Missing mother-of-two makes stunning admission as she is found 63 years after mysteriously vanishing
A young mother who vanished over 60 years ago has finally been found and admitted she has 'no regrets' about her disappearance.
Audrey Backebeger was 20 years old and a married mother-of-two when she disappeared from Reedsburg, Wisconsin, in July 1962.
On Thursday, the Sauk County Sheriff's Office announced that Backebeger had been found 'alive and well' in another state.
'Further investigation has revealed that Ms. Backeberg's disappearance was by her own choice and not the result of any criminal activity or foul play,' the sheriff's office said.
The Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy (WMPA) organization said the woman married her husband, Ronald Backeberg, at just 15 years old and their marriage was riddled with abuse.
Despite her family's insistence that Backeberg would never abandon her kids, the case eventually went cold.
Detective Isaac Hanson reopened Backeberg's case in March for a comprehensive review as part of an ongoing examination of cold case files.
'I think she just was removed and, you know, moved on from things and kind of did her own thing and lead her life. She sounded happy. Confident in her decision. No regrets,' Hanson told WISN.
Backeberg filed a criminal complaint claiming her husband had beaten her and threatened to kill her just days before she vanished, according to WMPA.
However, her husband passed a polygraph exam and has always maintained his innocence in the case.
Shortly after Backeberg went missing, a 14-year-old babysitter for the couple told police she had hitchhiked to Madison with the young mother, then took a bus to Indianapolis, Indiana with her.
The teenager decided to return home and claimed she last saw Backeberg at a bus stop.
'The juvenile was interviewed again as an adult, maybe 15 years ago,' Detective Lt. Chris Zunker of the Sauk County Sheriff's Office told WMPA.
'She stated Audrey had taken a bunch of pills, put them in a Coke can and drank it before taking the bus down to Indianapolis.
'She reported Audrey potentially hooked up with some construction workers that may have been in the area.'
The Sauk County Sheriff's Office said investigators pursued numerous leads over the years, but the case went unsolved for decades.
Earlier this year, Hanson was assigned the case and through re-evaluation and re-interviewing witnesses, was able to track Backeberg down.
'The sister actually had an Ancestry.com account, and I was able to use that. That was pretty key in locating death records, census reports, all kinds of data,' Hanson said.
'Ultimately, we came up with an address. So I called the local sheriff's department, said "Hey, there's this lady living at this address. Do you guys have somebody, you can just go pop in?" Ten minutes later, she called me, and we talked for 45 minutes.'
Hanson did not specify what state she is in, but said her abusive husband may have played a role in her initial decision to leave.
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The Herald Scotland
6 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
'Vicious' killer's execution, blocked under Biden, is moving ahead
"I can't change the past," Hanson said at a recent clemency board hearing asking for mercy. "I would if I could." Hanson's execution will come the same week that he won a stay from a judge, only for it to be overturned by a higher court. If the execution moves forward as scheduled, it will be the 23rd in the U.S. this year and the third of four executions this week alone. Here's what you need to know about the execution, including why Hanson's fate changed after Trump took office for the second time. When is the execution? Hanson is scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m. CT on Thursday, June 12, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. It would be the second execution in Oklahoma this year. Nolan Clay, a reporter for The Oklahoman - part of the USA TODAY Network - is set to be among the witnesses to the execution. What was John Hanson convicted of? On Aug. 31, 1999, Mary Bowles was in the Promenade Mall in Tulsa, getting in one of the frequent walks she liked to do for exercise. When she got back to her car, John Hanson and Victor Miller pulled their guns, then carjacked and kidnapped Bowles. They took her to an isolated area near a dirt pit, according to court records. The owner of the pit, Jerald Thurman, was there and saw the car circling the pit before it drove up to him. Miller got out and shot Thurman four times, including once in the head, as Bowles sat helplessly in the back of the car, court records say. Miller drove a short distance away, during which Bowles asked the men: "Do you have any kids or anyone who loves you?" according to court records, prompting Hanson to punch her. Shortly after, Miller stopped the car, and Hanson forced Bowles out and shot her her at least six times, court records say. Thurman's nephew, who had been on the phone with him just before the attack, found his wounded uncle still alive shortly after the shooting. Thurman died two weeks later. Bowles's badly "significantly decomposed" body was found more than a