Carter Roy (16:55)
The fall of 1969, 25 year old Richard Hefner had his sights set on his downstairs neighborhood, a 22 year old grad student named Betsy Aardsma. 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. 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 27, 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 28, 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 Betsie'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 fieldwork, but Richard brought the knife with him and 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 6pm that night, he was at his mentor's house. Geology Professor Loren 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. Professor Wright found Richard's behavior extremely odd. Still, he didn't immediately report the encounter. He knew Richard well, and he was aware that his star pupil could be strange. So at the time, Professor Wright probably thought Richard's behavior was nothing more than misplaced anxiety. Maybe if he'd gone to the police that night, the authorities would have connected the dots sooner. Especially because there was more evidence Richard may have been involved. And it painted a very ugly picture. After Merrilee Eardley and Joao Uefinda found Betsy in the stacks that day, they provided statements to the police. As part of their questioning, the authorities asked them to draw sketches of the man they'd seen fleeing from the basement. While Mary Lee's sketch looked like a generic male student, Joo's was much more detailed and it looked a lot like Richard Heffner. Joao had followed the man through the library and out onto the street. He would have gotten a much better look at him than Mary Lee had. But for some reason, only Marilee's sketch was released to the public. Whether it was because Joao was a foreign student and they didn't know if his description was accurate or something else, the result was the same. Still, Richard was eventually called in for questioning. In the investigation's early stages, the authorities had gotten a tip from Betsy's roommate, Sharon Brandt. She said Betsy used to hang out with their upstairs neighborhood and they might want to speak to him. During Richard's interrogation, a few weeks after Betsy's murder, he appeared calm, concerned and helpful. He told police he and Betsy had been on a few dates, but she called things off because of her boyfriend. He explained he was at his parents house in Lancaster the night Betsy died and only found out about her murder the following evening, November 29th. We know those were both lies. Richard was on campus November 28th and was at Professor Wright's house just 41 minutes after Betsy was declared dead. But Richard didn't mention that to the police. He also didn't mention how he told his family he wanted to propose to Betsy. However, when detectives followed up with Richard's mother, she confirmed his alibi. And because Professor Wright didn't go to the police, they didn't see any reason to pursue Richard as a suspect. They let him go and moved on with an investigation that would drag on for weeks, then months, then years. But just because investigators were done with Richard doesn't mean he had moved on. People who knew him said Richard would often bring up Betsy's murder in strange and unsettling ways. And on at least one occasion, Richard even returned to the scene of the crime. One day in 1970, about a year after Betsy's murder, 26 year old Richard brought a young geology student with him to the Penn State campus. The student worked at the Rock shop Richard's father operated from his garage two hours away in Lancaster. That day, Richard led the teenager to Patit Library and down into the stacks. The teenager followed Richard through the bookshelves until Richard instructed him to go down a specific row. When they reached the end, Richard told him to stand still and be quiet. Then Richard came up behind him and said, a girl that I used to date was murdered here. You're standing in the exact spot where it happened. What if there were medicine that could heal almost anything? That would be great, but they didn't want you to know about it. Sorry, who's they? Some people are following me and I brought my tortoise. From executive producers Mike Judge and Greg Daniels and co creators Joe Bennett and Steve Healy, comes an animated comedy thriller about what it takes to change the world. Common side effects New episodes Sundays at 11:30pm on Adult Swim. Now streaming on Max. In 1972, 28 year old Richard Hefner graduated from Penn state with a PhD in. After getting his diploma, Richard moved back into his parents house, about two hours away from Penn State's main campus. He operated the rock and mineral shop he and his father had set up in their garage before securing a teaching position at the University of South Carolina. But a successful career wasn't enough to keep Richard's dark impulses at bay. He was accused of pedophilic tendencies more than once. And in 1975, six years after Betsy's murder, Richard was arrested for Allegedly molesting two boys who worked at the Rock Shop. The case went to trial, but it ended in a hung jury and it doesn't seem like he was retried. Still, Richard served two weeks in jail for contempt of court for speaking out of turn during the trial. He left prison angry and vengeful, eventually suing just about