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E019: Dorothy Jane Scott
1.9k Plays6 years ago
He knew intimate personal details about her. He knew where she was at all times. He said he loved Dorothy Jane Scott. But, he also wanted to kill her.
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Transcript
Podcasting Changes Amid Social Distancing
00:00:00
Speaker
If you're new to coffee and cases, welcome. If you're returning, we're so glad that you're back. As you all know, our world has been turned upside down, and as bad as Allison and I hate it, our podcasting world has changed as well. Sadly, Sleuthhounds, Allison and I can't be together during this time to record for you guys, so we're flying solo.
00:00:20
Speaker
So while we're being asked to keep our distance from others, to stay inside when possible, and to not gather in large groups, we ask that you bear with us as our podcast changes just a little bit. We are keeping faith that all of this will end soon and that life will slowly start returning to normal.
00:00:37
Speaker
We appreciate you, Sleuthhounds, so much and want to continue to provide you with cases. After all, our goal is continued hope and closure for these cases. And especially in times like these, we want to continue in our small way of helping those families to keep their family member in our hearts and minds. Thank you for bearing with us and for understanding. We care about you. We love you guys.
00:01:00
Speaker
Stay together, united in human spirit, even if not physically. Stay safe. Now, onto this week's episode. I think all of us sleuth hounds have had that moment in life when we feel like we're being followed. That person is following just a little too close to you on your afternoon jog through the park, or that van circled around to park right beside you at Kroger, even though there are plenty of empty spots.
00:01:27
Speaker
those moments that leave us glancing over our shoulders, checking to see if someone is behind us.
00:01:34
Speaker
Those moments that have us calling our best friend when we're walking through the dark parking garage so we're not alone. For me, my moment came last year. I was driving home to my mom's house, a three hour drive from where I live. A car came up beside me as if to pass me. He waved at me and winked at me. Creep, I thought, and I sped up, but so did he.
00:01:57
Speaker
He would pass me, and then slow down, so I had to go around him, and then he would pass me again. I'm not gonna lie, I was scared. I sped up, breaking several traffic laws, I'm sure, until he was out of sight, only to have him reappear, over and over again.
00:02:17
Speaker
I felt trapped. I called Anthony in tears. What was I supposed to do if something happened and I had to pull over? How was I supposed to protect myself against a man who had at least 100 pounds on me? Finally, he turned and the torment ended. I chalked it up to me overreacting. I was being irrational. But I don't make that trip without protection now.
Who Was Dorothy Jane Scott?
00:02:40
Speaker
I chose to listen to that small voice.
00:02:43
Speaker
How often do Allison and I talk about not ignoring that lingering voice in your head? We tend to ignore it, to push it away. But how many cases have we covered that may have turned out differently if only the victim would have listened? Our victim today heard that voice in her mind and she did listen. But sadly, the steps she took weren't enough to save her.
00:03:08
Speaker
When she picked up the phone to hear, when I get you alone, I will cut you up into bits so no one will ever find you. She was scared. She listened to that voice telling her to take precautions. But for her, precautions weren't enough to overcome a stalker who knew everything about her. This is the story of Dorothy Jane Scott.
00:04:05
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.
00:04:14
Speaker
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. 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.
00:04:43
Speaker
So before I begin the show today, I wanna remind you about a couple of things. So one, remember that right now I am tucked away in the bedroom at my house recording instead of the normal place where Allison and I record. So you are likely to hear dogs barking, cats meowing, doors opening and closing. I'm trying to get away from all of that noise, but please just know that like we said earlier, things are weird right now. We're just in a different situation, but we're trying to make the best of it.
00:05:10
Speaker
I also want to take a second just to remind you about the challenge that Allison and I have going on. So we are still aiming to get the 150 ratings on iTunes. We currently have 81 so we're going up slowly but surely. But we need to get the 150 ratings.
00:05:29
Speaker
It only takes a split second. So if you're listening to us on iTunes, click that five star rating, please. We have listeners from all over the world. So while we are asking something that is huge, we know that you all can do it.
00:05:44
Speaker
It may take a little longer than last time, but when we get to that 150 likes, we will do another bonus episode for you guys, and hopefully, by the time that happens, all of this craziness will be over and Allison and I will be back together. Make sure that you follow us on social media, Coffee and Case's podcast on Facebook, or at Coffee Case's podcast on Instagram, or as always, listen in each week to know when that bonus episode will air.
00:06:11
Speaker
So now, Sleuthhounds, let's get into today's show.
Dorothy’s Life and Stalker Threats
00:06:14
Speaker
Just like any 32-year-old single mom, I'm sure that Dorothy Jane Scott had her fair share of troubles. You see, Sleuthhounds, Dorothy lived in Stanton, California, while her ex-husband lived in Missouri. So a lot of the parenting responsibilities fell on her. Even though she was a single mom to four-year-old Shawn, Dorothy did have the support of her family in California. Dorothy and Shawn lived with her aunt.
