The Biggest Mystery In New York Still Unsolved

[Music] it's the kind of story that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck how does a person simply vanish without a trace in broad daylight never to be seen or heard from again 25 year-old Dorothy Arnel was the heiress of perfume importer Francis Arnold as the daughter of a rich entrepreneur Dorothy got a great education and graduated from the prestigious Bryn Mawr College for Women where she majored in literature she spoke several languages and dreamed of becoming a writer she was smart rich beautiful and popular in New York high society life was going great for the young woman that is until the day she mysteriously disappeared on December 12 1910 10:45 a.m. Dorothy leaves a room and goes downstairs she meets her mom in the main hall and tells her she's going shopping to buy a new dress for her 19 year old sister Marjorie's debutante party the ball is scheduled for December 17th five days after the incident Dorothy's mother suggests going with her daughter to keep her company but the young socialite refuses and there's good reason for that Dorothy's mom is seriously ill and hardly ever leaves the house mrs. Arnold doesn't notice anything strange about her daughter's behavior that morning 11 a.m. Dorothee leaves the family's home in the posh Upper East Side of Manhattan she takes $25 with her or about $700 by today's rates the some didn't seem too out of the ordinary since she was shopping for a ball gown after all she's dressed well as was typical of a woman with her social status and she was carrying a large muff purse she has West 4 5th Avenue and then down toward midtown Manhattan it's about an hour's walk but it probably took Arnold longer since the streets were icy and slippery on her way Dorothy meets several acquaintances later on they'll all recall that she was in a particularly good mood she even stopped in at a candy store on the corner of Fifth Avenue in 27th Street for a box of chocolates the clerk at the shop will also recount to detectives that nothing seems strange about miss Arnold's mood or behavior 1:00 p.m. on 27th Street Dorothy goes to brentano's book store where she buys a collection of funny stories and essays upon leaving the shop she bumps into her friend Gladys King she's also been invited to Marjorie's party and they discussed this event in chat for a while then Gladys excuses herself as she's supposed to meet her mom for lunch 2:00 p.m. Dorothy waives a farewell to Gladys and heads home she decides to go through Central Park on her way at least that's what she tells her friend and that was the last time anyone saw Dorothy Arnold in the evening of December 12th Dorothy still hadn't arrived home but there wasn't any immediate cause for alarm Dorothy was a grown woman and she was out and about taking care of her own errands perhaps she was having a hard time finding the perfect dress maybe she met up with friends when she didn't come home that night her parents figured that she'd stayed at her boyfriend's they sounded the alarm only when Dorothy hadn't come home by the next evening they didn't go to the police though not yet her father didn't want to make a stir he was afraid of damaging his business reputation because of a possible scandal the thing is at that time it wasn't quite common for a young single woman to date men and not get married if the Press wrote something about it mr. Arnold's good name would be ruined he also suspected that someone could have abducted his daughter to demand a ransom from the well-off family he didn't want to make things more complicated by giving publicity to this story Plus what if that gave other bad guys the idea of kidnapping his other daughter it seems bizarre that he didn't go to the authorities right away but you also must imagine what was going through his head at the time instead the Arnold's turned to a friend of Dorothy's older brother John s Keith was a lawyer he knew the missing girl well and he had connections so the family friend got down to business immediately keith interviewed Dorothy's friends acquaintances and shop assistants that worked in the young woman's favorite stores little by little he started putting together a detailed account of Dorothy's last day but there was still no information out there on what happened to her after she parted ways with her friend Keith went to all the hospitals and mortuaries in New York and sent requests to nearby cities but nothing turned up he also searched the girls room and found only one strange thing there were burnt sheets of paper in the fireplace he couldn't make out the text but there were some Flyers of ships carrying passengers from the u.s. to Europe it looked like this investigation would require more manpower so Keith recommended the family hire a famous private detective agency called Pinkerton detectives check passenger lists of all ships that were going to Europe their contacts across the Atlantic kept an eye out for a woman arriving by ship and matching Dorothy's description again nothing was found however the young woman's boyfriend George Griscom jr. was in Europe at the time Dorothy had met the 42 year old Philadelphia native while she was in college in December 1910 he was on vacation in Florence with his family perhaps the pieces of this puzzle were finally falling into place Dorothy's parents had always been against her relationship with Griscom so maybe the two went to Europe to secretly elope the Arnold sent a telegram to Griscom asking him what he knew about their daughter's whereabouts he answered that he knew nothing this reply didn't satisfy them so On January 16th 1911 Dorothy's mother and brother came to the hotel in Florence where Griscom was staying to talk to him face-to-face the girl had been missing for over a month by then and her brother lost his nerve he threatened bodily harm if Griscom didn't tell the truth but he kept saying he didn't know where dorothy was or what had happened to her he also showed concern about her well-being in his opinion she might have decided to end her life as proof of that he showed them a letter she'd recently written to him in it she described how distressed she felt because she kept getting refusals from literary magazines that wouldn't publish her writing the letter did indeed sound grim failure stares me in the face all I can see ahead is a long road with no turning mother will always think an accident has happened but that version seems too far-fetched the girl was ambitious and was looking for popularity she'd hardly be so discouraged by her unsuccessful literary temps to harm herself Dorothy's brother looked through the letters that Griscom had kept and decided that they didn't contain anything that could be useful in this investigation six weeks after his daughter's disappearance Frances Arnold finally gave in he invited journalists for a press conference and assumed that she had been attacked well on her way home through Central Park seems unlikely that a popular and easily recognizable woman could be attacked in broad daylight without any witnesses seeing anything but you never know in any case the police then joined the search they did a thorough investigation checking every square foot of Central Park and still no traces of Dorothy were found they also verified George Grissom's alibi a lot of eyewitnesses could confirm that on December 12 1910 he wasn't even in the u.s. let alone in New York not a single shred of evidence that Griscom was connected with Dorothy's appearance was ever found besides he himself spent several thousand dollars on ads in the newspapers where he begged Dorothy to come back he told the press that he was going to marry her even if her parents were against it there's also the theory that she simply ran away it was known that she had been feeling particularly down about the magazine refusals in fact it's believed that the burnt papers in the fireplace that had been found in the early days of the investigation were letters of refusal had the money she'd taken for a ball gown been really meant for a secret escape the day before her disappearance she'd also taken an additional $36 that's nine hundred twenty-five dollars by today's rate to supposedly have lunch with some friends together with the dress money she'd have around $1,500 to start a new life but that's highly doubtful as well why would a rich socialite decide to abandon her friends family at home just because she was having a hard time kick-starting her writing career besides the day of her disappearance she wasn't carrying any bags big enough to fit clothes inside and even if she could fit some in her purse none of her outfits were missing from her room all witnesses say she was intact strange or secretive the day of her disappearance so by all accounts the woman just vanished Dorothy's father finally concluded that she died as a result of some accident although no body was ever found unfortunately despite what would have been over two million dollars spent searching for their daughter Dorothy's family never did find her the mystery is still unsolved more than a hundred years later all right it's your turn which theory about Dorothy Arnold's disappearance do you think makes the most sense let me know down in the comments if you learned something new today then give this video a like and share it with a friend but 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Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 368,888

Rating: 4.8789282 out of 5

Keywords: Dorothy Arnold, millionaire daughter, disappeared in New York, new york mystery, missing person, disappearance, mysterious disappearance, never found, Dorothy Arnold disappearance, Dorothy Arnold missing

Id: F4yQznQchdQ

Length: 11min 4sec (664 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 05 2019