Writer Joe Hill Thinks 'Jaws' Is Key To Solving Cape Cold Case

PROVINCETOWN, MA – The key to solving a decades-old cold case on Cape Cod could lie in one of the most famous summer blockbusters, according to thriller writer Joe Hill. The son of Stephen King told Esquire in a recent interview one of the extras in the movie "Jaws" resembles the infamous "Lady of the Dunes," a Jane Doe found murdered near a Provincetown beach in 1974.

Hill's theory, which he first posted on Tumblr three years ago, is convincing: one of the shots of a crowd boarding a ferry features a woman wearing a blue bandana over her auburn hair and jeans. The Lady of the Dunes had "long, reddish-brown" hair and was found on a beach towel with her head resting on folded Wrangler jeans and a blue bandana.

She was discovered by a 13-year-old girl walking her dog in the dunes on July 26, 1974, the same summer "Jaws" was filmed on Martha's Vineyard. Investigators believe the body had been there for about three weeks. Her skull was crushed and her hands were cut off in what investigators believe was an effort to avoid identification, according to Esquire.

"The movie and the murder overlap geographically and chronologically," Hill told Esquire. "Allowing for the possibility that the Lady of the Dunes was in the right place at the right time—or, rather, the wrong place at the wrong time."

Three years ago an Entertainment Weekly writer offered to help Hill identify the extra. The investigation hit a snag when a Universal Studios archivist couldn't find the name and told the reporter the "Jaws" casting director had died in 2009, Esquire reported.

Hill told the magazine he's never gone directly to the police with the theory.

Read more from Esquire.

Image via Town of Provincetown