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Richard Hanchett had spent years searching for his birth mother when he suddenly received a call from the FBI.
“The first thing they said to me was ‘Have you ever heard about the Lady of the Dunes?’” he recalled to Fox News Digital. “I had never heard anything about it… Ever since then, it’s been an unbelievable journey,”
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In 1974, a 37-year-old woman was killed by what authorities concluded was blunt force trauma to the skull. Her mutilated body was discovered on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a vacation hot spot. The unidentified woman became known as the “Lady of the Dunes.”
MASSACHUSETTS MAN’S DEATHBED CONFESSION RATTLES FAMILY AFTER DECADES ON THE RUN: ‘IT WASN’T A WEIRD DAD JOKE’
Richard Hanchett, the son of the “Lady of the Dunes,” is speaking out in a new true-crime docuseries about the case.(Left/Right Productions/Oxygen)
The case, which went cold for nearly 50 years, is the subject of a new true-crime docuseries on Oxygen, “The Lady of the Dunes: Hunting the Cape Cod Killer.” Hanchett also wrote a memoir, “Through His Eyes,” which is being published in December.
It was in October 2022 when police made a breakthrough in the decades-old investigation – the woman who was found in the dunes of Provincetown was Ruth Marie Terry of Tennessee. She was Hanchett’s biological mother.
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“Lady of the Dunes: Hunting the Cape Cod Killer” explores the decades-long case that has rocked Massachusetts.(Oxygen)
Hanchett said that for about three weeks before he got a call from the FBI, he was having recurring nightmares about his mother.
Richard Hanchett as a child growing up in Michigan.(Richard Hanchett & Left/Right Productions/Oxygen)
“I kept dreaming about a man who hit a woman from behind in the head and crushed her skull,” he said. “When the police gave me the news, I put two and two together… I just felt in my heart that she saw something she wasn’t supposed to see… The nightmare just kept repeating.”
“I didn’t want to see the pictures because I knew it would be my nightmare,” he added.
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Retired Provincetown Police Detective Meredith Lobur discussed her frustrations in investigating the cold case.(Left/Right Productions/Oxygen)
Terry was struggling with financial difficulties when she gave up her son to the Hanchett family in Michigan soon after his birth in 1958. For years, he yearned to be reunited with her. In 2018, he took a DNA test, which connected him to the Terry family. Through them, he learned that she had vanished and was still missing.
Family photo of Ruth Marie Terrry, who was brutally killed in July 1974. She became known as the “Lady of the Dunes.”(Left/Right Productions/Oxygen)
Terry married Guy Muldavin in 1974 – months before her remains were discovered.
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“When Mr. Muldavin returned from that trip, he was driving what was believed to be Ms. Terry’s vehicle and indicated to witnesses that Ms. Terry had passed away,” Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois previously said in a statement. “Ms. Terry was never seen by her family again.”
Hanchett said that Terry’s family had their suspicions about Muldavin.
Ruth Marie Terrry married Guy Muldavin months before she was killed.(Left/Right Productions/Oxygen)
“When I first met my family, my cousin told me about this guy – I later learned he was a sick person,” said Hanchett.
According to the docuseries, Muldavin had written a book, “Cooking with Rump Oil,” which featured disturbing illustrations. One of its so-called recipes, “Cape Cod Shid,” appeared to hint at the crime. It also included a character with auburn hair, similar to Terry’s.
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The book was published two years after Terry’s murder.
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Massachusetts Police Chief James Meads with the skull of the unidentified murder victim and a drawing made by forensic artist Mary Mize of Texas. Meads dedicated much of his career to finding out who killed the Lady of the Dunes.(Left/Right Productions/Oxygen)
Once Terry was identified by police, the focus turned to Muldavin, an antiques dealer. He was also the prime suspect in the death of another one of his wives and a stepdaughter in Seattle in the 1960s. According to newspaper reports at the time, human remains were found in the septic tank of his home. He was caught in New York City and charged with “unlawful flight.”
“Everywhere he lived, someone died,” said Hanchett.
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Muldavin died in 2002. He was 78.
When Terry’s body was discovered decades ago, she was lying naked on a beach blanket with her hands severed. She was nearly decapitated. Authorities believed she was killed several weeks before her body was found.
Color composite of the Lady of the Dunes.(Left/Right Productions/Oxygen)
Previously, authorities tried to identify her by exhuming her remains, performing clay model facial reconstruction, and releasing age-regression drawings of her face. She was identified using investigative genealogy, the use of DNA analysis in combination with traditional genealogy research and historical records. Investigators also learned that Terry had ties to Michigan and California, where Muldavin resided.
In 2023, authorities in Massachusetts concluded that Terry was killed by her husband. The case was closed.
