A more than 60-year-old cold case out of Wisconsin involving a missing mother has been solved.
Audrey Backeberg, now 82, who disappeared at age 20, has been found “alive and well,” the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said in a media release.
“The Sheriff’s Office is now able to report that Audrey Backeberg is alive and well and currently resides out of State,” the sheriff’s office said in a media release. “Further investigation has revealed that Ms. Backeberg’s disappearance was by her own choice and not the result of any criminal activity or foul play.”
Backeberg disappeared from her family’s home on July 7, 1962, the Wisconsin Department of Justice website says. The family’s babysitter told authorities that she and Audrey hitchhiked to Madison, Wisconsin, before taking a Greyhound bus to Indianapolis, Indiana.
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Audrey Jean Backeberg, whose maiden named was Good, went missing in July 1962 when she was 20 years old. (Wisconsin Department of Justice)
There, the babysitter said, she last saw Audrey walk around the corner away from the bus stop. The mother of two never returned home and had not been heard from again, according to the Charley Project, which profiles missing person cold cases.
The Charley Project says Audrey married Ronald Backberg when she was “about fifteen years old” and that their “marriage was troubled and there were allegations of abuse.”
KIDNAPPING HOAXER SHERRI PAPINI INSISTS SHE WAS ‘TORTURED’ FOR WEEKS, IN FIRST INTERVIEW SINCE DISAPPEARANCE
Audrey Backeberg lived with her husband and children in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, seen here. (Google Maps)
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The Backeberg’s babysitter said she and Audrey took a Greyhound bus from Madison, Wisconsin to Indianapolis, Indiana.(Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“The babysitter stated Audrey chose to leave of her own accord and said she would not return, but Audrey’s family members insisted she would never have abandoned her children,” The Charley Project said, adding that “Ronald passed a polygraph exam conducted after Audrey’s disappearance.”
The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office assigned the cold case to a detective earlier this year, “which included a thorough re-evaluation of all case files and evidence, combined with re-interviewing witnesses and uncovering new insights,” the media release said.
ONTONAGON COUNTY, MI — Two cougar cubs found this spring in the Upper Peninsula remain alive and traveling with their mother, a confirmation that Michigan wildlife officials say represents a historic milestone for natural reproduction.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said Thursday, Dec. 18 that a trail camera photo taken this month shows an adult female cougar walking down a snowy trail in central Ontonagon County followed by two juvenile cougars estimated to be roughly a year old.
The same cubs were first documented in early March when motorists photographed two small kittens along a western U.P. road.
“This is a historic confirmation for Michigan since it is the first time in over 100 years that verified cougar reproduction has occurred east of the Mississippi River and possibly even east of the Missouri River,” said Brian Roell, DNR large carnivore specialist
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Until this year, genetic testing and other evidence indicated that nearly all confirmed cougars in Michigan were transient adult males believed to have traveled east from established populations in the western states.
The presence of cubs confirms at least one breeding female is now on the landscape, though officials say that doesn’t mean Michigan has an established breeding population.
Cougars are native to Michigan but were essentially hunted out of the state by the early 1900s. The DNR has confirmed about 168 cougar sightings since 2008, although it says most of them are of the same animal being reported by multiple sources.
All confirmed sightings have been in the Upper Peninsula.
Cougar sightings have been increasing in recent years alongside the proliferation of trail cameras. This marked the third consecutive year of record-high cougar sightings in Michigan. As of late November, the DNR had confirmed 26 sightings statewide in 2025.
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The state verified the first confirmed vehicle collision with a male cougar on Nov. 15 in northern Houghton County.
The DNR said it verified the new cubs sighting image after a private landowner submitted a trail camera photo taken Dec. 6. Biologists enhanced the nighttime image and confirmed the presence of three cougars. The sex of the cubs is unknown.
Cougar cubs typically stay with their mother for up to two years and Roell said their chances of survival are relatively high because female cougars invest heavily in raising their young. The absence of an adult cougar in March had raised concerns about their survival. He is surprised the kittens weren’t seen on any other trail cameras since this spring.
“These kittens will stay with their mom through this winter and possibly even into next winter,” Roell said.
This photograph shared with with the Michigan DNR in March 2025 shows a cougar cub in found in Ontonagon County.Michigan Department of Natural Resources
State officials did not release the exact location of the latest sighting. Cougars are listed as endangered in Michigan. It is illegal to hunt or harass them or attempt to locate dens.
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Anyone who encounters evidence of a cougar should keep their distance, avoid disturbing the area and report sightings to the DNR.
The DNR said other states, including Nebraska, have also reported increases in cougar sightings.
Cougars need large territories because they are solitary ambush predators that rely on deer and other large prey, which leads to low population densities. Even states with the largest cougar populations generally have just a few thousand of the animals.
“This isn’t an animal that is ever going to become very numerous,” Roell said. “They’re going to remain rare on the landscape regardless of whatever happens with them here in Michigan.”
Federal prosecutorsannounce indictments against two Philadelphia men they say submitted up to $3.5 million in fake and inflated bills to Minnesota Medicaid programs, WCCO-TV reports. “Minnesota has become a magnet for fraud, so much so that we have developed a fraud tourism industry,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said.
State Rep. Kristin Robbins alleges – without sharing a name or other evidence – that the Minnesota Department of Human Services paid state money to a Feeding Our Future defendant while they were awaiting trial, the Minnesota Reformer reports. Robbins, who chairs a legislative fraud oversight committee and is running for governor, says she has collected hundreds of whistleblower tips, but she has not shared them with the department’s inspector general.
The state has suspended or delayed payments to several social service providers as part of an effort to catch and prevent fraud, and now one of those providers says the crackdown had deadly consequences, KARE 11 reports. A service provider says a vulnerable adult client was found dead in his St. Paul apartment after the state froze payments that had been covering his care.
Rolling Stone writer Stephen Rodrick, who spent time with Melissa Hortman while covering Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during the 2024 presidential campaign, writes about the life of the late Minnesota House Speaker in a 7,000-word profile based on interviews with dozens of family, friends and colleagues.
On Thursday, December 18, 2025, the momentum of BetMGM Sportsbook’s official launch in Missouri continues to build. As the legal sports betting era takes hold across the Show-Me State, new users can capitalize on BetMGM Missouri’s premier welcome promotion: the BetMGM bonus code CUSE unlocks a $1,500 First Bet Offer in MO, providing one of the most significant safety nets available in the national market.
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