July 2, 2021 • 28 mins
In the summer of 1980, Dorothy Jane Scott would disappear into the California night without a trace. There is nothing more chilling than an unsolved case where a person seemingly vanishes into thin air. Intertwine that with a self-proclaimed killer committed to haunting the aftermath and you have the stuff nightmares are made of. But how do you solve a crime that wasn't even a crime while it was happening? Do all secrets fray with time? Let us set each detail out like a giant puzzle on a dining room table, in the hopes that a whole image emerges as we examine all the ways it may fit together.
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All music is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution. Measured Paces by Kevin MacLeod via incompetech.com Cylinder Two & Four by Chris Zabriskie via chriszabriskie.com _______________________________________
*A special thanks to The Santa Ana Orange County Register, Crimeblogger1983 via Blogspot, and The Los Angeles Times for providing amazing information that allowed this episode to be possible.
Thank you for listening!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome to the dark divide.
A podcast that takes a seat dangles its legs over the edge and stares into the abyss.
This is the story of Dorothy jane scott.
(00:33):
I've been thinking about how I'm going to say it.
I've been wanting to do what needs to be done.
Some things just can't be rushed.
You know,
I never do it here,
not in the dim glow of lava lamps and the nauseating tapping of love beats hanging in the door frames,
records playing just a bit too loud.
I don't exactly fit in nor do I really care to.
(00:56):
This is just a place to pass the time.
It's not a place to fall in love.
I like the hippie girls,
their spaghetti strap halter tops and temporary tattoos.
They smell like hookah and candy,
but they're kids.
You're different than those girls where they'd giggle and give a twirl of their hair.
(01:17):
You just smile and move along unbothered and sure of yourself.
Sometimes I light a cigarette with some of the boys outside nicotine in California,
he coating my throat while I wait for your car to pull in.
Always on time you look nice today.
Anybody ever tell you that red is really your color and again,
(01:38):
you walk by and say nothing but your eyes always tell me more than you let on.
I'm getting a little tired of playing this game with you.
All I ever do is see you.
Even when I'm not at the shop sinking my weight into a couch with no spine,
even when my eyes are closed,
(02:00):
there comes a time when a man has to make his move.
She doesn't really know who I am,
but I can tell by the way.
She's glanced in my direction that she wants to.
Well,
honey,
it's your lucky day.
Dorothy scott was a fan of the familiar quiet life.
(02:20):
If you'd asked her how things would have turned out,
this might not be exactly what she had in mind,
but that was the magic of it all.
And sometimes the deepest joys can be found in the most simple of routines.
As a single mother being able to give her son shanti the gift of predictability was something that gave her a sense of pride in the life she had built for the two of them,
(02:42):
Dorothy handed a sleepy shanty over to her mother vera and headed to her car.
She was off to a place called Swingers psych shop,
a hippie bohemian type place that sold anything from lava lamps and incense to mood rings and tie dye everything.
It was only about 20 minutes away from her parents place.
So they would happily do the babysitting whenever she was out.
Dorothy was a backroom secretary and tonight was their monthly meeting when Dorothy began working there.
(03:07):
Her father Jacob had actually been the owner of Swingers before.
Later selling it to a man named john chi cola who already had a shop in town called custom john shop.
A head shop selling drug related paraphernalia like bongs and hookahs and swingers was kind of a place where you could just sort of hang out anyone from flower Children to questionable outcasts could sort of just loiter around with no pressure from the super chill staff.
(03:31):
And the work atmosphere was about the same to everyone,
generally got along really well.
She drove off against the twilight backdrop with its leftover traces of oranges,
purples and pinks,
faded cotton candy descending into the deepest blues.
It would be june in a few days,
but it already felt like summer.
Dorothy rolled the window down and the warm breeze wrapped itself around the dancing tendrils of her hair Stanton California is a speck of a thing in West Orange County between Anaheim and Garden grove.
(04:02):
In this simple place,
Dorothy had a simple life,
she looked like the kind of woman,
Every man at a party would be dying to talk to.
Maybe upon first impression you'd assume the young and fashionable brunette was an extension of her workplace surroundings,
but she was a devout christian whose lifestyle didn't involve drugs,
drinking or much partying of any kind,
really.
Dorothy was very much a home body type when she wasn't working or attending church.
(04:27):
She loved spending time with her son.
The two would flip through books together,
go on,
little nature walks,
watch movies.
Dorothy really loved being a mom and always met her four year olds,
curiosity with energy and love.
The two of them lived with her aunt and her parents live nearby in Anaheim where Dorothy's life may have held gaps and challenges because of being a single mother.
(04:49):
Her family was right there to fill in the blanks and support her.
Dorothy had just turned 32 and was sinking her teeth into this new chapter of her life.
The whirlwind of her teens and 20s had slowed to a nice pace and she wasn't sure what was next for her and Shanti,
but she wasn't in any rush.
Even though her and Shanti's father were on great terms.
(05:10):
Sometimes it was still difficult to reconcile the expected from reality,
relationships and dating only gets more complicated once you add a child into the mix and her devotion and priority was just being the best mom she could for shanti,
she knew in her heart that God had a plan and she didn't bother worrying too much about the who or how part for now.
(05:31):
She was enjoying just being Dorothy all on her own.
But someone else was enjoying Dorothy Ellen around two,
lurking in,
wait,
hiding in plain sight,
daydreaming of plans for Dorothy that would change her life forever.
(05:52):
While the usual employees began to settle in for the meeting,
Dorothy exchanged small talk with another staff member,
pam head about nothing in particular.
The two would eventually take notice of their coworker.
Conrad boston who wasn't acting like his normal self and didn't look all that good either.
He was pale and clammy.
I don't know,
I think something bit me,
(06:13):
he told them showing a small spot on his arm that looked like a nasty mosquito bite.
