She was born on January 9th, 1944 in Chardon, Ohio to Susan Westlund Rusnak and Joseph P. Rusnak. She was the second and youngest child in the no-nonsense family who lived on the edge of an old family orchard. Dottie's dad worked in a factory as an electrician and her mother was a teacher.
She played baseball in the front yard and joined the 4-H Club. As a teen, she took an interest in Catholicism and sought out the church. Dottie contemplated becoming a nun, but when she graduated from high school, she followed her mother's advice and went to secretarial school.
Dottie graduated from secretarial school when she was 19. She then took a job as a legal secretary for a Cleveland firm and moved out of her parents' home and into that of a friend's grandmother's.
Diane had graduated school as well and was teaching art at a junior high in Berkley. She had been writing to Dottie, urging her to come join her out there. A now 20-year-old Dottie finally decided to go, loaded her VW and headed to Berkeley. The two sisters and Diane's friend, Joanie, rented a small apartment on Rose Street.
Living with her sister, Diane realized that Dottie was more mature now. Dottie was hardly the life of the party, but at times she would attend social events, concerts and campus gatherings. Other days she would spend in her room or drive alone for hours on Mount Diablo and the Berkeley hills.
Dottie then started to take diet pills. Dottie and Diane also began getting into silly arguments and wouldn't speak to each other for months.
A few years later, Dottie was left alone living at the apartment after Diane moved in with a boyfriend and Joanie got married. Diane and her boyfriend found Dottie a new place to live and new roommates. And with their encouragement, Dottie took a secretarial job on campus and also took some classes.
In 1970, Dottie met Jim Rupp. Jim was a graduate student at UC Berkeley and an entomologist. He was also dating one of Dottie's roommates. Jim dated the roommate for three years. After which Dottie and Jim started dating. They both loved the outdoors and could talk for hours about anything. Soon Jim professed his love for Dottie.
Some of Dottie's friends and her sister never really warmed up to Jim. There was just something off about him and they were right. A few months into their relationship Jim made a confession. Jim's real name was Jule Caylor and he was married and had a 5-year-old daughter. He said that he was in a loveless marriage and that he and his wife were going through a divorce. He also said that he hadn't wanted to hurt her and that he hoped she would forgive him and stay with him.
Dottie decided to stay with Jim and the couple moved into a rental in Lafayette.
In Thanksgiving of 1971, a sobbing Dottie attended a family gathering alone because Jule spent the entire day with his wife and daughter.
Dottie eventually found out that Jules wasn't going through a divorce. He hadn't even filed yet. He kept saying he didn't want his daughter to come from a broken home and he didn't want to pay alimony to his wife. This frustrated Dottie and after she prodded Jule for three years, he divorced his wife and married Dottie.
Even thought Jule's parents didn't approve of Dottie, they had their wedding in a simple backyard ceremony at his parents' home in Lindsay. Jule wore mismatched brown coat and pants and a green shirt. Dottie wore a long white lacy dress. Aside from Jule's parents and his now10-year-old daughter, Diane was the only other person at the wedding.
Dottie seemed so happy and and despite her fear of flying, the couple then left for a honeymoon trip to Hawaii.
That same year, Dottie and Jule bought a ranch-style three-bedroom house in Concord for $7,000. This home would be Dottie's refuge and prison.
Jule was working for the U.S. Forest Service using infrared aerial photography to pinpoint disease and changes within forests. And because Jule was working to develop the technology and process he traveled around the country to teach, lecture and to photograph forest lands. He was gone for weeks at a time, and Dottie was often all alone, with no friends and no contact with her husband.
Dottie developed severe agoraphobia and was afraid to leave her house. She would make lists of household chores that needed to be done and lists of things she needed at the store, but never would venture out to get. She also wrote letters sometimes accusatory letters to Jule's parents, whom she blamed for Jule's behavior, and to the women she believed Jule was seeing.
To Dottie's and her sister's friends, Jule seemed to go out of his way to avoid being at home. When he was there he was a controlling man and always thought that he could do a better job than anyone at any task. He was also as bad as Dottie when it came to making notes and writing long letters. He even had notations wrote in code which, when deciphered, revealed lists of women's names, which fueled Dottie's fear that Jule was seeing other women.
Jule had cheated on his previous wife and Dottie was sure he was doing that to her too. Dottie started keeping track of Jule's trips. Even if a car drove too slowly out front she would take down the description and license plate of the car, assuming it was one of his various lovers.
