A MUM-OF-TWO who went missing back in 1962 has been found alive and well but insists she has no regrets over leaving her family.
Audrey Backeberg, now aged 82, vanished without a trace when she was just 20 years old.
She left her home in Reedsburg, Wisconsin over 60 years ago seemingly never to return.
After years passed by and no one could locate Ms Backeberg, Sauk County Sheriff’s Office eventually closed the missing person’s case as the leads went cold.
But earlier this year, the case was finally reexamined by police during a routine review of cold cases.
Detective Isaac Hanson jumped at the chance to solve a six decade long mystery.
He conducted interviews and studied the facts of the disappearance.
And in a few short months found Ms Backeberg safe and sound.
The elderly woman had spent her life living just outside of Wisconsin, the sheriff’s office said.
Her shock disappearance back in the 60s rocked the small city of Reedsburgwhich back in 1962 only had a population of 1,800.
Ms Backeberg was married and had two children when she vanished, according to the Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy organisation.
She left her home on a summer’s day to pick up her salary but never returned.
The family were left shocked by her sudden move and wanted her disappearance investigated.
Shortly after cops started to look for Ms Backeburg, the family’s 14-year-old babysitter claimed she hitchhiked to Wisconsin’s capital city of Madison with the missing woman.
The pair then caught a bus to Indianapolis,Indiana, the babysitter alleged.
The teen decided to return home after becoming nervous about running away but Ms Backeberg reportedly refused to go back.
She was last seen walking near a bus stop before vanishing for the next 63 years.
It is still unclear what made her want to escape her family.
Her marriage was said to have been troubled in the months leading up to her running away, say the Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy organisation.
A criminal complaint was even filed just days before she went missing.
Her relatives insisted she would never abandon her children without a real reason, the organisation added.
But the husband was investigated by police and passed a polygraph test as he maintained his innocence.
How was she found?
Detective Hanson managed to track down Ms Backeburg by finding her sister’s Ancestry.com account.
He told local news station WISN: “That was pretty key in locating death records, census reports, all kinds of data.
“So I called the local sheriff’s department, said, ‘Hey, there’s this lady living at this address. Do you guys have somebody, you can just go pop in?’
“Ten minutes later, she called me, and we talked for 45 minutes.”;
Hanson says he promised to keep the details of their conversation private as he didn’t reveal what caused her to leave home.
He did say: “I think she just was removed and, you know, moved on from things and kind of did her own thing and led her life.
“She sounded happy. Confident in her decision. No regrets.”;
Sauk County Sheriff’s Office ruled her disappearance as not being suspicious
They say she made the choice to leave and it “was not the result of any criminal activity or foul play”;.