week later on Sept. 7, 1999, court records say. Hanson and Miller continued on what prosecutors called an "armed-felony binge," robbing a video store and a bank at gunpoint over a five-day period before Miller's wife turned the men in following an argument. They were captured two days after Bowles' body was found. Miller was sentenced to life in prison, and Hanson got the death penalty. Miller also later bragged about having been the one to shoot Bowles, according to court records. All of that adds up to "a disturbing miscarriage of justice," Hanson's attorneys say. Hanson explained his actions at a recent clemency hearing, describing Miller as driving the violence. "I was caught in a situation I couldn't control," he said. "Things were happening so fast, and at the spur of the moment, due to my lack of decisiveness and fear, I responded incorrectly, and two people lost their lives." Who was Mary Bowles? 'A gentle person' The turnout for Mary Bowles' funeral showed just how beloved the avid volunteer was in the community. Hundreds of family, friends and fellow volunteers packed her funeral to share their memories of the 77-year-old, according to an archived story in the Tulsa World. Among Bowles' many volunteer organizations was a local hospital where she had logged over 11,000 hours in the neonatal unit for critical newborn babies, the Oklahoman reported in 1999. "She was such a gentle person," Beverly Farrell, a hospital director, told The Oklahoman. "I can't imagine her offering resistance to anyone. She would have given up her car. I don't understand how anyone could be violent to her." Though Bowles never married and had no children herself, she treated over a dozen nephews and nieces as if they were her own, friends and family told media outlets at the time. "She had to be the greatest aunt in the world," Farrell said. Bowles also had a passion for music and traveling. She majored in music education at Oklahoma A&M and played at the Tulsa Philharmonic for three seasons, according to the Oklahoman. Bowles once took a hot-air balloon ride over Lake Tahoe and enjoyed cross-country skiing in the winter, niece Linda Behrends told the Tulsa World. Farrell said Bowles' murder was devastating for the hospital and the community: "She made such a meaningful impact here in all that she did." What does President Donald Trump have to do with this execution? Hanson was imprisoned in Louisiana, serving a life sentence for bank robbery and other federal crimes, when Oklahoma scheduled his execution for Bowles' murder. Hanson's execution had been set for Dec. 15, 2022, but the Biden administration blocked his transfer to Oklahoma from federal custody in Louisiana. The move was in line with Biden's opposition to the death penalty and came a couple years before Biden commuted the death sentences of all but three federal death row inmates just before he left office in December. During Trump's first month in office this year, he signed an executive order restoring federal executions, calling the death penalty "an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes." Three days later, Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the U.S. Department of Justice to transfer Hanson to his state. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer Hanson from Louisiana, and he arrived in Oklahoma in March. "For the family and friends of Mary Bowles, the wait for justice has been a long and frustrating one," Drummond said in a news release shortly after Hanson's transfer. "While the Biden Administration inexplicably protected this vicious killer from the execution chamber, I am grateful President Trump and Attorney General Bondi recognized the importance of this murderer being back in Oklahoma so justice can be served." John Hanson won a stay from a judge this week Hanson's execution was in doubt after an Oklahoma judge granted him a stay on Monday. The stay stemmed from Hanson's arguments that one of three members of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board who voted to deny him clemency was biased. (The board voted 3-2.) Hanson said that board member Sean Malloy was a prosecutor in Tulsa County when Hanson was resentenced in 2006 and therefore should not have been allowed to weigh in on his clemency petition. Malloy said he never worked on Hanson's case. Oklahoma County District Judge Richard Ogden ordered a stay of execution pending Hanson's lawsuit against the board over Malloy's participation. Drummond immediately appealed the ruling and on Wednesday, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals overturned it, allowing the execution to proceed. Hanson's attorney, Emma Rolls, said in a statement that the appeals court's ruling "leaves Mr. Hanson at imminent risk of being executed without the constitutional safeguards he's entitled to under law." "No person facing execution should have to plead for mercy in front of a decisionmaker with direct ties to their prosecution," Rolls, said. "We are pursuing all available avenues to ensure that Mr. Hanson receives a fair process before this irreversible punishment is carried out." Contributing: Nolan Clay, The Oklahoman Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.
