49 Years After Cops Found A Body On The Beach, The Cold Case Was Finally Cracked
In the summer of 1974, a gruesome discovery left the people of Massachusetts in shock. A woman’s body was found on a nearby beach, and no one was able identify her. The case baffled everyone, from local authorities to the FBI itself. No solid breakthroughs came in the nearly five decades that followed, until the perseverance of those investigating the crime finally led to the answers everyone had been searching for.
The “Lady of the Dunes”
Few cold cases have captivated the nation quite like this one. The mystery surrounding the “Lady of the Dunes,” as she became known, really got people’s minds whirring as they tried to piece together what could have happened.
The mysterious case generated some pretty wild theories over the years, which ranged from connections to a prison break to an infamous mobster. There was even talk of a link to the movie Jaws.
The chilling discovery
Let’s go back to the point where this chilling mystery began. It was July 1974, and a young girl named Leslie Metcalfe was enjoying a trip to the beach with her family.
They were taking in the sights of the Cape Cod National Seashore in Provincetown, Massachusetts. But as the family wandered along the shoreline, their dog suddenly bolted away in a hurry.
Sniffing out a body
Something had caught the dog’s attention, and Leslie quickly went after it. When the kid caught up, the dog began bellowing at a prone figure laid out on the desolate dunes of the beach.
At first, Leslie thought she was looking at a dead deer, which would have been unsettling enough, especially for a young girl. Yet as she got closer, the true horror of the situation became a lot clearer.
A terrible crime scene
It didn’t take long for Leslie to realize that the body was actually human. After raising the alarm, the local authorities quickly arrived, and the area was transformed into a crime scene.
Few people could have been prepared for just how grisly the case would turn out to be. It was clear that the body, which had belonged to a woman, had been there for a while.
Uncovering clues
Specifically, authorities estimated that the body could have been there on the beach for anywhere between ten days and three weeks. The unidentified remains, it was clear, were in an advanced stage of decomposition.
As the investigators studied the body more closely, some chilling details came to light, and they realized that this was going to be no ordinary case, even in the realms of a murder investigation.
Awful details
The lady’s body had been stripped and placed on a beach blanket face down. The head had been propped up by a makeshift pillow consisting of a blue headscarf or bandana and a pair of Wrangler pants.
Yet the head was barely still attached to the body. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that this woman had come extremely close to being decapitated.
“The victim’s hands were missing”
Joseph Bonavolonta, an FBI agent, shared the awful details about the state of the body to the media. He explained that well as being nearly removed, the head also showed severe signs of trauma: the left-hand side of the woman’s skull had been smashed in.
Bonavolonta also revealed, “The victim’s hands were missing, presumably removed by her killer so she could not be identified through fingerprints.” One of the forearms had also been removed from the body.
Putting the puzzle together
Despite the desecration, the authorities were able to put some pieces of the puzzle together. They believed that the lady had been between 20 and 40 years old at the time of her death.
Moreover, she had been just under 150 pounds in weight and 5 feet 6 to 5 feet 8 inches tall. Her hair was brunette with a dash of red, while her toenails were painted with pink polish.
Potential leads?
The investigators were also able to discover a lot from the woman’s teeth. She’d had some expensive dental work done, which they estimated to have cost up to $10,000. They also said it had been done in the “New York-style” that was popular during that time.
By looking at the body’s damaged skull, the authorities were able to determine that a “military-style entrenching tool” had likely been the weapon responsible for the woman’s death. And one more detail offered up a potential lead.
Did the victim know her killer?
When studying the body, the authorities didn’t spot any defensive marks or injuries. To them, this meant one of two things: either the woman had been familiar with the person who’d killed her — and therefore hadn’t been ready to defend herself against them — or it could have been a sign that she had been murdered in her sleep.
Either way, though, investigators were able to tell a lot from looking at the crime scene as a whole. In fact, the exact position of the corpse proved to be a very important detail.
“She was definitely posed there”
Provincetown’s former acting police chief Warren Tobias explained that the body had clearly been posed deliberately in that position and in that location. “She was lying out on a beach towel as if she was sunbathing,” he told People in August 2018.
Having gathered all the information they could from the crime scene and the cadaver, the investigators started to dig for answers. Who was this woman? And why was she there?
Hitting a brick wall
Despite searching through a host of missing persons reports, the authorities couldn’t find a match to the victim. And coupled with the lack of viable information from the public, it didn’t take long for the investigation to dry up.
Leads were thin on the ground, to say the least. As such, the woman was still unidentified when she was laid to rest months later in October 1974. Her burial took place at St Peter’s Cemetery in Provincetown.
Frustration started to set in
With no way to identify the woman, there was no funeral, no service. The gravestone simply read, “Unidentified Female Doe. Found Race Point Dunes. July 26, 1976.” The message was sad, and if she did have a family, how would it help them find her?
When it came to the investigation, sadness was making way for feelings of exasperation. The case was getting colder by the day and month, and no one could crack it.
