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#Post#: 4567--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 2:57 pm
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-in-the-Dunes1974Massachusetts#.V-B18vlpG1s
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#Post#: 4568--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 3:01 pm
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#Post#: 4569--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 3:02 pm
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-in-the-Dunes1974Massachusetts#.V-B18vlpG1s
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Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 3:04 pm
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-in-the-Dunes1974Massachusetts#.V-B18vlpG1s
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Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 3:12 pm
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HTML http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/19...olice-chief/4yt3VAYRX4wVsPCnvbQABJ/story.html
Cape murder haunts police chief
By Teresa M. Hanafin GLOBE STAFF SEPTEMBER 06, 1987
This story is from the Globe archives. It originally appeared
Sept. 6, 1987.
PROVINCETOWN -- Thirteen years ago, a beagle sniffing around the
dunes of Provincetown, its young owner nearby, made a gruesome
discovery: the body of a young woman who had been brutally
murdered.
The body -- badly decomposed, its skull crushed, the head
severed at the neck, the hands cut off and missing -- has never
been identified, the killer never found.
HTML https://i.imgur.com/pJMsboZ.jpg
Chief Meads
Related | Farragher: The mystery of Provincetown’s Lady of the
Dunes
Earlier this summer, a woman in her early 20s who lives in
Canada told an acquaintance a bizarre tale: she said she
remembered seeing her father strangle a woman in Provincetown
about 15 years ago, Meads said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were notified and they, in
turn, called Meads and the Massachusetts State Police. In the
meantime, the woman moved
from western Canada to the Montreal area, and police are trying
to track her down. When she is found, a member of the State
Police Crime Prevention and Control Unit in South Yarmouth and
Meads plan to travel to Canada to interview her.
Then, last week, a woman from Maryland called Meads to say that
she had not heard from her sister since the sister moved to
Boston in 1974 -- the year of the murder. She also said her
sister had auburn hair, the same color as the murder victim’s.
RELATED | 2000: Police hope second exhumation will identify
victim
It is that relentness pursuit of any and all leads, tips and
hunches that has marked Meads’ investigation of the only
unsolved murder case out of the handful he has encountered
during his 17 years as police chief.
“Ever since this happened, Jim won’t leave a stone unturned,”
said Dr. Stanley M. Schwartz, head of diagnosis at the Tufts
University Dental School and the state dental forensic examiner
who pieced the murder victim’s skull and teeth back together.
“He has told me that he’ll never quit, and he never has. He’ll
follow any lead. He’s a very intelligent, well-trained and
experienced police officer. And very dogged.”
Meads was 41 years old and had been Provincetown’s chief of
police just four years when the body of “The Lady in the Dunes”
was found in a dense grove of scrub pine trees about 2 1/2 miles
east of Race Point, on July 26, 1974.
The woman, estimated to be 25 to 30 years old, about 5 feet, 8
inches tall with a big-boned, athletic build, had been killed by
a blow to the left side of her skull.
She was found nude, lying sideways on a light green, terrycloth
beach blanket. Her dungarees and blue print bandanna were folded
neatly under her head as though used as a pillow. Her blouse
never has been found.
Her long, reddish-brown hair was held back with a barrette. On
her teeth were seven gold crowns, worth about $5,000 to $8,000
at the time. She had been
sexually molested with a wooden object, evidently after her
death.
Although pathologists said she had been dead only four or five
days, the July heat and dune flies had left the body badly
decomposed.
Since there was no sign of a struggle and the bed of pine
needles on which she lay was undisturbed, Meads believes she
knew her assailant and was asleep when attacked.
Schwartz reconstructed the teeth, jaw and skull, and Dr. Clyde
Snow, a renowned forensic anthropologist for the Civil Air
Medical Institute of the Federal Aviation Administration, now
retired, created a clay model of the woman’s features.
Photographs of the model and artists’ renderings of the
sculpture, were circulated worldwide. Desperate for leads, Meads
got articles on the case published in dental journals and police
and detective magazines. Thousands of dentists were contacted in
an effort to locate the one who had done the expensive dental
work. Meads appeared in national magazines and on network
television. He has traveled extensively following leads.
In the intervening years, Meads has received thousands of
letters and phone calls. About 50 have been able to supply
dental records, but none have matched.
There have been seemingly promising leads. There was the man in
prison in Maine who kept drawing pictures of women without
hands; the women at a Provincetown campground who reported their
friend missing -- she later turned up.
Meads even consulted psychics; one told him he would find the
hands buried under a building at a certain address. It turned
out that a cellar had been dug just the previous year.
