Mystery Caller

Dorothy Jane Scott

Happy True Crime Thursday Guys! 

And huge welcome to the newbies of the blog, I hope you enjoy it. 

This week's case is a bizarre one.
One that will leave you baffled just like police were.  

The case I'm talking about today is the unsolved abduction and murder of Dorothy Jane Scott.

Dorothy was a 32 year old single mom who lived in Stanton, California with her 4 year old son Shawn and her aunt Shonti Scott. Shawn's father wasn't apart of their lives and lived in Missouri. Dorothy worked very hard to provide for her son, she had a job as a back office secretary for Singers Psych shop (that her dad had previously owned) and Custom John's Head shop, it was a conjoined business located on 517  South Brookhurst St. in Anaheim. Dorothy's parents Jacob and Vera Scott would watch their grandson for their daughter often because she was working so hard. 

She would stay home with her son or go to church during any free time, she wasn't interested in partying and socializing. Dorothy wasn't big on the dating scene either. She would go on dates on occasion, but nothing serious, her son was her number 1 priority. She was a religious, kind hearted and compassionate woman, she would help anyone at anytime, no one had a bad thing to say about her.... That was until she started to receive phone calls from a mystery man that was stating other wise.

During the early months of 1980 Dorothy started to receive phone calls from this mystery man at her home and place of employment. Sometimes during these phone calls the man would confess his love and admiration for her while other times he would get angry and say horrible things. Dorothy didn't tell the cops about these calls, but told her family. She said that she recognized the voice, but couldn't place it. On one evening he called and told her to go outside because he had left something for her. When she did she found a dead rose sitting on her car. On another occasion he told her that he was going to cut her up into bits so that no one would ever find her.  Startled by these threats she considered purchasing a gun to protect herself, but decided against it out of fear that her son might find it and accidently hurt himself, so she started taking self- defense classes instead. 

On May 28, 1980 Dorothy's world would come crashing down. She dropped her son off at her parents house that evening so she could attend a staff meeting at her work. While at the meeting Dorothy grew concerned for her coworker Conrad Bostron when she noticed a large red rash on his arm that was becoming increasingly inflamed, he wasn't looking well. She urged him to go to the emergency room and offered to take him. Pam Head another employee volunteered to go with them. 

On the way Dorothy made a pit stop at her parents house to let them know what was going on and to check on Shawn real quick. One thing that will stand out later was while she was there she switched from wearing a black scarf to a red scarf.  When they got to the hospital it was determined that Conrad had been bitten by a black widow spider. While he received treatment they two ladies hung out in the waiting room. The only time they were separated while there was when Dorothy made a quick trip to the restroom. Around midnight Conrad was released with his prescription. Pam accompanied Conrad to the pharmacy while Dorothy decided to go and get the car and meet them out front after they were finished. 

This is where things take a turn....After filling the prescription Conrad and Pam walked outside fully expecting to see Dorothy in her 1973 white Toyota station wagon waiting for them, but she wasn't there. They found it a little odd she wasn't because it only should have taken a couple minutes to grab the car. Suddenly they see her car flying towards them with the headlights blinding them, they couldn't tell who was driving, but the car bypassed Pam and Conrad, making a sharp right turn leaving the parking lot at full speed...then switched off the headlights. 

Pam and Conrad were basically left thinking what the hell just happened. Maybe an emergency came up regarding her son and she had to take off they thought. This was the age before cell phones so they decided to stay at the hospital, thinking she definitely would be returning for them. After two hours passed they grew concerned, so Pam called Dorothy's parents and asked if Dorothy was there or if they had been in contact with her, they hadn't. They immediately called the police to report Dorothy missing, who didn't seem to worried about it. 

That was until her burning car was found. 

Around 5:00 am the morning of the 29th Dorothy's station wagon was discovered up in flames about ten miles from the hospital in a back alley way. Dorothy wasn't there. Soon search parties were put together and for days people were looking for her, her parents soon started to get a sickening feeling that something bad had happened to their daughter. Then Vera received a phone call that validated those feelings. "Are you related to Dorothy Scott?" a male voice inquired. "yes,'" Vera replied. "I've got her," the caller then hung up.

  

Dorothy's family at first was told to keep things out of the media, but after weeks passed by and that phone call was received they were desperate for answers. They reached out to the Santa Ana Register and they ran a story about Dorothy's disappearance. The day the story came out a call came into the editor Pat Riley, "I killed her," the male caller said. "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 provided one detail that only police and her family knew and that was that Dorothy had been wearing a red scarf that night. He also knew about her coworkers spider bite. The caller told Pat that she had phoned him while she was at the UCI Medical Center. 

