On the morning of March 5, 1987, Dana Bailey was found by her mother in her apartment, murdered with a steak knife from her own kitchen.

Nearly 40 years later, the case remains unsolved.

The 21-year-old was a Penn State senior studying health planning and administration and a part-time employee at The Corner Room. On the night of her death, she had just returned from Washington, D.C., visiting her fiancé on spring break.

Her mother found her tied to a chair and blindfolded in her one-bedroom apartment. State College police didn’t confirm if Bailey had been sexually assaulted, but they believed it was a sex-related crime, as nothing of value was taken from her home. Police believed she was stabbed in bed and posed later. Her body was visible from the window.

Bailey called out of work at The Corner Room the day of the crime, telling her roommate she was too tired to go in. She went to an exercise class on Beaver Avenue, presumably returned to her apartment, and called her fiancé, Gregg Greenburg, at 8:30 p.m.

Greenburg was never a priority in the investigation, as she called his home phone in Washington, D.C.

At the time, police released little information to avoid hindering the investigation.

It was later revealed that a suspect had been surveilling Bailey’s second-floor apartment from a nearby building getting remodeled.

The suspect seemingly had a hideout in a vacant area undergoing a remodel above what was then Ben & Jerry’s on South Allen Street. The suspect crossed rooftop windows and hoisted themselves into her unlocked window with a bucket. They cut her screen with a sharp object and entered the apartment, a unit above what is now Kondu State College.

The official cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the heart and lungs.

State College police said they interviewed over 1,000 people. Suspects were narrowed down to a smaller group, some of them State College residents, others out-of-towners.

About a week after the murder, female renters said their apartment was broken into and trashed. The only thing taken was their undergarments.

Later on, the roommates began getting obscene phone calls telling them the caller knew where they were at all times. Police found fingerprints at the scene, but didn’t verify whether or not the two cases were related.

Over the years, authorities have offered multiple monetary rewards for information.

In May 2026, a Centre County judge ruled against the release of Bailey’s autopsy report. Author Derek Sherwood requested the report, claiming that “foundational” details of the crime were not public knowledge. The judge was asked by District Attorney Bernie Cantorna to keep the report private.

Anyone with details of the crime can report them to State College Police at 814-234-7150.

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