On one side of Meads’ office, the stack of papers on the case
stands 2 to 3 feet tall. In another corner, the victim’s skull
sits in a cardboard box, waiting for an identity. A chunk of the
skull about the size of a hand is missing, and a jagged 8-inch
crack runs across the top.
Meads, now 54, is the only law enforcement official who has
worked on the case continuously since the body was discovered;
everyone else has either retired or been reassigned. He is
contemplating retiring in three years when he will have 30 years
of service.
“With most murders, you try to figure out who the murderer was,”
he said quietly. “I’ve spent years trying to figure out who the
victim was.”
Today, Meads is more resigned. “As the years dwindle on, more
dentists will retire or die, more dental records will be lost
and the opportunity for identification will diminish,” he said.
“Maybe someone on death row will decide to cleanse his soul
before he dies and confess to this murder.
“It appears that someday I’ll retire and the case still won’t be
solved. But I’m sure whoever follows me in this job, if they get
a lead, they’ll call me. And I’ll be ready.”
Meanwhile, every so often he pulls out the file and thumbs
through it. Or stares at the skull.
“There’s always been something special about this case to Jim
Meads,” Schwartz said. “He looked at it like, this is a human
being that had something horrible done to her. He wants to
identify her so the perpetrator can be brought to justice. He
has always felt a contact of some sort with that young woman.”
Meads had the body buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery in
Provincetown, and a stone there reads, “Unidentified female.”
Schwartz said that for years, somebody placed a small vase
containing flowers at the marker every July 26.
#Post#: 4572--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 3:13 pm
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HTML http://doenetwork.org/cases/119ufma.html
The Doe Network:
Case File 119UFMA
HTML http://doenetwork.org/cases/images/119UFMA.jpghttp://doenetwork.org/cases/images/119UFMA2.jpghttp://doenetwork.org/cases/images/119UFMA3.jpghttp://doenetwork.org/cases/images/119UFMA1.jpg
Unidentified White Female
Located on July 26, 1974 in the Race Point Dunes, Provincetown,
Barnstable County, Massachusetts.
Cause of death was a blow to the head.
Estimated Date of Death: 10 days to three weeks.
Her nickname is The Lady in the Dunes
Vital Statistics
Estimated age: 25 - 40 years old
Approximate Height and Weight: 5' 6-1/2"; 145 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: Long, auburn or reddish-blond
hair. Athletic body. 34" waist, 31" legs. Her hair was tied in a
ponytail with a rubber-type barrette. Her toenails were painted
pink.
Dentals: Extensive dental work. She had gold crowns on her teeth
worth $5000 up to $10,000 at that time. The dental work was done
in what dentists call "the New York style" of dental work.
Dental charts available.
Clothing: Jeans were found at the scene. She wore a elastic
barrette in her hair. She lay on one half of a light green,
heavy cotton beach blanket.
DNA: Available
Case History
The victim was discovered in the dunes about a mile east of the
Race Point ranger station in the summer of 1974.
The woman's hands were missing -presumably removed by the killer
so she could not be identified through fingerprints - and her
head was nearly severed from her body with an instrument similar
to a military entrenching tool. The left side of her skull had
been crushed. No weapon was found at the site.
Her nude body was discovered lying on a beach towel with her
head resting on her folded jeans. There was no sign of a
struggle, and the woman lay on half the towel, as if she'd been
sharing it with a companion.
The body was exhumed in 2000, in an attempt to confirm her
identity.
Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please
contact:
Provincetown Police Department
508-487-1212
508-487-1213
Email
By Mail:
Provincetown Police Department
26 Shankpainter Road
Provincetown, MA 02657
You may remain anonymous when submitting information.
NCIC Number:
U-615805149
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with
information regarding this case.
Source Information:
Provincetown Banner
Message from Chief of Police - Provincetown, MA
Cape Cod Times
People Magazine
Anthro Design Works
#Post#: 4573--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 3:14 pm
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en.wikipedia.org
Lady of the Dunes
HTML https://i.imgur.com/vez249q.jpg
#Post#: 4574--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 3:20 pm
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canyouidentifyme.org
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#Post#: 4575--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 3:21 pm
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en.wikipedia.org
Lady of the Dunes
Lady of the Dunes by Cleo
HTML https://i.imgur.com/boKUb0b.jpg
#Post#: 4576--------------------------------------------------
Re: LADY OF THE DUNES: WF, 27-49, found in Provincetown, MA - 26
July 1974
By: Akoya Date: April 18, 2020, 3:21 pm
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HTML https://i.imgur.com/qcyh36u.jpg
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