Dorothy Scott, 32, was from Stanton in Southern California. An act of kindness for a coworker in 1980 resulted in her kidnapping and death on a warm July night. Her murder has gone unsolved for forty years.
Around five miles from her Stanton home, Dorothy Scott worked as a secretary at The Swinger’s Mental Shop and Custom John’s Head Shop in Anaheim. Since Shawn, Dorothy’s 4-year-old son didn’t have a local father, Jacob and Vera helped Dorothy take care of Shawn while she was at work.
Dorothy never experimented with drugs or alcohol. She favored going to church or staying at home. She was close to her family and resided with her aunt. Dorothy appeared to be leading a calm life and was a devoted Christian. Regrettably, everything would end violently.
On May 28, 1980, Dorothy was leaving a staff meeting and was on her way home when she saw an unusual raised bite on her coworker’s elbow. She offered to drive him to US Irvine Medical Center out of concern. Pam Head, one of their coworkers, offered to accompany them.
The hospital from where Dorothy Scott was kidnapped
That evening, around nine o’clock, Dorothy drove first to her parent’s house to hastily check on Shawn and inform them that she would pick him up late. While there, she swapped her cold-weather black neck scarf for a crimson one.
The group realized the deadly black widow spider had bitten Conrad Bostron at the emergency hospital. At 11 p.m., he was given a prescription for medication and released.
Dorothy left her two coworkers in the waiting area and went to get her car so she could pick them up at the hospital’s entrance. She was never again discovered alive. Dorothy’s white station wagon sped towards Conrad and Pam in the parking lot as they left the hospital to seek her.
Dorothy and her son
The headlights were too bright for either of them to make out who was driving, so the two waved their arms to flag down the driver they believed to be Dorothy. Out of the parking lot, the automobile made a quick right turn and vanished from sight.
The two first believed that Dorothy had hurried off to check on her kid. But later, when Conrad and Pam realized they hadn’t heard from their close buddy, they were compelled to file a missing person report.
The following morning, some ten miles from the hospital, Dorothy’s burned-out and abandoned automobile were discovered. The police started investigating the idea that Dorothy had been abducted.
A Strange Background to the Disappearance
Dorothy had been receiving disturbing phone calls from an unknown caller before her abrupt abduction. Although Dorothy frequently observed that the male voice on the other end of the line reminded her of someone, she never learned who made these calls. This is similar to the case of Cindy James, a woman who was stalked and later killed by the suspected stalker.
The voice on the other end of the phone said, “When I get you alone, I will hack you up into fragments so no one will ever find you.”
The authorities had to go to considerable lengths to install an early voice recorder at the Scotts’ home since this voice called Dorothy practically daily. The man often warned Dorothy that he was keeping an eye on her, and one evening he insisted she goes outside while saying he had left a gift for her.
Dorothy Jane Scott in a file photo
One single dead rose was on the hood of her automobile.
Dorothy was frightened by this macabre emblem, but she didn’t know who was calling. In fact, according to Dorothy’s mother, the courageous secretary became so terrified by these unceasing, terrifying calls that she learned karate to defend herself from this unidentified stranger.
And the identity of the caller is still a mystery. We might be able to catch Dorothy’s killer if we knew who was calling her. Regrettably, both the caller and the murderer are still at large.
How Could This Man Precisely Seek out Dorothy Scott?
When this incident occurred in 1980, there was far less knowledge about stalking and the risk that such behavior poses, how it might worsen, and how it can lead to murder. Frequently, stalking is not treated with the seriousness it merits.
Today, we are considerably better informed about stalkers and how they behave. In addition, we now regrettably know how many murder victims were previously pursued by their killers.
No one she had ever been in a relationship with, including her ex, was known to be Dorothy’s stalker. But this man could observe her, follow her, and make notes about her behavior, attire, and whereabouts without appearing to raise any red flags with Dorothy or anybody else in the vicinity.
Story of Dorothy Scott piqued the interest of the millions across the country
His phone conversations indicate that he developed a crush on Dorothy and was obsessed with her. The main characteristics of stalking behaviors—fixation and obsession—are also warning signs of how dangerous a stalker may be.
