Morbid - The Lady of the Dunes

Episode Date: June 12, 2021

We’re bringing you to one of our favorite vacation spots: Provincetown Mass. Only we aren’t sunbathing and playing volleyball on the beach, we’re here to solve a cold case, y’all. The Lady of ...the Dunes, as she’s known, was discovered  on July 26, 1974, in the tall grass at the Race Point Dunes. Throughout the past 47 years investigators have worked tirelessly following up on leads and exhuming her body every time some kind of new technology comes up. To this day they still don’t know who killed the woman, or more importantly, who the woman even is! As always, thank you to our sponsors: HelloFresh: Get twelve free meals—including free shipping!—with code morbid12 at HelloFresh.com/morbid12 BetterHelp: This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and Morbid: A True Crime Podcast listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/Morbid CareOf: For 50% off your first Care/of order, go to TakeCareOf.com and enter code morbid50 Simplisafe: Visit SIMPLISAFE.com/morbid today to customize your system and get a free security camera. You also get a 60 day risk free trial, so there’s nothing to lose!! Gabi: Put your policy to the test like I did. Get better insurance with Gabi. Go to Gabi.com/MORBID Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is morbid and it's local to Massachusetts. The way you said, 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. Do we have any business? I believe we might have. Yeah, we definitely do. We have a show coming up next Sunday, which is Father's Day. So come celebrate with your daddy or your daddy figure. Your daddy figure. And you can get tickets to that at onlocationlive.com slash category slash morbid. And if you can't remember that or rewind fast enough, the link is in our Instagram bio. There you go. We also have some new merch. Maybe it's not new to you if you've seen it. But if you haven't seen it, it will be new to you. And you can get that at shop. dot morbidpodcast.com. Do it. Sweatshirts are fun. Sweets are the bestest. They really are. And t-shirts and socks and mugs and I think that's all we have for now. All of it. Hats, Beemies. All of it. Things that say morbid are the best.
Starting point is 00:01:30 It really is. You know it. We know it. The world knows it. Yeah. So one weird thing happened that kind of goes along with this episode because it happened in Massachusetts. It happened in Provincetown, didn't it? It did. It's 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 fisherman? Wild. No joke.
Starting point is 00:01:56 We have a cousin that's a lobster fisherman. We do. He's a lobsterman. Shout out to Annie. To any. Yeah, it's a badass job. It is a very dangerous job. And this guy, Michael Packard, got swallowed by a humpback whale and then spit out.
Starting point is 00:02:13 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.
Starting point is 00:02:38 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. And apparently he was like struggling because he was breathing through that apparatus. Right. So he was struggling. So he was struggling.
Starting point is 00:03:13 And the whale was like, wow, I didn't mean to eat you. Right. 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.
Starting point is 00:03:28 Which, I guess he said within like 30 seconds. He said, 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?
Starting point is 00:03:44 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. What?
Starting point is 00:04:00 What? Yeah, he went to the hospital. He just had soft tissue damage. Oh. Yeah. What the fuck? And I guess an expert said that humpback whales are like gulp feeders. Like they just slurp and gulp.
Starting point is 00:04:14 They just get as much as they can down. So this was definitely like an accident. He just happened to be there. And I think he was just gulping up food and having 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.
Starting point is 00:04:34 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 out. Yeah. It's like how elephants think we're cute.
Starting point is 00:04:57 Yes. Yeah, I love that. 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 the color blue. And I was swallowed by humpback whale. And they're like, okay, that's the line. You're like, I actually love the color red. I hate blue. Like, 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. I mean, you do. That's the lie. And you're like, no. But I was not swallowed by humpback whale.
Starting point is 00:05:36 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. Like, that's just, they know the ocean. They know the dangers of the ocean. And they're just like, yeah. Yeah. I'm okay. Like, 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 the crazy, mysterious and gruesome case of the Lady of the Dunes.
Starting point is 00:06:41 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 sometimes. They do. I'm just saying. It freaks me out. I feel like this is, it reminds, 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 Holmer case. Yeah. Yeah. know who did it. I know what you did last summer. But I want it like solved. Yeah, yeah. You want it on the books. You want a real detective to be doing that. I need to know more information. We need to get like Billy Jensen in here and we need
Starting point is 00:07:21 to solve this. Let's do it. Billy, let's go. We're going to solve this. Did you hear us? Can you hear us, Billy? Bring Paul. Bring Paul. Always bring Paul. And we'll go. We should just get like a true crime squad together. Let's do it. I'm ready, guys. Like she's clearly doing the damn thing. Sarah. Sarah, You're on the squad. We have to get Bailey Sarian because we're newly best friends. And she can make us look good too. Yes. So while we're doing this.
