The murder of a Penn State professor in Centre County is the subject of a long-running true crime series’ latest episode.
Oxygen network’s “Snapped” explores the death of Ronald Bettig, who was found dead at the bottom of a Potter Township quarry in August 2016, in an hourlong episode that debuted on Sunday night. His friends Danelle R. Geier and George G. Ishler, Jr. were found guilty in 2018 of murdering the eccentric associate professor of communications.
“Snapped: Danelle Geier” is now available on-demand through cable providers, streaming devices and streaming services including Peacock and YouTube TV. The series, which premiered in 2004, typically “profiles fascinating cases of women accused of murder.”
Among those interviewed in the episode are former State College police Detective Chris Weaver, former state Trooper Brian Wakefield, Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna, former Centre County Public Defender Deb Lux, Centre County Coroner Scott Sayers, Bettig’s brother Fred, members of Geier’s family and StateCollege.com editor Geoff Rushton, who covered the case.
Bettig, who was 56 at the time of his death, joined the Penn State faculty in 1988 and specialized in teaching and research on the political economy of communications.
Described as a quirky and passionate educator, Bettig was in a deep depression and on leave from Penn State when he struck up a friendship with Ishler based on their interest in marijuana.
In early 2016, Ishler introduced Bettig to Geier, who Ishler said was his niece and who was near homelessness after returning to Pennsylvania with her young child. Geier and her child soon began living at Bettig’s home, and she said she and Bettig had a romantic relationship. Family members and colleagues said Bettig’s mood improved and that he enjoyed having someone who cared for him.
By that summer, though, Geier and Ishler had been using Bettig’s credit card without his knowledge, and the professor had signed a will that left his home to Geier and named Ishler his estate’s executor. After discovering the bills, Bettig was upset and he also told his brother he did not want Ishler in his life anymore.
Bettig was reported missing on Aug. 15, when Geier and Ishler told police they had not seen him since they all returned from a trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware three days earlier.
The professor was found at the bottom of the Blackhawk Quarry off Rimmey Road on Aug. 17. A medical examiner said that after the 75-foot fall he broke both arms, both femurs, his hip and his jaw, but may have been alive for two days before dying.
After a witness reported seeing a man and a woman with a young child at the scene, Geier and Ishler became suspects. Through interviews police determined that the pair believed they stood to inherit a significant amount of money from Bettig and initially plotted for Ishler to kill him in what would appear to be a drowning accident during the trip to Delaware. When that failed, Ishler told him he had marijuana plants growing near the quarry that they could sell to pay back money he owed to Bettig.
After an hourslong interview with investigators, Ishler admitted to pushing Betting off the ledge. He and Geier later returned to the scene to items to make it appear Bettig had been there alone.
At trial, Ishler claimed Bettig began acting erratically and jumped off the ledge — a claim prosecutors said he never made before. Geier, meanwhile, said she had no prior knowledge that Ishler planned to kill Bettig, and that when she learned what he had done he threatened to kill her and her children.
Both were found guilty after a six-day trial and sentenced to life in prison. They’re initial appeals were rejected, but both have continued to appeal, arguing in part that statements they made to the police should have been suppressed and that their cases should have been severed.
Geier is incarcerated at SCI-Muncy and Ishler is SCI-Coal Township.
“They took advantage of a fellow human being who was in a compromised and weakened state and they thought they could do the same thing with 12 jurors,’ Cantorna said in 2018. ‘”It is one of the craziest murder cases you’ll ever see and I hope to God to never see another one like it again.”
He also added at the time that Bettig should not be forgotten.
“He marched to a different drummer but he was a brilliant man and a man before his time,” Cantorna said. “He was writing books about the media and that you need to have a critical eye and ear for the source of information because everyone has an agenda. He was writing this 10 and 15 years ago. He was very critical of social media and cell phones. If he were alive he would be talking about what we’re seeing in our society today.
“He had years to live and he is gone all too soon.”
