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cover of episode Episode 631: Case Revisit: The Lady of the Dunes

Episode 631: Case Revisit: The Lady of the Dunes

2024/12/26
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Ash
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Elena
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Elena: 本集回顾了1974年发生在马萨诸塞州普罗温斯敦Race Point沙丘的"海滩上的女尸"案件。受害者身份不明,尸体残缺不全,双手被切除,头部遭受重击,几乎被斩首。案发现场没有搏斗痕迹,受害者衣着整洁,胃容物显示她最近吃过汉堡和薯条。警方调查多年,但没有取得任何进展,曾请教通灵人士,也曾有目击者提供线索,但都未能证实。此案曾多次挖掘受害者遗体,以利用新的科技手段进行调查,但仍未破案。 一些可能的嫌疑人包括:Tony Chop Chop Costa(但案发时已自杀),Rory Jean Kessinger(越狱后下落不明,DNA证据排除),James Whitey Bulger(有拔掉受害者牙齿的习惯,曾被目击与一名与受害者相符的女子在一起),Hayden Clark(自称犯案,但缺乏证据,且患有精神疾病)。此外,有人认为受害者可能出现在电影《大白鲨》中,但这一说法尚未得到证实。 此案的离奇之处在于受害者身份不明,且案发现场缺乏证据,这使得破案难度极大。尽管警方多次努力,但此案至今仍未侦破,成为一个悬而未决的谜案。 Ash: 本集是之前节目的回顾,为下周的案件更新做准备。案件的离奇之处在于受害者身份不明,尸体残缺不全,且案发现场几乎没有搏斗痕迹。警方曾多次挖掘受害者遗体,以利用新的科技手段进行调查,但仍未破案。 播客主持人邀请听众加入他们的团队,一起侦破此案,并呼吁任何知情人士提供线索。他们还讨论了一些可能的嫌疑人,并表达了他们希望能够帮助侦破此案的愿望。

Deep Dive

Key Insights

Who discovered the body of the Lady of the Dunes?

A 12-year-old girl named Leslie Metcalf discovered the body on July 26, 1974, while following a barking beagle in the Race Point Dunes in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

What were the key details about the Lady of the Dunes' appearance?

The Lady of the Dunes was approximately 5'6" tall, weighed 135 pounds, and had long reddish or auburn hair tied in a ponytail. She had pink toenail polish and was estimated to be between 25 and 40 years old. Her eyes were unidentifiable due to decomposition.

Why were the Lady of the Dunes' hands removed?

Her hands were removed to prevent identification through fingerprints, suggesting the killer had experience in concealing victims' identities.

What was the cause of death for the Lady of the Dunes?

The cause of death was a severe blow to the head, likely inflicted with a military entrenchment tool, a collapsible spade commonly used by campers and military personnel.

What theories have been proposed about the Lady of the Dunes' identity?

Theories include her being a victim of James 'Whitey' Bulger, a notorious Boston mobster, or Rory Jean Kessinger, a fugitive who escaped jail in 1974. Another theory suggests she may have been an extra in the movie 'Jaws,' filmed nearby.

What role did psychic Yolanda Bard play in the investigation?

Yolanda Bard, known as the 'Queen of Psychics,' provided insights into the case, including the location of the victim's hands, which led investigators to a bar called the Ace of Spades. However, the basement had been cemented two months prior, halting further investigation.

What was unique about the Lady of the Dunes' dental work?

She had extensive dental work, including gold crowns, estimated to be worth between $5,000 and $10,000. Some of her teeth were forcibly removed, likely to hinder identification.

What evidence was found near the crime scene?

Investigators found two sets of footprints leading toward the body but not directly to it, as well as tire tracks about 50 yards away. However, no concrete evidence linked to the killer was discovered.

How many times has the Lady of the Dunes' body been exhumed?

Her body has been exhumed three times—in 1980, 2001, and 2013—to apply new forensic techniques, but no significant breakthroughs have been made.

What connection does the Lady of the Dunes have to the movie 'Jaws'?

Stephen King's son, Joe Hill, theorized that the Lady of the Dunes may have been an extra in 'Jaws,' filmed two months before her death and 100 miles from the crime scene. The resemblance between the victim and an extra in the film has sparked interest, though it remains unconfirmed.

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
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Hey, weirdos, Elena here. If you're looking to kick back and relax with Morbid, Wondery Plus is the way to go. It's like having a cozy seat in our haunted mansion. No ads, just you and early access to new episodes. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast.

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Brotherin, happy after the holidays. It's after the holidays now. Not here. But where you are. In the future. In the future. Mm-hmm.

It's after the holidays. And we have a little business before we tell you why we're releasing this specific episode. There is a reason for the season. Turn, turn, turn. And Ash is really good at business. Business is my middle name. Also admin. She stands on it. Nicole is also my real middle name in case you were wondering. Don't steal it. So anyway. Don't steal it. I don't know. Don't use it for bad. Just don't steal it, okay? Everybody with Nicole as a middle name is like, let me maintain my middle name. Okay.

Let me. Anyway, back to the business. Next Listener Tale episode is going to be available on all platforms with video on YouTube on January 2nd. Whoa. Whoa. So I think we're doing two installments of Listener Tales for January because of, you know, the holiday. You know. The first one that we're releasing in January on the 2nd with video on YouTube is funny. The costumes.

It's funny. All the other ones, dead serious. Ha ha ha.

But this one, funny. Funnier than the last one, I might add, maybe. I don't know. We haven't even done it yet. That's a pretty tall order. Well, whatever. But anyway, Elena, back to you. Tell them why we're re-releasing this episode, The Lady of the Dunes. So this was a crazy, like, mysterious case. There wasn't an answer for it. Unsolved, if you will. It was one of those. You might say it was unsolved, but...

You can't say that anymore. Don't say that. Can't say that anymore because there's an update to the case. We know who did it now. What?

We know who did it. We know who the Lady of the Dunes is. And I'm not going to spoil anything for you because we did a whole episode to update you guys on it. But if you need a refresher, here it is. Listen to the Lady of the Dunes. Say, oh my goodness, will we ever know what happened there? And then you can say, we do. We do. And then go to the next episode and bada-boop. Which will be next Monday. There you go. There's the update.

So this is pretty fun. It's a little gift to you. It was a gift from the universe to the whole world to know who this woman was and to know what happened to her. So we're passing it forward. Enjoy. Please enjoy. Bye. Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid and it's local to Massachusetts. The way you said it. And it's local to Massachusetts. Hello.

