The disappearance of La Crosse teen Evelyn Hartley: A deep dive into the case
La Crosse teenager Evelyn Hartley went missing in 1953 while babysitting. Here’s everything you need to know about her unsolved case.
This article contains discussions of kidnapping and murder.
On October 24, 1953, a month before her 15th birthday*, Evelyn Hartley went missing while babysitting for one of her father’s colleagues. Evelyn’s father, Richard Hartley, was a biology professor at La Crosse State College, where he worked with Viggo Rasmusen. Viggo and his wife wanted to bring their seven-year-old daughter, Rozalyn, to the school’s homecoming football game. The Rasmusens’ youngest daughter, Janice, was only 20 months old at the time, and they needed someone to watch her as their usual family babysitter was unavailable. Richard suggested Evelyn for the job, and Viggo agreed. That night before she left for the Rasmusen’s, Evelyn told her parents that she would call at 8:30 p.m. to check in. When they didn’t hear from her, Richard tried to call her several times, but never received an answer. Eventually, he went to the residence on Hoeschler Drive to make sure everything was okay.
Upon his arrival, Richard noted that the lights were on inside the home and all of the doors were locked. He went around to the back and saw that a window was open and missing its screen, which would later be found propped up against a wall. There was a stepladder positioned underneath the open window. When Richard entered the home, he discovered blood (later, police would find bloody handprints on a garage approximately 100 feet from the Rasmusen home, as well as additional blood in the yard), along with signs of an apparent struggle. Living room furniture had been moved, and one of Evelyn’s shoes was located downstairs, with the other upstairs. Her glasses, which had been broken, were also upstairs. Evelyn herself was nowhere to be found. Janice, the Rasmusen’s infant daughter, was unharmed in her bedroom.
Evelyn’s assumed abduction sparked a city-wide investigation that consumed the lives of locals for months. Every teacher and student at Evelyn’s school had to undergo a lie detector test, as did Viggo and Richard. Hundreds of cars were searched, thousands of people were questioned, and helicopters swept the woods from above while the community conducted a ground search below.
A few pieces of evidence would later be uncovered, but nothing that pointed to any substantial culprits. A neighbor of the Rasmusens said they heard screams that night but assumed they had come from children playing. Another person said they saw two men and a young girl walk by, before spotting them again in a car. Suspects were interviewed and leads were followed, but police weren’t any closer to finding answers. A connection to Ed Gein was explored and dismissed. The trail, eventually, went cold.
What really happened to Evelyn Hartley that October night in 1953? And who was responsible for harming her? Unfortunately, we will likely never uncover the exact sequence of events that took place, or what unfolded in the aftermath of her abduction. All we can do is look back on the case and remember the promising young woman who seemingly gave her life to protect the child in her care.
* Most outlets have reported that Evelyn was born in 1937 and was 15 years old at the time of her disappearance. However, according to the cenotaph memorial on her parents’ gravestone, Evelyn was born in 1938 and thus would have been just shy of her 15th birthday when she was abducted.
Evidence and aftermath
Speaking with the Winona Daily News in 2017, Rozalyn (Rasmusen) Lina recalled what it was like for her and her family to return home on October 24, 1953. Though she was only seven years old at the time, she remembered the events in vivid detail. “As long as I live I will never forget coming home to that horrific scene. Blood everywhere, police everywhere and the feeling of total fear and loss. Not only was it a turning point for the town, but for us as well,” she told the outlet. The Rasmusens were temporarily comforted when they were informed that their daughter, Janice, was unharmed. When they learned that Evelyn Hartley was missing, though, panic and dread set in once again.
Crucial details had immediately been noted by police officers responding to Richard Hartley’s call for help. In addition to the open window, three others appeared to have pry marks around them, signaling that whoever had taken Evelyn had likely tried for some time to get into the Rasmusens’ home. Footprints were found in the living room and along a window box. Pools of blood matching Evelyn’s blood type were found both inside the home and in the yard outside. As each clue was uncovered, a picture began to form in the minds of the investigators.
