Lady of the Dunes is the nickname for an unidentified woman discovered on July 26, 1974 in the Race Point Dunes, Provincetown, Massachusetts. Her body was exhumed in 1980, 2000, and 2013 in efforts to identify her and her murderer; to date, these efforts have been unsuccessful. The case was featured on the television series Haunting Evidence in 2006.
Discovery
A 9-year-old girl was walking her dog, and found the body of an unidentified woman on July 26, 1974. The remains were just yards away from a road, and had a significant amount of insect activity. Two sets of footprints led to the body, and tire tracks were found from the scene. The woman may have died two weeks before her body was found. The victim was face-down on half of a beach blanket. There was no sign of a struggle; police theorized she either knew her killer or had been asleep when she died. A blue bandanna and pair of Wrangler jeans were under her head. She had long auburn or red hair, pulled back into a ponytail with a gold-flecked elastic band. Her toenails were painted pink. Police determined the woman was approximately tall, weighed, and had an athletic build. She also had dental work – including crowns – worth $5,000-$10,000; dentists call it the "New York style" of dental work. Several of her teeth had been removed. One hand and one forearm were missing. Most sources say she was between 25 and 40 years old. However, she could have been as young as 20 or as old as 49. The woman was nearly decapitated, possibly from strangulation; one side of her head had been crushed with a military-entrenching type of tool. This head injury was what killed her. There were also signs of sexual assault, likely postmortem. Some investigators feel the missing teeth, hands, and forearm indicate the killer wanted to hide either the victim's identity or their own. The woman was buried in October 1974 after the case went cold. In 2014, one of the case investigators raised funds for a new casket, because the original thin metal casket was rusted and deteriorated.
Investigation
Police pored through thousands of missing-person cases and a list of approved vehicles driven through the area; no matches were found. At the scene, the sand and beach blanket were not disturbed, suggesting that the body was possibly moved to that specific spot where her body was found. No other evidence was found despite extensive searches of the surrounding dunes. The first facial reconstruction of the woman was created with clay in 1979. Her remains were exhumed in 1980 for examination; no new clues were uncovered. The body was exhumed again in March 2000 for DNA. In May 2010, her skull was placed through a CT scanner that generated images that were then used by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for another reconstruction.
Leads
In 1987, a Canadian woman told a friend that she saw her father strangle a woman in Massachusetts around 1972. Police attempted to locate the woman but were unsuccessful. Another woman told police the reconstruction of the victim looked like her sister, who disappeared in Boston in 1974. Investigators also followed a lead involving missing criminal Rory Gene Kesinger, who would have been 25 years old at the time of the murder. Authorities saw a resemblance between Kesinger and the victim. However, DNA from Kesinger's mother did not match the victim. Two other missing women, Francis Ewalt of Montana and Vicke Lamberton of Massachusetts, have also been ruled out.
In August 2015, speculation arose that Lady of the Dunes may have been an extra in the 1975 film Jaws. Joe Hill, the son of horror author Stephen King, brought this to police attention. Hill had learned of the case after reading The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths are Solving America's Coldest Cases just weeks before. While watching the film's Fourth of July beach scene, Hill spotted a woman in the crowd wearing a blue bandana and jeans, similar to those found with the body. Jaws was shot between May and October 1974. Principal photography was mainly in Menemsha on Martha's Vineyard, about south of Provincetown. Although a lead investigator has noted interest in this, others have described it as "far-fetched" and "wild speculation."
Suspects
In 1981, investigators learned a woman who resembled the victim was seen with mobster Whitey Bulger around the time the woman presumably died. Bulger was known for removing his victims' teeth. A link to Bulger has not been proven, and he was murdered in prison in 2018. Tony Costa, a serial killer in the area, was an initial suspect, but later eliminated. Costa died on May 12, 1974. The victim was found in July 1974.
Serial killer Hadden Clark confessed to the murder, stating "I could have told the police what her name was, but after they beat the shit out of me, I wasn't going to tell them shit. ... This murder is still unsolved and what the police are looking for is in my grandfather's garden." Authorities say Clark suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, a condition which may lead someone to confess falsely to crimes. In 2004, Clark sent a letter to a friend stating that he had killed a woman on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He also sent two drawings: one of a handless, naked woman sprawled on her stomach, and another of a map pointing to where the body was found. In April 2000, Clark led police to a spot where he claimed he had buried two victims 20 years before. He also stated that he had murdered several others in various states between the 1970s and the 1990s.
