Crime Immemorial

The year of 1975 was nearly over when a young college student was slain in Illinois, in a brutal and senseless attack.

Twenty-one-year-old Carol Rofstad was living in Normal, Illinois, attending classes at Illinois State University and working at a nearby retail store during her off hours. It was only a few days before Christmas, and most of the other young women in her sorority house had gone home for the holiday break. Carol, though, had stayed behind to pick up some extra shifts at her job.

At around noon on December 23rd, 1975, Carol Rofstad was found lying on the ground just outside of the Delta Zeta sorority house where she lived. She had been beaten in the head with an eighteen-inch length of railroad tie, which was recovered not far away. Though she was still alive when she was found, she succumbed to her injuries on Christmas Eve. Authorities determined that she had been attacked approximately twelve hours before being discovered.

Carol had been neither raped nor robbed, and neither of the two other young women remaining in the sorority house had seen or heard anything unusual on the evening of December 22nd, when Carol was likely assaulted.

However, a few other witnesses came forward and stated that they had seen two white males, one tall and one short, and both aged between eighteen and twenty-five. These two individuals were allegedly spotted wandering around the area between ten and ten-fifteen p.m. on December 22nd, and one of them appeared to be carrying a club. Composite sketches of the two men were produced and circulated, and while they did stir up numerous leads, but they ultimately did not result in any suspects being arrested.

Interestingly, according to some sources, Carol Rofstad had been the victim of an attempted rape and murder in the Delta Zeta sorority house which had occurred in July of the previous year. The unknown assailant reportedly cut the building’s phone line and broke in, making his way to Carol’s room and trying to strangle her. Carol apparently screamed and fought with her attacker, at which point the man threw her across the room, breaking her nose. Carol was evidently never able to identify the man.

The investigation stagnated until 1977, when police arrested a mentally ill man who confessed to the crime. The individual quickly recanted, however, and no other evidence linked him to the crime. He was subsequently released.

In 2001, authorities reexamined the case, obtaining a clear set of fingerprints from cold case evidence that had been overlooked during the initial inquiry. The fingerprints, sadly, do not match anyone on file with the FBI, nor do they match the two main suspects that detectives had their eye on when the murder first occurred.

In 2008, former Chicago homicide detective and cold case researcher George Seibel began his own inquiry, and later claimed that he had discovered a person of interest in the area who had a history of violence toward women and was believed to have made threats against at least eight people.

Since then, there does not appear to have been much progress in the investigation, and it remains a mystery whether Carol Rofstad was the victim of a random murder or was targeted by someone she knew. The Rofstad family is still hoping to find justice.