Starting point is 00:07:48 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. I mean, the entire Morbid Network has to come. Exactly. Ever bought it.
Starting point is 00:07:58 Everybody. All right. So guys, let's pack your bags. Come to Massachusetts. We're doing this. 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 a you want to join the squad. Yeah. So first of all, if you happen to have any information about this
Starting point is 00:08:15 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 dinner time, at supper. At supper. At the suppa. At the suppa table, if they sat there and they told you that one time they were in Pea 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 508-487-1-2-1-2 or 508-487-1-2-13. 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 617-267-667-A. 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 some
Starting point is 00:09:07 it up for you what we're going to talk about. All righty. 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. 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
Starting point is 00:09:32 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. 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 her luck or their luck or not, maybe wasn't connected to people.
Starting point is 00:10:09 She seemed like she interacted with people quite often. Okay. So what happened was a bit after 6 p.m. on Friday, July 26th, 1974, a 12-year-old girl named Leslie Metcalf was at Race Point Dunes in Peatown. 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 state.
Starting point is 00:10:42 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 shrenz, 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 a ground in bad water 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 turn them into like beach rentals and places where like local artists or like you know creators of any kind could set up and
Starting point is 00:11:31 sell their wares out of they're all over the place in beatown 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. That was for sure. So Leslie was like, hmm, what? Because she was. She's 12 and 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 to. 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.
Starting point is 00:12:26 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.
Starting point is 00:12:39 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.
Starting point is 00:12:55 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 bacon. I was going to say. Now, what had happened, though, was it was really. hot. It's hot summers here and on Pete 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.
Starting point is 00:13:25 But it's something you just expect here that you're going to have that beach smell. Just get hit in the face with like red tie. 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 tell you something about what the ocean smelled like here.
Starting point is 00:13:49 Yeah. That people were just like, man. Well, there's probably like mad bodies in our oceans too. Yeah. Yeah, they definitely are. So, yeah, 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, maw.
Starting point is 00:14:09 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 interesting. 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.
Starting point is 00:14:34 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 sand. 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.
Starting point is 00:14:57 Gotcha. She was all the way face down. 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 Peatown 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.
Starting point is 00:15:32 It is. It's a quiet New England town. It is. And it's, 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. 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. totally pertinent to the infer, 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.
Starting point is 00:16:23 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,
Starting point is 00:16:43 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,
Starting point is 00:16:52 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
Starting point is 00:17:02 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 fought here. It didn't look like.
Starting point is 00:17:22 It looked like she was there and was caught off guard. Well, and for there to not be like even like maybe blood splatter on the sand. Yeah. That's weird. It's wild. It's really well. And I think there was like definitely like blood spatter. Yeah. And stuff, but it, 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 what the, 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 like you don't have to worry about the water, like 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 it's. And how. kind of like hiding in the nude. It just kind of fell asleep. Yeah. And it's like, but what, who, what happened? Were you with someone? Right. So like I said, she, there was some clothing
Starting point is 00:18:13 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 for like a pillow. And there was also a blue bandana under her head. And she was laying halfway on a light green blanket, like a beach blanket. 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 though? She was either posed there or that's like what she was doing when it happened. Gotcha.
Starting point is 00:18:51 So 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.
Starting point is 00:19:24 He, well, no, this was the police chief. Oh, well, that's good. He's trustworthy, too. He felt very connected. into 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
Starting point is 00:19:53 reminder to himself that she was unnamed and can't be forgotten. Wow, that is dedication. 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, or 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
Starting point is 00:20:38 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. Oh. And each chief after him have all made it a priority to bring this case back up and try and solve it. That's good.
Starting point is 00:21:04 I'm glad. Every chief after him has been like priority number one is solving this case. Yeah. So when Mead 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. We do. If you remember, we did an episode about Tody Chop Chop Chop Costa, another killer in Provincetown.
Starting point is 00:21:31 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 so. Yeah. He had actually known Costa since he was young when he moved to Peatown. 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 non-payment of child support.
Starting point is 00:22:06 Because he basically wrote the letter to get him out so he could use him as a police 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 Wysaki. 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 Weisaki 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.
Starting point is 00:22:40 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.
Starting point is 00:23:00 Sorry, I'm probably jumping ahead of you. Oh, no. 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 to 1974. All right. Well, that's out. So couldn't be him. And I was going to say he didn't leave people out in the open. He wouldn't buried them in like the garden thing that he had.
