Police find woman 60 years missing, she wants to stay hidden

SOUTH-CENTRAL WISCONSIN: SIX decades after a young mother vanished from her small city in south-central Wisconsin, authorities have found her alive and well living in another state.

Audrey Backeberg was 20 years old when she disappeared from Reedsburg in July 1962, according to a bulletin from the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

It says the family’s babysitter claimed that the two of them hitchhiked to Madison — about 55 miles away — and then took a Greyhound bus to Indianapolis, Ind.

“She said she last saw Audrey walking around the corner away from the bus stop,” it reads.

“Audrey never returned home and has not been heard from again.” That is, until now.

The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office announced last week that it had resolved Backeberg’s long-cold missing persons case, saying she is “alive and well and currently resides out of State.”

ALSO READ: Over 60 households graduate from TASAF’s poverty alleviation programme

“Further investigation has revealed that Ms. Backeberg’s disappearance was by her own choice and not the result of any criminal activity or foul play,” Sheriff Chip Meister said.

Meister said the case was assigned to a sheriff’s office detective earlier this year “for a comprehensive review as part of an ongoing examination of cold case files.”

That process included a “thorough re-evaluation of all case files and evidence, combined with re-interviewing witnesses and uncovering new insights,” Meister said.

The detective, Isaac Hanson, told local ABC affiliate WISN that he discovered Backeberg’s sister had an Ancestry. com account, which led him to new data including a possible address.

“So, I called the local sheriff’s department, said, ‘Hey, there’s this lady living at this address. Do you guys have somebody who can just go pop in?’” Hanson recalled.

“Ten minutes later, she called me, and we talked for 45 minutes.” Hanson said he promised Backeberg that he would keep their conversation — and her whereabouts — private, but said “she had her reasons for leaving.”