Case file 0020

Dorothy Jane Scott: A Hospital Departure, a Burned Car and an Unsolved Killing

An Orange County cold-case appeal separates the recovered evidence from the identity still unknown.

Dorothy Jane Scott, thirty-two, disappeared shortly after midnight on May 29, 1980. The Orange County Sheriff's account places her last sighting at UCI Medical Center in Orange. Friends saw a suspicious figure driving her white 1973 Toyota station wagon out of the hospital parking lot. ^[S1]

Two discoveries, four years apart

Santa Ana Police found the vehicle burning in an alley at about 5 a.m. In 1984, construction workers in Anaheim Hills found skeletal remains and a turquoise ring. Dental records identified Scott's skull. The ring matched an item described among her belongings before she disappeared. ^[S1]

The car and the remains establish different locations in the case. Recovering them ended the question of whether those remains were Dorothy's, but it did not establish who killed her.

The unidentified caller

The sheriff's account also describes anonymous calls to Dorothy and her family and a June 1980 call to a newspaper editor from a man claiming responsibility. The agency identifies an unknown caller as a potential suspect, while saying he was never identified or found. ^[S1]

An anonymous claim of responsibility is not a conviction or a verified identity. It belongs in the account as a reported investigative lead, with its uncertainty intact.

The open appeal

The Sheriff's Homicide Task Force continues to seek leads in Scott's case through its public cold-case appeal. ^[S1]

The hospital, the burning vehicle and the later recovery of remains form the established outline. The person behind the killing remains the missing part of that record.