Tales of the missing wealthy have always captivated the public’s imagination, and today we’re looking into one such case that’s more than a hundred years old, Dorothy Arnold. Dorothy Harriet Camille Arnold was the daughter of Mary Parks Arnold and wealthy perfume importer,Francis Rose Arnold.As far as anybody knew, she had a happy home life.
On the morning of December 12th, 1910,the 25-year-old left her family home in the Upper East Side of Manhattan and told her mother she was heading downtown to buy an evening dress.According to The New York Times,when Mrs. Arnold offered to accompany her daughter,Dorothy said no, quote, «When I find the gown I want, I will telephone you, and you can come down and see it».
Her family believed that when she left at 11:30 a.m.,she had as much as $30 in her purse,which in today’s dollars would be more than $750. Dorothy made her way down Fifth Ave,stopping at a grocery store on 59th Street to buy some chocolates, then at Brentano’s,a bookstore on 27th Street where she bought a copy of «Engaged Girl Sketches,» a slightly humorous collection of short romantic stories. Around that time, reportedly 2:00 p.m, she ran into a friend from college, Gladys King.The two talked about a party they’d both been invited to,the same party for which Dorothy was supposedly dress shopping. Gladys left to meet her mother for lunch and Dorothy was never seen again.
When Dorothy wasn’t home for dinner that night,her family started to worry. The next morning, they began calling Dorothy’s friends. By that evening with no one knowing Dorothy’s whereabouts,the family began contacting private investigators.The investigators searched hospitals, morgues,and even prisons looking for Dorothy. They visited her friends in Boston,Washington D.C., and other cities,but turned up nothing. Detectives in Europe even watched as people disembarked from ships arriving from the U.S.to try to spot Dorothy. Nothing.
When they too came up empty handed,the family finally announced Dorothy’s disappearance on January 25th, a full six weeks after their daughter was last seen,hoping more clues would surface.Despite a $1,000 reward by Dorothy’s family,more than $26,000 today, no leads managed to turn up Dorothy Arnold.
Because it captured America’s attention for so long,this case has countless theories associated with it. So today we’ll be discussing what I feel are the most likely. They all told investigators Dorothy Arnold had been aboard their ships. Over the following decades,many others would come forward claiming to have seen Dorothyor even to be Dorothy. None of the claims ever led anywhere.
Our first theory is that Dorothy Arnold ran away.After searching her bedroom, investigators found information Dorothy had collected about various ocean liners she could take to Europe.It wasn’t clear when Dorothy researched the ships,but the cruise companies were nevertheless contacted. On February 6th, 1911, Mr. Arnold received a postcard that had been sent from New York City that stated, quote, «I am safe» and appeared to be signed by Dorothy. Mr. Arnold, however, insisted it was a fake and that whoever wrote it merely copied Dorothy’s handwriting samples that were published in the papers. Casting doubt on the theory that Dorothy ran away is the fact that she left behind practically all of her valuables, expensive jewelry that could’ve been sold to help her journey as well as personally valuable correspondents with friends.
Our second theory is that Dorothy was kidnapped and murdered.This is the theory that Dorothy’s father eventually came to accept as what happened to his daughter.In the absence of clues, the family came to believe this was the only logical explanation.By April, the family was so convinced their daughter was dead,that they started requesting the police give up the case.In fact, both her parents evidently wrote Dorothy out their wills because they were so certain she would not resurface.
Perhaps the strongest lead in the murder theory comes from one Edward Glenorris. In 1916,Glenorris was serving time in the Rhode Island State Prisonfor attempted extortion of a clergyman.He claimed he found God and wanted to come clean to the warden about his supposed involvement in burying the body of a woman he had come to believe was Dorothy Arnold.Glenorris said in what he remembered being December of 1910,a man at a bar named Benoit asked for help from him and another man that some reports named Little Louie.
Benoit, Glenorris, and Little Louie were tasked with moving an unconscious woman from a house in New Rochelle to a home up the Hudson near West Point.The next day, Glenorris was informed that the woman had died. And he was asked to return to the West Point home to help bury her.Glenorris allegedly buried the woman under a concrete floor in the basement and was paid $250 for his involvement by a wealthy-looking man.There has been some speculation that man who paid Glen Morris Could have been George Griscom,a friend of Dorothy, though there’s no hard evidence to support this.
After Glenorris confessed to helping bury the woman thought to be Dorothy,a team of detectives searched a home matching Glenorris’s vague description on April 21st, 1916.When they got to the basement,the team was surprised to find an area of the concrete floor that appeared to have been broken up in the past.The area, however, was small, about five feet by six inches,and the caretaker claimed the floor had been broken to fix a gas pipe. When authorities returned a couple days late with the owner’s permission to dig up the spot,they indeed found a gas pipe.Within the year, authorities were satisfied that Glenorris’s claims were false.
The third and final theory we’re discussing todayis that Dorothy accidentally died during an abortion.In April 1914, the Pittsburgh homeof one Dr. C.C. Meredith was raided by police.Meredith, his nurse, and another doctor, one H.E. Lutz Were all arrested. The home was used as a private officewhere women would come seeking abortions.Lutz made a statement to the DAthat at one time Meredith had told himDorothy Arnold had been one of his patients.From the way Meredith spoke of her, Lutz inferred that she had diedand her body had been crematedin Meredith’s office.
While Lutz didn’t admit to seeing Dorothy himself, he did testify that he’d witnessed another young woman who died in Meredith’s care be cremated in the basement. In their raid, detectives did find two oversized furnaces in Meredith’s basement. There’s speculation that Griscom could’ve beenwho had impregnated Dorothy, but evidence of thisor of Dorothy ever being in Pittsburgh for an abortion is brief at best.
Stories of missing socialites have always captured the public’s interest.Something about a seemingly perfect life gone astray continues to fascinate our darkest imaginations. For Dorothy Arnold, a lack of clues that confounded investigators has also given rise to a sleuth of theories to debate over for more than 100 years. Despite decades of attention and global searches,as for what actually happened to the 25-year-old New York heiress on that December day remains a mystery.
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References:
- (n.d.). The Peculiar Disappearance of Dorothy Arnold | by Heather Monroe …. Se recuperó el abril 16, 2021 de https://heathermonroe.medium.com/the-peculiar-disappearance-of-dorothy-arnold-e5f8fef3c52c
- (n.d.). The Girl Who Never Came Back | AMERICAN HERITAGE. Se recuperó el abril 16, 2021 de https://www.americanheritage.com/girl-who-never-came-back
TP Times 
It´s so weird how every theory sounds feasible, but at the same time not possible due to the lack of evidence.
Despite we´ll never know the truth and now this author has provided me another mystery that will navigate my mind at night, I do hope Dorothy rests in peace and that she didn´t suffer.
On a different note, can we talk about how perfectly written this article is? I liked the narration very much, very fancy. Keep it up!
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