Image Credit : http://www.strangematterspodcast.com/lost-heiress-mystery-dorothy-arnold/
Dorothy Harriet Camille Arnold disappeared on the 12th of December 1910 when walking on Fifth Avenue in New York.
Dorothy’s father was a Harvard University graduate and was senior partner of F.R Arnold & Co. They were descendants of English passengers who arrived in America on the Mayflower.
After finishing school she attended Bryn Mawr college where she majored in literature and language. After graduating in 1905 she stayed in their family home while perusing a career as a writer.
After her stories where rejected twice she asked her father if she could have an apartment in Greenwich Village in order to write but her father refused and said that a good writer can write anywhere. She continued to write but unfortunately had no success.
On December 12 1910 she told her mother she is going to go shopping for a dress to wear at her younger sister upcoming debutante party. When her mother wanted to go with Dorothy said no and told her mother that if she found a dress she would call her.
At 11am she left to do her shopping. She had about $25-30 with her, while on her way she stopped to buy a box of chocolates and also at another store she bought a book. Both clerks said that she didn’t display unusual behavior. She also ran into a friend Gladys King who also said that she seemed cheerful. Gladys said that Dorothy told her that she is going to walk home through central park. She last saw her on 27th street just before 2pm.
She never returned home after her trip so her parents became worried and started calling her friends but had no luck. One of Dorothy’s friends phone shortly after midnight on December 13th to find out if she is home yet, her mother answered and told her that Dorothy is home but when asked to speak to her Dorothy’s mother hesitated and said she has gone to bed with a headache.
The family did not report her missing for weeks since they did not want to be socially embarrassed but they did phone a friend who was a lawyer John S. Keith who examined her room and found all her belongings to still be there as well as a personal letter with a foreign postmark in her desk there was also burned papers found in the fireplace. He searched in hospitals and morgues with no luck.
John suggested they hire Pinkerton detectives who also searched hospitals and questioned Dorothy’s friend and collage classmates but nobody had seen her.
John and the Pinkerton detectives persuaded her father to call the police. The police said that he must have a press conference, he resisted but eventually agreed. On 25 January 1911 he told press about her disappearance and offered $1000 reward for information leading to her.
After 75 days of being missing police Commissioner William J. Flynn stated “That now seems the only reasonable way of looking at the case. The girl has now been missing for 75 days and in all that time not a single clue has been found that was worth the name. We have no evidence that a crime has been committed and the case is now one of a missing person and nothing more.”
Dorothy was unfortunately never found.
Image Credit : http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/unsolved-mystery-sexy-nyc-heiress-vanished-1910-article-1.2738134
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Information Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Dorothy_Arnold