The Missing Identity Of The Lady Of The Dunes

[Music] this week on BuzzFeed unsolved we sift through the case of the lady of the dunes a murder mystery from Cape Cod with theories that stretch from the Boston mafia to Hollywood what this is the turtleneck the jacket and just went in for a slow sip for your coffee it was insufferable I won't read I've never been to Cape Cod I don't know much about it other than what is it like some Gatsby [ __ ] going on it's like a party town people go there to bang it out you could probably catch Cod there yeah and hell I might bring a cape but here's the thing you put a bunch of rich people together oh there's gonna be some murder all rich people are murderers what's fancy coming from you and you're a silk turtleneck here $11 on amazon.com he's anyway yes save me to say all rich people are burn I don't think that's what this case is very factual stay agree to disagree that okay yep drink your coffee drink it go ahead Oh instead of a guy right let's get into this on July 26th 1974 12 year-old Leslie Metcalf was returning from the beach in Provincetown Massachusetts with her family in the late afternoon a local dog had followed them and when it took off barking Leslie decided to run ahead of her parents and follow first off Gani new you guess is what that dog was barking at I don't know I don't like dogs I was running for exercise and a rotten Dalmatian jumped right up against a fence and started growling for no reason just because I was passing I'm a nice man well they do hate squirrels do you think he thought there was a little bushy squirrel tail on your face no it was dark out I worry about this if I ever have kids them running away thinking to seek parents with their kids on leashes and you're like well that's wrong but the more I think about it I'm like yeah maybe put your kids on leash spend that whole time didn't even answer the question what did what was the dog barking at anything dogs barking oh yeah that would have been a good mailman dogs bark it a bird in a tree that anything would have been an acceptable answer you'd be a horrible contestant on family feud in the dunes a tree point beach amongst the scrub Pines a mile east of a ranger station Leslie discovered the decomposing body of a naked woman approximately five feet six and a half inches tall 145 pounds between 20 and 40 years old lying on one side of a beach towel with her head on top of a folded pair of jeans and a blue bandana it's estimated the body had been lying there anywhere from ten days to three weeks before being discovered her head had been crushed on the left side and she had been almost entirely decapitated while no weapons were found it's believed that something akin to a military entrenching tool was used to nearly sever the head also noticeably absent from the corpse were the victims hands presumably removed to avoid identification via fingerprints well that's a lot I won't say that when you look at the details of the crime scene it would seem that this was done by somebody who wasn't I guess like an amateur also in saying that it had been there for ten days to three so a long time the body goes through some stuff but even from beyond that like beyond the LA the the state of the body when you find it ten days to three weeks is a long time for it not to be discovered but out there on the dunes man it's wide its expansive though it is only a mile away from the ranger station it would suggest that maybe the killer is a little bit more ballsy than would let on or they just know that the Ranger is a doofus who's not good at their job the violence state in which the body was left obviously suggested murder and with no apparent sign of a struggle at the time authorities believed that the unidentified victim would have known her murderer some of the only evidence of another person being around were size 10 footprints that indicated a heavy person who was running and Provincetown police chief Jimmy Meads said the killer likely drove the victim to the Dune in a four-wheel-drive sand vehicle too it's interesting to me that the footprints lasted that long could also been someone who just stumbled upon the body it was like you know what we weren't into this a lot of about this if you saw a body would you call it in yes I would do right I would but I can understand where if let's say you got a warrant out maybe you didn't pay your taxes you stumble upon a body you don't want to invite any of that it's probably safer to walk away sometimes you do usually paint yourself as suspect number one and something yeah which is in that fair so you stumble upon this body what's your tone when you tell them hey how's it going I just uh well you can't sell too much panic in the voice how's it going I found a body out on the beach we should probably you should come out here and pick it up send out the paddy wagon send out your boys my kids play on this Beach Oh kids in a scenario where are you lying about that to them cuz that's all [ __ ] would I be you're lying now oh now they had that I tape my kids play on this Beach and now those cuffs are gonna be on my wrists and probably a day's time yeah [ __ ] I just got arrested this is why people don't call it in despite using bloodhounds studying missing-persons bulletins scouring the registers of local lodgings and looking into anyone who had a permit to bring their vehicle into the area police turned up nothing Margy child's a Provincetown local noted in 2019 that the fact that no one could identify the lady of the dunes in the tight-knit community was very strange in their attempt to ID the victim police turned to the victims extensive dental work worth thousands of dollars at the time and noted to be of new york-style details of the dental work were sent to every dentist in Massachusetts published in to dental journals and distributed to organizations like the FBI and Interpol no one came forward recognizing the work so they can't identify the victim they looked at the dental work which is I guess of New York style Big Apple choppers as a Chicago guy anymore into deep dish dental nailed it weird it's so no one even in the community is missing yeah we know you did it so yep so yeah okay so no one in the community is even missing no now the dental work is interesting to me because that is a fair amount of work being done so obviously this person is not somebody that just wandered in off the street when they say New York New York dentistry yeah I have no