() After more than 60 years, a missing Wisconsin woman has been found “alive and well,” authorities said.
The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office announced the resolution of the cold case in a news release last week and said that Audrey Backeberg disappeared of her own free will.
Backeberg was a 20-year-old mother of two when she left her home in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, on July 7, 1962. She and the family’s babysitter reportedly hitchhiked to Madison, Wisconsin, before taking a bus to Indianapolis.
That was the last known sighting of Backeberg until last week.
Detective Isaac Hanson was assigned to review Backeberg’s cold case and eventually located her sister’s Ancestry.com account, which included data that led him to an address. From there, he contacted a local sheriff’s office for assistance and was connected to Backeberg, who spoke with him over the phone.
Now 82, Backeberg lives outside of Wisconsin. Hanson said an abusive husband may have played a role in her decision to leave.
Shortly before she vanished, Backeberg had filed a criminal complaint against her husband, who she married when she was 15, alleging that her beat her and threatened to kill her.
Hanson said Backeberg sounded happy and had no regrets about her decision to leave and start a new life.