Who was this guy? Where was Dorothy and what really happened that night? Well...we only know the answer to one of these questions. 

Investigators of course looked into Shawn's father, but he was at home in Missouri on the night Dorothy disappeared. They questioned everyone at Dorothy's work, it was hard to believe it was a customer of the shop due to Dorothy working in the back and not being in the public view. They looked into Dorothy's social circle for any potential enemies or questionable characters she had come into contact with, but found none. They looked at all the sex offenders in the area and came up empty handed. Dorothy's parents even went as far as consulting with a couple psychic's and the police consulted with their own. 
The case turned cold and any leads fizzled, but one thing didn't stop and that was the phone calls. Almost every Wednesday for four years Vera would receive a phone call during the day when she was home alone. The caller would either say "Is Dorothy there?" "I've got her." Or mention that he had killed her. FOUR YEARS of these tormenting phone calls.

The police tried to trace the calls, but the conversations were never long enough. They also planted a recorder in the hopes that someone would be able to recognize the voice. No luck.

The calls stopped April of 1984.

Over 3 months later, skeletal remains were discovered in some brush off Santa Ana Canyon Road by a construction worker. The first set of remains found was of a dog, the second set was human. A pelvis, arm, thighs and a skull were discovered along with a turquoise ring and a watch. The time and date on the watch had stopped May 29th, 1980 at 12:30 am. Vera was able to identify the ring as her daughters, and a week later the remains were positively identified as those of Dorothy Scott. She had finally been found. 

An announcement was ran in the newspaper about the discovery. The Scott family received two more calls after this with that familiar male voice asking "Is Dorothy Home?" 

Both of Dorothy's parents have since passed without ever knowing who did this to their daughter and who tormented them for so many years. My heart absolutely broke for them I couldn't imagine going through all of that. Dorothy's case remains cold, who knows if the mystery caller will ever be discovered. 

Resources:
http://truecrimediary.com/index.cfm?page=cases&id=191
https://the-line-up.com/dorothy-jane-scott
Going West True Crime Podcast 

Taken in Oregon

Happy True Crime Thursday!

For this weeks story I'm going to talk about a case that I recently was reintroduced to.

 It took place In my home state of Oregon. 

Today we are talking about the case of Brooke Wilberger. 

Brooke was born February 20, 1985 in Fresno, California to Greg and Cammy Wilberger. She had 3 sisters and 2 brothers. She graduated from Elmira High School near Eugene, Oregon and was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She had just completed her freshman year at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah when she came home to visit her family in Oregon. The 19 year old was set to help out her sister and brother-in-law at an apartment they managed in Corvallis. 

On May 24, 2004 Brooke was at the complex and was out in the parking lot cleaning the lampposts. When she didn't show up for lunch, her sister began to worry. She found that Brookes car keys and purse were in their apartment and that her car was still in the lot. She also found her flip-flops, but no Brooke. She searched all the apartments she could have been working at and exhausted all  possibilities, when they couldn't find her they called police. 

Lt. Ron Noble of the Corvallis Police Department received the call and recalled that "Normally, we would wait. Because adults can come and go as they please and we would normally wait to see if she showed up maybe the next day," but they agreed with Brooke's sister, they sensed that Brooke wasn't the kind of young woman to disappear on her own. 

They began their search for Brooke. Their first suspect (like in most cases) was her boyfriend Justin Blake. The 2 had been dating since Highschool and marriage was definitely on the horizon for the couple. Police discovered that he was actually in Venezuela doing missionary work.  

The city of Corvallis came together and a community-wide search effort was put together very quickly. "The community of Corvallis was wonderful. That first night they had hundreds of people helping search," said Cammy Wilberger. "Our church organized it, but everyone in the community filled in." 

By the next day there was still no sign of Brooke. The town started to flood with media which is just what the investigation needed. They had no leads as to what happened to Brooke, they needed her picture out there in the hopes of tips coming in. Sadly, even though there was such a quick response to her disappearance, national media attention and a ton of community support it was years before they would have an answer.

On November 30, 2004 a University of New Mexico foreign exchange student was beaten and raped before escaping. She later identified her attacker as Joel Patrick Courtney. On September 12, 2007 he plead guilty to her attack, he took a plea deal and was sentenced to up to 18 years plus 5 to 25 years on parole. Joel had quite the history of sexual abuse. 

