We now know who killed the “Lady of the Dunes”

Enlarge / Ruth Marie Terry, aka the "Lady of the Dunes," in the 1960s. The FBI has identified her killer as her husband, Guy Muldavin. (credit: Courtesy of FBI)

Last year, after nearly 50 years, the FBI finally identified the murdered woman known as the "Lady of the Dunes," found in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in 1974: Ruth Marie Terry. And now the Massachusetts State Police have officially closed the case after identifying her killer: Terry's husband, Guy Rockwell Muldavin, who died in Salinas, California, in 2002.

As previously reported, a 12-year-old chasing after her barking dog discovered the mutilated body of a woman in the Race Point Dunes of Provincetown, Massachusetts, on July 26, 1974. The body was badly decomposed, with insect activity indicating she had been dead for about two weeks. She was nearly decapitated from a brutal strangulation, but the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the side of the head.

There was no sign of a struggle, but there was evidence of sexual assault that likely occurred after death. In fact, it seems that her attacker had been lying next to her, based on the angle of the blow to the head. Both her hands and one forearm were missing, and several teeth had been removed. Her last meal consisted of a burger and fries. Her body was buried at St. Peter's Cemetery near the center of town, with an inscription on a small gravestone: "Unidentified female body found Race Point dunes July 26, 1974."