Wales Online
7 days ago
- Wales Online
Youth worker who told vulnerable child 'I could murder a cuddle in bed now, lol, naked' struck off
Youth worker who told vulnerable child 'I could murder a cuddle in bed now, lol, naked' struck off Francois Hanson was a youth worker at Neath Port Talbot Council when he abused his position supporting an 'extremely vulnerable child' he nicknamed 'chicken nugget', a professional standards hearing was told Francois Hanson was a long standing youth worker for Neath Port Talbot Council (Image: Copyright Unknown ) A married father who stroked the thigh of an "extremely vulnerable" child who he was assigned to support as a youth worker, has been struck off the professional register. Francois Hanson, who worked for Neath Port Talbot Council youth services, also sent the girl sexually explicit Snapchat messages over a sustained period and often late at night, a professional standards panel heard. The Education Workforce Council Wales fitness to practise panel was told that Hanson had abused his position, sought to blame the child for his actions and showed limited acceptance that what he had done was wrong. He had paid no regard to the effect of his actions on the child or her wellbeing, panel chair Steve Powell said. On the last day of the remote three day hearing on June 5, the panel found a raft of allegations against Hanson proved. Earlier in the week the committee was told that after the girl reported him, Hanson was arrested and questioned. Police found no case to answer owing to lack of evidence but Hanson later resigned from his job and was reported to the EWC as the professional regulating body. The panel said they found the girl to be a "credible witness" whereas Hanson had not engaged in the process and did not attend. Article continues below Some of the messages he sent her were relayed during the police investigation, during which Hanson had also admitted to officers that he probably liked the girl "more than I should, but not in an obsessive sexual way". Sign up for our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here. The former youth worker deliberately sought to conceal his actions by messaging the child on social media channel Snapchat where messages vanish unless screenshot or saved, Mr Powell said. Another of the messages relayed to the police investigation and read out at the hearing was Hanson telling the child: "I could murder a cuddle in bed now, lol, naked." Hanson, who started his career as a youth and community worker at Neath Port Talbot Council in 2005, was also said to have told police during interviews: "The conversations were not meant to be sexual but I can see how it sounds now". Mr Powell read out: "He said in police interviews: 'I have never put my arms around her inappropriately but just put my arms around her to comfort her'." Finding that there was no explanation for the messages, other than sexual intent, the committee concluded that Hanson had exploited his position as a professional with responsibility for the care and protection of a minor. The panel found his actions were "targeted and manipulative" and there was no innocent explanation for the messages. Giving evidence in person earlier in the hearing the child, named only as "Pupil A" to protect her identity, said she had asked for Hanson to be her youth worker because she had built a rapport with him. But within weeks he began messaging her and driving her home in his own vehicle. The youth worker would park near to her family home and spend hours alone in his van chatting to her. It was on one of these occasions that he stroked the child's thigh telling her that everything would be all right, she told the panel. Hanson nicknamed her "chicken nugget". When she told him she never wanted to have children he told her that she needn't fear about that with him as he'd "had the snip". Matters came to a head when he asked her to visit him at home for a guitar lesson when his wife and children were out. This was also raised during the police investigation during which he told police he had asked her to "jam" at his house, the committee was told. It was after this that Child A told a friend and reported Hanson to her school safeguarding officer, who called police. Announcing the decision to strike Hanson off the EWC register, panel chair Steve Powell said the married father had "developed a focus on Child A, a vulnerable child for whom he was professionally responsible". "It was far beyond a professional relationship. He developed a sexual interest in Child A," Mr Powell added. He said it was clear from interviews with police that Hanson, who had a previously unblemished record, knew his behaviour was "wrong and inappropriate". Matters would never have come to light unless the girl had taken the courage to report him, he said. "He behaved in a sexually motivated way to a child under 16 in his care. This was not an isolated lapse but a concerning pattern of behaviour over a period of time. Child A was extremely vulnerable. Mr Hanson was charged with looking after her interests and wellbeing. His actions were an egregious breach of that trust," Mr Powell added. "There was an attempt at concealment on his part because of the time with her and messages outside the knowledge of colleagues, the use of Snapchat and attempts to ensure no records of the messages." Because Hanson did not attend the hearing, did not engage in the process and was not represented, the allegations against him were taken as denied. Striking him off, the committee found it proved that while employed as a youth worker at Neath Port Talbot Council Hanson sent one or more inappropriate message(s) to Child A saying: 'Well you wouldn't have to worry about that [having children] with me because I've had the snip' and telling her about problems in his marriage; and telling her that she could move in with him. They also found it proved that he had put his hand on her thigh and that his conduct sending the Snapchat messages was of a sexual nature; and/or (b) sexually motivated. Owing to lack of evidence the panel said it could not find it proved that putting his hand on her thigh, telling her he had "had the snip" or about problems in his marriage were of a sexual nature or sexually motivated. On the basis of allegations that were found proved the committee judged they amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and struck Hanson off. The committee rules mean they have to agree he may apply to be restored to the register within a minimum of two years, but they extended that to five. If Hanson does not successfully re-apply to re-join the register when the five years are up then he will remain struck off indefinitely. Hanson has the right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days. Article continues below
