A Woman Who Missed More Than 60 Years Ago Has Been Found in the US (4 photos)

A Wisconsin mother of two disappeared without a trace in July 1962. Investigators recently reopened the case and found the woman. She is happily living in another state and has no regrets about leaving her family.





Audrey Backeberg, a 20-year-old mother of two, disappeared from her home in Reedsburg on July 7, 1962. She was married to Ronald Backeberg. For years, investigators with the Sauk County Sheriff's Office tried to figure out what happened to the young woman. And then, last week, Audrey was found alive and well.



"After extensive investigation by investigators who reviewed all case files and evidence, re-interviewed witnesses, and uncovered new information, the Sheriff's Office is pleased to announce that Audrey Backeberg is alive and well and currently living out of state," the press release reads.

Detective Isaac Hanson led the investigation, spending weeks interviewing witnesses and looking for new leads to solve Backeberg's disappearance.

"My sister has an Ancestry.com account. I used that to find important records: death records, census records, and other information," the detective said.





"We finally found the address... I called the local sheriff's department and said, 'There's a woman at this address. Can you go and see her?' And within 10 minutes she called me."

He spoke with Backeberg for 45 minutes and told her that she had run away from home because of her abusive husband.

"I think she's just started living again. She's happy, she's confident in her choices, she doesn't regret anything," he added.

A few days before her disappearance, Audrey went to the police. The woman said that Ronald had beaten her, she had received head injuries. Her husband had threatened to kill her and had access to a firearm.



Despite the statement to the police, Ronald, with whom Audrey had tied the knot at the age of 15, continued to live with her and the children in the same house.

On July 7, she went to the wool factory to get her wages and then disappeared. Her relatives assured that the young mother would never have abandoned her children. The family's 14-year-old babysitter claimed that Backeberg dropped a handful of pills into a can of Coke, drank the contents, and boarded a bus to Indianapolis.

Henson confirmed that Backeberg left of her own accord and was never in danger, although she has been missing for the past six decades. He did not specify what state the 82-year-old woman currently lives in.