Sixty-two years ago, Audrey Backeberg disappeared from a small town in the Wisconsin Center-South after having stated the hitchhiking with the baby-sitter of his family…
Sixty-two years ago, Audrey Backeberg disappeared from a small town in the Wisconsin Center-South after having stated the hitchhiking with the baby-sitter of his family and caught a bus for Indianapolis.
No one has ever known where she was going or what happened to her.
All this changed last week when it was found alive and safe in another state, thanks to the new eyes of a deputy who took over the case in February.
The detective Isaac Hanson discovered an arrest record outside the state which corresponded to Backeberg, which sparked a series of investigation movements which led to find it alive and safe in another state.
It turns out that Backeberg has chosen to leave the city of Reedsburg by itself – probably due to an abusive husband, said Hanson.
“She is happy, safe and secure; and simply lived under the radar for so long,” he said.
Hanson received the case at the end of February and, after discovering the arrest record, he and other officials met the Backeberg family to see if they had a link with this region. They also started to dig the ancestry account of Backeberg ancestry.com, by drawing census files, necrologies and marriage licenses from this region.
In about two months, they found an address where a woman lived who, according to Hanson, shared many similarities with Backeberg, including the date of birth and the social security number. Hanson was able to obtain a deputy for this jurisdiction to go to the address. Ten minutes later, Backeberg, now in the 80s, called Hanson.
“It happened so fast,” he said. “I expected the deputy to remind me of and said:” Oh, no one answered the door. And I thought it was the deputy who calls me, but it was actually her.
Most of the information he learned during this call, he refused to share, saying he was always important for Backeberg that she was not found.
“I think it overwhelmed her of course with the emotions she had, by showing an assistant at home and then calling her and telling her about what happened and reliving 62 years in 45 minutes,” he said.
Hanson described the discovery of his safe after more than six practically unknown decades. And although he does not know what will then happen in terms of his family reconnect, he said he was happy that she could reach out if she wanted it.
“There is a family life here, so she has my contact number if she ever wants to hand her hand or need anything, all the telephone numbers of family members here,” he said. “In the end, she somehow holds the cards for that.”
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