Danelle Geier

a quirky college professor vanishes without a trace you would have spotted 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's 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 you and a terrifying story of manipulation betrayal and greed a witness informed us that he did see a blonde female and a male at the scene what they were really planning on doing was luring 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 they 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 court and push him nestled in the lush nitney 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 we're a rural county uh with residents who have go back 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 police department received a call for a missing persons a gentleman that lived in lamont the callers say they're friends of dr ronald bedig a 55 year old professor they reported that ronald bedig had been missing for the entire weekend they were calling from their house on a monday ronald bedig 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 geyer 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 our patrol officers responded to the bedig residents to see you know if they could locate him or learn where he may be when they arrived danielle geyer and george ishler were at the residence danielle geyer described herself as ronald bedig's girlfriend george ishler described himself as danielle geyer's uncle and a friend of ronald bedig george and danielle confirmed they were the ones who went with ron to rehoboth beach in delaware a five-hour drive from state college they stayed at a hotel for a few days before returning with the professor on august 12th danielle geyer indicated they had last seen ronald bedig on friday late friday night into 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 residence they had serious concern they indicated he was depressed over the loss of his wife from several years prior he was having some mental health issues they thought that something bad had happened to ronald bedig the main issue was where was ronald bedig and where was his vehicle ronald bedig was born in st joseph michigan in 1961 and grew up alongside a younger brother and sister he liked very simple things wanting to be outside and being a part of uh 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 and to work hard 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 he specifically taught the political economy of communications he authored two books related to that ron's lectures made him a popular if eccentric 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 my mom and dad he was a guy who had been around for a while he probably would have been wearing a hawaiian shirt flip-flops and a pair of shorts longish hair you know looks like somebody who grew up in the 60s he was a friendly individual he was the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it 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 and he was married to his second daughter ron was married twice he had a son and daughter with his first wife he met his first wife and he was married twice he had a son and daughter with his first wife he met his first wife once he went away to college they were 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 genie 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 genie 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 amicably divorced in the late 90s they remained very close but in 2011 tragedy struck when genie 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 genie'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 in 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 in ron about the struggles his niece danielle geyer 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 him calling me and saying you know the thought of a person living in their car with a young child is just something that i i can't let that go in 2016 ron gave danielle and 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 him he had purpose as he started having more and more conversations with danielle um 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 and the baby he was a very good man he was always helping my sister get the things she needed what danielle geyer was to dr bedding 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 danielle tells police she's been trying to help ron with his memory loss and keeping track of his 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 um 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 a 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 bedig's 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 it was a missing person it would generate people calling in obviously the 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 rehoboth 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 9-1-1 dispatch center that ronald bedig's 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 it appeared to have been sitting there for several days dr bedig's vehicle has been a turnout next to a farmer's property and to the left and up the hill is an abandoned quarry myself and my supervisor respond to the location we also notify at that point in 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 bedig was in the area so it's a limestone quarry that's being dug out and it's a 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 a 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 bedding we proceeded to enter the quarry from the bottom we found a clothed body laying at the rocks it was very obvious that this was dr bedding if you ran his driver's license record he was literally wearing the same hawaiian shirt in that picture the state police took over the investigation and the crime scene processing at that point in time it went from being the missing person's case to a death investigation so we're now shifting gears and trying to figure out what happened to ronald bedding we just did a basic cursory exam there 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 bedding's both of his feet were were terribly crushed that his 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 were functioning we felt that given the fractures where they was located that he hit feet first it was approximately 90 feet and the cause of death was determined to become 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 quicker the insects the flies will arrive and then they'll lay their eggs the entomologist dated 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 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 didn't make sense after finding dr ron beddig'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 beddig'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 the bronze 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 planning to do this, Detective Chris Weaver from the State College Police Department gets a call from George Ischler. George Ischler had reached out to me and indicated that he had learned through the media that Ronald Beddick had been found. He seemed upset. He indicated that he started having concerns about Danielle and why she hadn't reported Ronald Beddick missing sooner. George tells investigators that, "On the ride home from Rehoboth 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 Beddick over Danielle Geyer and the way that Ronald Beddick was treating her. Basically, he's looking back now in hindsight, saying that he's now seeing and thinking that something was going on with Danielle. He also suggested that Danielle had had another man 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 Ron Beddick's death. The following morning, which would have been now Thursday, the 18th, 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 Beddick, she hadn't known much kindness in her life. Danielle had a very tragic childhood and 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 just never told her. So I didn't know if she felt the same until a friend of ours hooked us both up and told me that she was a good girl. I didn't know if she felt the same until a friend of ours hooked us both up and told me that she was a good girl. We got married in 2003. The marriage was great up until we had our son. After he was born is when 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 lovey-dovey 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, a 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. And 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. I asked her, "How did you know that? What do you know?" 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 the statement that George had murdered Ronald Betteg and had pushed him off the quarry. When she initially blurted 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 Rehoboth? Kill the professor. Kill the professor. Kill the professor. Kill the professor. Kill the professor. According to Danielle Geyer, her uncle, George Ischler, is the one who killed Ron Betteg. 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, that she's afraid, she's afraid for the life of her child. So at that point in time, she agreed to go with us to the Pennsylvania State Police barracks. Danielle tells 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 had 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 good will by allowing George to use it without Ron's consent. Ron made it 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 owed Ron. According to Danielle, George was unable to collect the money. So on the ride back, he made a peace 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, they get the money back. 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. about Ron's death and about the scene to him. 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 at the top of the quarry, and he fell. And I posed the question, 'Did you hurt the professor?' And he said, 'No.'" From that point on, he became a little more defensive. 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 to George the first thing he needed to do was to start being honest with us and tell us exactly what happened with the death of Ron Beddick. 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 Beddick fell to his death, his friend, George Ischler, confesses that his niece, Danielle Geyer, 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 what 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. The will says that Danielle will inherit Ron's house and that George will become the executor of the remainder of his estate. Danielle Geyer thought he had about a million dollars in Disney stock. 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 up. 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 Rehoboth Beach. I killed a professor. Patty 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, if you can call it relief, you know, it doesn't bring anybody back, but at least you feel like somebody will pay for what had happened. I believe that George Ischler got what he deserved in the end. I don't believe that Danielle Degas got what she deserved. Had the jury heard the 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 and form a fake relationship and gain his trust, and that 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, intelligent, just have this great sorrow of what happened, and then he was like, "I don't know what to do with my life." 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 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. ♪ ♪