Two people will spend the rest of their lives in prison after a Centre County jury on Monday found them guilty of murdering Penn State professor Ronald Bettig in August 2016.

After a six-day trial it took the jury about two hours to deliver guilty verdicts on all charges, including first-degree murder, against Danelle Rae Geier, 34, and George Gene Ishler, Jr., 41. They also were convicted on charges of third-degree murder, aggravated assault and tampering with evidence, and Ishler was found guilty of unsworn falsification to authorities.

“It speaks to the hard work that State College police and state police put in on the front end,” Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna said. “I’m just the lawyer. They had done all the work and all the evidence was there.”

Geier and Ishler were convicted of luring the 56-year-old Bettig, of Lemont, to a Potter Township quarry on Aug. 12, 2016, when Ishler pushed Bettig off a ledge, causing him to fall 75 feet to the ground below. They later returned to the quarry to plant items to make it appear Bettig had been there alone before reporting him missing three days later. 

Bettig’s body was found on Aug. 17, 2016. Forensic pathologist Dr. Harry Kamerow testified that the communications professor broke both arms, both femurs, his hip and his jaw, but may have been alive for two days before dying of dehydration.

Prosecutors said Geier and Ishler believed they would benefit financially from a will that Bettig hand wrote a few months earlier.

Karen Muir, the attorney for Ishler, contended that Bettig committed suicide in front of her client and that Ishler panicked. 

Deborah Lux, representing Geier, said that Ishler acted alone and that Geier only became aware of what happened afterward. She argued that Bettig had taken Geier and her child into his home and provided for them, and that Geier had no reason to want to kill him.

“I don’t know of a case where the defendants testified in a manner like they did in this case. It’s hard to imagine another case like this and I think the jurors might have had the same reaction,” Cantorna said.

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