Betsy Aardsma murder

My fourth book, Murder in the Stacks: Penn State, Betsy Aardsma, and the Killer Who Got Away, was published by Globe Pequot Press in September 2014. It explores the murder of Betsy Aardsma, a 22-year-old Penn State graduate student. She was from my hometown of Holland, Michigan, and was stabbed to death  in Pattee Library on Penn State’s main University Park campus on Nov. 28, 1969.  Her killer fled into the night and was never apprehended, although I will tell you who he most likely was (he’s dead). In fact, I’ll tell you now, because he’s already been outed in news reports over the past three years. Richard C. “Rick” Haefner was his name–he died in 2002–and he was from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Haefner was a geology graduate student at Penn State.

So is there more to tell? Think of my book as you would a book about a Presidential campaign. You know who wins (or loses, in this case), but the interesting part is finding out how it happened. Same with my book. What happened in Pattee Library, why, and how was Haefner, after 40 years, implicated as the killer? Was there a second man involved? Why were the Pennsylvania State Police unable to solve Betsy’s murder? You will learn all this and more. Truman Capote’s true crime classic, In Cold Blood, was published after the killers of the Clutter family had been arrested, tried, and executed. You know that going in, or should. Yet it is a compelling story that draws you in with the quality of the research and writing.

Here’s a 2014 Q&A with me about my book done by OnwardState, an online news site in State College.