Who Betsy ?Betsy Aardsma’s Killer. - PennStater Magazine

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WhoKilledBetsyAardsmaForty years after a gradstudent was murdered inPattee Library, people arestill trying to solve thecrime. One of them is nota cop. He’s not a detective.He’s just a regular guy—whohas taken it upon himself to findBetsy Aardsma’s killer.?Sascha Skucek has a theory.He thinks Betsy Aardsma was stabbed from behind.The cops don’t buy it. Or, at least some of the onesSkucek has talked to don’t. Skucek has never actuallyseen the 1,700-page police file about the 22-year-oldgrad student who was murdered in Pattee Library onBY VICKI GLEMBOCKI ’93, ’02 MFA LIB PHOTOS BY CARDONI

Nov. 28, 1969. The file is closed to the public,because, even now—40 years later—it’s anactive investigation. The killer has never beencaught. Skucek intends to find him.Him. Skucek is sure it’s a him—someone tall enough to approachAardsma from behind and reacharound her body, strong enough tothen pierce her breastbone with afour-inch-long blade, leaving her todrown in her own blood on the floorin the stacks of Pattee. A man fastenough to get away.Skucek ’99, ’07 MFA Lib isn’t adetective. Or a private investigator.He’s just a lecturer in English atUniversity Park. And he isn’t theonly civilian who has taken an interest in this case over the years. BillEarley ’69 Lib, a retired Wall Streetconsultant who enrolled as a gradstudent shortly after Aardsma wasmurdered, researched the case foryears. He started writing a bookabout it, though he later gave up theproject. Author Pamela West basedher 1990 science fiction book,20/20 Vision, on the story. RyanBuell ’06 Com, an investigator onA&E’s Paranormal State, filmed asegment on Aardsma’s ghost, whichsome believe haunts the library.(Buell asked to perform an exorcismin the stacks, but the University saidsomething along the lines of “Um no.”) In 2008, York, Pa., salesmanDerek Sherwood launched a Website called whokilledbetsy.com,offering a 2,000 reward to drumup leads. (He got a few, thoughnone were promising.)But Sascha Skucek, 33, is in a different league. He’s been digging intothe crime for 13 years. He’s writtenfour articles about it for State CollegeMagazine. He’s driven to Michiganto see Aardsma’s grave. He carries aphoto of her in his wallet.56THE PENN STATERthing to write about that he couldpublish somewhere. He knew thatan unsolved murder could be greatmaterial for an article. Plus, a little“This guy got away with murder,”part of him wondered, What if Isays Skucek (pronounced SKOOcan solve this crime?check). “Something feels right aboutHe started in Pattee’s archives,trying to change it. I probably won’t,which had a thin file of newspaperbut I’m still going to try.”clippings about Betsy Aardsma.It’s a stunning amount of dedicaThe story of record was this:tion for a guy who has a full-timeIt was the Friday after Thanksjob and a writing career he’s tryinggiving in 1969. Aardsma, who’d justto build. He never even knew Betsystarted at Penn State that SeptemAardsma. When she was killed, heber, had spent the holiday in Herhadn’t even been born.shey with her boyfriend, David“When I first met Sascha, heWright ’73 MD Hershey, who wasknew more about this case than Iin med school there. She took a busdid,” says state trooper Kentback to State College on ThursdayBernier ’93 Lib, who, until earliernight to get a head start on a paperthis year, was the lead investigatorfor English 501.on the Aardsma case. “He’s done hisJust before 4 p.m. on Friday,homework. He’s focused on thingsAardsma and her roommate leftthat might actually solve the case.”their room in Atherton Hall andwalked up to Pattee, where theySASCHA SKUCEK REMEMBERS THEparted. Aardsma stopped in to seeday he first learned about Betsyone of her English 501 professors,Aardsma. It was Sept. 18, 1996—theHarry Meserole, whose office wasday after the shooting on the HUBin Pattee’s basement. She droppedlawn that took the life of a 21-yearoff her coat at the desk assigned toold student. Skucek, then a sophoher on Level 3, checked somethingmore English major, was readingin the card catalog on the mainabout the shooting in a Collegianfloor, then headed down to Level 2article, which referenced anotherin the core, the cavernous centralcampus murder that had happenedarea that houses rows and rows of27 years before. That murder was inbooks, known as “the stacks.” APattee. And it was unsolved.library employee noticed her there,The story had, by that time, disin the narrow aisle between rowssolved into the realm of urban leg50 and 51, looking for a book.end. Students told tales about “theSometime after 4:30, there was agirl who was stabbed in Pattee” toloud noise. Less than a minutescare freshmen. Lion Ambaslater, two men emerged from thesadors mentioned it on campuscore and came upon a student,tours. Some students weren’tMarilee Erdely ’68 Edu, studyingentirely clear on whether the storyat a desk.was even true.“Someone had betterPREVIOUS PAGE: SaschaSkucek decided to Skucek carries a photo ofhelp this girl,” they said toAardsma as “a gentlelook into it. He’d been BetsyErdely, then led her to thereminder that I haven’tsearching for some- solved her murder yet.”aisle between rows 50 andSSeptember/October 2009

