Skip to main content

MURDERED: Dorothy Jane Scott

Something truly horrific happened when a woman’s stalking wasn’t taken seriously and it led to her unsolved murder.

 


Dorothy Jane Scott was a single mother living in Staton, California with her four-year-old son and her aunt. She was described by co-workers as organized and dependable that enjoyed her quiet life at home. Rather than going out with co-workers, Dorothy would spend time with her son and at her local church. She, by choice, didn’t do drugs or drink alcohol which could have been influenced by her religious beliefs.

Dorothy worked as a secretary at The Swinger’s Psych Shop and Custom John’s Head Shop, the two shops were connected and sold complimentary items. One sold things that encapsulated psychedelics and the other sold paraphernalia for cannabis and tobacco. The shops were a little over 5 miles from Dorothy’s home, located in Anaheim, whilst she worked her usual shift Dorothy’s parents would take care of her son.

It was at her job that Dorothy began to receive phone calls from an unknown man that Dorothy had once remarked sounded familiar. In half of the calls, this unknown person would confess his love for the woman but in the rest, this person would describe the different ways he wanted to kill Dorothy.

The stalking went from being over the phone to this person being physically being around Dorothy without her knowledge. Her mother 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 rose on the windshield of her car.”. It was at this call where everything was kicked up a notch, the stalker had shown he knew where Dorothy worked, he knew what car she drove and that he had been following, watching her close enough he could recount clothing and locations on these blood-chilling calls. Somehow, he did all of this without ever raising suspicion in his surroundings.

Another call that made Dorothy start considering all the ways to protect herself if she were to need was when the man threatened to get Dorothy alone and that he would “cut [her] up into bits so no one will ever find [her]”. It seemed like he went into graphic detail about what he planned and Dorothy began looking into getting herself a handgun. Around May 21st, Dorothy started to take Karate lessons in hopes of being able to defend herself if it was needed.

Just one week after starting her kickboxing lessons, Dorothy was at an employee meeting at work when she, along with another woman, noticed a co-worker had begun to look unwell. Dorothy and Pam Head questioned if this unwell person was alright before they quickly decided that Conrad Bostron needed to go to the hospital.

At the UC Irvine Medical Center ER, Bostron is told he had suffered from a Black Widow bite and whilst doctors treated him, Dorothy and Head waited out in the waiting room. Head claims that Dorothy was by her side the entire time they were waiting for Bostron. Two hours after the meeting at 11 pm Bostron was released from the hospital, he still was back to one hundred per cent so whilst Head helped fill out Bostron’s prescription, Dorothy went to get her car.

Head and Bostron waited at the exit of the hospital for a few minutes and Dorothy, the person described as dependable by many, didn’t show. So, they went out into the lot to try and find her. Just as they stepped out, headlights blinded them and Dorothy’s car went speeding past them without warning. The pair assumed that something had happened with Dorothy’s son that made her leave in such a rush but after hours of not hearing from Dorothy the pair reported her as missing.

At 4:30 am, Dorothy’s car a white 1973 Toyota station wagon, was found burning in an alley ten miles from the hospital. There was no sign of Dorothy or anyone else in or around the car.

Just one week after Dorothy was reported missing and a week after the calls stopped, her parents’ home phone rang. Dorothy’s mother answered the call. All the other person on the call said was “I have her” and then they hung up. This call would be the first of many. Each call would come when Dorothy’s mother was alone at home. The police weren’t ever able to track calls since each one was too short to pick up any information. When the calls carried on going without any sign of stopping, Dorothy’s father began answering the calls. That caused the calls to stop.

A man ended up calling the Orange County Register, the managing editor answered and later recounted that the person on the other end claimed to be responsible for Dorothy’s sudden disappearance. The editor quoted the man on the call said “I killed her. I killed Dorothy Scott. She was my love. I caught her with another man. She denied having someone else. I killed her.”. The caller also pointed out the fact that Bostron was bitten by a Black Widow spider, this was a fact that hadn’t been published to the public.

Over four years, on August 6th 1984, not finding anything about Dorothy and no updates about her disappearance, a construction worker found bones 30 feet from Santa Ana Canyon Road. They were partially burned in a bushfire from two years prior and nearby the bones was a turquoise ring and watch. It was confirmed on August 14th through dental records that the bones were Dorothy Jane Scott but there was never a confirmed cause of death for the woman. Dorothy’s mother later said that the watch had stopped at 12:30 which was exactly one hour after Dorothy’s car was last seen.

To this day, Dorothy’s murderer and stalker, which is highly likely the same person, hasn’t been caught and her death is still unsolved.

(originally posted on medium.com/@natasha.leigh)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

MURDERED: Agenta Westlund

It’s always horrific when a person dies but what makes it worse is when one of their closest loved ones is blamed for their death. It was a normal day in September 2008 when Agneta Westlund took her dog out for a walk in the woods of Lofthammar, Sweden. When she didn’t return, her husband began to get worried eventually he went out looking for Agneta and their dog. Ingemar would have never been able to predict what he would find. Laid out on the snowy ground, Agneta’s battered body was where Ingemar found her, their dog nowhere in sight. With a heavy heart, Ingemar ran out of the woods and to the nearest phone, calling the police. Once they arrived, Ingemar followed the path he had travelled to find his wife’s body, leading the police to her. Once there, Ingemar was the prime suspect in the death of his wife, Agneta. The police arrested Ingemar and held him for 10 days whilst they investigated and questioned him for what they believed was a murder. The punishment didn’t ...

KIDNAPPED: Steven Stayner & Timmy White

The kidnapping that shows brotherhood comes in many forms, a teenager saving a child after seeing his distress. Steven Stayner was walking home from school on December 4th 1972 when he was stopped by a man claiming to be a church representative seeking donations. When the man asked if Steven’s mom would be willing to give something to the church, Steven agreed that she would. The representative offered to give Steven a ride to his home so they could get the donations that very day. A white Buick driven by a second man pulled up, Steven willingly got inside with the representative. However, the church representative wasn’t legitimate. His name was Ervin Murphy a worker from a Yosemite National Park resort worker who had been manipulated by a co-worker into aiding him in kidnapping a boy. Kenneth Parnell claimed he was an aspiring minister and wanted a young boy to “raise him in a religious-type deal”. Parnell drove Murphy and Steven to a cabin nearby Catheys Valley rather than taking St...

MURDER: Etan Patz

One of the first milk carton kids whose kidnapping and murder took nearly four decades to solve. It was the last day of school before Memorial Day weekend, May 25th 1979, and the Patz household was hectic. Everyone was busy getting ready for their days, Julie was taking care of her two-year-old son and another two-year-old that had stayed the night and Stanley was getting himself ready for work as a photographer. Shira, the oldest of their three children, was getting herself dressed for her school day. That left Etan Patz, the six-year-old that was searching for more independence, he too was dressing for a day at school. He put on blue pants, a blue jacket and his favourite black Eastern Airlines future flight captain cap. After he was dressed Etan went to Julie and begged that she allowed him to walk the two blocks from their apartment to his daily bus stop. Begrudgingly, Julie agreed and once her son had packed his elephant print tote bag with his favourite toys, she wa...