Resources for Missing Persons

According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day. Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends. Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.

Missing Person Case Updates with Photos

Dorothy Delilah Scofield



Dorothy, date, approximate 1976; Age-progression to age 46 (date, approximate 2010);
Date Missing 07/22/1976
Missing From
Ocala, Florida
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 01/08/1964 (58)
Age 12 years old
Height and Weight 4'11, 90 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A red short-sleeved body suit with a blue flower design and snaps at the crotch, a button-up shirt tucked inside blue jeans, a brown leather belt with a metal buckle and lime-green high-top Keds sneakers.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Dorothy wore eyeglasses with gold-colored, teardrop-shaped frames at the time of her disappearance. Her upper incisor slightly overlaps her upper front tooth, and she was missing one tooth when she was last seen in 1976. She has freckles across her nose, pierced ears and a mole on her knee. Dorothy's nicknames are Dee and DeeDee (sometimes spelled "Dee-Dee" or "DeDe"). Her middle name my be spelled "Delila" by some agencies. Her hair was styled in two pigtails at the time of her disappearance.
Details of Disappearance Dorothy and her mother left their Ocala, Florida residence together on July 22, 1976. Her mother took a driving test while Dorothy exchanged a pair of sandals at the J. M. Fields department store. She also planned to buy a birthday present for her brother.
Dorothy returned the shoes and was last seen at the mall at approximately 2:00 p.m. that day. Dorothy never met her mother at the designated location they had agreed on and she reported her daughter as missing. She has never been seen again.
A witness reported having seen a girl matching Dorothy's description two hours after she was reported missing. The child was in Nuby's, a convenience store at the intersection of Highway 40 and State Road Highway 314, less than a mile from the Ocala National Forest. with one or two adult males. They purchased sodas and left.
The child was shaking and appeared to be very frightened. She and the adult male companion(s) were never identified and law enforcement authorities are not sure if she was in fact Dorothy. A sketch of a possible suspect is posted with this summary.
Dorothy is the youngest of five children and lived with her family in a mobile home in Citra, Florida in 1976. She was an honor student at Marion Middle School, regularly attended church, and worked at her parents' barbecue. Investigators do not believe she ran away from home, as she was not having any personal problems at the time of her disappearance.
There was some speculation at that her disappearance might be linked to the 1975 disappearances of the sisters Sheila and Katherine Lyon, but no evidence connecting the s was discovered.
Dorothy's parents divorced in 1981 and her father died ten years later. Her remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Ocala Police Department
352-629-8508
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Child Protection Education of America
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Operation Lookout
Chat Area
NewspaperArchive
CLEWS: Your Home for Historic True Crime
NamUs
The Ocala Star-Banner

Missing Person Photos

A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe. By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends. A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.

Resources for Missing Persons

According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day. Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends. Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.

Missing Person Case Updates with Photos