DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
The Lost and the Found
HTML https://theunidentified.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Identified!
*****************************************************
#Post#: 4547--------------------------------------------------
LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26 Jul
y 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 1:20 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://i.imgur.com/fx7LpML.jpg
Lady of the Dunes was discovered on July 26, 1974 in the Race
Point Dunes, Provincetown, Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Her
naked, decomposing body was discovered by a teenage girl. Two
sets of footprints were found leading to the body and tire
tracks were located fifty yards from the scene. She was lying
face down on a green towel, with folded Wrangler jeans and a
blue bandanna placed under her head.
She had extensive and expensive dental work on her teeth,
although several teeth were removed by the killer. Her hands had
been removed; one at her wrist and the other at her elbow. She
was nearly decapitated, possibly from strangulation. She had a
massive wound on the side of her skull that was determined to be
the official cause of death. There were signs of sexual assault
at the scene.
#Post#: 4548--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 1:23 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://identifyus.org/en/cases/11840
NamUs UP # 11840
[img]
HTML https://identifyus.org/en/medias/thumb/23846[/img]
ME/C Case Number: 2000-876
Barnstable County, Massachusetts
27 to 49 year old White Female
Case Report - NamUs UP # 11840
Case Information
Status Unidentified
Case number 2000-876
Date found July 26, 1974 00:00
Date created December 02, 2013 11:49
Date last modified May 16, 2016 13:01
Investigating agency
date QA reviewed
Local Contact (ME/C or Other)
Agency Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
Phone 617-267-6767 ext 187
Case Manager
Name James Pokines
Phone 617 267 6767 x176
Demographics
Estimated age Adult
Minimum age 27 years
Maximum age 49 years
Race White
Ethnicity
Sex Female
Weight (pounds) 145, Measured
Height (inches) 66, Measured
Body Parts Inventory (Check all that apply)
All parts recovered
Head not recovered
Torso not recovered
One or more limbs not recovered
One or both hands not recovered
Body conditions
Not recognizable - Decomposing/putrefaction
Probable year of death 1974 to 1974
Estimated postmortem interval
Circumstances
Location Found
GPS coordinates
Address 1 2 miles east of Old Coast Guard Station
City Provincetown
State Massachusetts
County Barnstable
Circumstances
Body found among dunes near Provincetown.
Her nickname is The Lady in the Dunes
Physical
Hair color Red/Auburn
Left eye color Unknown or Missing
Right eye color Unknown or Missing
Fingerprints
Status: Fingerprint information is currently not available
Clothing and Accessories
No clothing or accessories
Dental
Status: Dental information / charting is available and will be
entered later
DNA
Status: Sample submitted - Tests complete
#Post#: 4549--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 1:25 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://identifyus.org/en/cases/11840
HTML https://i.imgur.com/1fYyWli.jpg
HTML https://i.imgur.com/IKeVUDQ.jpg
#Post#: 4550--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 1:27 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://identifyus.org/en/cases/11840
HTML https://i.imgur.com/VJUEbkb.jpg
HTML https://i.imgur.com/5oWiIA1.jpg
#Post#: 4551--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 1:28 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://identifyus.org/en/cases/11840
HTML https://i.imgur.com/R1bA093.jpg
#Post#: 4552--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 1:30 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://identifyus.org/en/cases/11840
HTML https://i.imgur.com/fx7LpML.jpg
#Post#: 4553--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 1:47 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://identifyus.org/en/cases/11840
HTML https://i.imgur.com/ezv8rKh.jpg
HTML https://i.imgur.com/OPlHX6L.jpg
HTML https://i.imgur.com/lq80riT.jpg
#Post#: 4554--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 1:48 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://identifyus.org/en/cases/11840
HTML https://i.imgur.com/cidTN68.jpg
HTML https://i.imgur.com/92lqPZM.jpg
HTML https://i.imgur.com/6XL0JPx.jpg
#Post#: 4555--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 1:52 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_of_the_Dunes
Lady of the Dunes
Lady of the Dunes (also known as Lady in the Dunes) is the
nickname given to a woman whose unidentified remains were
discovered on July 26, 1974 in the Race Point Dunes,
Provincetown, Barnstable County,Massachusetts[2][3] Her body was
exhumed in 1980, 2000, and 2013[4] in efforts to identify her
and her murderer; these have proved unsuccessful, despite the
reconstruction of her face a number of times.[5][6][7] The case
was featured on the television series Haunting Evidence in 2006
Police were called to the scene where the naked, decomposing
body of a woman was discovered by a teenage girl on July 26,
1974.[9][10][11] Sandra Lee, who later became a crime author,
stated that she and her sister had found the remains two days
before the report, which had traumatized the pair.[12] She later
wrote a book about the case, titled The Shanty: Provincetown's
Lady in the Dunes.[13] The body was found yards away from a
nearby road and had a significant amount of insect activity.[9]
Two sets of footprints were found leading to the body and tire
tracks were located fifty yards from the scene.[11] She was
lying face down on a green towel, with folded Wrangler jeans,
and had a blue bandanna placed under her head.[3][14][15] She
had long auburn or red hair, which was pulled back into ponytail
with a holder with gold sparkles, and she had painted pink
toenails. Lady of the Dunes was approximately 5'6" tall
(initially believed to have been 5'8"[16]), weighed 145 pounds,
and was of an athletic build.[17][18] She had extensive dental
work on her teeth, worth between five and eight thousand
dollars, although several teeth were removed by the killer,
likely as an attempt to prevent her identification.[3][16][19]
Her hands had also been removed; one at her wrist and the other
at her elbow. She was nearly decapitated, possibly from
strangulation, and had a massive wound on the side of her skull,
determined to be the official cause of death.[19][20] There were
also signs of sexual assault at the scene, possibly performed
with a piece of wood, likely after she died.[7][16]
Because of the effort her killer took to prevent her
identification, some surmised that the decedent may have had a
criminal history, as her fingerprints may have been on
record.[21] However, her hands and thus fingerprints may have
been removed to prevent ID of the victim and hinder
identification of the violent offender who killed her. The age
of the victim has been widely disputed, as most sources describe
the woman's age between twenty-five to forty years old, although
she could have been as young as twenty and as old as
forty-nine.[22] Other sources state she was between twenty-seven
to forty-nine, or twenty-five to thirty-five.[10][23]
"Lady of the Dunes"
HTML https://i.imgur.com/fx7LpML.jpg
One of the most recent reconstructions of Lady of the Dunes,
created in 2010.
