Nonnie Dotson

In November of 2006, 33-year-old Nonnie Dotson was visiting friends and family in Littleton, CO. One afternoon, she slipped out - supposedly to visit with some friends - but would never be seen again. Over the past 14 years, a couple of suspects have arisen in the press, but Nonnie seems to have vanished into thin air.

Lance Hering was an American citizen born in Saudi Arabia to his parents, who were both teachers working overseas. When he was five years old, amidst the outbreak of the Gulf War, he would move to the United States; but his family and he would return to Saudi Arabia a few years later when he was seven, and Lance later credited his childhood there for giving him an appreciation of other cultures. He would spend his formative years there, but would eventually move with his family to Golden, Colorado, where he would come of age at the turn of the millennium.

Fresh out of high school, Lance decided to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue military service (his father had been an Army Infantryman during the Vietnam War). Now faced with his generation's own Vietnam, Lance decided to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps, and despite scoring a 99 on his aptitude test, decided to join the infantry. Later speaking to the Denver Post, he explained:

"I didn't want to join the Marines to sit at a desk."

But life in the Marine Corps would turn out to be much less glamorous than Lance Hering expected, with him quickly beginning to realize that things inside of the military were just as pointless to him as the things outside of it. He didn't know it at the time, but a 7-month tour in Iraq would result in him suffering from a severe case of PTSD, with him being unable to explain his issues to anyone and growing increasingly disillusioned with the world he was living in. Five months into his deployment, in fact, he had experienced a breakdown which was described as an "acute mental disorder" that resulted in him being sent to a military hospital in Germany for testing, but he was sent back to Iraq afterward to finish up his tour.

Later, Lance would receive 30 days' leave and be allowed to return home to Colorado... but as he prepared to head home, an idea began to come to him.

On August 30th, 2006, Lance Hering decided to just disappear. He managed to convince a friend from high school to pretend that Lance had been injured and left behind during a rock-climbing trip, which would encourage a large-scale (and unsuccessful) search of the mountainous area... all the while, Lance boarded a Greyhound Bus headed east to Iowa, and then later, to the Pacific Northwest, living in the Seattle area for a time under a pseudonym.

Investigators were quickly able to get to the bottom of the hoax concocted by Lance and his childhood friend, charging them with filing a false report and forcing them to repay the cost of the search-and-rescue efforts. But Lance would carry on the ruse for about two years, during which time he remained off of the grid - even among his friends and family back home. But in 2008 he reached out to his parents for the first time, letting them know that he was okay, having lived as a vagabond for the better part of two years. His father would fly out to visit him in Seattle, and it was only then that Lance was finally taken in by authorities, having gone AWOL from his military service in 2006.

Thankfully, the military treated Lance with leniency, fining him a little over $1,000 and sentencing him to time already served, because of the various mental and emotional issues he had been enduring at the time of his disappearing act. They would give him an "other than honorable discharge," which - contrary to popular belief - is different from a dishonorable discharge. However, he was later sentenced to 18 months probation in the state of Colorado for filing a false police report and was also ordered to pay back thousands of dollars (for the state's extensive search-and-rescue operations) due to the hoax he had thought up with his childhood friend.

This story seemed to have a happy ending, with Lance Hering being able to settle into a quiet life after his legal hurdles were overcome. But his decision to run away from home - from his military service - might have had more wide-reaching implications than he originally thought; with law enforcement having to spend time and effort to look for the missing Marine; time and effort that might have been better spent elsewhere.

It has also been theorized that his disappearance - which came just weeks before the disappearance of another military member in the area - might have had an adverse effect on her case. Some have speculated that Lance Hering's hoax, which began to unravel shortly before the disappearance of this woman from Texas, might have caused investigators to overcompensate in certain regards, believing that she had gone missing under similar circumstances; unwittingly overlooking potential clues or leads that might have led to her being found.

This is the story of Nonnie Dotson.

Nonnie Ann Dotson was born on June 29th, 1973, as the female half of a pair of twins. Her twin brother was named Beau, and she had an older brother named Tony, both of whom she would remain very close with throughout her life.

