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E228: Dori Ann Myers
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Dori Ann Myers was a skilled poker player. She knew how to make calculated decisions when the pressure was on. But she also had a soft spot for people, especially for those who made sacrifices for the good of others. Unfortunately, one of those people took advantage of Dori letting her guard down and of her not treating people with the same critical eye as she did cards. Someone came into her home in January 10th, 2006 and, when they left during the early morning hours of January 11th, they took Dori with them. Now it’s law enforcement who are having to make calculated decisions in their attempts to solve her case.
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Transcript
The Art of Poker: Skills and Strategy
00:00:00
Speaker
Those who are strong poker players have a certain set of skills. They must be patient and wait for the right time to raise or go all in. They have to be strategic about each and every move. They need to know when to bluff and when not to. They have to be observant. Does any player have a tell that shows when their hand is good?
00:00:22
Speaker
and when they're only pretending that it's good. A good player has to know how to evaluate the psychology of each of the other players as well to know how they will handle each of these situations. And a single poker game is filled with tons of the split second high stress decisions. It's much more a game of skill than luck. The person at the center of our case this week was good at poker. She loved it.
00:00:52
Speaker
The problem is that we don't look at people in everyday situations the same way we look at cards. We sometimes convince ourselves to listen to our heart rather than our head when it comes to people. We want to believe that no one would bluff with us to pretend that they're something that they're not, which can then lead to us not being as critical or not as observant when it comes to their behaviors.
00:01:18
Speaker
Plus people, unlike cards, are fickle. They can have one characteristic in one instant and the opposite characteristic in another. Which side do we trust? With people, finding a good one, a good friend, a good partner, seems much more a game of luck than skill. And for the woman in our case this week, someone in her life betrayed that trust.
00:01:45
Speaker
This is the case of Dorie Ann Myers.
Introduction to Coffee and Cases Podcast
00:02:23
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:02:43
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
Dorie's Life and Career: Triumphs and Tribulations
00:03:01
Speaker
Due to the disturbing content of this episode and harm to animals, listener discretion is advised.
00:03:08
Speaker
Dorie Myers had known both loss and success in her 43 years of life. When she was younger, in the 80s, she had married a man named Ricky who she knew was the love of her life, Maggie. They were soulmates and they had a son together named Jesse.
00:03:29
Speaker
But tragically, her husband and a friend of his had both died in the couple's apartment from a carbon monoxide leak. Oh my goodness. That's not how I expected that to end. Right. And that's, you know, an unexpected. Yeah.
00:03:46
Speaker
That loss was a hard one, obviously, for her to navigate, but Dory did the best she could as a single mom. She had married a couple of times after that, but those relationships had ended in divorce. I mean, even her dating relationships weren't successful. From an interview I listened to with Dory's sister, I kind of got the sense that no other man could measure up than the love of her life, and it's just as plain as that.
00:04:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of what I was feeling too, like nobody's going to be.
00:04:19
Speaker
Ricky. Right. Even though Dory had no loss in the relationship department, she was successful in raising a talented and good hearted son. And she was so proud of him. She had also attended cosmetology school and had a successful career as a hairdresser, working her way up to renting a booth in the well-known in Florida, Scandals Salon in Vero Beach, Florida.
00:04:45
Speaker
And her clients loved her. I feel like that's common with hairdressers. We find our fave and then you always gotta see that same person. So some of them had actually been seeing Dory for years and others knew her well enough to actually call her friend as well. So little do you know, Allison, I have added hairdresser to my resume of things.
00:05:07
Speaker
Really? Yeah. When did this happen? Oh, last week. Because I am now the official French braider of every girl in my class since it was great. Oh, nice. I was like, I'm going to start charging you off $5 to braid your hair. And they would pay it. Yeah. I mean, I would never do that, but I thought about it. That little side, side hustle. Side hustle. That's right.
00:05:34
Speaker
Dory filled her life with the things that she loved. She had her pets. She had a six-year-old cat named Miss Pris and a 10-year-old black Labrador named Emily, who she affectionately referred to, I love this, as Flab-a-lab because Emily was so overweight.
00:05:54
Speaker
I'm going to have to tell that one to Anthony so he can start calling his mom's lab that. Yeah. Her animals kept her company and she had her hobbies. She played poker, which as I mentioned in the introduction, she was very good at. And she loved to ride her motorcycle. Oh, I feel like does she wear leather jackets? Because I think she should. She was a really hip chick.
00:06:15
Speaker
Now you can see why Dory often wore three necklaces around that keenly represented her passions. Maggie, one necklace had a Harley Davidson charm. One necklace had a charm that looked like a hairdresser's scissors. And the charm on the final necklace represented her love for her family. And that charm said, Lil Sis.
00:06:40
Speaker
Oh, cute. And not only does she have an older brother and sister, but she was also physically Lil. She was petite. She stood at only about five foot three inches and weighed around 110 pounds. Oh yeah, so she's tiny.
00:06:58
Speaker
It's on my heart to tell you this little detail because I just thought it was so sweet. But Dory used to follow along behind her older sister, Donna Jean. And everywhere that Donna Jean went, there was little Dory tagging along behind her. So Donna Jean had nicknamed her Tagalog. Isn't that so cute? Yeah, that's sweet. Yeah.
00:07:22
Speaker
But as you can see Maggie, between work, her time with her family, and her hobbies, Dory had a very fulfilling life. She even in her free time volunteered with the VFW because she had a soft spot for veterans in the military. And she had just recently begun seeing someone new. Well, so she's a busy lady. Definitely a busy lady.
A Night Out: Poker and Unforeseen Events
00:07:46
Speaker
On the evening of January 10th, 2006, Dory decided that she wanted to try her luck again at the poker tables. She had won a poker tournament at a local bar called the Hillbilly Hideaway the week before, and she was even thinking about trying her luck. This is according to the Trace Evidence podcast at the $5,000. Ooh. Yeah.