Conrad tried to brush it off as nothing but Dorothy insisted on driving him to the hospital to get himself checked out.
She'd wait with him and drive him back to work or home if he needed.
The motherly nature she held with shanti didn't stop there.
Dorothy was always looking out for others.
(06:35):
Pam would tag along too and the three would immediately leave the meeting to head to the emergency room.
Dorothy stopped by her parents place to let them know what was going on and that she'd be late picking shanty up that night.
And she also quickly changed her black dress scarf to a warmer Red one.
It wasn't long after Conrad was admitted into UC Irvine Medical Center that he was diagnosed with a black widow spider bite.
(06:58):
Something that wouldn't have been fatal but definitely could have been a lot worse had he continued to ignore his symptoms.
Conrad's reaction was on the more severe side and he would need to be treated for the pain he was in and the venom affecting his nervous system.
Dorothy and pam sat around for two hours in the waiting area until he was ready to be discharged.
Conrad was still in rough shape and would need antibiotics while he and pam would make a quick stop at the hospital pharmacy.
(07:24):
Dorothy offered to go get her car and bring it around to the emergency entrance so he wouldn't have to walk far.
She made a stop at the restroom and then exited to the parking lot.
Pam.
And Conrad waited for Dorothy.
After several minutes they went outside the doors about to start heading to the car in the same direction Dorothy had thinking maybe they'd misunderstood or something and that's when Dorothy station wagon came into sight,
(07:47):
driving towards them but far too fast with the intention to stop.
They waved at her confused as the car continued past them and drove on,
they began to run after it,
but it sped off faster than they could catch up,
took a sharp right turn out of the lot and disappeared into the night.
Had Dorothy even seen them,
they weren't sure as the headlights had been too bright blocking their vision of whatever state Dorothy was in when she driven past pam and Conrad went back inside and sat there waiting for hours assuming Dorothy would come back.
(08:18):
She wasn't the kind of person to offer a ride to someone and then not show up.
They called the shop.
But Dorothy hadn't returned to work,
they called her parents but shanti was still there.
Dorothy hadn't gone to pick him up.
As strange as it all was.
Everyone still assumed there was good reason behind it all before the age of instant communication time moved slower.
(08:39):
People were less accessible through technology and there were more reasons why you couldn't get ahold of someone.
It wasn't until a few more hours passed,
did Pam and Conrad finally become worried enough to phone the police and report Dorothy missing.
But the fact that she was a 32 year old woman who had apparently driven off from a parking lot didn't really set alarm bells off for them.
It wouldn't be until 4:30 a.m. The following day that her white Toyota station wagon would be found in santa ana about 10 miles from the hospital.
(09:06):
The car had been driven into an alleyway set on fire and abandoned.
There was no trace of Dorothy anywhere.
And what had been a confusing situation just five hours before was now a kidnapping.
When authorities interviewed those closest to Dorothy,
(09:28):
they learned that before the night at the hospital,
she had been the victim of stalking for months.
A man had been terrifying her with phone calls at her workplace describing what she'd done and wore that day or just generally professing his love for her.
But sometimes when he called,
he was angry and he would threaten Dorothy.
Her parents told the police that she had mentioned a particularly alarming phone call where he threatened to get her alone so he could cut her up into bit,
(09:54):
so no one would find her and he wasn't bluffing either.
Once he told her to go outside because he left her a gift.
She'd been chilled to the bone to find a single dead rose on the windshield of her car.
He knew where she worked,
where she prayed when she woke up and when she slept,
he knew about her child and her family members.
(10:15):
Dorothy had told her parents that she felt like she could recognize the voice,
that it belonged to someone she thought she'd met before,
but she couldn't place,
she feared for herself and her family.
She even considered getting a firearm but didn't want to risk it with shanti around.
But Dorothy wasn't the type to feel helpless.
So she did the best she could to live her life as normally as possible while intertwining extra safety measures where she could for the most part in her simple day to day life,
(10:42):
she felt safe at the places she went to and from shanti was never alone and she rarely was either.
Her life was one of routine that rarely changed that night at the hospital.
As strange and risky as the setting may seem,
could have possibly been instead a golden opportunity for him.
Dorothy had been completely on her own in figuring out how to handle this situation.
(11:05):
She'd taken karate lessons as a means of self defense,
but had only mastered the basics.
She didn't know who this person was or what they were capable of,
but what they had done wasn't enough to go to police about stocking itself wouldn't even be established as a crime until 10 years later in 1990.
After several hype profile cases in California would change the definition of danger that doesn't always involve physical harm within three years,
(11:29):
every other state would follow suit and create stalking laws as well.
New amendments and definition expansions are added constantly to continually cover the wide scope that is harassment of all forms.
The police advised the family that it would be best to keep the media out of the mix.
They wouldn't want to tip off the abductor or share too many details that only they would know even though it went against everything in their gut instinct to get Dorothy's name and face out there for anybody who could remember something from that night or anyone who might have seen her vehicle.
(11:59):
They complied.
After a week of suffering in the not knowing about their daughter vera received a phone call,
a man's voice on the other end asking if she was related to Dorothy scott after she said yes,
he told her I've got her and hung up the phone.
Even still they waited another two weeks while police seemed to fall short with any leads or useful information.
(12:24):
By then Jacob had had enough and decided to take matters into his own hands.
He called the local santa anna paper telling them all about the kidnapping and his missing daughter explaining that they wanted to go to the media right away but had waited and they could wait no longer.
As it felt the light at the end of the tunnel was getting dim on june 12th the paper ran a story on Dorothy and by late morning the papers editing manager Pat Riley would receive a phone call of his own.
(12:49):
The man on the other end of the line claimed that he hadn't just taken Dorothy,
he killed her.
He told Pat that she was his love and he caught her cheating even though she denied to him that there was anyone else he didn't believe her.
So he killed her.
He went on to delve into details that hadn't been in the article.
