After 22-year-old Betsy Aardsma was murdered in Penn State’s Pattee Library in 1969, the police scoured the campus for her killer. After interviewing multiple suspects without any luck, the police closed her case. But decades later, two Reddit detectives believe they know who got away with Betsy’s murder. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original. For more, follow us on Tiktok and Instagram @crimehouse To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened in the Betsy Aardsma murder case?
After 22-year-old Betsy Ardma was stabbed to death at a Penn State University library in 1969, it seemed like her murder would remain a mystery forever. But that all changed in the early 2000s. As the internet completely altered the way people exchanged information, two citizen detectives became determined to solve her case. And thanks to them, we might finally know who killed Betsy. And why.
people's lives are like a story there's a beginning a middle and an end but you don't always know which part you're on sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon and we don't always get to know the real ending i'm carter roy and this is murder true crime stories a crime house original every tuesday i'll explore the story of a notorious murder or murders
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You'll get every episode ad-free, and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two-part series, you'll get access to both at once plus exciting bonus content. This is the second of two episodes on the murder of Betsy Ardsma, a 22-year-old graduate student at Penn State University. On a late afternoon in 1969, she was in the library looking for a book. Minutes later, Betsy was dead.
The End
When 22-year-old graduate student Betsy Ardma was stabbed to death in Penn State's Petit Library in November 1969, her murder sent shockwaves through the community. Betsy was sweet and bright, the kind of person you'd love to count as a friend, which was a huge reason why so many people wanted to help find her killer. In the years after Betsy's death, police honed in on two suspects.
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Chapter 2: Who were the initial suspects in Betsy's murder?
The first was Bill Spencer, a disgraced former instructor in the Penn State Art Department. At a Christmas party a few weeks after Betsy's murder, Bill told several guests that he knew Betsy and that she had even posed nude for one of his sculptures. He went on to say how easy it would have been to murder her.
His unsettling comments were reported to the police, and Bill was brought in for questioning. But detectives quickly realized Bill didn't even know Betsy. He was just doing whatever he could to insert himself into a high-profile murder investigation. After cutting Bill loose, police turned their attention to one of Betsy's classmates, Larry Moorer.
Now, Larry did actually know Betsy, but he also knew one of the witnesses, Marilee Erdley, and Marilee had seen Betsy's assailant running from the crime scene. The three of them were in the English department together, and Marilee was able to confirm the man she saw that day was not Larry.
by the time the authorities had ruled out bill spencer and larry moorer as suspects they had lost precious time and it was too late for them to notice another potential murderer hiding in plain sight It wasn't until decades later that two citizen detectives realized the police were looking in all the wrong places.
Chapter 3: How did citizen detectives Derek Sherwood and David DeCock get involved?
In 2009, 40 years after Betsy's murder, Derek Sherwood and David DeCock were investigating Betsy's case. Growing up, Derek's father worked at Penn State. As a child, his parents would tell him about the female student who was killed in the library. When Derek got older, he started reading about Betsy's case. And eventually, he decided her death should be more than a cautionary tale.
He wanted to make sense of the decades-old mystery and bring her killer to justice. By the time the case picked back up in 2009, Derek had a blog that was a well-researched, well-documented archive of information on Betsy's life and death. As for David, he and Betsy had gone to the same high school in Holland, Michigan, although they never crossed paths.
Betsy was six years older than David and already way at college by the time David started there. But after her murder, David couldn't stop thinking about what happened to Betsy. Eventually, he came upon Derek's blog and the two connected. Before long, they were working together to find her true killer. After eliminating suspect after suspect, there was only one man left standing.
While police focused on what happened the day Betsy was murdered, Derek and David realized a strange event the night before might hold an important clue about her killer's identity. On November 27th, 1969, Betsy had returned to campus after having Thanksgiving dinner at her boyfriend's house a hundred miles away in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The moment she got back, she went straight to Petit Library. After studying late into the night, Betsy left to go back to her dorm room. There was a campus security officer patrolling the area outside the building. Given the late hour, he approached Betsy and asked if she needed someone to walk her back to her dorm room. She responded, quote, no, the guy upstairs isn't around, so I'll be fine.
The officer didn't pry, but maybe he should have, because the following afternoon, Betsy was dead and the guy upstairs seemed very suspicious. The man Betsy was referring to was a student named Richard Hefner. Born on December 13th, 1943 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, his parents didn't have a ton of money to go around. Still, they funneled whatever they could into Richard's education.
Richard was an incredibly gifted child and discovered a passion for geology at an early age. While Richard was still in high school, he began volunteering at the North Museum at nearby Franklin and Marshall College. Known as the Lancaster Smithsonian, the North Museum had an impressive rock and mineral collection, which Richard immediately honed in on.
After high school, he enrolled as an undergraduate at the university and continued to work at the museum. Richard quickly made a name for himself on campus, publishing multiple research articles, even co-discovering a new mineral. But there was a darkness behind all that brilliance.
