CRIME HUNTER: Gal pal’s twisted plot to murder grieving professor

Dr. Ronald Bettig agreed to let Danelle, 34, and her child move in, not knowing there was a plot afoot to separate him from his money

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Published May 30, 2026  •  Last updated 25 minutes ago  •  4 minute read

VICTIM: University of Pennsylvania professor Dr. Ronald Bettig. UP

When Frank Sinatra sang “That’s Life”, he knew what he was talking about. How fickle life can be and how it can turn on a dime – for better and sometimes much worse.

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Popular University of Pennsylvania professor Dr. Ronald Bettig, 55, might have given a first-hand account. What had once been a learned, quiet life full of happiness was shattered when his wife died unexpectedly in 2011.

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Her departure from this mortal coil sent Bettig into an emotional and physical tailspin.

Worsening health woes

“I know how deeply he loved her,” his brother, Fred Bettig, said on Oxygen.  “And he would tell me that all the time – how much he missed her. He was losing weight. And he wasn’t going out. And that’s also the point where he started to have some memory issues.”

Bettig’s health problems were worsening by the day. He could no longer teach, so he took a sabbatical.

Danelle Geier was digging for gold. FACEBOOK

During this time of despair, he befriended a man named George Ishler at a bodega in State College, PA. Ishler had worries too, telling the academic his troubled niece, Danelle Geier, had a young child and was homeless.

Bettig oddly agreed to let Danelle, 34, and her child move in. It is unlikely he knew there was a plot afoot to separate him from his money.

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Both Ishler and Danelle were living on the fringe.

Planned from the beginning

Danelle had already lost a custody fight in Florida. She needed the dough to get her child back.

“I think Danelle, her moving in and becoming a girlfriend, I think that was planned from the very beginning,” former detective Christopher Weaver said. “For her to get in there and form a fake relationship and gain his trust. And they were gonna exploit that.”

Danelle Geier

On Aug. 15, 2016, the media professor was reported missing by his worried housekeepers. Cops began looking at the scenario as a missing persons case – at first.

Then they met Danelle and her uncle, George Ishler.

No, they had no idea. They had last seen the prof on Aug. 12 after a beach day in Deleware. She went to bed and when she got up, Bettig was gone.

“They indicated he was depressed over the loss of his wife from several years prior,” Weaver said. “He was having some mental health issues. They thought that something bad had happened to Ronald Bettig.”

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Found his abandoned vehicle

Cops later found his vehicle near an abandoned quarry. At the bottom of a 90-foot drop was the professor. Investigators determined Bettig survived the fall for about two days before he died.

His relationship with Danelle came into laser focus. The age difference stood out and the fact that the relationship turned so romantic so fast.

UNCLE GEORGE: George Ishler.

“Danelle told us that Ron took care of her, fed her and gave her shelter,” former Pennsylvania State Police investigator Brian Wakefield said. “And he was paying for many of the items needed for raising her child.”

In murder investigations, when there is a multi-layered plot, getting out front is a tried and true course of action. George Ishler ratted his niece out, telling cops he suspected she was involved. There was also another sexual playmate hidden from Bettig.

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Danelle told detectives her uncle was the killer. She had nothing to do with it and Ishler threatened her with death leaving her terrified for her life and that of her child. He wanted the doctor’s money and Bettig had allegedly caught him using his credit cards.

Payment in pot plants

Instead, of paying back Bettig, he offered pot plants as payment. The trio and her son headed to the quarry to harvest the plants.

Ishler, she claimed, returned alone before telling her that he had killed him.

Now, Ishler was back in the frame. Knowing the jig was up, he copped to killing Bettig but said his niece was the mastermind.

Danelle Geier

“His next statement was, ‘Danelle talked me into it. Danelle convinced me to kill him,’” Wakefield recalled. “He said it was because Danelle wanted (Bettig’s) money because of the will. He explained to us that he had written a will, knowing that Ron’s mental state seemed to be diminishing, and Ron had signed it.”

There was the motive. She would get his house and her uncle, the executor of the will, would get the remainder of the estate.

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Miscalculated professor’s riches

As lunkheads often do, they miscalculated the riches they believed were within their grasp. Danelle had it in her head that Bettig had $1 million in Disney stock and it would be all hers. It was actually worth $50,000.

But when Bettig discovered he was being scammed by niece and uncle that stopped her streets are paved with gold machinations in their tracks.

University of Pennsylvania professor Dr. Ronald Bettig. UP

Ishler alleged that after Dr. Bettig discovered they’d been running up his credit card, Danelle’s relationship was now in jeopardy. And she would be out on street.

Danelle and Ishler were tried together and convicted of first-degree murder in April 2018. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors later said losing custody of her child in Florida was the root of the sick plot. Danelle thought Bettig’s money would solve all her problems.

She was wrong.

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