Some of the women that Dottie had written had replied back to her and confirmed what she feared all along, that Jule was cheating on her. By that time she saw them as other victim's of Jule's lies. Yet, Dottie stayed with Jule. How could she leave if she wanted to? She was afraid to leave the house.
This latest incident was a wake up call to Dottie and she started planning her escape from Jule's clutches. Dottie told Jule she wanted a divorce, but Jule refused. She insisted that she would reconsider only if he went to counseling. Jule did go to counseling, but at the end of the program, he refused to sign a statement admitting that he had been abusive to Dottie.
Jule wrote cards to Dottie saying that he loved her and would try to make things work and that he wanted to spend more time with her. However, soon Dottie discovered phone calls and hotel receipts from Jule's business trip to Alaska, revealing yet another affair.
Dottie decided that she needed to do something to better equip herself with a life without Jule so she enrolled in a support group for women who were planning divorce or had suddenly found themselves widowed. Dottie also began attending the nondenominational Unity Center church in Walnut Creek. She was becoming more brave and eventually joined other classes.
In 1984, Dottie met Shelley Wilson, a widow dealing with the recent unexpected death of her husband. Shelley became a role model for Dottie, and almost immediately, the two became best friends. Shelley and Dottie talked frequently on the phone, went to lunch or dinner together, caught a movie now and then and attended lectures and self-help groups.
Dottie even opened a bank account and applied for credit cards in her own name. She also rented a post office box and asked a friend to keep a file cabinet for her which contained evidence of her husband's past affairs and activities. It also contained a $5,000 cashier's check, which Dorothy had inherited and kept secret from Jule.
Jule was keeping a secret from Dorothy as well... In December 1984, Jule had become engaged to a Colorado woman he had met on a business trip. And they had purchased wedding rings.
Dottie was doing a lot better, but she still feared driving across bridges or through tunnels. Shelley drove most of the time and would pick up Dottie up at her house. When Jule was home, Dottie instead insisted on meeting Shelley at the Concord BART station. Dottie told Shelley that she did not want Jule to know anything about her friends or the new life she was shaping for herself. She also told Shelley that Jule was mentally and physically abusive to her and that she wanted a divorce.
Shelley begged Dottie to come live with her, but Dottie would not. She felt secure in the house she was at. The next year however, things changed.
Jule was transferring from San Francisco to Salt Lake City for the U.S. Forest Service. The couple had gone to a divorce mediator and agreed that Dottie would stay in Concord, in the house. She would figure out a way to pay Jule for his half. Even though Jule agreed to this arrangement he wasn't too happy about it. Dottie had not worked since they had married and because of this Jule's thought that Dottie had no rights to half the house.
In January 1985, Dottie wrote a letter to Jule's mother.
"Jule's threats to 'pop me off,' as he puts it, may succeed, but in the long run won't get him anywhere." "The neighbors are watching him now to help protect me." "And if he carried through with his murder threats, he'll just find himself sitting in jail for the rest of his life, or worse."
In May 1985, Dottie and her sister, Diane, met for the first time since the previous Christmas. They had lunch together at at a Concord coffee shop. Dottie told Diane that she feared Jule but that she was not going to let him control her anymore. Jule wanted Dottie to sign papers refinancing the house and she felt she was being cheated. Dottie also told Diane that she had opened her own checking account and rented a post office box. She had also packed up Jule's possessions and put them in storage.
If you are to believe Jules version, in the morning of Friday, June 12th, Dottie packed an overnight bag and told him she was going to visit a friend in California. Jules offered Dottie a ride to the Pleasant Hill BART station, which she allegedly accepted. On the way to the station Dottie told him that she was going to stay away until he left for Utah. Jules then claims that they arrived at the station at 8 a.m. He watched Dottie walk into the station with her over night bag and her turquoise leather purse in hand. After Dottie was out of sight Jules then he drove on to the Forest Service office in Pleasant Hill. In the evening, he returned to his empty house.
The next morning was Jule's last day if work in the Bay area. He told co-workers he was fighting some sort of bug and decided to work just half a day, leaving around noon. He parked at the Concord BART station and took the train into San Francisco.
