DA: We Know Who Killed the 'Lady of the Dunes'

Authorities conclude Guy Rockwell Muldavin killed wife Ruth Marie Terry on Cape Cod in 1974
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 29, 2023 8:29 AM CDT
DA: We Know Who Killed the 'Lady of the Dunes'
This 1974 image provided by the FBI shows a poster seeking information for homicide victim Ruth Marie Terry. On Monday, Aug. 28, 2023, authorities in Massachusetts concluded that Terry was killed by her husband.   (FBI via AP, File)

Authorities in Massachusetts on Monday concluded a woman whose mutilated body was discovered on Cape Cod nearly 50 years ago was killed by her husband. The announcement by the Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois brings to a close one of the state's most famous cold cases, per the AP. It was only in October that officials announced they had identified the woman, known as the "Lady of the Dunes," as Ruth Marie Terry of Tennessee. She was 37 when she was killed in 1974 by what authorities concluded was blunt force trauma to the skull. Since then, the focus has turned to Terry's late husband, Guy Rockwell Muldavin, who had married her a few months before she disappeared.

Muldavin, who died in 2002, was also a prime suspect in the death of another one of his wives and a stepdaughter in Seattle in the 1960s. After he and Terry married, state police learned that the couple had traveled to Tennessee to visit her family. "When Mr. Muldavin returned from that trip, he was driving what was believed to be Ms. Terry's vehicle and indicated to witnesses that Ms. Terry had passed away," Galibois said in a statement. "Ms. Terry was never seen by her family again." Based on the investigation into Terry's death, authorities concluded Muldavin was the killer. They did not provide any more information on what was uncovered during the investigation.

The death of the "Lady of the Dunes" was one of the most enduring and frustrating murder mysteries in Massachusetts. A young girl out for a walk found the body in the dunes in Provincetown in July 1974. The woman was naked on a beach blanket with her hands severed—so she could not be identified by her fingerprints, officials said. Her skull was crushed and she was nearly decapitated. The cause of death was determined to be a blow to the head and authorities believe she was killed several weeks before her body was found. Terry, whose aliases included Teri Marie Vizina, Terry M. Vizina, and Teri Shannon, was the oldest unidentified homicide victim in Massachusetts before she was identified using investigative genealogy. (More cold cases stories.)

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