Danelle Geier

A quirky college professor vanishes without a trace.

>> You would have spot him a mile away.

“He would have been wearing a Hawaiian shirt, flip flops.”

He's not the type of person that would just go drive away someplace. So right away, I was in a panic. >> His body later discovered at the bottom of a cliff, police suspect foul play. >> There was a flock of vultures, literally circling in the air.

He'd been there for several days.

It was our pathologist conclusion that he had actually survived the fall.

>> We need to determine whether it was a homicide, a suicide, or an accident. >> The investigation leads to one of the professor's most trusted friends and a terrifying story of manipulation, betrayal, and greed.

“>> Witness informed us that he did see a blonde female in a male at the scene.”

>> What they're really planning on doing was lowering him down to the beach, get him out into the water and drown him. >> When schemes falter, they stop at nothing to get rid of him. >> To get in there, take advantage and gain his trust.

That was part of the plan from the very beginning.

>> What was the plan to take him up in the core? >> Nestled in the lush nittney valley of central Pennsylvania is the bustling town of state college. >> We're a university town, but the minute you step out of the town, we're a rural county with residents who have go back to generations.

“>> Over 8,000 of Penn State University's academic staff also live and work in the area,”

but on August 15th, 2016, one of them goes missing. >> State College, please start when we see the call for a missing person's legitimate lived in Lamont. >> The callers say their friends of Dr. Ronald Bettett, a 55-year-old professor. >> They reported that Ronald Bettett had been missing for the entire weekend. They were calling from their house on a Monday.

>> Ronald Bettett and the callers would speak on a regular basis and had regular communication with him. >> They tell police that Ron had gone to the beach the previous week with his live in girlfriend Danielle Gyer and her uncle, George Ishler. >> They knew it he was supposed to come back on Friday the 12th. Whenever several days went by and they had not heard from him, it caused them concern.

[MUSIC] >> Our patrol officers responded to the Bettett resonance to see if they could locate him or learn where he may be. When they arrived, Danielle Gyer and George Ishler were at the resonance. >> Danielle Gyer described herself as Ronald Bettett's girlfriend. George Ishler described himself as Danielle Gyer's uncle and a friend of Ronald Bettett.

[MUSIC] >> George and Danielle confirmed they were the ones who went with Ron to Rehobe Beach in Delaware, a five-hour drive from state college. [MUSIC] They stayed at a hotel for a few days before returning with the professor on August 12th.

>> Danielle Gyer indicated they had last seen Ronald Bettett on Friday late Friday night in the who Saturday morning after they had returned from going to the beach. >> Danielle tells police they went to bed after the long drive and George returned to his home. But when Danielle woke up, Ron was gone. >> They were concerned about him and they did find it also unusual that he had not shown up over the weekend.

And they also knew his vehicle was not at the resonance. They had serious concern. They indicated he was pressed over loss of his wife from several years prior. He was having some mental health issues. They thought that something bad had happened to Ronald Bettett.

The main issue was where was Ronald Bettett and where was his vehicle. [MUSIC] >> Ronald Bettett was born in St. Joseph Michigan in 1961 and grew up alongside a younger brother

>> He liked very simple things wanting to be outside and being a part of nature and was very strong inside of him.

>> His interest in academia was instilled by his mother who held two doctorates in psychology and education. >> Our parents were both immigrants.

“Honestly, what they ended up accomplishing was pretty remarkable.”

And I think that's where all three of the children really had a drive to succeed and to be into work hard. [MUSIC] >> Ron earned a PhD in communications and in 1988. He was hired as a professor by Penn State University. >> He taught in the media studies department and explicitly taught a political economy of communications.

He authored two books related to that. >> Ron's lectures made him a popular, if-excentric figure around campus. >> He didn't like a lot of the technology that was out there. He really was more wanting to interact with them and wanted to have these deeper conversations. >> You would have spotted him a mile away.