I get excited about these. You should. I do. I like covering ones from Massachusetts. It's kind of my thing. It's kind of your thing. Well, do we have any business before we stay in Massachusetts? Before we stay in Massachusetts. So one weird thing happened that kind of goes along with...

with this episode because it happened in Massachusetts. It happened in Provincetown, didn't it? It did. It's happened in, actually, it happened in Cape Cod, yeah. But, like, so right around there. Yeah. But, yeah, this guy, Michael Packard, who is, like, a veteran lobster diver...

which lobster fishermen wild no joke we have a cousin that's a lobster fisherman we do who's a lobsterman shout out to any to any yeah it's it's a badass job it is a very dangerous job and uh this guy michael packard uh

got swallowed by a humpback whale and then spit out. I mean, we're happy for the latter part of that story. Very happy for the ending. Imagine having that life experience. Well, and I guess like his crewmate was on the boat and this guy was going down to check the traps. And he said he just watches like the bubbles to make sure that he's like still alive, essentially. Yeah. And he said all of a sudden he saw this like crazy explosion of bubbles and he's like,

oh my god, he died and I can't do anything about it. Yeah. Like literally he's just sitting there helpless. And the guy, I guess, thought it was a shark that had got him. So he was like, oh, I'm dead. Like he was like,

This is it. He said, I'm done. I'm dead. All I could think about was my boys. They're 12 and 15 years old, which like kills me. And he was breathing through like a breathing regulator at the time. Inside of a humpback whale? Well, not a humpback. I made that up. He said, no, it was a humpback whale. Yeah, it was a humpback whale. It's the morning. It is.

And apparently he was like struggling because he was breathing through that apparatus. Right. So he was struggling and the whale was like, wow, I didn't mean to eat you. Like you're not what I eat. Right. And so I think the whale like felt bad that he had eaten him. And so he brought him to the surface to spit him out. We love a whale. We love a whale. Which I guess he said within like 30 seconds. But he said for a brief moment he thinks he was swallowed.

Well, yeah, he must have been. Like, not just hanging out in his mouth. What the fuck?

Isn't that fucked up? Can you imagine going home and like your wife is like, hey, how was your day at work? And you're like, oh, actually, I got swallowed by a humpback whale. How was your day, sweetie? I got swallowed by a humpback whale. They initially thought he had broken both of his legs. Yeah. And they were like, he at least broke one. He apparently didn't break any bones when he went to the hospital. Yeah, he went to the hospital. He just had soft tissue damage. Oh. Yeah. Yeah.

What the fuck? And I guess an expert said that humpback whales are like gulp feeders. Like they just slurp and gulp. They just get as much as they can down. Yeah. So this was definitely like an accident. He just happened to be there. And I think he was just gulping up food and happened to suck him in. I think that happens in Finding Nemo, like actually. Yeah. And then there's, I guess there's a marine mammal expert, Peter Corcoran. And he's from the New England Aquarium, which our cousin worked at. Hey.

I was just there the other day. Yeah, she's amazing. And he works there and he was saying that the, basically him, the whale bringing him to the surface to spit him out, he said it's perfectly believable that the whale was trying to help him. Shut up. I love this whale. Because there's evidence that say that humpbacks can be altruistic towards humans. Shut the fuck up. Yeah. It's like how elephants think we're cute. Yes. Yeah, I love that. It's the same kind of thing. I fucking love animals. I do too. Not that I want to get swallowed by a humpback whale, but like,

Wow. But I think it was just like it was a whoops moment for that whale. That was embarrassing. And he decided that he was going to try to make good at the end. It was embarrassing. He was probably really shamed. Imagine having that under your belt for two truths and a lie. Yeah. I was born here. I like my color blue. And I was swallowed by a black whale. And they're like, OK, that's the line. You're like, I actually love the color red. I hate blue.

what the fuck? Like, that's an amazing story. I thought I had a good one. Mine is just that I was born in Hawaii. Yeah. And people are always like, that's the lie. And you're like, no. But I was not swallowed by a humpback whale. No, you were not. Maybe I'll still use it in Two Truths and a Lie, though. I think it's a good one. And you know what, Michael Packard? I'm really glad that you're okay. Congrats. Yeah, congrats. And

Make sure you tell your boys because they're going to love that story. Also, are you going to go back to Lobster? I'm sure he will. He probably will. Those people are always just badass. Yeah, they don't care. They know the ocean. They know the dangers of the ocean and they're just like, yeah, I'm okay. I think at one point he was like, at least it wasn't a shark, which you're like, yeah,

but it was still a whale that swallowed you. Yeah, like you were in the bell of a whale. Yeah, that's scary. That's crazy. Also, it took everything in me and now I just like can't get past it. When you said like whales are gulp feeders, I was going to say same. Yeah, I figured. And I couldn't let that joke go. I figured. You had to bring it right back around. It hits different after the fact, but it still hits. It does.

You're welcome. I think a lot of people can relate. Yeah. But yeah, so that brings us nicely into the episode today. Which is... Which is the crazy, mysterious, and gruesome case of the Lady of the Dunes. And unsolved. Very unsolved. And now I want to solve it. Whenever I get into one of these cases really hard, I'm like...

Well, you know, things do happen after we cover cases. They do. And it freaks me out. I feel like this is a reminder. This reminds me of like the Karina Homer case the way I want to I want to solve it. Like, I really want to solve that case. And I really want to solve this case. And they're both Massachusetts. I solved the Karina Homer case. Yeah. Yeah.

I know who did it. I know what you did last summer. But I want it like solved. Yeah. I want it on the books. You want a real detective to be doing that. I need to know more information. We need to solve this citizen detective style. Let's do it. We're going to solve this. Did you hear us? And we'll go solve this. We should just get like a book.

get true crime squad together let's do it get sarah tourney like she's clearly doing the damn thing sarah tourney you're on the squad we have to get bailey starion because we're newly best friends and she can make us look good too yes so wow we're doing this yeah i think that's honestly that's the dream team it really is i'm sure we'll think of more later we'll add to the squad because it's early and i mean the entire morbid network has to come exactly everybody everybody

All right. So guys, let's pack your bags. Come to Massachusetts. We're doing this. See you soon. We're going to solve the Lady of the Dunes case. But let me tell you about it first so that you can you guys can decide afterwards if you want to join the squad. Yeah.

So first of all, if you happen to have any information about this case, because it is a pretty well-known case, especially around here, you can direct any tips, any information, anything that your grandparents may have slipped out at some point at dinnertime, at supper, at the supper table. If they sat there and they told you that one time they were in P-Town and it was July, it was hot and I stumbled upon this dead body.

Here's where you can tell the Provincetown Police Department, 508-487-1212 or 508-487-1213. Or if you have any information about the unidentified body that we are going to talk about, call the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner at 617-267-6767. So make sure you call those if you have any information.

So I'm going to start this off with a quick little quote that's going to like sum it up for you what we're going to talk about. Alrighty. For the last 47 years, investigators have been struggling to identify the Lady of the Dunes, a handless corpse that was found nearly decapitated on a Massachusetts beach. So that's going to tell you everything you need to know about what we're going to do. There it is. Whoop, there it is. Now...

It is wild to me. It's always wild to me when we can't find who did something, even if we have the identity of the victim, because it's like people should never be able to get away with this stuff, especially now. Right. But we don't even know who she is. That's the thing that is nuts to me is that we don't know who this woman is. I know. No one's been able to identify her. It's so scary. And when I start telling you.

who she was, how she was found, you're going to see that it's strange. Because as they say multiple times, she seems well taken care of. Right. You know, like she doesn't, she didn't come across as somebody who was like, you know, going from place to place or down on their luck or not, maybe wasn't connected to people. She seemed like she interacted with people quite often. Okay. So...

What happened was a bit after 6 p.m. on Friday, July 26, 1974, a 12-year-old girl named Leslie Metcalf was at Race Point Dunes in P-Town. She was following a barking dog, it was a beagle, and she had been with friends at the beach. Leslie's sister Alyssa had said in an interview later that she was at the stables that day, but her sister and some friends had gone to the beach to play.

