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Lady of the Dunes

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Real Name: Unknown (at the time of discovery)
Nicknames: None ("Lady of the Dunes" was a name applied to the case by law enforcement and media)
Location: Race Point Dunes, Provincetown, Massachusetts
Date: July 26, 1974

Bio[]

Occupation: Unknown
Date of Birth: Between 1934 and 1949
Height: 5'6-1/2"
Weight: 145 pounds
Marital Status: Unknown, possibly Single
Characteristics: White female with reddish blonde hair, athletic body, and extensive dental work. Her DNA is available for comparison. She was between twenty five and forty years old at the time of her death.

Case[]

Details: On July 26, 1974, a woman's body was discovered in the dunes about a mile east of the Race Point ranger station. The woman's hands were missing. It is believed that they were removed by the killer so that she could not be identified through fingerprints. Her head was nearly severed and her skull was crushed. Her nude body was discovered lying on a beach towel with her head resting on her folded jeans. Despite their best efforts, police were never able to identify her.
Her body was exhumed in 1980 and 2000 in attempts to identify her; DNA was collected from her body during the second exhumation. Several women, including fugitive Rory Gene Kesinger, were investigated as possible matches for the victim; all were later ruled out. Sadly, she has never been positively identified, and her killer has never been caught.
Suspects: Serial killer Hadden Clark has been called a suspect because he admitted to murdering the Lady of the Dunes. However, his confession may not be credible as he has lied several times before. In 2004, Clark sent a letter to a friend stating that he had killed a woman on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He also sent two drawings: one of a handless, naked woman sprawled on her stomach, and another of a map pointing to where the body was found.
Whitey Bulger may also be connected to the case, as he was seen in 1974 with a woman resembling one of the reconstructions.
Extra Notes:

  • The case has not appeared on Unsolved Mysteries. However, it was profiled on the show Haunting Evidence and the podcast The Trail Went Cold during the investigation.
  • The case may have connections to former fugitive James "Whitey" Bulger, who was profiled on the show.

Results: Solved. Recently, there was some speculation that the victim was an extra for the 1975 film Jaws, which was filmed in Massachusetts in 1974. However, no new leads have come forward from this theory. In 2019, investigators began to look into using genetic genealogy to help identify the victim.
On October 31, 2022, The Lady of the Dunes has been publicly announced as being identified as Ruth Marie Terry, a mother from Tennessee. On August 23, 2023, Authorities announced that her husband, Guy Rockwell Muldavin was responsible for her murder. Muldavin had passed away in 2002.
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