CA - Dorothy Rusnak Caylor, 41, Concord, 12 June 1985

[Richard]

Dorothy May Rusnak Caylor
Missing since June 12, 1985 from Concord, Contra Costa County, California
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: January 9, 1944
Age at Time of Disappearance: 41 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'9; 190 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; blue eyes. Dorothy wore plastic-framed eyeglasses at the time of her 1985 disappearance. Her nickname is "Dottie."
Other: Dottie suffered from agoraphobia, a fear of public places.
Dentals: Available. Tooth 3, 14, 15 have gold onlays, 19 has crown.

Circumstances of Disappearance

The last reported sighting of Caylor was from her husband who told police he dropped Dottie off at the Pleasant Hill BART station on the morning of June 12, 1985. He said she was planning to visit a friend, but he didn't know who.
She carried with her an overnight bag and her turquoise leather purse, which contained everything she considered important, from her Kaiser medical card to a bee-sting kit.
Her husband found her 1963 light-blue Volkswagen parked next to his car at the Concord BART station. Her purse was inside. In a statement to police, the husband said he unlocked the car and rummaged through the bag. Her bee-sting kit was missing, but everything else, including about $30 in cash, was as he remembered it. Her driver's license, a Diablo Valley College "Spring 1985" student ID and her library card were still inside her monogrammed, off-white leather billfold.

The husband put the purse in a bag, he told police, and pushed it under the seat. He then wrote a note asking Dottie to call him. Before he left, he locked the car. The next day, he says, he moved Dottie's car to a different parking spot to keep her from getting a ticket. He also drove to his parents' Central Valley home in Lindsay to leave the couple's dog with them. The husband later said he never drove her to the Pleasant Hill station and that she must have driven herself there.

She left behind her clothes and all of her belongings.

Dorothy's sister stated that there were numerous problems in the Caylors' marriage, an allegation that the husband denies. He said that the only difficulties in the relationship revolved around his wife's mental health issues.

Dorothy joined a support group for battered women in early 1985. She was attempting to regain her self-confidence and reportedly planned to divorce her husband. Dorothy opened her own bank account and rented a post office box. She also asked a friend to keep a locked file cabinet with her important documents. She had inherited $5,000 and had put aside a small amount of money in her own account.

The husband reported Dorothy as a missing person to authorities on June 17, five days after her disappearance.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Concord Police Department 925-671-3240

Agency Case Number: 85-12575
NCIC Number: M-160864339
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
California Department of Justice
The Contra Costa Times
The Doe Network: Case File 833DFCA

Link:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/833dfca.html

[Marilynilpa]

The husband certainly appears a likely suspect in Dorothy's murder.

Here are a few questions I have:

1. Dorothy suffered from agoraphobia. Wouldn't that make it unlikely that she would leave her "comfort zone" and go to a friend's house for an overnight stay?

2. Did LE ever find out who this friend was? Was it the same person Dorothy gave some personal papers to for safekeeping?

3. Did anyone recall seeing Dorothy at the BART station?

4. Why did the husband change his story about driving her to the BART station?

5. Had Dorothy ever filed any domestic abuse charges against her husband?

6. Were the police ever called to their home because of a domestic disturbance?

7. Did Dorothy ever tell anyone at the women's shelter that she was afraid of her husband?

I don't know about you, but if my spouse was going to visit a friend overnight, I'd certainly want to know who that friend was.

[bugaboo]

Ok, first of all the hubby is guilty of something. There are too many discrepancies, the first being the idea that an agoraphobic would get on a form of public transportation by herself and go to a friend's house. That just boggles my mind!

[Marilynilpa]

Ok, first of all the hubby is guilty of something. There are too many discrepancies, the first being the idea that an agoraphobic would get on a form of public transportation by herself and go to a friend's house. That just boggles my mind!

I don't know much about agoraphobia, but I agree with you that it seems unlikely that an agoraphobic would ride the bus to a friend's house for an overnight stay. Maybe there are different types of agoraphobia, and Dorothy's type wasn't as severe.

