FBI identifies ‘Lady of the Dunes’ nearly 50 years after mutilated body found on seashore

Agents used forensic genealogy to identify Ruth Marie Terry of Tennessee

FBI identifies “Lady of the Dunes” five decades after body of Ruth Marie Terry was found at Cape Cod seashore (FBI Boston)

The FBI has identified the “Lady of the Dunes” nearly five decades after the victim’s mutilated body was found on a Massachusetts seashore.

Officials say that the victim, who was discovered on 26 July 1974 in dunes at the Cape Cod National Seashore, was 37-year-old Tennessee native Ruth Marie Terry.

Both of Terry’s hands had been cut off, the left side of her skull was crushed and her head was nearly severed from her body. Investigators believe she had been dead for as long as three weeks when her body was found.

Investigators believe that she was killed “with an instrument similar to a military entrenching tool,”

The FBI in Boston said that Terry was identified using forensic genealogy, a process that combines DNA analysis, genealogy research and the use of historical records.

“This is a unique method that can generate new leads for unsolved homicides, as well as help identify unknown victims,” Joe Bonavolonta, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division told a press conference on Monday.

“This is, without a doubt, a major break in the investigation that will, hopefully, bring all of us closer to identifying the killer.”

And he added: “It was a brutal death. 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.”

He said that the FBI is unclear why the victim, who he described as “a daughter, sister, aunt, wife, and mother”, had come to Cape Cod that July.

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe told reporters that while it is possible the killer is dead, investigators will continue to presume they are still alive.