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#Post#: 4557--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 2:31 pm
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HTML http://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20100506/news/5060307
'Lady in the Dunes': New face on old P'town murder case
PROVINCETOWN — Her ears, nose, eye color and the shape of her
lips are a bit of a guess, but police hope the latest images of
the 1974 murder victim can help identity the "Lady in the
Dunes," a breakthrough that could eventually lead them to her
killer.
By MARY ANN BRAGG
Posted May. 6, 2010 at 2:00 AM
ROVINCETOWN — Her ears, nose, eye color and the shape of her
lips are a bit of a guess.But police hope the latest images of
the 1974 murder victim — created with recent computer analyses —
can help identity the "Lady in the Dunes," a breakthrough that
could eventually lead them to her killer.The case is
Provincetown's lone unsolved murder, and it wasn't pretty.On
July 26, 1974, the woman's nude body was discovered about a mile
east of the Race Point Beach ranger station in the Cape Cod
National Seashore. She lay on half a beach blanket, as if
sharing it. Her head rested on a folded pair of jeans, and it
was nearly severed, most likely by a tool such as a military
trench digger. Both the woman's hands were cut off and missing.
The left side of her skull was crushed.The woman was a redhead
and fit, perhaps in her 30s, and of medium height. Her hair was
pulled back in a ponytail. Her toenails were painted pink. Given
that it was the '70s, she had something rare: extensive and
well-made dentistry, with gold crowns worth at least $5,000 at
the time.She had died anywhere from several days to three weeks
before she was found, the police said. The cause was blunt
trauma. No weapon was found."It was a horrific, brutal crime,"
said Provincetown Police Chief Jeff Jaran yesterday.
Since 1974 police have tried — and tried — to get to the bottom
of the case. In the late '70s, the police circulated a clay
recreation of the woman's head, the traditional method of
building a likeness, said Gerald Nance of the National Center
for Missing & Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va.Over the
years, Provincetown police have used DNA tests and
age-regression drawings. Artists have sketched her face. Even a
television paranormal show tried to get the right vibe on the
dune where the body was found.All to no avail.Jaran, who was
hired in 2008, is taking another stab at it. He hopes that new
software available at the center and the worldwide reach of the
Internet, can catch the attention of someone who might have
known her."Every year that goes by, there's less and less chance
that a person is alive who may have had contact with her," he
said. "That's our urgency."In early November, Jaran and
Provincetown police detective Monica Himes met with Nance, who
heads up the cold case unit of the center, and Dr. David Hunt, a
forensic anthropologist with the Smithsonian Institution who
volunteers at the center.Jaran took the woman's skull, which has
been stored at the state police crime lab, and the basic facts
of the case. The woman's remains are buried in Provincetown,
with no name on the burial marker.The composite images were
created after Hunt analyzed the skull and gave his
recommendations on age, sex, race and other identifiers of the
victim, Nance said.At the same time, a CAT scan of the skull
created a three-dimensional version of it in the computer. Then,
based on what Hunt said were the likely identifiers, the
software mapped layers of flesh onto the bone structure of the
skull, based on extensive studies of cadavers that match those
identifiers.For example, if the anthropologist believes the
skull belongs to a 30-year-old Caucasian woman, the software
finds the cadaver studies that match those characteristics and
creates the flesh on the bones to match, he said.
The center, which specializes in children, took on the "Lady in
the Dunes" case as a "special project," Nance said.It's rare
that a victim's identity has remained unknown for so long, he
said. And, there are only about four places in the country with
the software that could help.In the latest color image, a finely
boned young woman with a high forehead and a narrow nose stares
straight ahead. She has heavy eyebrows and an oval face, with a
youthful, alert look about her.Nance, after reviewing of the
case file, said local police did a good and quick job with the
investigation. But the challenge is the thousands and thousands
of strangers that descend upon Provincetown during the month of
July. "It would be different if this was a small town, not a
resort town, and everybody knew everybody," he said.