00:08:11
Speaker
So that, I mean, we're talking the big time. And by the way, side note, this is a case that while there is some research out there, there have only been two other podcasts that have covered her case. And I'm gonna reference both of them because you'll learn why here in a little bit. But I'm sure this money that she could win if she moved up to the $5,000 table,
00:08:40
Speaker
sounded really great, not only because it's a lot of money, but because it seems like this win would be just what she needed. And I say that because according to the Unfound podcast, which is the only other podcast that has covered this case,
00:08:56
Speaker
Dory had just put a new roof on her house, put in a new septic system, and had paid off her car. Wha-hell! Damn! Those are three major expenses, and bravo to her for doing all of those around the same time. Yeah, literally. I would be like, anything. Do you want to let rain fall through our roof? Or do you want to let poop seep?
00:09:20
Speaker
out into our yard. Which one do you prefer? Which is the worst situation? So I'm sure the idea of winning a big pot of money sounded pretty good. Yeah. But Maggie, when she arrived at the Hillbilly Hideaway, all the poker tables were full. I know. So she waited around a little bit. She was sipping on some ice water while she waited to see if any of the seats opened up.
00:09:48
Speaker
When they didn't, Dory left that bar and stopped by Pineapple Joe's Bar and Grill. This was another common stop for Dory because a lot of veterans hung out there. But again, she only stayed about 30 minutes still sipping on ice water. And I don't know if there were another poker tournament going on at Pineapple Joe's Bar and Grill, or whether she's just biding her time before thinking about going back to Hillbilly Hideaway.
00:10:18
Speaker
So she's just kind of walking back and forth. So she's that one and then she goes to the other. Right. Yeah. I think there's some distance. So she would have had to have driven. Okay. So yeah, I don't know if there's another poker tournament or she's, like I said, she kind of biding her time. But Dory didn't return to Hillbilly Hideaway at all. Instead, she drove just a bit further down the road to a third bar, St. Lucie Inn.
00:10:46
Speaker
located in the 2100 block of Old Dixie Highway in Fort Pierce, Florida. And she returned home from that bar sometime around nine. Yeah, it does seem kind of strange.
00:11:02
Speaker
that she's not drinking, she's just drinking ice water, but she's going to all these different bars. Right. So that's what kind of made me think, okay, were there other poker tournaments going on? And obviously, if you're planning on trying to win some money, you don't want to be drinking alcohol because then your judgment is impaired. So yeah, and she doesn't get back. That's not super late, 9pm.
00:11:28
Speaker
Around midnight, Dory's neighbors heard some noises coming from Dory's home, but this wasn't unusual because Dory would often have friends over to play poker, to play darts, or to listen to music. So the neighbors didn't really think anything of it when they heard conversations going on outside. Gotcha. They only really started paying attention.
00:11:52
Speaker
when the tone changed. Of the noises? Yes. So instead of just conversations, it now sounded like arguments.
00:12:04
Speaker
At a little after 2 AM, the neighbors now heard arguing coming from the area of Dory's driveway before hearing car door slam and a loud pop. A sound that in hindsight they said could have been the trunk closing. Were her neighbors close like in this subdivision? You know, I didn't read anywhere where it mentioned
00:12:32
Speaker
the distance between the houses, but I will say when they made it to the window to look out, they were at least close enough that they saw Dory's car, a black 1998 Toyota Corolla backing out of her driveway and pulling away.
00:12:51
Speaker
So I don't know how close, but close enough that they could see her driveway. Yeah, they can hear the trunk close and see the driveway. Gotcha. Right. But it was dark. So they couldn't see how many individuals were in the car, who was driving, or anything like that. Oh, OK. So now they're awake because they've been woken up by this argument. I would be so upset. Yes. And the neighbor went to the restroom. But that's when different sounds came.
00:13:21
Speaker
popping and windows breaking. Oh, like something's on fire. That's exactly right. The neighbor looked out to see flames bursting from the back of Dory's home and it was now close to 3 a.m.
00:13:39
Speaker
The neighbor immediately called 911. The fire department actually responded very quickly because their station was only a couple of miles away from Dory's home. They got there around 315. Oh, wow. And police responded as well. The fire department were able to put out the fire obviously with minimal damage actually to the exterior of the house, though the new roof was destroyed, as well as roughly a third of the interior.
00:14:09
Speaker
After the fire was extinguished, they actually noticed something peculiar.
The Fire: Mystery and Suspicion
00:14:15
Speaker
The fire had multiple sources of origin and there was evidence of an accelerant having been used. So I wonder if the person that left in Dory's car was whoever set fire to her house. Probably. And at this point, even though the neighbors had heard
00:14:40
Speaker
arguing, the police still kind of put their attention on Dory. That revelation of it having been set, of it being arson, coupled with the neighbors reportedly seeing Dory's car leaving the property right before the fire was noticeable, actually let police to initially believe that Dory had set her own house ablaze
00:15:06
Speaker
and then left. Well, I don't think she would do that after paying for a new roof and a septic system. Well, I think that is absolutely true, but I don't know if they knew that she had done those things yet. Yeah. So now they're looking for Dory as well as her car and they issued a bolo, a B on the lookout for bulletin. Oh, bolo. Yeah. Well, Maggie, they found her car.
00:15:33
Speaker
just not how they thought they would find it. And they didn't have to wait long. At 5 a.m., just two hours after Dory's house was reported to be engulfed in flames, and three hours after they had seen her car leave,
00:15:53
Speaker
A call came in about a car in flames near a boat ramp by dais ditch just west of Lake Okeechobee. The location of the burning car in Glades County was an 80 mile roughly drive from Dory's home.
00:16:12
Speaker
There was no other evidence, well, that's been reported publicly anyway, that was found near the car. And whatever was inside the car was likely unsalvageable because Maggie, here's a picture of the car. I mean, this burnt the tires off of this thing. The hood is bent backwards. Wow.