Giving up wasn’t an option
Slowly, the months turned into years, the years turned into decades, and authorities still didn’t have any answers. The Lady of the Dunes became Massachusetts’ longest unidentified homicide case. But those working on the case never gave up.
As new officers replaced the previous incumbents, they continued to work on finding the identify of this woman. Even those who’d retired from the job kept investigating long afterwards, and eventually, they would get the answers they’d searched for for so many years.
A major breakthrough
In the end, the identity of the Lady of the Dunes finally came to light — but it took almost 50 years to get there. Her name? Ruth Marie Terry.
She was born in Tennessee in 1936 and had connections to California, Massachusetts, and Michigan. 37 years old at the time of her death, Ruth was a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a wife, and a mother.
Uncovering Ruth’s identity
So how did the investigators finally uncover Ruth’s identity after nearly five decades of futile searching? The first real developments came back in 1980 after her body was first exhumed to get a blood sample.
At the same time, her skull was used to mold an approximation of what she had looked like prior to her death. However, investigators still didn’t get any major leads from this. They would have to wait again.
Consistent testing
Two decades later, in the year 2000, Ruth’s body was dug up once more. On that occasion, investigators extracted a bone fragment for testing, believing it could open the door to a new lead.
This, however, proved unsuccessful as well. Then, a third exhumation took place in 2013 so that additional genetic material could be collected, but it again led nowhere. The testing didn’t stop, though, and eight years later, authorities got a major breakthrough.
The pivotal moment
A huge moment came in 2021 after a segment of Ruth’s jawbone was packed off to a forensics facility to undergo more tests. Finally, after years of bad news, investigators struck gold. They had a match.
It was forensic genealogy that provided the authorities with the answer they’d been searching for. Ruth was officially identified in November 2022, finally bringing closure to one part of the enduring mystery. Their “Unidentified Female Doe” finally had a name.
How the method works
“[Forensic genealogy] combines the use of DNA analysis with traditional genealogy research and historical records, to generate investigative leads for unsolved violent crimes,” Agent Bonavolonta explained. The breakthrough led to other information, too.
Once the Lady of the Dunes had been confirmed as Ruth Marie Terry, the state of Massachusetts revealed three additional names she might have used. They were Teri Shannon, Terry M. Vizina, and Teri Marie Vizina.
The powerful words of Massachusetts’ Police Colonel
At the press event confirming Ruth’s identity, Chris Mason had some words to share. He was the Massachusetts State Police Colonel at the time that this breakthrough had happened.
Mason said, “We know Ruth had family and friends who loved her, and we are aware that this development has not been an easy one for them. So we keep them in our thoughts today during this difficult time.”
“Never envisioned the outcome”
“Certainly, during the years that they were in contact with [Ruth], they never envisioned the outcome for the child, the teenage girl, the young woman they knew, loved, and cared about,” Mason continued.
“We hope today’s announcement helps shed some light on the many questions they have had these many years, and marks another step towards answering more of them,” he added.
“An important milestone”
“Today’s identification of the Lady of the Dunes is not the end of the case or even the beginning of the end, but this achievement does mark an important milestone towards identifying Ruth’s killer,” he continued.
“It represents a critical discovery that makes possible the rest of the work that lies ahead.” In other words, it was just the jolt this case needed.
Wild theories
There were still answers to be found. How had Ruth ended up on that Provincetown beach? Who had killed her? Before she was positively ID’d, several theories had swirled in the public consciousness about the intricacies of the case.
One such theory suggested that an escaped female prisoner called Rory Gene Kesinger was the victim. It was claimed that her hands might have been removed by the murderer because, as a prisoner, her prints would have flagged up on police records.
Was Whitey Bulger involved?
Kesinger had escaped a jail not too far from Provincetown before the murder and had never been seen from again, which strengthened the theory that the body on the beach was hers. Yet DNA tests ruled out this theory in 2002.
Meanwhile, the infamous gangster Whitey Bulger was also linked to the Lady of the Dunes case by an apparent witness in 2015. Despite the woman’s claims, though, he was never officially seen as a potential suspect.
A connection to Jaws?
Mind you, the most bizarre theory of them all arguably had the strongest connection to the case. Back in 2015 Stephen King’s son, Joe Hill, made an intriguing Tumblr post.
Hill, a famed writer just like his dad, speculated that the Lady of the Dunes might have popped up in Jaws as an extra. The woman in question was rocking jeans and a blue bandana — just like the items found with the body on the beach.
Talk of the town
Now, that may sound like a stretch — but there’s more to this theory. Jaws was shot on Martha’s Vineyard in the summer of 1974, which is 100 miles or so away from Provincetown. Steven Spielberg’s movie attracted a lot of interest in the area.
Alongside a still from Jaws, Hill wrote, “It’s impossible to say with complete precision when they filmed the ‘July 4th — Crowd Arrives’ sequence, which is where this shot appears.”