Nonnie grew up in the region of Colorado Springs with her mother, Candice, who would become a template for stability that Nonnie herself aspired to. Candice was a member of the U.S. Air Force, who would raise all of the kids on her own. Her husband - Nonnie's father - committed suicide when the twins were just a year old, leaving Candice to raise the children as a working single mother.

The family would remain in Colorado Springs for the foreseeable future, with Candice and the children living in the shadow of the Air Force Academy. In the early 1990s, Nonnie would end up graduating from Overland High School in Aurora, Colorado - just outside of Denver. In the years to come, she would end up marrying and divorcing one of her first loves and would end up getting involved in a future career path, nursing.

Eventually, Nonnie would end up following in her mother's footsteps, commissioning into the U.S. Air Force. Working as a nurse, Nonnie would be stationed at Lackland Air Force Base, a rather-mundane-looking place just outside of San Antonio, Texas. There, as a First Lieutenant, she was assigned to the 59th Medical Wing in May of 2004, where she would work as an intensive care nurse at Wilford Hall Medical Center.

Outside of her military career, Nonnie was a huge fan of country and western music and had been visiting those kinds of bars and dance clubs in both Colorado and Texas. While living in San Antonio, however, she decided to take country dancing lessons at a local dance club, and there, she met a man who would become an important figure in her life: a man that was twenty years her senior named Edward Vehle. The two would date for a short period of time; during which time, Nonnie became pregnant.

Ed Vehle, the child's father, chose not to carry on with the relationship, having strongly opposed the pregnancy. According to many of Nonnie's friends and family members, he strongly encouraged her to get an abortion and wanted nothing to do with the child. For that reason, his relationship with Nonnie came to an early end, and his relationship with her - and their child - would remain rocky over the next couple of years.

Regardless, Nonnie had decided to keep the child early on, choosing to raise them as a single parent, despite the insistence of her mother, Candice, who had experienced the hardships of being a single mother in the military and knew how tough it would be. Years later, Candice would recall to reporters with the Denver Post:

"I knew exactly what she was going to be up against. It caused some conflicts between us. She was very naive when it came to being a mother. She said, 'Mom, this baby is not going to change my life. I'm going to live my life and enjoy it.'"

Nonnie would give birth to her one and only child, a daughter named Savannah, in 2005. Despite raising Savannah as a single mother, Nonnie was hoping to go on a military tour of Iraq, having started training in critical air transport (which, in very basic terms, equates to helicopter ambulances in active war zones - an extremely dangerous job). However, with her military service ending in March of 2007, it seems like Nonnie began to abandon this dream in lieu of being there for her daughter, and was planning to move back to her home state of Colorado after being discharged.

In November of 2006 - the week before Thanksgiving - Nonnie decided to visit with her friends and family in Colorado. She and Savannah (who was about 16 months old at the time) would stay with her older brother Tony and his family in a suburb of Denver, and - in addition to visiting with old friends from the area - Nonnie would hire a real estate agent to help her look for a home in the Denver region. It seems like she was beginning to seriously contemplate a life outside of the military, scheduled to be discharged from the Air Force in just a few short months, but would never get the chance...

The week before Thanksgiving 2006 - November 13th to 20th - Nonnie Dotson would end up staying with her brother Tony and his family. Tony was married with two children at the time and lived at a home along the 9500 block of W. Unser Ave. in Littleton, Colorado, just northwest of Chatfield State Park.

On the evening of November 18th, Nonnie went out with some friends to a local bar, staying out until the early morning hours of November 19th. She would wake up and use the computer for a bit, but asked if her brother Tony and his wife Aimee would be okay watching her daughter Savannah again. She was planning to go out shopping with her friends and hoped to spend a few hours with them that day, maybe even going out for dinner and drinks afterward.

Tony, Nonnie's older brother, would later mention he had some errands to run that day but wanted Nonnie to be able to enjoy her last afternoon with her friends (before having to fly back the following day). He would later tell reporters:

"I thought it would be nice for her to get out and get away and do whatever. I only needed to get some trash bags. I knew she was trying to hook up with some friends, but she hadn't yet."