They had been hanging around and at a dune shack that family friends were renting. And a dune shack is exactly what it sounds like.

But they were originally built like a century ago or a century, a century, a century earlier than like 1974. Yeah, exactly. But they were originally built as cabins for like these crews of people who would keep watch for ships so they wouldn't run aground in bad weather. And they're just they're exactly what they sound like, just little shacks all across the dunes. Yeah.

Now, after a while, they turned them into like beach rentals and places where like local artists or like, you know, creators of any kind could set up and sell their wares out of. They're all over the place in B-town. Exactly. And on the Cape in general. Exactly. Now, her parents were there as well. And there were two dogs in the shack. When they were all ready to head home, they were just going to walk across the beach and the dunes and go back home. They started walking and one of the dogs, the beagle, followed them.

Which was fine. He was just walking down the beach with them. But then he kind of veered off the path and started barking wildly. Like clearly trying to tell them something. He was very clearly indicating something he had found. Right. That was for sure. So Leslie was like, hmm, what? Because she's 12. Right.

I want to know what that dog's doing. I mean, I'm 35 and I'd be like, hmm, I want to find out what that dog is barking up. And she followed him as I would. And when she ran off the beaten track after the dog, she quickly noticed a motionless form laying in the dunes. Oh my goodness.

And it was surrounded by tall grass. Now, she said she thought the body initially was a deer at first. Not a mannequin this time. Not a mannequin. She thought it was a deer. And she said, you know, she was upset enough about possibly running into a dead or hurt deer. Yeah. That's still shitty. Of course. But then she saw the form completely. She made out some legs and feet.

And she saw hair tied up into a ponytail and caked with blood. Oh my goodness. And she realized that she was looking at a human body. This poor little 12-year-old finding that. She could also smell the scent of decomposition nearby. Like, you know, she had been there for a while in the summer sun. So she was baking. I was going to say. Now, what had happened, though, was it was really hot. It's hot summers here and on P-Town. And...

It's right next to the... It's on the beach, right next to the water. Massachusetts water is not like...

crystal clear Caribbean water. Love that dirty water. So that smell of like the ocean and all that is can be gnarly. But it's something you just expect here. Yeah. That you're going to have that beach smell. Just get hit in the face with like red tide. Exactly. So it's like so this smell of this decomposing woman in the sun for what they think could have been, you know, up to more than a week.

Wow, I didn't know it was that long. Yeah, they think it was just kind of mixing with the... Which tells you something about what the ocean smells like here. That people were just like, man. Well, there's probably like mad bodies in our oceans too. Yeah, there definitely are. So she could definitely smell it the closer she got. And their parents said that all they heard was her say, Mom...

Dad? Like, she didn't scream. She just said, Mom. So her parents went to see what was wrong, and they discovered the body. Yikes. So this body was only found about a mile away from the Provincetown police station. Oh, wow. That's brave. Now, they immediately ran to the dune shack that they had been at, and they contacted the rangers.

Leslie's recollection was that the clothing on scene was very neatly folded and placed under this woman's head. She could see some clothing. And she said she immediately saw that this woman was naked, that her hands, she didn't see initially that they were missing. We'll get into that. But she said her hands were buried in the

Gotcha. Luckily, Leslie didn't see that the head was almost decapitated. She said she seemed like she almost looked like she was asleep and sunbathing in the nude. Did it seem like she was face down? She was face down. Gotcha. She was all the way face down. Hmm.

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Apparently, the family friends who had rented the dune shack that summer said they never rented that shack again. They never returned to the dunes again because they were so disturbed by this whole thing. I mean, yeah. I would be too. And Leslie's sister, Alyssa, said their family had been visiting P-Town for years at this point. And it was a very safe area. Yeah. Especially then. It was, like, very safe. I mean, kids could walk around without their parents. They could run around on beaches and in the dunes to play. No one thought...

anything of it. It's that whole thing of like quiet, quaint little town. It is. Nothing ever happens. It's a quiet New England town. But it is. And it is. This is weird. So Alyssa, the sister, also said that no one really interviewed them about their experience, the family, and likely just went off of the ranger's story for details. Yeah.

Usually papers and stories say that Leslie was walking her dog and just came across the body, but that's not accurate. And I did find many stories that started off with a 12-year-old girl walking her dog. And that's wrong. I know it's not like...

totally pertinent to the infertility, like that she was chasing a dog that wasn't hers. Yeah, but still, you should get the information, right? But it makes it seem like this 12-year-old girl was just alone walking her dog and stumbled across it, and that's just not what happened. Well, and like, to not mention that the parents also saw something. Exactly. Because I guess, I think the reason that they probably do that is like, oh, it's a 12-year-old, so like, that's why we didn't really interview her. Exactly. We just let it go. And it's like, eh.

So Park Ranger James Hankins was the first officer arriving on scene, and he said she was laying face down, naked, on a green beach blanket. He could see red hair, and that she had been severely beaten over the head. She was also seemingly missing her hands, he said. They were not buried. He and other media outlets said the hands were shoved into the sands with pine needle piles around them, like her arms, like where her hands should be.

And it made it look like she was doing push-ups. Weird. Yeah. And he was quoted as saying it was ghastly. It was as if she had been laying there alone or on a blanket with someone and someone came up and clubbed her. There was no signs of a struggle. Even the sand hadn't been disturbed. Wow, that's so weird. And that's something that a lot of people talk about is there was zero sign of struggle. People say it did not look like she was struggling.

fought here it didn't look like it looked like she was there and was caught off guard well and therefore like for there to not be like even like maybe blood splatter on the sand yeah that's weird it's wild it's really wild and i think there was like definitely like blood spatter yeah and stuff but you could tell she didn't fight back right so she was definitely caught off guard caught off guard which it's like was she asleep

That's honestly what a lot of people think is that she was asleep. Well, and I feel like that's kind of an area too where you would go to sleep because you don't have to worry about the water, the tide changing, anything like that. You're in the tall grass. Exactly. She was hidden enough that she could have been sunbathing in the nude. Exactly. And hiding in the nude and just kind of fell asleep. Yeah. And it's like, but what happened? Were you with someone? Right. So like I said, she...

There was some clothing that were found. There was a pair of Wrangler jeans that were folded up like a pillow under her head, which to me says she went to sleep with those under her head. Right, exactly.

The Warren Tobias, who was the retired acting police chief in Provincetown, said she was definitely posed there. She was lying out on a beach towel as if she was sunbathing.

So he doesn't think that she was asleep? She was either posed there or that's like where she what she was doing when it happened. Gotcha. He so James James Hankins, the ranger called Provincetown police chief at the time, James Jimmy Meads at home because they were friends. And actually, I guess Meads had given Hankins like.

some extra responsibilities. Like he could kind of like do more than a normal ranger could because he was like trustworthy. Okay. So he called him at home and he was like, you got to get down here.

Now, Provincetown Police Chief James Jimmy Meads felt like it was his duty to solve this case. So he was so trustworthy. He will know this was the police chief. Well, that's good. He's trustworthy, too. He felt very connected to this case and he took every opportunity to push it forward and like really push down doors to get things done for this case. Like he had a forensics team come together at one point to create composites and clay models of her likeness.