Probably would have been wearing a Hawaiian shirt, flip flops, and a pair of shorts. Long as hair, you know, looks like somebody who grew up into 60s. He was, friendly, individual. He was the kind of guy who gave you the shirt off his back if you needed it. [MUSIC] >> Over the course of his 30 years teaching, Ron was married twice.

He had a son and daughter with his first wife.

>> He met his first wife once he went away to college. We're not getting along as well and decided to divorce and went their separate ways. >> He then met the woman who would become his second wife, Jeannie. >> He became involved with a colleague that was also at Penn State teaching there. I knew that he was really happy with the way that things were going with him and Jeannie together.

Their interactions were very loving.

“>> With his second marriage, I think there was a lot of parts of him that really started coming alive.”

>> Though the couple amacably divorced in the late 90s, they remained very close. But in 2011, tragedy struck when Jeannie took suddenly ill. >> She was very sick and he took her to the hospital and later that night, or the next morning, she passed away. >> They were together probably for 10 years. He would tell me all the time how much he missed her.

He was losing weight and he wasn't going out. And that's also the point where he started to have some memory issues. >> Four years after Jeannie's death, the professor took a sabbatical from work. >> By the time you get to 2014 and 2015, he's not doing very well. He's not able to teach.

>> While on sabbatical, Ron was befriended by a shop worker named George Ishler. >> George was working at this tobacco shop on college avenue and state college. Ron would stop in there frequently and they struck up a friendship based on their mutual interest in marijuana. >> As their friendship deepened, George confided and Ron about the struggles his niece Danielle Gyer was facing. >> She comes up here in February 2016, she doesn't have a place to live.

She's got a young baby and no way to support herself. >> I remember calling me and saying, you know, the thought of a person living in the car with a young child is just something that I can't let that go. >> In 2016, Ron gave Danielle in her child a room of their own in his house and having people around gave Ron something in return.

>> Their life force was starting to come back into he had purpose as he started having

“more and more conversations with Danielle. I think that he also was starting to have feelings for her as well.”

>> After a few months, Ron's relationship with Danielle became romantic. Despite their 23-year age difference, he was very attentive to my sister in the baby.

He was very good man. He was always helping my sister get the thing she needed.

>> What Danielle Gyer was, to Dr. Betty was that kind of that bright light. He was no longer alone. He was in love. >> After seven months of living together, Ron has now gone missing.

medications. Though George lives separately, he came over that morning when he learned of Ron's

“disappearance. Now she and her uncle are afraid he's wandered off on his own.”

>> They mentioned that he had marijuana plants that he would hike and take care of the plants. After the patrol officers returned back to the police station, I was immediately assigned as the detective. A lot of times, cell phone information can be a valuable way to quickly identify and locate somebody. In this case, Ronald Betty did not have a cell phone. It did not use one. >> When officers check Ron's bank records, they find cause for concern.

>> Ron's credit card had been used pretty regularly up until that weekend.

And then all activity had just stopped. There had been no purchases on it.

>> If he was traveling, gas, food, lodging, at some point in time, he would run out of cash.

“>> He's not the type of person that would just go drive away someplace.”

So for him to be missing from home right away, I was in a panic. I started asking, what's happening? What's going on? >> Coming up. Two days after the professor's disappearance, investigators make a gruesome discovery. >> At the top of the quarry, they find a hand rake, water bottle, and a flashlight. She says that she's forced to help him stage the scene, so it looked like an accidental fall.

>> After speaking with Dr. Ron Betiggs, friends and family, state college police open an official missing persons investigation. >> We listed him and his vehicle in a national database. We also did a media release on hopes that

“if anyone saw the vehicle or had contact with him, it would generate people calling in.”

>> Obviously, a longer, a missing person's case goes the more concern we have. So every day that went by without finding him or finding the vehicle, that concern became greater. >> Investigators are able to locate surveillance footage from the trip to Rohobeth Beach, confirming Danielle and George's timeline of Ron's disappearance.

On day three of the search, investigators get their first lead.