At around 2:00 PM, Tony was downstairs in the basement of his house, playing video games with one of his kids, when Nonnie called out that she was leaving. According to Tony, he did not believe that she was heading out to go shopping with her friends quite yet, but had mentioned wanting to go grab a smoothie at a juice bar not too far away from Tony's house, about a mile away in the nearby Jefferson Village shopping center. But after several hours passed without Nonnie returning, Tony and his wife just assumed that she had met up with friends and would be returning later that night. They would end up watching Savannah that night, ultimately putting her to bed in the bedroom that she and Nonnie had been sharing while visiting.

The following morning - Monday, November 20th - Tony and Aimee woke up to Savannah crying. When they entered the bedroom, they discovered that Nonnie had not come home the night prior (they had expected her to have gone out dancing with friends at a local country bar). They would look around for her that morning and would file a missing persons report that afternoon when it became clear that Nonnie was not returning to pick up her daughter in time to make their return flight to San Antonio.

As they would later come to learn, Nonnie had seemingly disappeared into thin air.

When Nonnie Dotson was reported missing to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office on November 20th, 2006, she had already been missing for approximately 24 hours. She had last been seen the afternoon prior, around 2:00 PM on November 19th, when she had left her brother Tony's house wearing black pants, a white T-shirt, a gray hooded jacket, and carrying her black purse (which contained her wallet and cell phone). But other than that, all of her belongings remained behind at Tony's home, as well as her young daughter, Savannah. Tony Dotson would later tell reporters:

"She asked me to look after Savannah for a couple hours and she walked out that door and we never saw her again... She would never have intentionally left Savannah behind like that."

Nonnie did not have a vehicle of her own in Colorado, having just flown in to visit with friends and family. It was believed that she had either left Tony's house on-foot or had been picked up by someone in their car. Because she had told her brother she was heading out to grab a smoothie at a nearby shopping center - the Jefferson Village shopping mall, which was a little over a mile away - it was believed that she might have just walked. But friends of Nonnie's would later state that she wasn't the type to volunteer to walk long distances if she could help it, so this led investigators to believe that she might have gotten a ride with somebody. That somebody, however, would remain a mystery.

Tony would tell investigators that the night before her disappearance, November 18th, Nonnie had gone out to a local country bar called Grizzly Rose, where she had been line-dancing with some of her old friends from high school. There, she had reportedly started dancing with a man, who Tony recalled, had helped her avoid a pair of other men that had been obnoxiously flirting with her. He knew this because the day after Nonnie's disappearance, this man had reportedly called and asked if he could take Nonnie out for breakfast. This was the first time Tony heard anything about the two men apparently harassing her at the nightclub, which she had not spoken about.

That Saturday, Nonnie had used Tony's car to drive herself to and from the country bar. She returned home after 2:00 on Sunday morning - having, apparently, closed out with the bar - and had not mentioned anything about a man or men she had encountered at it. Tony would tell reporters that he feared maybe one of these men - the pair that had been harassing her at the Grizzly Rose - might have followed her back to his house. Police would attempt to identify these men but could find nothing pointing towards any criminal involvement.

By all indications, Nonnie had disappeared into thin air, having walked out of Tony's home on the afternoon of November 19th and promptly going missing. She was scheduled to return to work on November 21st but would fail to show up for her scheduled shift - making her, in essence, AWOL. Records would indicate that her return plane ticket, scheduled to take her back to San Antonio aboard a Frontier Airlines flight that week, was never used.

In an effort to determine where Nonnie Dotson was, investigators would begin to look through all facets of her life, both personal and professional. They would learn about a woman that was well-liked by her colleagues, who was a hardworking single mother that enjoyed country music, who did not do any drugs (easily proven by the constant screenings required by the military), and only drank socially (when she went out to the various country & western bars she frequented in Colorado and Texas). They would also learn that Nonnie had been heartbroken after her breakup with Edward Vehle, the father of her daughter, and had held off on dating anyone until just recently.

