Prior to Murder

“When I get you alone, I will cut you up into bits so no one will ever find you,” said a mans voice on the phone. This wasn’t the first time Dorothy Jane Scott received a call like this from an unidentified caller- someones voice who she call recall but couldn’t quite place. Scott, a single mother of four-year old Shawn, had been receiving threatening phone calls where she resided at her aunt’s home in Stanton, California since the early 1980s. Some phone calls consisted of the caller confessing his love for Scott and making romantic gestures. Other times, he was nasty and threatening, saying that he was going to harm her in unspeakable ways. During both types of calls, the caller made it clear that he was watching her, he would recall details of her day and one time he told her to go outside because he had something for her. When she went to her car, she found a single dead rose on her windshield. These calls unsettled Scott and her family but no one knew what to do about it, so the calls went unreported.

Murder

On the night of May 28, 1980, Scott dropped her son off at her parents in Anaheim so that she could attend a staff meeting at her work. While she was at the meeting, she noticed that one of her coworkers Conrad Bostron looked ill. She offered to take him to the hospital and he agreed. Scott, Bostron, and another coworker Pam Head drove to the hospital. Before the arrived at the hospital, Scott stopped at her parents house to check on her son, while there she switched the black scarf she was wearing to a red one. While Bostron was treated at the hospital, Head and Scott waited to bring him home and according to Head, Scott never left her side. When they were ready to leave, Scott went to get the car but didn’t return right away. Her two coworkers went outside to see where she went. There they saw Scott’s car speeding away, but they couldn’t see who was behind the wheel. At around 4;30 the next morning, Scotts car was found in an alley in Santa Ana, about 10 miles from the hospital. The car was set on fire, but no one was found inside.

About a week later, Scotts mother received a phone call asking, “Are you related to Dorothy Scott?”. When her mother replied yes, the caller simply said “I’ve got her,” and then abruptly hung up. The police had set up a voice recorder at their residence. The caller called multiple times after, but the police were never able to trace the calls. On June 12, 1980, a news reporter who wrote a story about Dorothy’s case, Pat Riley, received a call from someone claiming to be Dorothy’s killer. He said “She was my love. I caught her cheating with another man. She denied having someone else. I killed her.” The caller provided details about what Dorothy was wearing that night to prove he was the killer. After this call, no one heard from the killer again.

Discovery

It wasn’t until four years later, on August 8 1984 that construction workers discovered charred bones near the alley where Scott’s car was found. Authorities believed that a bush fire had swept through, explaining why the bones were charred but the real cause of death was never established. Through dental records, police were able to identify the bones as Dorothy Scott. Even with the anonymous calls, Scotts murder was never identified.

Works Cited:

https://www.ranker.com/list/unsolved-dorothy-jane-scott/laura-allan