The Lady of the Dunes

The story

In short: A solved unidentified person case involving Ruth Marie Terry from Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 26, 1974. It was resolved on August 28, 2023.

Our summary of the public record. The small numbers show where each fact comes from. Tap one to see the source.

On July 26, 1974, a woman's body was found in the dunes about a mile from the Race Point Ranger Station in the Cape Cod National Seashore at Provincetown. Investigators said she had died of a blow to the head several weeks earlier, and that her killer had taken steps to keep her from being identified. Known only as the "Lady of the Dunes," she became Massachusetts' oldest unidentified homicide victim. Her remains were exhumed several times over the decades for new tests, and police released clay and digital facial reconstructions, without success.

In 2022, skeletal evidence was sent to the Texas lab Othram for genome sequencing, and FBI genealogists built her family tree. On October 31, 2022, the FBI's Boston office announced that she was Ruth Marie Terry, 37, born in Tennessee, who had ties to California, Massachusetts and Michigan.

On August 28, 2023, Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois announced that investigators had concluded Terry was killed by her husband, Guy Rockwell Muldavin, whom she had married months before she disappeared. Authorities said that after a trip with Terry, Muldavin returned driving what was believed to be her car and told people she had died. Muldavin died in 2002 and was never charged; the DA's office closed the case.