. Like it wasn't super challenging. I mean, I'm not complaining because it made me certified, but like I'm just saying like it wasn't super challenging. Well, I'm talking about my master's in English. Yeah, that I feel like would be a whole different thing. This was just like a master's in teaching. So I was just learning teaching theories.
00:20:55
Speaker
Right. Yeah. According to several reports I read by Thanksgiving of that year, Betsy was showing signs of stress and like, duh.
Betsy's Last Day and Murder
00:21:04
Speaker
And I told people that she had fallen behind on an English paper, which had she really, or was she just stressed? Because I feel like we say we're behind on things when we're maybe really not. We're just feeling the pressure.
00:21:16
Speaker
According to one article, she spent the day prior to Thanksgiving in the company of her boyfriend, his roommates, and their girlfriends. She went back to her dorm the next day. Remember, her family's in Michigan. She's in Pennsylvania. I could see her not going home, especially if she's feeling overwhelmed just for a long weekend.
00:21:36
Speaker
She like had intentions to meet with her professor to talk about the assignment and David actually drove her to the bus stop on the afternoon of November 27th. Betsy arrives safely back to campus and you know immediately begins working on her paper.
00:21:52
Speaker
On November 28th, 1969, everything would change. On that day, Betsy and her roommate left their dorm to go to the Penn State Library to find resources for their English papers because, you know, this is 1969, and in that time, we didn't Google things. So once the two get to the library, they actually separate. But before they separate, they make plans to meet up to go to a movie that afternoon. So she's doing some self care.
00:22:21
Speaker
That's a good plan, yeah. So around four, Bessie spoke with her professor about the assignment. After meeting her professor, she runs into two friends. They briefly talk and she goes into the library. And now this is something I had never heard of. I mean, it's not like super big to the case. I just was like, this is weird. But Bessie goes to the library and puts her purse, jacket, and book inside like the corral that was assigned to her before she heads to the card catalog.
00:22:51
Speaker
Well, now I know, so when I was in England in one of the libraries there where I studied, you couldn't take like all kinds of personal stuff in, you'd have to like leave it. So I don't, I don't know. I mean, I have been in a place that does that, but that's the only place I've ever been in where you had to like leave your stuff somewhere.
00:23:18
Speaker
See like when I was in college it was basically just free for all and you grab the room or the little
00:23:23
Speaker
the table or whatever that was open, you just plopped your crab down and hope nobody stole anything while you were looking at your foot. But regardless, Betsy puts her things down and then she heads down a flight of stairs to the level two core stacks around like 430. So she's going to the basement. And you all have heard Allison and I talk about how scary schools can be after dark when you're there alone and the hallway lights turn off.
00:23:51
Speaker
But I feel like that even can't compare to the basement of a library. Oh, I'd be terrified when I was a freshman. I was a tutor to the football team, which was horrific in and of itself.
00:24:04
Speaker
But we tutored in the basement of the library. There were very few windows, if any, in some of the rooms. And after tutoring would end, we would have to clean up and turn the lights off and everything. Some of the scariest times of my life. It's scary.
00:24:23
Speaker
Cause you feel trapped. I felt like Michael Myers was going to jump out and murder me. We know that on that day, Betsy was wearing a red dress with like a white sweater under it. Cause remember it's November and we're in Pennsylvania. So it's cold.
00:24:39
Speaker
Right. The final sighting of Betsy was a few minutes before 4 30 when an assistant supervisor saw her down in level two. And according to him, she was alone in an aisle with two young men talking quietly in like a nearby aisle. Approximately 10 minutes later, a man named Richard Allen would report that he heard a male and female having a conversation down on level two in the general direction of where Betsy had been standing like operating the photocopier.
00:25:09
Speaker
which is honestly brilliant and something I never would have thought of to make photocopies and only the pages I needed instead of checking out the entire book.
