A more than 60-year-old cold case out of Wisconsin involving a missing mother has been solved.
Audrey Backeberg, now 82, who disappeared at age 20, has been found “alive and well,” the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said in a media release.
“The Sheriff’s Office can now confirm that Audrey Backeberg is alive and well, living out of State,” the sheriff’s office announced in a media release. “Additional investigation has shown Ms. Backeberg’s disappearance was her own decision and not connected to any criminal activity or foul play.”
According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice website, Backeberg vanished from her family home on July 7, 1962. The family’s babysitter informed authorities that she and Audrey hitchhiked to Madison, Wisconsin, followed by a Greyhound bus ride to Indianapolis, Indiana.
Audrey Backeberg lived with her husband and children in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, seen here. (Google Maps)
The family babysitter said she and Audrey took a Greyhound bus from Madison, Wisconsin to Indianapolis, Indiana. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“The babysitter stated Audrey chose to leave of her own accord and said she would not return, but Audrey’s family members insisted she would never have abandoned her children,” The Charley Project said, adding that “Ronald passed a polygraph exam conducted after Audrey’s disappearance.”
The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office assigned the cold case to a detective earlier this year, “which included a thorough re-evaluation of all case files and evidence, combined with re-interviewing witnesses and uncovering new insights,” the media release said.
