Carol Rofstad: Murdered in 1975 at Illinois State University

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Carol Rofstad was murdered on the Illinois State University campus in Normal, Illinois, in 1975.

About the Case

21-year-old Elk Grove, Illinois native Carol Rofstad attended college at Illinois State University (ISU) in December 1975.

On December 23, 1975, the university was out for Christmas break, but Carol stayed behind to work at a retail store. Around noon that day, someone found Carol beaten and unconscious outside her sorority house at 602 S. Fell Ave. Police found an 18-inch railroad tie nearby. Carol had been lying there for about 12 hours before she was found. Her purse contained money, and there was no evidence of a sexual assault. Carol died on Christmas Eve.

Two women in the sorority house said they didn’t see or hear anything.

Between 10:00 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. on December 22, two white males between 18 and 25 were seen in the area. One of the men was carrying a club.

According to the Chicago Tribune, “in 2001, Normal police sent clothing and other evidence to FBI analysts in a last-ditch effort to solve the case. FBI found fingerprints on one item of Carol’s.  It had never been analyzed for fingerprints before because police did not consider it a significant piece of evidence.”

However, it is unclear if anything came from the fingerprints.

In 2008, investigators at Morton College’s Institute of Cold Case Solution in Cicero began digging into the case. They conducted more than 250 interviews and gave Normal police around 50 pages of documents. However, the case remains unsolved.

True Crime Diva’s Thoughts

This is a tough one because there isn’t a lot of info out there. However, I believe that whoever killed Carol either knew her personally or was hired by someone to kill her. There was no evidence of sexual assault or robbery, so there go those motives. It had to be personal. There’s no way this was random.

So, who would want Carol dead? Did someone become upset with her before her death? A jealous sorority sister? Did cops extensively interview the two sisters who were in the house? What about friends of Carol’s? Any men in her life? Who would benefit from her death?

It was suggested that the murder weapon was the railroad tie because it was near the victim. Was the railroad tie ever tested? Obviously, if it were the weapon, Carol’s blood would have been on it. I doubt fingerprints would have been found because it was December and cold. The killer could have been wearing gloves.

Where exactly “outside the sorority house” was she found? Front, side, back? I’m assuming it was the front, but a pic of police at the scene looks like it could be in the house’s back.

The sorority house on Fell Avenue was torn down recently and turned into an apartment building. But I managed to find a pic of it from a few years ago when the house was a fraternity house.

Was Carol in the house, and the person lured her out? Or was she coming home from somewhere, and the killer was waiting for her? If it was the latter, then the killer KNEW what she was doing that night and when she’d be home.

You would think that part of the incident would have been heard by the two sorority sisters in the house that night. I say this because I think there might have been a verbal confrontation between Carol and her killer or killers before being beaten unless she was ambushed. Of course, I realize that it was around Midnight so that the girls could have been sleeping. I’m just curious what her relationship with them was like.

Someone out there has to know something about this crime, but it’s going to take that person to come forward with information before it can be solved. It’s been almost 41 years since Carol’s murder, so there is an excellent chance her killer is dead.