Betsy Aardsma

Case background and investigation

Elizabeth Ruth "Betsy" Aardsma was born on July 11, 1947, in Holland, Michigan. After studying at Hope College and graduating from the University of Michigan, she enrolled as a graduate student in English at Penn State in October 1969. She spent Thanksgiving with her boyfriend in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and returned to campus early to work on a research paper, NBC News reported.

On the afternoon of Friday, November 28, 1969, she went to the Pattee Library with her roommate. According to Wikipedia's detailed account, she went into the dimly lit Level 2 core stacks at about 4:30 p.m. Between roughly 4:45 and 4:55 p.m. she was stabbed once in the left side of the chest while standing between two rows of shelves. Witnesses heard books falling, and a man who told two students that the girl needed help then left the library; he was never identified despite police appeals.

Because the wound bled mostly internally and she wore a red dress, those who found her first believed she had fainted. She was taken to the campus health center, where she was pronounced dead at 5:19 p.m., according to NBC News, and staff then discovered the stab wound. Oxygen reported that by the time police understood it was a homicide, the area had not been preserved: books had been reshelved and the floor mopped.

The Pennsylvania State Police took over the investigation, interviewing many witnesses. A composite sketch of a man seen running from the stacks did not produce an arrest. Retired trooper Mike Simmers told Dateline that investigators had considered a couple of possible suspects but never had enough evidence for an arrest.

Journalist David DeKok, in his book on the case, argued that Richard Haefner, a fellow graduate student who had briefly dated Aardsma, was responsible. Haefner was never charged in her death, maintained his innocence and died in 2002. A former state police sergeant who led the early investigation told a newspaper that Haefner was never regarded as a suspect, and a state police trooper told Oxygen in 2021 that the case remains active and open, with several persons of interest over the years but none labeled a suspect.