Investigators would learn that Nonnie had been active on dating websites in the weeks prior to her disappearance, including one website in particular called SingleParentsMeet.com. She had logged onto that website at least twice prior to her disappearance: once at around 2:30 AM on the morning of November 19th (the date of her disappearance) and then again, about eleven hours later, at about 1:00 PM. The latter was roughly one hour prior to when she left her brother Tony's home and would indicate to some that she might have arranged to meet up with someone that afternoon (but more on that later).

Authorities would attempt to track Nonnie's movement through her cell phone activity, learning that she had last made a call at around 11:00 AM on the date of her disappearance. They've never revealed who this call was made to, but that her cell phone would show signs of movement afterward.

The date after Nonnie's disappearance - November 20th, 2006 - her cell phone would ping in an area of southwest Littleton, near Ken Caryl Ranch, about twenty miles southwest of Denver. This was incredibly close to Tony's home, not too far away from the highway C-470, and was within proximity of the shopping center that Nonnie was last known to be headed to. Police would bring out K-9 units to search the area, using some of Nonnie's clothing left behind at Tony's home, and were able to pick up her scent throughout the area. However, they would ultimately be unable to find any trace of Nonnie nor her cell phone, both of which remained missing.

Jefferson County Sheriff's spokesman Jim Shires would claim that authorities had pinpointed the last signal from Nonnie's cell phone to a roughly-30-foot area in a 3-4 acre field nearby the Jefferson Village shopping center. It was reported that her cell phone battery had stayed on for approximately 90 hours, before dying (or being turned off). Shires would later tell Nancy Grace during a broadcast of hers on November 24th:

"We've tried three or four times to, as they say, 'triangulate' where that cell phone was and we came up to the same location each time we did that. That field, the area where that phone was supposedly located at, and had not moved for three days until, we believe, (the) battery went dead, has been walked by our K-9 units, many of our employees here, investigators here [and] sheriff's deputies."

Unfortunately, the lack of any strong evidence in this case - or a crime scene, for that matter - would prove to stymie the ongoing police investigation. Unable to find anything pointing to foul-play, investigators were unable to determine whether or not Nonnie had been kidnapped or had gone missing of her own accord. Jacki Kelley, a spokeswoman for Jefferson County would tell reporters about a week after Nonnie's disappearance:

"There seems to be two camps, that either she had some involvement in her own disappearance, or that potentially something tragic had happened to her. We have no information to support that one theory is more credible, or more likely, than the other. We simply have nothing new. Zero."

Faced with an overwhelming lack of any evidence, investigators in Colorado would begin to reach out to authorities in Texas, formally requesting their help into the case - which, they believed, might stretch across state lines; after all, Nonnie was visiting Colorado, but she lived in San Antonio. Authorities there would begin to probe any available leads there, making arrangements to speak to those that had known Nonnie. This included the estranged father of her one and only child, whose relationship with the missing woman had been described as rocky at best...

In the weeks after Nonnie's disappearance, investigators would begin to reach out to Nonnie's most recent ex, Edward Vehle. After all, most violent crimes are committed by those close to the victim, and in this case, the father of Nonnie's daughter seemed to look like a good suspect for the case for a number of reasons.

Edward Vehle was significantly older than Nonnie, having been upwards of 50 years old when they met a couple of years prior. At the time of her disappearance, he was 53 years old and lived in a northern suburb on the outskirts of San Antonio. As I mentioned earlier, the two had met in a country dancing class, and became an item for a very short-lived period of time; during which time, Nonnie became pregnant (much to Edward's chagrin). The pregnancy would cause their relationship to end prematurely, and it's been said that Edward became hostile towards Nonnie from this point forward; wanting nothing to do with their child, and letting it be known that he did not want to be a father.

In June of 2005, police had been called to Vehle's home in Hollywood Park, Texas, after he called them to let them know that his ex was refusing to leave. When police arrived, they noted that the two were arguing, and an officer's report of the incident would later recount:

"Upon arrival I contacted [Vehle], who stated that [Nonnie] was refusing to leave. After speaking with both subjects, it was determined that there had been no physical violence. Dotson had come to the residence to pick up some of her belongings, and the two subjects got into a verbal disturbance."

