Dorothy Jane Scott kept receiving mysterious phone calls at her job in Anaheim, California. She thought the voice sounded familiar, but she could never place it.
Dorothy Scott was a 32-year-old single mother who lived with her 4-year-old son at her aunt’s house in Canton, California. She was employed as a secretary for Swingers Psych Shop in Anaheim.
Dorothy worked in the backroom office and led a normal life, a life less colorful than the tie-dye shirts and multicolored bonds sold at the other end of the store. Dorothy was religious and rarely dated, she spent most of her day working, leaving her son, Shawn in care of her parents during business hours. Her coworkers described her as a kindhearted and compassionate person.
The unsolved murder of Dorothy Scott haunted her family for years.
It All Started With Phone Calls
It all started with weird phone calls, months before Scott went missing in the year 1980. She had been receiving phone calls at work from an unidentified male. The unknown caller professed his love for her and his intent to kill her.
Scott’s mother recalled an incident, “One day he called her 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.“
He seemed to know her schedule and her every move, but terrifying enough, Scott once said that the voice sounded like someone she knew. However, the caller never revealed his name or location, and Scott also, couldn’t identify him.
Scott Considered Buying A Handgun
Soon the phone calls became more serious and terrifying, and Scott began to fear for her life. At one point the man reportedly told her he would get her alone and “cut up into bits so no one will ever find.” He also revealed what she was wearing that day.
The call shook Scott to the core, and she began considering purchasing a handgun. A week before her disappearance, she started taking karate lessons. However, she dropped the idea of buying a handgun because she was afraid that her four-year-old would accidentally harm himself with the gun.
A Black Widow Brought Scott To The Place Of Her Abduction
May 28, 1980, was an ordinary day, Scott dropped Shawn off at her parent’s home and went to work as usual. She had a staff meeting at 9 pm, so she told her parents that she would be late.
During the meeting her fellow worker, Conrad Bostron, began to look a little off, his arm had a red swelling that clearly needed medical attention. Scott and her co-worker, Pam Head left the meeting to take Bostron to the emergency meeting. On her way to the hospital, Scott changed her black scarf to a red one and stopped by her parent’s house.
Medical personnel determined Bostron had suffered a black widow spider bite. According to her co-worker, Pam, Scott remained in the E.R. waiting room and never left her side.
Luckily for Bostron, he was treated in a timely fashion and was on the mend. Scott told her co-workers that she’d pull the car around for them, and they waited for her. They kept waiting for her, and suddenly they saw Scott’s car speeding towards them; the car’s headlight blinded them, so they could not see who was behind the wheel.
They waved their arms to get Scott’s attention but couldn’t and the car sped past them and took a sharp turn out of the parking lot, leaving her coworkers standing by the hospital, confused, sadly it was the last time any of them would see her alive.
Scott’s Car Was Found on Fire
It was strange to Pam and Boston, who were stranded in the parking lot. Initially, they thought she had an emergency come up with her son. They reported Scott missing after not hearing from her in a few hours.
After several hours of searching for Dorothy Scott, police came across a vehicle, which was engulfed in flames. Scott’s white 1973 Toyota Station Wagon was found burning in an alley about 10 miles (ca. 16 km) from the hospital, neither Scott nor her supposed kidnapper was found nearby.
The Terror Continued
The phone calls from Scott’s stalker did not stop even after she disappeared. The first call was made to Jacob and Vera’s home about a week after Scott disappeared. Vera was home alone at the time, she received the call.
“Are you related to Dorothy Scott?” the caller asked.
“Yes,” Vera replied.
“I’ve got her,” the caller said and then hung up.
The authorities kept searching for Scott but nothing had brought them any closer to finding out what happened. That phone call was the first clue they got in the case, but working on the call lead to a dead-end
Vera and Jacob were told not to reach out to the media about Scott’s disappearance, as it would negatively impact the investigation. However, after a week of searching and no progress being made, Jacob called the Orange County Register about his daughter’s disappearance.
Orange County ran the story about Scott’s disappearance. After seeing the news regarding Scott’s disappearance, he called the editor of the newspaper, Pat Riley, and told him:
“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.”
This time he went out of the way and gave details about what she was wearing, as well as what she was doing at the hospital. (She was wearing a red scarf the evening she disappeared, and she was with her friends as Conrad was being treated for a spider bite).
The Calls Kept Coming For 4 Years
The unknown caller continued calling her parents weekly for four years after her death. Police were enlisted to tap the phone to determine the caller’s location but he never stayed on the call long enough.
He would call them and say that he killed her, she was tortured and held captive, and sometimes would simply tell them that he had her. The calls happened nearly every Wednesday for four years, every time the same voice but no one had a clue who was on the other side.
The calls stopped nearly 4 years later when Jacob, Scott’s father picked up the phone instead of her mother, Vera. After that phone call, the stalker didn’t call.
Discovery Of Dorthy Jane Scott’s Remains
More than 4 years after her disappearance, on August 6, 1984, a construction worker discovered dog and human bones side by side, about 10 meters from Santa Ana Canyon Road.
The bones were partly charred and authorities believed that they had been there for two years, as a bushfire had swept across the site in 1982.
Police also discovered a turquoise ring, and watch that had stopped at 12:00 AM on May 29th, 1980, hours after Head and Bostron last saw the car. On August 14 the bones were identified as Scott’s by dental records. An autopsy could not determine the cause of death. A memorial service for Dorothy Scott was held on August 22.
Isn’t it strange that her remains were found side by side with the body of a dog, which she had no relation to her? While most believe that this is just a coincidence – but in order to trick police dogs, people looking to hide bodies bury them under the body of animals, causing what the police see as a false positive. They will only dig until they find an animal carcass, leaving what’s underneath it, undisturbed.
Convincing Theory About The Killer’s Identity
No one was ever named a suspect in Dorothy Scott’s case, and there have never been any arrests. However, there’s one very strong theory that has been floating around for quite some time. There was a man, Mike Butler at Scott’s place of employment. His sister also worked at the shop and Mike had become obsessed with Scott. He lived in the nearby mountains and it is rumored, that he was an unstable individual and perhaps involved with cult activities.
Scott’s son believes that Butler is the stalker and killer. Butler had run across Scott’s father before, and that is why the caller hung up when Jacob answered the phone, afraid that Jacob will recognize his voice.
Butler was working at the same place, so he had the opportunity to follow her and know her schedule because it linked up closely with his sister’s, and he’d an excuse to come around the area. But there is no hard evidence to back up Scott’s son’s theory.
Shawn’s father was also suspected, but he had an alibi and was not investigated further. Both Jacob(1994) and Vera(2002) passed away without knowing what exactly happened to their daughter.
She May Be A Part Of a Series Of Murders
The police didn’t have many leads, there was one that came up during the investigation. Two years after the disappearance of Dorothy Scott, Patricia Schneider went missing in July 1982.
Before her disappearance, Patricia made a call saying her car had broken down and then there was no news from Patricia. Her car was found a few hours later, on fire in a field, just as Dorothy’s car had been found. Similar to Scott there was no sign of Patricia at the scene, and she was suspected of being kidnapped, maybe from the same person who took Scott.
However, the major difference between the disappearance is that Patricia’s family never received any threatening phone calls. Her disappearance remains unsolved.
Dorothy Jane Scott was described by her friends as a church-going woman, loving and “dull as a phone book.” Scott’s death still remains unsolved. Dorothy’s son believes that Mike Butler kidnapped and killed his mother, and in his mind there is no doubt.
