PA - Lindy Sue Biechler, 19, fatally stabbed, Lancaster County, 5 Dec 1975 *arrest in 2022*

[gaia227]

I searched and searched and did not find a thread about Lindy Biechler. So, here it is:

Lindy Biechler claims she saw someone peering at her through the glass doors in her apartment. After that she became convinced that someone was stalking her. She told her friends and family repeatedly she felt like she was being watched. It escalated to a point where Lindy was too afraid to stay home alone. On the evening of Dec 5th, 1975 Lindy ran some errands and went to the grocery store. She unloaded her groceries from her car. It was approx. 7:15pm. Her relatives showed up at 8:40pm to sit with her until her husband got home from work. They found Lindy on the floor of her kitchen with the knife she had been stabbed with 11 times sticking out of her neck.

1 year later on her anniversary Lindy's tombstone was vandalized. Someone dumped red paint on it and hit it with a sharp object causing various nicks in the stone. LE then recieved a letter from someone claiming they murdered Lindy. LE felt it could be valid because this person knew details of the murder and they knew of the vandalized headstone which not many people knew about. They claimed in their letter that the number of nicks in the stone represented the number of times Lindy was stabbed - 11.

Christy Mirack was murdered in 1992. Family members of Chrisy's and Lindy's became friends in their search to find answers. They created this website linked below. Lindy's story is on the right where you can find an in-depth 3 part story about her murder. Part III contains the text of the letter sent to LE.

http://lindyandchristy.com/articles.html

 

[gaia227]

Bumping. I posted this a while back. I think it is an interesting unsolved homicide given the circumstances. You have the note from the killer (presumably), the vandalization of Lindy's tombstone, the fact that Lindy was scared for her life in the months leading up to her murder.

The website I posted in the above post has a lot of good information.

 

[gaia227]

Letter sent to LE from someone claiming to be the killer. LE seems to believe this is the case.

hi sheeler
Just Eats up your heart knowing you havn't caught me yet, still around, Lindy's marker on her grave just turned me on like she did, and the way she looked all bloody, like the paint on her Marker, the scratch and nick marks represent the knife stabes.
Count them.
you wondered if the guy at the gas station in Mountville were related to Biechlers murder. forget it man, no way.
I'll tell you what Chief Pig, you print this Letter in the paper along with a Picture in Friday nights Lancaster Paper and saturday mornings paper, and I might confesss When I get off my trip. You see the world owes me a living, maybe I give you a few hints who I am.
got busted once for Drugs a few years back
Live in West end of Lancaster Suburbs
I am 5'10" tall 205 LBS fat and Beautiful
and capable of killing again without knowing it
Dec. 5, 1975 was under the stupor of amfetamines Like right know.
Well educated man in the Community, single, good job but god please chief help me I am loosing my mind help me before I kill again, the headaches kill me Every time it aches, the Drugs only Calm it temporarily.
Will god forgive me ---------
Please print this Chief in the paper so I know you got it. v then I write you again, god I need a priest what have I done.
Help me please
P.S. chief sheeler my friend has confess to the killing of Lindy Sue biechler, as god is my withness Do as he asks, print this letter on the front page, I am not aware of his intentions right now but contemplating murder is not his intentions, he is mentally sick. When the letter appears, then he will turn himself in, he described the relationship he and Lindy had before he killed her. He only realizes it now when your on Drugs your not responsible for your actions. Please he is asleep now. That's why I finished the letter. All I can tell you my friend frequents manor shopping center in the Evenings and the fields around it. Mostly weeknights. He will contact you very soon and oh when he Does please bring a Catholic priest to the police station. Janice Crum

 

[athy]

i wonder if in finding out who this janice crum is would help in finding out who the guy is? i'm sure LE thought of that and probably checked. wonder if they ever found her.

while reading the letter though it seemed like more than one person wrote it. i don't mean the confessor and janice crum. i mean the main letter. almost like someone with split personality or something like that. IF that were the case i wonder if janice crum would have been one of the personalities.

ETA: whoever it was had to still be in the lancaster, ny area at the time they sent the letter. they asked for it to be put in the lancaster newspaper and we know that would be so he could see himself in the paper.

