Mystery of missing mum-of-two solved as she's found ALIVE after vanishing 63 years ago & reveals she has ‘no regrets'

The Irish Sun

04-05-2025

A MUM-OF-TWO who went missing back in 1962 has finally been found alive and well.
Audrey Backeberg, now aged 82, vanished when she was just 20 years old as her family and police desperately searched for any trace.
Advertisement
3
Audrey Backeberg vanished in 1962 when she was just a 20-year-old
Credit: Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy Inc
3
Detective Isaac Hanson solved the six-decade long cold case this year
Credit: WISN 12 News
3
The mum-of-two lived in Reedsburg until she vanished
Credit: Getty
She left her home in Reedsburg, Wisconsin over 60 years ago seemingly never to return.
After years passed by and no one could locate Ms Backeberg, Sauk County Sheriff's Office eventually closed
the missing
person's case as the leads went cold.
But earlier this year, the case was finally reexamined by police during a routine
review
of cold cases.
Detective Isaac Hanson jumped at the chance to solve a six decade long mystery.
Advertisement
He conducted
interviews
and studied the facts of the disappearance.
And in a few short months found Ms Backeberg safe and sound.
The elderly woman had spent her life living just outside of Wisconsin, the sheriff's office said.
Her shock disappearance back in the 60s rocked the small city of Reedsburg which back in 1962 only had a population of 1,800.
Advertisement
Most read in The US Sun
Exclusive
Exclusive
Ms Backeberg was married and had two children when she vanished, according to the Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy organisation.
She left her home on a summer's day to pick up her salary but never returned.
Moment 'missing' Daniel Davies, 26, who hadn't been seen in a MONTH in Thailand is found by police in dingy hostel
The family were left shocked by her sudden move and wanted her disappearance investigated.
Shortly after cops started to look for Ms Backeburg, the family's 14-year-old babysitter claimed she hitchhiked to Wisconsin's capital city of Madison with
the missing
woman.
Advertisement
The pair then caught a bus to Indianapolis, Indiana, the babysitter alleged.
The teen decided to return home after becoming nervous about running away but Ms Backeberg reportedly refused to go back.
She was last seen walking near a bus stop before vanishing for the
next
63 years.
It is still unclear what made her want to escape her family.
Advertisement
Her marriage was said to have been troubled in the months leading up to her running away, say the Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy organisation.
A criminal complaint was even filed just days before she went missing.
Her relatives insisted she would never abandon her children without a real reason, the organisation added.
But the husband was investigated by police and passed a polygraph test as he maintained his innocence.
Advertisement
How was she found?
Detective Hanson managed to track down Ms Backeburg by finding her sister's Ancestry.com account.
He told local
news
station WISN: "That was pretty key in locating death records, census reports, all kinds of data.
"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."
Advertisement
Hanson says he promised to keep the details of their conversation private as he didn't reveal what caused her to leave home.
He did say: "I think she just was removed and, you know, moved on from things and kind of did her own thing and led her life.
"She sounded happy. Confident in her decision. No regrets."
Read more on the Irish Sun
Sauk County Sheriff's Office ruled her disappearance as not being suspicious
Advertisement
They say she made the choice to leave and it "was not the result of any criminal activity or foul play".
'World's oldest cold case' SOLVED
DETECTIVES have solved the 'world's oldest cold case' as battered human bones give clues to seven brutal deaths almost 6,000 years ago.
Archaeologists discovered a scene of mass death in 2004 with nearly 100 pieces of human bone at the site of a prehistoric house.
The dwelling from 5,700 years ago had been in the ancient settlement of Kosenivka, about 115 miles south of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
The bones from most of the Stone Age skeletons were charred and burned, and two of the skulls had been brutally caved in.
The skeletons belonged to at least seven people: two children, one teenager and four adults.
Interestingly, the only four skeletons inside the house were scorched, whilst the three found outside were not.
Initially, it had been presumed that the deaths were accidental - perhaps as a result of a house fire.
However, the realisation that two of the adults suffered violent head trauma just before their deaths sparked a 5,700-year forensic investigation.
Researchers studied closely the fracture patterns and discolouration displayed by the bones to deduce all they could about the last moments of the Stone Age people.
The team concluded that the people inside had been burned to death, unable to escape the flames, whilst the others managed to stagger outside but later succumbed to smoke inhalation.