One night when his sister was 14 she stated that she awoke to Joel on top of her. He was partly undressed and had his hand around her throat. She hit him on the head with a clock to get him to stop. A cousin of Joel's told investigators that on 4 separate times during her youth Joel had tried to sexually assault her. The incidents happened when she was 12 to 17 years old and Joel was between 14 and 19. At 19 years old Joel was convicted of first- degree abuse and first-degree attempted rape. A female friend was driving him home from a party when Joel started groping her. He punched her in the face and when she stopped the vehicle he tried to force her out of her clothes. She was able to convince Joel that she wanted to go back to the party, and ended up driving him home. 

Joel got married in the early 1990's and had 3 children. In April of 2004 they moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Portland, OR. 

 In 2009, the detective working the New Mexico case discovered that Joel had himself an active warrant out of Oregon and had a criminal record. This led him to look into if there were any abductions or rapes reported in the areas he was in. This is when he struck gold. Oregon officials told him about Brookes case. Eventually a search of Joel's work van turned up DNA evidence linked to Brooke. With evidence in hand they went to Joel, to escape the death penalty he plead guilty. He stated he abducted Brooke from the apartment parking lot on the morning of May 24, 2004. He then drove her into the woods outside of town. He returned to town with Brooke bound in his work van, he kept her alive throughout the night before he raped her the next morning. He then bludgeoned her to death when she tried to fight off the rape. 

Apart of his plea deal was that he would bring them to Brooke's body. And he did.

Her parent's could finally lay their daughter to rest. 

“It might be hard for you to understand, but at this time we just really feel gratitude, even to Mr. Courtney that he could see fit to tell us where he left Brooke. And for our family, what happens to him, we're thankful that justice was served and that he will not have the opportunity for parole," said Willberger's mother, Camille Wilberger.

Resources: 

https://abcnews.go.com/2020/vanished-brooke-wilbergers-remains-found-coed-case/story?id=8634304 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Brooke_Wilberger

https://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/joel-courtney-had-long-history-of-sexual-assaults/article_87c45ea4-a729-11de-bfd2-001cc4c03286.html

Wrong Guy

Happy True Crime Thursday you guys! 

I have to say the support that this blog has gotten in the last couple weeks makes me so happy and I'm glad that you all are enjoying reading it every week! 

For this weeks story I'm going to do something a little different.

 I am going to talk about a case where the person was found guilty, without there being any physical evidence proving guilt, it was solely based upon words and theories. This person was later found to be innocent, but not until many years later and when it was too late. 

This is the arrest and conviction of Joe Arridy. 

On the night of August 15, 1936 in Pueblo, Colorado, Dorothy Drain and her younger sister Barbara were at home while their parents were out for the evening. Upon return the parents were horrified to find 15 year old Dorothy dead in a pool of her own blood, she had been raped and killed by a blow to the head, most likely from a hatchet. Her sister Barbara had also been struck in the head, but miraculously survived her attack. 

The whole town was in an uproar and soon local newspapers were printing that a sex-crazed murderer was running around town. Police said to be on the lookout for a Mexican looking man that matched the description provided by 2 women that claimed to have been assaulted not to far from the Drain Household.  The pressure to catch who did this was on for police. Then one day 21 year old Joe Arridy was found wandering near the local railyards in Cheyenne, Wyoming, he was taken in for vagrancy. When Joe was under questioning he had revealed that he had traveled from Pueblo by way of train. Joe also kind of fit the look that they had been searching for. Sheriff George Carroll said after he questioned Joe about the Drain case that Joe straight up confessed to the murder. 

Now here's the thing about Joe Arridy, he was a mentally handicapped man with an IQ of 46. His parents were actually 1st cousins, he had several siblings that had died young and one of his brothers was also mentally handicapped, they all suffered at the hands of their parents inbreeding. When Joe was 10 he was sent to the Colorado State Home and Training School for Mental Defectives in Grand Junction. He was often mistreated and beaten by his peers. Joe was in and out of the home before he made the choice to run away at 21. He had trouble forming sentences made out of more than a couple words, spoke really slowly and wasn't able to identify colors. While in the home the superintendent stated that he was "often taken advantage of by other boys." they once got him to confess to stealing cigarettes although he could not have possibly done it. 