Just a few days after this incident, Nonnie would give birth to her daughter, Savannah, and Edward continued to reiterate that he wanted to have no involvement in the child's life. In fact, it's been reported by several outlets that Edward would end up contesting the paternity for months, making it an issue that worked its way through the court system, resulting in him having to take a DNA test - which came back positive. He was then ordered to pay for some of Savannah's medical expenses and back child support, as well as contribute at least $900 a month moving forward. It just-so-happens that this decision was handed down about two months prior to Nonnie's disappearance.

Several of Nonnie's friends would begin to speak to reporters with the now-defunct website Crime Library, where they recounted things they had learned about Edward through Nonnie. Speaking under the guise of anonymity, one of Nonnie's coworkers stated:

"Nonnie and I worked together at [redacted] in the Intensive Care unit. She told me she was having a very nasty custody battle over her daughter Savannah, but that she had won the case and her ex wasn't taking advantage of the supervised visitation. I don't know any details, just that she was frightened of Savannah being alone with her ex. She didn't tell me why."

Another acquaintance of Nonnie's, a neighbor that had moved in just a year or so prior, was quoted as saying in the same article:

"When we moved in and she met us, one of the first things she said to us was that she had problems with her ex. And that if we saw anything suspicious, to call the police. And that if anything ever happened to her, if she ever came out missing or was hurt or anything, that he [Vehle] was behind it."

After learning all of this information, it was evident why investigators wanted to speak to Edward Vehle, despite him living a thousand miles away from where Nonnie had disappeared from.

At first, citing advice from his lawyer, Vehle would decline to speak to investigators. Later, he agreed to meet with investigators and talk to them but blew off their scheduled meeting; an occurrence that led investigators to suspect him all the more. However, a couple of weeks later - in early December 2006 - Edward Vehle would finally speak to investigators, in a meeting that lasted less than an hour, and was apparently enough to prove that he had nothing to do with Nonnie's disappearance. Afterward, Vehle wouldn't say much to reporters but would tell journalists with the Rocky Mountain News that:

"I completely cooperated with investigators."

Vehle's lawyer, Jay Norton, would be a bit more comprehensive in his responses to the press, telling reporters with the Denver Post that Vehle had been in San Antonio and nearby Fredericksburg on the weekend of Nonnie's disappearance, and had not only witness corroborations to prove it but receipts from purchases he had made over several days. Norton would also tell reporters that Vehle had not spoken to Nonnie in about a year-and-a-half - communicating with her through his lawyer during legal proceedings - and allowed investigators to access his cell phone to prove it.

"He was pretty much across the board cooperative. We covered the relevant time frame that they asked us to cover - before the disappearance and some days after that... He expressed his sincere wish that they find her and find her quickly and unharmed."

In the weeks to come, authorities from Colorado's Jefferson County would make it clear that no information being sent to them from Texas was helpful in determining what had happened to Nonnie Dotson, indicating that neither Edward nor the others questioned by detectives in Texas had provided anything that indicated their involvement. As explained by Jefferson County Sheriff spokeswoman Jacki Kelley, who said that Vehle was no longer a suspect or person-of-interest:

"I cannot give you any specifics, but I can say he answered all of the questions he was asked."

Then, when asked about whether or not any of the information obtained was useful in their case, Kelley responded:

"We are still no closer to understanding what happened."

One of the most prominent theories in this case - at least, early on - was the possibility that 33-year-old Nonnie Dotson had decided to disappear on her own accord; abandoning her infant daughter in the care of her older brother and his family, and then running off to start a new life free from any prior commitments or relationships. This theory seems to gain a lot of momentum early on, simply because there was no evidence of any foul-play or wrongdoing on the part of anyone involved. However, as time would go on - weeks and then months - the likelihood of this seems to have slowly slipped away.

