By Sharon Oliver
Contributing Writer
PROVINCETOWN – One of the most heartbreaking mysteries for the state of Massachusetts has been solved. More than 50 years ago, a set of female remains were found on a beach blanket on Race Point Beach in Provincetown on July 26, 1974. Dubbed the “Lady of the Dunes,” many hoped the body gave answer to whereabouts of missing loved one, including the family of jail escapee Rory Gene Kesinger.
New documentary about the crime
Not only was the body publicly identified on Halloween in 2022 as 37-year-old Ruth Marie Terry of Tennessee but there is a son, Richard Hanchett, who she gave up for adoption that has since learned of her tragic demise. Now, there is also a new three-hour documentary, “Lady of the Dunes” which aired for the first time last November on the Oxygen True Crime Network.
Photo/Courtesy of the Oxygen True Crime Network
The documentary provides new case details and interviews including clips following Hanchett as he traveled to Tennessee and Massachusetts from his home state of Michigan. Also featured in the docuseries is a deep dive into the killer’s violent past, his criminal connections and multiple marriages.
As for the person responsible for Terry’s murder, the FBI determined in 2023 that it was none other than Terry’s husband Gary Rockwell Muldavin, who, as fate would have it, died in 2002. Terry died from a crushing blow to the head and her hands were removed, hindering fingerprint identification.
Initially, Muldavin told Terry’s family that his wife sold all her belongings and left him without saying where she was going but his behavior made them suspicious. Muldavin’s name first appeared in the news in 1960 after his wife and stepdaughter disappeared and pieces of human flesh were found in a septic tank at his home. However, DNA evidence was not available at the time, so the case was dropped even though Muldavin was suspected of killing them.
DNA test led to mother’s family
The 66-year-old Hanchett, who lives in Waterford, Michigan, discovered his mother’s name in 2018 after taking a DNA test that led him to Terry’s family in Marion County, Tennessee. Hanchett read an Ancestry.com family tree created by a woman who matched his DNA profile as a first cousin.
The two exchanged emails and according to Hanchett, in an interview on Masslive.com, “The next thing she said was, ‘Oh my God. My aunt Ruth is your mom and we’ve been looking for you forever.” He and his cousin, who created her Ancestry account to find him in 2006, became friends immediately. Despite having this newfound knowledge, the family had yet to learn that Terry was the victim of a frustrating cold case.
A struggling 21-year-old single mother in 1958, Ruth Marie Terry gave her son up for adoption to friends living in Michigan. The Terry family knew she had married a “wealthy antiquity dealer” named Guy Muldavin in 1974 and once came for a visit to “show him off.” Hanchett recalled his aunt Carol not liking the man, sensing something was wrong with him. Hanchett started having recurring nightmares of a man violently beating a woman in October 2022 and then he got the call from the FBI a few days later on Halloween.
Photo/findagrave.com
Believing the people of Provincetown would continue to visit Terry’s grave along with leaving objects in tribute, Richard Hanchett and members of the Terry family decided it was time for his mother to finally be laid to rest. They returned some of her remains for burial in Marion County but left the rest in Provincetown with the people who cared all these years. His book, “Through His Eyes: the Lady of the Dunes, Ruth Marie Terry’s Story,” will be released next year.
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