A partially charred adult human skeleton was discovered half a mile east of Eucalyptus Drive in northeast Anaheim, California, on August 6, 1984. Jesse Loza, a Macco Construction Company foreman, discovered the remains around 7:15 a.m. while preparing to lay pipe for Pac Bell telephone lines. Loza discovered the bones after joking with his crew about “watching out for dead bodies.”

The remains were discovered next to a dog’s partial skeleton. Richard Rodriguez, Orange County Deputy Corner, speculated at first that “he or she may have been hiking with their dog” when something happened to them. The cause of death was stated to be “questionable.”

The remains were spread out over a 25-foot radius, indicating animal activity. A brush fire swept through the area in the fall of 1982, resulting in the burned nature of the bones. Rodriguez estimated that the bones had been at the site for more than two years.

A complete skull, two femurs, a pelvis, an arm, and dog bones were collected by the researchers. The neighborhood was surrounded by housing tracts, overlooked the Riverside (91) Freeway, and was about 30 feet from Santa Ana Canyon Road.

Condition of the Remains

The sun had bleached the bones white, but the skull was complete, with a full set of teeth littered with fillings. The teeth, according to Rodriguez, will be run through the missing person’s database in the hopes of identifying the body. Judy Suchey, an anthropologist from Cal State Fullerton, was called in to assist in determining the age and gender of the remains.

Dorothy Jane Scott

Dorothy Jane Scott’s remains were discovered four years after she went missing. Dorothy was 32 years old and a single mother of a four-year-old son when she was kidnapped. She was described as a loving and giving person by family and friends. She rarely dated and preferred to spend her time at home with her son. She cared deeply about her family, God, and her friends. Dorothy and her son lived in Stanton, California, with Dorothy’s aunt, Shonti Jacob Scott, about a 20-minute drive from Anaheim, where her parents lived and where she worked.

Dorothy worked for Swingers Psych Shop and Custom John’s Head Shop as a secretary. Dorothy’s father, Shawn Scott, had previously owned Swingers, but both businesses were now jointly owned by John Kocyla (Thornlow, 2017). Dorothy’s father worked as a handyman for the companies. Everyone on the team knew him well.

The Stalking Begins

Dorothy began receiving distressing phone calls while at work sometime in early 1980. (In all the articles I read about Dorothy, the unknown man is always referred to as “the caller.” I’m going to call him what he truly is: her stalker.) Dorothy’s stalker would reveal intimate details about her daily life, such as what she’d been doing, who she’d spoken with, and where she’d been with her son. Her stalker would occasionally express his feelings for her. He was angry and vengeful in other calls.

He once left a dead rose on her car’s windshield while she was at work. Dorothy told her mother, Vera Scott, that she recognized the man’s voice but couldn’t put it together. Dorothy then received a terrifying phone call.

‘OK, now you’re going to come my way, and when I get you alone, I’m going to cut you up into bits so no one will ever find you,’ her stalker said (The Orlando Sentinel, 1984).

Dorothy discussed getting a gun for protection shortly after this particular call. Instead, she enrolled in karate classes for self-defense.

The Night of Dorothy’s Disappearance

Dorothy dropped her son off at her parents’ house on May 27, 1980 (Emmons) to attend a work meeting. She noticed her coworker, Conrad Bostron, looked ill, and his hand was inflamed from a spider bite, while at the meeting. Dorothy and a coworker, Pam Head, offered to drive Bostron to the hospital. He agreed, and the three of them drove to UCI Medical Center in Dorothy’s white 1973 Toyota Station Wagon (Berry, 2018). They made a quick detour to Dorothy’s parents’ house to inform them of her whereabouts. Dorothy changed her headscarf while she was there.

Conrad was treated at the hospital for a black widow spider bite. Pam and Dorothy sat and read magazines while waiting for him (Kennedy, 1980). Pam and Conrad went to the hospital pharmacy to fill his prescription after he was released around 11 p.m. (Berry, 2018). Dorothy went to the parking lot to get the car because she didn’t want Conrad to walk that far. Dorothy, on the other hand, never returned.