00:25:18
Speaker
Genius. We're sitting there for hours taking this. But he doesn't recall to investigators like that either party sounded upset or angry. But minutes later, he heard a crashing sound and saw someone who appeared at the time to be a student run past him. And we know that it was then that Betsy was actually murdered. Yeah.
00:25:47
Speaker
Yeah. So with a crash, was it like an accident? No. Oh. So according to the history channel, sometime right before 5 PM, a man walked out of the library and told the desk clerk, which this is creepy, quote, somebody better help that girl. And the desk clerk like didn't really know what that meant. And kids are weird. So she just continued doing what she was doing. But then. Right. Cause you'd be like, what girl? Like what?
00:26:17
Speaker
And like, I would be like, okay, you're cuckoo, but carry on. But soon after, fellow students find Betsy on the floor between rows 50 and 51 down on level two. And upon first glance, it appeared that Betsy may have like fainted. She may have just had a seizure. So students try resuscitating her.
00:26:40
Speaker
Okay. But Allison, remember Betsy has on the red dress with that super thick sweater and that would actually hide and conceal blood that was pouring out of Betsy's chest. Betsy had been stabbed one time in the chest and it had severed her pulmonary artery and pierced the right ventricle of her heart.
00:27:06
Speaker
How hard would you have to stab to get through your breastbone? Yes. Oh my gosh. And it appears, so a lot of people in
00:27:23
Speaker
The research that I've read said that, you know, that she kind of stumbled back obviously after she was stabbed and that books fell off the bookshelf like as she was falling backwards. That's the crash. The crash that he heard. Okay. According to one book called Who Killed Betsy and Covering Penn State University's Most Notorious Unsolved Crime, two students observed a man running from the direction of the commotion, concealing his right hand and also exclaiming that girl needs help.
00:27:53
Speaker
And they would describe- If he's hiding his hand, he's probably hiding something in it. Yes. And they would describe him as being dressed in khaki slacks. He had a tie on and a sports jacket, which again, like this is a different time. Right. That's true. People weren't showing up in the library in their Jamie's and their house shoes.
00:28:12
Speaker
which is what we do now. And they also said he had well kept brown hair was about six feet tall and probably weighed about 185 pounds and maybe had been wearing glasses. So the individual would lead the two
00:28:29
Speaker
like further into the core where he pointed toward the body of Betsy laying between scattered books and the metal shelves which had been knocked loose. So one of the kids checks for Betsy's pulse and the other one like tries to follow this dude out of the library and like follows the guy up the steps but then the individual starts running and they lose the guy in all the commotion.
00:28:58
Speaker
And obviously, if you don't have something to do with it, then you'd be sticking around trying to help. Right. Yeah. You wouldn't run away. Yeah. And in an article on the Pittsburgh Press, a call was placed at the campus hospital around 5 0 1 p.m. So all this happens pretty quickly.
00:29:15
Speaker
and responders are initially informed that a girl had fainted in the university library. Two student paramedics were dispatched to the scene just arriving a few minutes later and Betsy was quickly placed on a gurney and removed from the library down the service elevator to be taken to the health center. Paramedics actually would continue to perform CPR because as I mentioned
00:29:42
Speaker
the red dress and the thick sweater concealed the stab wound and was soaking up the blood. So I don't think that they really knew the extent of her injuries because I feel like if your artery has been severed, you probably don't want to be doing CPR. Yep, probably not. But Betsy had also urinated as she fell. And because of this, that's why a lot of people said that she had either fainted or had a seizure.
00:30:08
Speaker
Oh, that makes sense. But when she gets to the hospital, one of the senior medical doctors immediately orders the CPR on Betsy to cease and cuts her blouse open. And that's when they find the single stab wound. And she is pronounced dead at like 5 19 p.m. Wow. And all of this is happening like these are daytime hours. It's not like she was at the library at two in the morning. And she's in a public place because she's in a library.