What boggles my mind it that her husband didn't even know the name of the friend Dorothy was supposedly going to see. To me, that means either he didn't give a hoot about what his wife did, or there was no planned "visit to a friend" in the first place.

I think he killed her at home and staged the rest of it. I'd like to know what was in the overnight case - the contents might show if she packed it or if he did. My husband surprised me with a trip one year and packed a bag for me. Bless his heart, we were gone three nights, and he put in six pairs of socks but just one pair of undies.

[reportertype]

According to mentalhealth.com, the is one of the criteria of agoraphobia:

Anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult (or embarrassing) or in which help may not be available in the event of having an unexpected or situationally predisposed Panic Attack or panic-like symptoms. Agoraphobic fears typically involve characteristic clusters of situations that include being outside the home alone; being in a crowd or standing in a line; being on a bridge; and traveling in a bus, train, or automobile.

The situations are avoided (e.g., travel is restricted) or else are endured with marked distress or with anxiety about having a Panic Attack or panic-like symptoms, or require the presence of a companion.

There are some other criteria, including the elimination of other mental health issues, but the top two are above.

[Marilynilpa]

According to mentalhealth.com, the is one of the criteria of agoraphobia:

Anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult (or embarrassing) or in which help may not be available in the event of having an unexpected or situationally predisposed Panic Attack or panic-like symptoms. Agoraphobic fears typically involve characteristic clusters of situations that include being outside the home alone; being in a crowd or standing in a line; being on a bridge; and traveling in a bus, train, or automobile.

The situations are avoided (e.g., travel is restricted) or else are endured with marked distress or with anxiety about having a Panic Attack or panic-like symptoms, or require the presence of a companion.

There are some other criteria, including the elimination of other mental health issues, but the top two are above.

Thanks, I was hoping someone would know something about agoraphobia.

It doesn't sound like Dorothy would be planning to travel by bus to visit a friend if she was agoraphobic.

[Richard]

{quote} Her husband found her 1963 light-blue Volkswagen parked next to his car at the Concord BART station. Her purse was inside. In a statement to police, the husband said he unlocked the car and rummaged through the bag. Her bee-sting kit was missing, but everything else, including about $30 in cash, was as he remembered it. Her driver's license, a Diablo Valley College "Spring 1985" student ID and her library card were still inside her monogrammed, off-white leather billfold.

The husband put the purse in a bag, he told police, and pushed it under the seat. He then wrote a note asking Dottie to call him. Before he left, he locked the car. The next day, he says, he moved Dottie's car to a different parking spot to keep her from getting a ticket. {quote}


- And then didn't think it was important enough to mention her disappearance to Police for five days.

I wonder if he continued to move her car each of those days to keep her from getting a ticket? Or could his little story only have been to account for the fact that the ticket was dated a day after she supposedly drove to the BART station lot.

Interesting thing also about his handling of her billfold and purse. This would, of course, explain why his fingerprints, and not hers would be on it as the last person to handle it.

[Marilynilpa]

{quote} Her husband found her 1963 light-blue Volkswagen parked next to his car at the Concord BART station. Her purse was inside. In a statement to police, the husband said he unlocked the car and rummaged through the bag. Her bee-sting kit was missing, but everything else, including about $30 in cash, was as he remembered it. Her driver's license, a Diablo Valley College "Spring 1985" student ID and her library card were still inside her monogrammed, off-white leather billfold.

The husband put the purse in a bag, he told police, and pushed it under the seat. He then wrote a note asking Dottie to call him. Before he left, he locked the car. The next day, he says, he moved Dottie's car to a different parking spot to keep her from getting a ticket. {quote}


- And then didn't think it was important enough to mention her disappearance to Police for five days.

I wonder if he continued to move her car each of those days to keep her from getting a ticket? Or could his little story only have been to account for the fact that the ticket was dated a day after she supposedly drove to the BART station lot.