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Investigative genealogy was used to determine Ruth Marie Terry’s identity.(Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
“The only question I did not get answered was the why,” Hanchett explained. “A lot of times, I feel she saw something she wasn’t supposed to see… She was at the wrong place at the wrong time. And everything I learned about Guy told me that he was not a good person. He was a criminal. He killed before my mom. This was not new to him. This was who he was.”
Hanchett said he’s speaking out today because he wanted to clear some misconceptions about his late mother, which he said continue to linger.
“It’s been said she was a hooker – she was not a hooker,” Hanchett stressed. “She was a mother, a sister and an aunt. She was a beautiful person. She didn’t deserve what happened to her. She was poor and worked hard her whole life to try to get ahead. It took me a long time to understand that she made the right decision for me. She was years ahead, stronger than I ever would’ve been at that age to do the right thing.”
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Authorities in Massachusetts concluded that Ruth Marie Terry was murdered by her husband, Guy Muldavin. Her son Richard Hanchett (pictured here) wished that Muldavin was still alive to “feel justice.”(Oxygen)
“I wish I could have met her,” he quietly said. “I wanted to give her respect and dignity back.”
When asked if justice was served, Hanchett replied, “It will be.”
“What I mean by that is it could have been solved a long time ago – it should have been solved a long time ago,” he said. “That’s what bothers me. My life would’ve been completely different. It wouldn’t have changed what happened to her, but for years I didn’t know if she was still alive. My dad, uncles, aunts, grandfather – they all wondered what happened to her.”
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Retired Provincetown Chief of Police Warren Tobias, who also tried to solve the crime.(Left/Right Productions/Oxygen)
“I am thankful that the case was able to be closed in the end, but deep down I’m upset because… this case could have been solved a long time ago. Do I feel justice was served? I never heard of someone being convicted after they died. Have you? I wish he was still alive to feel justice.”
About two weeks ago, Hanchett traveled to Provincetown to lay a stone on his mother’s grave.
Ruth Marie Terry’s grave in Massachusetts.(John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
“For close to 50 years, I wondered who my mom was,” he said. “It was surreal to be standing there, right by her grave. I couldn’t believe that I was finally there, with her.”
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“Lady of the Dunes: Hunting the Cape Cod Killer” concludes Nov. 30 at 9 p.m. on Oxygen. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Boston City Council is setting out on a new two-year term with a new council president at the helm.
City Councilor Liz Breadon, who represents District 9, won the gavel on a 7-6 contested vote, cobbling together her candidacy just hours before the council was set to vote.
“An opportunity presented itself and I took it,” Breadon said. “We’re in a very critical time, given politics, and I really feel that in this moment, we need to set steady leadership, and really to bring the council together.”
The process apparently including backroom conversations and late-night meetings as City Councilors Gabriella Coletta Zapata and Brian Worrell both pushed to become the next council president.
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Breadon spoke on why support waned for her two colleagues.
“I think they had support that was moving,” said Breadon. “It was moving back and forward, it hadn’t solidified solidly in one place. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the moment.”
Political commentator Sue O’Connell talks about the last-minute maneuvering before the upset vote and what it says about Mayor Michelle Wu’s influence.
Some speculated that Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration was lobbying for a compromise candidate after Coletta Zapata dropped out of the race. Breadon disputes the mayor’s involvement.
“I would say not,” said Breadon. “I wasn’t in conversation with the mayor about any of this.”
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Beyond the election, Breadon took a look ahead to how she will lead the body. Controversy has been known to crop up at City Hall, most recently when former District 7 Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges tied to a kickback scheme involving taxpayer dollars.
Breadon said it’s critical to stay calm and allow the facts to come out in those situations.
“I feel that it’s very important to be very deliberative in how we handle these things and not to sort of shoot from the hip and have a knee-jerk reaction to what’s happening,” said Breadon.
Tune in Sunday at 9:30 am for our extended @Issue Sitdown with Breadon, when we dig deeper into how her candidacy came together, the priorities she’ll pursue in the role and which colleagues she’ll place in key council positions.
Days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor reaffirmed that he will not cooperate with ICE.
Former Mayor Ed Gainey had taken the same position.
“My stance never changed,” O’Connor told TribLive on Friday. “We’re not going to cooperate.”
O’Connor said the same thing on the campaign trail, promising his administration would not partner with ICE.
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“My priority is to turn the city around and help it grow,” O’Connor said. “For us, it’s got to be focusing on public safety in the city of Pittsburgh.”
President Donald Trump has sent a surge of federal officers into Minneapolis, where tensions have escalated sharply.