When the BART train dropped him back in Concord, he saw Dottie's blue VW parked next to his. He peered inside and saw Dottie's purse on the floorboard. He unlocked the car and went through the bag. Her $30 in cash, her driver's license, a Diablo Valley College "Spring 1985" student ID and her library card were still inside. Only her bee-sting kit was missing. Jule put the purse in a bag and pushed it under the seat. He then left a note in the car saying that he was worried about her and asked her to call him. It also stated that she messed up his life by refusing to sign loan papers, and that it was Dottie's idea, not his, for him to seek out other women.
When the BART train dropped him back in Concord, he saw Dottie's blue VW parked next to his. He peered inside and saw Dottie's purse on the floorboard. He unlocked the car and went through the bag. Her $30 in cash, her driver's license, a Diablo Valley College "Spring 1985" student ID and her library card were still inside. Only her bee-sting kit was missing. Jule put the purse in a bag and pushed it under the seat. He then left a note in the car saying that he was worried about her and asked her to call him. It also stated that she messed up his life by refusing to sign loan papers, and that it was Dottie's idea, not his, for him to seek out other women.
"My Dearest Dottie,
It is Saturday, June 15, and you have been gone four days. I am so lonely I really don't know how to survive. I need you -- I always have. I have tried so hard to be good to you -- to be good for you. If you could only see that. I couldn't believe it when I found your car parked beside mine on Thursday. I have been checking and making sure it isn't ticketed. What in the world did you get into to get all the footprints on your freshly washed paint? -- and why in the world did you leave your purse? How are you getting by with so few clothes? Whom are you with? Please, God call me and let me know what you are doing and where you will be -- when you will be back.
You thought I could get an independent loan if you would not sign. But I can't. So you really screwed up my life by refusing to sign those loan papers since the property is in both of our names. I don't know what to do. I can neither sell it nor get a loan (on it) until you are willing to sign the papers with me. Are you with Shelly? She called a few days ago but she has not called back, so you must be with her. Please give me her last name or a phone number. Since I cannot reach you, I must rent out this place to be able to obtain enough income to cover the loan on my other place ¿ otherwise I cannot get anything in SLC. So you will have to take the room you planned to take with Shelly. I have no choice being in the position you have placed me in. So now I cannot give you any choice either. Don't try to screw up this deal. You must cooperate with me this time since you gave me no options last time.
Since I don't know even where to contact you, I don't know where to send your things. I would send them to your sister, but I don't want to embarrass you or burden her since she doesn't have much room. I will simply take all the stuff with me unless you contact me and tell me to do something different. In any case you can get back from me everything that is yours. I don't know what else to do. I don't know any of your friends so I have no place to move it.
I am trying to figure out how to forward my mail. But since I must rent this I have to forward your mail also. But again I don't know where or to whom. So I will forward all of our mail to Utah. It will go to my office since I don't know when I will be able to get into my new home ¿ if I even can still get it with the delays that have arisen from your refusal to sign the loan. But strangely enough I still care for you ¿ even through all the horrible hurts and loneliness you have put me through. If I could have you here, trying, helping me again I would give you everything that you asked for. It might not strain me that much. And if you really would work as you said you would so you can get financially independent in a year then I would really lose very little. Please oh please contact me. Don't wait until I am in SLC to let me know what to do. It just is not fair.
Being alone is no fun (for me). I hope it is no fun for you either. You said you have grown tired of marriage. So what? Everybody finds things get rough at some time in their life. I am still trying for you. Can't you try for me? No, I guess not! Trying together is past for now. Perhaps at some later time???
I have been checking your car several times a day -- leaving notes. I will leave this letter for now. For some reason I am a little apprehensive. I cannot understand why or how you could get along without your purse. Are you OK? You must be. You are so good at taking care of yourself.
The guy who wanted to buy the boat just came back. I think I will sell it to him. It is just too much of a pain to try to take it with me. Please come back home. I need to get so many details straightened out that only you can help me with. Please come home.
How I wish I didn't still love you. How I wish you still did love me.
Jule
P.S. You know where to find me in SLC. Contact me there (work) like you said you would. I will give you my home address and phone number as soon as I have one. What your doing with Harriett? You must stop torturing me this way. I simply cannot take it any more. If you are going to do something, for God's sake do it. If you aren't, then for God's sake stop talking about it. I cannot stand the mind-bending the "now we do it, now we don't" syndrome. Decide something, Dottie, and do it. This indecision is killing me. You are the one who demanded I search for a new love. That wasn't my idea."
He then locked the car and left.