#Post#: 4558--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 2:32 pm
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HTML http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=51635525
Lady Of The Dunes
HTML https://i.imgur.com/fx7LpML.jpg
Birth: unknown
Death: Jul. 26, 1974
Provincetown
Barnstable County
Massachusetts, USA
[​IMG]
Crime Victim. The case has lingered for more than 40 years in
police files without the young woman, estimated to be 25 to 40
years old at the time of her death, never having been
identified. On July 26, 1974, the body of the woman, a Caucasian
female, was found about one mile east of Race Point Beach by a
hiker through the Province Land Dunes. Her hands had been cut
off and were never found. Her head was almost severed from her
body. The cause of death was determined to be blunt force
injuries to the head. The woman was described as 5' 6 1/2" tall
and weighing 145 pounds. She had long red or auburn hair and a
bandana was found near her body. She also had extensive dental
work--dental records were checked all over the world but no
match. The case remains a "cold case" and has been featured on
several television shows over the years. Her body had been
exhumed several years back and returned to its original burial
site for DNA testing--There is a stone marked "Unidentified
Female Body Found Race Point Dunes" at St. Peters Cemetery with
only the July 26, 1974 date on the tombstone.
Inscription:
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE BODY
FOUND RACE POINT DUNES
JULY 26, 1974
Burial:
Saint Peters Cemetery
Provincetown
Barnstable County
Massachusetts, USA
Plot: Bottom of Hill--Straight right from Chapel at Top of Hill
then look down to bottom of hill.
#Post#: 4559--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 2:38 pm
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HTML http://research.omicsgroup.org/index.php/Lady_of_the_Dunes
Lady of the Dunes
Born 1925 – 1949
Status Unidentified for 41 years, 6 months and 16 days
Died c. July 1974 (aged 25–49)
Cause of death
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 Script error: No such module "convert". (approximate)
Weight Script error: No such module "convert". (approximate)
Website
Facebook page
Lady of the Dunes (also known as Lady in the Dunes) is the
nickname given 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, but have since been unsuccessful, despite
the reconstruction of her face a number of
times.[3][5][6][7][8][9] The case was featured on the television
series Haunting Evidence in 2006.[10]
Discovery
File:Lady of the Dunes body.jpg
The body of the victim upon her discovery
The naked, decomposing body of a woman was discovered by a
teenage girl on July 26, 1974.[11][12][13] 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. The body was found meters from a nearby road and had a
significant amount of insect activity.[11] Two sets of
footprints were found leading to the body and tire tracks were
located fifty yards from the scene.[13] She was lying face down
on a green towel, with folded Wrangler jeans, and had a blue
bandanna placed under her head.[3][7][8][14][15] She had long
auburn or red hair, which was pulled back into ponytail with a
holder with gold sparkles, and she had pink painted 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.[3][17][18][19]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][20] Her hands had
also been removed; one at her wrist and the other at her elbow.