Investigation Challenges
00:30:39
Speaker
Pennsylvania State Police were very quick to respond to Betsy's death. They sent 35 state troopers to campus. They actually took post in one of the buildings on campus. They conducted hundreds of student and staff interviews. They searched the entire campus. They offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. But despite those efforts, police made no real headway.
00:31:03
Speaker
Now I did read and $25,000 then that's a lot. Yeah, I did read that the two individuals that found Betsy were able to give police a sketch of the man. Each one like gave a description.
00:31:19
Speaker
But that's really about as far as police are able to get. So on a normal Friday, because this is a Friday that this happens, close to 400 people would go in and out of that library in the time span that Betsy would have been in there.
00:31:36
Speaker
Oh gosh that's a lot. Not necessarily like they're in there checking out books but like maybe just using it as a shortcut or something like that. Right. But on that day because it was a holiday only 90 students had been in and out of the library.
00:31:53
Speaker
because there's not as many people. So they narrow down the pool of potential people, but they still name no suspects, no persons of interest, nothing.
00:32:09
Speaker
According to who killed Betsy and covering Penn State University's most notorious unsolved crime. I did read that a knife was found behind some bushes outside the recreation center. And like that had been the direction that the dude ran out of the library, but it wasn't found until like 1970. Oh, so it's months later. Yeah. So by the time they found it, like,
00:32:38
Speaker
physical evidence was going, anything like that had eroded. I feel like the past few episodes, we have talked about this and it's kind of frustrating, but, um, Betsy's crime scene was compromised. Oh man. Because before police were able to make it back to the library, remember she left the hospital as a girl who had a seizure or fainted.
00:33:08
Speaker
Right, not a girl who had been stabbed. Oh, so they're not even thinking, they're probably picking up books and... Yeah, before police make it back to the library, the scene where Betsy was killed is like spotless. All the urine's been wiped up, the books are back on the shelves, like everything's been re-stacked, the tiles have been cleaned, so they pretty much have nothing.
00:33:33
Speaker
They were able to find like some small droplets of blood that matched Bessie's blood type leading into the level three part of the library. So police kind of assume that this is the way the killer must have went. Yeah. Like it dripped from the knife or something. Yeah. Yeah. Cause it says like small droplets. So I just picture it like dripping off of something. Mm-hmm.
00:33:58
Speaker
Police are able to determine that Betsy probably knew her killer as she was stabbed facing someone.
Theories and Suspects
00:34:05
Speaker
She's believed to have known them for multiple reasons. So one, she's stabbed head on. Two, the aisles in the library in this section were so close together that if someone wanted to pass, both people would have had to turn to the sod to be able to fit if you couldn't have passed sod to sod.
00:34:27
Speaker
Uh-huh. So, she was heard talking to someone that was a man and both seemed calm, not like they were mad at one of the, like, each other. Oh, yeah, because the one person reported that. Yeah, and so police take- And it was just a conversation. Yeah, and police take that, that she's talking to someone calmly, just in a normal conversation, that she was stabbed from the front, all as she must have known this person that killed her.
00:34:55
Speaker
OK, but we've literally not even heard of anybody who would have a problem with her. Well, we're going to talk about that next. So we have a couple of different things we're going to talk about. OK. So today we're discussing theories as to why Betsy was potentially killed and then who may have killed her. OK, got it. So one theory. So we're going to talk about why first.
00:35:24
Speaker
One theory early on was that Betsy had been stalked and a source called 45 years later the Unsolved Murder of Betsy in the Penn State Library. It says extensive research and questioning also led investigators to discount any possibility that she'd been stalked and she had not been expected to be at Penn State that day but with her boyfriend who was quickly eliminated.
