Pictures of Ruth Marie Terry. Picture on the left from her teenage years. Picture on the right from the 1960s. Terry was found dead near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 1974. Authorities solved the case nearly 50 years later, saying it was her husband, Guy Muldavin, pictured in inset, who killed her. (FBI)
Prosecutors on Monday announced they solved the murder of the victim known as the "Lady of the Dunes," who was found dead in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1974.
The victim, Ruth Marie Terry, who was finally identified through genealogical testing last year, was killed by her husband Guy Muldavin during their honeymoon, officials said. Muldavin, who died in 2002, was also the prime suspect in the disappearance of another one of his wives and a stepdaughter in the Seattle area in the 1960s, the Cape & Islands District Attorney's Office said in a press release.
Terry was found dead on July 26, 1974, in the dunes area a mile west of Race Point Road in Provincetown, which is on the northern tip of Cape Cod. Investigators believed she had been killed several weeks prior. As decades passed without the body being identified, the victim became known as the "Lady of the Dunes."
After Terry was identified, the Massachusetts State Police learned Terry and Muldavin were married in 1973 or 1974. After the two married, they traveled in the summer of 1974 on a honeymoon. When Muldavin returned from that trip, it is believed he was driving Terry's car but without his wife. He "had indicated" to witnesses that Terry had died. He also told Terry's brother that he and his wife got into a fight during the honeymoon and he never heard from her again, prosecutors said.
"Based on the investigation into the death of Ms. Terry, it has been determined that Mr. Muldavin was responsible for Ms. Terry's death in 1974," the press release said.
Her death was a brutal one: Her hands were cut off, in what investigators believe was an attempt to prevent her from being identified, and the left side of her skull had been crushed. Her nude body was found lying on a beach blanket with her nearly-severed head resting on folded jeans. A murder weapon was never recovered.
The Provincetown Police Department turned over the investigation to the Massachusetts State Police in 1982. While her remains were buried in a cemetery, her skull remained in police custody.
FBI Boston Special-Agent-in-Charge Joseph Bonavolonta said the FBI used "investigative genealogy" to figure out the true identity of the "Lady of the Dunes," but he said that investigators were not getting access to DNA results from private databases, and they have no interest in doing so.
"For nearly five decades, investigators have worked tirelessly to identify this victim through various means, including neighborhood canvasses; reviews of thousands of missing-person cases; clay model facial reconstruction, and age-regression drawings," the FBI said when it announced her identification in October. "Since this crime was committed, many investigative and scientific techniques have either improved or been created through new advances in technology. One of these methods is Investigative Genealogy and combines the use of DNA analysis with traditional genealogy research and historical records to generate investigative leads for unsolved violent crimes. Recent FBI investigative efforts through genealogical examination of this infamous cold case have led to the positive confirmation of Terry's identity."
Terry, born in 1936, was a daughter, sister, aunt, wife, and mother, Bonavolonta said. The Tennessee resident had ties to not only Massachusetts but also California and Michigan.
Her family members have long suspected Muldavin as her killer. A family member recalled to Boston NBC affiliate NECN when Muldavin returned without his wife from their honeymoon.
"He was so blunt and said he didn't know where she was," she said.
Pictures of Ruth Marie Terry (right picture from her twenties).
Only later did they learn of his sordid past.
According to media reports at the time, Muldavin was a suspect in the 1960 deaths of his wife Manzanita Mearns and Dolores Ann Mearns, 18, her daughter by a previous marriage. Bits and pieces of their bodies were found in a newly sealed septic tank. Though he was never charged in their deaths, he was arrested for "flight to avoid giving testimony" in New York in December 1960, reports said.
Muldavin returned to the public spotlight — this time in a much more positive light — in 1985 in a light-hearted feature in the Californian newspaper in Salinas about his life as a volunteer late-night host at a public radio station. His show, called "Talk to Me," was about growing old and introduced topics such as the erosion of culture and, with tragic irony, "his belief that killing has become a habit."
He died at the age of 78 in 2002 after a "lengthy illness," his obituary in the Californian said.
Law&Crime's Alberto Luperon contributed to this report
