The Unsolved Murder of Dorothy Jane Scott

“I have something for you. Go outside.”

Doing as the man instructed, Dorothy opened the front door to the still evening air. After taking a few steps out of the house, she noticed something lying on the windscreen of her car: a single dead rose.

A Peaceful Life

Dorothy and her son, Shawn (source here)

Dorothy Jane Scott was born April 23, 1948, to Jacob and Vera Scott in Anaheim, CA. In 1966, when Dorothy was 18, young women across the United States, many of them living in California, were breaking social norms, fighting for equal rights and becoming increasingly liberated. The revolutionary lifestyle, however, did not suit Dorothy, who was an introvert above all else.

In 1976, Dorothy gave birth to a son, Shawn. As far as I can tell, Shawn’s father was not in the picture for long after he was born (if at all), and lived nearly 2000 miles away in Missouri at the time in question. Dorothy and Shawn lived about 20 minutes from Anaheim in Stanton, CA with Dorothy’s aunt. While close with her family, Dorothy was very self-reliant. She worked backroom secretary jobs at two jointly owned stores in Anaheim, Swinger’s Psych Shop* (selling love beads, incense, lava lamps - it had a real Woodstock vibe by the sounds of it) and Custom John’s Head Shop. Jacob and Vera Scott lived close to Dorothy’s workplaces, meaning Dorothy could leave Shawn with them while she worked. Jacob was also a co-owner of Swinger’s.

At work, Dorothy was known by her co-workers as dependable and organized. Her friends and family described her as a great mom, a caring friend and deeply committed to her Christian faith. She did not do drugs or go out drinking, preferring to stay at home spending time with her son and going to church.

* side note: read this article for more about Swinger’s. It’s really well written and entertaining, and provides a great description of the store that only someone who spent some time there could give.

Vanished Into Thin Air

There was nothing extraordinary about May 28, 1980. Dorothy dropped Shawn off at her parent’s home and went to work as usual. There was a staff meeting at Swinger’s that evening at 9pm, so Dorothy told her parents she would be late picking up Shawn.

During the staff meeting, one of Dorothy’s co-workers, Conrad Bostron, began to look a little off. There was a red swelling on his arm that clearly needed medical attention, so Dorothy and another colleague, Pam Head, left the meeting early to take Conrad to the hospital. There were no cell phones in those days, so Dorothy decided to stop by her parent’s home briefly to tell them she was taking Conrad to the hospital and did not know when exactly she would be back to pick up Shawn. Dorothy emerged from the house, having changed the scarf she was wearing from a black one to a red one. The three then drove to UC Irvine Medical Center.

Dorothy and Pam sat in the waiting room while Conrad was treated for what turned out to be a spider bite. Pam would later tell investigators that she and Dorothy had been together the whole time that Conrad was with the doctor. Conrad was treated and given a prescription, which he and Pam went to have filled. This was around 11pm. Dorothy went to the bathroom, then told the other two she would go get the car and pull up in front of the hospital so Conrad wouldn’t have to walk too far.

This would be the last time anyone would ever see Dorothy alive.

A car similar to the one Dorothy would have owned, a 1973 white Toyota station wagon (source: Classic Car Catalogue)

Having picked up the medication, Conrad and Pam went to wait for Dorothy at the hospital entrance. It was about 20 minutes before they saw Dorothy’s car, a white 1973 Toyota station wagon, coming towards them. The headlights were blindingly bright and the car did not look as though it was going to stop for them. It ended up speeding past them so quickly they had no time to even try and glimpse who was driving.

Confused and concerned by what had happened, Pam and Conrad stayed at the hospital for several hours, waiting to see if Dorothy might return for them. She never did. They called her parents from the phone in the hospital, asking if she had ever come home to pick up Shawn, to which they replied she had not.

Unsure of what else to do, Pam and Conrad called the police to report Dorothy missing. Given that she was an adult, they did not seem overly concerned.

At 4:30am on May 29th, about 5 hours since Dorothy was last seen, her car was discovered in Santa Ana (about 10 miles from the UC Irvine Medical Center). Whoever kidnapped Dorothy had driven the car to an alleyway, set fire to it and left. If the police were not concerned before, this finding changed that.

Prior To Dorothy’s Disappearance

Several months before her disappearance, Dorothy began receiving menacing phone calls from an unknown man. While she recognized the voice, it was likely an acquaintance with whom she had only exchanged a few words. What the man spoke about on the phone differed from call to call. Sometimes he would tell Dorothy how much loved her and wanted to be with her. Other calls he told her he wanted to kill her.

Most chilling was that his obsession with Dorothy went beyond harassing her on the phone. He took it a step further, describing to her details about herself that only someone who was following her would know, for example, her daily routine and what she was wearing.