Conrad and Pam went to the hospital entrance with his prescription, expecting to see Dorothy waiting with the car, but she wasn’t there. They decided to walk over to where the car had been parked previously. As they walked, they noticed Dorothy’s car racing towards them, its high beams blinding them to who was driving. The white Toyota Station Wagon did not stop or slow down, but instead drove down the road.

Pam and Conrad waited for Dorothy for several hours, assuming that an emergency involving her son had arisen. They contacted hospital security, who agreed there was no cause for concern. Except for Dorothy using the restroom right before heading to the parking lot, Pam and Dorothy were in each other’s company during their time at the hospital. Conrad and Pam called Dorothy’s parents when she didn’t return. They, too, had received no communication from their daughter, and Dorothy had gone missing.

Evidence of Foul Play

Dorothy’s car was discovered burning in an alley 10 miles from the hospital at 5:00 a.m. the next morning.

Vera, Dorothy’s mother, began receiving calls from her daughter’s stalker about a week after her daughter was abducted. “Are you related to Dorothy Scott?” inquired the stalker. “Yes,” Vera Scott replied. “I have her,” the stalker said before hanging up the phone (Kennedy, 1980).

Dorothy’s family reported her stalker, as well as the phone calls and threats she had received, to the police. Vera and Jacob Scott took Dorothy’s story to the local paper and offered a $25,000 reward for any leads regarding their daughter’s case after a few weeks of fruitless searching (Kennedy, 1980).

The Stalker Makes Another Call

Pat Riley, the editorial manager for the Santa Ana Register, received a phone call on June 12th, 1980, from a man claiming to have murdered Dorothy. “I killed her,” the caller stated. Dorothy Scott was murdered by me. She was my true love. I discovered her having an affair with another man. She denied having another person. “I murdered her” (Kennedy, 1980).

The caller then revealed information about Dorothy’s abduction that had previously been withheld from the public. He was aware of Conrad’s spider bite and the color of Dorothy’s headscarf (which she had changed before going to the hospital).

Dorothy, according to the caller, had called him from the hospital. This is the only detail that does not fit. Pam claimed she spent the entire night at the hospital with Dorothy and never made a phone call. Unless Dorothy made a phone call between using the restroom and retrieving the car, it didn’t happen outside of her abductor’s mind.

He already had the impression that they were in a relationship and that her taking another man to the hospital was an act of infidelity. We must also remember that this is 1980. There are no pagers or cell phones. Dorothy could have made a call from one landline to another, most likely a home phone. It is unlikely that the stalker would have had time to get to the hospital in such a short amount of time from wherever he received the call.

No Movement in the Case

Dorothy’s stalker called Dorothy’s parents sporadically for the next three years. The police tapped the phone in the hopes of tracking down Dorothy’s kidnapper, but he never stayed on the line long enough. Dorothy’s stalker appeared to be following her parents. He only called when Vera was alone at home.

Then one day, Shawn Scott came home early and answered the phone, and the calls abruptly stopped until the news that Dorothy’s remains had been discovered arrived, at which point the calls resumed. “Is Dorothy at home?” he’d ask before hanging up the phone. The Scotts never changed their phone number, hoping that Dorothy’s kidnapper would let them talk to her (Emmons, 1984).

The Suspects

There isn’t much going on here. Dorothy rarely went out and didn’t have a boyfriend. She spent the majority of her time with her son, with family, or at work. She attended church on a regular basis.

Dorothy’s ex-partner, the father of her son, was ruled out as a suspect early on because he was in Missouri at the time of her kidnapping.

In 2017, one crime blogger conducted an interview with Shawn Scott, Dorothy’s son. He mentioned the brother of Dorothy’s coworker. Those who knew the couple claimed he was obsessed with Dorothy. Shawn claims that law enforcement was interested in this individual but lacked sufficient evidence to arrest or charge him. The alleged suspect passed away in 2014.

Dorothy’s father, Jacob Scott, died on her birthday in 1994. Vera Scott died in 2002, 22 years after her daughter was kidnapped. They never found out what happened to Dorothy or who was to blame. The case is still unsolved.