On Wednesday the 17th first thing in the morning, I was advised by our 911 dispatch center that Ronald Betiggs vehicle had been located on a remote country road. >> Investigators drive 10 miles outside of town. >> The vehicle was parked unoccupied and off to the side of the road, and appeared to have been sitting there for several days.

>> Dr. Betiggs vehicles been to turn out next to a farmer's property and to the left and up the hill is an abandoned quarry. >> Myself and my supervisor responded a location. We also notified that point time this Pennsylvania State Police. The vehicle appeared to be in good condition.

It was not broken into obviously the next step was trying to figure out and determine if Ronald Betiggs was in the area. Investigators and state police conduct a search around the edge of the deep quarry. >> It's a limestone quarry that's being dug out and it's an 80 foot drop from where they were to to the bottom. >> It was just wooded area that ended up right out of Cliff's edge and easily you could have fallen over. >> At the top of the quarry they find a hand rake

water bottle, a bag of water softener and a flashlight. >> It's unclear if the items belong to Ron, but their attention is drawn to something else. >> There was a flock of vultures literally circling in the air and the trooper said that I'm pretty sure if we look underneath where that flock of vultures are we're going to find Professor Betiggs. >> We proceeded to enter the quarry from the bottom. We found a clothe body laying

at the rocks. >> It was very obvious that this was Dr. Betiggs. If you ran his driver's license record he was literally wearing the same Hawaiian shirt in that picture. >> The state police took over

person's case to the death investigation. So we're now shifting gears and trying to figure out

“what happened to Ronald Betiggs. >> We just did a basic cursory exam error. We could see that”

he had obvious fractures of his extremities. We felt that he came off the top of the quarry. He had been there for several days. So he was decomposing. We was going off the assumption that the individual that we had was the missing person. >> The medical examiner conducts the autopsy later that afternoon. >> The findings were that Dr. Betiggs, both of his feet were terribly crushed.

That is, both femurs were symmetrically broken and very remarkably similar ways.

He had no head injury. His heart and lungs and no evidence of any trauma. He had no cracked ribs. So all of his vital organs were functioning. >> We felt that given the fractures were

“they was located that he hit feet first. There was approximately 90 feet and the cause of death”

was determined to become a blunt force trauma. >> It was our pathologist conclusion that he had actually survived the fall for approximately two days. >> Stranded without medical care, the professor eventually died from the effects of the fall. >> To find out his approximate time of death, investigators call in a forensic entomologist. >> There was maggots crawling all over him, indicating he had been there for several days. With the weather, the warmer it is, the quicker

the insects, the flies will arrive and then they'll lay their eggs. >> We had to ologist data the larvae, based on how old the larvae were at the time of the autopsy. He determined that the body had probably been there approximately three to five days. >> But there's one answer, the autopsy can't provide. >> At this point time, we could not determine from what we found at the scene, whether it was a homicide, a suicide,

“or an accident. And that's why we decided that we would need to re-interview everybody and see if”

their stories matched up with the evidence and what we were finding at the scene. The evidence, the information we had, it did make sense. >> After finding Dr. Ron Bedig's body at the bottom of a quarry, investigators are searching for potential witnesses. >> One of our officers had conducted a canvas of the area near the quarry and located a gentleman who was mowing grass near the quarry, during the time frame that Ron Bedig's car would have been arriving at the scene.

That witness informed us that he did see a blonde female with a child and a male driving bond vehicle. >> Detectives are stunned by the new development, knowing exactly who matches that description. Now, the police want to go back and talk to Danielle. While they're playing to do this, detective Chris Weaver from the State College Police Department gets a call from George Ishler. George Ishler had reached out to me and indicated that he had learned through the media that

Ronald Bedig had been found. He seemed upset. He indicated that he started having concerns about Danielle and why she had reported Ronald Bedig missing sooner. >> George tells investigators that on the ride home from Rehobebeth Beach, the previous Friday, tensions were high between Ron and Danielle. He did mention that on the way back that there was an argument between him and Ronald Bedig

over Danielle guy and the way that Ronald Bedig was treating her. Basically, he's looking back

down hindsight saying that he's now seeing and thinking that something was going on with Danielle. >> He also suggested that Danielle had had another band over over to Ron's house while Ron was missing that weekend and really seems to start to turn suspicion on Danielle as being responsible for

we went unannounced in the hopes of catching Danielle alone at the home.