Wales Online
03-06-2025
- Wales Online
Married youth worker called young girl 'chicken nugget' and rubbed her thigh
Married youth worker called young girl 'chicken nugget' and rubbed her thigh He also sent her sexually explicit messages and said he wanted 'a friend with benefits', adding that she needn't worry about having children with him 'because I've had the snip' Youth worker Francois Hanson worked for Neath Port Talbot Council youth services (Image: Copyright Unknown ) A married youth worker put his hand on a child's thigh and rubbed it during an unofficial meeting with her in his van. Francois Hanson, who worked for Neath Port Talbot Council youth team, also sent the girl, who was under 16, sexually explicit messages, a professional standards committee was told. In one he told her he needed "a friend with benefits". He also told the child she needn't worry about having children with him "because I've had the snip", the Education Workforce Council Wales panel heard. The girl, identified only as Child A, was taking exams at the time and having problems at home. She told the panel that initially she had wanted Hanson to be her youth worker but then his messages began to make her feel "uncomfortable". Hanson, who nicknamed her "chicken nugget", started being "inappropriate" just weeks after being allocated as her local authority youth worker, the hearing, held remotely on June 3, was told. Giving evidence the girl, now in her early twenties, recalled that the married man and father began to drive her home in his van alone. He would park at the top of her street where they would sit and talk for hours several times a week. It was on one of these occasions that he rubbed her thigh. She told the panel that Hanson, a youth worker with Neath Port Talbot Council since 2005, told her that he was keeping money away from his wife and children to get a house they could move into together. Article continues below He began sending her sexually explicit messages from his personal phone on the social media channel, Snapchat, sometimes as late as 1am. These messages included saying he needed someone to drink with and have fun with, asking her why she was shy, and telling her he "liked her a lot, more than I should". Sign up for our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here. The girl, now a young woman, said she had not understood at the time how inappropriate his actions and messages were. She had been suicidal at times because of problems in her life and Hanson, who she knew as "Frankie" was easy to talk to. She said he told her he was not happy in his marriage and on one occasion suggested she come to his house when his wife and children were out. Asked about when he touched her, she told the hearing that she had just told him about having suicidal feelings at the time: "He put his hand on my (mid/upper) thigh and told me "everything is going to be OK". "He rubbed up and down (on my thigh) and said 'everything is going to be alright'. I was like, OK, well I've got to go now. I remember hugging and then getting out of the van." She went on to explain: "He would message me after school and would contact me as late as 11pm or 1am over Snapchat sometimes." She said these messages made her feel "uncomfortable and embarrassed" coming from someone so much older who was meant to be safeguarding her as her youth worker. In one he told her: "I need a friend with benefit who I can drink with and have fun with...I would ask you but I don't want to scare you off or freak you out." On another occasion he messaged suggesting she come to his home because he had "a free house". Child A said she was wondering how to respond when the friend with her advised: "Absolutely not, you are not going. Stay with me. Either you tell your parents or I will." Matters came to a head when Hanson asked Child A to come to his house "for a guitar lesson" because his wife and children were out. When she told a friend, referred to as Child B in the hearing, Child B told her not to go, especially as they had an exam in the morning. The next day Child A went into school and told the school safeguarding officer about the messages from Hanson and showed her some of them. Police were called and came to the school where she made a statement. Police took her phone to try to recover the Snapchat and other messages, but Snapchat messages disappear if not saved and officers closed the case saying there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction. Hanson faces the following allegations before the EWC: That while employed as a youth worker at Neath Port Talbot Council: 1. He sent one or more inappropriate message(s) to Child A. 2. He made one or more inappropriate comments to Child A, in that he: (a) said, 'Well you wouldn't have to worry about that [having children] with me because I've had the snip'; (b) told her about problems in his marriage; and/or (c) told her that she could move in with him. 3. He put his hand on Child A's thigh. 4. His conduct at paragraph 1 and/or 2 and/or 3 was: (a) of a sexual nature; and/or (b) sexually motivated. 5. The facts of paragraphs 1 and/or 2 and/or 3 and/or 4 above constitute unacceptable professional conduct when considered (a) individually; and/or (b) together. Article continues below Hanson did not attend the hearing and was not represented and therefore the allegations were all taken as denied, panel chair Steve Powell said. The hearing continues.