He literally said he wouldn't retire until he found out who she was. And for years, he actually had her skull in his office as a reminder to himself that she was unnamed and can't be forgotten. Wow. That is dedication. Yeah.

He also got her dental records and all information published anywhere he could and constantly brought up her case in any interview he did, anywhere he could. He was really trying to keep her case in the forefront and make sure she was not forgotten. It's so interesting that they did get her dental records, but like... Oh yeah, and we'll get into it, don't worry. Because she has very specific dental records too, which makes it even weirder. Weird, I love this case. So he said, quote...

With most murders, you try to figure out who the murderer was. I've spent years trying to figure out who the victim was. As the years dwindle on, more dentists will retire or die, more dental records will be lost, and the opportunity for identification will diminish.

Maybe someone on death row will decide to cleanse his soul before he dies and confess to the murder. It appears that someday soon I'll retire and the case won't be solved. But I'm sure whoever follows me in this job, if they get a lead, they'll call me and I'll be ready. And each chief after him have all made it a priority to bring this case back up and try and solve it.

Every single case. I'm glad. Every chief after him has been like priority number one is solving this case. So when Meade showed up after Hankins called him, he showed up with two other detectives that evening and he saw the scene and he said immediately his head went to Tony Chop Chop Costa.

Hey, we know all about Tony Chop Chop. We do. If you remember, we did an episode about Tony Chop Chop Costa, another killer in Provincetown. And if you, I don't know if anybody caught that Jimmy Meads is kind of a familiar name. I thought it was, but then I didn't know if I like knew somebody like personally with that name. Yep. See, Meads was in our Costa episode. I thought

He had actually known Costa since he was young when he moved to P-Town. And he, Meads, had been the one to recruit Costa as a drug informant before he turned into a serial killer. Because of his help in the drug informant cases, Meads wrote him a letter to get him early parole when he was in jail for nonpayment of child support. Because he basically wrote the letter to get him out so he could use him as a drug informant. But...

So he got him out five months early in November 1968. And two months after he was let out, he murdered Pat Walsh and Marianne Wysocki. Right. So Meads was part of the investigation. He actually spoke to Patricia Morton, who was the rooming house owner, who told him that

Marianne Wysocki and Pat Walsh had spent two nights at her rooming house and that a man named Tony Costa had also been staying there at the same time. She had told him that they had interacted and that she had not seen the girls in a few days. And as we know, Tony had killed them both. Right. So that's a bummer. So that's why their head immediately went to Tony. Exactly. So and it's very much like

the dismemberment and stuff is very tony costa tony chop chop costa but not like him sorry i'm probably jumping ahead of you oh no well well the big main thing was immediately he thought of tony chop chop but then he realized it couldn't be him because he had killed himself may 12th in 1974 all right well that's so couldn't be him and i was gonna say he didn't leave people out in the open he wouldn't bury them in like the garden thing

that he had. Yeah, he liked to do his little garden, his Tony garden. Yeah. They searched the surrounding areas around the scene for days and they found literally nothing. Not a shred of evidence. That's crazy. They even used bloodhounds. Nothing hit. Couldn't find anything.

I mean, it must be hard on the beach, too, because, like, wind blows and the sand moves. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And it buries things. Yeah. And then there's water involved. It's just all this. It's like the worst thing ever. So the autopsy was done Saturday, July 27th, 1974. What it came out was she was about 5'6", 135 pounds, and estimated to be between 25 and 40 years old.

Her build was described as an athletic build.

She had long hair that was reddish or described as auburn in a lot of places. It was in a ponytail. They couldn't actually determine what color her eyes are because of decomposition. Oh, wow. So what happens is when you die, you stop blinking. And so you don't produce any kind of moisture in your eyes. And there's no more blood circulation to help with all that. So there's no oxygen coming into your eyes once you're dead because the cornea needs to be moist for oxygen to absorb into it.

And lack of oxygen affects the opacity of your cornea and the lens. So it doesn't change the color of the eye technically, but if you're looking at it, it will appear bluish or white or like even gray because it'll be cloudy. Yeah, it'll have that cloudy haze over it. Yeah. Yeah.

That's so weird. I never knew that before. Yeah, it's like a weird thing. So sometimes it can be, especially after, if they've been out for a while, that's really gonna, they're gonna have cloudy eyes. It's just the way. Oh, that's so frustrating too when you're dealing with like an unidentified body. Yeah, exactly. So she also had pink toenail polish on. Oh, girl. I know that always gets me. It does. It does.

Ever since the Willie Pickton episode, because you had said one of the girls was found with red toenail polish. I paint my toes red all the time and I always think of it now. Because you always think, because I think that too, doing autopsies. I say it a lot that like little things always make me think like, oh, you had no idea. Because that was the last time you were going to paint your nails. It's like such a personal thing that like...

You just do like you don't paint your nails thinking of dying. It's like a self-care thing. So it's like they just they either you or someone painted your toenails just and you had no idea that that was the last time you would do that. It's sad. It freaks me out. It always gets me. Now we're going to get into her teeth. Okay, because I'm interested. She had lots of teeth missing, but they are fairly sure that this was from the murder or

Or circumstances, but not circumstances before the murder. They think that this was on purpose that her teeth are missing. She had a lot of gold crowns in her teeth. Huh.

estimated between $5,000 and $10,000 worth of dental work in her mouth. They actually sent out her dental records to dentists all over Massachusetts and the country. Also the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Wow, and they didn't get anything? Nothing. Nothing.

That is nuts to me. Nothing. I'm like, what? And they think that the missing teeth were pulled out forcibly. Right. That they pulled them out intentionally. I remember hearing that. And how? Are there, I don't know if you know this, are there certain teeth that are better for identification? I don't think so. I think it's more dental work. Just in general. I mean, unless, all I can think about is if she had some kind of

Like maybe she had one tooth that severely overlapped another one. Right. That would be like very identifiable. If she had some really, really identifiable specific to her thing that they wanted to remove for that. Yeah. Yeah.

But, like, just the teeth themselves, I think that it's just really the dental work that you're looking for. Well, and then does that say to you that this is probably somebody who's, like, killed before because they know that and they're, like, that, like, callous to freaking pull a tooth? Yes, because when we get into the hands...

Those hands were definitely taken off to take away fingerprints. Right. So this is somebody who knows how to take away identification and did a great job because we can't identify her. So clearly has probably done this before. I feel like that. I feel like that. I think so. I don't think this is a one-off. Experienced level of Moida. And we're going to get, at the end of this episode, we'll talk about the theories. Who has been brought up over the years and maybe talk about who we think could be it.

She was also sexually assaulted with a wooden block, but they think it was done post-mortem, which is terrible regardless. But her hands were cut off, like I said, one at the forearm and one at the wrist. So no fingerprints to identify her, obviously. Where her hands would have been, whoever placed her there had piled on pine needles, which

Like, intentionally. The left side of her head had been crushed in like an eggshell, they said. The medical examiner said it looked like the blow had happened from someone lying next to her or when she was asleep. There wasn't any signs of struggle. She was on one side of the blanket, so it seemed likely that she may have known her killer or was at least slightly comfortable with them and was asleep and didn't see it coming. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's either she was asleep, didn't see it coming and didn't know the person or she was on that blanket with someone and they and she fell asleep or was just lying there and they took her out. She was almost decapitated. They thought this was due to a combination of multiple strangulation attempts and also that blow to the head. It was done with a tool which is called a military entrenchment tool.

