A Centre County woman was declared legally dead this week. Here are other unsolved cases
Editor’s note: This story has been adapted from a CDT story published in October 2021.
A Centre County woman not heard from in nearly a decade was declared legally dead Wednesday, offering a reminder the pursuit of closure can occasionally be an agonizing quest.
Sometimes unsolved cases from bygone eras can be pieced together with advances in technology, while others can be cracked with one new conversation.
Centre County has more than a handful of prominent cases that remain unsolved. Here’s a look at some that have captured the county’s interest for decades.
Betsy Aardsma, fatally stabbed in 1969
It’s been more than a half-century since Aardsma, 22, was killed the day after Thanksgiving inside Penn State’s Pattee Library.
The graduate student from Michigan who loved literature and thought of joining the Peace Corps died after she was stabbed in the chest. Nobody has been charged with her death.
Dana Bailey, fatally stabbed in 1987
Bailey, 21, was killed at her South Allen Street apartment. The killer watched Bailey from a separate building before breaking through her apartment window and stabbing her during spring break, State College police said.
More than 800 people were interviewed, but nobody has been charged with her death.
Brenda Condon, missing since 1991
Condon, 28, was bartending in Spring Township the night before her disappearance. Employees arrived the next day and found her 1986 Mercury Capri in the parking lot the next day, but there was no sign of Condon.
For the better part of three decades, that’s largely all anyone has known about her disappearance. Her two children were left behind.
Cindy Song, missing since 2001
Song, 21, disappeared from her off-campus apartment in the wee hours after a Halloween party. That was the last time anyone is reported reported to have seen the graphic arts major from South Korea.
Several unsubstantiated theories have been put forward about her whereabouts, leaving unanswered what happened after she was dropped off at her apartment in Ferguson Township.
Ray Gricar, declared legally dead in 2011
Gricar, 59, was Centre County’s longtime top prosecutor when he disappeared in April 2005. The former district attorney was reported missing after his red and white Mini Cooper was found abandoned in a Union County parking lot.
No definitive answers have been found, but everything from homicide to suicide to Gricar deliberately walking away has been considered by investigators.
The latter two are the leading theories, especially after police reviewed Gricar’s search history and found that someone searched “how to fry a hard drive.”
Gricar, whom friends and peer described as a quiet man, was months away from retirement at the time of his disappearance. Bellefonte police led the investigation for years, but later turned it over the state police.
Jennifer Cahill-Shadle, declared legally dead in 2023
Cahill-Shadle was a 48-year-old mother of three at the time of her disappearance. She was last seen between 10-11 p.m. May 15, 2014 walking out of a restaurant along North Atherton Street in Patton Township.
Her case is “presumed to be a homicide,” Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna said in December 2018, but no one has been charged.
On Sept. 27, Centre County President Judge Jonathan Grine ruled she could be declared legally dead, with one of her children saying she and her siblings hope the declaration brings “some form of much-needed closure.”
The investigation into her whereabouts remains open, attorney Jessica L. Fisher wrote in a 22-page petition.
This story was originally published September 28, 2023 at 1:34 PM.