00:35:49
Speaker
Moreover, although betsy had recently expressed concerns about potentially becoming a physician's wife and a mother while still young None of those entries were in her diary. So the letters like so they read her diary They've read letters to her boyfriend. None of the things in that quote were like really expressed in her diary or the letters so like they rule out stalking because
00:36:15
Speaker
People wouldn't have known that she was even going to be at school that day. She was supposed to be with her boyfriend, but when she was overwhelmed with the paper, came back to campus. Okay, so then that same quote also talks about that she was kind of feeling stressed out about potentially becoming a physician's wife and like having kids. Well, I feel like anybody at Betsy's age, that's a lot to
00:36:40
Speaker
kind of think about getting married and starting a family. And in that same source it says that she didn't talk about that in her diary. And I feel like that would be the one place you would really talk about it if it were how you were feeling.
00:36:57
Speaker
And so she never talked about anybody that made her feel uncomfortable. She was obviously in a committed relationship with David. She never talked about that she was interested in any other guys in her diary. She never talked about that. She felt uncomfortable or intimidated by anyone in the eight weeks that she'd been to school. So investigators rule out the stalking theory.
00:37:24
Speaker
A second theory, which to me I just can't wrap my mind around, is that Betsy may have stumbled upon sexual encounters.
00:37:42
Speaker
in the library. Like between because first somebody heard two men talking. So are we talking like well to me it's encounter me it's disturbing either way that you would have sex in a library regardless. Yes.
00:37:57
Speaker
But yeah, it is believed that she stumbled upon like two men engaging in sexual things or perhaps a man engaging in like some fantasies with magazines. Oh, yes. So by himself. Yes.
00:38:20
Speaker
OK. Because like apparently this was particularly common in this part of the library. Oh so in that same is it because it's like secluded. Yeah I think so. And like I don't think it would be because because I feel like all libraries like the basement part is like very specialized like only certain people are going to be down there. It's not like the general books or whatever. You know what I mean.
00:38:49
Speaker
Right. Yeah, so it was pretty common apparently in that part of the library. So in that same article, the who killed Betsy article It actually talks about that police stumbled upon a
00:39:09
Speaker
half-empty can of pop and a small stack of both heterosexual and homosexual pornographic magazines and Some of those dated as early as November of 1969 Another article that I read and like when I went back to actually quote it because it was really interesting I must have read it and not Put it in my research, but it talked about the copious amounts of semen
00:39:39
Speaker
when they ran a black light over the area that showed, because I guess this was just like what people did in this part of the library. So it makes me wonder like if DNA testing had been a thing back in 1969, would we still be having a conversation of like who Betsy's killer was? Right. This sounds legitimately like a good theory. Yeah.
00:40:09
Speaker
Like she stumbled upon somebody. Now, I don't know why they wouldn't just get embarrassed and like yank their pants up and like go to your dorm. Leave. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I just think, like I said, the whole, the whole sex in a public place is something I don't understand.
00:40:29
Speaker
Yeah. They were able to find partial fingerprints from the can of soda, but the prints didn't match with any that police had on the database at that time. Um, and then obviously fingerprints on the magazine would have been numerous and were smudged and like not something that they would have been able to lift.
00:40:48
Speaker
Right. I also read, this is very Harry Potter-esque here, that police found like later on that somebody had carved into a desk that was there. Here sat death in the skies of a man. And then the initials RSK.
00:41:11
Speaker
I'd be figuring out who RSK is. I'd be going to, I'd be going through my student list. But I'm wondering if it's like somebody wrote it like later after Betsy had died, like, you know, because they think that's where they said or if this is like a potential like kind of confession.
00:41:32
Speaker
right who knows so other less likely possibilities were that she was murdered by an angry suitor but um remember that david was like her first serious boyfriend they talked about being married others say they think she witnessed a drug deal and was killed to keep quiet
00:41:50
Speaker
Other think she was murdered. I mean that part I could maybe see as well. Yeah, others think that she was murdered because she owed like a drug lord money, which does not fit her personality at all. And nobody close to her ever said that she did drugs.