She was nearlydecapitated, possibly from strangulation, and had
a massive wound on the side of her skull.[13][11][19][20] There
were also signs of sexual assault at the scene, possibly
performed with a piece of wood, likely after she died.[9][16]
Because of the effort her killer took to prevent her
identification, it is suspected that the decedent may have had a
criminal history, as her fingerprints may have been on
record.[21] The age of the victim has been widely disputed, as
most sources describe the woman's age between twenty-five to
forty years old.[8] However other sources state she was between
twenty-seven to forty-nine, or twenty-five to thirty-five
#Post#: 4560--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 2:40 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
continued
Investigation
File:Lady of the Dunes2.jpg
Other depictions of the victim, created between 1979 and 2006
After searching through thousands of missing person cases and
the list of approved vehicles driven through the area, no
suitable matches were found. At the scene, there was no sign of
a struggle, as the sand and towel she was lying on were not
disturbed. This has lead some to speculate that she had been
killed at another location and disposed of in the Race Point
dunes, or that she may have also known the perpetrator or was
asleep when she died.[16] No evidence apart from what was found
near the body has been found, although police searched
extensively in the dunes.[13] The first facial reconstruction of
the woman was created with clay in 1979 by Clyde Snow, who was a
forensic artist.[16] Her remains were exhumed in 1980 for
examination, (although the skull was not buried at the
time[16]), which uncovered no clues. Again, in March 2000, the
body was uncovered to extract the victim's DNA, which also did
not uncover clues toward her identity.[21][22] In 1987, it was
reported that a Canadian woman told a friend that she saw her
father strangle a woman in Massachusetts, around fifteen years
before. Police officers did not believe this entirely, although
they attempted to locate the woman. Also in 1987, another woman
also told police that the reconstruction of the victim looked
like her sister, who disappeared in Boston in 1974.[16]
Investigators also followed a lead involving Rory Gene Kesinger,
who would have been 25 years old during the murder, who had
broken out of the town's jail in 1973. After the skull was
reconstructed, authorities saw a resemblance between both
Kessinger and the victim.[21] This theory was later discarded,
as DNA from Kessinger's mother compared to that of Lady of the
Dunes' bone marrow did not match.[2][15][21][23] Another missing
woman, Francis Ewalt, of Montana has also been ruled out.[12]
The Lady of the Dunes was buried on October 19, 1974, in a grave
reading "Unidentified Female Body Found Race Point Dunes, July
26, 1974" after the investigation went cold.[13] In May 2010,
her skull was placed through a CT scanner that generated images
that were then used by the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children to reconstruct. The final product was
subsequently released.[24]
Tony Costa, a serial murderer from the area, was initially
suspected in the case but was later eliminated as a suspect.[11]
Costa died on May 12, 1974, which was inconsistent with the time
period in which Lady of the Dunes died.[25]
Two years following the creation of the reconstruction, it was
learned that a woman who resembled the composite was seen with
mobster Whitey Bulger around the time the woman's death
occurred.[2][3][18] Bulger was known for removing his victims'
teeth, which was a consistency in this murder. Sandra Lee, the
woman who claimed to have first discovered the body, believes
the theory of Bulger's involvement, stating he should be a
"person of interest." Lee also expressed that the victim may
have been a prostitute and could have originated from a foreign
country, such as Ireland. She elaborated that the victim may
have been initially strangled, like some of the other victims of
Bulger and that Lady of the Dunes was likely killed at another
location.[11]
Currently, one of the investigators on the case is raising funds
to rebury the body in a new casket, as the original has
deteriorated.[14][11]
Hadden Clark confession
File:Lady of the Dunes facial reconstructions (with and without
freckles).jpg
Additional reconstruction, depicting the victim with and without
freckles
Serial killer Hadden Clark confessed to her murder, but many
believe this to be a false statement, as Clark is known to be a
notorious liar.[21] In 2004, Clark sent a letter to a friend
stating that he had killed a woman in Cape Cod,
Massachusetts.[26] He had also supplied two drawings: one of a
handless, naked woman sprawled on her stomach, and another of a
map pointing to where the body was found.[27][28]
“I could have told the police what her name was, but after they
beat the **** out of me, I wasn't going to tell them ****. [...]
This murder is still unsolved and what the police are looking
for is in my grandfather's garden.”
—Hadden Clark
In April 2000, Clark led police to a search spot where he
claimed he had buried two of his victims, both of whom were
women murdered twenty years before. He had also stated that he
had murdered several others in various states during a span from
the 1970s to the 1990s.[27][28]
Authorities have had difficulty with Clark's statements due to
the fact that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, a
condition which has led others with the same mental illness to
confess falsely to crimes.[27][28]
#Post#: 4561--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 2:42 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://icaremissingpersonscoldcases...fie
d-FemaleLady-in-the-Dunes1974Massachusetts
www.id-wanted.org/descrip...Num=U-0183
Unidentified Female(Lady in the Dunes)1974,Massachusetts
U-0183
Unidentified
Description: White female, approximately 25 to 30 years of age,
5'6'' to 5'8'', estimated 140 lbs. Long reddish-brown hair,
athletic body. 34'' waist, 31'' legs.