Like the fact that she had been at the medical center because Conrad had suffered a spider bite.
(13:12):
Even more specific.
He knew that she had been wearing a red scarf a detail.
Only a few would have known that night.
He claimed that she had called him from the hospital pam would later deny this could ever be the case.
As Dorothy hadn't left her sight except to slip out of the parking lot and the idea that Dorothy was cheating on somebody seemed impossible to fathom given the context that she didn't even really have a boyfriend in the first place.
(13:36):
Dorothy wasn't the secretive type.
She didn't have a reason to be nor did she really have the time.
Whatever warped version of the story this man was trying to paint the police couldn't deny that one truth remained.
He was definitely the man who had taken Dorothy.
If he was telling the truth about taking her,
he was most likely telling the truth about killing her.
(13:57):
On Tuesday july 9th the santa ana Orange County Register evening shared a reward post for any information on Dorothy it read the parents of Dorothy jane scott have given up,
they feel their 32 year old daughter is dead and they will pay $2500 for any information leading to her body.
Or if by some chance she is still alive for information leading to her whereabouts Even now,
(14:23):
decades after established definitions and laws,
it's easy to wonder what makes someone tick or rather maybe a misguided curiosity of what a person did to make somebody so mad because the idea of a complete stranger,
seemingly unprompted by a victim themselves is almost too horrific for the mind to bear to mysterious and capable of anything.
(14:45):
But mental health professionals have made massive strides when it comes to understanding the inner complexities of predators as well as the different types of stalkers.
And even though stalking is often carried out by someone known to the victim,
there are still plenty of instances where the perpetrator is a mere acquaintance or even a complete stranger,
had he actually been rejected in some capacity by Dorothy or was she just a character playing a part on a stage set out inside of his mind with phone call after phone call,
(15:12):
she could never quite place his voice leading investigators to believe that he wasn't someone involved in her close knit circle.
Given the repetition of Dorothy's predictable schedule,
it didn't seem to be someone she knew,
but rather someone who knew her,
someone easily able to observe her without causing worry or warning.
What little leads they had continued to decay.
(15:33):
But the phone calls to the Scots didn't stop every Wednesday to mark the day she disappeared.
Their phone would ring and the same voice would greet vera.
Sometimes he would ask if door he was home.
Other times just relish in the fact that he was responsible for her death.
He always called during the day when vera was alone and even though police eventually had the lines tapped to record and trace calls,
(15:54):
he never stayed on long enough.
The voice was gruff and obviously being disguised.
These weekly calls of torment continued on for four years.
Until april 1984 the man found a little later than usual and Jacob answered after telling him he had the wrong number,
the man hung up and the calls stopped.
(16:15):
Jacob thought maybe he'd assumed that the Scots had moved.
There are some who also speculate that the caller might have always wanted to specifically speak to vera for fear that Jacob would somehow recognize his voice.
The reason remains unknown,
but something about that change of consistency,
spooked the collar off and for a moment the Scots could grieve free of torment.
(16:36):
Their slight reprieve would not last long.
On the morning of August 6,
1980 for a construction worker digging in an area around 30 ft from the Santa Ana Canyon Road discovered human remains.
Forensics would confirm that the bones found were both dog and human,
(16:58):
even though there was no way to determine how long they've been there for certain.
They'd most likely been there for at least two years because in 1982 there had been Bush fires in the area and the bones were charred.
They discovered two femurs,
a pelvis,
an arm bone and a skull with teeth,
which would later be compared to dental records.
A cause of death couldn't be determined.
(17:20):
The peculiar edition of the dog bones caused many to speculate that they were put there to throw off the scent for cadaver dogs.
10 days after the remains were found,
police confirmed it was Dorothy.
There was also a turquoise ring and a watch that belonged to her.
The watch had stopped ticking at 12:30 a.m. On May 29th,
(17:40):
about an hour after her vehicle had sped out of the hospital parking lot even though they had assumed for years that their daughter had been killed.
The Scots could put a definitive answer on a question.
They'd been living out on august 22nd,
they held a proper funeral for her.
Now finally having something symbolic to bury and a place to visit,
(18:00):
even though the bones would have to stay as evidence,
there was a closure in the air that they had been waiting for.
The service was small and quiet.
There were flowers with ribbons that said beloved sister and daughter,
a photograph of her smiling displayed for all to see another family member and uncle of Dorothy's had died of cancer the week before his funeral served as a memorial for the both of them.
(18:26):
Her brother Jim spoke of how kind and giving she was and it's in that spirit that she lives on.
Jacob was quoted in the paper as saying that there was at least some closure and being able to bury their grief now that maybe they could start living the way people ought to.
They had long given up on the idea of finding out who had done this to their daughter.
Now all they really wanted was to remember her with grace and maybe some sense of peace during the preparations for the funeral,
(18:55):
the Scots would begin to receive phone calls again twice while vera and Jacob were at the funeral dealing with arrangements,
their son Allen received a call from a man asking if Dorothy was home.
They just couldn't understand it.
How could someone be so unhinged as to devastate and destroy an entire family and then continually mock their pain with salt in the wound.
(19:17):
Whoever they were dealing with was dangerous and determined to have all of Dorothy and everything she touched even in death.
It wasn't that the police didn't have anything to go on,
but what they did have amounted to very little.
(19:38):
Those closest to Dorothy were easily cleared along with shanti's father,
Dennis Terry.
By all accounts,
they had a peaceful co parenting relationship with no hard feelings between them.
Dennis wasn't local to Stanton,
although he had been in town a few days before Dorothy's disappearance to visit his son.
He'd flown back home to Fair Grove,
Missouri and called the night Dorothy went missing.
(20:00):
Jacob had told him he would keep him updated on her whereabouts.
And later in the evening when he called him back,
Dennis answered.
Even pam and Conrad also became suspicious to some overtime,
grasping at straws,
thinking maybe there was more to their story that they would have had enough time with her to carry out the crime.
