August 29, 2023

Vacationland crime

the true crime that's worth your time

A legendary Cape Cod cold case is finally closed.1 “The Lady of the Dunes,” whose mutilated body was found above a beach in Provincetown in 1974, was finally identified as Ruth Marie Terry, 37, via forensic genealogy just last year — and that story is pretty wild on its own (her biological son basically found out her identity, and that she was a notorious murder victim, at the same time).

But the MA State Police and local DA have now concluded that her husband at the time of her killing, Guy Muldavin, is responsible — and have closed the case. Muldavin, who died in 2002, had 1) half a dozen aliases; 2) a bullshitty story about Terry having run off to join a cult after they fought on their honeymoon; and 3) another dead wife (and stepdaughter) on his record.

Cape Cod doesn’t have a ton of true-crime stories, but it seems like every one is a doozy: The Lady of the Dunes; Christa Worthington; Tony Costa; Chappaquiddick, technically; the decimation of a generation of year-rounders thanks to opioid addiction.

Is there something about a crime or a case that takes place in a vacation community that makes it more compelling, or curdling? Lord knows the writers of Dateline voice-overs love themselves a good “murder NEVER takes a holiday” op…but do they have a point? Does the Madeleine McCann story stick with us because it’s a missing child, or because the child went missing on vacation? Would we think as much about Somerton Man if he’d been found on a street corner?2

With the summer winding down, let’s hear about the “vacationland” cases and properties you keep coming back to — and what it is about those cases that gets you. — SDB