00:06:40
Speaker
and her parents, Jacob and Vera, kept Sean during the day when she went to work as a back office secretary at Swinger's Psych Shop and Custom John's Head Shop. Dorothy was reported by everyone to be a kind Christian lady who loved her son. Many reports I read talked a great deal about how she loved spending time with her son and would soak up every minute she had with him by talking to him about his day on the car ride home from her parents or reading to him at nighttime.
00:07:08
Speaker
Sadly though, Dorothy was battling something that year in 1980. Something that would lead to a four year old motherless and a family asking questions. For several months, Dorothy had been receiving very strange and alarming phone calls. Someone was stalking her. Sleuthounds, I'm not talking about stalking her social media accounts like we do, and we go back and we see pictures of her cousin's birthday party from six years ago.
00:07:35
Speaker
I'm talking about someone was really, truly stalking her. They knew personal details about her. They would know her outfit from the day, the places she'd been, the people she talked to. The caller would proclaim his love for her, telling her that she was his soulmate, that they belonged together. This was serious. The phone calls were escalating. They were moving past recalling events from her day and moving into a whole different realm.
00:08:04
Speaker
On one particular phone call, the caller told Dorothy to look outside her office window that he had left a present for her on her car. She slowly rose from her desk and peeked out the office window. There, on the hood of her car, was a dead rose, her stalker's gift. According to the article, what really happened to Dorothy Scott, one phone call in particular haunted Dorothy.
00:08:32
Speaker
It haunted her so much that she finally broke the silence and told her parents that someone was stalking her, that someone was harassing her.
The Day of Dorothy's Disappearance
00:08:41
Speaker
It haunted her so much that she decided to listen to that voice in her head that was telling her it wasn't okay by signing up for Karate Lessons. It haunted her so much that she looked into buying a gun.
00:08:55
Speaker
The caller told her that he would get her alone all to himself and dismember her into bits and pieces. He said, quote, when I get you alone, I will cut you up into bits so no one will ever find you, end quote. Now there's some conflicting dates here, but most articles I read reflect the dates I'm using. On May 28th, 1980, Dorothy dropped Shawn off at her parents' house as usual. She was headed to a staff meeting at work.
00:09:26
Speaker
When she arrived at work, all seemed normal. That was until she looked over to see one of her coworkers, Conrad, in severe pain. Slew founds Conrad's arm was so red and swollen that Dorothy insisted on taking him to the ER. So Dorothy, Conrad, and Pam, another coworker, hopped into Dorothy's car to take Conrad to the ER. This is where I began to question things.
00:09:54
Speaker
Dorothy was so concerned about her coworker that she insisted on rushing him to the ER, but not too concerned because she stopped to let her parents know what was going on and to change her black scarf to a red scarf. Now, I tried to remind myself that this was 1980, so where pre-cell phone, she couldn't simply pick up her Google Pixel, that's right, I'm not an iPhone user, and call her mom to let her know something was up.
00:10:23
Speaker
It's the taking time to change her scarf that I don't get. But anyways, they rush Conrad to the ER. It's determined in the ER that Conrad was bitten by a black widow.
00:10:36
Speaker
According to the article, what really happened to Dorothy Scott, before leaving the hospital, Dorothy went to the restroom while Pam waited with Conrad, and this was the only time that the women were separated from one another. A little later on, Dorothy insisted that Pam and Conrad go ahead and feel Conrad's prescription at the pharmacy, which was just feet away from where they were, while she went to go get the car.
00:11:01
Speaker
Dorothy assured them that this was best so that Conrad wouldn't have to exert too much energy. So Pam and Conrad go into the pharmacy. They quickly feel his antibiotic prescription. They make their way back out to the entrance to wait for Dorothy. They wait and they wait. But Sleuthhounds, Dorothy never drives up.
00:11:26
Speaker
Finally, they stand and begin to walk out into the parking lot, thinking that they'll just meet Dorothy in the spot where they parked. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, her vehicle comes flying by them with the headlights on full beam, partially blinding them as they're waving their arms to get the driver's attention. The driver never stopped the vehicle as it swerved past them and made a sharp right-hand turn out of the parking lot.
00:11:56
Speaker
Instead of being worried and concerned, you know, because who drives like a mad person in the hospital parking lot, Conrad and Pam chalk it up to Dorothy simply having some type of emergency, so they go back inside and wait for her to return.
00:12:12
Speaker
They wait and they wait and they wait. They wait for over two hours, but Dorothy never comes back to get them. Finally, Pam decides she needs to check in on Dorothy and calls her parents to see if they've heard anything.