But they had all been seen that night by witnesses at the hospital and neither of them had any motive at all to hurt their co worker.
(20:25):
The lights had been too bright for either pam or Conrad to notice for sure if Dorothy had been alone in the car or who was driving,
but given the recklessness it's doubtful that Dorothy was at the wheel.
Some people speculate that maybe someone had left a note for her set a trap by sparking a fear about the safety of her son.
But Dorothy wouldn't have left in a rush alone or put herself in danger.
(20:48):
She wouldn't have driven off without letting pam and Conrad know what was happening.
Whoever it was most likely followed Dorothy in their own vehicle and then took advantage of those few minutes,
she was completely alone.
The man had told Pat Riley that he'd been at the hospital that night.
Maybe seeing her with Conrad sent him into a spiraling rage.
Or maybe the entire concept of everything had been a grand delusion of his twisted mind.
(21:12):
He most likely watched her.
Maybe not even expecting an opportunity,
but just following suit in his obsessive compulsions.
Maybe this hadn't been the first attempt to attack and abduct Dorothy,
but rather the first time it had finally been successful.
Whether someone drove there or not is impossible to know for sure.
It appears that nobody at the hospital was ever interviewed officially by police and even in smaller cities and towns,
(21:37):
hospitals or high traffic areas in 1980 didn't have the luxury of CCTV footage commonly everywhere,
license plate recognition or even electronic paid parking.
If any person or persons had driven to the hospital and followed her,
they could make it back to retrieve their vehicle at any time to the hospital,
whether by cab or foot without suspicion.
(21:59):
Some have thought that Dorothy's case may be connected to the unsolved case of Patricia jean Schneider,
a 25 year old cocktail waitress that went missing on july 31st,
1982 in pedley California.
About an hour from Stanton.
Patricia was last seen at a circle K gas station around 3:45 a.m. After making a call to report car trouble sometime between five and six a.m. A Deputy sheriff found her vehicle on fire in a field.
(22:25):
There's never been any suspects besides to sandy haired caucasian males observed by the gas station clerk around the same time that she'd been there.
Patricia still has not been found to this day.
Years after his mother's death,
Shanti will learn of speculation involving a man named Mike.
Butler.
Mike was from southern California and he joined the army when he was 20 years old.
(22:49):
After being drafted,
his father had been an army captain and he was familiar with the lifestyle and took a sense of pride in following in his footsteps.
He spent most of his time overseas,
stationed in Germany and became a writer for the stars and stripes news,
an independent military newspaper.
After he retired from the military,
he became a roadie for a while setting up equipment and sound stages for the likes of bands as big as the beach boys along with his sisters,
(23:16):
all female band.
She was actually quite the accomplished musician and like Dorothy had also worked at swingers for a good chunk of time.
Butler would have had access to Dorothy,
possibly sporadic,
but enough for her to hear his voice in a way that would have felt familiar.
He would have been able to drop by the shop for one reason or another without suspicion.
He could have attended events she went to as well and fit right in.
(23:40):
Apparently his work was really close to swingers and according to some people who knew Dorothy,
they say he'd become obsessed with her over time.
He was a deeply religious man.
Well known throughout his community near the Santiago Mountains.
There were people who said that he was unstable and that his pious behavior was much more sinister and cult like than it may have seemed And he'd been on the police's radar.
(24:03):
But why?
And for what exactly is unclear and apparently nothing came of it.
There isn't much information about where the speculation of his alleged fixation on Dorothy comes from and what exactly it's based off of.
Unfortunately he died from health complications in 2014 and had never been officially interviewed by authorities regarding Dorothy.
(24:26):
With Dorothy receiving so many threats by someone fixated on her through her work place.
It's easy to speculate that just about anyone from the wrong side of the tracks could have met her just by being at swingers and her murder wouldn't be the last time that swingers would be found in a news headline in July 1992,
John Kay Cola and his business partner Philip M.
(24:46):
Gramatica were charged with nine counts of conspiracy and structuring cash transactions.
The two of them were making sure to purchase cashier's checks and money orders in sums of less than $10,000 to avoid having to report it to the I.
R.
S.
There were hidden deals,
cash exchanges under the table,
plans to purchase a mighty piece of land,
(25:07):
rumors of growing drug crops and other nefarious activities.
The talk of drugs surprised nobody,
although no charges involving drugs were ever filed.
These financial acrobatics have no link to Dorothy's case specifically.
But it does put into perspective the possible wide scope of people who would have been involved in the back workings of swingers when it comes to who could have met Dorothy and had access to her.
(25:30):
It is as big of a web or as little as you want it to be.
Depending on the angle you take.
Jacob Scott passed away on Dorothy's birthday in 1990 for one of those strange and swift symbolic gestures of the universe that doesn't have a definition but certainly holds so much meaning Vera Scott passed away in 2002 after 22 years of hoping for answers with naive favor.
(26:02):
It's nice to think that maybe they both have them now.
But why is it that sometimes these things work out perfectly in the worst way.
How is it possible to sit with the lack of salvation.
And even if the answers come,
how could it ever undo the cosmic orchestra of chaos that burst through the seams that night?
(26:22):
There is never justice.
If there is no way to steal back,
what is yours?
Grief never dies.
It just transforms its shape and sound like a severed telephone wire,
the empty tone of a receiver off the hook.
A permanence that lingers.
We want someone to blame a story to stitch together between the start and the finish.
(26:46):
We dig for a warning sign,
a miss detail,
an escape route from the madness that takes without reason or permission.
It must be here somewhere,
but instead of a maze,
it's a labyrinth.
No matter which way you take,
all roads lead back to a moment that may have been inevitable and waiting to happen.
(27:08):
Because everything keeps happening like the way living in kindness and presence was effortless.
For Dorothy life had no off switch to pause for reprieve.