O’Connor said he had spoken this week with Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who heads the Democratic Mayors Association. The group has condemned ICE’s actions in the wake of Wednesday’s fatal encounter in Minneapolis, where an ICE officer shot and killed 37-year-old Nicole Macklin Good, a U.S. citizen described as a poet and mother.
“Mayors are on the ground every day working to keep our communities safe,” the association said in a statement Thursday. “If Trump were serious about public safety, he would work with our cities, not against them. If he were serious, he would stop spreading propaganda and lies, and end the fear, the force, and the federal overreach.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has come out strongly against the Trump administration and ICE, penning an op-ed piece for the New York Times with the headline, “I’m the Mayor of Minneapolis. Trump Is Lying to You.”
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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said an ICE officer shot Good in self-defense. Noem described the incident as “domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers and claimed Good tried to “run them over and rammed them with her vehicle.”
The circumstances of the incident are in dispute.
In December, ICE agents were involved in a scuffle in Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington neighborhood as they arrested a Latino man.
According to neighbors, two unmarked vehicles sandwiched a white Tacoma in the 400 block of Norton Street, broke the driver’s side window, pulled a man from the vehicle and got into a physical altercation. Pepper spray was deployed and seemed to get in the eyes of both the man being detained and at least one immigration agent.
At least some of the officers on the scene in that incident belong to ICE.
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They targeted the man, Darwin Alexander Davila-Perez, a Nicaraguan national, for claiming to be a U.S. citizen while trying to buy a gun, according to court papers.
The U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in December, capping what economists say was the weakest year for job creation since 2009, aside from 2020.
Data from October shows about 73,000 job openings in Connecticut, according to the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. The state’s unemployment rate stands at about 4%, which is historically low.
Here is the topline information from Connecticut’s October and November jobs report released this week, according to the state’s Labor Department (data was delayed due to the government shutdown):
Overall, Connecticut job growth is +1,800 from November 2024 to November 2025.
Private sector payrolls were up 1,900 in November after a 900 decline in October.
Health Care & Social Assistance is up 1,700 in November and recovered September losses.
Construction is at the highest level since August 2008, a trend expected to continue with infrastructure and housing initiatives.
Retail continues a slow downward trajectory. The sector was up 200 jobs in November, not enough to offset September and October losses.
Initial unemployment claims are just under 30,000, slightly higher than last year at this time when they were around 25,000.
In a press release, Connecticut Department of Labor Commissioner Danté Bartolomeo said: “After several years of strong job growth that created a job seekers’ market, the economy is now more competitive—it takes job seekers longer to find employment than it has in the recent past.”
Experts say the experience of finding a job can be very different for job seekers.
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Dustin Nord, director of the CBIA Foundation for Economic Growth and Opportunity, said the state may be seeing what economists call frictional unemployment.
“We’re not seeing huge changes in hiring and quits,” Nord said, adding that it’s possible people who are losing positions are not necessarily seeing positions open in the field that they’re losing their job from.
Although unemployment remains relatively low, Nord said recent trends raise concerns about the direction of the labor market.
“There’s not that many people on the sidelines, but I’d say the trends are definitely not moving in the right direction,” Nord said.
Connecticut faces longer‑term workforce challenges. The state’s labor force has declined by about 19,600 people since January, according to the new data.
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“Federal immigration policies may impact these numbers. Connecticut employers rely on an immigrant workforce to offset retirements in Connecticut’s aging workforce and the state’s low birthrate; 23% of Connecticut workers are born outside of the U.S.,” the state’s Department of Labor said.
Connecticut’s labor force participation rate of 64% is higher than the national rate of 62.5%, the Department of Labor said.
The CBIA said since the COVID‑19 pandemic, Connecticut’s labor force has grown just 0.2%, compared with 4.3% growth nationwide.
That gap is occurring even as wages rise. Average weekly earnings in Connecticut are up 5.4% since November 2024, outpacing inflation.
Still, the CBIA says those gains reinforce the need to address affordability across the state.
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“If we take the right steps, especially over the next six months, to try to find ways to make it more affordable,” Nord said. “I think there’s no reason we can’t continue to see, at least steady economic activity in the state.”
Nord said those steps include addressing costs tied to housing, energy and childcare.
Overall, the data suggests Connecticut’s job growth has been largely stagnant. Looking ahead, what happens in 2026 will depend both on state‑level policy decisions and broader national economic trends.
Patrick Flaherty, director of research at the Connecticut Department of Labor, said in a review of the data that recent numbers suggest the pace of growth could continue, but at a slower rate.
“The November increase suggests modest job growth that Connecticut’s labor market has shown could continue into 2026, although at a slower pace, as long as the nation avoids a downturn,” Flaherty said.
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See the state report here. Read the CBIA’s analysis here.