Identifying Marks, Features: Hair tied in ponytail with
rubber-type barrette. Toenails painted pink. Extensive dental
work, gold crowns worth $5000 up to $10,000 at that time.
Victim found two miles east of Old Coast Guard Station,
Provincetown, MA, summer of 1974, in piney dune area. Body
decomposed, maggot infested. Victim's hands cut off and removed
from scene. Neck severed with instrument similar to military
entrenching tool. No possibility of identification at scene or
during post mortem.
Dental charts available.
Contact:
Chief James J. Meads
Provincetown Police Dept.
26 Shankpainter Road
Provincetown, MA 02657
Tel: (508) 487-1212
#Post#: 4562--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 2:46 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://icaremissingpersonscoldcases...fie
d-FemaleLady-in-the-Dunes1974Massachusetts
Unidentified Female(Lady in the Dunes)1974,Massachusetts
www.southcoasttoday.com/d...7sr113.htm
'Body in the sand' is exhumed
By Felix Carroll,
Cape Cod Times
PROVINCETOWN -- An ominous, thick fog shrouded St. Peter's
Cemetery around 6:30 a.m. Thursday, as fog would be expected to
do when a casket holding the remains of a murder victim is being
unearthed.
Gravedigger Maurice "Moe" Gonsalves, with gloved hands, had his
shovel in the earth. Working alone, he piled dirt onto the bed
of a truck. He then covered the hole with a wooden plank and
waited for the unmarked sedans to arrive.
He said people sometimes lay flowers at the small, Bible-size
headstone that reads only, "Unidentified Female Body Found Race
Point Dunes July 26, 1974." That gravestone lay to the side
yesterday like a discarded mystery.
"I haven't seen flowers here for a while, though," Gonsalves
said.
Nonetheless, the bones that lay beneath his feet -- zipped in a
plastic body bag and set inside a cheap, steel casket -- are far
from forgotten.
What has been known for 26 years simply -- and cryptically -- as
the "Body in the Dunes" was exhumed for the purpose of taking
genetic samples.
Law enforcement sources say they are trying to match the
victim's DNA to a saliva sample given to investigators by a
woman in Colorado who may be the mother.
The identity of the dead woman has confounded state and local
police since the body was discovered by a 13-year-old girl
walking her dog in the dunes about a mile east of the Race Point
ranger station in the summer of 1974. The naked woman's hands
had been severed and were not found at the scene. Her head was
barely attached.
The unsolved murder, along with the mystery identity of the
woman, is the oldest case in the state police Cold Case Unit.
Copies of the woman's dental records have been sent all over the
country. Police once followed a lead into Canada and came up
empty.
Investigators have suspected since the late 1980s that the
unidentified woman was Rory Gene Kesinger, who ran away from
home at 15, robbed banks, used five aliases, took hard drugs and
escaped from prison in Plymouth. But until now, they have been
unable to verify that.
One police source said the woman in Colorado is the mother of
Rory Gene Kesinger, who has been missing since 1974, when she
was 25 years old.
The body, between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-8, matched Kesinger's
height. The decomposed corpse was determined to be dead in the
dunes anywhere from five days to three weeks. Forensic tests put
her age between 25 and 35.
Although there is no direct evidence linking the dead woman to
convicted killer Hadden Clark, investigators say he may have
been on the Cape at the time she was killed.
Clark, 47, is serving time for killing a 6-year-old girl and a
23-year-old Maryland woman in 1992.
He told investigators that he killed at least 11 other women and
buried some of them on the Cape -- in the National Seashore and
near his grandparents' former home in Wellfleet. Investigators
are expected to resume the search for these bodies sometime next
month.
Clark and his brother Bradfield, now serving time in California
for the dismemberment murder of a co-worker, both lived on the
Cape as children.
Hadden Clark also lived and worked on the Lower Cape before
joining the Navy. He was discharged in 1985.