Starting point is 00:23:18 Yeah, he liked to do his little garden, his Tony garden. Yeah. But 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, I can't imagine. And it buries things.
Starting point is 00:23:47 And it's like, 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.
Starting point is 00:24:16 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.
Starting point is 00:24:45 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's like see-through basically. Yeah, it'll have that cloudy haze over it. 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
Starting point is 00:25:06 going to, they're going to have cloudy eyes. That's just 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. Ever since the Willie picked an episode because you had said one of the girls was found
Starting point is 00:25:21 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 it's 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. And that, you know, it's sad. It freaks me out. It always gets me. Now, now we're going to get into her teeth. Okay, because I'm interested. She had lots of teeth
Starting point is 00:25:58 missing, but they are fairly sure that this was from the murder or circumstances, 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 Interesting. 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.
Starting point is 00:26:34 What? 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.
Starting point is 00:26:45 And how? Are there, I don't know if you know this, are there certain teeth that? that are better for identification? I don't think so. I think it's more dental work. Just in general. 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.
Starting point is 00:27:08 That would be like very identifiable. Like if she had some really, really identifiable specific to her thing that they wanted to remove for that. Yeah. But like to 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
Starting point is 00:27:40 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, like intentionally.
Starting point is 00:28:25 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. 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.
Starting point is 00:29:01 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 survivalists. It's really sharp and usually made up like steel and shit.
Starting point is 00:29:32 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.
Starting point is 00:29:54 Soldiers in World War II in Korea carried them. It was very sturdy, made out of heavy metal, semi-pointed spade-like. The blade could be folded down on the handle, or it could be raised to a perpendicular like a hoe, or you could make it into a shovel with a straight handle around 18 inches long. In hand-to-hand combat, you could use it to find. your enemy. Wow. So this is a versatile tool. It is. And
Starting point is 00:30:20 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. There was also a ton of insect activity on the body that they noticed.
Starting point is 00:30:38 And 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.
Starting point is 00:30:53 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 believed she was they were thinking that she was possibly killed somewhere else if it's
Starting point is 00:31:10 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.
Starting point is 00:31:29 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 post. Right. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:44 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? 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, 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
Starting point is 00:32:27 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
Starting point is 00:32:48 pretty well taken care of. We know that. So she was like in a like in a state where she obviously she had almost $10,000 worth of dental work in her house.
Starting point is 00:32:57 Yeah, right. It's, she was not just like floating around homeless. Right. So you try, your mind just goes to all these
Starting point is 00:33:03 different things. Yeah. Like one of the first things I thought was like, was she like a runaway? Like it had been like had run away like a long time ago and just was making her own life and not dating anybody like. Maybe.
Starting point is 00:33:14 You know? It's I, it's, there's so many ways you could go with it. Yeah. And it's, well, and 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, I mean, 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 it's weird. And she must have been staying somewhere like her hair's nice. It's in a
Starting point is 00:33:41 ponytail, you know, 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. Hmm, 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 happened.
Starting point is 00:34:07 Right, could have just been like a dune buggy. Yeah. So over 30 different police officers search. 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 named yolonna 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 right 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.
Starting point is 00:34:44 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 can. 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.
Starting point is 00:34:56 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 victim she was talking about here. She said there was a beach where the victim was found and she said their hands were buried.
Starting point is 00:35:21 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 Peatown 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.
Starting point is 00:35:40 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.
Starting point is 00:36:05 Oh, my God. And that's also a little. little strange, little strange. Why are you just cementing your basement out of nowhere? Exactly. I mean, maybe you have radon, but still. Maybe. Massachusetts, it's old.
Starting point is 00:36:18 We 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. 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. So James Hankins, the Ranger, said that he had walked away from the crime scene that night, and he noticed something when he walked. walked away. 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 he said it didn't look like kids drawings to him
Starting point is 00:36:58 because he was like at first I was like, oh kids drawn the sand all the time. It's the cape. Like kids are here all day every day. 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. 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'd always bother me that I didn't take the second to go see what they were.
Starting point is 00:37:27 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. a Metcalf and said she and her sister Leslie, who was the one who found the body, would often go to
Starting point is 00:37:48 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 like they still don't know who she is. Well, and it's like, you have to like respect them like through the afterlife too. Yeah, exactly. Plant flowers or something. Yeah. And it's like she's unidentified. Right. Like somebody knows her and somebody must have missed her, you know? Like who are you? Who are you that misses her and hasn't said anything? But in In 1987, 10 years after this, a Canadian woman came forward and said she thought this woman could have been a victim of her fathers. Apparently, when she was young, which hurts my heart, she witnessed her father strangle a woman while she was visiting him in Peetown in the 70s. Oh, shit.
