The NBC10 Boston Investigators look into the disturbing writings of the man suspected in the Lady of the Dunes murder case and whether he may have been a serial killer.
The NBC10 Boston Investigators have been looking into the disturbing writings of Guy Muldavin, the main suspect in the Lady of the Dunes murder case.
The woman was found dead 49 years ago in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
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It was a disturbing scene in the Race Point Dunes on July 26, 1974. A woman's body was discovered, and her identity was unknown until last year, when genetic genealogy was used to identify her as Ruth Marie Terry.
That identity sent investigators on the trail of Muldavin, Terry's husband.
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Retired FBI profiler Julia Cowley deciphered the bizarre words and drawings penned by Muldavin, the man now being eyed as the killer in the Lady of the Dunes case and two other murders in Seattle.
Cowley worked on the Joseph James DeAngelo case. DeAngelo, known as the Golden State Killer, is one of the country's most prolific serial killers.
"An important thing to killers is the moment when they can see that the life is going out of somebody's eyes," Cowley said.
Terry was the victim of a gruesome crime. Her head was crushed and nearly decapitated, her hands cut off and teeth were pulled.
Muldavin wrote a twisted book, "Cooking with Rump Oil," and published it two years after Terry's murder.
One of the book's so-called recipes, titled "Cape Cod Shid," has eerie similarities to the crime. Muldavin drew a creature with long, flowing hair and wrote, in part, "After the Shid is caught anything over five minutes ends it! The sweet turpentine taste will turn to that of a burnt glove and the tender look will become one of despair."
Cowley said we could assume Muldavin was referring to Terry's murder in this section, but it's in disguise.
"The way he's drawn her hair here, I know she had flowing auburn hair and that was significant to him. What I do wonder -- especially the last line, 'the tender look will become one of despair' -- you have to think that perhaps was the moment he watched the life go out of her eyes and when she realized, 'He's going to kill me.' It's really horrifying," said Cowley.
The alleged murderer was known as a charismatic former antiques dealer who also made headlines in the 1960s in Seattle, where he was a suspect in the brutal killing and mutilation of his previous wife and stepdaughter. Newspaper reports at the time describe the horror, with human remains being found in the septic tank of his home.
Front-page photos show Muldavin's arrest in New York after being on the run and refusing to give testimony related to the mutilation of human remains.
"Writing this book sort of indicates to me that dismemberment was an important aspect to him," Cowley added. "It's a little bit creepy and morbid when you go through it, and you're kind of seeing what's happening. They're being boiled, filleted and grinded up."
In the book's introduction, Muldavin writes about deciding which "beasts" were to be sacrificed.
"When somebody no longer suits a purpose in his life, he's going to figure out how to change that," Cowley said. "That might include, 'I'm done with you, I'm going to kill you.'"
For Terry's son, Richard Hanchett, the book is a haunting and heartbreaking reminder of what was lost on that fateful day. He's extremely troubled by Muldavin's drawing.
"This is what really bothers me is this picture," Hanchett said. "She had long hair, beautiful hair, it's almost like she's looking back at him. The fact that he touched my mom kills me, but that fact that he got away with it pisses me off more than anything."
Cowley said that in a way, Muldavin wanted attention and to put this book out into the world, but that he probably enjoyed the fact that nobody knew his secret. Buried for almost five decades, it has now been brought to light with hints of what may have happened, memorialized by the killer himself in his book.
"It's too bad that Guy Muldavin didn't have the FBI knocking on his door, but there's plenty of other killers out there that it's just a matter of time before law enforcement's going to be knocking on your door and saying, 'You know what? We finally found you,'" said Cowley.
Muldavin went on to remarry and live in California until he died and was cremated in 2002. Investigators are now looking to see if he's linked to any other unsolved murders.
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