00:12:30
Speaker
It's then when Jacob and Vera have not heard from her either that they figure out something is amiss and they alert the police. As you can imagine, several search parties went out looking for Dorothy. After all, she was well-liked. She was a hard worker. She was a mom. But each time a search party returned, they came back empty-handed. No Dorothy and no son of her car.
00:12:57
Speaker
With each returning party, her parents, family and friends lost more of the hope I'm sure they held onto, and it was replaced with dread and fear. That fear was soon confirmed when in the early morning hours of May 29, just hours after her disappearance, Dorothy's car was discovered on fire in an alley in Santa Ana. The fear was driven even deeper when a week later, the phone rang.
Aftermath: Calls and Discovery of Remains
00:13:23
Speaker
Vera, Dorothy's mom, answered to hear the caller ask, are you related to Dorothy Scott? When Vera replied yes, the caller said, I've got her, and quickly hung up. The police were immediately called.
00:13:39
Speaker
But these calls continued. Week after week, Vera received calls from someone. Calls that one week would lead her to believe her daughter was being held captive and the next week would lead her to believe her daughter had been murdered. The police took more steps and installed a call recorder, but were never able to trace the caller since the calls were so brief. According to the article, what really happened to Dorothy Scott,
00:14:06
Speaker
The police told the Scott family to not release any details about their daughter's disappearance or the phone call to the media in order to have the upper hand with pivotal information and to steer clear of false confessions. However, when more and more calls started coming in and the family wasn't receiving any answers, Jacob, Dorothy's dad, went to the media with details on his daughter's disappearance.
00:14:32
Speaker
The story ran on June 12, 1980. That same day, the paper received an alarming phone call. Pat Riley, the editorial manager, said that the caller knew details about Dorothy's disappearance that weren't published in the article. Remember how Dorothy had stopped by her parents' house and changed from a black scarf to a red one? Well, the caller knew that.
00:14:57
Speaker
But no one knew that. No one except the police, the editor, Dorothy's family, and this caller. This person also knew that Dorothy had taken a coworker to the ER, details that hadn't been released.
00:15:16
Speaker
The caller ended his conversation with a broken, quote, I killed her. I killed Dorothy Scott. She was my love. I caught her cheating with another man. She denied having someone else. I killed her, end quote.
00:15:33
Speaker
The phone calls continued at Jacob and Vera's house. A near weekly torment, a constant reminder that their world was falling to pieces. Finally, one week in April 1984, when the phone rang, Jacob answered. This had never happened before. The caller only ever spoke to Vera. The caller hung up. Sleuth hounds, why would he hang up? Was he fearful that perhaps his voice would be recognized?
00:16:01
Speaker
Regardless, that phone call ended the calling streak for nearly four months. No more calls came until August, 1984. And sadly, sleuthounds, it was the discovery of Dorothy's body that started those mysterious calls again. On August 6, 1984, a construction worker discovered dog and human bones side by side, about 30 feet from the Santa Ana Canyon Road.
00:16:29
Speaker
The bones were partially charred, and authorities believed that they'd been there for at least two years, as a bushfire had swept across that site in 1982. A turquoise ring and watch were also found. The ring and watch belonged to Dorothy.
00:16:44
Speaker
Dorothy's mother said the watch had stopped at 12.30 a.m. on May 29, 1980, about an hour after Pam and Conrad last saw Dorothy's vehicle. This would explain the speeding away, the glaring headlights, perhaps Dorothy's killer was driving that car. On August 14, the bones were identified as Dorothy's by dental record. The autopsy couldn't determine the cause of death, but it was determined that foul play was involved.
00:17:14
Speaker
Police still believe that the man making those sadistic and mysterious phone calls was Dorothy's killer. Sadly, both Jacob and Vera went to their graves not knowing who killed their daughter. The last phone call they received was the caller asking one final, horrific question before quickly hanging up. Is Dorothy home?
00:17:36
Speaker
Week after week, we bring you different cases. And week after week, we implore you to listen to the details of the case so we can find answers for a grieving family. We challenge you to take a different perspective, to step outside any boundaries you might have, all for the sake of justice. It breaks my heart for our families who long for justice but never get it.
00:18:02
Speaker
We talk a lot about the choices people make and how our choices aren't always what define us. Every single missing person deserves justice. Dorothy deserves justice. Her son deserves justice. Our world today isn't much different from Dorothy's world in 1980. Just as Dorothy, we're still up against a faceless enemy. People that hide behind computer screens to feel big. But like Dorothy, we must listen to that still small voice.
00:18:32
Speaker
that echo in our ear that tells us to take action, to be proactive and not reactive. Because like Dean Coontz said, quote, evil is no faceless stranger living in a distant neighborhood. Evil has a wholesome hometown face with merry eyes and an open smile. Evil walks among us wearing a mask, which looks like all of our faces, end quote.
00:19:00
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.
00:19:30
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.