A person can only hold their breath for so long.
It's both a burden and a gift.
This ability to forget everything except what's right in front of us.
(27:29):
But in between the details of the day to day are the unfinished stories that hold us in suspension.
These missing faces of strangers that for a split second,
feel like lost parts of ourselves.
And maybe if we could just find a way to lasso the ending and bring it closer to us,
we could quiet.
(27:49):
The restless ache inside of what is forlorn forgotten,
but also somehow free
Welcome to the dark divide.
A podcast that takes a seat dangles its legs over the edge and stares into the abyss.
This is the story of Dorothy jane scott.
(00:33):
I've been thinking about how I'm going to say it.
I've been wanting to do what needs to be done.
Some things just can't be rushed.
You know,
I never do it here,
not in the dim glow of lava lamps and the nauseating tapping of love beats hanging in the door frames,
records playing just a bit too loud.
I don't exactly fit in nor do I really care to.
(00:56):
This is just a place to pass the time.
It's not a place to fall in love.
I like the hippie girls,
their spaghetti strap halter tops and temporary tattoos.
They smell like hookah and candy,
but they're kids.
You're different than those girls where they'd giggle and give a twirl of their hair.
(01:17):
You just smile and move along unbothered and sure of yourself.
Sometimes I light a cigarette with some of the boys outside nicotine in California,
he coating my throat while I wait for your car to pull in.
Always on time you look nice today.
Anybody ever tell you that red is really your color and again,
(01:38):
you walk by and say nothing but your eyes always tell me more than you let on.
I'm getting a little tired of playing this game with you.
All I ever do is see you.
Even when I'm not at the shop sinking my weight into a couch with no spine,
even when my eyes are closed,
(02:00):
there comes a time when a man has to make his move.
She doesn't really know who I am,
but I can tell by the way.
She's glanced in my direction that she wants to.
Well,
honey,
it's your lucky day.
Dorothy scott was a fan of the familiar quiet life.
(02:20):
If you'd asked her how things would have turned out,
this might not be exactly what she had in mind,
but that was the magic of it all.
And sometimes the deepest joys can be found in the most simple of routines.
As a single mother being able to give her son shanti the gift of predictability was something that gave her a sense of pride in the life she had built for the two of them,
(02:42):
Dorothy handed a sleepy shanty over to her mother vera and headed to her car.
She was off to a place called Swingers psych shop,
a hippie bohemian type place that sold anything from lava lamps and incense to mood rings and tie dye everything.
It was only about 20 minutes away from her parents place.
So they would happily do the babysitting whenever she was out.
Dorothy was a backroom secretary and tonight was their monthly meeting when Dorothy began working there.
(03:07):
Her father Jacob had actually been the owner of Swingers before.
Later selling it to a man named john chi cola who already had a shop in town called custom john shop.
A head shop selling drug related paraphernalia like bongs and hookahs and swingers was kind of a place where you could just sort of hang out anyone from flower Children to questionable outcasts could sort of just loiter around with no pressure from the super chill staff.
(03:31):
And the work atmosphere was about the same to everyone,
generally got along really well.
She drove off against the twilight backdrop with its leftover traces of oranges,
purples and pinks,
faded cotton candy descending into the deepest blues.
It would be june in a few days,
but it already felt like summer.
Dorothy rolled the window down and the warm breeze wrapped itself around the dancing tendrils of her hair Stanton California is a speck of a thing in West Orange County between Anaheim and Garden grove.
(04:02):
In this simple place,
Dorothy had a simple life,
she looked like the kind of woman,
Every man at a party would be dying to talk to.
Maybe upon first impression you'd assume the young and fashionable brunette was an extension of her workplace surroundings,
but she was a devout christian whose lifestyle didn't involve drugs,
drinking or much partying of any kind,
really.
Dorothy was very much a home body type when she wasn't working or attending church.
(04:27):
She loved spending time with her son.
The two would flip through books together,
go on,
little nature walks,
watch movies.
Dorothy really loved being a mom and always met her four year olds,
curiosity with energy and love.
The two of them lived with her aunt and her parents live nearby in Anaheim where Dorothy's life may have held gaps and challenges because of being a single mother.
(04:49):
Her family was right there to fill in the blanks and support her.
Dorothy had just turned 32 and was sinking her teeth into this new chapter of her life.
The whirlwind of her teens and 20s had slowed to a nice pace and she wasn't sure what was next for her and Shanti,
but she wasn't in any rush.
Even though her and Shanti's father were on great terms.
(05:10):
Sometimes it was still difficult to reconcile the expected from reality,
relationships and dating only gets more complicated once you add a child into the mix and her devotion and priority was just being the best mom she could for shanti,
she knew in her heart that God had a plan and she didn't bother worrying too much about the who or how part for now.
(05:31):
She was enjoying just being Dorothy all on her own.
But someone else was enjoying Dorothy Ellen around two,
lurking in,
wait,
hiding in plain sight,
daydreaming of plans for Dorothy that would change her life forever.
(05:52):
While the usual employees began to settle in for the meeting,
Dorothy exchanged small talk with another staff member,
pam head about nothing in particular.
The two would eventually take notice of their coworker.
Conrad boston who wasn't acting like his normal self and didn't look all that good either.
He was pale and clammy.
I don't know,
I think something bit me,
(06:13):
he told them showing a small spot on his arm that looked like a nasty mosquito bite.
Conrad tried to brush it off as nothing but Dorothy insisted on driving him to the hospital to get himself checked out.
She'd wait with him and drive him back to work or home if he needed.
The motherly nature she held with shanti didn't stop there.
Dorothy was always looking out for others.
(06:35):
Pam would tag along too and the three would immediately leave the meeting to head to the emergency room.
Dorothy stopped by her parents place to let them know what was going on and that she'd be late picking shanty up that night.
And she also quickly changed her black dress scarf to a warmer Red one.