everyone involved in the case against him. But the allegations were enough for at least one person to come forward with additional information about Richard. After hearing about the molestation charges, Professor Loren Wright finally reported his disturbing encounter with Richard to the dean of the geology department. In turn, the dean notified the university's attorney. But after that, the trail went cold and news of the encounter never made it to the police. Still more revelations followed that year, and they made it very difficult to believe that Richard wasn't behind Betsy's murder. Later, in 1975, Richard, Richard's nephew Chris was helping his 31 year old uncle in the garage Rock Shop when Richard's mom came in. She didn't realize Chris was in the garage and started yelling at her son. She was furious about the recent pedophilia charges. She said she had protected him and kept him out of jail in the past, only for him to turn around and get arrested for touching children. The argument got louder and louder before reaching a boiling point. Richard's mom told her son, you killed that girl and now you're killing me. Chris, who was just 17 at the time, never went to the police about the conversation he heard that day. And so Richard was free to continue his unsettling behavior. 17 years later. In 1992, 48 year old Richard took a 13 year old boy on a trip to Virginia without his mother's permission. The mother had no idea where her son was and reported him missing. They tracked Richard down and arrested him for interfering with the custody of a minor. Luckily for Richard, he was able to smooth things over with the boy's mother and the charges were dropped. Even so, that wasn't Richard's last brush with the law. Six years later, in 1998, he got into a verbal altercation with a woman outside a liquor store. The argument turned violent and Richard beat her severely. He dislocated her jaw and loosened several of her teeth. Richard served 30 days in jail for aggravated assault. As time went on, Richard's behavior became even more erratic. His neighbors in Lancaster despised him. On several occasions, he punctured their tires and threw dog feces at them. Richard spent the next few years wreaking havoc in Lancaster. But despite his behavior, only A few people suspected he was involved in Betsy Aardsma's murder. None of them, however, were the police. It had been 33 years since Betsie's death, and it looked like Richard would never have to answer any more questions about what happened that day. To many, it seemed like he would take his secrets to the grave. Their prophecies came true in 2002. That year, Richard was on a geology trip to the Mojave Desert when he died from a congenital heart defect. He was 58 years old. His nephew Chris was left to clean out Richard's house. According to Chris, the things he saw in there were incredibly disturbing. While he refused to give specifics, Chris would state that his uncle clearly had a demon in him. Although Richard was gone, the second phase of the investigation was just beginning. That same year, Internet detectives Derek Sherwood and David De Kock began looking into the case, and they quickly honed in on Richard as a potential suspect. Over the next few years, their amateur investigation gained steam. As they interviewed past colleagues, family members, and Rock Shop employees, they learned valuable information, like the conversation Chris overheard that day in the garage and the time Richard took his dad's employee to the exact spot where Betsy died. Both pieces of evidence are some of the most compelling information in the argument against Richard. In 2005, 40 years after Betsy's death, David and Derek went to the authorities with their findings. But since Richard was dead, it was too little, too late. With so many witnesses and key players now dead, there isn't much hope that Betsy's case, which remains open today, will ever be officially solved. Still, it seems like Betsy's killer has finally been identified. Mike Much, the state trooper who worked on Betsy's case back in 1970, even said as much. In 2010, Mike was asked about Richard's involvement in the murder. He said, I think you've got your man. While the Aardsma family doesn't give interviews anymore, hopefully Derek and David's investigation has given them some closure. Because although they can never get Betsy back, there are still so many people out there who are fighting for her to get justice. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder True Crime Stories. Come back next week for the story of a new murder and all the people it affected. True Crime Stories is a Crime House original. Original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. 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. We'll be back next Tuesday. True Crime Stories is hosted by Me, Carter Roy and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios, this episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertsofsky, Sarah Carroll, Greg Benson, Beth Johnson and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening. Looking for a deep dive into history's most notorious true crime cases? Check out Crime House True Crime Stories. Follow Crime House True Crime Stories now wherever you get your podcasts and for ad free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts.
