• News
  • Life
  • TV & Film
  • Beauty
  • Style
  • Home
  • News
    • Celebrity
    • Entertainment
    • Politics
    • Royal Family
  • Life
    • Animals
    • Food & Drink
    • Women's Health
    • Mental Health
    • Sex & Relationships
    • Travel
    • Real Life
  • TV & Film
    • True Crime
    • Documentaries
    • Netflix
    • BBC
    • ITV
    • Tyla Recommends
  • Beauty
    • Hair
    • Make-up
    • Skincare
  • Style
    • Home
    • Fashion
    • Shopping
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
Submit Your Content
Missing mother-of-two reappears over 60 years later after family thought she had been murdered

Home> News> Crime

Published 10:28 5 May 2025 GMT+1

Missing mother-of-two reappears over 60 years later after family thought she had been murdered

After decades of confusion for her family, a missing woman finally resurfaced long after they had been resigned to her death

Jen Thomas

Jen Thomas

A mother-of-two managed to remain in hiding for more than 60 years, leading her family to think she had been murdered, before she reappeared unharmed.

Audrey Backeberg has been found 'alive and well' decades after she disappeared without a trace in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, when she was just 20 years old.

She left behind her husband and two children in July 1962, leaving what is said to have been an abusive home.

Her case went cold, with her distraught family eventually accepting she was dead after more than six decades.

Advert

Now 82, she has been found alive just outside of Wisconsin, not far from where she lived, detectives confirmed.

The missing woman was found more than 60 years later (Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy Inc)
The missing woman was found more than 60 years later (Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy Inc)

Sauk County Sheriff Chip Meister revealed that officers revisiting her cold case had managed to make contact with Audrey and speak to her.

Even worse for her family, Audrey apparently has 'no regrets' about what she did.

Advert

In the days before she went missing, Backeberg logged a criminal complaint against her husband.

She left the house to pick up her salary, before hitchhiking to the capital city Madison with her 14-year-old babysitter on July 7.

The teenager eventually became worried and travelled home, making her the last person to see Audrey before she went missing and last saw her walking towards a different bus stop.

Over the decades, Audrey's family insisted she would never have left her children willingly and insisted she had been murdered.

Advert

Her husband was initially suspected in her disappearance, so he undertook a polygraph lie detector tests which showed he was innocent.

Detective Isaac Hanson was reponsible for re-opening the cold case of the strange disappearance.

As part of his investigation, he re-interviewed several key witnesses.

Detective Hanson revisited the cold case (WMTV15 News)
Detective Hanson revisited the cold case (WMTV15 News)

Advert

The breakthrough came when Audrey's sister had an Ancestry.com account, and by using the available death records and census reports they tracked down an address.

He asked the local sheriff to 'pop in' and see if it really was Audrey: "I had high hopes; there wasn’t a certainty that we would know it was her," he recalled.

Audrey then phoned Detective Hanson and had a 45 minute conversation with him.

He promised to keep the nature of their conversation private, but he has said he could not rule out the difficult marital issues being the reason why she left.

Advert

The detective did say he did know know why she stayed away for so long and never came back.

He said: "I think she just was removed and, you know, moved on from things and kind of did her own thing and led her life."

Detective Hanson added: "She sounded happy. Confident in her decision. No regrets."

Police have closed the case and no further action will be taken, as they say her disappearance 'was not the result of any criminal activity or foul play'.

Her discovery comes weeks after another similar case, where a British woman, Sheila Fox, reappeared close to where she went missing in 1972 aged just 16.

She had planned to leave school, before disappearing without a trace with many locals speculating she had run away with a local insurance salesman as she was thought to be pregnant.

Featured Image Credit: Wisconsin Missing Person Advocacy/Getty Stock Images

Topics: Crime, True Crime

Jen Thomas
Jen Thomas

Jen Thomas is a freelance journalist and radio presenter for Magic Radio and Planet Rock, specialising in music and entertainment writing.

X

@jenthomasradio

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

11 hours ago
12 hours ago
13 hours ago
  • 11 hours ago

    Donald Trump sparks another conspiracy theory about assassination attempt after internet sleuths spot major ‘clue’

    Social media users are questioning the authenticity of Donald Trump's assassination attempt once more, as they examine 'clues'

    News
  • 12 hours ago

    Melania Trump’s ‘Einstein visa’ raises questions after people think they’ve spotted issue with it

    Social media users and politicians alike are questioning the validity of the First Lady's visa.

    News
  • 13 hours ago

    Kate Middleton and Prince William’s plans revealed after PETA slammed birthday post with brutal statement

    Kate Middleton and Prince William recently showed off several of their dog Orla's puppies in a recent photoshoot

    News
  • 13 hours ago

    Doctors reveal one major sign to look out for that could be early symptom of bowel cancer

    There are around 44,100 new cases of the 'silent killer' every year in the United Kingdom alone

    News
  • Everything we know about missing mother-of-two as she suddenly reappears 60 years later after family thought she had been murdered
  • Family of brain dead woman who had baby delivered while she was forced to be kept alive speak out
  • Gypsy Rose Blanchard reveals how she’ll tell daughter she murdered her mother as she makes honest admission
  • Missing man reappears 30 years later wearing same clothes he disappeared in