 

[gaia227]

The link below includes the conclusions drawn from the examination from the letter from a physical and psychological POV. Interesting.

http://lindyandchristy.com/articlesstories12.html

 

[littlehorn]

LE searched for a "Janice Crum" for a long time, but could never find anyone by that name in the local or surrounding areas. IIRC, police concluded it was probably a made-up name and that part of the letter was written by the killer as well.

One guy I've always wondered about is one of our suspects in the Betsy Aardsma case, Richard Haefner -- a local to Lancaster who was also an extremely odd dude with homosexual tendencies that might match those displayed in the letter.

"For his part, Dr. Richard Haefner graduated from Penn State to pursue a career in geology. In the years after, how he felt about losing a girl he knew in college, we can’t know. Haefner’s fortunes didn’t get better. According to court dockets, on August 15, 1975, he was arrested by Lancaster police and charged with corruption of minors and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. “The alleged victim was a 12-year-old boy who claimed that the appellant, who employed him and other youths in a small family business, had engaged in sexual contacts in a garage which was part of the business premises.” Haefner denied the charges and over the course of several years, was exonerated of all wrongdoing via multiple mistrials. In 1994, he again appeared before a judge for aggravated assault of a police officer and disorderly conduct. He was also charged with tampering with a witness and criminal mischief—puncturing the tire of a 1989 Pontiac. The tool he used might be interesting. Charles Hosler remembers that, at one point, Haefner carried a sharpened screwdriver for self-defense." -- Murder in the Core, Sascha Skucek.

I've talked to Vince Mirack, he's a great guy...Christy Mirack also has a Facebook page run by the family in order to gain more information.

 

[Syttende]

Wow. This is a very fascinating and disturbing murder.

In response to the letter - I think that when he (the writer) described himself, he meant the opposite, in a (intentionally?) juvenile attempt to throw off investigators. Like "fat and beautiful" - what man would describe themselves as fat and beautiful? Perhaps he was actually thin and ugly. Gangly. A typical male around Lindy's age (19) right there. And "beautiful" tends to be a more feminine adjective, so maybe he considered himself masculine? Or maybe the writer was a woman, someone who knew of the murder and the killer?

 

[JulieR]

Lots of unanswered questions in both cases:
With Lindy, I wonder why she felt she was being watched? Friends said she seemed jittery, I wonder if someone from the flower shop she worked in, was watching her? I wonder if any DNA was found? The knife came from her apartment, maybe the person didn't go there to murder her, but did when things didn't go his way. I wonder what made them think he tried to sexually assault her. With the rage this person had towards Lindy I wonder what her relationships were like with other boy friends before being married, did she cheat on the guys. Could she have been having a relationship with another man and then married Phil or was she cheating on him. Did she have any life insurance? This person would have been covered in blood, I wonder if the woods were ever searched afterward. I agree she knew her killer, and he has most likely already been interviewed. I think the letter was sent by the person who did it to try and miss lead the investigators. I would love to see both these cases solved. With Lindy it seems the person went there to killer her, although he didn't have a weapon. With Christy it seems rape was the motive. Also it seems the person that killed Lindy had to know the going on's of people around her (neighbors) to know that no one would be home at the time she was killed........wow to much brain work going on here. LOL

 

[JulieR]

Anyone have any info on Mary Ann Bagenstose missing in 1984, I didn't see her listed on any of the missing person sites.

 

[gaia227]

I am glad I bumped this thread as it is finally getting some attention. It was one of those cases I always found really interesting but it got lost in the shuffle.

Regarding Mary Ann: There are a lot of articles about her out there but you have pay $3.00 to read them. Her name is mentioned on several forums like Cybersleuths. If you do a google search for her you will see the forum hits.

I hope it is okay to post this. Here is most of the article published in the Lancaster paper on what would have been her 46th b-day. It was posted in the find Carrie Culberson website but the link to the article no longer works. It sounds to me like her husband might have had something to do with it.