“>> She seemed a little nervous. She didn't seem distraught. We interviewed her starting from the”

beginning. >> Danielle tells detectives that before she met Ron Bedig, she hadn't known much kindness in her life. >> Danielle had a very tragic childhood in upbringing. She was repeatedly sexually abused and physically abused. >> My understanding of her familial atmosphere was negative. I don't think that she was taught morals or value of herself. >> She met her first husband Thomas in high school.

>> I always liked her in school. I was just never told her to have enough. She felt the same

“until a friend of ours took us both up together. We got married in 2003. The marriage was great”

up until we had our son. After he was born, when it our relationship really started falling apart, we started going through custody proceedings. >> After a bitter separation, Danielle lost custody of her son. >> She was traumatized when she lost custody. She didn't have the financial means to challenge the custody issues in court in Florida. >> In her trauma, Danielle moved quickly from one relationship to another. She met her next boyfriend Brandon with whom she had a second son.

>> The relationship with Brandon was very chaotic. They were loving Debbie at first when the baby

“was first born, but after that, it was nothing but fights. >> When the relationship ended in 2016,”

Danielle was desperate to get back on her feet and returned to Pennsylvania.

>> She was always constantly living with people. She's never had an apartment of her own.

She was bouncing between my house, my mom's house, and her dad's house. >> She had two children, one of them was still in her custody. I, young toddler, she was near homelessness, and that's when Ron took Danielle in. >> Danielle told us that Ron took care of her, fed her, and gave her shelter, and was paying for much of the items needed for raising her child. >> Danielle tells investigators, she's often talked to her family about how much Ron means to her. So when he disappeared,

she was frantic. >> She basically gave the same version and a very consistent version of what she

had told the first time to the patrol officers. >> After Danielle commits to her story, detectives reveal Ron's body has been found. >> We alluded to Danielle that George was pointing the finger and telling us that he was suspicious of her. He's also adding that there was an unknown male with Danielle over the weekend that concerned her and she became emotional. >> Danielle denies the accusations, but her reaction tells investigators there is more to the story.

>> After what concerns you? She answered with, she was concerned for the safety of herself and her son. I told her that we could ensure her safety, but she needed to tell us what happened. At that point in time, she immediately made a statement that George had murdered Ronald Beddick and had pushed him off the quarry. When she initially blurred it out, it was surprising, but as she began to tell what happened, it was consistent with our suspicions.

>> Coming up, the investigation becomes a case of he said she said, "She asked where is Ron," he said, "I killed him. I killed him and if you say anything to anybody about it, I'm going to kill you, too." And police hear the details of Ron's terrifying final moments. >> What were you to do in Rehobe's, killed a professor?

and now that she's told them, she's afraid she'll be next.

“>> She said she had nothing to do with it, she says that George Ischler has threatened to kill her”

and that she's afraid she's afraid for a life of her child. >> So at that point in time, she agreed to go with us to the Pennsylvania State police barracks. Danielle's house was a story that George Ischler is going down there to get money because he owes the professor money. He was mad at George Ischler because he discovered the fact that he had been using his credit card for purchases that he wouldn't have authorized.

>> Though the professor had given Danielle access to his credit card for necessities,

she had abused his goodwill by allowing George to use it without Ron's consent. Ron made a clear, George would pay the money back.

“>> George had told Danielle that he had loaned some money to someone in Delaware.”

And if they go there, he could get some of that money back and pay part of the debt that he had run. >> According to Danielle, George was unable to collect the money, so on the ride back, he made a piece offering.

>> George was now telling Ron that he had marijuana plants growing near a quarry.

And they could go there and harvest these plants. >> Ron agrees to this, they get to the quarry mid-afternoon on the 12th and when they get there, Danielle stays with the car and the baby. >> George and Ron disappeared into the woods heading towards the quarry.