So, I think you might be able to see where I am going with this. I think it was realized that Joe was extremely susceptible to suggestion.  Sheriff Carroll didn't write down the "confession," and when they went to court they discovered that the Sheriffs leading questions included asking Joe if he liked girls, then immediately would follow that question with, "If you like girls so well, why do you hurt them?" Even during Joe's testimony it was pretty clear or should have been... that he was innocent. During he would remain oblivious to the most basic of details of the murder/attack until they were told to him, including saying a different murder weapon a few times, until it was brought up that it was an ax.  

But get this! While Joe was being held for the murders local law enforcement called over to Pueblo police to alert them of the arrest they made. Pueblo police chief Arthur Grady told him that they had already arrested a prime suspect. A man by the name of Frank Aguilar, a laborer from Mexico. Frank had worked for the father of the Drain girls and had been fired shortly before the attack. An ax head had been recovered from his home. Later Frank confessed to the crimes and was identified by Barbara Drain. Sheriff Carroll then decided not only did Joe confess to the crimes, but he had also said he had "been with a man named Frank." So they were all convinced that Frank and Joe had actually committed the crimes together. Even though Frank told police he had never met Joe. Frank was sentenced to be executed. And even after all of the obvious signs pointing to Joe's innocence he too was found guilty and sentenced to death. 

The prison warden Roy Best stated that "Joe Arridy is the happiest man who ever lived on death row" and when Joe was informed of his impending execution, he seemed to be more interested in the toy trains he always played with. His last meal he requested ice cream. On January 6, 1939 he graciously gave this beloved toy train to another inmate, while being led to the gas chamber poor Joe not aware of what was about to happen was his normal happy go lucky self, smiling at the guards as they strapped him down to the chair. His execution was fairly quick, reports state that Warden Best cried in the chamber. 

Joe with Warden Best

It wasn't until 2011, more than 7 decades after Joe's execution that Colorado Governor Bill Ritter granted him a posthumous pardon. "Pardoning Arridy cannot undo this tragic event in Colorado history." Ritter said. "It is in the interests of justice and simple decency, however, to restore his good name. This was the first time in Colorado that the governor had pardoned a convict after the execution. 

This case broke my heart in a different way than the other cases I write about. 

Resources:

 https://allthatsinteresting.com/joe-arridy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arridy

Into thin air

Happy True Crime Thursday! 

First thing I would like to say is a huge welcome to all the new followers to The Minds of Madness Blog. 

I hope you all enjoy it! 

One of the topics I like to cover often is missing persons cases.

Especially ones that are still unsolved, it just takes one person to come forward to put a fire back under an investigation again. 

So for todays story I am going to cover the disappearance of Brianna Maitland. 

Brianna Maitland was born October 8, 1986 to Bruce and Kellie Maitland in Burlington Vermont. 

She was raised on a farm near the U.S Canadian border and had an older brother. During her Sophomore year Brianna had decided to move out of her family home in order go to a high school closer to her friends. However, things didn't go according to plan and she dropped out entirely. Despite her rough patch she took on 2 jobs and found more stable living conditions. 

On March 19, 2004 the 17 year old completed her GED test and her mom Kellie took her to lunch to celebrate, saying her daughter was in great spirits that day. Afterwards the two ladies went out shopping, a strange incident happened while they were in one store, according to Kellie something or someone had caught Brianna's eye and she went outside to investigate. Kellie made her purchase and joined Brianna outside just a short time after and found that she was "tense, shaken and agitated." Brianna told her that she needed to get home to get ready for her shift at the Black Lantern Inn. Kellie didn't want to pry into her daughters private life so they got in the car and Kellie drove Brianna to her apartment that she shared with her childhood friend Jillian Stout around 3:30pm. This was the last time that Kellie would see her daughter. 

Brianna made it to her shift at the Inn that night. After it was over some coworkers asked her to stay and have dinner with them. She declined saying that she was tired and needed to get home as she had to get up early the next day for her second job. She left around 11:20pm to head home, but she never made it back. When her friend Jillian noticed that Brianna didn't arrive back home she assumed that Brianna was at her parents house. It wasn't until March 23rd that Jillian called Brianna's parents asking them about Brianna that everyone realized she was missing. 

