This week, we introduce a gripping voice in true crime storytelling.
Whether you’re discovering author Bob Cyphers ahead of upcoming releases, or simply drawn to the cases that refuse to fade with time, this short feature pulls readers into one of the most haunting unsolved murders in Illinois State University history.
What Happened at Delta Zeta? revisits the 1975 killing of Carol Rofstad — a crime marked not only by its brutality, but by the chilling silence that followed. It’s a story that lingers… not just because of the unanswered questions, but because of what was never memorialized, never publicly mourned, and never resolved.
WHAT HAPPENED AT DELTA ZETA?
A new apartment complex sits at 602 S. Fell Avenue in Normal, Illinois. Featuring some 60 rooms, it is just a short walk to campus for students at Illinois State University. You watch the hustle and bustle of the young people passing by, and you wonder.
Do they know?
Around 8:45 p.m. on December 22, 1975, Carol was seen walking near the intersection of Fell and Irving Street, just minutes from home. Around 10 p.m., two men, described as being in their young 20s, one seen holding some sort of large club, were spotted near the area.
Somewhere in between those sightings, in the front yard of her Delta Zeta sorority, Carol Rofstad met her murderer. And incredibly, the clock ticked. And ticked. And kept ticking. It was now noon on December 23. A passerby walked by the sorority house and saw someone laying on the ground. As they walked closer, they heard her moaning. It was Carol’s unconscious body, barely clinging to life, frostbite setting in from the freezing cold, 12 hours after medical examiners believed she was beaten.
It was the fourth time in a year and a half that a woman had been attacked on the same block, in front of the same sorority house. Police cars flooded the scene and the campus. With Christmas Eve celebrations just a day away, a small tight-knit community was now dealing with horror. The investigation then uncovered three women who were attacked and raped in Normal before Carol. They had never reported their crimes, but did after Carol’s death, hoping to help investigators.
And then police had a call for another woman attacked. The address was a familiar one. 602 S. Fell Avenue.
There is nothing on the Illinois State campus remembering Carol. No plant. No tree. No picture. In fact, the University never acknowledged her death. When students returned to class after winter break, there was no announcement of any kind. Today, the Carol Rofstad murder is the longest unsolved murder case in the history of Normal, Illinois. And as students make their way to the new housing complex at 602 S. Fell Avenue, the Delta Zeta sorority is still going strong. They have moved a mile up the street.
And you wonder. Do they know?
To read more of Bob Cyphers’ true crime storytelling, his book 25 Frozen, 1 Thawed is available now — a chilling collection of cases that remain etched in the communities they left behind.
Learn more or purchase your copy here: 25 Frozen, 1 Thawed