Starting point is 00:38:34 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. Like, I'm going. So then they try to contact her again to get more information.
Starting point is 00:38:50 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 case?
Starting point is 00:39:06 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, was her dad still alive at that point? And like she got scared and like he found out or something.
Starting point is 00:39:25 Yeah. Like did someone find out in the family? Intimidation. You got to be quiet. Did he find out? There's so much that could have happened there. It's like we don't even know. I can't find any information about what this lady's name is or anything.
Starting point is 00:39:36 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. Oh, come on.
Starting point is 00:39:51 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.
Starting point is 00:40:01 Elena's calling 1-800. 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. Tyler, they're very important people.
Starting point is 00:40:13 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.
Starting point is 00:40:24 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. Who had been, she had just moved to Boston, I guess recently before this, like when this was happening. The sister.
Starting point is 00:40:41 The sister and suddenly had disappeared. And she was spending time in Peatown. Right. Now, 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?
Starting point is 00:40:58 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? They weren't a match. Fuck you. No gold crowns. Nothing like.
Starting point is 00:41:11 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, it all lines up. 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 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.
Starting point is 00:41:52 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.
Starting point is 00:42:02 It's also like, like I said in the other episode about it, it's, I think it's like a profound experience going to Salem. Absolutely. When you go to like the historical place. Well, and 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.
Starting point is 00:42:22 If you're from here, you get it. Hello, I'm from the board of tourists, 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.
Starting point is 00:42:37 See, we have tons of shit. I'm dead ass. All right. So, they did. did exhum her body in 1980, 2001, and 2013. See, that makes me, 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.
Starting point is 00:42:53 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 they keep, you know, advances keep happening in science and forensic science. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:43:06 So every time something comes up, they're like, let's bring her up and see if we can use this. Exuming 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, it has nothing's come up. Every time they brought her up, it's 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.
Starting point is 00:43:43 Hmm. 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 know, you can tell what that sound is. That was the sound
Starting point is 00:44:28 of hundreds of thousands of maggots crawling all over her body. Yeah. She says she is sure that she's like, I am sure either one or a couple other people must have stumbled to on 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 speech, all over the speech, always playing in these students. Think about it. These two people are two children, a 12 year old and a 9 year old.
Starting point is 00:44:58 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, 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? Usually they transport with the insects. Do they? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:20 So the people that transport do they just like gown up or something? Yeah, they do. Oh, yeah, definitely. Gotcha. Especially in a case like that where it's like so many. And then you must just like clean up the vehicle afterwards. You'll definitely try to like get them out. When there's like hundreds of thousands.
Starting point is 00:45:34 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? I haven't. I haven't. I'm luckily. Ah.
Starting point is 00:45:42 Which is a good, a good thing. Sorry. Just a little side note. I was really curious. I'm not down for insects. No. They can exist. I just don't want to exist.
Starting point is 00:45:49 Magots are not for me. Magots are not something I want to deal with. And that is really a great way to describe the sound of thousands of maggots. I don't want to continue to think about it. A pearl necklace in your hand. That's actually my birthstone. So please leave. So please leave.
Starting point is 00:46:04 Thank you. All right. So here's here's some of the theories that have come across. or people of interest. Okay. Somebody thought she might have been a woman named Rory Jean Kessinger. Now, this was a 24-year-old woman at the time,
Starting point is 00:46:19 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
Starting point is 00:46:34 brought him to his home to call for backup, 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 26, 1974, she escaped from jail because someone smuggled her in a hacksaw, and she sawed through the bars.
Starting point is 00:46:59 Like, I hate to say this, but like bad bitch vibes. She was never seen again. Unless she's the lady on the dude. She was never seen again. No one knows where she went. Such a different Rory. Honestly, though. Not a different Rory.
Starting point is 00:47:14 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. She's robbed any banks. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:47:28 We don't know. We didn't see her rob a bag, but we didn't see her not rob a bag. I can't see she didn't rob a bag. I didn't see. not rob a bank. Maybe it just didn't make the final cut. I don't know. But either way, it wasn't Rory Gilmore.
Starting point is 00:47:45 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 of this girl. They do have a striking resemblance to it.
Starting point is 00:48:08 each other. So it is interesting. 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, 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, I'm like, it's one of those that I can see that it definitely could be him. And I can also be like, 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, 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.
