Who shot and killed Beth Ann Bodenschatz? In the quiet community of Croyle-Township, Pennsylvania, the afternoon of January 12, 1996, was shattered by a brutal act of violence that claimed the life of 36-year-old Beth Ann Coudriet Bodenschatz. A registered nurse and a dedicated mother of four, she was discovered in her New Germany Road home by three of her children returning from school. She had been fatally shot in the head.
The scene of the crime suggested a struggle had taken place, beginning in the kitchen and tragically
concluding in the bedroom where her body was found. Investigators found four spent. 40 caliber shells and one live round, yet the murder weapon, believed to be a. 40 Glock handgun, was never recovered. The only witness to the horrific event was Bodenschatz's five-year-old son, who was home at the time of the incident but was physically unharmed. He recounted hearing his mother arguing with a man before she yelled, and then he saw the man shoot her.
The child's description of the perpetrator was that of a white male with brown hair, wearing a brown jacket. This description was corroborated by other witnesses in the area who had seen a man matching that description walking from the Bodenschatz residence to a brown or beige Subaru-style car parked at the end of the driveway. Despite this lead, the driver and the vehicle were never identified.
In the years that followed, the investigation into Beth Ann Bodenschatz's murder grew cold. Efforts were made to revive the case, including a 2001 public appeal for information regarding a missing two-carat diamond ring belonging to Bodenschatz that was believed to have been stolen during the murder. In 2003, a search for the murder weapon was conducted with the help of forestry and emergency service workers, but it yielded no results. In a renewed push for information in 2008, Pennsylvania State Police erected billboards in Cambria County pleading for tips. Despite these efforts and a reward offered for information, no arrests have ever been made in the case, and the murder of Beth Ann Coudriet Bodenschatz remains unsolved. The community was left shaken by the violent death of a woman described as a hard-working mother living a quiet life, and the case continues to be an open investigation for the Pennsylvania State Police.
