NY DOROTHY ARNOLD: Missing from New York, NY - 12 December 1910 - Age 25


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On December 12, 1910, Arnold left to go shopping for a dress and was seen by a cashier as well as a friend on Fifth Avenue. She told the friend that she had planned to walk through Central Park before returning home. That evening, when Arnold failed to return home for dinner, her family grew suspicious.



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The friend said it was a thick envelope with papers. She didn't ask Dorothy what it was, she thought it might be rude to ask.Dorothy didn't volunteer any info about it either. Then she leaves a day later. Her friend was a school teacher in Washington DC.
And what is the letter referred to with mom would think an accident? She left a letter?

Could the packet have been a manuscript? When I hear thick, that was my first thought. You said she really wanted to be an author.
 
I also think it was a manuscript being returned to her. She had submitted two different stories to two different women's magazines that were popular at the time. One had already been returned to her with a rejection letter a couple of months earlier- her family and friends were teasing her about wanting to be a writer.
 
And what is the letter referred to with mom would think an accident? She left a letter?

Could the packet have been a manuscript? When I hear thick, that was my first thought. You said she really wanted to be an author.
After she disappeared, the family lawyer found a letter in her room that she had been writing to her 40 year old boyfriend. The sentence about Mother will always....was in that letter.
 
After Dorothy disappeared, some nut job was trying to convince her parents that she had been murdered and then turned into a swan, one of a group of swans that apparently lived in some big pond in Central Park.
 
I also think it was a manuscript being returned to her. She had submitted two different stories to two different women's magazines that were popular at the time. One had already been returned to her with a rejection letter a couple of months earlier- her family and friends were teasing her about wanting to be a writer.
Manuscript seems likely given her wishes and interests. I can't think of many things that would be voluminous other than may be a stack of legal papers or govt.? This was DC right...? But can't think of a thing that way that would relate to her.

They send them back even when accepted don't they asking for changes at times? Just going by this I've heard over a lifetime and used to read avidly I don't much these days, and so knew of authors and various things I guess. Of course it could be different in that time with lack of things like photocopy machines, etc. and if they wanted the manuscript to publish, no idea.
 
After she disappeared, the family lawyer found a letter in her room that she had been writing to her 40 year old boyfriend. The sentence about Mother will always....was in that letter.
Has the entire thing ever been told or published. I'd really like to see that letter or hear ALL the content.

AND was it dated? Recent to her disappearance or something she had been writing for a time...

I thought they parted? Or may have? Sorry, not keeping it straight but I know you talked of her maybe finding another bf and some things on that order, he wouldn't marry her then, etc. most likely.

This letter with just that phrase could easily be a suicide letter, mother will always think an accident...

If she just vanished how would the mother ever think an accident if they never found her?

it would make me think she expected her body to be found....?

Or I guess it could mean pregnancy and maybe that she intended to get pregnant but mother will always think it an accident....? Less likely though.

So they made fun of her aspirations and so did friends and of her rejection letters... She truly did not seem to be on the best of terms with her family, however she and mom were to meet for lunch...

I really have no solid opinion in this one even yet although I lean towards she met with foul play or she committed suicide and just hasn't been found but there's no real reason to think that either.

I just can't help but feel if she took a train or something, someone would have seen her and he so well known...I mean she could have changed clothing, hair color, looked poor, tried to not be recognized but where and when, she simply vanished.

I think a car has to be involved even if foul play but they weren't entirely common then either. Not unheard of but certainly not everyone had one, I looked it up. And NYC even to this day, many live without one as there is nowhere to keep one with many apartments and such a concrete jungle OR simply don't want to drive there.

Yeah, is the letter available? I don't think I remember hearing about it, apologies if you talked of it before, I likely did not know enough if so to put it any context, but I don't recall hearing of it.

Was a completed letter or she was in the midst of it...?

And that's another thing, if she vanished intentionally and wanted her mother to think something was an accident (doesn't really fit to me as I said above), and never planned on coming back, she had to know her mother would FIND the letter and know she said that or wanted her to think that...
 
After Dorothy disappeared, some nut job was trying to convince her parents that she had been murdered and then turned into a swan, one of a group of swans that apparently lived in some big pond in Central Park.
I hope someone got this guy some mental health help. Totally ridiculous. And not amusing I'm sure to her family.

I will tell you nothing really makes sense to me. The only thing I can make work very well is someone took her and either in a carriage or car, I doubt cars were in Central Park, killed her and disposed of her somewhere she's never been found, in water, out of the city...At their own home under the ground or something. Under a basement floor. I'm sure many were dirt back then they still were a lot of them years later.

