WI WI - Evelyn Hartley, 15, La Crosse, 24 Oct 1953

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Talking about the windows....................

I might be way off base with this but I wonder if Evelyn ran to the basement trying to escape someone who came in the door. Maybe she opened the door to him or maybe she left it unlocked and he entered the house. She might have tried to get out the window. It is very hard to climb in one of these. She might have been trying to escape not knowing someone was outside.


Go to : windows.http://www.torontowindowsanddoors.ca/pic-gallery.htm

Just a thought.
 
I don't know how "blind" she was without her glasses. Perhaps her glasses were knocked off in the struggle. She thought she was running out the front door when she was really going down the basement.
 
KariKae said:
I don't know how "blind" she was without her glasses. Perhaps her glasses were knocked off in the struggle. She thought she was running out the front door when she was really going down the basement.
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I wonder if she fell down the stairs and was injured for the reason mentioned above. :waitasec:
 
flourish said:
I wonder if she fell down the stairs and was injured for the reason mentioned above. :waitasec:
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Since there was no blood inside the home it seems she was wounded directly after running out of the home - any wounds that she may have inside them home would have been of the non bleeding sort.

The whole thing leaves me confused really - either the person doing this didnt intend to hurt her or intended to harm her within the home. Otherwise it just seems really sloppy to me - why would the person that did this not have a better plan in place if he intended to take her with him or kill her outside? The car was far away, he laid her bleeding body in a window well for 15+ minutes (the amount of blood in the window well suggested she was there 15 or so minutes) while he presumably went to get his car and even more baffling - why take a profusely bleeding person with them?
 
Do you think she was unconscious for about 15 minutes & maybe that's how the abductor got her to lay still outside the window? Cause if I was being abducted I'd run if I could. I wondered if maybe she had a head wound which bleeds much more rapidly & she might not have been lying there that long. I say that because someone saw an older man sort of dragging a girl across the lawn, so she was somewhat able to walk with support it sounds like. If she had a cut on her head she might have lost 15 minutes worth of blood in much less time, in other words.
 
dogperson said:
Do you think she was unconscious for about 15 minutes & maybe that's how the abductor got her to lay still outside the window? Cause if I was being abducted I'd run if I could. I wondered if maybe she had a head wound which bleeds much more rapidly & she might not have been lying there that long. I say that because someone saw an older man sort of dragging a girl across the lawn, so she was somewhat able to walk with support it sounds like. If she had a cut on her head she might have lost 15 minutes worth of blood in much less time, in other words.
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There was some sort of struggle once she was able to get out of the front door that ended up causing massive bleeding - since there was no blood inside we can only assume that she was wounded once she left the home. There was bloody hand print smears on the house next door so we know she at least got that far alive.

From the huge blood loss she likely would have either been dead or very close to it; there was so much blood outside that when her mother was brought to the scene the first time she broke down in hysterics after seeing the amount of blood because she said she knew Evelyn couldnt have lived after losing that much blood. Anyway you look at it theres no way Evelyn would have been able to put up much of a fight after being wounded like that and would have stayed put wherever she was left.

I have to think the person that did this wasnt thinking the result would be murder - he had the upper hand in the home; one can only assume that he would have been armed within the home and used whatever weapon he brought as a threat to keep her quiet once she saw him. He would have been ready to pounce the moment he saw her while she would have been stunned for at least a few seconds - had he wanted to harm her why not do it then? Its much smarter to wound someone in a controlled environment (inside the home) vs wounding someone outside and taking the huge risk of someone seeing you.

Also, what reason would someone have to take her with him when she was bleeding so heavily? Just her bleeding all over the car would be off putting for the person doing it but what do you gain bringing her? It seems to me the person that did this never expected to hurt her and once she DID get hurt and was bleeding he didnt know what to do - he could have killed her and left here there didnt. Its possible that he couldnt kill her but also couldnt risk her ID'ing him so he took her with him in a panic trying to buy more time to figure out what to do.
 
It has been 58 years..where is Evelyn?????? Still have hope someday this will be solved...
 
Watching a video on this on youtube and they mention the family only lived there for 3 months. I wonder who lived there before?

Secondly - there were footprints near other houses in the basement window areas...

Thirdly one commenter thinks Bufford Sennet is likely culprit.

Fascinating special - shows the house and crime scene photos
 
The Rasmussen's were the first owners. They moved into the newly built house during the summer.

The perp(s) who took Evelyn appeared to have taken her through backyards and along the sides of other houses and eventually to another street(not the street the house was on) and into a car. The blood trail zig zagged through the yards so that is most likely why they found footprints near other basement windows. Or of course the perps may have cased some other houses before going after Evelyn.
 
