Unsolved Mystery: The Vanishing of Evelyn Hartley in 1953

Image and information courtesy of The Charley Project.

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Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and it is not meant to cause harm to anyone connected with the case. Please do not contact, threaten, harm, malign, or otherwise intimidate those mentioned in the post. Please do not release any personal information of the people mentioned in this post, and do not join in attacks conducted by others. Per U.S. law, every person directly or indirectly connected with this case is innocent until proven guilty.

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About Evelyn

Evelyn Grace Hartley was born on November 21, 1938, in La Crosse, Wisconsin to her parents, Richard and Ethyl. She was the youngest of four children, and she was known for being reserved, dependable, and involved. Whether at school or church, she was involved in several activities, including drama club and the Presbyterian Youth Program. In addition to her activities, she was a dedicated student who earned straight A’s.

At the time of her disappearance, she was a junior in high school and interested in science. Outside of school, she played tennis, hiked, swam, golfed, and skied.

Disappearance

On the night of her disappearance, Evelyn was babysitting for a La Crosse State College biology professor, Viggo Rasmusen, who happened to be a colleague of her father’s. He, his wife, and their older daughter planned to go to a La Crosse State homecoming football game, but they left their 20-month-old daughter in Evelyn’s care.

When she arrived at the Rasmusen home, she brought 4 to 5 schoolbooks, intending to study as the baby slept.

In my research, I was only able to find one source that gave an approximate time of when she arrived at her babysitting job.

At around 6:20pm that evening, Viggo picked up Evelyn from her home and brought her to the family’s house.

storiesoftheunsolved.com

Before she left for her job, she was instructed to call home around 8:30 PM to check in. However, this call never came.

As the minutes ticked by, Richard called the residence repeatedly, hoping to get in contact with his daughter. When she failed to pick up the phone after multiple attempts, he drove over to the Rasmussen’s residence.

When he arrived, he noticed that the door was locked, but the lights and the radio were on. The living room furniture was in a state of disarray, and Evelyn’s textbooks were scattered around the room. In addition, one of her shoes and her broken eyeglasses were located in the living room. Her other shoe was discovered in the basement. Other than that, everything else was in order, and there were no signs that anything had been removed from the house.

Interestingly, the doors were locked, but one of the basement windows had the screen removed. It also had bloodstains and footprints around it. According to The Charley Project, there were pry marks on the windows, blood was found in the yard, and a small stepladder was found beneath the open window.

Fortunately, the child Evelyn had been watching had been asleep in her crib, and she was found unharmed.

Investigation

Early in the investigation, the police saw a trail of blood leading away from the Rasmussen’s house with pooling, indicating that her abductor stopped to rest before continuing to drag her away.

In response, investigators brought in tracking dogs, who followed her scent for two blocks and lost the trail. This lead them to believe that her abductor placed her in a car and drove away.

Around the same time, witnesses began coming forward to give their accounts. For example, one witness reportedly saw a light-colored car driving around the neighborhood around 8:00 PM the night Evelyn vanished. About an hour before that, another witness heard screams but assumed it was children playing. It’s believed that Evelyn was taken around the same time as the screams.

On October 26, two days after she disappeared, another witness named Ed Hofer came forward. According to his account, he almost hit a two-toned green 1941 or 1942 Buick around 7:15 PM the night she disappeared. He then noticed two men and a girl inside.

Hofer further stated that he saw the trio staggering down the street, close to where the blood was later discovered. In the car, there was one man in the front seat and the other man and a girl in the backseat. The girl was slumped forward with her head against the front seat. At the time, Hofer assumed that the trio was heading to the homecoming game like him since he didn’t realize Evelyn was missing.

Several days after Evelyn disappeared, bloodstained articles of clothing were found:

• a pair of underpants and a brassiere were found near an underpass two miles south of La Crosse. These articles of clothing might have belonged to Evelyn.
• a pair of men’s pants was found on the same road about four miles away, but it’s unknown if it has a connection to Evelyn’s case.
• A pair of size 11 Goodrich sneakers were found southeast of La Crosse. The shoe sole pattern matched the footprints at the crime scene, and the blood matched Evelyn’s type.

Of these articles of clothing, the shoes were the most promising lead. The authorities contacted Goodrich, and they discovered that this particular shoe was sold in Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois.

Upon closer inspection of the wear pattern on the shoe soles, the authorities theorized that the owner had worked with machinery and frequently drove a Whizzer motorbike. They also suspected that two people had worn the shoes, but the second wearer’s feet were too big.

Near the shoes was a size 36 well-worn blue denim jacket with bloodstains on the front, back, and sleeves. Authorities matched the blood type on the jacket with the blood found at the crime scene, and a denim or denim-like material had smeared the blood within the home. While they believe that the jacket was worn by the kidnapper, they acknowledged that it seemed too small for a person who would wear size 11 shoes.