Nine unmarked state and local police cars pulled into St.
Peter's Cemetery around 10 a.m. yesterday.
Investigators held a tarp around the grave to block it from view
as they lifted the remains from the casket and placed into a
hearse owned by McHoul Funeral Home in Provincetown. The body
was taken first to the funeral home on Harry Kemp Way, and later
to the medical examiner's office in Pocasset.
David McHoul, director of the funeral home, said the body was
not embalmed when it was first buried in the donated casket. He
said the casket was made of light steel and suspected it might
have taken in water over the years.
He said the body was dug up 20 years ago for blood samples. That
was before DNA sampling became a key tool for crime
investigators.
"Obviously," State Police Sgt. James Plath said at the cemetery,
"respecting the privacy and
the sacredness of the deceased, this is not something we would
do unless we thought it was necessary to do."
He said it could be months before investigators have any
definitive answers regarding the identity of the dead woman.
Though the case has remained open all these years, he said,
investigators have been working "a little more intensely" in the
past several months.
When asked whether Clark is being considered a suspect, he said,
"We're not going to go into anything about the investigation at
all."
#Post#: 4563--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 2:48 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://icaremissingpersonscoldcases...fie
d-FemaleLady-in-the-Dunes1974Massachusetts
www.provincetownbanner.co...9/7/2000/2
Tobias hopeful about solving fabled murder
Liz Winston
BANNER STAFF
If everything goes the way that Provincetown police Sgt. Warren
Tobias hopes, a murder that occurred 26 years ago in the dunes
off Race Point may soon be solved.
Results from DNA samples taken from the victim's body, which has
never been identified and is buried in St. Peter's Cemetery, are
due back from a Louisiana laboratory this week. If those samples
prove that the body is a woman named Rory Gene Kesinger, as
Tobias suspects, he says he knows who killed her - and hopes to
soon be able to make an arrest.
For years, Tobias, along with many other Provincetown and state
police officers, has been chasing leads in one of the most
notorious unsolved murders ever to occur on Cape Cod. On Channel
7 News last week, Tobias announced that the pending lab results
may mean the payoff of the years of work. Results of the DNA
tests had been expected months ago, after the body was exhumed
by state police in late March.
Though Tobias isn't saying who the suspect is in the case, he is
ruling out one convicted murderer who was widely speculated to
be the killer of the Woman in the Dunes.
'I do not believe [the killer] is Hadden Clark,' Tobias told the
Banner after his Channel 7 appearance.
Clark, 47, is currently serving two consecutive 30-year
sentences in the state of Maryland for the murders of
24-year-old Laura Houghteling and six-year-old Michelle Dorr.
Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, Clark has confided in a
cellmate, whom he believes to be Jesus Christ, that he committed
many other murders, including that of the Woman in the Dunes.
To see if Clark could corroborate those claims, he and his
cellmate were brought to the Cape this winter. They were taken
to the property in Wellfleet where Clark spent time as a child
at his grandfather's home and where he claims to have buried
victims, and to the dunes near Race Point to identify the site
where he claims to have left the body of a female victim in
1974, when he was living in Provincetown and working as a cook
at the Moors restaurant - the year that the Woman in the Dunes
was murdered.
Some police believe that Clark's story about the Woman in the
Dunes is hot air, and may have been pieced together from
information he got on the Internet or elsewhere. But just this
week, an article in The New Yorker hypothesizes otherwise. In
his piece, 'A Hole in the Ground,' longtime Wellfleet summer
resident Alec Wilkinson outlines conversations he had with Clark
in which the convicted criminal divulged information about the
dunes murder which it would seem only the killer would know.
On July 26, 1974, a 13-year-old girl walking her dog in the
dunes about a mile east of Race Point came upon a body. The
woman was lying face down, naked, on a towel with her clothes
folded near her head. Her hands had been cut off and her wrists
shoved into the sand as if she were doing push-ups; her head was
almost completely severed.