While Richard worked at the museum, several parents filed reports that a knowledgeable, well-dressed curator had attempted to inappropriately touch their sons. Those reports were connected back to Richard. He denied the accusations but the evidence was too much for the museum to ignore. Shortly after, sometime before 1965, Richard was let go.
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Chapter 4: Could Richard Hefner be linked to Betsy's murder?
The museum cited the reason for his termination as a difference of opinion, which was very nice of them. If they wanted to, they could have pressed charges. Instead, they did Richard a favor. And without any official blemishes on his record, Richard finished his undergraduate degree with flying colors.
After graduating from Franklin and Marshall College in the spring of 1965, 21-year-old Richard was accepted into a PhD program at nearby Penn State. He started that fall. But what could have been a fresh start for Richard quickly devolved into more disturbing behavior.
In the fall of 1967, when Richard was 23 years old, he went on a research trip to Death Valley, California with his mentor, geology professor Lauren Wright. Professor Wright thought Richard was a promising young geologist and had taken him under his wing. He had no idea the other people on the trip didn't exactly enjoy Richard's company.
In Death Valley, Richard met a younger student from another program. Mary Kelling was confident and outspoken, with curly brown hair and a bohemian style. After Richard met Mary, he was smitten. The feelings were far from mutual. Mary found Richard strange and off-putting. The way he stared at her made Mary's stomach turn, and she refused the many advances he made.
When the trip was over, Mary was relieved to be back in her dorm room at Brown University in Rhode Island and far away from Richard. Until one day, when there was a knock at her door. She opened up to find him standing there, bursting with excitement. He'd driven 800 miles from Pennsylvania to surprise her because he had something very important to tell Mary. He was in love with her.
Mary responded by telling Richard to leave immediately. If he contacted her again, her next call would be to the police. Richard did as he was told, but on the inside he was reeling and confused. But two years later, in the fall of 1969, Richard wasn't thinking about Mary anymore. He had a new obsession with And her name was Betsy Ardsma.
By the fall of 1969, 25-year-old Richard Hefner had his sights set on his downstairs neighbor, a 22-year-old grad student named Betsy Ardsma. They'd first met in front of their dorm. Betsy was writing a letter and she and Richard got to talking. Richard found Betsy beautiful and interesting. After a few more conversations, he asked her to hang out.
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Chapter 5: What was Richard Hefner's relationship with Betsy Aardsma?
Unlike Mary Kelling, Betsy wasn't totally put off by him, and she said yes. In October of that year, they went to an ice cream shop on campus. Another time they went bowling, and after that they got dinner. Richard described the outings as dates, but Betsy wasn't looking for romance. She was dedicated to her boyfriend, David Wright. Still, she was lonely.
David lived 90 minutes away and she only got to see him on weekends. Betsy didn't have many friends on campus, and Richard seemed like a genuinely good guy. so she told him she was faithful to David, but she would still like to be Richard's friend. Betsy and Richard continued to spend time together, and she told him things she'd never told anyone else.
But while Betsy was opening up to Richard on a platonic level, he saw her vulnerability in a different light. Because despite what Betsy had said to him, Richard was convinced she wanted to be with him. His delusions ran so deep that he even told his family he was seeing a girl at college named Betsy. He told them he planned to propose to her over Thanksgiving break.
However, while Richard was busy imagining a future with Betsy, she was starting to become wary of him. Apparently, he was starting to rub her the wrong way, and she even told her family she was scared of Richard, which would line up with what she told the campus security guard the night of November 27th, 1969.
Remember, the guard had asked Betsy if she needed an escort to walk her back to her dorm. Betsy responded, no, the guy upstairs isn't around, so I'll be fine. But while Betsy believed Richard was out of town that night, that wasn't the case. The guy upstairs was around. Like Betsy, Richard had returned early from Thanksgiving break.
And from his vantage point across the courtyard, he would have been able to see that Betsy was back in town too. It would have been all too easy for him to wait until Betsy and her roommate left their apartment the next day, November 28th, 1969. Richard could have trailed them to the library, then followed Betsy down into the stacks and confronted her about their relationship.
If Betsy and Richard did have a conversation in the stacks that day, no one will ever know what was said. But if Betsy's plans to stay with her boyfriend came up, there's a chance that Richard became confused and angry. Angry enough to draw the pocket knife he was known to carry. Now, it wasn't unusual for geology students to carry knives on them for field work.
But Richard brought the knife with him everywhere. And if he did approach Betsy that day and drew his blade, it would make sense that no one heard her scream and that she didn't have any defensive wounds. All signs pointed to the fact that Betsy knew her killer. Whether or not Richard was down in the stacks that day, we do know that by 6 PM that night, he was at his mentor's house.
Geology professor Lauren Wright was eating dinner with his family when there was a knock at the door. He opened up to find Richard standing there agitated and out of breath. Richard asked Professor Wright, have you heard? A girl I dated was murdered in the library. But Richard didn't seem upset about it. Rather, he seemed jumpy, almost like he was excited.
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