Off The Record
Mother Who Vanished In 1961 Resurfaces With Shocking Confession About Why She Left
A woman who disappeared in the 1960s has spoken up after being discovered alive.
Audrey Backeberg was last seen in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, in July 1962, when she was 20 years old.
The young woman abruptly disappeared after she and her husband had two children.
Until Thursday, May 1, there was no longer any chance that the young woman was still alive after sixty years.
The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office announced that Backeberg had been found ‘alive and well’ in another state, as it stated, “Through diligent investigative work, which included a thorough re-evaluation of all case files and evidence, combined with re-interviewing witnesses and uncovering new insights, the Sheriff’s Office is now able to report that Audrey Backeberg is alive and well and currently resides out of State.”
The investigator working the case, Isaac Hanson, described how they located Audrey.
He told WMTV: “I ended up locating an arrest record that I suspected was likely Audrey, so I contacted her family. She has a living sister in the area.”
He was able to find her after her sister handed him the parts that were missing from the puzzle.
According to the Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy (WMPA) group, Audrey allegedly suffered maltreatment after marrying Ronald Backeberg when she was fifteen years old.
Audrey filed a criminal complaint as a result, alleging that her husband had threatened to murder her and battered her in the days prior to her disappearance.
But when her husband asserted his innocence, he was brought in for interrogation and passed the polygraph test.
At about the same time, the 14-year-old babysitter for the couple informed authorities that she had hitched a ride to Madison with the mother, then accompanied her on a bus to Indianapolis before going home alone.
“The juvenile was interviewed again as an adult, maybe 15 years ago,” Detective Lt. Chris Zunker said.
“She stated Audrey had taken a bunch of pills, put them in a Coke can and drank it before taking the bus down to Indianapolis.”
“She reported Audrey potentially hooked up with some construction workers that may have been in the area.”
Unfortunately, this produced no fresh information; nevertheless, Hanson was able to locate her after being given the case and re-interviewing witnesses.
“The sister actually had an Ancestry.com account, and I was able to use that. That was pretty key in locating death records, census reports, all kinds of data,” Hanson told WISN. “Ultimately, we came up with an address.”
“So I called the local sheriff’s department, said ‘Hey, there’s this lady living at this address. Do you guys have somebody, you can just go pop in?’ Ten minutes later, she called me, and we talked for 45 minutes.”
Something startling was said as a result of that conversation.
He said she had “no regrets” about leaving her children with her spouse and that she had left voluntarily.
“I told Audrey that I would keep it private,” Hanson said. “She had her reasons for leaving and we discussed a lot of things.”
“I think she just was removed and, you know, moved on from things and kind of did her own thing and lead her life. She sounded happy. Confident in her decision. No regrets.”
Now Trending:
- An American Woman Claims To Be Madeleine McCann And Provides DNA Test Results As “Proof”
- 18 Years Missing: Madeleine Mccann’s Family Releases Poignant Note As Her 22nd Birthday Nears
- Missing Missouri Teen Rescued From Sex Offender’s Closet 700 Miles Away
Please SHARE this article with your Friends and Family and let us know in the comments!
