A woman who vanished more than six decades ago has been discovered alive, according to authorities in Wisconsin, USA. Audrey Backeberg was just 20 when she disappeared from her home in Reedsburg on July 7, 1962, sparking a case that baffled investigators for years.
Sauk County Sheriff Chip Meister confirmed that her disappearance had not involved any crime or foul play. He stated that Ms. Backeberg had chosen to leave independently and has since been living outside Wisconsin. Details about her current location have not been made public to respect her privacy.
When she went missing, Ms. Backeberg was married with two children. According to the nonprofit Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy, she had recently accused her husband, whom she married at age 15, of domestic abuse and threats to her life. Just before she vanished, she had filed a formal complaint against him.
On the day she disappeared, she left to collect her paycheck from a local woollen mill. A 14-year-old babysitter later told police that she and Ms. Backeberg had hitchhiked to Madison before boarding a bus to Indianapolis, Indiana. While the teenager eventually returned home, Backeberg continued on her own and was last seen walking away from the bus stop.
Despite numerous leads over the years, the case went cold until a recent reexamination of the original files brought it back into focus. Detective Isaac Hanson, who led the renewed investigation, credited a breakthrough to an online ancestry profile belonging to Backeberg’s sister.
Through cooperation with authorities in the area where Backeberg now resides, Hanson was able to contact her and confirm her identity. He spoke to her for 45 minutes and described her as content and at peace with her decision to leave the life she once knew behind. According to Hanson, she expressed no regrets about the path she chose.
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