You need to scroll about 1/4 of the way down to find the article.
http://findcarrie.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=murder1&action=display&num=1121359892

I linked the news articles from google below.

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?um=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=mary+ann+bagenstose&cf=all

 

[JulieR]

Thanks, Gaga

I sure wish someone would get her picture out there on the doe network so at least if her body is found she can get an id. It sure sounds like from the article the hubby had something to do with it, always puzzling how they get away with it.

I will to go search the news papers and see what I find.......

 

[txsvicki]

I have to wonder if a woman could put up such a fight against a 205 pound man. The letter sounds bogus to me, someone using the slang and drug terms of the times back then to try and throw the police off other suspects.

 

[gaia227]

LE searched for a "Janice Crum" for a long time, but could never find anyone by that name in the local or surrounding areas. IIRC, police concluded it was probably a made-up name and that part of the letter was written by the killer as well.

One guy I've always wondered about is one of our suspects in the Betsy Aardsma case, Richard Haefner -- a local to Lancaster who was also an extremely odd dude with homosexual tendencies that might match those displayed in the letter.

"For his part, Dr. Richard Haefner graduated from Penn State to pursue a career in geology. In the years after, how he felt about losing a girl he knew in college, we can’t know. Haefner’s fortunes didn’t get better. According to court dockets, on August 15, 1975, he was arrested by Lancaster police and charged with corruption of minors and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. “The alleged victim was a 12-year-old boy who claimed that the appellant, who employed him and other youths in a small family business, had engaged in sexual contacts in a garage which was part of the business premises.” Haefner denied the charges and over the course of several years, was exonerated of all wrongdoing via multiple mistrials. In 1994, he again appeared before a judge for aggravated assault of a police officer and disorderly conduct. He was also charged with tampering with a witness and criminal mischief—puncturing the tire of a 1989 Pontiac. The tool he used might be interesting. Charles Hosler remembers that, at one point, Haefner carried a sharpened screwdriver for self-defense." -- Murder in the Core, Sascha Skucek.

I've talked to Vince Mirack, he's a great guy...Christy Mirack also has a Facebook page run by the family in order to gain more information.

Thanks for your post LittleHorn. I know you have been very active in trying to solve Betsy murder.

This guy sounds like a real creep. What makes you think he could be a suspect in Betsy murder? It sounds like he normally targeted young boys. Do you think you was opportunistic criminal who didn't really follow a certain M.O.?

 

[littlehorn]

Thanks for your post LittleHorn. I know you have been very active in trying to solve Betsy murder.

This guy sounds like a real creep. What makes you think he could be a suspect in Betsy murder? It sounds like he normally targeted young boys. Do you think you was opportunistic criminal who didn't really follow a certain M.O.?

Dr. Haefner was, at the time, a grad student at PSU. He was known to bring younger men along for "library tours" and campus visits.

The night Betsy was killed he showed up panicking at the house of one of his professors, in a fuss about how this girl he knew had been murdered, etc. So, he self-professed to have known her personally.

The thought is that perhaps Betsy saw, or he thought she saw, him with a young boy or young man engaged in inappropriate activity in the core that day. Homosexuality at the time was still viewed as a mental disorder. His career would likely have been torpedoed by a charge like being caught in the library in a compromising position would have caused.

It might explain several things: 1. How the killer was able to approach her without suspicion -- he knew her. 2. How the killer escaped -- young man he was with ran out the opposite way saying "somebody better help that girl" and was noticed while Haefner left through the other entrance where a bloody print was found. Most importantly, it offers what the case had been lacking all along -- Motive. A reason to kill Betsy Aardsma.

Looking at his later life, it would appear he was an opportunistic/disorganized criminal. It's possible he had struggled with some sexuality conflicts as some latent homosexuals sometimes do.

He was known to carry an ice-pick while at Penn State for "protection." From what, or who? No one knows.

He HAD been arrested a few months before the Biechler killing, though not for drugs.

The escalation is interesting, too -- single stabbing to multiple stabbing and later-life issues with the law, sexuality, and frustration...

