Dail Dinwiddie Details
- Missing Since: 09/24/1992
- Missing From: Columbia, South Carolina
- Classification: Endangered Missing
- Sex: Female
- Race: White
- Date of Birth: 04/12/1969 (53)
- Age: 23 years old
- Height and Weight: 5’0, 96 pounds
- Clothing/Jewelry Description:Her outfit consisted of a long-sleeved olive green pullover shirt, a bright blue nylon L.L. Bean jacket tied around her waist, faded blue jeans, and either brown boots or new white Nike sneakers with a blue stripe.
- Medical Conditions: Dinwiddie suffers from severe asthma and allergies, which she manages with twice-weekly injections and the use of an inhaler. She could be missing her inhaler.
- Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown eyes and light brown hair Dinwiddie’s ears are pierced, she has dimples on her face, and her hair has blonde highlights. Each of her hands has one deformed, slightly curved finger.
Details of Case
Dinwiddie went to a U2 concert with friends in Columbia, South Carolina on September 23, 1992. Dinwiddie and her group then stopped at Jungle Jim’s, a nightclub in Columbia’s Five Points neighbourhood, around 11:15 p.m.
Dinwiddie was last seen by a club employee around 1:30 a.m. on September 24. Her friends misplaced her at the club and assumed she had a ride home; they left around 1:00 a.m.
Dinwiddie reportedly spoke with the bouncer for 15 minutes before leaving between 1:15 and 1:30 a.m. She was last seen on Harden Street walking north. She abandoned her purse and was never seen again.
Dinwiddie was missed at 6:15 a.m. when her father noticed that the lights and radio in her room were on but she had not slept in her bed. He contacted all of her friends, but no one knew where she was, so he reported her missing at 8:30 a.m.
Dinwiddie’s disappearance was treated as a kidnapping by Columbia police because everyone who knew her said she would never leave without warning. She was described as a cautious person who disliked being alone.
Investigators are looking into whether Reinaldo Javier “Ray” Rivera played a role in Dinwiddie’s disappearance. Rivera admitted to killing four Georgia women, but he is also a suspect in numerous other murders. He was charged with one homicide in 2000, the victim of which was a police officer.
This case summary includes a photograph of Rivera. He was a resident of Columbia and a student at the University of South Carolina in 1992. He was a native of Puerto Rico. The university is close to the Five Points neighborhood, where Dinwiddie was last seen. Investigators are also looking into whether he was involved in the 1999 disappearance of Paula Merchant in South Carolina.
Rivera, a Navy pilot with an impeccable military record, was convicted of the officer’s murder in 2004 and sentenced to death, as well as seven life terms for related offences. Authorities are unsure whether Rivera is linked to either Dinwiddie or Merchant’s cases, and no charges have been filed against him in connection with either of their cases. Interviews with him on the subject have yielded no results.
Dinwiddie’s case is still unresolved. She attended Heathwood Hall Episcopal School and earned a bachelor’s degree in art history from Randolph-Macon Women’s College (now coeducational and called Randolph College). At the time of her disappearance, she was planning to attend graduate school at the University of South Carolina.
Investigating Agency
- Columbia Police Department 803-233-8474