Skucek originally researchedthe murder in order towrite an article, then wondered,What if I can solve this crime?

51. Betsy Aardsma was motionlesson the floor, books lying all aroundher. The two men promised to gethelp and left. Erdely thoughtAardsma might have fainted or hada seizure—there was no blood.Erdely screamed for help, but noone came for what she later saidseemed like 15 minutes. Duringthat time, a man was seen runningout of the library’s front entrance.At 5:01, Ritenour Health Centerreceived a call from the library. Bythe time the ambulance arrived, asmall crowd had gathered at thescene. An EMT mistakenly thoughthe felt a faint pulse, and rushedAardsma to Ritenour. But, at 5:20,she was pronounced dead—of astab wound to the chest.That was about the only thinganyone could explain: why no oneat the scene realized Aardsma hadbeen stabbed. While the knife hadsevered her pulmonary artery andpunctured her heart, the majorityof the blood filled her chest cavity.The small amount that leaked outblended in with her red dress.Which was why the police weren’tcalled, why the library wasn’tlocked down, why people (and all oftheir fingerprints) were permittedto gather at the scene, why thekiller got away so easily. No oneknew a homicide had taken place.But, beyond the blood, the crimeraised more questions than answers.Why didn’t Aardsma scream? Whywas a man running out of thelibrary? And, above all, why wasshe killed? Had she come uponsomeone doing something illegal orindecent who didn’t want to be recognized? Was she involved withdrugs? Was it an attempted rape?Betsy Aardsma barely knew anyone on campus; she’d been therefor only eight weeks, and spent the58THE PENN STATERweekends in Hershey. She waspretty, with long brown hair andhazel eyes. Friends described her assmart and edgy, with a great senseof humor and a huge laugh. She’dgrown up in Holland, Mich., andgotten her bachelor’s at the University of Michigan with plans to gointo the Peace Corps, but insteaddecided to follow her boyfriend toPennsylvania. Her parents wereglad about the move, especiallysince, during the spring of 1969,several women had been murderedaround Ann Arbor. (It turned out tobe serial killer John NormanCollins, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1970.)When Aardsma called home onThanksgiving, she told her parents,“Everything is fine.”The day after her murder, policeCollegian reporter. Even before themurder, “incidents of exposure andperversion,” the Collegian wrote,had occurred in the library. In fact,on that Thanksgiving weekend,several Peeping Toms had beenreported, as well as acts of “exhibitionism” in Pattee. The campuspolice added a special library detail.Police released a compositesketch of a possible witness whowas seen in the area at the time ofthe murder. And yet, in the following weeks, they had no solid leads—no weapon, no promising suspects,no motive. In a draft of talkingpoints for a news conference, theofficer in charge wrote, “We have aserious problem here.”Those weeks became months. Apolice team traveled to Michigan tosee if there was any connection toAardsma’s boyfriend, a medical student, had asolid alibi: He was in a study group at Hershey.set up a base in Boucke Building,where 23 state troopers workedaround the clock to identify, thenfind, then interview the 650 students and staff who’d been in thelibrary on the afternoon of Nov. 28.Aardsma’s boyfriend, initially a suspect, had a solid alibi: He was in astudy group in Hershey at the timeof the murder.The police came to Aardsma’sEnglish 501 class and questionedeach of the 60-plus students.“Everyone was tempted to point fingers,” says Nicholas Joukovsky, whoco-taught the class and who stillteaches at Penn State. “There wasone particularly obnoxious guy inclass and some students wished itwas him but it wasn’t.”Students all over campus wereshaken. “I’m scared stiff,” one told aSeptember/October 2009the murders there, but hit a deadend. Back at University Park, theycontinued to interview students,sometimes using hypnosis andpolygraph tests. They placed hidden cameras in the stacks to see ifthey could catch the killer returningto the scene. Penn State offered a 25,000 reward for information“contributing to the apprehensionand conviction of the person or persons who caused the death.” Nothing came of any of it.The months became years. Stillthere was no weapon, no motive, nosuspect.Ten years later? None.Twenty? None.Then, in 1996, Sascha Skucekdecided to see what he might beable to uncover.He started with a man no