And that was actually the cause of death was the blow to the head. Yeah, I would think so. The military entrenchment tool is a collapsible spade kind of thing used by military and like survivalists.

It's really sharp and usually made of like steel and shit. So I think it was James Hankins. Yeah. That said, quote, the only instrument that could have been used to hack off her hands was an instrument carried by almost all dune buggies. Interesting. It was common in all surplus stores. It was a handy tool for a camper.

It was a folding shovel called an entrenching tool. It was standard issue item for anyone in the infantry. Soldiers in World War II and Korea carried them. It was very sturdy, made out of heavy metal, semi-pointed, spade-like.

Wow, so this is a...

Versatile tool. It is. And it sounds like every dune buggy had one. Yeah, which is interesting. And that it's a good tool for campers, people who camp out on the dunes, people who... So this is opening up, like... Many doors. A lot of doors. ♪

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Enterprise Ready AI. There was also a ton of insect activity on the body that they noticed. We'll also mention that again after we talk about the theories. Yay.

Now, the stomach contents indicated that she had recently eaten a meal of burger and fries. Got it, girl. Which indicated to a lot of people that she had been in town that day. Yeah, you would think so. Maybe at one of the burger and fry joints. Right. She had estimated to have been dead for at least 10 days, but possibly as long as three weeks. Whoa, dude. They believe she was... They were thinking that she was...

possibly killed somewhere else if it's not the theory of her being asleep. Okay. Just because of the lack of stuff at the crime scene. Right. There was blood, but like, I think it wasn't as bloody as you would think it would be. Right. At that scene. And then when you get into the insect activity, does that kind of like skew it even more? It's honestly, it doesn't, but it's like, I think they just can't figure it out. Yeah. They can't figure this out. It's like, she looks like she could have been asleep on that towel, on that towel.

Or it could have been all set up to look like she was sleeping on that towel. Because it almost does seem like too perfect. Like posed. Right. Yeah. But it's like she's on. The other thing is she's on her. She's face down. Right. So it's like you would sunbathe that way. Yeah. Like, you know what I mean? Like you would do that. But then it's like, would somebody place you face down? Yeah.

Or would they place you face up? Maybe they would place you face down to make it look like you had been sunbathing. Exactly. Right. So they probably just don't want to rule out anything because it could be anything. Yeah, they have no evidence to say exactly what is going on here, which is so frustrating. I can't imagine working on this case. Even just like listening to it is frustrating. So frustrating. So no missing persons matched that description.

None. They searched all local motels and hotels, asked if someone had seen someone matching that description or if someone had not returned to their room matching that description. Nothing. Like, how is she not connected to anybody? That's the thing. And again, no fingerprints. So we can't even try that. I know. Now, a detective named Detective Flynn said, quote, it's certainly unusual that no one misses her.

She must have had a husband, boyfriend, parents, someone. She had been pretty well taken care of. We know that.

So she was, like, in a state where, obviously, she had almost $10,000 worth of dental work in her house. Yeah, right. She was not just, like, floating around homeless. Right. So it's, like, your mind just goes to all these different things. Yeah. Like, one of the first things I thought was, like, was she, like, a runaway? Like, and had been, like, had run away, like, a long time ago. And just was making her own life. And not dating anybody. Like, you know. Maybe. It's, I, it's.

There's so many ways you could go with it. Yeah. And it's one, especially in the 70s. It's like people were like going off on their own, doing things on their own all the time. Oh, yeah. And Provincetown was like a perfect place to go. Just look at Tony Chop Chop. That was like his whole life was just floating around Provincetown. So it's like maybe not like but she's not a drifter because she's well taken care of. So exactly. It's weird. And

She must have been staying somewhere. Like her hair's nice. It's in a ponytail. Yeah. Like it seems. Yeah. They don't describe it as like unkempt or anything. Right. So it's it's very strange. There were two pairs of footprints seen in the sand around the scene. They appeared to be heading towards the body, but they never came right up to it.

So that's interesting. There was also a set of tire tracks present about 50 yards from the crime scene. But again, it could have been weeks. So that could have just been like a dune buggy. Yeah. So over 30 different police officers searched the entire Cape and they had zero leads. Zero. I could not imagine. Now, a few years later, they were getting a little desperate. So they sent Jimmy Meads to New York City to see a psychic. Okay.

named Yolanda Bard, who was known as the queen of the psychics. Okay. She had worked on a lot of cases, a lot of well-known people. And at this point, they're like, can it hurt? Might as well just give it a shot. Sometimes it can, though. It can. So apparently he placed case things in front of her, but they were all in sealed packages. Okay.

So she wouldn't know what was inside of them. It was their test. Sure. They were like, you prove to me that you're the queen. So they were like, he was literally like, tell me something. I wanted to like, tell me what's going on in one of these. So she stopped over one of them and said, I sense blood in this one.

And it was an envelope containing a bloody piece of evidence from the crime scene. But also like there probably would be blood in one of them. It's true. So, but then she said she saw dripping and she said there was a beach. Now she didn't know what she, what victim she was talking about. Right. She said there was a beach where the victim was found and she said their hands were buried.

That's what? Yeah, that's huge. So she gave him directions to where the hands would be found buried. Wow. And he went back to P-Town to look. He was like, all right, I'm going to go check this out. And he put everything she said together and decided that the place she was indicating, he thought, was a place called the Ace of Spades, which was a bar in town.

And it had been there for a while. And what happened was the water, I guess, dripped onto the beach from some of the sinks. It was like known. So the dripping water. Yeah. And it all kind of matched up with the description. So he went there and she had told him that they would be buried like in the basement. And unfortunately found out that two months earlier they had cemented the basement. Oh, my God.

And that's also a little weird. A little strange. A little strange. Like, why are you just cementing your basement out of nowhere? Exactly. I mean, maybe you have radon, but still. Maybe. Massachusetts, it's old. We've got lots of radon coming up in these random dirt basements. I know, so it's really not that crazy to think that someone's cementing a basement. It's really not, but it's still like, come on. But it's curious timing. Well, and he was thinking he was going to be able to at least dig around, and he couldn't even do that. That sucks.

So James Hankins, the ranger, said that he had walked away from the crime scene that night and he noticed something when he walked away. Ogre? And he said he didn't say anything and it's always bothered him. He said he saw pictures and words drawn in the sand a little ways away, but

But he said he didn't, it didn't look like kids drawings to him. Cause he was like, at first I was like, Oh, kids draw on the sand all the time. It's the Cape. Like the kids are here all day, every day. Yeah. But he was like, for some reason it just didn't ring as kids drawings to me. And he says it always bothered him because he didn't investigate it or take a photo of

Because he was like, whoever drew those things was definitely close to the body recently. Right. Because they would have been erased by the wind or the waves if it was done earlier. Right. So he's like, it always bothered me that I didn't take the second to go see what they were. That bothers me as well. I know. And the body was finally laid to rest at St. Peter's Cemetery in October 1974. Her tombstone says, unidentified female body found race point dunes. Oh, that's very sad. Yeah.

