(NewsNation) — After more than 60 years, a missing Wisconsin woman has been found “alive and well,” authorities said.
The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office announced the resolution of the cold case last week and said that Audrey Backeberg disappeared of her own free will.
Backeberg went missing after leaving her home in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, on July 7, 1962, per the Wisconsin Department of Justice. She was just 20 years old, and the mother of two children, CBS News reported.
A babysitter for Backeberg and her husband later claimed that she and Backeberg hitchhiked to Madison, Wisconsin, where they boarded a bus to Indianapolis.
“She said she last saw Audrey walking around the corner away from the bus stop,” the DOJ wrote in its 2022 bulletin. “Audrey never returned home and has not been heard from again.”
But officials were ultimately able to make contact with Backeberg last week, after a review of the case. Detective Isaac Hanson of the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office told Wisconsin’s WISN that he learned of Backeberg’s possible whereabouts through the use of an Ancestry.com account belonging to her sister.
“So I called the local sheriff’s department, said, ‘Hey, there’s this lady living at this address. Do you guys have somebody, you can just go pop in?’” Hanson told the outlet.
They did, and Backeberg returned his phone call about 10 minutes later.
“I thought it was the deputy calling me, but it was actually her. And to be honest it was just a very casual conversation. I could sense that she obviously had her reasons for leaving,” Hanson told the Associated Press.
The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Backeberg was no longer residing in Wisconsin, but did not provide a reason for Backeberg’s disappearance in its press release. Hanson, however, suggested to WISN that her husband may have been abusive. (An article in the Baraboo News Republic, decades ago, had reported that Backeberg filed a complaint against her spouse, alleging he kept loaded guns and threatened to kill her, according to NPR.)
“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,” the sheriff’s office concluded.
Hanson also told AP that his office would be happy to reconnect her with family, if she should want to.
“She sounded happy,” he told WISN. “Confident in her decision. No regrets.”