00:16:39
Speaker
Yeah. So if there were evidence in the car, I mean, yeah, taking it. So now police are a little bit confused, right? They, they send in a crime scene investigator. They bring in rescue drivers because again, we're at a boat ramp.
00:17:03
Speaker
The divers search the nearby waters. There's no sign of Dory Myers to be found in this location. But now they're asking, why was her car driven here, of all places, out in the middle of nowhere? And where did Dory go from here? Because there were no remains found in her car, so that was ruled out.
00:17:29
Speaker
But now they're thinking, okay, did she meet with foul play? Or was this some sort of elaborate plan to escape her life? But if it's the latter, and there was a plan to hitch a ride with somebody else anyway, as she would have had to have done if she's setting her car on fire and that had been planned, then why drive 80 miles away to do that in the first place? Like why not have- Yeah, because you set your house on fire, so why not just like- Have somebody pick you up at your house.
00:17:58
Speaker
So all signs actually pointed not to Dory leaving of her own free will, but to Dory's abduction, in my opinion, at this point anyway, because I feel like to presume otherwise would have involved a plan that honestly made no sense. Just like you said, why would she burn her house down if she just put a new roof on it and
00:18:21
Speaker
It also doesn't explain certain things that were later found in her home. But you know, I feel we've covered a lot of cases on here that stranger outcomes have been suggested. That is true. That is true.
00:18:37
Speaker
So we'll talk about all the theories. Curiously though, Maggie, in the house, they located Dory's purse and her cell phone. Okay. Oh, you know, she probably wouldn't leave that behind if she was. Yeah. The cell phone may be about the purse, probably not. Usually not the things that you're going to leave behind if you're planning on going somewhere. Like you said, maybe your cell phone because you could track it, but you're going to need some money.
00:19:02
Speaker
Right. Now, at least with her cell phone now, law enforcement were able to go through her recent contacts and make phone calls in an attempt to locate Dory.
Witnesses and Suspects: The Marines and Joe's Account
00:19:14
Speaker
So there's one plus. Several of the numbers on the cell phone, they were clients of hers from the salon who had become friends. But then they saw a recurring number and it belonged to a man named Joe Jones. Dory's
00:19:31
Speaker
ex-boyfriend or ex-fiance. I saw him described as both. Joe was someone whom Dory had dated for some time. And even though the interviews I've listened to with Dory's sister, Donna Jean, don't specify why the two broke up, it does seem like they remained on good terms.
00:19:51
Speaker
And is this the guy that you talked about towards the beginning that you said she was dating someone? No, she's dating someone new. Okay. Yes. And I say that they stayed on good terms, Dory and Jo, because they actually still spoke on the phone frequently and because they had just gone on a cruise together.
00:20:14
Speaker
as exes. That's weird to me. Let me clarify why Dory sister Donna Jean said that happened. So Donna Jean said in her interview with the Unfound podcast that the tickets had actually been purchased long before the breakup with Joe.
00:20:34
Speaker
And so the plan had been for Joe, Dory, Dory's father and her stepmother to go on this cruise. Well, the tickets were bought in each person's name. Their passports were already ready. So even though the two had broken up by the time the cruise happened in December, it wasn't like the ticket could be given
00:20:57
Speaker
to someone else. It was more of a use it or lose it situation. They can't transfer cruise tickets. That's what Dory's sister made it sound like. Oh, I don't think I would have just been like
00:21:10
Speaker
I refuse to go. That's what I'm thinking. But they all went. Or you can room with my father and I'll room with my stepmother. Well, and that's true. And fair. I don't know if they did change any sleeping arrangements or things like that for the trip. But I do know that nothing had rekindled on the trip because remember
00:21:31
Speaker
Like I just said, Dory was seeing a new man by the time, actually when the trip happened, she was already seeing the new man. But from all accounts, the trip went smoothly. And as a side note, I even learned in that interview for Unfound that Dory's new boyfriend had agreed to watch Dory's animals while she was on this cruise. With her ex-boyfriend. Yeah. And that blows my mind a little because I would imagine that there would be some jealousy there.
00:21:59
Speaker
or discomfort at the very least. I just don't think I could imagine anything being okay with me going on a cruise with an ex-boyfriend, nor would I be okay with him going on a cruise with an ex-girlfriend. And if he was like, yeah, I'm going on a cruise with my ex-girlfriend, can you watch my dogs while I'm gone? I'd be like, absolutely not. And this is a new relationship. So they won't even have the trust built yet. So I know I found that very odd.
00:22:28
Speaker
Of the content of their conversation, because remember he's showing up in her phone, on the night of January 10th, 2006, Joe told police that he had actually been out of town. He was a long haul truck driver, had been out of town that evening with a job in Missouri, but that he had called Dory that night around 9.30 PM. Oddly, it's
00:22:56
Speaker
actually reported that he still called Dory nearly every day and sometimes multiple times a day. No. But in that phone conversation, he heard voices in the background. And so he asked Dory who it was. This is what he's telling police. He said that she told him about her evening going around to the different bars and that she had met two men
00:23:24
Speaker
who were U.S. Marines who had just returned from Iraq and had been injured in the line of duty and that these two men had needed a place to stay that evening. And so he is alluding to the fact that she was like, oh, come stay with me. Yes.
00:23:41
Speaker
He said that wanting to show compassion to those who were willing to sacrifice for our country, and her family did acknowledge that Dory had a soft spot for veterans because of that, you know, volunteer work for the VFW. But Joe reported that she had told him that she offered them a place to stay for the night
00:24:02
Speaker
and was going to set one of them up on the couch in the living room and the other on a fold-out bed in the game room at her home in Fort Pierce along Salerno Road near Turnpike Theater Road in the Lakewood Park area of Vero Beach, Florida. So she just brings them home. She says I'm gonna put one on the couch. One of them's gonna sleep on the fold-out bed. Were we able to prove that that happened? I'll get to some details.