I hope they vetted this bf well. If she WAS pg, it is a motive in many a case,a very common one. I can't recall why he was cleared. I know I don't recall any substantial reason...
 
That is the mystery. Nobody knows what she was referring to when she said her mother would think it was an accident.
I think whoever read the letter knows, I mean, I think if we could read the letter, we'd know, too.
I also think it was a manuscript being returned to her. She had submitted two different stories to two different women's magazines that were popular at the time. One had already been returned to her with a rejection letter a couple of months earlier- her family and friends were teasing her about wanting to be a writer.
I agree that it must have been the rejected manuscript.
 
The following article includes info re existance of another letter that I haven't read elsewhere. (It's a reference on the wiki page but I'm not sure others have read it.)
Wow. More than I knew. I recently wound back to the bf/ And mentioned yard or basement, etc...The family went that long without calling authorities?

In a bit of a not much time frame but that was quite the article.

I am pretty new to this myself.

The possible scandal or loss of standing clearly worried this family/or at least the father.

Her spending a week with a bf back then would have in and of itself been scandalous.

I've recently wound back to him as I haven't had a chance to look back, and again it is fairly new to me, but I don't recall anything major that cleared him and then with that found letter...

She sounds from what I've gathered like someone who hated the strictures of the time, and her parents, etc. She had dreams and aspirations and probably also to get away from the ways of the time but they were not planning out. She was seeing an older man and went against all conventions to spend a week with him... Family was more worried about looks and status than what really happened to her.

I have some straight but sure do not know it well, entirely or all.

Right now I think it is going to fall back to the obvious usual answer. Sadly.

I mean who was she meeting secretly... George. Who did she risk all reputation for? George. Who may or may not have gotten her pregnant or would not make an honest woman out of her so to speak? George. Who was the letter to? George.

I may or may not be mistaken but I cannot recall any solid way he was cleared.

Interesting old case nevertheless... That is where I am at at the moment...
 
@Regina

Nice to see you in here. I don't do many cases of this type, really old etc. and unsolved.

Do you have a leaning yet?

I really don't. I mean I lean a couple ways a bit but no very solid opinion.
 
Wow. More than I knew. I recently wound back to the bf/ And mentioned yard or basement, etc...The family went that long without calling authorities?

In a bit of a not much time frame but that was quite the article.

I am pretty new to this myself.

The possible scandal or loss of standing clearly worried this family/or at least the father.

Her spending a week with a bf back then would have in and of itself been scandalous.

I've recently wound back to him as I haven't had a chance to look back, and again it is fairly new to me, but I don't recall anything major that cleared him and then with that found letter...

She sounds from what I've gathered like someone who hated the strictures of the time, and her parents, etc. She had dreams and aspirations and probably also to get away from the ways of the time but they were not planning out. She was seeing an older man and went against all conventions to spend a week with him... Family was more worried about looks and status than what really happened to her.

I have some straight but sure do not know it well, entirely or all.

Right now I think it is going to fall back to the obvious usual answer. Sadly.

I mean who was she meeting secretly... George. Who did she risk all reputation for? George. Who may or may not have gotten her pregnant or would not make an honest woman out of her so to speak? George. Who was the letter to? George.

I may or may not be mistaken but I cannot recall any solid way he was cleared.

Interesting old case nevertheless... That is where I am at at the moment...
What do you have against George?
(That reminds me of a joke I heard recently...what do you have against the horse I rode in on? LOl!

I think the reason Dorothy was secretive about seeing George- and possibly the reason he may not have wanted to marry- is because of her father's disapproval.

Yes, info is that it was 6 weeks before her parents reported her as missing to the police, which to me shows that they surely believed her disappearance was voluntary.
 
What do you have against George?
(That reminds me of a joke I heard recently...what do you have against the horse I rode in on? LOl!

I think the reason Dorothy was secretive about seeing George- and possibly the reason he may not have wanted to marry- is because of her father's disapproval.

Yes, info is that it was 6 weeks before her parents reported her as missing to the police, which to me shows that they surely believed her disappearance was voluntary.
Well, I don't know. He wouldn't marry her for one but wanted her favors to put it nicely I am guessing...

Lol. Re anything against George and your joke.

Seriously though, I'd like to know how he was cleared and HOW cleared that is. Just parents saying he was home or something? Not good enough. Was at work, did he work, no idea?