Interesting thing also about his handling of her billfold and purse. This would, of course, explain why his fingerprints, and not hers would be on it as the last person to handle it.

As usual, you make some good points. From the information we know about this case, it's amazing that the husband was never charged. Either he was able to convince LE that he was not involved, or they just weren't able to get enough evidence to charge him.

[shadowangel]

Dorothy May Rusnak Caylor
Missing since June 12, 1985 from Concord, Contra Costa County, California
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: January 9, 1944
Age at Time of Disappearance: 41 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'9; 190 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; blue eyes. Dorothy wore plastic-framed eyeglasses at the time of her 1985 disappearance. Her nickname is "Dottie."

Her husband found her 1963 light-blue Volkswagen parked next to his car at the Concord BART station.

I'm not getting that part, could someone help me out?

[Marilynilpa]

I'm not getting that part, could someone help me out?

I'm not sure, but I assumed that he pulled into a parking spot and noticed that her car was parked next to him.

[shadowangel]

I'm not sure, but I assumed that he pulled into a parking spot and noticed that her car was parked next to him.

There's got to be something missing there, time-line wise. He drops her off at the station with her bags containing these certain items, then finds her car next to his with bags containing some of these items...She got on the train, jumped off, ran home, got her car, drove back to the station, and left part of what she had been carrying in the car???????

[Marilynilpa]

There's got to be something missing there, time-line wise. He drops her off at the station with her bags containing these certain items, then finds her car next to his with bags containing some of these items...She got on the train, jumped off, ran home, got her car, drove back to the station, and left part of what she had been carrying in the car???????

In the original post on this thread, towards the end it states that the husband later claimed he didn't drive her to the station, that she must have driven herself. So his comment about her car being parked next to his must have been made after he changed his story.

[shadowangel]

In the original post on this thread, towards the end it states that the husband later claimed he didn't drive her to the station, that she must have driven herself. So his comment about her car being parked next to his must have been made after he changed his story.

Nothing suspicious here at all...He thought he drove her but was mistaken, goes looking for her at the train station, pulls into a spot and lo and behold, there is her car right next to him! Wow! I guess he didn't notice for all the other light-blue 1963 VWs in the lot...

[Marilynilpa]

Nothing suspicious here at all...He thought he drove her but was mistaken, goes looking for her at the train station, pulls into a spot and lo and behold, there is her car right next to him! Wow! I guess he didn't notice for all the other light-blue 1963 VWs in the lot...

Yes, wasn't that quite a coincidence?!? It's not hard to understand why he changed his story and claimed he didn't drive her to the station!

[Marilynilpa]

Orignially published: March 14, 2004

The newspaper headlines that Wednesday, June 12, 1985, were destined for history.

Karen Ann Quinlan, who a decade earlier had lapsed into a coma and ignited a right-to-die firestorm, had died at age 31.

Police investigators were crawling over a remote cabin and grounds in Calaveras County, searching for victims of serial murders Leonard Lake and Charles Ng.

In Merced, 20-year-old Steven Stayner, who had been kidnapped at age 7 and found again at 14, was getting married.

Forty-one-year-old Dottie Caylor was making history, too, but hers wasn't the kind that made headlines.

After 10 years of marriage, Dottie was about to become a free woman.

Dottie's marriage to Jule Caylor was anything but happy. She met Jule in 1970, when Jule was still married to his first wife. Dottie had badgered and begged Jule into getting a divorce and then marrying her.

But Jule's job with the U.S. Forest Service took him across the country for extended periods, and Dottie became a recluse. She suffered from agoraphobia, a fear of open spaces. Her anxieties were at times magnified, making her a virtual prisoner in her own home.

more: http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/cct...printstory.jsp

It looks like there should be more to this article. I'll see if I can find another link with the complete article.

Of particular note to me is the fact that the house was "freshly repainted" on the inside. Since Jule was leaving, and Dorothy was keeping the house, why would he have repainted it?? Maybe to cover up blood evidence???