Born 1925 – 1954
Status Unidentified for 42 years, 1 month and 24 days
Died c. July 1974 (aged 20–49)
Cause of death Homicide by blunt force trauma
Body discovered July 26, 1974
Provincetown, Massachusetts,U.S
Resting place Saint Peters Cemetery, Provincetown,
Massachusetts, U.S.[1]
Other names "Provincetown Jane Doe"
Known for Unidentified victim of homicide
Height 5 ft 6.5 in (1.69 m) - 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)(approximate)
Weight 145 lb (66 kg) (approximate)
#Post#: 4556--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 2:30 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://www.masslive.com/bostonspirit/2014/10/whitey_bulger_gays_and_the_lad.html
Whitey Bulger, gays, and the Lady Of The Dunes murder mystery
NOTE: The following story was written by Sam Baltrusis and first
appeared in the September/October 2014 issue of Boston Spirit
magazine.
by Sam Baltrusis
It's the cold case that has haunted Provincetown for 40 years.
The Lady of the Dunes' severly mutilated corpse was found at
this spot on July 26, 1974. It's a secluded service road near
Dunes' Edge Campground about one mile away from Race Point
Beach. Buzzing insects sound like muted screams, alluding to the
horrors that unfolded in the wooded area almost a half of a
century ago.
Human monsters once roamed here.
The ghost of Provincetown's most infamous gone girl continues to
follow Sandra Lee, author of The Shanty, and Provincetown
regular since the 1970s. The crime writer was only
nine-years-old when she claimed to have stumbled on the cold
case of the century. According to Lee's exclusive interview with
Boston Spirit magazine, the Lady of the Dunes' decomposing body
continues to haunt her dreams. During an emotional discussion
which stirred up childhood demons, Lee says the woman's dead
body sounded like a string of pearls rubbing together.
Provincetown Crime Scene
"She was in the brush, in the sea grass about 15 feet from an
access road," Lee recalls. "The road follows the backside of
Dunes' Edge Campground. She was in the thick of the brush. It
was nothing shy of horrific. It was something I will never
forget."
Lee, who camped at Dunes' Edge every July in the early '70s,
says it has taken her years to talk publicly about the horrors
from her childhood. While there is a local teenage girl on
record who is credited with calling responding officers at the
scene in 1974, the 49-year-old author says she and her sister
found the rotting corpse of the Lady of the Dunes two days
before police were alerted.
"I stumbled down an incline with my dog," she continues. "The
dog was ahead of me. My dog got excited about something. I heard
a very strange noise. If you could imagine someone holding a
string of pearls, I heard that sound. And then there was a
horrible smell. At first, I attributed it to low tide," Lee
recalls the horrific scene with emotion. "She was face down. Her
hair was a mess and I could see a gouge in the right side of her
neck. Her arms were tucked down in the sand so I didn't know
anything was missing. I recognized the green blanket right away.
The lower half of her body was covered with something."
Lee says the horrible sound has stayed with her for years. "It
wasn't until much later that I realized that the sound of
someone playing with a pearl necklace was from the maggots," she
says. "Her body was covered with maggots. I believe there were a
few people who found the body, but there is only one who spoke
to police in person about it."
On July 26, 1974, the naked decomposing body of a woman in her
20s or early 30s was discovered by a girl (not Lee) walking her
dog, which was lying face down with Wrangler jeans and a blue
bandana crudely placed under her head. There was also a green
blanket found at the scene. The murder victim had long auburn or
reddish-colored hair clamped in a glittery, elastic-band
ponytail and was approximately 5 foot 6 inches tall. She had an
athletic build and was approximately 135 lbs. The Lady of the
Dunes, as she has been nicknamed, had extensive dental work on
her teeth, worth thousands of dollars. Several of those teeth
were removed by the killer, a technique frequently used by James
"Whitey" Bulger and his cronies. The Lady of the Dunes' hands
had also been removed, and she was nearly decapitated, with what
is believed to be a military entrenchment tool, and had massive
trauma to the side of her skull. Police believe there was also
sexual assault.
Oddly, the gruesome crime scene became the single most visited
tourist attraction in Provincetown during its peak season in the
summer of 1974.
Her body has been exumed twice, both in 1980 and 2001, to use
modern-day forensic technology. No luck. However, new leads
suggest the Lady of the Dunes was tied to notorious Winter Hill
Gang leader, James "Whitey" Bulger. In fact, Bulger — who had a
past as a gay-for-pay male hustler — was a regular at popular
LGBT hangout The Crown & Anchor, and has been linked to a woman
with a similar description to the Lady of the Dunes. There was
also a size 10 shoe imprint found at the scene, the same shoe
size as Bulger, and a green towel or blanket believed to be from
the Crown & Anchor.
Did Bulger do it? According to Lee, he should be a person of
interest.
HTML https://i.imgur.com/F2l5NT1.jpg
*****************************************************
DIR Next Page