It's often a significant other and if she jilted him or was pregnant well then..

It talks of his wealth so he probably had a car...

I'm not really set on an opinion but most come back to things that I think don't really add up or are unlikely. She was writing to him, mentioning her mom would always thing something and accident... And I mean who else would she meet up with most likely who she had before and usually secretively...

I don't feel like there's many possible scenarios here, a few but I find problems with them.

Yeah it could have been her father's disapproval but they also sound ridiculously concerned about image and status and heck she is unmarried and spent a week with him or whatever, I doubt he'd have been okay with that with any man.

As far as six weeks thinking her disappearance was voluntary, what was different in six weeks? That's a lot darned time. Imo they struggled with again image and the last thing they would want known is some public police investigation over their missing adult daughter. Was she ever gone six weekes before where she did not let them know? Wouldn't you call In one week or even two?

I think again it was image.

Or they felt forced as others were noticing she was not around, etc.

Not sure. And you could be right, just saying there are various possibilities to some of these things.

I find it all very intriguing but also am realizing we sure aren't going to solve it. For me, I still don't think I know all info and so am still interested in learning more and more to come to an opinion if there is enough that i'd form a solid one.

I'd like to see that letter. I'd like to see all their letters if there were others...

One thing that bothers me is for he parents to find that letter, probably meant not to, means she did not leave voluntarily for good most likely...
 
Thanks,! Likewise!

Yeah, fairly solid re suicide.
Interesting but I CAN see it. The letter and mom always thinking it accident. The sudden disappearance and no further sightings and she was on her own when last seen. Rejection of manuscripts, a man that would not marry her, a sister now going to be "coming out", feeling like maybe an old maid or ruined one, family social strictures and image...

So how and where? The water? I mean they probably didn't have the resources back then as now are had, so in the water maybe? She's never been found but granted decades later they probably are not and were not looking for her either...

Lack of body or bones in all these years is a big one since she apparently went missing in not a large area of last seen...

Give me the rest of your scenario if you would...

She also seemed upbeat, bought a book and chocolates although I guess that means nothing necessarily, it would just help "mother" think an accident...
 
Well, I don't know. He wouldn't marry her for one but wanted her favors to put it nicely I am guessing...

Lol. Re anything against George and your joke.

Seriously though, I'd like to know how he was cleared and HOW cleared that is. Just parents saying he was home or something? Not good enough. Was at work, did he work, no idea?

It's often a significant other and if she jilted him or was pregnant well then..

It talks of his wealth so he probably had a car...

I'm not really set on an opinion but most come back to things that I think don't really add up or are unlikely. She was writing to him, mentioning her mom would always thing something and accident... And I mean who else would she meet up with most likely who she had before and usually secretively...

I don't feel like there's many possible scenarios here, a few but I find problems with them.

Yeah it could have been her father's disapproval but they also sound ridiculously concerned about image and status and heck she is unmarried and spent a week with him or whatever, I doubt he'd have been okay with that with any man.

As far as six weeks thinking her disappearance was voluntary, what was different in six weeks? That's a lot darned time. Imo they struggled with again image and the last thing they would want known is some public police investigation over their missing adult daughter. Was she ever gone six weekes before where she did not let them know? Wouldn't you call In one week or even two?

I think again it was image.

Or they felt forced as others were noticing she was not around, etc.

Not sure. And you could be right, just saying there are various possibilities to some of these things.

I find it all very intriguing but also am realizing we sure aren't going to solve it. For me, I still don't think I know all info and so am still interested in learning more and more to come to an opinion if there is enough that i'd form a solid one.

I'd like to see that letter. I'd like to see all their letters if there were others...

One thing that bothers me is for he parents to find that letter, probably meant not to, means she did not leave voluntarily for good most likely...
Well, after that week she'd spent with George, Dorothy's father forbid her to see him and it appears that their only communication since then was through cards and letters and before her disappearance, he'd gone to Europe with his parents and was still there for weeks if not months after and I think it was those circumstances that cleared him.
 
Well, after that week she'd spent with George, Dorothy's father forbid her to see him and it appears that their only communication since then was through cards and letters and before her disappearance, he'd gone to Europe with his parents and was still there for weeks if not months after and I think it was those circumstances that cleared him.
Okay. I maybe have been told that and forgot, not sure. Assuming they can show he made the passage and was there of course.

So if you are thinking suicide, what is it you are thinking? In the water at Central Park? And why has she never been found?
 

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