Lady of the Dunes Identified At Last
With the Jane Doe finally being named as Ruth Marie Terry, investigators now hope to track down who killed her.
One of the most mysterious cold cases of all time could be a step closer to being closed completely after the victim was given her name back through genetic genealogy.
The Boston Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) led a joint press conference to reveal that the infamous ‘Lady of the Dunes’ was actually a 37-year-old woman named Ruth Marie Terry.
A shocking murder
It was July 26th 1974 when a young girl out walking her dog along the Cape Cod National Seashore in Provincetown, Massachusetts made a terrible discovery. A woman lay dead among the sand dunes, having suffered a severe blow to the head.
A later autopsy would reveal that not only had she had her hands removed (possibly as a forensic countermeasure to prevent identification), but that she had also been attacked with such a ferocity that she was almost decapitated.
It was thought that the Jane Doe, who came to be known as the Lady of the Dunes, may have been at the location for as long as two weeks before she was found. The only clues at the scene were two sets of footprints leading to…
