Lady of the Dunes

On July 26th 1974, a family decided to spend the day at Race Point Dunes in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Amongst the party was a 12 year old girl who, after spotting a barking dog, left the group to go and play with it. As she followed the animal into the more shrubby part of the dunes, which were situated closer to the road, she spotted what looked like the body of a deer. Unfortunately for the little girl, she soon realised it was actually the body a woman, laying face down and half on/half off a beach blanket.

When the authorities arrived they immediately spotted that there was no sign of a struggle, surmising that she had either known her killer or had been asleep/unconscious at the time of the attack. They also noted that the victim had suffered severe head injuries, which were later determined to be the cause of death, with one side of her skull being completely crushed. She had also been partially decapitated (possibly from strangulation), and several teeth, both hands and one forearm had been removed. Investigators believed that this was an effort to hide both the victim’s identity and the killer’s, which again hinted that the two had known each other and the body’s identification could well point to the perpetrator.

Following the forensic examination, attempts were made to identify the woman. However, despite trawling through thousands of missing persons cases and reaching out to the general public through the media, the investigation never got any further than the initial forensics. ‘Jane Doe’ or ‘The Lady of the Dunes’, was buried in the October of 1974, but she would not be forgotten by the people of Provincetown nor their police department.

There would be two facial reconstructions created of the unknown woman, one from clay in 1979 and one generated from a CT scan in 2010. Her remains would also be exhumed twice, once in 1980 for examination (no new evidence was found) and once in 2000 when DNA was taken for testing. The ‘Lady of the Dunes’ case would be reexamined many times, by authorities and amateur detectives alike, but her identity would remain a mystery for 48 years. It would not be until 2022, when further DNA samples were tested, that familial matches would be made. On October 31st 2022, the FBI officially announced that she had been identified as Ruth Marie Terry, a 37 year old woman who went missing in the summer of 1974.

They also revealed that they would be launching an investigation into, the now deceased, Guy Muldavin, Ruth’s husband. At the time of her disappearance she was newly married to Guy, who was an antique dealer, and the couple were apparently travelling the country visiting their respective families and also looking for antiques. Four months prior to her death, the couple had spent some time with Ruth’s family, and surviving members recalled that she (Ruth) did not seem herself during their visit and that Guy seemed to be displaying possessive behaviour. Guy’s family, his half-brother Kenneth and his wife, Carole, informed investigators that they remembered the couple mentioning going to Massachusetts as they were leaving.

When Guy returned to Ruth’s family later that summer, it was to inform them that Ruth had gone missing from their home in California, he only stayed a short while and repeatedly claimed that he did not know where she was. Suspicious, and worried for his sister, her brother James travelled to California and hired a private investigator, who is not named in any public reports or media. According to the family, they were told that all of her belongings had been sold and that Ruth had left the state of her own free will to join a cult. It is unclear whether this ‘investigator’ was successfully fed lies or if he was paid off. Neither Guy nor her family would ever report Ruth missing to the authorities.

Throughout the investigation into ‘The Lady of the Dunes’, Guy was already known to the FBI and a prime suspect in three murders and one kidnapping, plus he had already spent time in prison for swindling his third wife’s family out of $10,000. Sadly however, with them being unable to identify Ruth, the connection through marriage was never made.

It is believed that sometime in April of 1960 Guy killed his second wife, Manzanita Ryan, and her daughter Dolores Mearns, at their home in Seattle. Four months following their disappearance, he married his third wife, Evelyn Emerson, from whose Mother he borrowed $10,000 in order ‘to buy antiques’. Instead, however, he purchased a sports car under an assumed name and headed to Provincetown, where his wealthy father lived. From there he moved on to New York City, where, in December 1960, authorities finally caught up to him and he was arrested for ‘unlawfully fleeing to avoid giving testimony before a grand jury concerning mutilation of a human body’.

By now, Seattle authorities had searched his previous home and discovered human remains in the septic tank on the property, and they had more than a few questions for the AWOL Mr Muldavin. He was to also answer to a grand larceny charge regarding the $10,000, which you would think would be the least of his worries, but it would actually be this charge that would see him be sent to prison. The remains in the tank could never be formally identified as the two missing women and the judge dismissed the case, meaning that Guy never stood trial for their disappearance or possible murders.

At least the disappointed investigators and the women’s family could take some comfort in the fact that Guy was found guilty on his other charge and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. However, in a frustratingly familiar turn of events, he would have his sentence suspended after just thirteen months served, on the condition that he pay back the money. Ruth’s family would later comment that both the judge in the murder case and the one who released him from prison were to answer for her death.

Whilst never proven, he is also the prime suspect in the unsolved Humboldt County case of the kidnap-murder of Henry Baird and Barbara Kelley, which occurred in June 1950. On the morning of June 18th 1950, Henry was found face down on the beach, wearing only his socks and shoes, with a gunshot wound to the back of his head. Barbara’s clothes, save for her shoes and stockings, were found neatly folded underneath Henry’s. Barbara was not seen nor heard from again.

On August 28th 2023, Guy Muldavin was officially named as Ruth’s killer, 21 years after his death and 49 years after her murder.

Announcement of Ruth Marie Terry’s identification, made by Massachusetts State Police Col. Christopher Mason on Monday 31st October 2022:

“TODAY, WE CAN FINALLY SAY HER NAME: RUTH MARIE TERRY.
WE HOPE TODAYS ANNOUNCEMENT SHEDS SOME LIGHT ON THE MANY QUESTIONS WE’VE HAD FOR MANY YEARS.

TO THE PEOPLE OF PROVINCETOWN,
CAPE COD AND THE COMMONWEALTH WHO NEVER
FORGOT HER: THANK YOU”