00:24:31
Speaker
And I'll let you make your own decision. But Joe admitted to police that he had been angry about the situation.
00:24:41
Speaker
To be honest, I don't know if she told Joe about the two men because she wanted to make him jealous, because it made her feel safe to have somebody know that the two men were there, or because she just didn't think anything of it and was telling him that they're there in the same way. If you asked me what I was doing and I would say, oh, just driving home. Yeah, that's the vibe I got. Yeah, it's just matter of fact. But I don't know why he would have admitted that he got angry. He's an ex.
00:25:11
Speaker
Yeah. Unless he got angry, not really from the jealousy standpoint, but more so from the potentially dangerous. Right. Yeah. He told law enforcement, Jodie, that Dory told him they were going to play some poker before turning in for the night.
00:25:27
Speaker
In an interview, reporter Will Greenlee conducted with Detective Taylor, who was one of the lead detectives in Dory's case that was published in the Treasure Coast Palm newspaper. Taylor recalled part of the conversation that he had with Joe and Joe saying that Dory, quote, was going to play poker, which he said was not unusual for her because he described her as a free spirit, end quote.
00:25:56
Speaker
Now, what playing poker and being a free spirit have to do with one another? I don't know. But further, in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Joe told that reporter, quote, it kind of aggravated me that she had brought a couple of guys home, but Dory always had compassion for young people in the military. She felt they were fighting and dying, and she wanted to help these guys out, end quote.
00:26:22
Speaker
And that's why I got the vibe that it was just almost like you said, you calling me and saying, hey, what are you doing? I'm driving home right now. Just a normal thing. Not that she necessarily did that all the time, but that I don't think she saw from what I know about her in these limited few minutes, but the potential danger in that. Armed with new information now that
00:26:46
Speaker
Dory potentially had two men who were in her home. Law enforcement went to the bars that Dory had visited that evening of the tent. They found that she had been alone at Hillbilly Hideaway.
Unidentified Men: The Search for Answers
00:26:58
Speaker
She had been alone at Pineapple Joe's.
00:27:02
Speaker
But at St. Lucie's, Dory had been seen speaking first to a group of people. Some reports said it was two women and two men. Other reports say it was three men and one woman. But either way, at some point through the time that she spent there at St. Lucie's, two of the individuals left and Dory was seen speaking with two of the men from that group.
00:27:29
Speaker
The problem is that no one saw Dory nor the men leave the bar. Oh, so we can't verify if she left with the two men. Or if they left at the same time and drove different cars or anything like that. Yeah, we don't know any of those things. They could have left at different times altogether.
00:27:50
Speaker
All we know is that she was talking to them. But what we did have now, Maggie, thanks to those who saw the two men, were sketches made from the descriptions. One of the men was Caucasian between 25 and 35 years old and weighing roughly 175 to 200 pounds. He wore a baseball cap. The other man had a darker complexion.
00:28:14
Speaker
And according to the bar patrons, appeared to either be Hispanic or Native American. And Maggie, here are the sketches.
00:28:25
Speaker
Well, I'm going to be kind of honest with you. I feel like both of these pictures, if you take every stereotype of Caucasian men and put it into a drawing, that's that guy. If you take every stereotype of Hispanic or Native American men, it's the second guy. Yeah. Like they're, there's nothing
00:28:54
Speaker
I know, distinguishable. Yeah. Because we didn't hear anything about, you know, if they were, uh, she had told Joe that they had come back from a rock that they had been injured, but we don't get any descriptions of any visible injuries that the men may have had or anything like that. Hmm. Yeah. I just feel like they googled.
00:29:21
Speaker
sketch, pulley sketch of Caucasian man wearing baseball hat. Yeah. And this is what came up. I know. Well, obviously, maybe because they're so generic or I don't know for what reason, but the sketches were shown to all of Dory's circle of acquaintances and her family, but not a single person recognized either of the men and said, oh, I know that person from this place.
00:29:47
Speaker
However, what was in Dory's home after the fire did show signs that someone other than Dory had been there and that maybe Joe's description were true.
Theories and Speculations: What Happened to Dorie?
00:30:00
Speaker
The couch had been set up with pillows and blankets had been pulled out. Or hear me out, I'm sure. We'll talk about this in theories. But Joe set this whole elaborate thing up. Well, that is a theory and we will be talking about it.
00:30:15
Speaker
Additionally, the pullout sofa in the game room was also ready. Like you asked, did it look that way because the two men had been there? Or, I mean, is it even enough, even if they were there, even if they were there, is that enough to prove that they had a link to the fire and whatever happened after?
00:30:40
Speaker
Or, like you asked, could the home have been staged? So let's go ahead and we'll talk about some theories to explore those questions and more that you'll likely have. So theory number one is that Dory had left. And by the way, in all of the years since, we have not heard from Dory. There's been zero sign. And we have no body. And we have no remains.
00:31:06
Speaker
Theory number one is that Dory left of her own free will. Law enforcement, before hearing of the two men obviously, thought this theory was the strongest possibility. Additionally, Donna Jean said on the Unfound podcast that many actually believed this theory because not long before January 10th into the morning of
00:31:29
Speaker
the 11th, Dory had been at a local bar and reportedly over the course of the evening had struck up a conversation with the bartender and said something like, do you ever wish you could just disappear? No, I'm going to be honest though, like sometimes in life it's really stressful. I'll tell Anthony, do you ever wish we could just run away? That doesn't mean I'm going to plan my run away with him. Yeah. I could not.
00:31:59
Speaker
agree more because that's exactly what I was thinking. Obviously on the surface, that does seem to indicate to the people who are, especially those who are prone to believe that she left of her own free will, that that comment shows that it's a possibility. But Donna Jean actually said that she felt the comment was the result of an argument that she and Lori had had the day before she had that, made that statement and
00:32:29
Speaker
I completely agree with you. I feel like we've all felt either pain or like you said, pressure at some point where we've asked or said something similar. Yeah. I just feel like maybe she was having a stressful day and she just wanted to be able to disappear for a few minutes. I don't think that necessarily means she faked her death and ran away. Right.
