Justice Unresolved is a series of articles examining cold cases, disappearances and unsolved crimes that continue to haunt families and communities in America. The stories revisit the known facts, unanswered questions and latest developments in cases where the search for truth is far from over.
Dorothy Jane Scott’s murder remains a mystery decades after the 1980 crime. The circumstances that led to her disappearance still haunt America. The 32-year-old went missing shortly after midnight on a fateful day in May 1980.
Scott lived in Anaheim, California, and was a single mother focused on raising her four-year-old son. She was working as a secretary for two jointly-owned Anaheim stores.
However, Scott’s life took a horrific turn shortly after midnight on May 29, 1980, when she disappeared without a trace.
The disappearance of Dorothy Scott
On the fateful evening, Scott took her co-worker Conrad Bostron to the hospital after he was bitten by a black widow spider. They were accompanied by another friend, Palm Head.
After Bostron received treatment at the hospital, Scott asked him to wait while she brought her car around to make things easier for him.
Bostron and Head waited, and saw Scott’s car approaching the hospital’s exit. However, instead of stopping for them, the vehicle sped past them, its headlights blinding them. Neither of them could see who was driving the car.
Scott’s car was found burning in an alley hours later. She was never seen alive again.
That was the last time Head and Bostron, or anyone, saw Scott – at The UCI Medical Center in Orange. After the two of them saw her 1973 white Toyota station wagon exiting the hospital parking lot, they reported that Scott had been missing for nearly an hour.
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Shortly after, the Santa Ana Police Department found her car on fire in an alleyway in the 800 block of South Townsend.
The day before she disappeared, Scott was wearing blue jeans, a long-sleeved maroon blouse, a white scarf, and a round turquoise ring on her left index finger, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Chilling events before Dorothy Scott’s disappearance
The events that led to Scott’s disappearance were extremely disturbing. In the months before her abduction, Scott had been receiving anonymous phone calls from a man who had reportedly been stalking her. The unidentified man had been calling Scott, alternately professing his love for her and his intent to murder her.
Scott’s mom later recounted, “One day he called and said to go outside because he had something for her. She went out and there was a single dead red rose on the windshield of her car.”
One call left Scott incredibly shaken. In the call, the man said he would get Scott alone and “cut [her] up into bits so no one will ever find [her],” her mother said.
Horrified by the calls, Scott had been considering buying a handgun. She even started taking karate lessons about a week before she went missing.
A man phoned The Santa Ana Register after the newspaper published an article about Scott on June 12, 1980. He told editor Pat Riley, “She was my love. I caught her cheating with another man…she denied having another man…I killed her.”
In fact, a week after Scott vanished, a man called her parents and said, according to A&E, “I’ve got her.”
The stalker regularly phoned Scott’s parents for the next four years, almost always calling on Wednesdays to speak to her mother. The calls could never be traced, and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department told A&E Crime + Investigation that there are “no recordings of evidentiary value” from the anonymous caller.
Dr. Christina Lane, a criminologist who co-founded the Criminal Investigation Resource Center, tells A&E Crime + Investigation, previously spoke out about Scott’s abduction from the hospital parking lot, saying, “Striking in the parking lot when she was going out to get the vehicle shows that this may have been something that was very visceral in response.”
Dr. Chris Kunkle, a forensic and clinical psychologist and co-founder of the Criminal Investigation Resource Center at Russell Sage College, told A&E Crime + Investigation that he believes the suspect “took advantage of the instance where she was alone in a seemingly desolate place to be able to act” and “probably wouldn’t have approached her if she wasn’t alone.”
Discovery of Dorothy Scott’s remains
Construction workers found a body in an area about 30 feet from Santa Ana Canyon Road in Anaheim on August 6, 1984. The bones had been burnt, likely in a 1982 brush fire, and bleached by the sun.
Dental records confirmed that it was Scott, and her mom identified a turquoise ring and watch found with the body. The watch had stopped at 12:30 am on May 29, which was the day Scott was kidnapped.
While the anonymous calls had stopped sometime in April 1984, they restarted after Scott’s remains were found. The man began calling the family again, and police installed a voice recorder at the Scott residence. However, the calls could never be traced because the unidentified man never stayed on the line long enough.
“The potential murder suspect was a man who continually made calls to Dorothy and her family. However, the mysterious man was never identified or found,” the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said.
“Investigators with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Task Force are searching for new leads on Dorothy’s case. The search to bring justice to Dorothy and her family is ongoing,” it added.