“>> Danielle tells investigators that George returned alone.”

>> Danielle told us that she had asked George where Ron was. George said, don't worry, he's tending to the plants. We will come back for him and they departed the area of the quarry and headed back to Ron's house. >> It wasn't until back at the professor's house when she noticed the dirt on George's knees. That she started to suspect that maybe George had done something and that's when she asked George

where it was Ron. He said, I killed him. I killed him and if you say anything to anybody about it, I'm going to kill you too and I'm going to kill your son. She was terrified. >> She says that she's forced to help him get the professor's car out to the crime scene. Park it so that George could stage the scene so it looked like an accidental fall when the professor went back out to tend to his supposed marijuana plants.

>> Danielle says George coerced her into planting water bottles and a flashlight to make it look like Ron went there by himself. Police hypothesized that this is when the witness saw the pair in Ron's vehicle. >> It's very possible that when George and Danielle went back to plant the items that Ron was still alive at the bottom of that quarry. >> Investigators can't be sure Danielle is telling the truth, but for now they have no

evidence she was directly involved with Ron's death. >> Danielle had no motive. What's so ever to take his life. But George and the professor were arguing over money that George out the professor. George didn't want to pay it back or couldn't pay it back. >> She was released that night knowing that she would likely become back for a follow-up interview. It's decided at that point time that we're going to try to reach out to George Ishler. It's now

1130 at night, but we decided just to see if he would be willing to come in. Without hesitation, he agreed. >> When we started to speak about Ron's death and about the scene to him, when we told him that we didn't feel that he was being truthful with us, then he changes his story and then says, Ron and I were messing around, wrestling around to top the quarry, and he fell. And I posed the question, "Did you hurt the professor?"

I think he was slowly starting to realize that Danielle had told us the majority of what had occurred.

“We became more confrontational. I explained the George the first thing he need to do”

was to start being honest with us and tell us exactly what happened with the death of Ron Betic. His next statement was, Danielle talked me into it. Danielle convinced me to kill him. In the early morning hours of August 18th, six days after Ron Betic fell to his death, his friend George Ishler confesses that his niece Danielle Gyer was the driving force behind Ron's murder. He said it was because Danielle wanted his money because of the will. We did not know he

was referring to when he mentioned the will. He explained to us that he had wrote a will knowing that Ron's mental state

“seemed to be diminishing and Ron had signed it.”

Well, it says that Danielle will inherit Ron's house and that George will become the executor of the remainder of his estate.

Danielle Gyer thought he had about a million dollars in Disney stock.

And she believed that she was going to be a recipient. The Disney stock that they thought was worth a million dollars. That was worth about $50,000. According to George, his and Danielle's plan to kill Ron was accelerated when Ron found out how much they'd spent using his credit cards. They were racking up debt. The professor had discovered they had used his credit card after opening up a credit card statement and seeing

all these charges that he wasn't aware of. So both Danielle and George knew that the gig was about the whole thing was coming to an end and Danielle was not going to have anywhere to go and be out in the street with her baby. That was what compelled the trip to rope at beach. What were you to do in Rehoveeth? Kill the professor. What they were really planning on doing was lowering him down to the beach and drowned him and killing him. George goes as far to tell us that

he did attempt it while they were in Rehoveeth. He says he put his hands on Ron and dunked him

“once but he couldn't do it. Did you return to Pennsylvania after that? Yes. What was the plan?”

To take him up in the quarry and push him off. He told Ron that he had marijuana plants at the top of this quarry. What happened why you're up there? Professor and I struggled and then I ended up pushing him off. I looked down afterwards I thought he was dead. At that time of this interview it was about 630 in the morning on Friday morning and George was placed under arrest and subsequently charged with

first-degree murder, third-degree murder, aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit murder and

tampering with evidence. But before investigators can arrest Danielle they have to corroborate George's statement. They obtain a search warrant for George's cell phone and find an incriminating message. We uncovered a tax message that Danielle Gyer had sent to George Islor. The tax message said, "I'm so ready, I'm pissed off." This tax message was determined to be sent while they were in Delaware. There's concerning tax between Danielle Gyer and George Islor.