00:32:50
Speaker
And if that is the case that she left of her own free will, why fix the roof and the subject tank of your house and pay off your car? Knowing you're going to destroy them. Yeah. And even though her son was grown at the time that this happened, why go away and never try to contact him? Why not take money or your passport with you? Because neither of those things were touched.
00:33:17
Speaker
But there are other much more significant things that led her family to know in their guts that Dory didn't just leave. And some of those things we'll get to in a moment, but the biggest clue had to do with Dory's animals. Notice I did mention them with the fire. It had been clear to the fire department that whomever had set the fire
00:33:44
Speaker
had intended for the animals to perish in it because they had been closed off in a room when the fire was set. And that is something obviously Dory would never have done. Well, I think that right there on its own should be enough to point to police that some foul play is involved. Exactly.
00:34:07
Speaker
Yeah, and I feel like, and I know this is odd to say, but I almost feel like even someone who is intent on harming an individual, it's one thing to- Yes, I agree with what you're getting or anything. Like it's one thing I feel like
00:34:27
Speaker
to want to kill a person. Who has hurt you. Yes. Maybe. But then to add in an innocent animal, I almost feel like it's more psychotic. I mean, I know you have to be psychotic to kill somebody to begin with, but I'm talking about like, this is like serial killer vibes. Cause I feel like that's how most people start is with harming animals. So why harm the animal? I know.
00:34:55
Speaker
And that is absolutely true. I mean, that is how we know psychologically serial killers tend to do that. And I think with the killing of the animal too, animals can't rat you out to police and tell police what you look like. So that's why it seems more senseless.
00:35:18
Speaker
unless it's a parrot. I did read about that. Yes, it did. There was a parrot who ratted somebody out. You're right. But a dog and a cat? No. No. Theory number two, there's the ex, Joe.
Joe's Role: Suspicions and Alibis
00:35:35
Speaker
There are those who believe Joe had something to do with Dory's disappearance. They wonder whether maybe he had been jealous of Dory seeing somebody new.
00:35:46
Speaker
He's also the last person to have spoken with Dory and to provide the story of the bars and the two men, which points the finger elsewhere. But people were especially suspicious when, as Donna Jean mentioned in the Unfound Podcasts interview, Joe hadn't been in Missouri on business as he had previously stated.
00:36:10
Speaker
because remember he said I had to haul to take to Missouri. And while he was not in Vero Beach, he had been in Florida, according to the GPS on this truck. As such, he was both questioned by police and subjected to two polygraph examinations, one of which he failed and the other he passed.
00:36:35
Speaker
Okay, now what stood out to family as suspicious was that Dory's sister said Joe had been seen at the burnt remains of Dory's home two days after the fire, walking around and picking through things to take.
00:36:53
Speaker
It wasn't taped off as a crime scene? Apparently not. Okay, that's interesting in and of itself. Donna Jean stated that Joe hadn't called to say he was back in town, nor had he called the family for updates on Dory, or even to see if she had been found.
00:37:14
Speaker
So that's what looks weird to family. Yeah. Especially if he's calling her like every day. Yeah. He's calling her every day to check on her. Now her home is burnt. Her car is found. And she's missing. Yeah. She's nowhere to be found. And you're not going to call and check on what's happened to her. So some people wondered if he didn't call.
00:37:41
Speaker
because he already knew what had happened to her. Okay, to Play Devil's advocate to this theory, GPS showed Joe was in Florida, but not in Vero Beach.
00:37:55
Speaker
I also think to go along with the devil's advocate, he was, I mean, I don't want to say honest because we don't really, I guess, know if he's being honest about his story, but I do think aspects of that he was being honest about, like why tell police that you got angry with her when that's going to make you potentially a suspect in her disappearance? Yeah, because that kind of gives a motive of him to have harmed her, this angry jealousy.
00:38:25
Speaker
Mmhmm.
00:38:26
Speaker
Yeah, and we don't know if Joe continued to call Dory because he was kind of obsessed with her or because he just genuinely cared about her well-being. And I do feel like she seems to be the kind of person that makes friends easily. So I'm wondering if they just maybe stayed, well, I know you said they ended on good terms, but I'm wondering like if they just stayed friends. Right.
00:38:56
Speaker
Now, it does seem weird to me that Joe would have gone to the house without calling Dory's family and that he didn't call to check on the investigation into her disappearance. All of that seems weird. Yeah. But.
00:39:11
Speaker
Maybe he, like when the detail that he shows up at Dory's home, maybe he just went there to feel close to her. And I was thinking about this because I know when my grandma passed away, the first thing that I wanted to do was to make the two hour drive and just be in her house.
00:39:33
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Because even though she wasn't there, everything about that house reminded me of her. And in my grief, I needed that.
00:39:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you know, everything it smells like or you can picture there. Yeah, I understand that part. So might Joe have felt something similar and he had, you know, gone to the home where there he is, he's walking around and maybe he saw something that was significant to him. Maybe it was from their relationship or just remembering Dory in general. And so,
00:40:05
Speaker
That's why he picked it up and maybe decided to keep it. I don't want to read into his intent when I don't know his intent. And finally, the Unfound podcast brought up a strong argument concerning the Joe theory. That argument is that Joe wouldn't have had to worry about his DNA being found in Dory's house because he had once lived there when they were together.
00:40:31
Speaker
So of course his DNA would be there. So what this implies is that he would have had no need to set the home or the car ablaze because if his DNA were present, it could easily be... It would be weird. Yeah, it could easily be explained. Theory three, the two men from
The Enigma of the Two Men: Lack of Evidence
00:40:50
Speaker
St. Lucie.