Nonnie's disappearance was initially handled as a missing person case, but responsibility for investigating it would be handed off to Jefferson County homicide investigator Kate Battan about one year later. At that time, Battan spoke to reporters with the Denver Post and stated:

"As time goes on, it's strange that if she was voluntarily missing, we have absolutely no evidence. None of her financial records have been accessed. It's odd that there have been no sightings."

But that's really the thing with runaway theories when it comes to missing persons. Because there's no evidence, it seems to indicate that their disappearing act must have been well-planned, especially if they were someone like Nonnie: a member of the military, who was intelligent and diligent and seems to have generally had her life together in a way that many don't. However, this lack of evidence isn't really proof of anything; in fact, the exact opposite.

However, in the wake of the desertion of Marine Lance Hering, whose story I detailed in the episode introduction, it's now believed that authorities might have been unwilling to rule out Nonnie similarly going AWOL (at least, more than they usually would have seriously considered such an option). However, from the jump, almost all of her friends and family would push back against this theory, stating that there was no reason for Nonnie to have run away from her life: not only was she in a career field that she enjoyed (nursing), she had a young daughter that she cared for and planned to raise on her own, and had just recently been training to deploy overseas; so her going AWOL on her remaining military service wouldn't make any sense, and would undoubtedly ruin any future plans she might have (because a "dishonorable discharge" is just about as big of a red flag for future employers as possible). Besides, she only had a few months left remaining in her commitment, so why would she run away then?

Besides, it made no sense for Nonnie to run away while visiting friends and family in Colorado: a thousand miles away from her home in Texas, where all of her belongings remained. After leaving her brother's home with nothing more than the clothing on her back and her purse, there have been no witness sightings of Nonnie in the years since, as well as no activity from her cell phone and no indication that she's used any of her bank or credit card accounts since... in short, nothing that indicates she intentionally ran away.

One of the other more prominent theories to crop up in the weeks and months after Nonnie Dotson's disappearance was the possibility of her having fallen prey to an unknown killer; perhaps someone that she met through the dating sites she had been using in the months prior to her going missing.

Throughout 2006, Nonnie was active on a few dating websites, such as SingleParentsMeet.com - where she actively corresponded with other single parents in an effort to find a potential love interest. And, like many of us active online in the mid-2000s, Nonnie also had a Myspace page, which she logged into and updated regularly.

On the morning of her disappearance - November 19th, 2006 - Nonnie had spent a few hours online, browsing several websites while staying with her brother and his family. She had logged into SingleParentsMeet.com at least twice that day: once at 2:30 AM, when she got back from a nearby dance club, and again at 1:00 PM, just an hour or so before she left her brother Tony's house. Tony later said that he believed her to have left to grab a smoothie from a nearby shopping center, but she did not drive his car (as she had done the night prior) and it was unknown if she walked or got a ride from somebody else.

It's been postulated by some that Nonnie might have arranged to meet with somebody in the local area - perhaps a potential love interest she met online, or an old friend - and if so, they might have been the last known person to see her alive. Because she was already planning to move back to the area in approximately three months, it's believed that she was looking to start building a life for herself and her daughter in Colorado.

It's unknown if investigators were ever able to find any connections between Nonnie and those in the local area - people that she might have met the night before or made plans to meet with the day of her disappearance - but there has been no sign of any activity from her since that afternoon. Beyond that, she seems to have vanished into thin air.

On November 24th, 2006 - about a week after Nonnie's disappearance - it would be reported that her 16-month-old daughter Savannah was taken to a hospital after falling ill, and was placed in the care of a doctor the following day (Nov. 25th).

Savannah would be watched over by Nonnie's brother, Tony, and his family in the weeks after her mother's disappearance, but was eventually transferred to the custody of her grandma: Candice Doyle, Nonnie's mother, who had since remarried and was living in California at the time. Candice would end up as Savannah's guardian for over a year, but in January of 2008 - more than a year after Nonnie's disappearance - her daughter was sent to live with her father, Edward Vehle (who, as far as I am aware, remains her legal guardian today).

For many, Nonnie's young daughter was proof enough that she had not run away, with her twin brother Beau Dotson later telling reporters:

"She adored her daughter. She meant everything to her, she would never leave her behind."