And actually, Alyssa Metcalf said she and her sister Leslie, who was the one who found the body, would often go to the cemetery and visit her grave. I love that. And they said they always felt like a weird connection to her. And it always bothered them that they still don't know who she is. Well, and it's like you have to respect them through the afterlife, too. Yeah, exactly. Like plant flowers or something. Yeah, and it's like she's unidentified. Right, like somebody knows her and somebody must have missed her. Somebody cared about her. You know? Like, who are you? Right. Who are you?

are you that misses her and hasn't said anything? But in 1987, 10 years after this, a Canadian woman came forward and said she thought this woman could have been a victim of her father's. Apparently, when she was young, which hurts my heart,

She witnessed her father strangle a woman while she was visiting him in P-Town in the 70s. Oh, shit. Now, this woman thought that this was the woman. She was like, I think I recognize her as the woman. Wow. So they get this and they tell Meads about it. And he was like, I'll go up to Canada and I'll interview this woman. Hell yeah, let's go. Like, I'm going. So then they try to contact her again to get more information. She had moved out of her home and they literally couldn't find her again. Bitch.

And she never contacted them again. I have goosebumps. Look at my arm. Right? I mean, I feel like that's really shitty. Like, why would you call and like get them excited to fix this? Exactly. Obviously, that must be like a really traumatic thing for you to have to like even call in the first place. But it's like someone lost someone. And like clearly you were trying to help. So like what made you change your mind? Just follow through. You have to wonder like is her dad still alive?

Well, that's what I wonder. And, like, she got scared and, like, he found out or something. Yeah, like, did someone find out in the family and was like, you gotta be quiet? Did he find out? There's so much that could have happened there. Is she alive?

It's like we don't even know. I can't find any information about what this lady's name is or anything. Dude, imagine if her dad like found out and he like also killed her. Imagine. Like that's not. I need to. I did tons of digging to find who she was. I'm going to keep digging to find who she was because I swear to you, I want to find out this woman. I'm going to find this woman. Come on. I'm just going to call Canada. Hi. Canada, it's me. Elena. Hello, it's me, Elena.

And I'd like to talk to that woman. Do we have any contacts in Canada, guys? We do. Elaine is calling 1-800-CANADA. Excuse me? That's spooky. Johnny and Tyler. Accurate. Very accurate. Can you help me? I meant, like, contacts to, like, the police people. Yeah, Johnny and Tyler. They're very important people. Like, they can help us out. I mean, they are VIP. They are. All right. So, Johnny, Tyler, let's get on this together. More squad up. All right. We're making this squad huge. 1-800-CANADA.

All right, so we got the Canada squad up, so we're ready. I'm good. But then there was also a Maryland woman who called and said she thought the woman was her sister. She had just moved to Boston, I guess, recently before this, like when this was happening. The sister. The sister.

The sister. And suddenly had disappeared. Oh. And she was spending time in P-Town. Right. Because it's a very normal fucking place to do. No one knew where she went that year. She said she just disappeared, vanished. What? And she said her sister matched the height, weight, and hair color. Did she say anything about dental work at all? Well, that's the important part because Meads actually asked for her sister's dental records and they were able to ship them out to Meads. Okay. And, and, and? Because he was like, let's do this.

They weren't a match. Fuck you. No gold crowns, nothing like that. Wow.

So it sounded really good. And I honestly, I feel bad for the girl, the Maryland woman, because now it's like, I wonder what happened to her sister. Well, and she probably had like some ounce of hope. Yeah, just that there would be some kind of closure. You know? The crime scene now is, and at the time was, I guess in the 70s was the biggest tourist attraction was that place on the dunes. And even now it's a big pull for people to go look. I get it, but I'm also like, oh.

I know. It's one of those things that it's like, you can have a million opinions about it. But it's one of those things that like, it's never going to stop. That kind of like, you know, it's seeing a place like that. It's like going to the Lizzie Borden house. You know, it's like, it's not going to. It's like going to the fucking cemetery in Salem. Exactly. It's morbid curiosity. Definitely go to Salem. It's amazing. Oh my God. I love Salem so much. I love Salem. It's also like, like I said in the other episode.

episode about it. It's I think it's like a profound experience going to Salem. Absolutely. When you go to like the historical places. Well, there's so many like historical sites. Yeah. We went to like at least like 42 when we were there the other day. Massachusetts has like a lot of good history. I think guys come to Massachusetts. If you're from here, you get it. Hello. I'm from the board of tourists. Tourism. Tourism.

I can't speak. I'm from the Board of Tourism. I'm on a board. In Massachusetts. Come visit Massachusetts. Come little children. Yeah, that was in Massachusetts too. See, we have tons of shit. I'm done asked. Listen to it. All right. So they did exhume her body in 1980, 2001, and 2013. See, that makes me sad. I know they have to, but it makes me so sad. I know. But I'm one of those, I think it's like the science in me. I'm like, nope, bring them up.

Oh, yeah. No, absolutely. But then you're just like, who are you? Well, that's the thing. She can't rest. She's being so disturbed. Yeah. You just want her to rest in peace.

But advances keep happening in science and forensic science. So every time something comes up, they're like, let's bring her up and see if we can use this. Exhuming her is eventually to get to the goal of her resting in peace. Exactly. And that's always the goal with exhuming a body is to eventually get them to rest forever. But honestly, nothing's come up.

Every time they brought her up, nothing is moving forward. This is the strangest case. Now, a woman who people might know named Sandra Lee, she's a crime writer. She said when she was nine years old, she actually discovered the Lady of the Dunes first with her sister, but was too horrified to tell anyone at nine years old.

She was with her dog and stumbled upon her. And she said, quote, I stumbled down an incline with my dog. The dog was ahead of me. My dog got excited about something. I heard a very strange noise. If you can imagine someone holding a string of pearls, I heard that sound. And then there was a horrible smell. At first, I attribute it to low tide. She was face down. Her hair was a mess. And I could see a gouge in the right side of her neck.

Her arms were tucked down in the sand, so I didn't know anything was missing. I recognized the green blanket right away. The lower half of her body was covered with something. She later found out that that sound, like somebody holding a pearl necklace, which you can tell what that sound is. That was the sound of hundreds of thousands of maggots crawling all over her body. Yeah. She says she is sure that she's like, I am sure that.

Either one or a couple other people must have stumbled upon this body in those three weeks and just were too scared to say anything. That's a little messed up. And she was like, because she was like, if it was kids, there was kids all over this beach. All over this beach. Always playing in these dunes. Think about it. These two people are two children. A 12 year old and a nine year old. I'm sure another kid ran across this and was like, I don't know what that is. Or ran across it and thought it was just a naked sunbather. Yeah.

um especially from a distance and now i have a question how do you transport a bot like how do you get the insects off of a body to transport it uh usually they transport with the insects do they yeah so the people that transport do they just like gown up or something yeah they oh yeah definitely gotcha especially in a case like that where it's like so many and then you must just i mean you'll definitely try to get them out you'll definitely try to like get them out it

When there's like hundreds of thousands. Yeah. But then you don't want to wipe away evidence. They're just in the bag, basically. Have you ever opened a bag and had insects be in there? I haven't, luckily. Which is a good thing. Sorry, just a little side note. I was really curious. Because I have not done for insects. No. They can exist. I just don't want to exist around them. Magots are not for me. Magots are not something I want to deal with. And the...