00:40:52
Speaker
Obviously, the majority of people believe the two men did exist because it wasn't just Joe telling the police that they did. There were patrons of the bar who could give physical descriptions of two men whom Dory was seen speaking with. Right? Because I kind of got the vibe that they did not exist.
00:41:12
Speaker
But, you know, I'm weird. So let's see what the rest of this theory states. So we have him saying that there are two guys there, but like I said, I mean, this kind of backed up when patrons of the bar said, yeah, I saw her talking to these two guys. Here's what they look like.
00:41:29
Speaker
There were indications that more than just Dory had been in her home, not only because of the sleeping preparations that I mentioned earlier, right? The pillows, the blankets, and all of that that seemed to support Joe's story, but also because of other things found in the house after the fire that the family took note of. So I told you I'd come back to the fire, and here we are. Her family noted that there were things out of place
00:41:59
Speaker
For example, several pictures from Dory's recent trip to Belize, pictures that she had just shown to her sister and hadn't yet put into an album, were sprawled out on the counter in the guest bathroom.
00:42:16
Speaker
Interesting. Not a place that I feel you would put them out to maybe organize them. Yeah. And probably not a place that Dory would have frequented often. I don't know how many times we have a bathroom in the back hallway. I never go in it. Right. So that seemed weird.
00:42:37
Speaker
Strange. Her family also noted that the ashtray was filled to the brim with cigarette butts. And Donna Jean told Unfound that seeing the ashtray was a red flag for her because Dory would empty the ashtray constantly. This was a habit that she had. She hated seeing cigarette butts in it.
00:42:59
Speaker
And the ashtray was filled with butts from a brand that Dory herself didn't smoke. Do we check the stuff for DNA? I'll come back. I'll come back. But it was clear that someone else had been there.
00:43:14
Speaker
Yet another red flag was that there were beer bottles strewn everywhere. And again, according to Donna Jean, Dory liked to keep things organized. And she was the kind that if you were there drinking at her house, she would ask you to throw away your empty bottle before getting a new one. Yeah. So whomever had been in Dory's home had not followed the rules of her home.
00:43:41
Speaker
But the signs continued, Maggie. There was a bottle of vodka that was found by the television in the bedroom. Dory would not have carried a bottle of alcohol outside of the kitchen. Her sister, again, argued that. Also in the bedroom, Donna Jean noticed that one side of the bed was badly burned, likely from accelerant, and it was the side of the bed on which Dory slept. Hmm.
00:44:09
Speaker
Donna Jean also believed that the comforter was missing. And what's more, there was a beer in the freezer of a brand that Dory didn't drink. So these details led many to believe that one or both of the two men had been responsible for whatever had happened to Dory. Okay. My devil's advocate stance with the two men is that
00:44:38
Speaker
We can't even verify that the two men left with Dory, let alone went to her house. No one saw them leave the bar together. The neighbors heard arguing, but I didn't read anywhere where they said that they heard more than one male voice with the arguing. And even then, there's still no way that we could say for sure that the male voice or voices belonged to these two men specifically.
00:45:08
Speaker
Do we know people that frequented her home, what types of cigarettes they smoked or beer that they drank so we could potentially rule out certain individuals based on that? I again have not seen that the police did that.
00:45:25
Speaker
So, sure, the home looked as though there had been preparations for someone to stay and things were out of place. But we have already brought this up. That could have been staged. Yeah. Or again, it might have been different people, like you just said, who came to Dory's home. Some people have said, well, clearly the two men are guilty.
00:45:54
Speaker
because there are sketches of them out there and if they were innocent, they would have come forward to say, hey, that's a sketch of me. I was at St. Lucie's that night and I spoke with a woman named Dory, but I didn't hurt her. Here's my evidence or here's my alibi.
00:46:08
Speaker
But Dory's case didn't get huge national publicity. So they might not have even known if they're innocent that the woman they spoke with went missing nor have known of the fires because I don't make a habit if I visit someplace on vacation or work or just passing through to go back and read the local news to see if anybody I met along the way had met with foul play. You get what I'm saying?
00:46:33
Speaker
And the pictures were so generic. That's true.
00:46:40
Speaker
you may not even look at that and be like, oh, that's me. That's true. So, I mean, I understand that argument of they should have known and come forward if her case got major national publicity, or like you said, the sketches were more identifiable, but for a lesser known case, I feel like that's a hard argument to make. And obviously that's why it's so important that we share these cases.
00:47:07
Speaker
We make posts about them that we share those posts about them that we get the word out. Yeah. Cause it could potentially help clear someone or help making a wrist. Exactly. A final argument concerning the two men is the location of Dory's burning car near Dyess ditch in the article for CBS 12 by Dylan Huberman.
00:47:33
Speaker
Detective Taylor of the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office said, quote, Dias Ditch, if you don't know it's there, you'll never see it. You wouldn't find it unless you knew it was there. For some reason, they went to that specific area and it was somebody that knew that area, end quote.
00:47:56
Speaker
Okay. So it's off the beaten path. And I even feel like those types of areas you wouldn't just stumble upon if you were randomly dropping. Right. And if these are two men who none of the locals knew, then in order to say that they're responsible,
00:48:18
Speaker
you would have to either argue that they did stumble upon it, or that maybe they were associated with someone from the area who did know about it. But either way, the police do believe that there is likely a key to solving Dory's case that has something to do with the location of where her car was found. Yeah, I feel like it's almost too random to be like a coincidence. And Maggie, there is a theory number four.
00:48:47
Speaker
Okay.
The New Boyfriend: Suspicions Arise
00:48:48
Speaker
There's one more person to consider. Okay. The new boyfriend. Oh yeah, I kind of forgot about that. So oddly, Dory's family didn't even know the name of this new boyfriend, only that he lived in Fort Myers, Florida, and that Dory would often cat-sit for him.
00:49:10
Speaker
In fact, that is one of the reasons why some argue that he could be responsible. You still don't know his name? No, we still don't. Nope. It was believed that Dory had been cat sitting at the time of her disappearance. But if that were true, and Dory's animals were killed, where was the remains of his cat?
