Could Jaws scene solve cold case of ‘Lady of the Dunes’ murder?

A WOMAN who appeared briefly in the classic film Jaws could hold the key to a murder mystery that’s baffled police for decades, it’s been alleged.

JOE Hill, the son of horror novelist Stephen King, said he believes a woman who appeared briefly in Jaws resembles the ‘Lady of the Dunes,’ an unidentified murder victim from 1974.

Hill, who called Jaws his favourite movie, wrote in his blog he was watching the horror classic in 2015 when he saw something that made him “lunge” out of his seat “prickling with gooseflesh.”

A woman who appeared as an extra in the Steven Spielberg classic resembled the unidentified ‘Lady of the Dunes’ victim, Hill wrote.

Does the 'Lady in the Dunes' woman appear in Jaws? Picture: Supplied

“And now, suddenly, impossibly, there she was … life-size and looking over her shoulder at me. There for a moment in a busy crowd scene, and then gone,” Hill wrote.

The badly decomposed body of the ‘Lady of the Dunes’ was found in July 1974 in Provincetown, Mass., by Sandra Lee while she was walking her dog. Lee told Boston 25 News that the woman was naked and it appeared somebody had tried to cut her head off.

The computer-generated image of what the murder victim would have looked like, and at right, the extra in Jaws. Picture: Supplied

More than four decades later and the ‘Lady of the Dunes’ has not been identified. Police were able to determined she was between the ages of 25 to 49 years old. A few of her teeth were pulled out and her hands were missing.

Hill pointed out that the body was found near the location and around the same time Jaws filmed.

Principal filming for the movie started in May 1974, and was due to finish in June. The film was released in 1975.

Hill discussed his observation on the Inside Jaws podcast, The Wrap reported.

Author Joe Hill. Picture: Getty

Aside from Hill’s observation, another theory has swirled around the mysterious death. Lee told Boston 25 News in 2015 that notorious mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger was investigated as a possible suspect in the ‘Lady of the Dunes’ slaying. Lee told Boston 25 News the victim’s murder “pointed right back at Bulger and his crew.” Debbie Davis, one of Bulger’s alleged victims, was also found with her teeth pulled and her hands missing.

“It fits the mould of Whitey giving orders to somebody who knew too much and said too much. Because fingerprinting was basically the way people were identified back then. They wanted to do away with the hands. And that they did, the hands were never found. And the teeth? Was she missing teeth? They attempted to pull some teeth, they were successful in pulling some teeth,” Lee said.

Bulger was never officially linked to the ‘Lady of the Dunes’ case.

This story originally appeared on Fox News and is republished here with permission.