Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Audrey Jean Backeberg, missing since 1962, was found alive by authorities.
- Detective Isaac Hanson used Ancestry.com to locate her out-of-state address.
- Backeberg's disappearance was voluntary; she is content with her decision to leave.
WASHINGTON — A woman who vanished more than six decades ago in Wisconsin has been found, and as it turns out, she didn't actually want to be found, authorities say.
Audrey Jean Backeberg, 82, went missing on July 7, 1962, from Reedsburg, a small town about 60 miles northwest of Madison, Wisconsin. At the time, she was 20, and another person claimed she hitchhiked with Backeberg to the state capital, where they took a Greyhound bus to Indianapolis, Indiana, according to her original missing person's report.
Backeberg walked around the corner away from the bus stop, the person told authorities, and hadn't been seen or heard from since.
Investigators from the Sauk County Sheriff's Office said they "pursued numerous leads" trying to find Backeberg for years, but despite their efforts, the case went cold.
Earlier this year, the sheriff's office put a detective on the case for a fresh set of eyes as part of an ongoing review of cold case files.
So paper by paper, detective Isaac Hanson took another look at evidence, reinterviewed witnesses and "uncovered new insights," the sheriff's office said in a news release.
Thanks to an Ancestry.com account that belonged to Backeberg's sister, Hanson was able to review death records, census reports and "all kinds of data," he told CNN affiliate WISN.
Ultimately, the detective found an out-of-state address and asked the local sheriff's office to pay it a visit. They obliged, and shortly after the visit, Hanson found himself on the phone with Backeberg for 45 minutes having a conversation he promised to keep private.
"She had her reasons for leaving," Hanson told WISN.
"I think she just was removed, and you know, moved on from things and kind of did her own thing and led her life," he added.
CNN has reached out to the Sauk County Sheriff's Office for comment.
The sheriff's office concluded Backeberg's disappearance was her own choice and not the result of any criminal activity or foul play.
"She sounded happy, confident in her decision, no regrets," Hanson said.