00:49:36
Speaker
So these people were thinking he brought his cat with him to cat sit. Well, that or that Dory was cat sitting. And there is an argument outside. Could there have actually been two men there that Dory brought home? The boyfriend comes.
00:50:00
Speaker
It could have been the boyfriend who's heard outside arguing with Dory. He does something to Dory, and then lets her animals perish in the flames, but he takes his cat. Okay, gotcha. I caught up, I'm there. Yeah. So, a lot of people even wondered, in fact, if the boyfriend could have been one of the two men from the bar. Because we don't know what he looks like. We don't even know his name. True.
00:50:31
Speaker
because Dory's sister and her father argued that Dory would never have brought two complete strangers into her house to stay the night unless she either knew them or they were known by somebody that she trusted.
00:50:49
Speaker
So they agreed, yes, Dory does have a soft spot for veterans, but they said she would have bought them a meal or paid for a hotel room long before offering for them to come back to her house. Yeah, I don't think that she was.
00:51:07
Speaker
dumb. I think she had common sense and I think like that they believe if she was going to help someone, she would have bought them dinner or pay for their room before saying, Hey, come stay with me. Right. So could one of the two men have been her boyfriend and maybe she just told her ex Joe that it was two men because she did, she kind of wanted to spare his feelings. We don't know.
00:51:34
Speaker
What we do know is that even though Joe had called to get updates on the investigation, which I still find weird, at least he did come around because Dory's boyfriend never showed his face again. Yeah. And I know you had only said, or you had said they'd only been dating for a little while, but I still feel
00:51:57
Speaker
that I would have wanted to help in some way search for her or, you know, do something. Yeah. And in my mind, if police had Dorie's phone because it were left behind,
00:52:14
Speaker
Wouldn't her new boyfriend have wondered why Dory hadn't called him and have tried to call her? You know, and that is weird now that you mention that because why wasn't his number one that was repeated in her phone? Mm-hmm, yeah. Why hadn't he called her that night? Mm-hmm. Or why didn't he go by her home to see evidence of the fire and then tried to call or get in contact with her family? Yeah, it's a little weird. Yeah, the radio silence is sketchy. Mm-hmm.
00:52:44
Speaker
Then there's the fact that although the boat ramp were in the middle of nowhere, according to Unfound, it would have been along the route from Vero Beach, where Dory lived, to Fort Myers, where her new boyfriend lived. Okay, so here's my final counter argument. I have to do the devil's advocate. It's that the cat sitting dates could have been wrong.
00:53:14
Speaker
Maybe Dory had watched his cat the week before this happened. Or was planning on watching it the week after. And that would explain why the remains of his cat aren't there. And maybe Dory's family didn't know his name because the relationship was still fairly new. I mean, I don't know if that's necessarily as odd. She just hadn't introduced him yet. Maybe he didn't have the phone number of any of her family members to call and check on Dory.
00:53:44
Speaker
That's a good point. Right. Besides, since Dory's disappearance was at least covered locally, it is possible because it's local and he's fairly local that he did read about what had happened in the paper. So could he have been maybe too hurt first that Dory went on a cruise with her ex and now here it is in the story that she had two men over at her house.
00:54:10
Speaker
Or could their relationship, this is kind of heartless, but have been so new that he just moved on? Yeah. Or the opposite. Could he have been so hurt and jealous that there were two men at her house that he had a motive?
Investigation Critiques: Family's Pursuit of Justice
00:54:27
Speaker
So regardless of which theory is the most plausible, Dory's family felt that local law enforcement hadn't been equipped to effectively investigate a case of this magnitude. And they have argued that, going back to some of your questions earlier, because the beer bottle in the freezer and the cigarette butts of the brand that Dory didn't smoke had not been collected.
00:54:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's weird. Yeah. In fact, Dory's son and her sister were the ones to take those items to the station to suggest that they be tested for DNA. So police didn't even initiate that. Yep. And Donna Jean further told and found that to her knowledge, police never even sprayed Luminol to test for blood either. I mean,
00:55:18
Speaker
So it's potentially possible. Could it be possible, I guess I'm trying to say, that the fire got so hot that it just burnt everything and there's no remains of her? But I go back to the fact that they stated only about a third. Oh, that's true. Was burnt because the fire department got there so quickly. Now, I don't know if maybe. What about the car? Putting the, now the car, I would guess.
00:55:45
Speaker
all evidence was gone, but I don't know if in the house when you're dousing it with either water or the foam that they use now, if that destroys even more. So it could have been that even the places that weren't scorched, maybe evidence was destroyed because of that. Gotcha. But just as Dory's case sat dormant with a few, if any, leads coming in,
00:56:11
Speaker
So too did the burnt remains of Dory's home sit unoccupied and untouched for quite some time.
Dorie's Legal Status and Family's Ongoing Fight
00:56:18
Speaker
The neighbors actually began complaining about the eyesore and the taxes were coming due and without the funds to fix the home nor to continue to pay for it because it's uninhabitable.
00:56:32
Speaker
there was unfortunately only one recourse of action for the family to take, and that was to have Dorie Meyers legally declared dead. And I can't imagine how hard that must have been for the family to be forced to do that. And then at the same time, try to keep hope alive that you're wrong. With law enforcement now listing Dorie Meyers as endangered, missing, the judge ruled in the family's favor.
00:57:03
Speaker
Dory's sister, Donna Jean Capp, the only remaining sibling because she lost both Dory and her brother in the same year. Oh my goodness. Wow. Became a missing persons advocate. She actually found solace not only in passing out flyers of her missing sister to do her part in keeping attention on the case.
00:57:26
Speaker
in passing out justice for Dory bracelets at the annual conference for Community United Efforts Center for Missing Persons, but also when speaking with other families who had experienced similar trauma of having a missing loved one. She told reporter Nicholas Samuel of TC Palm newspaper, quote, it's healing.