Vera, Dorothy’s mother, described one call in particular that really terrified her daughter, in which the unknown caller told her he wanted to “chop her up into bits so no one would ever find her”.

The calls justifiably rattled Dorothy. She no longer felt safe at home or at work, knowing there was a dangerous and unhinged person tracking her every move. Just a week before her disappearance, she began taking karate lessons. She also considered buying a gun.

The Terror Continues

The phone calls from Dorothy’s stalker did not stop after she disappeared. The first call was made to Jacob and Vera’s home about a week after Dorothy disappeared. Vera was home alone.

“Are you related to Dorothy Scott?” the caller asked.

“Yes,” Vera replied.

“I’ve got her,” the caller said, then hung up.

The authorities had been searching for Dorothy but so far nothing had brought them any closer to finding out what happened. The phone call was the first ‘clue’ they got in the case, but pursuing it ultimately proved fruitless. Vera and Jacob were told not to go to the media about Dorothy’s disappearance, as it could negatively impact the investigation. However, after a week of searching and no progress being made, Jacob gave up waiting and called the Orange County Register about his daughter’s disappearance.

The paper ran a story about Dorothy and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. Clearly keeping a close eye on the news regarding Dorothy’s disappearance, the unknown caller got on the phone with the editor of the newspaper, Pat Riley, and said to 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.”

The caller also detailed certain pieces of information that only someone who was involved in her disappearance would know - for example, that she was wearing a red scarf the evening she disappeared, and that the man she was with that night (Conrad) was being treated for a spider bite.

The phone call to Pat Riley baffled Dorothy’s family and friends. They told authorities they had no knowledge of Dorothy having a boyfriend, let alone time for one, with her two jobs and her son to look after. Dorothy’s abductor was clearly living in a fantasy world.

Months went by, eventually turning into years. During this time, the unknown man never tired of taunting Vera. Nearly every Wednesday afternoon for 4 years, he would call the Scott home, saying he had Dorothy and he had killed her (or something along those lines). He knew Vera and Jacob’s routine, and only called when Vera was home alone. One time, he slipped up and called in the evening, only to find Jacob on the other end. This brought an end to the calls (for a while, anyway).

Police tried tracing his calls calls but he never stayed on the line long enough.

The case went cold.

A Possible Suspect?

No one was ever officially named a suspect in the case and there have never been any arrests. Dennis Terry (the father of Shawn) was looked into, but was ruled out as a suspect given he was in Missouri at the time of Dorothy’s disappearance.

I don’t want to point fingers here, but this name popped up enough times in my research that I thought it was worth mentioning. The name of the man, Mike Butler, has come up thanks to sleuthing by Internet detectives. Butler apparently worked as a mechanic next door or across the street from Swinger’s (where his sister also worked with Dorothy). Internet sleuths point to this idea that he held “alternative religious beliefs” (possibly he was involved with the occult) and was supposedly kind of an oddball.

I’d like to reiterate that there is no solid evidence against Mike Butler, nor was he ever considered a suspect. I’ve read through threads in which people build their case against him by saying he worked close enough to Dorothy to track her routine, and may have dropped by Swinger’s from time to time and talked to her, enough that she would recognize his voice in a phone call.

On the other hand, people defend Butler, pretty much saying he’s being used as a scapegoat due to his different beliefs and being generally a bit strange.

Butler died in 2014. If you’re interested in doing some deeper reading into him of your own, please feel free. Honestly, I’m kind of up in the air on this one. While I can definitely understand wanting someone to blame for Dorothy’s murder and the terror she endured at the hands of her stalker, I also want to trust that detectives had good reasons not name him a suspect.

Dorothy Is Found

A Los Angeles Times article covering the memorial service for Dorothy (source: newspapers.com) — A *Los Angeles Times* article covering the memorial service for Dorothy (source: newspapers.com)

On August 6, 1984, human bones and dog bones were discovered lying side by side, about 10 meters from Santa Ana Canyon Road in a remote construction site. The dog bones are a bit of a question mark - I couldn’t find any information on how old they were. In fact, they did not come up very much at all in my research. Perhaps the dog had been Dorothy’s killer’s pet and he intentionally put the remains there when the dog died? Honestly I can’t think of another good reason as to why they would be there, but I do think they were placed there on purpose.

Just over a week later, dental records were used to confirm that the remains belonged to Dorothy Scott. A turquoise ring and a wrist watch were also discovered at the scene, which Vera recognized as Dorothy’s. The discovery of the remains brought about a sense of relief amongst Dorothy’s family and friends, coupled with an overwhelming sadness that she was really gone. On August 22, a memorial service was held to celebrate Dorothy’s life.

Yet, the sick individual still did not give up harassing Dorothy’s family. They received more calls, although I do not know how much longer they went on for.

Dorothy and her family never got the justice they deserved. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Dorothy’s disappearance, and her case is still very much a cold one.