It wasn't long after Conrad was admitted into UC Irvine Medical Center that he was diagnosed with a black widow spider bite.
(06:58):
Something that wouldn't have been fatal but definitely could have been a lot worse had he continued to ignore his symptoms.
Conrad's reaction was on the more severe side and he would need to be treated for the pain he was in and the venom affecting his nervous system.
Dorothy and pam sat around for two hours in the waiting area until he was ready to be discharged.
Conrad was still in rough shape and would need antibiotics while he and pam would make a quick stop at the hospital pharmacy.
(07:24):
Dorothy offered to go get her car and bring it around to the emergency entrance so he wouldn't have to walk far.
She made a stop at the restroom and then exited to the parking lot.
Pam.
And Conrad waited for Dorothy.
After several minutes they went outside the doors about to start heading to the car in the same direction Dorothy had thinking maybe they'd misunderstood or something and that's when Dorothy station wagon came into sight,
(07:47):
driving towards them but far too fast with the intention to stop.
They waved at her confused as the car continued past them and drove on,
they began to run after it,
but it sped off faster than they could catch up,
took a sharp right turn out of the lot and disappeared into the night.
Had Dorothy even seen them,
they weren't sure as the headlights had been too bright blocking their vision of whatever state Dorothy was in when she driven past pam and Conrad went back inside and sat there waiting for hours assuming Dorothy would come back.
(08:18):
She wasn't the kind of person to offer a ride to someone and then not show up.
They called the shop.
But Dorothy hadn't returned to work,
they called her parents but shanti was still there.
Dorothy hadn't gone to pick him up.
As strange as it all was.
Everyone still assumed there was good reason behind it all before the age of instant communication time moved slower.
(08:39):
People were less accessible through technology and there were more reasons why you couldn't get ahold of someone.
It wasn't until a few more hours passed,
did Pam and Conrad finally become worried enough to phone the police and report Dorothy missing.
But the fact that she was a 32 year old woman who had apparently driven off from a parking lot didn't really set alarm bells off for them.
It wouldn't be until 4:30 a.m. The following day that her white Toyota station wagon would be found in santa ana about 10 miles from the hospital.
(09:06):
The car had been driven into an alleyway set on fire and abandoned.
There was no trace of Dorothy anywhere.
And what had been a confusing situation just five hours before was now a kidnapping.
When authorities interviewed those closest to Dorothy,
(09:28):
they learned that before the night at the hospital,
she had been the victim of stalking for months.
A man had been terrifying her with phone calls at her workplace describing what she'd done and wore that day or just generally professing his love for her.
But sometimes when he called,
he was angry and he would threaten Dorothy.
Her parents told the police that she had mentioned a particularly alarming phone call where he threatened to get her alone so he could cut her up into bit,
(09:54):
so no one would find her and he wasn't bluffing either.
Once he told her to go outside because he left her a gift.
She'd been chilled to the bone to find a single dead rose on the windshield of her car.
He knew where she worked,
where she prayed when she woke up and when she slept,
he knew about her child and her family members.
(10:15):
Dorothy had told her parents that she felt like she could recognize the voice,
that it belonged to someone she thought she'd met before,
but she couldn't place,
she feared for herself and her family.
She even considered getting a firearm but didn't want to risk it with shanti around.
But Dorothy wasn't the type to feel helpless.
So she did the best she could to live her life as normally as possible while intertwining extra safety measures where she could for the most part in her simple day to day life,
(10:42):
she felt safe at the places she went to and from shanti was never alone and she rarely was either.
Her life was one of routine that rarely changed that night at the hospital.
As strange and risky as the setting may seem,
could have possibly been instead a golden opportunity for him.
Dorothy had been completely on her own in figuring out how to handle this situation.
(11:05):
She'd taken karate lessons as a means of self defense,
but had only mastered the basics.
She didn't know who this person was or what they were capable of,
but what they had done wasn't enough to go to police about stocking itself wouldn't even be established as a crime until 10 years later in 1990.
After several hype profile cases in California would change the definition of danger that doesn't always involve physical harm within three years,
(11:29):
every other state would follow suit and create stalking laws as well.
New amendments and definition expansions are added constantly to continually cover the wide scope that is harassment of all forms.
The police advised the family that it would be best to keep the media out of the mix.
They wouldn't want to tip off the abductor or share too many details that only they would know even though it went against everything in their gut instinct to get Dorothy's name and face out there for anybody who could remember something from that night or anyone who might have seen her vehicle.
(11:59):
They complied.
After a week of suffering in the not knowing about their daughter vera received a phone call,
a man's voice on the other end asking if she was related to Dorothy scott after she said yes,
he told her I've got her and hung up the phone.
Even still they waited another two weeks while police seemed to fall short with any leads or useful information.
(12:24):
By then Jacob had had enough and decided to take matters into his own hands.
He called the local santa anna paper telling them all about the kidnapping and his missing daughter explaining that they wanted to go to the media right away but had waited and they could wait no longer.
As it felt the light at the end of the tunnel was getting dim on june 12th the paper ran a story on Dorothy and by late morning the papers editing manager Pat Riley would receive a phone call of his own.
(12:49):
The man on the other end of the line claimed that he hadn't just taken Dorothy,
he killed her.
He told Pat that she was his love and he caught her cheating even though she denied to him that there was anyone else he didn't believe her.
So he killed her.
He went on to delve into details that hadn't been in the article.
Like the fact that she had been at the medical center because Conrad had suffered a spider bite.
(13:12):
Even more specific.
He knew that she had been wearing a red scarf a detail.
Only a few would have known that night.
He claimed that she had called him from the hospital pam would later deny this could ever be the case.
As Dorothy hadn't left her sight except to slip out of the parking lot and the idea that Dorothy was cheating on somebody seemed impossible to fathom given the context that she didn't even really have a boyfriend in the first place.
