Sixty years after a young mother disappeared from a small city in southern central Wisconsin, authorities found she was still alive, living in another state.

Audrey Backeberg was only 20 years old when he disappeared from Reedsburg in July 1962, according to a Wisconsin Department of Justice announcement.

It said the family's nanny claimed that the two of them hitched to Madison (about 55 miles away) and then took a Greyhound bus to Indianapolis, Indiana.

"She said she saw Audrey walking around the corner away from the bus stop last time," it read. "Audrey never came home and didn't hear it again."

That is, so far. The Sauk County Sheriff’s Office announced last week that it had resolved a long-term missing person case for Buckberg, saying she was “alive and currently reside outside the state.”

"Further investigation shows that Ms. Buckberg's disappearance is based on her own choice, not the result of any criminal activity or foul," Sheriff Chip Meister said.

How to solve this situation?

Mester said the case had been assigned to Sheriff’s Office detectives earlier this year to “a comprehensive review as part of the ongoing inspection of the refrigerated case.”

The process includes “a thorough reassessment of all case files and evidence, plus a reexamination of witnesses and discovering new insights.”

Detective Isaac Hanson told local ABC branch Wisn that he discovered that Backeberg's sister had an Ancestry.com account, which allowed him to obtain new data, including possible addresses.

"So I called the local sheriff's department and said, 'Hey, there's this lady living at this address. Do you have someone who can pop up?" "Ten minutes later, she called me and we talked for 45 minutes." ”

Hanson said he assured Buckberg that he would continue their conversation and her whereabouts - private, but said "she has a reason to leave."

"I think she was just removed from office and doing things and doing her own thing and living her own life," he added. "She sounded happy and had confidence in her decision. No regrets."

NPR has contacted the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office for more information.

What do you know about her disappearance?

one Baraboo News Republic The article published in 2002 was published on the 40th anniversary of Barkerberg's disappearance, and has some clues about what might have happened.

According to the article obtained by NPR's copy, Backeberg appeared last on July 7, 1962, picking up his salary from the wool factory where she worked. Three days ago, police received a report saying her husband abused her.

"(She reports) her husband loaded several guns, put them into his car fucking and threatened to kill her," Randy Stammen, the juror at the time, told the newspaper.

By then, Buckberg's family believed she had been murdered for a long time, but still hoped to find her body. In fact, the article says investigators recently received a tip from a confidential informant whose body was allegedly buried on a rural property in Soke County, where they plan to search with a forensic dog.

However, Stammen said his officer spoke to investigators from the original case 40 years ago, "She was just a missing person and was uncomfortable with her."

"We don't know if she's just a missing person living somewhere else," he said. "We do know that there's no activity on her Social Security number."

The Sheriff’s Office said last week that while investigators “chased many clues,” the case eventually turned cold. USA Today reported that the year after Barkerberg's husband disappeared, Barkerberg's husband was divorced in 1963.

What will happen now?

According to Backeberg, he had two young children when he disappeared Baraboo News Republic and the system of missing and unidentified people in the state.

Hansen told the Associated Press that it is still important for Buckberg, who is now in his 80s, to still not find her. But he said she still has family living in the area and has contact information in case she wants to contact either.

"Eventually, she mastered the cards for that," he said.