IA IA - Fifty years on, rape murder of Dorothy Miller by "psychopath-killer" still unsolved

[deathvalley69]

from 2015:

Burlington’s oldest cold case continues to baffle investigators

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Dorothy Miller was found murdered Aug. 19, 1969, in a vacant two-story house in central Burlington.
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“The murder seemed to be so well planned and carried out that I feel the killer is a sociopath with previous experience,” a psychiatric social worker said a few days after police discovered Miller’s body.

The petite real-estate agent’s hands were bound in front of her with a rope. After she was raped, Miller was bludgeoned with a brick, stabbed 22 times and left semi-naked in an upstairs closet of a vacant house she was showing.
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As investigators dug deeper into the killing, the one major clue they developed was a description of a stranger who was seen at the Maple Leaf Tavern a few hours before the killing.

Patrons there told police they had never seen the man before. They described him as a 5-foot-9 to 5-foot-11, good-looking, clean-cut man between 20 and 30 years old. He weighed about 175 pounds.
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long article at the link

 

[dotr]

Burlington's oldest cold case continues to baffle
July 31, 2015
"BURLINGTON, Ia. –Police nearly half a century ago described the person they believed raped and then killed a popular 48-year-old Burlington grandmother as a sociopath, a sexual deviant, and a serial killer.

Dorothy Miller was found murdered Aug. 19, 1969, in a vacant two-story house.

Her unsolved killing is Burlington's oldest cold case.

Her case file remains open and every Burlington police officer who becomes a detective is familiar with the case.

"Everyone in the department still knows about it," said Lt. Jeff Klein, commander of Burlington's criminal investigation division. "We send every officer to a two-week homicide school when they become a detective. When they return from the school, we hand them the Dorothy Miller file and ask them to review it to see if we have missed anything."
Despite those persistent efforts, Miller's murder remains a mystery.

"About the only thing I am confident saying is we don't believe the person responsible was from the Burlington area," said Klein recently, as he and Maj. Dennis Kramer sifted through boxes of witness statements and photographs.

"It's my belief it was an individual who happened to be passing through Burlington. Being the small community it is, something would have stood out about who was responsible if that person had been local."

Investigators and area mental health experts at the time had the same conclusion. A carnival was in town that week.

"The murder seemed to be so well planned and carried out that I feel the killer is a sociopath with previous experience," Harold Lee, a psychiatric social worker with the Southeast Iowa Mental Health Center, told the Burlington Hawk Eye a few days after police discovered Miller's body.

The real estate agent's hands were bound in front of her with a rope. After she was raped, Miller was bludgeoned with a brick, stabbed 22 times and left semi-naked in an upstairs closet of a vacant house she was showing at 118 Grand St. She was found the next morning by police after her husband, Fred Miller, reported her missing.

Detectives discovered a rope they believed was used to bind Miller and a brick used to beat her. Only the back door to the home was unlocked.

Miller told police his wife left their home about 7 p.m. that evening to meet with a "prospective buyer" of a house for sale."

 

[dotr]

This case was mentioned in relation to this one..
Ws thread..
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...-ab-sept-15-1971.291648/page-10#post-15360652

 

[Fede]

Here is an interesting article with many details: Appointment With Death: Murder of Dorothy Miller 1969 - Iowa Unsolved Murders: Historic Cases

 

[Betty P]

Wow, this is a really difficult case. It sounds like the killer was a stranger passing through town. No one was able to identify him, where he was from nothing, even though the stayed in town 3 or 4 days. Serial killer seems like a real possibility as he knew what he was doing, how to plan and carry it out without attracting too much attention or giving away much info about himself. He was really bold, too, going with her to look at the house for sale with neighbors sitting outside next door. He also didn't seem concerned that people in the Maple Leaf Tavern could ID him, either. Where did he stay while in town?

Also possibly relevant that there was a carnival in town that week.

Was LE not able to retrieve any fingerprints from the house or from her car? As much as I'd like to hope the ME took a rape kit sample, it sounds like he didn't. Otherwise they could send it off for DNA today, then run it through CODIS periodically.

Poor Dorothy, that was a vicious attack. So sorry for her husband and daughter, too.

 

[Fede]

The killer's MO reminded me of: James DeBardeleben | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

 

[alexia98]

The killer's MO reminded me of: James DeBardeleben | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Never convicted of murder....he was even lucky....

 

[Elainera]

Here is an interesting article with many details: Appointment With Death: Murder of Dorothy Miller 1969 - Iowa Unsolved Murders: Historic Cases

It says in the article

"As the only female realtor in Burlington, she was an early professional pioneer."

If the assailant was not a local he couldn't have known that there was a female realtor in town. If he's a serial killer (as it is assumed by LE) targeting female realtors was surely not his usual MO.

Did they get nothing from the crime scene? No fingerprints on doors or on the flash cube in the car, steering wheel etc, no semen? No hairs?

If still alive he would be in his 70s now. How many others has he killed?

 

[Betty P]

It says in the article

"As the only female realtor in Burlington, she was an early professional pioneer."

If the assailant was not a local he couldn't have known that there was a female realtor in town. If he's a serial killer (as it is assumed by LE) targeting female realtors was surely not his usual MO.

Did they get nothing from the crime scene? No fingerprints on doors or on the flash cube in the car, steering wheel etc, no semen? No hairs?

If still alive he would be in his 70s now. How many others has he killed?

I wondered the same about any evidence from the crime scene or from her car (he drove her car back to his own and abandoned it).

The husband and people from the Maple Leaf Tavern all confirm there was a man (a stranger to them) who was calling her from the tavern and arranging appointments to look at homes for sale. Could have been someone from a nearby town who was a stranger to her husband and the tavern folks.

A stranger could have seen her photo and name in newspaper ads. He may have chosen her because her job would allow him to get her alone somewhere after dark. If he was experienced, it could have presented him with a unique "challenge".

 

[Richard]

Dorothy Miller as a young girl

LINK:

Appointment With Death: Murder of Dorothy Miller 1969 - Iowa Unsolved Murders: Historic Cases

Murder Victim Dorothy H. Miller 48-year-old Realtor Bolick Realty 1921-1969 Cause of Death: Bludgeoned and Stabbed Motive: Sexual Psychopathy Murder Scene and Date 118 Grand Street Burlington, Iowa Des Moines County August 18, 1969...

iowaunsolvedmurders.com