Starting point is 00:48:58 Yeah, you're probably his cousin. And your grandparents are probably telling you that they should have just let him keep being on the lamb because he's a harmless old person. Yeah. Yeah, sure, Papa. That makes sense. Yeah, sure. So witnesses said that they saw, because people would see Whitey Bulger all over the place. He was existing among everybody. Everybody was just, everyone 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 to the Lady of the Dunes description in Peatown at this time. Interesting. He was known at this time to be in Peatown. What the fuck was Whitey Boulder doing in Peartown? You want to know what he was doing? He was
Starting point is 00:49:38 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 at P-Town. But if he did this, then he's chaotic everywhere. So it will erase my view of him being chill in P-Town. But yeah, so this bar, the Cronan 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. 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.
Starting point is 00:50:24 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 mall bosses and like crime families, they become a thing. Because, you know, you watch the Sopranos, you see the Godfather.
Starting point is 00:50:44 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 Bulge. You know what it is? It's like Hollywood makes it a thing.
Starting point is 00:51:04 It is. It's very, 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 that's... 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, too. Which is, again, interesting.
Starting point is 00:51:27 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 hearing tales of Whitey Bulger. Literally, like, there was like a Whitey Bulger, like a book about like him on my summer reading. Oh yeah. Yeah. Black mass, probably. Maybe. Was it black mass? I don't think it was. It was, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:52:10 I'll think of it later. But yeah, so Sandra Lee actually thinks he's the guy. She thinks that she 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.
Starting point is 00:52:25 People hoped he would confess to it when he was arrested. But like he was beaten literally to an unrecognizable pile of meat by inmates in West Virginia, October 30th night, 2018 when he was 89 years old. He literally entered prison. and they literally just beat him to shit. Yeah. So he didn't exactly get a chance to admit it, which is kind of a bummer. Kind of a bummer.
Starting point is 00:52:49 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. But I don't know if that's to do with. Like, I don't know. It's a weird, it's a weird, it's a weird flex there. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:53:06 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 lamb 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. 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 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. Yeah. Like, you know.
Starting point is 00:53:46 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 iconic thing I've ever heard my life. That stuff. I'm like, all right, do that. It can still talk. Feel free.
Starting point is 00:53:59 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.
Starting point is 00:54:24 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.
Starting point is 00:54:48 So he's not going to tell them. It's really not their job to like make you feel super welcome. So, 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 hoteling? high school class ring. So he was telling the truth that he buried some of his murder victims
Starting point is 00:55:15 things in there. He said they were literally trophies to him. Like he did that for a reason. 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 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. It happens all the time that these people in prison who are there for atrocities will confess to other crimes. Like Henry Lee Lucas, Audit's Tool,
Starting point is 00:56:04 they did the same thing. They just like to do it. Honestly, it's just to fuck with you. 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 going to 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.
Starting point is 00:56:27 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. Yeah. 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. There is a woman who looks just like the sketches and composites and is wearing wrangler jeans and a blue bandana.
Starting point is 00:57:13 I mean, hello. But there's a lot of women at that time that dressed exactly like that. 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.
Starting point is 00:57:38 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 dressed like that at the time, but the fact that this woman looks like her. Looks like her in the blue bandana.
Starting point is 00:58:01 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.
Starting point is 00:58:20 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, 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.
Starting point is 00:58:42 Two months is like a long time before. But I mean, she could have been there. But she was there. Like she could have just been there. Right. I know. I'm thinking of her as like a vacation. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:58:49 And she might have just been living there. Well, and then in 2019, investigators said that they were going to reexamine 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 at 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
Starting point is 00:59:27 season 10 is being filmed in Massachusetts, and it has hinted at a Lady of the Dune 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 Peatown. They are filming in Peatown. Do you think Billy Lord is in Peatown?
Starting point is 00:59:48 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 tease the photo with two hands on the beach. And as we said, a big part of this was her missing two hands. Right.
Starting point is 01:00:08 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 Peatown. I'm excited to see what it is. Like I wonder if there's like a Tony Chop Chop part or anything. Maybe. But either way, it could definitely.
Starting point is 01:00:26 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 period. 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 and 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 that we've put on the task.
Starting point is 01:01:05 We got Billy, we got Paul. I mean, we're assuming we have you. I think we have you guys. Sarah Turney, girl, come on squad. Get shit done. I know you can get shit done. Bailey Sarian. Bailey Sarian, get over here.
Starting point is 01:01:16 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.
Starting point is 01:01:26 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.

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