00:42:09
Speaker
some people were so Like I guess kind of bent on Pinning it somewhere that they said that the zodiac killer or Ted Bundy could have been Who killed her at that time there was somebody like? Like in the Michigan area that was killing people at college campuses. I Don't remember now. I mean Ted Bundy did like go into a sorority house and
00:42:36
Speaker
and things like that. He tended to go for like the women that had like long straight hair. But I think both. But I thought Zodiac Killer was in like California. Yeah and both of those have since been proven false. We're gonna just x those out. So there have been from what I read three main theories as to who many think may have killed Betsy.
00:43:05
Speaker
So the first one is William Spencer. In the Who Killed Betsy article, Spencer was about 40 years old and had relocated to Pennsylvania from Boston with his second wife right before Betsy was murdered.
00:43:19
Speaker
He had previously co-founded this business with his first wife in New York in like May of 1960, but had relocated with his second wife because he was teaching sculpture at a local college while his wife studied to get her PhD.
00:43:42
Speaker
So he has relocated so I mean at least he's teaching like art classes This could be somebody that she came into contact with yeah, and William was first reported to police as a potential subject suspect in Betsy's murder after allegedly confessing to quote killing that girl in the library at a Christmas party and not hosting on to other members and
00:44:09
Speaker
Why would you say that? Like one, I don't think that's something you joke about. No. Two, like, I feel like if you weren't an experienced killer, maybe that is something that you would need to get off your conscience and you would think because everybody's drunk, you're just gonna say it at this Christmas party.
00:44:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's a weird comment. Yeah, and he actually would eventually be formally questioned in 1970. And according to William, he says that he and Betty were acquainted because this, I was like, who are you even talking about, sir? Because Betsy had agreed supposedly to pose nude for his sculpting class to earn extra money. What? Like the same Betsy winning the Peace Corps and like was raised in a religious household.
00:44:59
Speaker
I mean, but she is very liberal in her thinking. Yeah. This is the sixties. So this is like the, you know, sexual revolution. Maybe, maybe because she is artistic, you know, maybe she didn't see, or maybe she just didn't even see it as a sexual thing. She just saw it as art. Yeah.
00:45:24
Speaker
But I never read anywhere where that was proven to be true. He reported that he had been in the level two area at the time of her murder and had seen the murderer, whom he insisted was wearing an overcoat, like run from the library.
00:45:44
Speaker
He actually offered to construct like a bust of the individual for investigators. And he later would provide that. But I thought that was also weird. And I did read, I forgot to say that most of them, not most, all of the models that posed for his classes were people from out of town. Like they didn't use people that lived in town.
00:46:12
Speaker
I also think it's weird that at a party he would say he killed the girl in the library and then later he's saying I saw somebody who killed her in the library and if you're at a party and you admit that you know Betsy why would you say I killed that girl in the library and not call her by name like all this is sounding a little too weird to me
00:46:37
Speaker
A lot of people say because he only lived in the area such a short time, like how could he have really gotten to know Betsy as close as what he was saying that he did? And it was never really proven that he did get that close to her.
00:46:50
Speaker
Second up is Larry Moore. Larry was also a student at the time. He was one who initially kind of gained the interest of investigators because he was a classmate of Betsy's. And Larry is known to have been acquainted with her in the weeks before her death, like even specifically bringing her coffee on one occasion.
00:47:14
Speaker
So there wasn't really any like, you know, feelings toward one another that I read. Larry was cleared as a potential suspect in her murder. But we don't know, again, I guess not that it really matters if he actually passed or failed a polygraph test.
00:47:32
Speaker
right um he was blonde of average height he didn't wear glasses he did not match um any of the descriptions given by eyewitnesses so they kind of just dismiss him as being involved right so the last person we're going to talk about is a Penn State professor and at the time of Betsy's death he would have been about 25 years old he was a geology student
00:48:01
Speaker
And according to my research, he would often have relationships with women to conceal his homosexuality. Because remember, like in the sixties, it was very hard to be an openly homosexual individual in society. Like that was not something that employers favored. So I think just for this man, he felt that it was better for him to hide who he truly was, though that is sad.
