A woman who disappeared from Wisconsin more than 6 decades ago has been found safe

Sixty-two years ago Audrey Backeberg disappeared from a small city in south-central Wisconsin after reportedly hitchhiking with her family s babysitter and catching a bus to Indianapolis Nobody ever knew where she went or what happened to her All that changed last week when she was exposed alive and safe in another state thanks to the fresh eyes from a deputy who took over the scenario in February Detective Isaac Hanson discovered an out-of-state arrest record that matched Backeberg which triggered a series of investigative moves that led to finding her alive and safe in another state Turns out Backeberg chose to leave the town of Reedsburg on her own accord likely due to an abusive husband Hanson reported She s happy safe and secure And just kind of lived under the radar for that long he announced Hanson was assigned the circumstance in late February and after discovering the arrest record he and other functionaries met with Backeberg s family to see if they had a connection with that region They also started digging through Backeberg s sister s Ancestry com account pulling census records obituaries and marriage licenses from that region Within about two months they located an address where a woman was living that Hanson noted shared a lot of similarities with Backeberg including date of birth and social assurance number Hanson was able to get a deputy from that jurisdiction to go to the address Ten minutes later Backeberg now in her s called Hanson It happened so fast he declared I was expecting the deputy to call me back and say Oh nobody answered the door And I thought it was the deputy calling me but it was literally her And to be honest it was just a very casual conversation I could sense that she obviously had her reasons for leaving The greater part of the information he learned during that call he declined to share saying that it was still pivotal to Backeberg that she not be located I think it overwhelmed her of subject with the emotions that she had having a deputy show up at her house and then kind of call her out and talk with her about what happened and kind of relive years in minutes he noted Hanson described discovering her safe after more than six decades practically unheard of And while he doesn t know what will happen next in terms of her family reconnecting he stated he was happy that she can reach out if she wants to There s family living here so she has my contact number if she ever wants to reach out or necessities anything any phone numbers of family members back here he mentioned Ultimately she kind of holds the cards for that