The next day, he moved Dottie's car to a different parking spot to keep her from getting a ticket. He also drove to his parents' Central Valley home in Lindsay to leave Dottie's dog, Sally, with them.
That Sunday was Father's Day. Jule called a real estate agent and asked her to list the house for rent. When she came to see the house, it was freshly repainted on the inside. Also inside was a distraught Jule, crying over the dissolution of his marriage. Jules told the agent that Dottie had refused to sign refinancing papers, which left him in a financial bind. So he had no choice but to rent out the house.
Also that Sunday, Shelley Wilson called Dottie and Jule's house. She had been trying to reach Dottie to no avail since Wednesday. Dottie's beloved dog "Benji" had died the month before, which had devastated Dottie. Shelley wanted to see how things were going and she knew it was close to time for Jule to move to Salt Lake.
Jule actually answered this time and told Shelley that Dottie wasn't there. He said that she had left earlier in the week to visit friends and hadn't seen or heard from her since. Shelley then asked Jule if he had reported her missing. Jule said he had. Shelley didn't believe him and immediately hung up and called the Concord police. They had no report on Dottie.
Shelley called Dottie's sister Diane and everyone she knew who also knew Dottie. Diane also began calling everyone she knew.
Diane was hopeful that Dottie was teaching Jule a lesson and would come back after a while, even though deep down Diane knew better. After all, Diane would most likely be the person and Dottie ran to and Jule was the only one who knew about Dottie's so called trip. Dottie had never breathed a word about it to anyone.
One of Jule's neighbors urged him to contact the Concord station, which he did at 3 p.m. on June 17th. The following day the station officials called the local police.
A grave in the back yard of Dottie's home was exhumed, only Benji's body was found inside. A garage mechanic came forward and told police Dottie and Jule had been in the day before Dottie disappeared arguing about money. Neighbors were interviewed. Some described the couple as quiet and loving while others said that they were loud and reclusive. Some reported hearing shouting matches while others said they had seen them walking the neighborhood hand-in-hand. The couple's next-door neighbors, John and Peggy Nesbit, were surprised to see Jule pouring a concrete patio in the back yard around the time of Dottie's disappearance. They said they had never seen Jule even attempt any household improvements. Investigators also found out that even though Jule had told them, as well as family and friends, that he had to put the house of for rent due to him not having Dottie around to sign papers to sell or mortgage the house, Jule signed a contract on June 7th to put their Concord house up for rent.
A week after Dottie was last seen, Diane called Jule and Dottie's house. A strange man answered the phone stating he was with a moving company. Diane and Shelley rushed over to Dottie's house to find movers loading everything onto a truck. Dottie's 1963 VW was even being readied for transport. Although Jule had said Dorothy was not supposed to return home until June 24th, He was leaving for Utah and taking all of Dottie's belongings with him.
Diane begged Jule to leave Dottie's car with her. Dottie had bought the car before her marriage to Jule. And meant a lot to Dottie. It symbolized freedom to her. And anyway, wouldn't Dottie need something to drive when she returned? Jule answer was no. And as the movers packed up Dottie's stuff to be transported to Utah, Shelley grabbed everything she could that belonged to Dottie.
Dottie's case was going not where, so Diane sought help from two Bay Area private detectives, Francie Koehler and Randy Ontiveros. They had a reputation for finding missing people. It was pretty obvious to Francie that Dottie had met foul play. Dottie's home was her safe haven and which she had won from Jule and Francie doubted that Dottie would abandon it.
The obvious place to start the investigation was with Jule, whom was the last person to see her alive. This is when they discovered about the woman from Colorado that Jule had met and became engaged to before Dottie's disappearance. BART paid part of the expense to fly her in to speak with her with Diane chipping in the rest. The woman met with Kerwin, Concord Detective Don Maich, Francie and Diane.
The lady, who had a 6-year-old son, worked for the U.S. Forest Service. And in May of 1984, Jule was in Colorado to teach an imaging process that uses aerial infrared photography. She said that she saw him at the soda machine looking sad, lonely and vulnerable. She felt sorry for him, so she went over and talked to him. They ended up going for a walk and to dinner. Then four days later Jule told her he wanted to spend the night with her. She told him he was moving too quickly.
Jule returned home and started writing and calling the woman professing his love. That fall they met a few times. They also spent Thanksgiving and then Christmas together when Jule proposed. She accepted and they purchased a diamond engagement ring and a wedding band for her. However, Jule wouldn't commit to a wedding date.