That is really a great way to describe the sound of thousands of maggots. I don't want to continue to think about it. It's like a pearl necklace in your hand. That's actually my birthstone, so please leave. So please leave. Thank you. All right.

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Here's some of the theories that have come across or people of interest. Somebody thought she might have been a woman named Rory Jean Kessinger.

Now, this was a 24-year-old woman at the time, and she matched the height and the weight of the lady in the dunes. She was also known to be a drug dealer and a bank robber. She was picked up at one point running around naked in the woods in Pembroke, saying she had been sexually assaulted, and an off-duty police officer brought him to his home to call for backup and

And when she got in there, she turned off the lights, stole his gun, and then said she had to kill him. What the fuck? And he wrestled it from her, but she went to jail for assault and intent to murder. Wow. She went to jail in Plymouth, and on May 26th, 1974, she escaped from jail because someone smuggled her in a hacksaw, and she sawed through the bars. Like, I hate to say this, but like, bad bitch vibes. She was never seen again.

Unless she's the lady on the doobie. She was never seen again. Such a different Rory. No one knows where she went. Such a different Rory. Such a different Rory. Honestly, though... Not a different Rory. Rory Gilmore... She did go to jail. She did steal a boat. Huh? And she commits... She is part of many adulterous affairs, so...

She's not on the... I don't know if she's robbed any banks, though. I don't know. We don't know. We didn't see her. We didn't see her rob a bank, but we didn't see her not rob a bank. I can't say she didn't rob a bank. I didn't see you not rob a bank, so... Maybe it just didn't make the final cut. I don't know.

But either way, it wasn't Rory Gilmore. Okay. And it wasn't this Rory because in 2002 DNA from her mother, they used like familial DNA compared to the unknown body proved it wasn't her. You know, I didn't think it was her. I didn't either. But a lot of people thought it was because the other thing was you see a picture of Rory and you see a picture of this on the composite for this girl. They do have a striking resemblance to each other. So it is interesting. Yeah.

Now, one of my favorites and one that I think has a little bit of legs here. Okay. Is that James Whitey Bulger did this. And do you think this has a lot of legs? I think it has legs. Okay. I don't, I'm not sold. Okay. But I think I, it's one of those that I can see that it definitely could be him. And I can also be like, eh. Eh.

So it's just like it's one that I just will keep over in a corner. Well, and if you know anything about Whitey, like in the whole beginning of this thing, I said like this is clearly somebody who's killed before. Exactly. In my opinion, at least. Well, and you know, we especially if you're in Massachusetts, like everyone knows Whitey Bulger. If you're in Massachusetts, you definitely know Whitey Bulger. You're probably his cousin. Your grandparents are probably telling you that they should have just let him keep Whitey.

being on the lam because he's a harmless old person. Yeah, sure, Papa. That makes sense. So witnesses said that they saw, because people would see Whitey Bulger all over the place. He was existing among everybody. Everybody was just letting him do his thing. Whitey was a vibe and a half. He was scary. So witnesses said that they did see him

with a woman who matched the Lady of the Dunes description in P-Town at this time. Interesting. He was known at this time to be in P-Town. What the fuck was Whitey Boulder doing in P-Town? You want to know what he was doing? He was frequenting a bar in the area called The Crone and Anchor. I mean, it makes sense, but like... Yeah. P-Town is just such a chill vibe and Whitey is such a chaotic vibe. He is. I think...

he's chaotic in Boston and I think he chills in P-Town. He's vacationing. But if he did this, then he's chaotic everywhere. So it'll erase my view of him being chill in P-Town. But yeah, so this, this bar, the Cronin Anchor that he loved frequent down here was very close to where they found her body. Oh, that's weird. His thing was to remove his victim's teeth. Right. He did have a thing for that. Sandra Lee, the crime writer, thinks she may have, that this woman may have been an Irish immigrant.

And that she was groomed by Bulger to be forced into sex work. Oh, no. Because he was also a human trafficker. Like, he was in all that shit. He's a real bad guy. He's a real bad guy. I feel like some people kind of like... He gets glossed over as just like... I feel like a lot of...

these like mob bosses and like crime families, they become a thing because, you know, you watch the Sopranos, you see the Godfather and you see how terrible it all is. But somehow it just, everyone just kind of is like, but that's a cool crime family. You know what I mean? Like, it's just,

I think it's like a weird human thing that a lot of people do. And I think he's one of those characters that's so infamous that people just are like, Whitey Bulger! You know what it is? It's like Hollywood makes it a thing. He's become a Hollywood figure. So I think it glosses over...

the true atrocities that he did. He murdered his own girlfriend. He did. And he murdered his own right-hand band's girlfriend, like made him help him do it. Oh, maybe. Is that what I'm thinking of? Yeah. I mean, he definitely like murdered women and he did it in pretty, and he would like strangle them.

Which is, again, interesting. They think she may have been strangled. So she thinks this could be that, and maybe that's why we're not identifying her, because she's not from here. Right. The New York Times reported, quote, "...tales of his exploits were learned from childhood there. How he shot men between the eyes, stabbed rivals in the heart with ice picks, strangled women who might betray him, and buried victims in secret graveyards after yanking their teeth to thwart identification."

That is 100% true. If you grew up here, you grew up here

hearing tales of Whitey Bulger. Literally, there was a Whitey Bulger book about him on my summer reading. Oh, yeah. Black Mass, probably. Maybe. Was it Black Mass? I don't think it was. I don't know. I'll think of it later. But yeah, so Sandra Lee actually thinks he's the guy. She thinks that's who did it. I mean, I think you're right. It does have legs. It's never been proven that she isn't one of his victims. They haven't been able to prove she is, and they also haven't been able to prove she is.

People hoped he would confess to it when he was arrested, but he was beaten literally to an unrecognizable pile of meat by inmates in West Virginia October 30th, 2018, when he was 89 years old. He literally entered prison and they literally just beat him to shit. So he didn't exactly get a chance to admit it, which is kind of a bummer. Yeah.

Kind of a bummer and actually kind of interesting that like inmates beat him to death because there is like, you know that like how there's a hierarchy in prison, you would think a mob boss would be on top. You would think. I don't know if that's to do with. He was so horrific. Like, I don't know. It's a weird, it's a weird, it's a weird flex there. I don't know. It is. But I mean, he's a really bad guy. So like. Yeah. He was, I mean, he was 89 at the time. He had also been on the lam for so long. Maybe it was like.

They were pissed that he got away with it for so long. I don't know. Who knows? Either way, he really got it. He got got. But I really would have preferred him to be able to maybe get convinced to like admit a few things. I just feel like there's... Well, he would have had many things to admit. There's some families that I think would have liked to hear some closure and stuff. So it's like, that's a bummer. Yeah, exactly. That's why like...

prison justice sometimes you're like okay but like I would have liked to get some information you know it works when you're like throwing hot water over Daniel Morcombe's killer exactly or like tattooing to in Katie's revenge on that guy's forehead when he killed the most girl thing I've ever that stuff I'm like all right do that they can still talk feel free but like yeah this is just tough

But yeah, so that's possibly who it could be. Okay. There's another one. In 2000, a serial killer named Hayden Clark confessed to the murder of the Ladies of the Dunes. Okay. He confessed from prison while he was serving two 30-year sentences for the murders of a six-year-old girl named Michelle Dorr and a 23-year-old woman named Laura Hotelling. Oh my goodness.