It's just a thought, probably nothing, but the fact he's from the Lancaster area, and within 6 years after Betsy, Lindy is killed, and within a week of the Aardsma killing, perhaps some biorhythmic/seasonal basis for the behavior?

 

[gaia227]

Oh wow. I read the Ardsma thread but admit I have not checked in in a few months. I don't remember reading about this guy though. He is an interesting suspect for her murder. Motive has always been the issue with Betsy -why would anyone want to kill her? Maybe a guy who got caught with another man, a boy no less, and felt she had to go or else she had the potential to tell and ruin his life. Although, in hindsight it seems like he did a pretty good job of that.

In regards to Lindy - the letter was written in a way that suggests it was written by a woman or by an effeminite man and I vote for the later. I just don't think a woman wrote it. I think we can all agree who ever wrote it was an 'odd dude.'

 

[txsvicki]

I know that LE weren't sure that the letter writer was the killer, but the letter annoys me. I just can't see how a homosexual would stalk and want to kill a woman during an attempted sexual assault. I'm not sure someone on speed back then would have called it "a trip", and there's too much hippie type slang being used as well as religious references. Maybe the letter writer is older and using the slang and is not even Catholic. King Solomon in the Bible calls himself black and beautiful and he wasn't gay. Whoever it was, the letter writer still seemed convinced that he actually had a relationship with Lindy. Typical stalker mentality. He's using some silly movie excuse of killing due to horrendous headaches while going nuts and then using another witness to try and verify it all. Coming up with the name Janice could be another attempt at hippie slang and the popular Janice Joplin popped into his mind. Whoever it was is deranged though.

 

[Indianagirl]

This news report on a billboard put up for both Lindy and Christy has a couple of pictures of each woman.

YouTube - Route 30 billboard displays unsolved mystery.

 

[JulieR]

I wonder if the letter wasn't written to lead the police in another direction. Kind of reminds me of the MacDonald case when they talk about doing "amphetamines" I feel this was someone much closer to Lindy then anyone thought. Things I wonder about; what was her husbands brother like could he have had a crush on Lindy? Why did she feel she was being watched she told people she felt that way, but why? I wonder if phone records where checked. Since this was done so long ago, also if new test in DNA was ever tested and what the results were..............just so many questions I wish we had more insight.

I still can not find a picture of Mary Ann anywhere, that just bugs me.

 

[gaia227]

By all accounts Lindy was terrified in the wks leading up to her murder. From what I have gathered it all started when she claims she saw a man standing at her sliding glass door watching her. She then became convinced someone was following her, stalking her, and was frightened to the point where her family or friends would have to come and stay with her until her husband got home. The person who killed her only had a small window of time that day and I think it seems pretty obvious he was definitely watching her and was familiar with her routine. He had to have been waiting for her when she arrived home that day with the groceries and either snuck in the house while she was bringing the groceries in, was already in the house or forced her into the house. The fact that he did not bring a weapon with him is interesting. Did he not intend to kill her when he arrived at the house?

Apparently she was right - there was someone following her or it is just a wild coincidence she was murdered.

The whole thing is downright creepy. Then combine that with the vandalism of her grave and the letter and it just gets creepier.

 

[JulieR]

Ok now I am not really sure the letter and vandalism were done by the killer. Sadly there are people out there that do things like this, for whatever reason.

This could have been a very close neighbor. Since Lindy was on her own a lot (husband at work/ school) this neighbor could have been her stalker she may have spent time with this person at the pool or just talking outside. This would have given him a chance to watch her all the time knowing when her husband would be home, when she was alone. He could have carried in her grocery for her.

It puzzles me that she thought she was being stalked but didn't say by who. I wonder if she was getting prank calls. You would know if someone was following you, so was this stalking only at home. Friends and family said she was jittery in the weeks leading up to the murder, so did she have an idea who this was? Did she have an affair and want to break it off? The person that did this was so personal. One other thing the killer leaving the knife in her neck is almost like he is trying to shut her up.

The killer had plenty of time up to an hour and 40 mins., but he ran off and left the door open. I wonder how far the blood drops went, to the parking lot, to the woods. By the reports there should have been plenty of DNA at the apartment.