reporter had spoken tobefore: Thomas Magnani, the pathologistwho had performedAardsma’s autopsy.(Reporters had interviewed only the coroner). Magnani revealedthat Aardsma hadn’tstruggled. She had nodefensive bruises; therewas nothing under herfingernails—information that the policeknew, but had notbeen released to themedia. Aardsma diedvery quickly, Magnanisaid. It probably tookno more than a minute.“What she saw during thatminute,” Skucek later wrote, “hashaunted me.”Skucek tracked down Joukovsky,one of the two English 501 instructors, and found that Aardsma andher roommate had made a stop inBurrowes Building as they walkedto Pattee on Nov. 28. Joukovskywas holding office hours and askedAardsma for a book she’d used in aclass project. Aardsma had alreadytaken the book back, but offered toretrieve it from the library.Skucek also unearthed the storybehind an early suspect, an Englishprofessor named Robert Durgy.Like Aardsma, Durgy had come toPenn State that August from theUniversity of Michigan. AroundThanksgiving, he abruptly left townwith his wife and children. Twoweeks later, he died when his carslammed into a bridge. One of thereasons police went to Michiganafter the murder was to determinewhen, exactly, Durgy had left town.In the end, multiple sources confirmed that Durgy was in MichiganIN THE STACKS: Skucek’sresearch has raised a newtheory about why Aardsmawas killed.when the murder took place.After more than two years ofresearch, Skucek landed an internship at State College Magazine hissenior year. There, he accomplishedwhat he initially set out to do—publish. His article appeared in theDecember 1999 issue. Skucekprinted all of his findings—information the cops had known for 30years but had never made public.“The only way I can help the caseis to present info that’s new thatmakes people think a little differently about that day,” Skucek says.“It could jog someone’s memory.”The article was the work of ayoung writer, earnest and overwritten. But his reporting surprisedeven the police.“When I read his article, Ithought, ‘This guy’s on the righttrack here.’ He knew what he wastalking about,” says Officer Bernier.“It helped . When the public’sinterested in it, when there are people writing articles about it, thencalls come in.”Like the story from the professorwho’d had a weird interaction with astudent on the night ofthe murder. Skucekheard it from a PennState dean who workedwith the prof. The student had showed up athis professor’s house onthe night of the murder,asking “Have you seenthe papers?” A womannamed Betsy Aardsmahad been killed, he said.The strange thing was,the news didn’t appearin the paper until thenext day.Skucek tried to find the student.Unfortunately, he died in 2002.SSKUCEK KNEW HE WASN’T DONE.Not even close.By 2002, he had graduated andmoved to Boston, where he workedat a financial firm. One day, he gotan e-mail from his Penn State mentor, Rob Gannon, who asked himwhy he wasn’t writing.“Do what you’re supposed to do,”Gannon wrote. So Skucek took off,driving around the country for ninemonths, hoping to turn his travelsinto a book.“All the while,” he says, “I hadBetsy’s picture in my wallet, alwaysa gentle reminder—when I took mylicense out at bars or Blockbuster—that I hadn’t solved her murder yet.”And, so he began digging again. By2003, he was back at Penn State,enrolled in a graduate writing program in English.Skucek conferred with the othercivilians researching the case, likePam West and especially with BillEarley, the retired Wall Street consultant, who once sought advice onSeptember/October 2009THE PENN STATER59