He claimed he killed up to 12 women and he said he buried some of the evidence on his grandfather's property, like in his garden on the Cape. That's a dick move. And Clark explained that he had buried evidence from the Lady of the Dunes crime in his grandfather's garden on the Cape. So did we go there? And he said he knew the woman's identity, but he was not going to tell authorities because he said they were mean to him. So he's not going to tell them.

It's really not their job to, like, make you feel super welcome, just so you know. Yeah. So he led police on December 15th, 2000, to his grandfather's former property. And they did dig in the garden and did find a big plastic bucket filled with more than 200 pieces of jewelry. Interesting. Among these things were Laura Hotelling's high school class ring. Wow.

So he was telling the truth that he buried some of his murder victims things in there. He said they were literally trophies to him. Like he did that for a reason. Of course. But they couldn't connect anything to the Lady of the Dunes because they don't know who the fuck she is. So any of that jewelry could be her jewelry. Right. And we don't know.

Police don't believe him, though, because one, there's no physical evidence that they can connect to him. And then also he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. And so it's hard for him to tell reality from fantasy. Right. And he has moments where he is telling a story and spinning a yarn and it becomes a fantasy. Sure. So they think maybe this was just him.

just it happens all the time that these people in prison who are there for atrocities will confess to other crimes like um

uh henry lee lucas oddest tool they they did the same thing they just like to do it's just to fuck with the invest it's just to fuck with people and it's like mental illness and it's like so they were like this just isn't really credible so they were like yeah we're not gonna be able to really do much with that this whole fucking case is so frustrating and then there's my favorite theory oh okay in 2015

Stephen King's son, Joe Hill, had a theory. He wrote in a blog post that he believed that the Lady of the Dunes can be seen alive as an extra in Jaws.

oh my God, how did I forget about this? I literally knew that this was a thing. But the entire time we were doing this, my brain just forgot that piece of life. And he said in his blog post, what if the young murder victim no one has ever been able to identify has been seen by hundreds of millions of people in a beloved summer classic?

And they didn't even know they were looking at her. And he said, what if the ghost of the Lady of the Dunes haunts Jaws? That freaks me the fuck out. There is a woman who looks just like the sketches and composites and is wearing Wrangler jeans and a blue bandana. I mean, hello, Jaws.

But there's a lot of women at that time that dressed exactly like that. Yeah. So he said, quote, this particular woman bears a shocking resemblance and appearance and wardrobe to the murder victim. Suddenly, I tingled all over and came halfway out of my seat. And for the barest of a moment, I thought I had seen her.

Now, Jaws had been filmed two hours away from the crime scene. So not that far away. They had never recorded the names of their extras. Oh, shit. And a lot of locals were extras. Like they would just show up and agree to appear in the final cut. Yeah. So police are skeptical, but they said they are not going to say it's not possible that that is her. I mean, of course, a lot of women dress like that at the time. But the fact that this woman looks like her looks like her in the blue bandana is huge. That's a big one.

Did they ever find like a bathing suit top or anything? No, they didn't find anything like that. I know, that's what's weird. And so Joe Hill said, quote, part of me thinks that my subconscious mind is so programmed, so trained to quickly generate ghost stories that that's all I've done here. Because he is Stephen King's son. I was going to say that is true. But Jaws screenwriter Carl Gottlieb checked his production notes and he said this scene, number 130, was...

with the extra that they're talking about, was filmed May 25th, 1974, two months before and only 100 miles away from where she was found. Interesting. So she would have been alive. Right. Two months is like a long time before. But I mean, she could have been living there. But she was there. Yeah. She could have just been there. Right. I know. I'm thinking of her as like a vacationer. Yeah. And she might have just been living there. Well, and then in 2019, investigators said that they were going to re-examine the case.

trying to use new techniques. They were going to use DNA analysis and genealogical family building sites to try to do it. This is the same kind of thing they used with the Golden State Killer case. It's becoming a real, like...

valuable thing for these kind of cases. And Cape and the Island DA, Michael O'Keefe said, quote, we're going to examine everything we can with respect to the remains. Now, I'm just going to leave you with one exciting possible thing. American Horror Story season 10 is being filmed in Massachusetts and

And it has hinted at a Lady of the Dunes storyline. Bitch. Possibly as a subplot. Oh my God. So I did, I like combed Reddit for some theories about this too, because they are really good at like finding these things. They are filming in P-Town. They are filming in P-Town. Do you think Billie Lord is in P-Town? Yeah, I think she was.

And Murphy, Ryan Murphy said, quote, he like put something on his social media that said, quote, something's washing up on the shore. Girl. Something like that. And then teased a photo with two hands on the beach. And as we said, a big part of this...

was her missing two hands. And Murphy has teased out more teasers that have teeth in them. I mean, if it's not like the main thing, because either way, this is set in Massachusetts. So I'm excited in P-Town. I'm excited to see what it is. Like, I wonder if there's like a Tony Chop Chop card or anything. Maybe.

But either way, it could definitely be like a subplot. They always put those little like nods. Well, then you have to wonder, like, is it going to be in the 70s? Because, oh, my God, I love to watch shit that is set in that time. I bet it is. I wonder. I need to know. So I'm excited to see. I love American Horror Story. So good. I would love to see it. And that is the.

Very frustrating tale of the lady in the of the dunes that we don't know who she is. Someday I think we're going to update you guys. I'm going to manifest it. I think we're going to do it.

I think we're going to solve it. I think we so far we have a good squad. We got Johnny and Tyler up in Canada. Sarah Turney. Yeah, girl. Come on. I know you can get shit done. Bailey Sarian. Bailey Sarian. Get over here. Make me look good while we investigate this, please. Yes. And yeah.

I think we're going to do this. Let's get it, friends. We'll add some more. Don't worry. For sure. Who else should be on the squad? Everyone is going to volunteer. Oh, you know what? Jordan from the Nighttime Podcast. He's up in Canada, too. We got him. Maybe he could find the woman. Canada squad. All right. I'm ready for this, guys. If you're in, you're in. We'll tag you. See you soon. And we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you don't sign up to be part of our squad to finally solve this case. Thank you. Good night. Good night.

Bye.

Hello, ladies and germs, boys and girls. The Grinch is back again to ruin your Christmas season with Tis the Grinch Holiday Podcast. After last year, he's learned a thing or two about hosting, and he's ready to rant against Christmas cheer and roast his celebrity guests like chestnuts on an open fire.

You can listen with the whole family as guest stars like Jon Hamm, Brittany Broski, and Danny DeVito try to persuade the mean old Grinch that there's a lot to love about the insufferable holiday season. But that's not all. Somebody stole all the children of Whoville's letters to Santa, and everybody thinks the Grinch is responsible. It's a real Whoville whodunit. Can Cindy Lou and Max help clear the Grinch's name? Grab your hot cocoa and cozy slippers to find out.

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