Provincetown 1974 cold case: 'Lady of the Dunes' timeline
After nearly half a century, the oldest, unidentified homicide victim in Massachusetts finally got her name back last week.
In the summer of 1974, a handless, nearly headless deceased woman was found in the sand dunes of Provincetown about a mile east of the Race Point Ranger station inside the Cape Cod National Seashore. Her identity long eluded investigators.
She became known as the "Lady of the Dunes," until Oct. 31 when law enforcement officials announced her name: Ruth Marie Terry. Days later, they reported they are searching for information about her husband, Guy Rockwell Muldavin, now deceased.
It's been a long road to reach this point. The Cape Cod Times has compiled a timeline of significant events along the way, leading ultimately to this significant break in the cold case.
'I hope she gets justice': Provincetown reacts to Lady of the Dunes identification
Timeline of events
Oct. 27, 1923: Guy Rockwell Muldavin is born, according to law enforcement officials. His parents are Albert and Sylvia Muldavin.
Sept. 8, 1936: Ruth Marie Terry is born in Tennessee.
July 30, 1939: The Worcester Telegram publishes an article titled "From Wall Street Turmoil to Cape Cod Peace." The story focuses on Albert Muldavin, father of Guy Rockwell Muldavin. The "ex-capitalist" who spent 23 years on Wall Street as a trader and industrial expert is described as living in "the oldest house in Provincetown" with his family after "severing his Wall Street ties forever.
"He has enough to take care of his family in handsome fashion and to travel indefinitely, but all agree that the simple existence in a rose-vined cottage on Cape Cod is far more preferable to the top-shelf life of the metropolis," the article states.
1940: At 3 years old, Ruth Marie Terry is listed in census documents from Marion County, Tennessee, as the granddaughter of Green and Celia Terry. Siblings are listed as Lois Terry, 7, and James Terry, 5. Other people listed are Green's sons, Johnnie, 30, and Frank, 28.
1950: Ruth Marie Terry is listed as 14-year-old Marie Terry in census documents. Green, Celia, and James are still listed, but Lois and Johnnie are not.
1950s: Albert Muldavin makes several land transactions in Provincetown.
October 1956: Then 20, Ruth Marie Terry marries her first husband, Billy Ray Smith, then 25, in Marion County, Tennessee. The marriage ultimately does not last.
1958: Ruth Marie Terry gives birth to a baby boy; she chooses to have him adopted, according to the New York Times.
April 1, 1960: Muldavin's second wife, Manzanita Mearns, and her 18-year-old daughter Dolores Ann disappear in Seattle.
July 1960: Muldavin divorces Manzanita Mearns in Seattle on a desertion charge and marries his third wife, Evelyn Emerson, according to the Madera Tribune. Police find bits of human tissue and pieces of a human body in a newly sealed septic tank at the home where the family lived, shortly after he remarries.
December 1960: Muldavin flees Seattle, but after a national manhunt he is arrested by the FBI in Brooklyn and charged with "unlawful flight to avoid giving testimony relating to 'mutilation of human remains,'" the FBI told the Associated Press at the time.
1961: Muldavin also faces larceny charges for swindling his third wife's family out of $10,000 under the pretense that he was going to buy some Indian relics, according to the Associated Press account. He is convicted on those charges and is sentenced to no more than 15 years, according to the Erie Times-News.
March 22, 1962: Muldavin, then 38, walks out of jail after a judge suspends the sentence provided he repay the money. He was never charged in relation to Manzanita Mearns or her daughter Dolores Ann. According to the Associated Press, Superior Judge Frank D. James said "it is my duty to completely eliminate the fact that I know what the suspicions are of our police department and our community."
Feb. 16, 1974: Under a different name, Ruth Marie Terry marries Guy Rockwell Muldavin in Washoe County, Nevada.
July 26, 1974: 12-year-old Leslie Metcalfe and her parents were hiking back to the Province Lands Visitors Center in Provincetown after a day at the C-Scape dune shack when they come upon Ruth Marie Terry's dead body. Her hands are missing, presumably by the killer so she could not be identified through fingerprints, and her head is nearly severed from her body, with the left side of her skull crushed. She is nude and laying on a beach towel with her head resting on folded jeans.
Her toenails are painted pink.
The cause of death is determined to be a blow to the head and estimated to have happened several weeks prior.
1980: Terry's body is exhumed from the burial plot at a Provincetown church cemetery for blood samples.
2000: Terry's remains are exhumed to extract a DNA sample. At the time, law enforcement sources tell the Cape Cod Times they are trying to match the victim's DNA to a saliva sample given to investigators by a woman in Colorado who was the mother of Rory Gene Kesinger, who had escaped from prison in Plymouth and was missing since 1974.
March 14, 2002: Guy Muldavin, 78, dies at his Salinas home after a lengthy illness.
May 2010: A new composite of "Lady of the Dunes" was created using state of the art technology and computer analyses. The new facial reconstruction images were created by forensic experts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Smithsonian Institution.
2013: Terry's body is exhumed a third time to obtain more DNA.
May 28, 2015: A college professor and his five students take soil samples at the spot where Terry's remains were found 41 years ago, in hopes of using DNA to help solve the murder.
Oct. 31, 2022: The "Lady of the Dunes" is identified as Ruth Marie Terry, the Boston Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Office of Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe, the Provincetown Police Department, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announce at a press conference.
Nov. 3, 2022: Law enforcement officials announce they are seeking more information about Guy Rockwell Muldavin as well as about Ruth Marie Terry. Muldavin also used the aliases of Raoul Guy Rockwell and Guy Muldavin Rockwell, while Terry also used the names Teri Marie Vizina, Terry M. Vizina, and Teri Shannon.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Provincetown 1974 cold case breakthrough: 'Lady of the Dunes' timeline