Dorothy was visiting a coworker who had been bitten by a spider the night she was abducted. A happenstance. She offered to drive her coworker to the hospital when she observed he was ill during the work meeting.
Although there was no timeline or plan for this, her killer was aware of her whereabouts and that she had stopped at her parent’s house to change her scarf. She returned to her car in the dark, intending to drive around and pick up her two coworkers at the front door, and he could be there in the parking lot.
An update about the case
She was with her coworkers that evening; therefore, the murderer could not have been plotting to kidnap her. It might have been a targeted attack. He was after her, and when she returned to her car by herself, he seized the chance to attack.
The Disturbing Calls Find a New Host
After Dorothy went missing for two weeks, her unknown caller found a new person to talk to. He asked Dorothy’s mother, “Are you related to Dorothy Scott? I’ve got her, then.”
After that, the phone started ringing every Wednesday while Dorothy’s mother, Vera, was home alone. Vera claims that the caller knew startling specifics about Dorothy, including her last scarf’s color.
Was Dorothy’s murderer this caller? Was it the same man who had teased Dorothy over the phone for so long? Before Jacob broke and phoned the Orange County Register to inform them about his daughter’s case, the police requested that her parents not have made any press-related statements that might jeopardize the investigation.
The case remains unsolved to date
On June 12, 1980, the report on Dorothy’s disappearance was released, and on the same day, they also got a call. The caller revealed to the Register a motivation that had never before been revealed: he had killed Dorothy because she had been unfaithful to him.
He said he loved Dorothy, but she had cheated on him by dating another man. He disclosed information regarding Dorothy’s disappearance that had never been made public, such as what she wore the night she vanished. But nobody has ever been able to identify the caller.
Dorothy worked at a head store where customers were observed, but because she was in the office, she had little contact with frequently strange customers. The only clue was the caller, and despite the police’s best efforts to track the calls, they were permanently terminated before they could determine their origin.
Mother and father of Dorothy Scott
The life of Dorothy’s parents were plagued by these calls for a period of four years. This continued until Jacob, Dorothy’s father, picked up the phone in April 1984. The caller quickly hung up after hearing Jacob’s voice and didn’t call back for four months.
Did the caller fear that Dorothy’s father might recognize him from the phone?
Dorothy is found — Dead.
Four years after Dorothy vanished, on August 6, 1984, her bones were found on a secluded construction site. The bones of Dorothy’s arm, pelvis, cranium, and two thighs were discovered partially burned. This provided detectives with a timetable.
There had been a fire there two years prior, in October 1982, which led authorities to believe Dorothy’s bones had been there for at least that long. Although her death’s mystery has not been solved, the discovery brought solace to her family.
Discovering a dog’s bones beside Dorothy’s remains added to the intrigue. This, according to others, strengthens the case against Mike Butler, a suspect who lived in the nearby hills and professed “alternative religious beliefs,” and hints at a mysterious connection.
A newspaper report of her remains being found
The police never gave Butler much thought, but some detectives have speculated that this nearby mechanic might have been the guilty party.
A turquoise ring that belonged to Dorothy and a watch that had stopped at 12:32 a.m. on May 29 was also found with Dorothy’s body. Pam and Conrad had last seen Dorothy’s wagon driving off then.
The mysterious calls to Dorothy’s parents’ house resumed only a few days after finding her body. When Vera picked up the phone, the caller once more inquired whether Dorothy was home.
On August 22, 1984, Dorothy’s family arranged a memorial service so her parents could finally bury their daughter. A cold-blooded caller haunted Dorothy’s parents for years, but they never discovered who killed their kid. In 1994, Jacob Scott perished. Vera, Dorothy’s mother, died in 2002.
The place where her remains were found— via Crime Blogger 1983
The insulting and vile phone calls that this murderer forwarded to Dorothy’s devastated parents. The child of Dorothy never learned why or what happened to his mother as he grew up. The stalker who terrorized Dorothy for months before her kidnapping and death is still at large.
An individual who killed an innocent person, leaving behind terrible anguish and a lifetime of unanswered questions, has never been brought to justice.
RIP Dorothy Scott
Next, Read about the mysterious case of Elisa Lam, the woman found dead in strange circumstances. Then, read the Lead Masks Case, where two men died waiting for something sinister.
