‘No regrets': Missing mum found after 60 years

News.com.au

05-05-2025

An American mother of two who vanished more than 60 years has been found alive — telling cold-case cops she is 'happy' and has 'no regrets' for leaving her family.
Audrey Backeberg was 20 years old, living with her husband, Ronald Backeberg, and their two children in Reedsburg, a city about 88km northwest of Madison, Wisconsin, when she vanished from her home on July 7, 1962.
For years, investigators with the Sauk County Sheriff's Office had followed leads trying to piece together the young mother's disappearance until the case eventually went cold, reports The New York Post.
However, the sheriff's office made a startling announcement on Thursday that, despite all the decades that have passed, Ms Backeberg was found 'alive and well' living in another state.
'Through diligent investigative work, which included a thorough re-evaluation of all case files and evidence, combined with reinterviewing witnesses and uncovering new insights, the Sheriff's Office is now able to report that Audrey Backeberg is alive and well and currently resides out of State,' police wrote in a press release.
Detective Isaac Hanson led the investigation after the cold case was assigned to him in March as part of the sheriff's office's 'comprehensive review as part of an ongoing examination of cold case files'.
Hanson spent weeks reinterviewing witnesses, re-evaluating old evidence, and hunting down new leads to solve Mr Backeberg's disappearance.
'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,' the detective told Milwaukee TV station WISN on Friday.
'No regrets'
'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.'
Det Hanson said he spoke with Ms Backeberg for 45 minutes and told him she fled from her home for her own safety from her allegedly abusive husband.
'I think she just was removed and, you know, moved on from things and kind of did her own thing and led her life,' he said.
'She sounded happy. Confident in her decision. No regrets.'
Days before the then 20-year-old mum of two had gone missing in 1962, she filed a criminal complaint claiming she had beaten her so severely that she had head injuries.
She alleged her then partner also threatened to murder her and had access to firearms, according to Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy.
Despite reporting the alleged abuse to the authorities, the man — whom she married when she was only 15 years old — remained in the house with her and the children.
She left home to get her paycheck from her job a woollen mill on July 7, but then vanished.
He chased after leads searching for his missing wife, and her family insisted the young mother would never abandon her children.
Following her disappearance, the family's 14-year-old babysitter claimed Ms Backeberg hitchhiked to Madison, then got on a bus to Indiana.
However, when police tried interviewing the teen about the claim, she got nervous and refused to speak to them.
'The juvenile was interviewed again as an adult, maybe 15 years ago,' Sauk County Sheriff's Office Det. Chris Zunker said in 2020, according to Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy.
'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.'
Det Henson said the department can confidently report that Ms Backeberg left by her own choice and was never unsafe while being listed as a missing person for the past six decades. He would not reveal what state she was now residing in.