00:48:33
Speaker
I've read that on one occasion in 1968 he traveled from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts to inform a girl he barely knew that he loved her and this will come into play like here in a little bit. So he like arrived unannounced at her apartment to inform her that you know he was head over heels in love with her to which she responded by slamming the door in his face.
00:48:58
Speaker
Oh no. But like these types of patterns kind of continued. So at the time of Betsy's death, this guy was struggling. So he was often described as angry. He displayed erratic behavior. He was a suspect instilling specimens from the university's rock and mineral collection.
00:49:18
Speaker
So he just wasn't in a very good place. He also fit the description given at the scene. He could always be found dressed in khakis with a sports coat. He had brown hair that he kept tidy and his friendship with Betsy had terminated via Betsy shortly before her death. Now I said that his like, yeah. And I said that his like relationship kind of like
00:49:50
Speaker
I don't even know what you would call that. Like I guess easily falling in love or whatever. Right. Was habitual. He and several things said that he and Betsy were dating.
00:50:06
Speaker
And they never dated. He was never mentioned in a romantic manner in her diary to her friends. And so I don't know if that's maybe why she kind of started distancing herself from him.
00:50:23
Speaker
But I would like, if it was me, that would be why I would say like, we can't like, you know, we have two different goals in mind for this relationship. Right. Yeah. Where, where this is headed. Yeah. He was also questioned by investigators at the time during that investigation. He did admit to knowing Betsy and socializing with her. And he admits that one week prior to her murder, she had ended their friendship.
00:50:50
Speaker
So she could have been like the last straw for him. Yeah. Cause I mean, he's already angry, erratic. Yeah. Like I said, he even in that interview said that she was his former girlfriend. When she wasn't. Yes.
00:51:06
Speaker
And he does not have an entirely clean record. In the 70s, he, which I say that's a super long time after this happened to Betsy, but it's not. But in the 70s at some point, he actually went to court for deviating sexual intercourse and corrupting the morals of a 12-year-old boy. 12-year-old? Yeah.
00:51:33
Speaker
But like he gathered several like high profile investigator or not investigators character witnesses and the trial ended in a hung jury and he received like minimal punishment for that. I think of all the options that one does make the most sense because it gives a motive.
00:51:55
Speaker
Like the others, again, like if she stumbles upon somebody, like I would think there would be more embarrassment and you probably would have heard something.
00:52:09
Speaker
more, you know what I mean? Like an argument or, I don't know, raised voices or something. But like, there could have legitimately been a conversation between Betsy and that professor. You know what I mean? Which I don't think he was a professor at the time. He was a student. Right, right, right. Geology student.
00:52:35
Speaker
Um, and so, I mean, they could have just been having like a regular conversation and then it came out of nowhere, you know, or he could have been like, know why, why
Case Conclusion
00:52:44
Speaker
have you quit talking to me? Like, I really have feelings for you. And when she's like, I don't feel that way. That's like the end for him. And he just stabs her. Yeah. I think that makes the most sense.
00:52:58
Speaker
Over the years, Betsy's murder has turned into a myth or even an urban legend. Most students attending Penn State have never even heard of the girl who sadly died among the rows of books. Those that have have degraded her death to be no more than an explanation for the weird things that happen in the University Library. That her ghost is responsible for the things that go bump in the night.
00:53:21
Speaker
Sleuthhounds, this is why we talk about these cases week after week. We have to keep the true memory of these victims alive. Betsy didn't run. Betsy didn't scream. Betsy knew who her killer was. Is it possible that someone listening knows too?
00:53:37
Speaker
Anyone with information that might help is urged to call State Troopers at 814-355-7545.
Call to Action for Listeners
00:53:48
Speaker
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00:53:56
Speaker
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