Lady of the Dunes

Not to be confused with The Woman in the Dunes.
"Lady of the Dunes"

Digital image created from CT scans of skulls to depict an estimation of the victim in life

One of the most recent reconstructions of Lady of the Dunes, created in 2010.
Born 1925 – 1954
Status Unidentified for 42 years, 4 months and 12 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)
Website Facebook page

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.[8]

Discovery

The body of the victim upon her discovery

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]

Investigation

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 led 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.[11] 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][24]

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 Kesinger and the victim.[21] This theory was later discarded, as DNA from Kesinger's mother compared to that of Lady of the Dunes' bone marrow did not match.[2][15][25] Another missing woman, Francis Ewalt, of Montana has also been ruled out.[10] 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.[11] 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.[26]

Currently, one of the investigators on the case is raising funds to rebury the body in a new casket, as the original casket has deteriorated.[9][23]

In August 2015, speculation arose that Lady of the Dunes may have been an extra in the 1975 film Jaws, which was filmed in Massachusetts in 1974. The find was initially noticed by Joe Hill, the son of horror author Stephen King.[27] Hill had learned of the case after reading The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths are Solving America's Coldest Cases a matter of weeks before. During one of the film's shots, a woman resembling reconstructions of the victim is depicted amongst members of a crowd, wearing a blue bandanna and jeans, coincidentally found with the victim. A lead investigator has noted interest in this potential lead, although it has been described as "far-fetched" and "wild speculation."[28][29]

Suspects

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 occurred 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.[9]

Tony Costa, a serial murderer from the area, was initially suspected in the case but was later eliminated as a suspect.[9] Costa died on May 12, 1974, which was inconsistent with the time period in which Lady of the Dunes died.[30]

Hadden Clark confession

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.[31] 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.[32][33]

“ I could have told the police what her name was, but after they beat the shit out of me, I wasn't going to tell them shit. [...] 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 also stated that he had murdered several others in various states during a span from the 1970s to the 1990s.[32][33]

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.[32][33]

References

  1. ↑ "Lady of the Dunes". findagrave.com. April 26, 2010. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 ""Lady in the Dunes" may be another of Whitey Bulger's victims". Cape Cod Today. March 3, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Lady of the Dunes". CelebrateBoston.com. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  4. ↑ de Sturler, Alice (April 22, 2014). "Book Alert: the Skeleton Crew". defrostingcoldcases.com. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  5. ↑ Richardson, Franci (March 24, 2000). "Police exhume 'Lady of Dunes' in hopes of DNA ID.". The Boston Herald. Retrieved May 15, 2014.(subscription required)
  6. ↑ Allen, Ernie (February 10, 2012). "Computerized Skull Reconstructions". Retrieved March 24, 2014.
  7. 1 2 "New clues in Provincetown's Woman in the Dunes case point to Bulger connection". wickedlocal.com. March 1, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Haunting Evidence: Season 1, Episode 9". IMDb.com. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Lopata, James (November 14, 2014). "Whitey Bulger, gays, and the Lady Of The Dunes murder mystery". Masslive. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 "NamUs UP # 11840". Namus.gov. 2014. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Wood, John B. (December 22, 1974). "The Baffling Case of the Body on Cape Dunes" (PDF). The Boston Globe. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  12. ↑ Ward, Bob (20 July 2015). "Woman who discovered 'Lady of the Dunes' talks to FOX25". My Fox Boston. Fox News. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  13. ↑ "Sandra Lee". Cape Cod Today. eCape. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "Who is the Lady of the Dunes?". NECN.com. May 6, 2010. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
  15. 1 2 Lazar, Kay (March 5, 2002). "Dune slay victim a mystery once more.". The Boston Herald. Retrieved May 15, 2014.(subscription required)
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hanafin, Teresa M (September 6, 1987). "Cape murder haunts police chief". The Boston Globe. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Lady in the Dunes". Provincetown Police Department. 2010. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  18. 1 2 Line, Molly (May 7, 2010). "Lady of the Dunes: New Image, Cold Case". Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  19. 1 2 Ellement, John R. (May 5, 2010). "Police launch new effort to identify 'The Lady Of The Dunes'". Boston.com. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  20. ↑ "Photo released in unsolved 'Lady in the Dunes' murder case in Provincetown". Masslive.com. 6 May 2010. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Arnold, David (April 2, 2000). "Police hope second exhumation will identify 'Lady of the Dunes'". Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  22. ↑ "The Doe Network: Case File 119UFMA". Doenetwork.org. 2010. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
  23. 1 2 Farragher, Thomas (July 23, 2014). "The mystery of Provincetown's Lady of the Dunes, 40 years later". The Boston Globe. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  24. ↑ Yaremko, Peter (July 27, 2013). "The Lady of the Dunes". Paradise Diaries. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  25. ↑ "Lady of the Dunes". Fox News. May 2, 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2014.
  26. ↑ Saslow, Rachel (July 11, 2011). "CT scans help reconstruct faces of unidentified victims to solve cold cases". Washington Post. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  27. ↑ Billock, Jennifer (2 September 2015). "Is a Jaws extra the victim in an unsolved murder case?". AV Club. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  28. ↑ Curry, Colleen (18 August 2015). "A Cold Case Murder, the Movie 'Jaws,' and the Dubious Value of Internet Sleuthing". Vice News. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  29. ↑ Matthews, David (3 September 2015). "Was this Jaws extra also the mysterious victim of an infamous unsolved murder?". Fusion. Fusion Media Network. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  30. ↑ "Antone Charles "Tony" Costa". findagrave.com. Find a Grave. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  31. ↑ Schechter, Harold (30 December 2003). The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World's Most Terrifying Murderers. New York City, New York: Ballantine Books. p. 221. ISBN 0345465660.
  32. 1 2 3 Havill, Adrian. "Hadden Clark". Turner Entertainment Networks. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
  33. 1 2 3 "HADDEN CLARK - set of 2 drawings - CRIME CONTENT - ( Lady in the Dunes - COLD CASE )". Retrieved March 12, 2014.
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