MrBallen

You know, she seemed kind of overwhelmed by the moment.

You know, she was shaking and she was just staring, sort of shocked.

But eventually, you know, after looking at the body, she spoke.

And she actually said that she didn't think this was Dorothy.

And for a second, Vallelongo was actually disappointed, not because he was hoping Dorothy was dead, but for the sake of the case, you know, to figure out where she had gone.

But then he remembered something.

He stepped up to the body, he put on a glove, and gently examined the woman's left hand.

And there, just visible on her index finger, was a tattoo of a cross.

This was Dorothy.

Four days later, on May 7th, Vallelongo got to his office and sat down at his desk to start the day.

And he had a lot to do, because he was now in the middle of a homicide case.

The medical examiner who had done the autopsy on Dorothy didn't find any water in her lungs.

So as a result, they had decided the cause of death was most likely asphyxia from strangulation or suffocation, not drowning.

Now, Vallelongo had known all along that it was possible somebody had abducted Dorothy from her home and killed her.

But now that it was official, he was sort of reviewing the case notes from the beginning to see if anything had been overlooked while this was still basically considered a missing persons case.

And he started with the place Dorothy was last known to be, her house.

Dorothy's home was incredibly neat and undisturbed.

So it was possible Dorothy was lured from her home and killed somewhere else.

But Vallelongo knew from talking to her neighbors and Patricia that Dorothy was, you know, naturally pretty reclusive and did not leave her house easily.

So it sort of made the most sense to him that Dorothy must have actually been killed in her home.