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The original was posted on /r/unresolvedmysteries by /u/AlfredTheJones on 2024-01-08 20:06:08+00:00.
Hello everyone! As always, thank you for all the comments and upvotes on my last post about Gretchen Fleming. I hope that her case will get solved quickly and that her family will find peace.
Today's case concerns the story of a woman who suddenly vanished from her house.
BACKGROUND
Dorothy "Dottie" Yates-McCathran was 40 when she went missing from her home in Vivian, Louisiana, USA.
Dottie was a mother of two, a six year old girl and a fourteen year old boy. Her parents, who live in Shreveport, have custody over them.
Her mother, Martha Mullins, described her as "crafty, outgoing, (with) lots of friends and a contagious laugh".
Her brother said that Dorothy was always a part of the popular crowd, did a lot of sports and had tons of friends growing up.
Dorothy and her brother were adopted, and she was always very close with her mom. She also used to train soccer throughout highschool. Their parents divorced when she was a teen and she took it very hard.
Dorothy went to Texas to Waco to study interior design. During university, Dorothy became addicted to hydrocodone which she started to take to help with pain caused by a forehead injury. She moved to her parent's house to find her footing. She got involved with a party crowd and got heavily into drugs. Dorothy attempted ten different rehab centers throughout the 20 years she was addicted, with mixed results, but always ended up kicked out.
Dorothy got in a relationship with a man named Kevin she met in rehab, whom he married and had a daughter with. Sadly, the relationship was heavily abusive, with both of them taking drugs. A month before Dorothy's daughter was born, she had to go to the hospital for sutures due to a wound which was the result of Kevin hitting her with a broomstick.
DISAPPEARANCE
Dottie suddenly vanished from her house in the 10000 block of Vivian Airport Road; Her family haven't heard from her since the 21st of January, and that is the date she was reported last seen. She went missing one day after her daughter's sixth birthday. The day before Dorothy went missing (20th), her mother talked to her on the phone- Dorothy was upset that she won't be able to see her daughter in Shreveport, which is 40 minutes away by car, on her birthday and even cried over it, but she seemingly cheered up about the prospect of coming over for a birthday party on the following Saturday (26th of January). Dorothy wanted to take her daughter camping on Sunday.
On the 21st of January, around 3:45 p.m, Dottie called her friend, who asked to be anonymous. During the call, Dottie said that she and her husband have been fighting a lot lately and that she has to get away. She also asked if she can take a restaurant job her friend was offered. During the conversation, someone walked in; Dottie was crying before, but when that person came in she instantly pulled herself together, with Dottie saying "hi" to them. She continued the conversation with her friend after the person came in.
Two days after she went missing, her husband called Dottie's mother and said that on the 21st, he went to the city to look at a job with his cousin- when he came back, Dorothy was nowhere to be found. The disabled car (Kevin disabled the car on purpose to not allow Dorothy to go anywhere) was still parked in its spot and he couldn't see any signs that anybody came over in the meantime. Before the husband left their home, Dorothy was cutting up and cooking okra in the kitchen- when Kevin returned, he noticed that the house was full of smoke, a partially burnt tv remote wrapped in a wet towel was in the bathroom, a burnt spatula was on top of the stove, and clothes were strewn around the house. Kevin said that Dorothy became paranoid lately and suspected that she started to use again- specifically, that she'd mix her perscribed drugs with meth, which she took before.
Apparently, he thought that Dorothy was with a friend- she would visit them and stay away from home for some time, but she'd never stay so long without contacting him. Dorothy left behind her purse, driver's licence and broken phone- and her mother says that she'd never leave home without make-up. The police was informed about Dottie's disappearance on the 23rd, but she was officially considered missing on the 27th, after she didn't come to her daughter's birthday party.
Around the 1st of February, a search by drone was carried out on the family's property. Future searches with the use of sniffer dogs were planned out. By the 21st, two searches have been carried out; During them, the police searched McCathran’s home and vehicles, interviewed neighbors, and conducted an aerial search by the department’s drone unit. During the third search, the police were joined by the Shreveport Fire Department K-9 Search and Rescue Task Force, Ark-La- Tex K-9 Search and Rescue Team and K-9 Spirit, and a second drone search was carried out. The searched area was 30 acres, and it was split into grids for the ease of search. One of the efforts searched the five acre property near Vivian's airport, where the couple lived, and it did turn up some of Dottie's belongings- a feather boa, some jewelry and a knit hat. All items but the boa were confirmed to belong to Dorothy or her family members. A bunch of feathers were also found, but it's unclear if they belonged to the boa.
Kevin found another phone under the porch of their house and wanted to turn it over to authorities, but he wanted the police to come to him; He handed over both phones, the one he found under the porch and one that was left behind, to Dorothy's parents during his daughter's soccer game who then turned them over to the sheriff, but the devices were too broken to do anything about them. Dorothy's family relationship with Kevin has become estranged since her vanishing, and the soccer game was the first time Kevin has seen his daughter in 16 months.
In April, somebody left a newspaper clipping about Dorothy's vanishing with some notes on it and maps drawn on in a nexon near a cash register in Vivian, and police asked for the person who left it to contact them. They haven't contacted the police by May of 2021.
On the 30th of December, a billboard was put up for Dorothy asking people for information about her disappearance and telling about the reward.
CONCLUSION
I think that there is a big chance that Dorothy might've indeed relapsed again and that might've been the reason as to why she went missing. If she was the one responsible for making a mess in the house, then her last actions certainly seem frenzied and impulsive. There's a chance that she took the odd clothes like the boa or the hat with her for some reason and lost them. She might've perished due to weather or fallen into water and hasn't been found yet.
There's also domestic violence- we've seen that Kevin could be aggressive, and there are rumors that he even said that Dorothy was "pissing him off" and that he'd like to get rid of her. He could've staged the mess in the house and scatter the clothes to confuse the investigation. He allowed the police to search his home at first, but then he grew distrustful, plus he distanced himself from Dorothy's family and even his daughter- of course people react to situations like these differently, but to me it is at least worth noting.
Dorothy's family also speculates that she might've gotten in trouble with other drug users or dealers, maybe owing money to someone dangerous. She allegedly frequented some drug houses, so her getting into trouble in one also seems like a possibility.
There's a $20,000 reward for any informations regarding Dorothy's disappearance. Her family has also hired a private detective.
Dorothy's brother isn't a fan of Kevin and he suspects that he might be responsible for her going missing.
When she went missing, Dorothy Yates-McCathran was 40, making her about 44 now. She was white, 5'3 (63 inch / 160 cm), 115 pounds (52 kg), with brown hair and brown eyes. She has scars on both arms, a scar on her abdomen and a tattoo on her abdomen. Her ears are pierced. If you have any info about her disappearance, contact Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office at 318-675-2170.
SOURCES:
- shreveporttimes.com
- ktbs.com
- shrewporttimes.com
- ktbs.com
- usnews.com
- The Vanished podcast
- Charley Project
Dorothy's websleuths.com thread