Do the dates line up?
“But we know it was almost certainly shot in June, because they filmed all the ‘on island’ scenes they could early,” Hill continued. “The malfunctioning shark wasn’t ready for the ‘at sea’ material until late July.”
“We also know the Lady of the Dunes was alive in June and that the filming of Jaws was a big deal locally. Lots of folks turned up to try and get a peek at the stars, or the shark, or to see if they could sneak into a shot.”
The theory went viral
There was certainly some plausibility in Hill’s theory. Could Ruth have been involved in the film shoot in the days or weeks before her murder? Well, no one really knows for sure.
After Hill’s speculation went viral, a journalist tried to uncover any documentation that might exist about Jaws’ extras. But the death of the movie’s casting director some time prior made that venture virtually impossible.
“The facial similarities are there”
Upon learning that Ruth was confirmed as the Lady of the Dunes, though, Hill went back to his theory in November 2022. Taking to X, he posted a composite image of the Jaws extra and the murder victim.
“What do you think?” Hill asked his followers. “My opinion: Maybe. Probably not? But maybe. The facial similarities are there — so is the way she holds her shoulders. But the hair is really quite different.”
“Might not be the same person”
“And I wonder if the woman in the Jaws photo is too young,” Hill added. Then, he posted an additional tweet with a different picture. “[The] hair color is different,” the author noted.
“The rest? Well, see for yourself. They might not be the same person... but I also think one has to admit they might be.” It definitely gets you thinking, right?
A significant lead
Still, though, the potential connection to Jaws didn’t help with the biggest unanswered question: who had murdered Ruth, and why? Well, around the time she was identified in 2022, a new figure entered the police’s investigation.
The state of Massachusetts revealed that Ruth had gotten married not long before her death. The groom’s name was Guy Rockwell Muldavin, and he immediately threw up some red flags.
Link to a previous murder?
Over the course of his life, Muldavin had five wives, one of whom disappeared in 1960. Her name was Manzanita Mearns, and she and her teenage daughter vanished in Seattle, Washington.
Their brutalized remains were discovered inside their home’s septic tank in the summer of 1960, which led to Muldavin’s arrest. He ultimately didn’t receive any murder charges, however.
A person of interest
Then, some time later, Muldavin attracted the interest of law enforcement once again. On that occasion, he was accused of swindling his mother-in-law from a different marriage out of $10,000.
So, you might not be surprised to hear that the guy was a person of interest in Ruth’s murder investigation, too. But the authorities couldn’t speak to him: Muldavin had passed away back in 2002.
The story was finally pieced together
Still, investigators needed answers, and they tried to learn all they could about Muldavin during the period when Ruth had been killed. Any kind of information that would help piece the story together was gold dust.
By August 2023 the District Attorney of the Cape & Islands, Robert Galibois, had a pretty clear narrative to share with the public. Galibois outlined it all in a press release.
A road trip with a sketchy ending
Galibois explained, “The Massachusetts State Police learned that Ms. Terry married Guy Muldavin in either 1973 or 1974. They traveled after their wedding, stopping in Tennessee to see Ms. Terry’s family.”
“Through investigative efforts, [we] learned that Ms. Terry and Mr. Muldavin traveled during the summer of 1974.” Here’s where their story starts to sound sketchy. At the end of their road trip, Muldavin returned — but Ruth, his wife, was not with her.
“Never seen by her family again”
“[Muldavin] was driving what was believed to be Ms. Terry’s vehicle and had indicated to witnesses that [she] had passed away,” the press release continued. “Ms. Terry was never seen by her family again.”
Ruth’s loved ones, however, heard a different story about what had happened to her. As far as they were concerned, she was still alive — although her husband couldn’t say where she’d gone.
Revealing the killer
Galibois’ statement revealed, “Ms. Terry’s brother tried to find his sister with Mr. Muldavin only stating that they had a fight during their honeymoon, and he had not heard from his wife again.”
After outlining some of Muldavin’s past brushes with the law, the District Attorney revealed that they had enough information to be sure of his involvement in Ruth’s murder. He said, “It has been determined that Mr. Muldavin was responsible for Ms. Terry’s death in 1974.”
“Sort of chilling”
Even before this confirmation from the District Attorney, Muldavin was seen as the likely culprit by many people. Stephen King’s son even shared his thoughts about the guy during an interview about his Jaws theory to Inside Edition.
Hill said, “I’m sort of fascinated by the idea that for decades afterwards, every time Jaws came on TV, he saw his dead wife turning her head to stare out of the screen at him. There’s something sort of chilling in that notion.”
A bittersweet conclusion
So, the infamous cold case, which was approaching its 50th year without a conclusion, was finally brought to a close. After all the wild speculation and theories, the sad truth came down to a man killing his wife.
But thanks to the efforts of the investigators over the decades, this was a tragedy with the faintest of silver linings. Without them, Ruth Marie Terry’s name might have been lost to history.