While the investigation was going on, authorities launched a search with over 1,000 police officers, Boy Scouts, National Guardsmen, and volunteers. Despite multiple searches with large numbers of volunteers, no trace of Evelyn was ever found.

In May of 1954, six months after Evelyn’s disappearance, the authorities planned to administer 2,000 lie detector tests to students at Central High School in an attempt to generate more leads. Although the school board agreed at first, they revoked their permissions after receiving criticism from parents. By that point, only around 300 tests had been administered, and everyone passed.

In the years since Evelyn’s disappearance, authorities questioned several individuals, but there was never enough evidence to implicate anyone.

Some believe that Edward Theodore Gein was involved. On the night Evelyn disappeared, he visited relatives who lived just a few blocks from the Rasmussen’s house. Upon visiting his home in 1957 to question him, authorities found human remains. He had reportedly killed two women, dug up the remains of several other women, and mutilated them. He was then sent to a mental institution, where he died in 1984. Authorities never found a trace of Evelyn on his property, and he denied any involvement in her case. Many still consider him a suspect in her case and others.

Since then, Evelyn’s case has grown cold, and there haven’t been any additional updates. She remains missing as of this writing.

My Thoughts

The disappearance of Evelyn Hartley is equal parts mysterious and tragic. A young girl plans to spend an evening studying while the child she’s caring for sleeps in the other room. How does such an evening turn into a perplexing mystery?

When looking into this case, people generally agree that she was abducted and murdered. Even police said as much during their investigation. It would explain why there was so much blood in and around the house, as well as the sightings the night she disappeared. It would also explain why there haven’t been any sightings in the past 70+ years.

Although some might believe that Evelyn ran away or her parents were involved, there simply isn’t enough evidence. By all accounts, she never got in trouble, and no one described her as disobedient, rebellious, or a troublemaker. If she was, she (probably) wouldn’t have been trusted to babysit that night, and she certainly wouldn’t have brought her school books to study.

But let’s say for argument’s sake that Evelyn ran away. Why would the house be covered in blood? Why would she bring her books, instead of clothes, food, money, or other necessary items? Why would she have abandoned the child she was supposed to care for? Not only that but there was no reason for her to run away. Her grades were excellent, she had a lot of friends, she was involved in her community, and she had a good relationship with her family. What would’ve been the motivation to walk away from all of that?

Because of these holes, I find it hard to believe the runaway theory, as do many others.

Generally, the most popular theories are that:

1. She might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
2. It could’ve been a robbery gone wrong.

It’s important to remember that Evelyn was not the Rasmussen’s normal babysitter. She was supposedly at the homecoming game with the rest of the town. I wish we knew more about this babysitter. In the past 70+ years, she’s never come forward publicly. I’m curious to see what she knows, if anything.

The way I see it, someone could’ve either targeted the original babysitter and ended up with Evelyn, or someone could’ve seen a young girl by herself and targeted her in a crime of opportunity. It’s impossible to know for sure, though, because we don’t have enough information. Because of this, it’s impossible to rule these theories in or out.

One of the most popular theories is that it could’ve been a robbery gone wrong. For me, this theory is the most plausible. A lot of people went to the homecoming game that night, so there would’ve been a lot of empty houses. The would-be robber might have entered the Rasmussen’s residence assuming it would be empty, only to find Evelyn. Several accounts noted that nothing was taken, but the robbers might’ve been interrupted and changed their plans once they saw her. Eliminating her as a witness would be a strong motive.

Unfortunately, due to the passage of time, it’s unlikely that Evelyn will ever be found unless someone confesses and/or her remains are found. Just like the Beverly Potts case, many of the details of Evelyn’s case have been lost.

Even though she disappeared over 70 years ago, Evelyn still deserves to be found, and she still deserves a proper burial. She was a beloved sister, daughter, and friend. She had a bright future, which was cruelly stolen away. Even if she’s never found, she deserves to be remembered for how she lived her life, not how she disappeared.

May Evelyn Hartley rest in peace and receive the justice she deserves.

***

If you’re interested in learning more about the disappearance of Evelyn Hartley, there are books and articles about her case. The La Crosse Tribune digitized many of the articles from the early days of her disappearance, and they provided a lot of useful information.

The following sources helped me as I wrote this post:

• storiesoftheunsolved.com
• La Crosse Tribune (Whatever Happened to Evelyn Hartley?)
• The Charley Project
• The Spokesman-Review (October 27, 1953)
• The Sun-Herald (May 16, 1954)
• La Cross Tribune (Our Greatest Mystery)

If you have any information about the disappearance of Evelyn Hartley, please contact the La Crosse Police Department at (608)785-5962.

What do you think happened? Let me know in the comments.