Probation officer gives office BJ to boot-camp teen
After 40 Years, the Murder of Graduate Student Betsy Aardsma Remains a Mystery
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 12:16 pm
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| Forty years ago someone fatally stabbed Penn State University graduate student Betsy Aardsma in the heart. |
The smart young woman with a rock-solid reputation was likely in the dimly-lit stacks looking for research materials when she died. There were no screams, and nothing to alert anyone to come to her aid. Because she was dressed in a white blouse that was worn beneath a red jumper, the blood that mushroomed out of her chest was not immediately noticed when she was found...
Paramedics at first thought that Betsy may have suffered a seizure and collapsed amid the shelves of books. She was whisked off to a nearby hospital by ambulance, and the crime scene was not preserved as it should have been for the collection of evidence.
Following an autopsy, it was determined that Betsy had bled to death. Despite the medical examiner's findings, there was very little blood left at the crime scene because most had gone into her lungs. Since DNA technology was not available in 1969, most of the detective work consisted of the old-fashioned, pavement-pounding type in which the cops tried to round up witnesses who may have seen something.
One such witness was Dean Brungart, a supervisor in the library's stacks, who wonders to this day whether he may have seen Betsy's killer walk away. Brungart, now 76, saw a man leaving the library that day at around the time of the killing.
"It's just a shame," Brungart said recently. "I can't get over it, really. I worked there for 40 years and it's the worst thing that happened in my career."
Brungart said that the library's stacks was a place where students were known to meet for sexual activities and to make drug deals. One of the original cops, Mike Mutch, now 84 and retired from the Pennsylvania State Police, believes Betsy may have seen something that day that she shouldn't have -- such as homosexual activity or a drug deal.
"That girl was just a perfect individual," Mutch said. "It was just pitiful. I always felt sorry for her family."
Whatever she may have seen, Mutch believes Betsy was chased by her killer who, when he caught up with her, stabbed her in the heart with such force that it caused her chest to bruise. She was not sexually assaulted, nor did it appear that robbery had been a motive.
The community was shocked at Betsy's murder, Mutch said. Although he and about 40 other investigators interviewed thousands of students on and off campus, and interviewed people who knew her in her hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan, the case eventually went cold despite artists' sketches of people seen in and around the library at the time Betsy was killed. Making matters even worse, the murder weapon was never found.
"He took the weapon with him," Mutch said. "We couldn't come up with anything."
The case remains open today, and early this year Trooper Leigh Barrows took over the case. She provided Betsy's clothing and other evidence that she is reluctant to discuss to the state police crime lab for DNA testing, and is waiting to find out if the killer left anything behind, such as blood traces or hair. Many people are hopeful that Barrows' efforts will bring forth the clue that cracks the case.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to please call the Pennsylvania State Police at(717)783-5524.
Tags: Michigan, Pennsylvania
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