Wilkinson's speculations about the possibility that Clark killed
her are based partly on the fact that Clark knew the detail
about the woman's wrists having been shoved into the sand, and
that he likely had little access to other sources of information
about the crime, as some police involved with the case have
speculated. In a phone interview with the Banner, however,
Wilkinson said there were some parts of Clark's account of the
murder that seemed weak, including the claim that he knocked the
woman unconscious with a surf-casting pole.
'It is possible that Clark's [account of the murder is]
imaginary,' Wilkinson's article states.
Around the time that a woman's body was found in the Race Point
dunes, a young woman named Rory Gene Kesinger was running with a
dangerous crowd. Kesinger and her friends had been involved in
gun running and drug smuggling, Tobias has said, and were chased
by federal authorities from Alaska across the U.S., and
eventually to Pembroke, where Kesinger and others were arrested
one night in a drug raid. After attempting to shoot a police
officer during the bust, Kesinger was incarcerated in the
Plymouth County jail, from which she escaped not long after -
and not long before a body turned up near Race Point. She was
never heard from again.
The description of the body found in the dunes matches that of
Kesinger, and a forensic reconstruction of the murder victim's
head done in the 1970s bears a striking resemblance to photos of
the missing woman.
Kesinger's name was first connected to the unsolved murder case
in 1990, when former Police Chief James J. Meads, who swore he
would solve the crime, was about to retire. When Tobias later
took over the case, promising connections between the victim and
Kesinger seemed to fizzle out for awhile. Police had
fingerprints from a criminal named or using the name Rory Gene
Kesinger, but had no way to try to match them to the handless
victim. No dental records could be found for Kesinger, and at
the time, no family members could be tracked down by the
detectives.
When Tobias was interviewed by then-Banner reporter George Liles
about the Woman in the Dunes in August 1995, Tobias said he
believed he knew the identity of the victim and had reason to
believe that someone living in Provincetown at the time had a
strong connection to the murder. A car registered to the person,
who Tobias had recently interviewed, had been parked outside the
house in Pembroke the night that Kesinger was arrested.
More recently, relatives of Kesinger agreed to DNA testing that
could link them to the unidentified body buried off Winslow
Street. On a foggy March morning this year, state and
Provincetown police removed the gravestone that reads only
'Unidentified Female Body Found Race Point Dunes, July 26,
1974,' and transferred the corpse to a waiting hearse. After DNA
samples were taken, the body was reburied at St. Peter's several
days later.
State Police gave a brief statement at the edge of the cemetery,
though they would not comment on whether the efforts had
anything to do with the investigation of Hadden Clark. 'The
bottom line,' said Det. Paul White, 'is that this is an unsolved
murder, and we're continuing the investigation.'
Today, Tobias will not comment on whether the person he suspects
is living in Provincetown, or whether they are already in jail
for another crime. But he strongly suspects that the pending DNA
results will prove that the Woman in the Dunes is Rory Gene
Kesinger.
And he is also convinced that information will give him what he
needs to charge someone with her death.
#Post#: 4564--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 2:49 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...years-later/Oh3b9yOIWgvRCnqPV1WeHP/story.html
HTML https://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_960w/Boston/2011-2020/2014/07/23/BostonGlobe.com/Metro/Images/lady-big.jpg
In July 1974, a woman’s remains were found in the National
Seashore in Provincetown. Her hands were amputated, and she had
been nearly decapitated.
By Thomas Farragher Globe columnist July 23, 2014
Who killed her?
Who bashed in her skull and cut off her hands? Who left her
lying naked and face down on a green beach towel, Wrangler jeans
and blue bandana folded neatly into a crude pillow beneath her
head?
For half a lifetime now, Provincetown detectives have ridden an
investigatory roller coaster trying to solve this macabre
riddle.
They’ve consulted dentists and psychics. They’ve exhumed the
body and extracted DNA samples. They’ve used ground-penetrating
radar. They’ve made a plaster reconstruction of her face.
They’ve watched as suspects have tantalizingly presented
themselves, only to have the trail grow cold again.