the case from a former FBI official.took over the case in February andnow, in his retirement, hardly a daySkucek hunted down cops who’dcalls Skucek her “right-hand man.”goes by that he doesn’t think aboutworked on the original investiga“It’s wonderful to have someonethe case. Trooper Barrows keeps ation, and those who’d taken chargewho has as much interest in thisphoto of Aardsma on her desk.of it in the years since. At first, nocase as I do, to bounce ideas off of.”The info Skucek garnered fromone would talk to him. Why wouldShe knows the case has grabbedvarious sources over the yearsthey? How would sharing confihold of Skucek the way it has seized(while he was getting his MFAdential information help a case thatso many cops over the years.from Penn State, then landing ahundreds of very able officers had“Wanting to solve it just grips youteaching job in the English departscrutinized for decades?that way,” says Bernier. “It becomesment) became the background for“If there was something that thepersonal.” Ron Tyger says that, eventhree more articles for State Collegemedia could have helpedMagazine in 2004, 2008, andwith, if we knew the killerin January this year. HeMoreUnsolvedMysterieshad a scar on his right fingerreported, for example, thatTHE MURDER OF BETSY AARDSMA IN PATTEEor something, then we wouldsometime in the spring ofLibraryin1969isoneofatleastfourunsolvedhave gotten that out to the1970—the spring after thetragedies involving Penn State students. Here are thepress right away,” says Ronmurder—a 12-year-old foundother three.Tyger, one of the originala knife in the bushes outsideinvestigators who workedof Rec Hall. The boy turned itCoed Found Murdered at Lemont Schoolhouseout of Boucke Building inin to police, who have neverWHEN: March 28, 19401969. “But Betsy was squeakyrevealed what came of it.WHO: Rachel Taylor, a 17-year-old freshman from Wildclean. She wasn’t involvedAlso, there was the splotch ofwood, N.J.WHAT HAPPENED: After busing back to State Collegewith drugs or in any warAardsma’s blood found by ests—she wasn’t involvedlight switch next to a set ofAvenue, walking from the bus station to Atherton Hall.in anything that could lead tostairs—not part of the routeHer body was found the next morning in the drivewayleads if we released it.”the EMTs used when takingof a schoolhouse in Lemont. She had been sexuallyBut that was then, Skucekher body out of the building.assaulted and beaten. State police investigated forfigured. Now, there was theAnd then there were themonths, but never identified a suspect or a motive.Internet. Criminal databases.results from the blacklightDNA testing. If he could getanalysis after the murder thatStudent Killed in Her Allen Street ApartmentWHEN: March 4, 1987his hands on more of therevealed that the scene of ails hidden in 12 thickcrime—in fact, the entireburg, Pa.binders at state police barLevel 2 core area—was covWHAT HAPPENED: Bailey called off from her waitressracks, he might be able to fillered in semen residue thating shift at the Corner Room, went to an aerobics class,in more pieces of the puzzle.had been collecting for a longthen settled in for the night at her apartment. The nextAnd, maybe, that wouldtime. That helped explainafternoon, her mother found her naked body, tied andspark new leads.why police also had foundblindfolded. She had died of multiple stab wounds toEventually, word gotpornographic magazines,her heart and lungs. The investigation is still active.around that Skucek was in itdozens of them, hiddenStudentDisappearsonHalloweenfor “the right reasons,” asthroughout the bookshelves.WHEN: Nov. 1, 2001Bernier says, meaning thatTwo rows from whereWHO: Cindy Song, a 21-year-old senior from Virginiahe wasn’t trying to turn theAardsma was murdered,WHAT HAPPENED: Song was last seen when friendsstory into a book contract orpolice had found a half-fulldropped her off at 4 a.m. at her apartment on Westa movie deal. Skucek’s goalroot beer can, surrounded byClinton Avenue, after a night of Halloween parties. Shewas the same as theirs: toporn magazines.was wearing a Playboy bunny costume. The case hassolve the crime.Already, there were sobeen featured on Unsolved Mysteries and PsychicDetectives and as the subject of a Without a Trace“Sascha and I are going tomany theories about whoepisode. It, too, is still an active investigation. —VGsolve it together,” sayscould have killed AardsmaTrooper Leigh Barrows, whothat it was impossible to cre-60THE PENN STATERSeptember/October 2009

