US woman missing for six decades found safe

Audrey Backeberg

Sixty-two years ago, Audrey Backeberg disappeared from a small city in south-central Wisconsin after hitchhiking with her family's babysitter and catching a bus to Indianapolis.

Last week, the Sauk County Sheriff's Office announced that the 20-year-old had been found alive and safe in another state. Detective Isaac Hanson said on Monday that she chose to leave Reedsburg likely due to an abusive husband.

Hanson was assigned the case in late February and quickly discovered an out-of-state arrest record that matched Backeberg. He and other officials met with Backeberg's family to see if they had a connection with that region. They also started digging through Backeberg's sister's Ancestry.com account, pulling any records from that region.

In about two months, they found an address where a woman was living that Hanson said shared a lot of similarities with Backeberg. Hanson sent a deputy to the address. Ten minutes later, Backeberg, now in her 80's, called Hanson.

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