Betsy Aardsma

On Friday, November 28, 1969—the day after Thanksgiving—22-year-old Betsy Ruth Aardsma, a first-year English graduate student at Penn State University, entered the Pattee Library's core stacks area on the ground floor around 4:45 p.m. to conduct research. Minutes later, she collapsed between rows of bookshelves. Two male students nearby heard a brief commotion and a man's voice say something like 'somebody better help that girl,' but assumed she had fainted.

When help arrived, no wound was immediately visible. It was only at the hospital that doctors discovered a single, precise stab wound to the left breast that had pierced her pulmonary artery. The killer had used a thin blade, possibly a hunting or paring knife, and the wound was so small it was initially hidden by Betsy's red dress. She was pronounced dead at Centre Community Hospital.

The investigation revealed that despite being in a busy university library, almost no one noticed anything unusual. A man was seen running from the stacks, and two students reported a brief encounter with a nervous individual near the crime scene, but descriptions were vague and inconsistent. The library's layout—a maze of dimly lit shelving rows with limited sightlines—provided ideal cover for the attack.

Penn State Police and the Pennsylvania State Police investigated extensively, interviewing hundreds of people and examining Betsy's personal life for potential motives. She was by all accounts a well-liked, studious young woman with no known enemies. Investigators later focused on a suspect named Richard Haefner, a Penn State graduate student who had known Aardsma and had a history of sexual offenses, but he was never charged before his death in 2002. The case remains officially open and unsolved.