December 23, 1975,

A bitter winter morning settles over the quiet college town of normal Illinois.

Christmas is only two days away.

Most students have already left Illinois State University for the holidays.

The campus is nearly empty.

A passerby walking near the sorority house on Fell Avenue, hears something unusual.

A faint sound, almost like someone struggling to breathe.

At first, the person assumes it's nothing, but the sound comes again.

They walk closer to the side of Delta Zeta sorority house, and then they see her.

A young woman lying motionless in the frozen grass. Her coat pulled partly over her body. Blood frozen into the ground beneath her head. She'd been there all night. Unconscious, dying. Just steps

away from the front door of her own home. Her name was Carol Ann Rothstad, and nearly 50 years later, her killer's never been caught.

This is American Dread, the true stories of tragedy and terror from the dark side of American hardland.

I'm your host, Adam Light.

American Dread is part of the American Hauntings podcast network.

Today's story takes us back to a quiet Midwestern college town and a brutal murder that shocked the community

just days before Christmas, a crime that remains unsolved nearly a half a century later.

This is the story of Carol Ann Rothstad.

Carol Rothstad was a 21-year-old Illinois State University student, a psychologist major, and she was from a suburb of Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

She was attacked outside the Delta Zeta Sorority House on South Fell Street on December 22nd, 1975, and died two days later on Christmas Eve.

That is a simple version, but cases like this are never simple.

Because before Carol became a headline, before she became a cold case,

before her name became attached to questions and theories,

...