INCREDIBLE

‘Lady of the Dunes’: Handless Body Identified 48 Years After Cape Cod Slaying

An unidentifiable corpse was found in the sand dunes outside Provincetown on July 26, 1974. Detectives were able to say her name for the first time on Monday.

Authorities in Massachusetts have finally identified the murder victim long known as the “Lady of the Dunes,” putting them one step closer to solving the state’s oldest cold case.

The woman’s brutalized body was found on July 26, 1974 in sand dunes in Provincetown on Cape Cod. Although it was determined that she had died weeks prior to her body’s recovery, likely from a blunt force trauma to the head that crushed the left side of her skull, her corpse was found mutilated, lying on a beach blanket with her head, nearly severed, resting on folded jeans. No weapon was found at the crime scene, according to the FBI, and her hands were removed from her body.

Police believe her killer severed her hands to prevent her from being identified— and it nearly worked.

But after five decades of searching, federal and state authorities were finally able to use investigative genealogy, which combines modern DNA analysis with genealogical record searching, to identify her.

She was Ruth Marie Terry, 37, from Tennessee.

“It was a brutal death,” Joseph Bonavolonta, FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge, said at a Monday press conference in which he called the infamous case haunting. “For the last 48 years, investigators with the Massachusetts State Police and Provincetown Police Department have worked tirelessly to identify her through various means, including neighborhood canvasses; reviews of thousands of missing persons cases; clay model facial reconstruction, and age-regression drawings.”

Terry was described by law enforcement officials as a wife, an aunt, and a mother. While she came from Tennessee, she’s also believed to have had connections to California, Massachusetts, and Michigan.

“We know Ruth had family and friends who loved her, and we’re aware that this development has not been an easy one for them,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Christopher Mason said Monday, hours after Terry’s family had been notified by state troopers of the astonishing development.

“Certainly, during the years that they were in contact with her, they never envisioned the outcome for the child, the teenage girl, the young woman they knew, loved, and cared about.”

Authorities still aren’t sure what brought Terry to Massachusetts at the time, or what acquaintances she may have had at the time of her death.

But while Monday’s revelation solves one piece of the puzzle, authorities are still hunting for her killer.

“Today, after 48 years, we can finally say her name,” Mason said. “We must now diligently and methodically learn everything we can about Ms. Terry's life: what she did, where she went, who she associated with, all in hope that those details and that timeline will lead us to her killer.”

Officials speculated that Terry’s killer could be in his or her 60s or 70s by now, even wagering that the person could be dead, but described the breakthrough as “not even the beginning of the end” of their investigation.

Law enforcement are requesting the public’s help with the next phase of their investigation, and asking people to review Terry’s updated FBI Seeking Information poster.

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Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling

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