(13:36):
Dorothy wasn't the secretive type.
She didn't have a reason to be nor did she really have the time.
Whatever warped version of the story this man was trying to paint the police couldn't deny that one truth remained.
He was definitely the man who had taken Dorothy.
If he was telling the truth about taking her,
he was most likely telling the truth about killing her.
(13:57):
On Tuesday july 9th the santa ana Orange County Register evening shared a reward post for any information on Dorothy it read the parents of Dorothy jane scott have given up,
they feel their 32 year old daughter is dead and they will pay $2500 for any information leading to her body.
Or if by some chance she is still alive for information leading to her whereabouts Even now,
(14:23):
decades after established definitions and laws,
it's easy to wonder what makes someone tick or rather maybe a misguided curiosity of what a person did to make somebody so mad because the idea of a complete stranger,
seemingly unprompted by a victim themselves is almost too horrific for the mind to bear to mysterious and capable of anything.
(14:45):
But mental health professionals have made massive strides when it comes to understanding the inner complexities of predators as well as the different types of stalkers.
And even though stalking is often carried out by someone known to the victim,
there are still plenty of instances where the perpetrator is a mere acquaintance or even a complete stranger,
had he actually been rejected in some capacity by Dorothy or was she just a character playing a part on a stage set out inside of his mind with phone call after phone call,
(15:12):
she could never quite place his voice leading investigators to believe that he wasn't someone involved in her close knit circle.
Given the repetition of Dorothy's predictable schedule,
it didn't seem to be someone she knew,
but rather someone who knew her,
someone easily able to observe her without causing worry or warning.
What little leads they had continued to decay.
(15:33):
But the phone calls to the Scots didn't stop every Wednesday to mark the day she disappeared.
Their phone would ring and the same voice would greet vera.
Sometimes he would ask if door he was home.
Other times just relish in the fact that he was responsible for her death.
He always called during the day when vera was alone and even though police eventually had the lines tapped to record and trace calls,
(15:54):
he never stayed on long enough.
The voice was gruff and obviously being disguised.
These weekly calls of torment continued on for four years.
Until april 1984 the man found a little later than usual and Jacob answered after telling him he had the wrong number,
the man hung up and the calls stopped.
(16:15):
Jacob thought maybe he'd assumed that the Scots had moved.
There are some who also speculate that the caller might have always wanted to specifically speak to vera for fear that Jacob would somehow recognize his voice.
The reason remains unknown,
but something about that change of consistency,
spooked the collar off and for a moment the Scots could grieve free of torment.
(16:36):
Their slight reprieve would not last long.
On the morning of August 6,
1980 for a construction worker digging in an area around 30 ft from the Santa Ana Canyon Road discovered human remains.
Forensics would confirm that the bones found were both dog and human,
(16:58):
even though there was no way to determine how long they've been there for certain.
They'd most likely been there for at least two years because in 1982 there had been Bush fires in the area and the bones were charred.
They discovered two femurs,
a pelvis,
an arm bone and a skull with teeth,
which would later be compared to dental records.
A cause of death couldn't be determined.
(17:20):
The peculiar edition of the dog bones caused many to speculate that they were put there to throw off the scent for cadaver dogs.
10 days after the remains were found,
police confirmed it was Dorothy.
There was also a turquoise ring and a watch that belonged to her.
The watch had stopped ticking at 12:30 a.m. On May 29th,
(17:40):
about an hour after her vehicle had sped out of the hospital parking lot even though they had assumed for years that their daughter had been killed.
The Scots could put a definitive answer on a question.
They'd been living out on august 22nd,
they held a proper funeral for her.
Now finally having something symbolic to bury and a place to visit,
(18:00):
even though the bones would have to stay as evidence,
there was a closure in the air that they had been waiting for.
The service was small and quiet.
There were flowers with ribbons that said beloved sister and daughter,
a photograph of her smiling displayed for all to see another family member and uncle of Dorothy's had died of cancer the week before his funeral served as a memorial for the both of them.
(18:26):
Her brother Jim spoke of how kind and giving she was and it's in that spirit that she lives on.
Jacob was quoted in the paper as saying that there was at least some closure and being able to bury their grief now that maybe they could start living the way people ought to.
They had long given up on the idea of finding out who had done this to their daughter.
Now all they really wanted was to remember her with grace and maybe some sense of peace during the preparations for the funeral,
(18:55):
the Scots would begin to receive phone calls again twice while vera and Jacob were at the funeral dealing with arrangements,
their son Allen received a call from a man asking if Dorothy was home.
They just couldn't understand it.
How could someone be so unhinged as to devastate and destroy an entire family and then continually mock their pain with salt in the wound.
(19:17):
Whoever they were dealing with was dangerous and determined to have all of Dorothy and everything she touched even in death.
It wasn't that the police didn't have anything to go on,
but what they did have amounted to very little.
(19:38):
Those closest to Dorothy were easily cleared along with shanti's father,
Dennis Terry.
By all accounts,
they had a peaceful co parenting relationship with no hard feelings between them.
Dennis wasn't local to Stanton,
although he had been in town a few days before Dorothy's disappearance to visit his son.
He'd flown back home to Fair Grove,
Missouri and called the night Dorothy went missing.
(20:00):
Jacob had told him he would keep him updated on her whereabouts.
And later in the evening when he called him back,
Dennis answered.
Even pam and Conrad also became suspicious to some overtime,
grasping at straws,
thinking maybe there was more to their story that they would have had enough time with her to carry out the crime.
But they had all been seen that night by witnesses at the hospital and neither of them had any motive at all to hurt their co worker.
(20:25):
The lights had been too bright for either pam or Conrad to notice for sure if Dorothy had been alone in the car or who was driving,
but given the recklessness it's doubtful that Dorothy was at the wheel.
Some people speculate that maybe someone had left a note for her set a trap by sparking a fear about the safety of her son.