They raised real questions. Not until police read those tax where there's something concrete to suggest that Ms. Gyer is deeply involved in a conspiracy commit murder. So now one Saturday evening on August 20th we may contact with Danielle Gyer and have her come back in for a follow-up interview.

After hours of questioning Danielle finally confesses.

money from this and that they didn't like the way Ron was talking to them. He was being taken

“advantage of her money. She was placed on her arrest and charged with first-degree murder, aggravated salt,”

and third-degree murder. To prosecutors, the case appears to be open and shut.

But before a trial date can be set, Danielle and George both submit motions to suppress their confessions and plead innocent to the charges. The police had interrogated her for hours. They were all just very soft, very defeated, sounding, yes and no answers. And the police took that to be a confession. After Danielle was arrested, the counselors made arrangements to have a psychologist come in

and meet with her. She had a hard life, you know. She said that she had been sexually abused,

Ron had taken her in and she was in trouble. A lot of people were really, really, really concerned that a jury was going to feel sympathy for an empathy for her. So that was the most

“important thing in this trial was that that she not get away with us.”

In April 2018, more than a year and a half after Ronald Betig's death, Danielle Gyer and her uncle George Ishler stand trial for his murder. Danielle's case was joined with George Ishler's case, so whenever we went to court, she had to sit at the same table as George. She had to look at George. It was very, very intimidating. Danielle and George claim their confessions were coerced and are therefore inadmissible. But when the judge rules against them, their attorneys must

re-stratageize. We not only had one, but we had two defendants that testified and actually took the stand themselves. When George takes the stand, the story he tells is different from the one he gave to investigators. He said that the professor actually committed suicide. George Ishler testified that when they were at the quarry wall at the cliff ledge, that the professor literally almost like a cartoon character started acting

hilarious and hot of sorts that he stood there and then he jumped off sideways. It was the craziest damn thing you've ever heard. Danielle Gyer's strategy was much clearer. It was the paint George Ishler as a murderer and just an evil, dangerous human that Danielle Gyer was very afraid of. Danielle testifies she was unaware her uncle was planning to kill Ron and that he forced her to help cover it up. Danielle said there had been no agreement no

conspiracy. George acted on his own. As for the text message allegedly proving Danielle was the mastermind, her attorney argues the

“prosecution is reading too much into it. I believe that the statement or her text message was,”

I am pissed, I'm so ready. The police read into that that she was ready to kill the professor. That's not what Danielle met by that at all. Yeah, she was pissed. They'd driven all the way from stakeholder to Rehobe Beach and then they had been in this motel room for several days. She was pissed to George for doing whatever George was off doing. She was ready to come back to

stay college. On cross examination, she admitted that the professor would have never gotten in the

car. If she had not been there, I asked her at the very end, did I hear you say correctly that if you had not gone to Rehobe Beach, the professor bedding would still be alive and she said yes. After a six-day trial, the jury renders its verdict. Both defendants were found guilty of first-degree murder and in Pennsylvania, that's a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. There was such relief. You know, I'm if you can call it relief, you know, it doesn't bring

I believe that George Ishtler got what he had deserved in the end. I don't believe that Danielle

“to Gargott would she deserved. Had the jury heard this psychological testimony, I think the”

outcome would have been different. Why did Danielle snap? She lost custody of her kid in Florida

and she needed money. She wanted that kid back desperately. She thought Dr. Betty was a million

“dollar price tag. I think that was part of the plan from the very beginning for her to get in there”

form a fake relationship and gain his trust and then they were going to exploit that.

Ron was a very intriguing and complex person and he had this one side of him that was like just

“brilliant and intelligent. Just have this great sorrow what happened. You always look at things”

that way in hindsight and just say if only I had done this or if only I had done that. But our whole family has tried as best as we can to, you know, put the past in the past and to move forward and to instead celebrate the goodness that Ron brought this world. you