The woman didn't know about Dottie. She did think it was odd that Jule never let her visit him in California, but he had told her that he traveled too much and basically lived in hotel rooms.
Around the time of Dottie's disappearance, Jule was supposed to go to Colorado and see the woman, but he called her and said there had been a change of plans. He told her the tenants in his rental house had left a mess and he had to clean it up. He said it looked like they had killed an animal in the kitchen. This surprised Francie and everyone else because Dottie and Jule didn't own any rental property.
In June of 1985 Jule talked the woman about his move to Utah were he said he would buy a house big enough for them, her son and the child they planned to have together. The woman was trying to get a transfer to Salt Lake City. That Christmas, Jule invited her to visit him in Utah, and to meet his daughter, a college student who would soon be starting medical school.
The woman made it to Utah and right before Jule left for the railroad station to pick up his daughter he came clean and told her. He told her that he had been married twice and that in fact he was still married. And when Jule came back with his daughter, she notice the engagement ring on the woman's had. The daughter asked how they could be planning a wedding when Dottie was still missing.
The woman had all sorts of questions for Jule. Jule said that his life had been hellish and that he hated Dottie and there was no need to talk about her because she was out of his life for good.
"She's gone. I'm glad she's gone, and if she's dead someplace, it's good riddance." Jule had told the woman.
The woman now was frightened of Jule and was worried that she too would disappear. She called her mom collect and told her that she was leaving Utah at 7 a.m., and if she wasn't home in 10 hours, her mother was to call the police. Jule followed her around the house as she gathered up her things and her son and left.
Jule kept sending her letters professing his love and asking her for another chance. But by Christmas of 1986, the letters stopped because Jule found someone else, another co-worker.
In 1988, the police received a letter postmarked Gary, Indiana claiming that Jule had killed Dottie with a tire iron and buried her body under a birch tree in a remote area of Concord where new homes were being built. DNA from saliva on the stamp and envelope flap has male characteristics, but they have been unable to match it anyone. A document examiner believes the letter's handwriting is similar to Jule's, but no definitive match has been made and the author of the letter had never been identified.
In 1995, Dottie and Jule's neighbors, John and Peggy Nesbit found something interesting. John and his son removed a large portion of the ivy from the fence that separated their property from Dottie and Jule's former house. Leaning against the fence was a rusted meat cleaver with a handle wrapped in duct tape. John quickly handed it over to police and told them about a conversation he had had with Jule before he left for Utah. John had been working in his back yard when Jule looked over the wooden fence and told John that he shouldn't cut the ivy on the fence because the fence would collapse.
In 2003, when Jule retired, he filed for divorce from her on grounds of desertion. A judge granted the divorce and awarded all the marital property to Jule. This ticked off Diane who filed a lawsuit and the divorce was set aside. The Utah judge subsequently ruled that Dottie was dead at the time Jule sought the divorce, so there was no marriage to dissolve.
Jule tried to run for the Utah State legislature, but after party members learned the police were investigating Dottie's disappearance.
Dottie's case was reopened in August of 2001. In December of 2005, they requested a warrant to search Dorothy and Jule's former home. Crews pulled up boards on a deck and removed two slabs of concrete. They also brought in a back hoe to dig along the side of the house and a portion of the rear yard. Then they turned their attention to the patio area. Unfortunatly, the search turned up no physical evidence.
Also in 2001, a reporter for The Contra Costa Times, interviewed Jule. Jule told the reporter that he forgot about his wife’s disappearance, saying that he assumed she was deceased. He also changed his version of his wife’s disappearance claimed that he never drove Dottie to the BART station, but that he thought she drove herself.
Diane filed a lawsuit against Jule requesting that Dottie be declared legally dead and Diane be appointed executor of her estate. A judge found evidence that Dorothy was deceased, but the lawsuit has been stalled pending the outcome of the police investigation into her disappearance.
Jule's was named a person of interest by Concord police but has never officially been a suspect in the still-open investigation.
Dottie's dad passed away in 1997 and her mom passed in 2005.
At the time of Dottie's disappearance she was 41 years old, 5'9" and 190lbs. She had brown hair and blue eyes. She wore plastic-framed eyeglasses. She also had a scar above her left eye. Dottie would be 76 years old if she were still alive.
If you have any information regarding Dottie's case please contact the Concord Police Department at 925-671-3240 or 925-671-3040.