It appeared as though Evelyn was attacked inside the home by two people, and that she tried to fight off her attackers. Police believed the kidnappers likely dragged her or carried her out of the house and into the yard, and that the large pools of blood occurred during intervals when they briefly set her down. Tracker dogs were brought in to trace Evelyn’s scent, though the trail was lost around Coulee Drive, about two blocks away. Law enforcement officials believe she was likely loaded into a car at that point; the theory was seemingly confirmed by a neighbor, Ed Hofler, a few days later.
Hofler told police that around 7:15 p.m. on October 24, he saw two men and a girl stumbling down the street. He initially believed they were on their way to the La Crosse homecoming game, as many people in town were planning to attend. A few minutes later, he said he was nearly struck by a two-toned green Buick, and he recognized the occupants in the car as the individuals he had just seen staggering around. Hofler said that one man was driving while the second man was sitting in the back with the girl. He said the girl was slumped forward and was resting her head against the front seat. Hofler didn’t immediately think anything of the strange occurrence until news of Evelyn’s disappearance broke.
More gruesome evidence would emerge a few days later. Bloodstained undergarments were discovered along Highway 14, approximately two miles outside of La Crosse. A pair of bloodstained Goodrich sneakers and a blue denim jacket were also located in Coon Valley. The blood on the coat matched Evelyn’s blood type. It appeared as though the sneakers and jacket belonged to two different people, as the coat was small and the shoes were a size 11. The sneakers were significant to the case because they had suction-cup patterned soles, and that design matched the footprints found at the Rasmusens’ home. Police brought both items of clothing to 31 communities across Wisconsin, showing them to roughly 10,000 people, but no one could identify who they might belong to.
According to A&E, several potential suspects were questioned, including a 34-year-old prowler from La Crosse and a 15-year-old student from Madison. 20-year-old Robert Snodgrass, who had previously been arrested for indecent exposure, and 43-year-old Harold Forke, a registered sex offender, were also questioned, but both had solid alibis. The two people responsible for Evelyn’s abduction seemingly vanished into thin air. If anyone knew who they might be, no one was sharing that information with the police. Law enforcement officials were unable to uncover further evidence or leads. Evelyn’s body was never found.
The Hartleys and Rasmusens were traumatized. Rozalyn told the Winona Daily News that her father was never the same after that night—he chose to put the house up for sale and immediately relocated his family for fear of another break-in. As the days turned into months, it seemed as though the Hartleys would never receive the answers, or justice, they were so desperately seeking.
Possible connection to Ed Gein
A few years later, in 1957, Plainfield native Ed Gein was questioned regarding the disappearance of a local woman. Police discovered human remains, along with other unspeakably horrifying things, inside Gein’s home and subsequently arrested him. He confessed to killing two women and to removing bodies from graves at a nearby cemetery. More details about Gein’s case can be found here. Investigators believed he may have had something to do with Evelyn Hartley’s disappearance, as he was reportedly visiting family in La Crosse—just a few blocks away from the Rasmusen’s home—on the night of her abduction.
However, Gein denied having any involvement in Evelyn’s case and was cleared by a lie detector test. Authorities did not find any physical evidence linking him to the crime, nor did they find any of Evelyn’s DNA inside Gein’s home. The connection between the two seemed to be, at most, an eerie and unsettling coincidence. In a recent television depiction of his heinous crimes, “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” Gein is shown murdering Evelyn Hartley in a gross fictionalization of events. Since the show’s release, several outlets have reported the real story to hopefully prevent the waters from being muddied even further.
Remembering Evelyn Hartley
Unfortunately, few details remain about Evelyn Hartley and her brief life in Wisconsin. At the time of her abduction, she was a straight-A student at Central High School. She sang in the choir at the First Presbyterian Church and played piano. She had three older siblings, one of whom died of polio in 1946 while serving in the Navy. Her parents, Richard and Ethel, died in 1986 and 2002, respectively. Yearbook photos of Evelyn can be viewed here.
The kind-hearted teenager can perhaps be best summarized in the words of Rozalyn (Rasmusen) Lina, who told the Winona Daily News in 2017 that she believed Evelyn was “kind of an angel.” She said, “What a martyr she was. She gave up her life to protect my baby sister.”
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