by David DeKok
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 4, 6, 32, 51, 56, 58, 85, 87, 162, 189
Coed Murders, 176–80
Van Allsburg, Chris, 164
Van Alsburg, John D., 134, 164
Vanderbush, Al, 155–57
Vander Werf, Calvin, Hope 153–55, 160
Vande Water, Randy, 50–51
Vande Water, Sandy, 138, 141
Van Lare, Olin, 148–49
Van Oostenburg, Rev. Gordon, 20, 21, 49, 57–60, 177
Vietnam War, 4, 19, 127, 154–55, 231
Vonada, Carol, 246
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr., 173–75
Voorhees Hall, Hope College, 83, 151, 159
coeds protest fire danger, 160
Walker, Eric A., 1, 6, 8, 24, 27, 46, 110, 113, 114, 124–25, 127, 192
Washtenaw County, Michigan, 84, 186
Watkins, Paul, Manson disciple, 71, 236, 344
Watson, Trooper Jeffrey, 349
WDFM, 54, 73, 108, 123
Wegner, Carole Aardsma, 21, 50, 161, 239–40
Wegner, Dennis, 21, 50, 57, 59–60, 146–47, 160, 237, 239–40
Wegner, Lorin, 21
West (Kraska), Pamela, 357
Westmoreland, General William C., 24, 168
Wich, Angela, 359
Wich (Vandenberg), Phyllis “Peggy,” 51, 91–92, 141–42, 145–46, 160, 188, 202, 359
Willard, Mary, 43–48, 67, 99
Willard Building, Penn State, 95, 195 199
Wireback, Taft, 10, 11, 32, 114
Wissler, Marge, 52
Witmer, Michael D., 224–25, 273
Witt, Thomas D., 52, 192
Wolfman Jack, 235
Wright, David L., 34, 58, 78, 84, 87, 88, 98, 160, 171–72, 175, 182–84, 201–4, 238, 348
Wright, Dr. Donovan, 35, 58, 87
Wright, Lauren A., 71–72, 211, 232–36, 30, 243, 245, 284, 285, 293, 337, 340–41, 350
Wright, Myrtle, 211
Yablonski murders, 121–22, 273
Young Americans for Freedom, 39–40
Ypsilanti, Michigan, 6, 56, 84, 177, 179, 186–87
Yunker (Marchand), Andrea, 32, 51, 85, 87, 166, 167, 173
Zodiac Killer, 6, 54, 185
About the Author
David DeKok is a writer of non-fiction about small towns and small-town people in crisis. A native of Holland, Michigan, he is a former investigative reporter for the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he won first-place reporting awards from The National Press Club, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, and Associated Press Managing Editors of Pennsylvania. His first book, Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire, was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 1986 and reviewed in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. It was reissued by Globe Pequot Press in an updated edition in 2009 as Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire. His other book, The Epidemic: A Collision of Power, Privilege, and Public Health, about a 1903 typhoid epidemic at Cornell University, was published by Lyons Press in 2011.
He has made many television and radio appearances discussing the Centralia mine fire, including on Fresh Air, The Diane Rehm Show, and the History Channel. In 2007, he appeared in the acclaimed documentary film, The Town That Was, which screened in competition at the Los Angeles and Philadelphia film festivals. His distinctive photographs of Centralia in the 1970s and 1980s have been used in many television productions. DeKok lives by the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Lisa W. Brittingham, and daughters Elizabeth and Lydia. He can be reached via his website, daviddekok.com.
Betsy Aardsma, 1969
Courtesy of Michiganensian Yearbook
Pattee Library from a distance
David DeKok
Entrance to the murder site, Pattee Library
David Dekok
Joao Uafinda, witness to the events immediately after the murder of Betsy
Courtesy of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of Rochester Archives
Richard Sanders Allen, witness to the events immediately after the murder of Betsy, with his grandson, circa 1969
Courtesy of Dick Allen
Marilee Erdely, witness to the events immediately after the murder of Betsy
Courtesy of Hopewell High School, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Betsy’s funeral card
Courtesy of Andrea Marchand
Photo of a story about Betsy torn from the newspaper
From the Author’s Collection
Close-up of Betsy’s grave, Pilgrim Home Cemetery
David DeKok
Aardsma Family, 1967 (not pictured: Carole Aardsma)
Trinity Reformed Church
Betsy at age 16
courtesy of Bobbi Frey
Betsy and friends, Holland High School graduation photo, 1965: from left, Peggy Wich, Margo Hakken, Vicky Lewis, Nancy Gebben, Jan Sasamoto, Judi Jahns, Betsy Aardsma, Barb Stoner, and RuthAnn VanDyke
courtesy of Phyllis Vandenberg
David L. Wright, York Community High School Y’s Tales yearbook picture, 1965
Courtesy of York Community High School Library, Elmhurst, illinois
A hand-drawn 21st birthday card by Betsy for Andie
Courtesy of Andrea Marchand
A note from Betsy to Andie Yunker on her birthday
Courtesy of Andrea Marchand
Lt. William Kimmel, Pennsylvania State Police
PSP Yearbook Photo
Mary L. Willard, crime scene analyst
Courtesy of Joseph Willard
Sgt. George H. Keibler at his retirement dinner, 1983
Courtesy of George H. Keibler
Mike Simmers (second from left) subdues a demonstrator on the PSU campus, April 21,1970
Dick Brown
Pennsylvania State Police “War Room,” Boucke Building, PSU campus
Pennsylvania State Police
Richard C. Haefner
Oriflamme yearbook, 1965, Franklin & Marshall College
Ere S. Haefner, Rick’s mother
courtesy of Chris Haefner
George P. Haefner, Rick’s father
courtesy of Chris Haefner
Haefner’s Pilsener Beer label
Courtesy of Bob Kay
Lauren A. Wright, center, with friends, 1942
Benjamin Page Collection, Stanford University Library
Charles L. Hosler, dean of Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
Courtesy of Charles L. Hosler
Lauren A. Wright and Rick Haefner, 1968
courtesy of Dan Stephens
Rick Haefner in Death Valley, 1968
courtesy of Dan Stephens
Rick Haefner’s former rock shop and Christopher L. Haefner, 2010
David DeKok
Rock box prepared by Rick Haefner for sale in museum gift shops
courtesy of Chris Haefner
Rick Haefner’s mug shots from his October 5, 1994, arrest in Lancaster
courtesy of the City of Lancaster
Catherine R. Schuyler, savagely beaten by Haefner in 1998
courtesy of Peter Schuyler
Robert G. Durgy, who was investigated in Betsy’s murder but cleared
courtesy of Martha Durgy
Sgt. George H. Keibler at age eighty-two
David DeKok
Richard C. Haefner’s g
rave, St. Anthony’s Cemetery, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
David DeKok
Remains of the house in Tecopa Hot Springs that Rick Haefner stole from the Parmeters, and his car. It has been largely undisturbed since his death in 2002.
David DeKok