Unknown to any of them at the time Brianna's car was actually discovered abandoned on March 20th. The day after she disappeared and 2 days before she was known as missing. Her green 1985 Oldsmobile sedan was discovered about a mile outside of Montgomery (where the Black Lantern is located.)  The way her car was found was pretty strange, It was discovered off East Berkshire Road and Route 118, the car was found partially parked inside an abandoned barn, which is known to locals as the Old Butchburn house. The vehicle had backed into the building puncturing a hole in the wall of the barn and caused minor damage to the car.  Inside they found 2 of Brianna's uncashed paychecks on the front seat, along with her medicine, driver's license, makeup, contact lenses and clothes. There were also additional items belonging to Brianna dispersed on the ground in front of the car. They discovered that Brianna's car was registered to her mom Kellie, so you may be asking yourself how come she wasn't notified about the abandoned vehicle then? 

Brianna's abandoned vehicle 

Police didn't report it to Kellie because they figured even though she was the registered owner it was obvious that Brianna was the primary driver. They went to her primary place of work to try to inform her about what happened to her vehicle, but the place was closed, police would just come back to it. It wasn't until 3 days later when Brianna's parents filed a missing persons report that the discovery of the abandoned car was connected. While in police custody the car was searched for evidence and the old house was combed on foot by police and search dogs, but they didn't find anything relevant. 

When Brianna's disappearance was made public there were several witnesses that came forward; here are some of those witness accounts; 

*  Between March 19-20 a man that was driving by the barn between 11:30pm and 12:30am reportedly saw the car parked next to the barn, he believed that the headlights were on, but he didn't see anyone in or around the car. 

* A second man stated that when he drove by between 12:00am and 12:30am that he saw a turn signal flashing on the car. 

* At 4:00am a former boyfriend of Brianna's spotted the car on his way home after a night of partying, he recalled thinking it looked familiar, but he didn't see anyone in or around it. 

* Several motorists passing the scene the morning of the 20th reported that the scene seemed very strange, so they stopped and took pictures. One of the photographs showed loose change, a water bottle, and either a necklace or bracelet on the ground beside the car. 

Police discovered that about 3 weeks before Brianna went missing she was attacked by a female acquaintance in front of several witnesses, for reasons that were unclear. Reportedly, even though Brianna had several years of martial arts training she did not try to defend herself during the attack. It left her with a concussion, 2 blacks eyes and several cuts to the face, she filed charges against her attacker. At the time of the disappearance the case against the alleged attacker was still pending, the charges were dropped about 3 weeks after Brianna's disappearance despite objections from Brianna's parents. 

The first possibility that police looked into was that maybe Brianna left on her own. She had mentioned to friends the possibility of making a short trip out of the area. She was known to be an independent young woman that didn't like living In a rural area. It also wouldn't have been the first time she had run away. This scenario doesn't fit to me. She left behind belongings that would have been important to have, her contact lenses, migraine medication and 2 paychecks. Who would run away without wanting to at least have money?

Investigators later came to believe that she had been a victim of foul play, and that the way her car was found was staged to look like an accident. Her parent's believed that she would have had to been taken by more than one assailant due to her jiu-jitsu training. 

Brianna's case at one point was thought to be tied to the disappearance of Massachusetts college student Maura Murray who went missing one month before Brianna in northwest New Hampshire. It was later ruled out that the cases were connected. 

In the years following Brianna's disappearance several theories have come forward about what happened to her that night. Both Brianna's family and Police received numerous phone calls from people claiming they knew what happened to her, like; she had been kidnapped and her body was at the bottom of a river or lake, that she had been tied to a tree or disposed of at a hog farm. One person claimed that Brianna was being held against her will in the house of 2 well known drug dealers in a town not far away. 2 men were investigated in relation to the disappearance, but neither of them were charged. 

In March of 2016, investigators revealed on a local tv station that they did have DNA from Brianna's car, but the DNA results have not been made public. 

In July of 2016, the abandoned barn where her car had been found was destroyed by a fire. 

It's been almost 16 years since Brianna went missing and her family is still desperate to get answers. Brianna would be 34 this year. She has brown hair and hazel eyes, she stood at around 5'5" and weighed around 110lbs. When she went missing she was wearing a small ring or stud in her left nostril that was pierced.  She has a scar from her left eyebrow to her forehead. 

If you or anyone you know knows something about the disappearance of Brianna Maitland please contact the Vermont State police

802-524-5993 

Resources:

https://medium.com/of-misdeeds-and-mysteries/the-strange-unsolved-disappearance-of-brianna-maitland-missing-34-18f562e8d5c0

https://the-line-up.com/brianna-maitland-disappearance

https://vsp.vermont.gov/unsolved/missing/a/maitland