idea what the hell that just means fancy like this was clearly done by you know not your country bumpkin dentist I have no idea my dad's a dentist himself never heard and refer to California dentistry the body was exhumed in 1980 so blood samples could be taken in an approximation of the victims face could be molded from the skull photos of the resulting bust were sent around the country in the hopes that someone would recognize it no identification resulted 20 years later in 2000 the body was exhumed again when a bone fragment was taken to test a potential lead that again turned up nothing in 2013 the body was exhumed for a third time to obtain even more DNA still nothing has produced a positive identity for the Lady of the dunes this has been hanging over the community for decades now yeah they did three exhumations exhumations it's a word right yeah three of them and still after all that for that to produce no kind of DNA evidence of who this person is it's kind of insane to me because 1974 is not that long ago no you would think that DNA would be fresh enough that you could figure out this person yeah identity well just all so weird that nobody's like hey I don't know where my friend is which makes you think this person could be off the grid in sorts with an unidentified murderer in an unidentified corpse it's time to launch into theories our first theory is about the victim's identity and comes from the tumbler of Joe Hill the son of Stephen King is this the first time tumbler has played the first time tumbler has made an appearance the tumbler crowd is such a vocal fan base of our show they're very supportive of unsolved they always have been that being said I'm pretty sure this tumblr user is not but I could be wrong he's the son is he King so maybe well I tell you if anyone knows [ __ ] it's gonna be the son of Stephen King Hills interest in the lady of the dunes was sparked after reading Deborah helpers book the skeleton group how amateur sleuths are solving America's coldest cases about an hour into a 40th anniversary screening of Steven Spielberg's classic film jaws Hill spotted an extra with a face that looked eerily vally the face reminded him of the composite drawings of the lady of the dunes the extra appears in jeans and a blue bandana the same clothing found with the lady of the dunes while this may at first sound like a simple coincidence of wardrobe jaws was filmed on the Cape during the summer of 1974 meaning the scene in question may have been filmed weeks or days before her death an Entertainment Weekly reporter contacted Universal about the identity of the extra but they could not locate a record and the casting director had already died Hill admits his theory could be bogus but says quote if nothing else it's a pretty good little ghost story and that's some good it does look similar to the composite it would potentially explain her being an outsider Stevie Spielberg shows up in town it's gonna attract people from out of town and want to be a part of the magic he wasn't a big director at that point so the security around that probably wasn't as you know stringent yeah also kind of crazy that that set was so loosey-goosey that they don't even have notes of the names of all the extras I wonder if that's because it was just such a long drawn-out debacle that they just sort of a lot of that got lost in the shuffle or she did truly sneak onto the set yeah and when they were shooting just walked into the shot also it fits the timeline yes the location he kind of looks like the person frankly Joe Hill I think you've done it yeah let's just end the episode well we can't okay let's move on then for our next Theory we move from movie monster to real-life mobs whitey bulger whitey bulger you may recall was the infamous Boston mob leader who was beaten to death in prison while serving two life sentences for eleven convicted murders and it's widely thought he was responsible for many more in 2015 a woman named Sandra Lee who suggested her family was close with Bulger at the time of the murder and even called him uncle Jimmy told a reporter that the lady of the dunes or a striking resemblance to one of Whitey's alleged murders in particular Lee believes the method of disposal and attempts to avoid identification of the body are strikingly similar to the murder of Debbie Davis in Davis's case the victims teeth were removed presumably in an attempt to avoid identification Davis was strangled to death and the lady of the dunes showed signs of strangulation Davis's hands however were not removed and the lady of the dunes teeth were left in place bolter has never been officially associated with the case as a subject Lee also claims to remember seeing whitey in Provincetown at the time of the lady of the dunes is murder what's more for some reason Lee has also claimed that when she was 9 years old she discovered the unidentified body on the morning of July 26th 1974 before Leslie Metcalf but did not alert authorities I was starting to see what she was selling there for a second but then she mentions that she saw the body and didn't identify it which makes her kind of just seem like a kid making up a tall tale is she the one who also saw whitey in town yes she says this is a word-of-mouth theory here however Debbie Davis also was found near a short line so there's similarity there but like I said the hands weren't cut off but teeth the teeth removed so still care taken to mask the identity in some way whitey bulger does fit the description of the professional that I was suggesting earlier that this didn't seem like an amateur killing or a perhaps even a crime of passion yeah I don't know enough about him to really peg him for this but I guess all we really need to know is that he was a vicious murderer true so that's why I like if he were theorizing that he may have murdered somebody else I don't really go to bad our third theory is that serial-killer Hadden Clark who is currently serving 70 years in prison for theft and the murder of two women was responsible for the murder this theory was first presented by Hadden Clark speaking with journalist and former police officer Alek wilkinson Clark claimed that while staying with his grandfather on Cape Cod in 1974 he lured a woman into the dunes where he struck her in the head with a surf casting fishing rod he claimed he then retrieved a saw from his truck and removed her hands using some of her fingers as fishing baits and burying the hands