Key facts
- Name: Evelyn Grace Hartley
- Born: November 22, 1938, La Crosse County, Wisconsin
- Age at disappearance: 14
- Last seen: October 24, 1953
- Location: The Rasmussen home, La Crosse, Wisconsin, while babysitting
- Height / build: 5’7″, teenage girl
- Status: Still missing — never found; case unsolved as of 2026 (officially listed as presumed deceased, no remains ever recovered)
- Investigating agency: La Crosse Police Department, La Crosse, Wisconsin
The house on Hoeschler Drive
On the evening of October 24, 1953 — homecoming weekend at La Crosse State College — fourteen-year-old Evelyn Hartley walked to a house on Hoeschler Drive to babysit. Viggo Rasmussen, a professor at the college, had hired the daughter of a fellow professor to watch his twenty-month-old daughter while he and his wife went out. Evelyn was supposed to check in with her parents by phone at 8:30. She never called.
Her father, Richard, tried the Rasmussen house several times. No answer. Worried, he drove over.
What he found is one of the most disturbing crime scenes in Wisconsin history. The doors were locked. The lights were on, the radio playing. The house was in chaos — furniture moved around, Evelyn’s school books scattered, her shoes in different rooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. Her broken glasses lay upstairs. Every room in the house was locked except one, a back room in the basement, where a window stood open with its screen missing — the screen found leaning against the outside wall. Beneath the window sat the homeowner’s short stepladder. There were pry marks on other windows. Footprints. And blood — inside the house and out in the yard, with bloody handprints found about a hundred feet away, in a garage and a nearby house.
The twenty-month-old was asleep in her crib, unharmed.
Evelyn was gone.
What followed was one of the largest searches in Wisconsin history: some 2,000 volunteers combed the area, and in the year after she vanished, investigators questioned more than 3,500 people. They never found her. Seventy-three years later, they still haven’t.
The suspects
The obvious horror of the scene — a violent intruder, a girl taken through a window — produced suspects but no answers.
The most famous name ever attached to the case is Ed Gein, the Plainfield murderer whose crimes would later inspire Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs. Gein did babysitting work locally, and when he was arrested in 1957, he was questioned about Evelyn. He denied any involvement. No DNA evidence has ever linked him to her, and investigators cleared him. The association persists mostly because of who Gein was, not because of anything tying him to Hoeschler Drive — and in 2025, Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story dragged the rumor back into the light, prompting a fresh round of explainers noting, again, that the link was never confirmed.
In the 2000s, new evidence came to light implicating several other men. By then, so many decades had passed that authorities couldn’t talk to most of them. Whether modern DNA work can still do what 3,500 interviews couldn’t remains an open question.
Some of Evelyn’s bloodstained clothing — believed to be hers — was later found miles from the house. It was the closest thing to a trail the case ever produced, and it led nowhere.
Theories: what might have happened
A violent stranger abduction. The scene reads like a textbook forced entry and struggle: the ladder, the removed screen, the pry marks, the blood inside and out, the scattered belongings. Someone came for Evelyn — or came into the house and found her — and took her through the basement window. What undercuts a named suspect: despite the scale of the investigation, no intruder was ever identified, and the blood evidence never produced a match.
She was specifically targeted. Evelyn was covering for the Rasmussens’ usual babysitter that night. Was the house the target, or was she? If someone watched her walk in and the parents walk out, it was a crime of opportunity against a girl alone with a sleeping toddler. If someone knew the family’s routine, it was planned. The evidence can’t distinguish between the two — which is why the “who” has stayed blank for seven decades.
Ed Gein. The theory that won’t die, and the one with the least to support it. Gein was questioned, denied involvement, and was never linked by evidence. He remains a suspect only in the popular imagination, kept alive by each new dramatization of his crimes. It should be treated as what it is: rumor with a famous name attached.
Evelyn Hartley was fourteen years and eleven months old — a month shy of fifteen — when she walked into that house. Her father found her shoes, her broken glasses, and blood. He never found her. The case file in La Crosse has outlived everyone who was in that house that night except the baby, and it is still open.
Have information?
Contact the La Crosse Police Department, La Crosse, Wisconsin. In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- November 22, 1938 — Evelyn Grace Hartley is born in La Crosse County, Wisconsin.
- October 24, 1953, evening — Evelyn babysits the Rasmussens’ 20-month-old daughter; misses her 8:30 p.m. check-in call.
- October 24, 1953, night — Her father finds the house locked and ransacked, with blood, a ladder at an open basement window, and the child unharmed. Evelyn is gone.
- Fall 1953 — One of Wisconsin’s largest searches: ~2,000 volunteers; 3,500+ people questioned within a year.
- 1957 — Ed Gein is questioned after his arrest; denies involvement; no evidence links him.
- 2000s — New evidence implicates several men; too much time has passed to pursue most leads.
- 2025 — Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story renews public attention and the Gein rumor.
- Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Evelyn Hartley still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Evelyn Hartley has been missing for nearly 73 years. She was never found, and the case remains unsolved. (Her official status is listed as presumed deceased, but no remains have ever been recovered and no one was ever charged.)
Was Evelyn Hartley ever found?
No. Despite one of the largest searches in Wisconsin history and more than 3,500 interviews, no trace of Evelyn has ever been found, apart from bloodstained clothing believed to be hers discovered miles from the house.
How old would Evelyn Hartley be today?
Evelyn was born November 22, 1938 — she would turn 88 in November 2026.
Was Ed Gein responsible for Evelyn Hartley’s disappearance?
There is no evidence of it. Gein was questioned after his 1957 arrest and denied involvement; no DNA or physical evidence has ever linked him to Evelyn. Investigators cleared him. The association is rumor amplified by dramatizations of Gein’s crimes.
What happened at the house that night?
Evelyn’s father found signs of a violent struggle: furniture moved, her shoes in separate rooms, her broken glasses, an open basement window with the screen removed, a stepladder beneath it, pry marks, footprints, and blood inside the house and in the yard. The toddler she was babysitting was asleep and unharmed.
How can I help?
Share this case file. If you have any information, no matter how old, contact the La Crosse Police Department.
Sources
- Reference: Wikipedia, “Disappearance of Evelyn Hartley” (retrieved Oct 2026).
- News: The Tab, “The Ed Gein Story: The dark true case of babysitter Evelyn Hartley” (Oct 7, 2025).
- Media: True Crime All The Time Unsolved podcast, “Evelyn Hartley”; The Path Went Chilly podcast, “Evelyn Hartley” (2 parts); Netflix, Monster: The Ed Gein Story (2025).
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.
Correction (October 2026): Evelyn’s age at disappearance corrected from 15 to 14 — born November 22, 1938, she disappeared October 24, 1953, i.e. 14 years and 11 months old (Wikipedia infobox lists age 14).