00:57:47
Speaker
to talk to other families that are new to this. You give them comfort because you've already been there. People want you to forget about it. Until I find out what happened to her, I can't let it go." End quote.
Hope and Awareness: Seeking Public Assistance
00:58:04
Speaker
But both Dory's father and her sister, Donna Jean, have found their peace, as they have both since passed.
00:58:14
Speaker
So there's no, well, I guess her son, right? Yes. And that is why I really relied on the Unfound podcast. That interview with Donna Jean happened less than six months before she passed away. And it's the only podcast where she's interviewed. Yes. Wow. Yeah.
00:58:38
Speaker
So that's why I relied heavily on that particular episode. But her dad and her sister did leave behind a legacy though of hope and of action that show the importance of continuing to fight for coverage and to let hope win. In fact, Dory's father, who had tried during his life to get Dory's case covered on America's Most Wanted, had a last wish to set up a billboard so Dory wouldn't be forgotten.
00:59:06
Speaker
This is depressing on so many levels. I feel like she's just gonna be forgotten. I know. Well, I will tell you this. That was his last wish, and in late 2023, so just recently, two billboards were erected.
00:59:23
Speaker
Oh, good. One off US one north of Turnpike feeder road and along the St. Lucie Indian River County line. And the other was constructed west of Lake Okeechobee near where Dory's car was set ablaze and the billboards which featured Dory's photo, the contact information for the tip line and mentioned the $10,000 reward are
00:59:46
Speaker
now bringing attention back to Dory's case, which hasn't ever gotten the full attention that it deserves. But at least the billboards are a start. Yeah. In an interview with Dylan Huberman of CBS 12, Detective Paul Taylor
01:00:03
Speaker
indicated that he still has hope of new tips coming in saying, quote, a lot of time passes. And I've seen that in other cold cases where somebody was afraid of somebody or they were friends with somebody. And now that relationship is no longer there. And it kind of leads to them to come forward. I believe that these billboards are just something to help push them. End quote. And the sheriff at the time,
01:00:31
Speaker
also still held on to hope of
Closure Hopes: New Leads and Continued Efforts
01:00:33
Speaker
closure. Several sources I read reported that Dory's case is one that stuck with the sheriff because he spoke with Dory's father on multiple occasions. So father to father.
01:00:45
Speaker
It stuck with him. In fact, the sheriff, Ken, I don't know if it's Ken Mascara or Ken Mascara. He told reporter John Shainman of West Palm Beach TV, quote, from one father to another. I always wanted to bring closure to this family for him. Hopefully with these billboards, we can get a lead that brings closure to Dory's remaining loved ones and friends, end quote.
01:01:09
Speaker
And Detective Taylor did indicate, even though Donna Jean made it sound like nothing was really collected, Detective Taylor indicated that some DNA evidence has been sent off for testing, but I couldn't find anywhere, what it was from, how it was collected, anything like that. But I can only hope that one day there's a hit. So Maggie, that's a lot. There's a lot of theories. What are your thoughts?
01:01:39
Speaker
I feel like it's almost hard for me to settle on a theory just because of how depressing this case is. I mean, all she has left is her son to advocate for her and to try to find out what happened to her. Well, I guess now her son and us, it was really it. And it's sad that there's the potential that she's just literally going to be forgotten. I know. I don't know.
01:02:10
Speaker
I feel like without having the background information that we typically get from the interviews, it's hard to gauge what type of person Dorie was. I mean, not like saying that she's a bad person or whatever, but how willingly would she have invited strangers into her home? I know that some people said that that wasn't her and that she wouldn't have done that. I just think if we had like,
01:02:39
Speaker
more background information on who she was, that would be easier for me to say that I agreed with him or not. I don't really get
01:02:52
Speaker
vibes from Joe that it was him, the current boyfriend, the no-named boyfriend, that whole situation is just really weird. And I need to know more about him. I agree. I think to be able to make a definitive decision. Right. And especially, I think the police are right. I think if we can figure out why the car was taken, where it was taken,
01:03:22
Speaker
that that will lead us to the perpetrator. Dorie Ann Myers, a Caucasian female, had brown hair and brown eyes. She may wear eyeglasses or contacts. As identifiable markers, Dorie has several tattoos, which include the following. A lion, a wizard, and a Harley Davidson emblem on her back. A rose on her left earlobe. Tattoos on her abdomen and each buttock.
01:03:52
Speaker
and a tattoo down her left thigh. She also has several scars, including a four inch scar on her right arm and shoulder and pins inserted into her ankles. If still alive, Dorie Ann Myers will be 62 this September. As always, I like to end with words from the family. The following is a poem Donna Jean wrote for her little sister Dorie.
01:04:19
Speaker
You were my little tag along, but I didn't mind. There was a big world out there we had to find. Our lives were hard, but we played the hands we were dealt. Wondering if anyone knew just how we felt. Years of sacrifice just trying to belong. And before I knew it, you were gone. No more the responsibility of watching over you. The real world has come into view.
01:04:47
Speaker
How I yearn for your sometimes annoying ways and to bring back our happiest days. You looked up to me. I never understood why. Your faith in me makes me cry. My heart is breaking, always aching for my little tag along. Your disappearance is just so wrong. I wait impatiently for news of your whereabouts, always nervous and so full of doubts. I pray, I cry, I scream, I wish.
01:05:17
Speaker
This all was a dream. I'm so full of anger and rage. My feelings are so hard to gauge. With God's good graces and wills that be, I hope to have you home again. So many things we have yet to see. Please come tag along with me. Anyone with information concerning Dorie Ann Myers is asked to call Detective Taylor as 772-462-3386.
01:05:47
Speaker
or Treasure Coast Crimestoppers at 1-800-273-TIPS. That's 1-800-273-8477.
01:05:59
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
01:06:29
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.