Woman who found Lady of the Dunes in 1974 says she owes her 'debt of gratitude'
PROVINCETOWN - Sandra Lee was just nine years old when she stumbled upon the body that would come to be known as the "Lady of the Dunes."
FBI investigators revealed the woman's identity as Ruth Marie Terry, which they discovered through genetic genealogical testing.
But when her body was found in July 1974, hands cut off and nearly decapitated, it was a nine-year-old girl who made the discovery.
Sandra Lee, now approaching 60 years old and living in Quincy, was camping with her family in Provincetown at the time. Lee tells WBZ that she was dealing with verbal and physical abuse in her family set up and was running away with her dog when she stumbled upon the body in the Race Point Dunes.
"Here I was running from a bad situation, and I ended up finding a worse one," Lee told WBZ.
She said she thought "this is how I could end up if I don't find a way to get out of this horrible living situation that we are in."
The traumatic incident inspired a very young Lee to get in touch with her paternal grandparents, eventually leading her and her younger brother to move in with them.
For that, Lee feels she has always owed the "Lady of the Dunes" a thank you. Each year she visits the unnamed gravestone in Provincetown and leaves either a flower or a shell. Now, Lee is grateful that she will be able to thank the woman by name.
"I have felt that I've owed her a debt of gratitude ever since that day, because that was a defining moment when I said, 'whatever I have to do to get out of here, out of this household and relationship, I don't want to end up like this,'" she told WBZ.