elsewhere casting doubt on Clark's claims is the fact that the details he provided about the murder were featured in newspaper articles Clark also has a history of claiming involvement in other murders that never checked out [ __ ] what a liar yeah don't don't even give him the satisfaction go to hell dude our final theory holds that the lady of the dunes was herself a criminal the fact that her hands were removed could suggest that the murderer knew the victims fingerprints would be on file somewhere this led authorities to suspect the lady could be redeemed Kessinger Kessinger had a criminal history of bank robberies and attempting to shoot police including once in a hospital with the officers own gun when the lady of the dunes was discovered Kessinger had recently escaped from Plymouth County Jail just across Cape Cod Bay from Provincetown while awaiting trial someone was able to get Kessinger a hacksaw blade which he used to free herself in classic escapee fashion she used tethered bedsheets to rappel out of a window and was met by a car that drove her away I'm a guard at the prison yeah I'm supposed to be making sure nobody gets out I'm up there on the little Tower I swing the spotlight because I hear a commotion I see a woman crawling down the side of the building I go to sound the alarm and then suddenly I put it down I'm so impressed with this lady is she a monster is she is she bad she did attempt to shoot a police officer with his own gun what are you gonna do not that that's what you're gonna do but I'm so charmed by her Venis she just tied bedsheets together that's like scary tale that's not even and it worked most people would probably scoff at that and say well that's only in cartoons nobody does this yeah but I think if you're sitting around in a locked cell long enough you'll think of anything yeah and you oughta I mean assuming your little lady like this you should just rob some banks any taller well the cop was you know probably being mean to her it said the sculptural bust made of the lady of the dunes after the 1980 exhumation had a striking resemblance to Kessinger in the late 90s authorities tracked down Kessinger x' mother who agreed to give a saliva sample to see if her DNA meant she was the mother of the victim the theory was so strong that it's what led to the body being exhumed again in 2000 both tests failed in determining whether it was a match which led to another test in 2002 that proved conclusively that there was no match between Kessinger and the lady of the dunes what does she just disappear then yeah I think so she may be I mean that's mission accomplished for someone who escapes the prison she actually may be watching this video and hearing me lavish praise upon this is the first theory that we've had that has a guest somewhat happy ending maybe you escaped prison the goal is to not be caught yeah and if we found out the lady of the dunes was her you see she got guy yes you're watching this episode don't be tweeting like that lady so cool cuz then the law is gonna remember like oh yeah she escaped yeah they're gonna be going after her so just keep quiet about it this case has been closely followed in the more than 45 years since Leslie Metcalf discovered the lady of the dunes resulting in numerous other theories with varying degrees of plausibility in the 1980's a psychic told Provincetown police chief Jimmy Meade's that the victim was a Canadian nurse named either Carolyn or Marilyn O'Leary while the word of a psychic may not seem like enough to merit further scrutiny another person had also reported the victim to be an American nurse named Carolyn O'Leary who had gone missing upon investigation authorities found O'Leary to be very much alive good job psychics what a shock what do think about that investigative technique I mean I think all psychics are [ __ ] but I don't care I will say that there has to be at least one case that the psychic actually solved otherwise why would we keep using them no one's using them I think they're just like you must believe me and then some [ __ ] at the station is like I think despite over four decades of dead ends investigations continue according to journalist Marianne Bray after three exhumations authorities currently have the skull ribs and left scapula the right scapula a tissue sample of a lake and hair samples in their possession Cape officials are looking into a new method for identifying the body using DNA evidence and genealogy das from California who worked on the Golden State killer case which was finally solved using genealogy records have been brought over to look into the case there's even a Twitter account dedicated to discovering the identity of the lady of the dunes still an answer is anything but guaranteed prior to his death in 2011 police chief Meade's stated that the only way to solve the case would be if someone on their deathbed wanted to clear their conscience before passing without that it appeared the identity of the lady of the dunes as well as her murderer will remain unsolved not so yeah it's a crazy case I gotta say after all those theories this is not just because I love the film jaws I do think it's actually a very interesting theory it is interesting but at the same time I don't know if there's enough there maybe frankly I'd like to enjoy the film jaws without every time watching it being like the thing about the theory though is it doesn't solve the case it just solves the identity of her it doesn't have any kind of bearing towards what who the criminal or the killer is yes but once you figure out the identity then you can start opening up an app we have quite a prominent one I said it's true well we've once again failed thoroughly upsetting story with no conclusion you know what the turtleneck grew on me thank you how about that mustache No [Music]

Channel: BuzzFeed Unsolved Network

Views: 6,299,133

Keywords: PL-Unsolved, PL-UnsolvedTrueCrime, PL-UnsolvedTrueCrime-S6, Ryan bergara, SffZ, Shane madej, VXWf, buzzfeed, buzzfeed ryan, buzzfeed shane, buzzfeed unsolved, buzzfeed unsolved network, cold case, jane doe, lady of the dunes documentary, mini doc, mystery, provincetown massachusetts, ryan bergara, shane madej, the missing identity of the lady of the dunes, theory, true crime, unsolved, unsolved murder, unsolved mysteries, unsolved mystery, unsolved network, unsolved true crime

Id: 2Hq4CtLfnZs

Length: 19min 26sec (1166 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 20 2020