ate a legitimate profile of the murderer. But Skucek’s article raisedanother one: Had Aardsma unintentionally interrupted someoneengaging in something intimate?Had she come upon a personwho’d rather kill her than risk having anyone find out what she sawhim doing there, in the stacks?AAS SKUCEK STRIDES THROUGHthe front door of Pattee one crispafternoon last spring, he points outthat there was a security desk bythe entrance in 1969. Students hadto have their bags checked beforeleaving the library. That’s why somany people noticed the man,bypassing the line, sprinting outthrough the doors on the day of themurder.He walks to Level 3, whereAardsma had her desk. (Today it’scalled Level 1.) Then, he descendsSkucek still is no closer to figuringout what Aardsma saw in thatminute before she died. But what hehas uncovered about what happened after the murder is a muchmore nuanced version than the onehe first read about 13 years ago.First of all, Marilee Erdely—thestudent who said two menapproached her, said, “Someone hadbetter help this girl,” and then ledher to Aardsma’s body—was actuallyso shaken, and screaming so uncontrollably, that the paramedics whoarrived on the scene initially thoughtshe was the injured woman they’dbeen called about. Erdely’s behaviorwas so erratic that her testimony, inthe end, was called into question.Which could clear up whyanother witness who was makingcopies on the west side of the coresaw just one man—not two—running out of the core area. The manCOURTESY SASCHA SKUCEKOne investigator, now retired, stillthinks about the case almost everyday. The current investigator keepsa photo of Aardsma on her desk.the narrow, switchbacking steps,pushing the heavy metal door intoLevel 2 (now called Level BA), intothe stacks, humid and claustrophobic. He heads directly to the aislebetween rows 50 and 51. It’s not thesame as it was 40 years ago. Thebooks are different. The linoleum islighter. There are many more lights.And, now, the aisle doesn’t stretchall the way to the wall as it once did,which made it impossible for anyone cornered here to escape. Skucekstands in a spot about three-quarters down the aisle, and pointsdown.“That’s where it happened.”running was inhis early 20s,blond, wearinga light jacket,khakis, andsneakers.When he saw the witness, he turnedaway and bolted toward the stepson the east side. There, by the steps,another witness—a student fromAfrica named Joao Uafinda ’70EMS—watched as the man ran intoMarilee Erdely, where they had aconfrontation, according to whatUafinda told police at the time,before the man sprinted up thestairs. Uafinda, apparently sensingthat something was wrong, followed the man up the stairs, buteither lost him or gave up.However slightly, this information changed the way Skucekviewed the crime. He even has afew possible suspects in mind, fromfacts he’s picked up over the yearsfrom police. There’s the artist whowas at a party after the murder,going on about how easy it was tokill someone and get away with it.He claimed to have seen the killer.And then there’s that student whoallegedly told his professor he’dread about the murder in the paper,before the story was published.Both of these men, though, aredead. In fact, almost all of the ninepeople who were there on Level 2that November afternoon in 1969are dead. Marilee Erdely. The witness who was making copies.There’s one man, though, whoSkucek thinks is stillalive. He was supposedlysleeping on Level 2 at thetime of the murder. Henow lives out in theSouthwest; Skucek hashis phone number. Calling him, though, is tricky.Skucek doesn’t want todo anything that couldget him in trouble forinterfering in an activeinvestigation. And maybeit’s the wrong guy. Maybehe didn’t see anything. Maybe hedid. Or, maybe, he was the manthat Betsy Aardsma was looking atin that last minute of her life.Sascha Skucek doesn’t know.But, one way or another, he’sgoing to find out.Vicki Glembocki writes for Reader’sDigest, Parents, Ladies Home Journal,and Philadelphia.September/October 2009THE PENN STATER61

He started in Pattee’s archives, which had a thin file of newspaper clippings about Betsy Aardsma. The story of record was this: It was the Friday after Thanks-giving in 1969. Aardsma, who’d just started at Penn State that Septem-ber, had spent the holiday in Her-shey with her boyfriend, David Wright ’73 MD Hershey,who was in med school .

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