A woman who vanished nearly 63 years ago has been discovered alive and in good health after a fresh look into her long-standing missing persons case, authorities in Wisconsin announced.
Audrey Backeberg was just 20 years old when she disappeared from Reedsburg, a small city in Sauk County, on July 7, 1962.
According to Sauk County Sheriff Chip Meister, “Ms Backeberg’s disappearance was by her own choice and not the result of any criminal activity or foul play.” The sheriff also confirmed she is currently residing outside Wisconsin, though her exact location remains undisclosed.
Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy, a non-profit dedicated to unresolved cases, revealed that Backeberg was married and had two children at the time she went missing. Just days before vanishing, the organization stated, the young mother had filed a criminal complaint accusing her husband, whom she married at age 15, of physical abuse and death threats.
On the day she disappeared, Backeberg had left to collect her paycheck from a local woollen mill where she was employed. A 14-year-old girl who babysat her children told police she and Backeberg hitchhiked to Madison, the state capital, before boarding a bus bound for Indianapolis, Indiana, roughly 300 miles away.
The babysitter later became anxious and decided to return home, but Backeberg insisted on continuing her journey and was last seen walking away from the Indianapolis bus stop.
Despite multiple leads, the case eventually went cold until earlier this year, when the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office launched a comprehensive reexamination of the decades-old investigation.
Detective Isaac Hanson, who cracked the case, credited an online ancestry profile linked to Backeberg’s sister for the breakthrough. Speaking to local news outlet WISN, Hanson shared that he contacted local law enforcement in the area where Backeberg now lives and spoke with her by phone for 45 minutes.
“I think she just was removed and, you know, moved on from things and kind of did her own thing and led her life,” Hanson told WISN. “She sounded happy. Confident in her decision. No regrets.”
