In a previous post, I examined whether or not one of the houses in American Horror Story: Double Feature was really haunted. At the end of it, I teased about how the new season of AHS has a haunting cold case connection with an iconic horror movie. I promised to cover that in a separate post. Here it is.
The Lady of the Dunes
Even though the unidentified body that would become known as the Lady of the Dunes was found on July 26, 1974, police guesstimated she had been murdered days earlier. Anywhere from 10 days to three weeks before a walker discovered her.
Due to the lack of blood at the scene, they also theorized her murder had likely occurred elsewhere. Her body was then relocated to an isolated spot in the dunes near Race Point Beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She’d been posed on a beach blanket with a pair of Wrangler jeans and a blue bandana under her head.
Whoever killed her was vicious. He’d crushed the left side of her skull, cut off her hands, removed some of her teeth, and had nearly cut off her head. It would’ve been an unexpected, grisly site to come across while enjoying an otherwise peaceful walk with your dog. Which is what happened to the poor girl who found the body.
No one was able to identify the victim. Not then and not since. Nor was her killer ever found.
The Jane Doe of Provincetown was buried in the town’s Saint Peters Cemetery. Her headstone reads: “Unidentified Female Body Found Race Point Dunes July 26, 1974.”
A Jaws Extra?
A few years ago, the Internet and social media blew up when author Joe Hill theorized that the Lady in the Dunes might have been an extra in the iconic 1975 horror movie, Jaws.
Her jeans and a blue bandana had been folded and placed beneath her head. … We know about the blue bandana and the Wrangler jeans. We know she was between the ages of 25 and 49 years old… although 30 seems a particularly good bet. She had expensive dental work. Her hair was auburn or red. She was fit, 145 pounds, and when she was discovered her hair was in a ponytail, captured by a holder with gold sparkles in it.
The extra in question wore a blue bandana covering her hair —potentially auburn hair. It was hard to discern from the still of her scene, but it was a possibility. Hill admitted she wasn’t wearing Wranglers but that also didn’t mean she didn’t own a pair.
It’s also certainly possible the woman was the unfortunate murder victim. As far as I know, no one’s ever come forward to say, “No, sorry. That was me. Case of mistaken identity.”
The trouble is, while Jaws was filmed in Massachusetts, it wasn’t in the vicinity of Provincetown. As WeNeedAVacation.com inadvertently points out while discussing filming locations in Cape Cod (and how both Jaws and American Horror Story were both filmed there), Jaws was mostly filmed in Martha’s Vineyard.
P-town is at the tip of the peninsula in Cape Cod Bay. It’s only about 100 miles away from Martha’s Vineyard, but it can take almost three hours to get from one to the other. Would the killer have driven that far to dump the body?
Who knows? That’s only one of the perplexing questions concerning the case, in addition to why he mutilated her and why he posed her like he did.
American Horror Story Season 10 Filming Locations
I couldn’t find any indication that the house in AHS season 1o that I was interested in had any paranormal activity. (The one that Harry and Doris Gardener, played by Finn Wittrock and Lily Rabe, rent to live in with their daughter, Alma.)
However, while researching that, I was reminded why Provincetown rang a bell —because of the Lady of the Dunes cold case. As I revisited it, I realized she was buried in Provincetown. Which led to a new question.
Some of the scenes in Double Feature include a cemetery. Provincetown has a few, including Winthrop Street, Provincetown, and Saint Peters Cemeteries. Did they film in the cemetery where she’s buried?
No. She’s in Saint Peters, but according to Showbiz Cheat Sheet, AHS scenes were shot in the Winthrop Street Cemetary.
I also found a story where Wicked Local Provincetown wrote about how location scout Tiffany Kinder had to go before the Cemetery Commission to discuss cemetery shooting plans. She assured them they would be respectful, wouldn’t zoom in on anyone’s gravesite, and would exhibit the utmost sensitivity. Which I thought was pretty cool.
Hopefully, AHS “set jetters” will demonstrate the same kind of decorum when they visit, because you know the series will generate that kind of tourism.
Check-In
Do you think the Lady in the Dunes was an extra in Jaws?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, as well as obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of healing, to learn how she channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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It sounds like Jane Doe was an extra in Jaws, but you’d think SOMEone would have missed her so she could be identified. I know she wouldn’t have been recognizable, but the bandana or jeans or hair or something! The poor thing!
That’s what I can’t wrap my head around. The ladies who were reported missing didn’t end up being her. But you really would think surely someone would’ve known she was gone. It’s very strange and I hope one day it gets solved.