What happened to Evelyn Hartley, Addison Rae’s character in Monster: The Ed Gein Story?

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*Warning: This article contains spoilers for Monster: The Ed Gein Story.*

Addison Rae, famous for her music and online presence, is trying her hand at acting in the new Netflix series, *Monster: The Ed Gein Story*. This season of the popular show tells the story of serial killer Ed Gein, portrayed by Charlie Hunnam.

In the third episode, “The Babysitter,” we meet Evelyn Hartley, played by Rae. The episode mainly follows Ed as his relationship with Adeline Watkins (Suzanna Son) develops, and they begin to talk about becoming intimate.

Ed’s strict upbringing led him to believe sex was wrong and that he should avoid having kids. To help him overcome these fears and get comfortable around children, Adeline arranges for him to babysit a family’s children.

When Ed arrives at the house, he learns the family’s beloved babysitter is ill with polio, and they need someone new to fill the position. He discovers the babysitter is named Evelyn, and after losing his job, he angrily confronts her about it.

The episode concludes with Ed having kidnapped and restrained Evelyn in his basement. The next episode begins with a shocking scene: Evelyn is found dead, carefully wrapped in bandages and covered with milk by Ed.

But who was the real-life Evelyn Hartley and what happened to her? Read on to find out.

What happened to Evelyn Hartley, Addison Rae’s character in Monster: The Ed Gein Story?

The movie *Monster: The Ed Gein Story* suggests Ed Gein kidnapped and killed Evelyn, but in reality, her disappearance remains a mystery and there’s no evidence linking him to the crime.

As a film buff, I found it interesting how the Netflix series takes some liberties with the facts. They portray Ed as committing the crime because he was upset about losing his babysitting job after Evelyn got better from polio. It’s a creative choice that adds a layer to his character, even if it’s not necessarily what happened.

Evelyn vanished in October 1953 when she was 14, and she never had polio. She’d been asked to babysit the 20-month-old daughter of a professor named Viggo Rasmussen at La Crosse State College. Rasmussen and Evelyn’s father, Richard, were colleagues. When Evelyn didn’t call home as expected, Richard tried contacting the Rasmussen’s, but she didn’t answer. Worried, Richard decided to go to their house himself.

I came home and immediately knew something was wrong. Evelyn’s glasses were broken, and her shoes were scattered all over – one downstairs in the living room, the other upstairs. I searched everywhere, but I couldn’t find her. All the doors were locked, but when I checked the basement at the back of the house, it was clear there had been a fight. The window was open and the screen was gone, and I found a bloody footprint, with blood smeared both inside and outside the house. It was a terrifying scene.

With strong evidence suggesting Evelyn had been kidnapped, police used search dogs to try and find where she might have been taken. The dogs were only able to follow her scent for two blocks, losing the trail near the Rasmussen home. This led investigators to believe Evelyn was likely forced into a vehicle waiting in the area.

A few days later, police found several articles of clothing with blood on them – including a bra, pants, a pair of men’s trousers, and a white men’s shirt – scattered in the area around the crime scene.

A neighbor told police they saw a car driving around the area at 8 p.m. that night. Another resident reported hearing screams around 7 p.m., but initially thought it was just kids playing.

A few days later, another man contacted the police. He stated that around 7:15 PM on the night Evelyn disappeared, he nearly collided with a speeding, two-tone 1942 Buick heading west. He remembered seeing two men and a girl inside the car, with the girl slumped over in the backseat. He’d seen the girl moments earlier, standing between the two men, and initially thought she was intoxicated and they were assisting her.

The search for Evelyn became the largest in Wisconsin’s history, involving over 2,000 people. Investigators interviewed more than 3,000 individuals and conducted widespread lie detector tests among teenage boys at local high schools in the La Crosse area.

Was Ed Gein involved in Evelyn’s disappearance?

The movie *Monster: The Ed Gein Story* portrays Ed Gein as Evelyn’s killer, but there’s no proof he did it, and he was never charged with any crimes involving her.

Following Ed Gein’s arrest in 1957, investigators questioned him about the disappearance of Evelyn. He became a person of interest because he had been visiting relatives in the La Crosse area the night she was last seen.

On the night Evelyn disappeared, Ed, who lived just a few blocks from the Rasmussen family, insisted he hadn’t been involved. He took and passed two lie detector tests, and a thorough police search of his home didn’t find any of Evelyn’s DNA.

In November, police announced Ed was no longer considered a suspect in Evelyn’s case. They also confirmed he wasn’t involved in the disappearance of Georgia Weckler, an eight-year-old girl who vanished from a rural area of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, back in 1947.

Even though the investigation showed Ed wasn’t connected to Evelyn, I, like a lot of people, still couldn’t shake the feeling that he might have been involved in some way. It just didn’t quite sit right with me, even after he was cleared.

A surprising turn of events occurred in 2004 when a recording surfaced from Clyde “Tywee” Peterson. In it, he confessed to kidnapping and murdering Evelyn with Jack Gaulphair and another person whose identity remains unknown. All three men are now deceased: Peterson died of a heart attack in 1974, and Gaulphair took his own life in 1967.

Investigators followed up on the clue, but without any physical evidence, they haven’t been able to move the case forward.

To this day, the case of Evelyn’s disappearance remains unsolved.

You can now watch “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” on Netflix! Netflix subscriptions start at just £5.99 per month, and it’s also available through Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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2025-10-06 20:05