But Dorothy wouldn't have left in a rush alone or put herself in danger.
(20:48):
She wouldn't have driven off without letting pam and Conrad know what was happening.
Whoever it was most likely followed Dorothy in their own vehicle and then took advantage of those few minutes,
she was completely alone.
The man had told Pat Riley that he'd been at the hospital that night.
Maybe seeing her with Conrad sent him into a spiraling rage.
Or maybe the entire concept of everything had been a grand delusion of his twisted mind.
(21:12):
He most likely watched her.
Maybe not even expecting an opportunity,
but just following suit in his obsessive compulsions.
Maybe this hadn't been the first attempt to attack and abduct Dorothy,
but rather the first time it had finally been successful.
Whether someone drove there or not is impossible to know for sure.
It appears that nobody at the hospital was ever interviewed officially by police and even in smaller cities and towns,
(21:37):
hospitals or high traffic areas in 1980 didn't have the luxury of CCTV footage commonly everywhere,
license plate recognition or even electronic paid parking.
If any person or persons had driven to the hospital and followed her,
they could make it back to retrieve their vehicle at any time to the hospital,
whether by cab or foot without suspicion.
(21:59):
Some have thought that Dorothy's case may be connected to the unsolved case of Patricia jean Schneider,
a 25 year old cocktail waitress that went missing on july 31st,
1982 in pedley California.
About an hour from Stanton.
Patricia was last seen at a circle K gas station around 3:45 a.m. After making a call to report car trouble sometime between five and six a.m. A Deputy sheriff found her vehicle on fire in a field.
(22:25):
There's never been any suspects besides to sandy haired caucasian males observed by the gas station clerk around the same time that she'd been there.
Patricia still has not been found to this day.
Years after his mother's death,
Shanti will learn of speculation involving a man named Mike.
Butler.
Mike was from southern California and he joined the army when he was 20 years old.
(22:49):
After being drafted,
his father had been an army captain and he was familiar with the lifestyle and took a sense of pride in following in his footsteps.
He spent most of his time overseas,
stationed in Germany and became a writer for the stars and stripes news,
an independent military newspaper.
After he retired from the military,
he became a roadie for a while setting up equipment and sound stages for the likes of bands as big as the beach boys along with his sisters,
(23:16):
all female band.
She was actually quite the accomplished musician and like Dorothy had also worked at swingers for a good chunk of time.
Butler would have had access to Dorothy,
possibly sporadic,
but enough for her to hear his voice in a way that would have felt familiar.
He would have been able to drop by the shop for one reason or another without suspicion.
He could have attended events she went to as well and fit right in.
(23:40):
Apparently his work was really close to swingers and according to some people who knew Dorothy,
they say he'd become obsessed with her over time.
He was a deeply religious man.
Well known throughout his community near the Santiago Mountains.
There were people who said that he was unstable and that his pious behavior was much more sinister and cult like than it may have seemed And he'd been on the police's radar.
(24:03):
But why?
And for what exactly is unclear and apparently nothing came of it.
There isn't much information about where the speculation of his alleged fixation on Dorothy comes from and what exactly it's based off of.
Unfortunately he died from health complications in 2014 and had never been officially interviewed by authorities regarding Dorothy.
(24:26):
With Dorothy receiving so many threats by someone fixated on her through her work place.
It's easy to speculate that just about anyone from the wrong side of the tracks could have met her just by being at swingers and her murder wouldn't be the last time that swingers would be found in a news headline in July 1992,
John Kay Cola and his business partner Philip M.
(24:46):
Gramatica were charged with nine counts of conspiracy and structuring cash transactions.
The two of them were making sure to purchase cashier's checks and money orders in sums of less than $10,000 to avoid having to report it to the I.
R.
S.
There were hidden deals,
cash exchanges under the table,
plans to purchase a mighty piece of land,
(25:07):
rumors of growing drug crops and other nefarious activities.
The talk of drugs surprised nobody,
although no charges involving drugs were ever filed.
These financial acrobatics have no link to Dorothy's case specifically.
But it does put into perspective the possible wide scope of people who would have been involved in the back workings of swingers when it comes to who could have met Dorothy and had access to her.
(25:30):
It is as big of a web or as little as you want it to be.
Depending on the angle you take.
Jacob Scott passed away on Dorothy's birthday in 1990 for one of those strange and swift symbolic gestures of the universe that doesn't have a definition but certainly holds so much meaning Vera Scott passed away in 2002 after 22 years of hoping for answers with naive favor.
(26:02):
It's nice to think that maybe they both have them now.
But why is it that sometimes these things work out perfectly in the worst way.
How is it possible to sit with the lack of salvation.
And even if the answers come,
how could it ever undo the cosmic orchestra of chaos that burst through the seams that night?
(26:22):
There is never justice.
If there is no way to steal back,
what is yours?
Grief never dies.
It just transforms its shape and sound like a severed telephone wire,
the empty tone of a receiver off the hook.
A permanence that lingers.
We want someone to blame a story to stitch together between the start and the finish.
(26:46):
We dig for a warning sign,
a miss detail,
an escape route from the madness that takes without reason or permission.
It must be here somewhere,
but instead of a maze,
it's a labyrinth.
No matter which way you take,
all roads lead back to a moment that may have been inevitable and waiting to happen.
(27:08):
Because everything keeps happening like the way living in kindness and presence was effortless.
For Dorothy life had no off switch to pause for reprieve.
A person can only hold their breath for so long.
It's both a burden and a gift.
This ability to forget everything except what's right in front of us.
(27:29):
But in between the details of the day to day are the unfinished stories that hold us in suspension.
These missing faces of strangers that for a split second,
feel like lost parts of ourselves.
And maybe if we could just find a way to lasso the ending and bring it closer to us,
we could quiet.
(27:49):
The restless ache inside of what is forlorn forgotten,
but also somehow free
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