Oh, thank you.

Have you seen the video on youtube? It's 4 parts. One of the LE interviewed seemed to say that there were footprints near other windows and that they definitely thought there was "casing" going on.

I just cannot believe she's never been found. So terribly sad.
 
Oh yes I have seen the videos, I posted them a while back but this thread is so long things get lost in the shuffle!
This case has haunted/fascinated me ever since I was a kid and my parents and grandma told me about it. My dad was a year behind Evelyn at Central High School. They all remember the time very clearly and how scared the town was.
I have been in the neigborhood several times and have driven past the house. The house has changed in looks but there are parts you can tell it is the same house. The famous basement window is still there, and driving around the corner I could see the spot they think the car was that took her away. I sure hope they can solve this case in my lifetime. It has almost been 60 years....
 
joellegirl said:
The Rasmussen's were the first owners. They moved into the newly built house during the summer.

The perp(s) who took Evelyn appeared to have taken her through backyards and along the sides of other houses and eventually to another street(not the street the house was on) and into a car. The blood trail zig zagged through the yards so that is most likely why they found footprints near other basement windows. Or of course the perps may have cased some other houses before going after Evelyn.
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The police felt that she was placed in the window well of a neighbors for several minutes because of the amount of blood that was found there.
 
Robin Hood said:
Who was 'Gus' the old friend that supposedly helped Ed Gein ?

There's reference here to him Ed Gein - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Could Gus have been the accomplice who helped kidnap Evelyn ? It would be interesting to know if such a person was working in the area as a steeplejack or farmer driving farm equipment.
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IIRC Gus was by that time in a hospital/home for mentally challenged. I believe I read that here and that he was described as "slow". In any case he had been there a couple or more years by the time of Evelyn's disappearance.

Funny how even though it really doesn't "fit", I can't quite shake Gein from my head when I come up with "solutions". He is probably the longest shot, and yet he just keeps popping up.

FWIW, I think it was an inexperienced rape/robbery attempt gone wrong.
 
This is the one case that I will never forget and will keep checking for updates for the rest of my life. Everyone has a 'pet case' and this is definitely mine. It really bothers me, where the h - e - double hockey sticks did she go?!

I'm off of work for the next 2 weeks, I'm so tempted to go visit her home town even though it's like 4 hours away from me.
 
blueclouds said:
GOD, I'd be begging the media to make more stories. Back then, this wasn't as big news as things are today.

hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
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Sorry that I am replying to a post that is seven years old. People need to understand that this case was HUGE news in 1953. It was in every newspaper in the country. The difference is that there was no 24 hour news cycle and people got their news mostly from the radio. Televisions had just become available to the average American consumer but not many households had them yet. Those television stations that did exist had a fifteen news program in the evening and another in the morning. That was it.

Most Americans got their news from newspapers and they were all over this case.

There was no Internet and no cable news stations.

I would refer you to the excellent "What Happened to Evelyn" written by Susan Hessel. It is available on Amazon.
 
MarylandObserver said:
People need to understand that this case was HUGE news in 1953.
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Snipped by me! ;)

Its also worth note that it would have been nearly impossible for people in that area to not know what was going on - they did 'mass' mandatory lie detector tests on over 2000 male La Crosse students alone. They also set up numerous license checks that required people's cars being searched since they knew with the amount she was bleeding they knew any car she was in would be bloody. Once the car was searched the police put stickers on them saying 'My car is ok".Considering the above and the fact that they had massive amounts of people searching for her it seems quite likely nearly all the people in that are area had at least heard something about her.

There was a witness that says he said her in a car with two men with her head "slumped against the front seat" - I never know what to think about him.. He says that he saw her walking way with two men and assumed she was drunk and being helped by the men yet the police reports showed that she was dragged from the scene. How could he have seen her with two men if she couldnt walk due to the amount of blood loss? Another issue I have is the fact that he says he thought she was drunk - she had to have been covered in blood and you think he would have seen it even if it were dark outside because there were street lights. He was able to see her in the car so I dont get how he didnt think something was wrong because she would have been bloody.
 
PFF said:
http://s10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/ar/t7241.htm

If this is what happened to Hartley--I beleive I rember reading a list of remains found in Ed Gein's house-including some estimated as coming from a young-female-who was in Gein's house?
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Its possible that the remains were one of the graves her robbed.

Im leaning more towards him not being involved than involved but its 1942 Buick that the car that the man saw leaving the area (1942 Buick) looks similar to Giens car.

His car

Type of car the witness says he saw
 
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