To say the case is cold describes the results of the so-far
fruitless search, not its intensity.
As Lobur and one of her predecessors, retired Acting Chief
Warren Tobias, review details of the brutal killing and the
search for the killer, you get the feeling the search has become
personal. “I know there’s a murderer out there somewhere
loose,’’ said Tobias, who led the search for 22 years. “There’s
a family out there that needs closure.’’
The victim’s hands were severed at the wrist and taken to thwart
identification. She had long, reddish-brown hair, and seven
expensive gold crowns. She was between 25 and 35, possibly
older. She weighed 140 to 150 pounds, and stood 5 feet 6 to 5
feet 8 inches.
She had been dead for up to two weeks, her body ravaged by a
searing summer sun and dune flies. “A year and a half ago, we
absolutely thought we knew who it was,’’ Lobur recalled.
“Nope,’’ Tobias said.
Lobur has marshaled an impressive amount of scientific firepower
and has assembled a case file stored in a bookcase next to her
desk that groans under its heft.
The latest DNA evidence was collected last summer and now forms
the basis for the forensic scavenger hunt.
It is not a passing fancy for Lobur. She works on the case on
her days off. She finds her mind wandering to it when a ‘70s
song plays on the radio: Did she like this song?
She is convinced the killer will be found once, and if, the
victim is known. The two were closely linked, investigators
agree.
But 40 years have passed now. If the killer was about the same
age as the victim, he, or she, could be pushing 70. “That window
is closing, and it’s closing rapidly,’’ Lobur said.
For now, she’s trying to raise funds for a new coffin. After 40
years, the Lady’s thin metal casket is rusting out and falling
apart.
Thomas Farragher is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at
thomas.farragher@globe.com.
#Post#: 4565--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 2:54 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://unidentified.wikia.com/wiki/Lady_of_the_Dunes
Lady of the Dunes
Lady of the Dunes was a woman found murdered in July 1974. Her
murderer has never been found or identified, although Whitey
Bulger is listed as a person of interest.
Physical characteristics
Lady of the Dunes had auburn hair.
She was physically fit.
She had a large amount of expensive dental work.
Clothing and accessories
The victim was unclothed at the scene, but a pair of blue jeans
were placed under her head.
The body was left on a green beach towel.
Her hair was tied back with a hair-tie with gold-colored flecks.
Lady of the Dunes
Sex Female
Race White
Location Provincetown, Massachusetts
Found July 26, 1974
Unidentified for 42 years
Postmortem interval 10 days - 3 weeks
Body condition Decomposed
Age approximation 20-49
Height approximation 5'6 - 5'8
Weight approximation 140 pounds
Cause of death Beating
#Post#: 4566--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 2:56 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://icaremissingpersonscoldcases...dy
-in-the-Dunes1974Massachusetts#.V-B18vlpG1s
Unidentified Female (Lady in the Dunes) 1974, Massachusetts
www.provincetowngov.org/s...dunes.html
www.provincetown-ma.gov
The Lady of the Dunes
The Provincetown Police Department is seeking assistance with a
28-year old unsolved murder investigation.
Summary: On July 26, 1974 the body of an unidentified white,
female was found in the dunes approximately one mile east of
Race Point Beach. Both her hands were amputated and have never
been recovered. The cause of death was determined to be a blunt
force injuries to the head.
The description of the Lady of the Dunes:
Height Approximately 5' 6-1/2" tall
Weight 145 pounds
Age Between age 25 and 40 years old
Hair Long red/auburn color
Assistance Requested:
Recent technological advances has made DNA identification
possible. If you have any information about this case, or know
of any missing person who may fit the above description, please
contact: Sgt. Warren Tobias at the Provincetown Police
Department 508.487.1212.
Comments? E-mail Chief of Police Ted Meyer, or write to him care
of the Provincetown Police Department, 26 Shank painter Road,
Provincetown, MA 02657 (508) 487-1213.
Return to Police Department
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