Some people online believed that Edward Vehle fighting for custody of his daughter after fighting her paternity for so long (and vocally wanting nothing to do with her for two years), indicating an abrupt shift in behavior. Some believed that this might have been due to him wanting to get out of making his monthly child support payments, but others took a more altruistic path, believing that he wanted to be a good father for the little girl, who was now left without a mother. I'll hope, for her sake, that the latter was true.

Over the next few years, the story of Nonnie Dotson would begin to slip from the minds of those in the region. There had been no sign of life from the missing woman since November of 2006, and she was listed as a missing person in not only Colorado state but the U.S. military's database (who had initially listed her as AWOL). More than five years would pass before the story would begin to surface in the media once again after connections were made to another criminal case... which bore an unusual connection to Nonnie's disappearance.

In the early morning hours of May 21st, 2012, a young woman in west Denver was awoken:

"... by an unknown male who immediately began grabbing and striking her before placing a sheet over her head."

It was just after 3:00 AM when the woman was attacked by this masked man in her own bed, with him using a sheet to restrict her breathing while he bound her hands behind her back. With her bound and blindfolded, the man would use a knife to begin cutting off clothing. She would attempt to fight back briefly, breaking free from her restraints, but was thrown to the ground in response, having her head slammed on the floor multiple times. Her hands were then re-bound, and she was then raped on her own bed.

The masked man left almost immediately after raping her, presumably leaving through the front door downstairs (which was later found unlocked). It was believed that he had stolen the victim's cell phone, as she couldn't find it where she had left it just a few hours prior and had to drive to her boyfriend's house nearby to call 911. In the days to come, her cell phone would not be found, leading to the theory that this was a burglary-gone-wrong.

Thankfully, the victim in this case survived the ordeal but was understandably left shake. She was unable to describe the masked man in any measurable way, since he had attacked her while she was sleeping, did not speak throughout the assault, and slipped out before she had a chance to look at him. As you can imagine, this was a terrible degrading and painful experience for the survivor to have gone through and would leave investigators in the area on-edge; fearing that they had a new violent criminal on the loose. However, as it turned out, the truth was much closer to home than originally expected.

As investigators began to look into the particulars of this violent break-in, they discovered a couple of clues that pointed to the rapist being a prior acquaintance of the victim. There was no sign of forced entry into the typically-locked home (which indicated that the rapist knew another way in) and it was reported by the survivor that her dog did not respond at all to the intruder (indicating to investigators that the dog was familiar with whoever this was). A few days later, investigators would learn about one man who was familiar with the dog, having dog-sat for the victim on at least one prior occasion and knew where her spare key was kept. In a surprising development, this man was the fiance of a surviving victim's friend, who had seen her the night before this violent rape.

Weeks after beginning their investigation, police began to narrow in on 39-year-old Tony Dotson, the brother of the still-missing Nonnie Dotson. Having divorced his former-wife back in 2009, Tony was now engaged to another woman, who was good friends with the victim in this rape case from 2012. Not only had Tony made sexual comments towards this woman in the past, but he had seen her just hours before this sexual assault, texting her in the hours after to figure out where she was, what she was doing, etc. (basically, a desperate and middle-aged version of "U up?"). Investigators were told by friends that Tony knew where the victim's spare key was hidden and had dog-sat for her in the past, and they began to suspect that he had staged a burglary in order to specifically rape this young woman.

When questioned, Tony denied any involvement in the crime and seemed to cast the victim aside as a crazy woman who made up stories and exaggerated past incidents to downplay her own faults. But police seemed to see through this facade, which was verified when DNA tests from the crime scene came back as a positive match for Tony Dotson. In total, he would be charged with sexual assault with a deadly weapon, first-degree burglary, and second-degree assault; later convicted for these crimes in 2014, and sentenced to 96 years to life in prison.

However, in the leadup to his trial, an even more odd story regarding Tony Dotson began to unfold from behind the walls of the jail he was being held in. It was alleged that he had attempted to solicit the murder of the victim in his rape case while awaiting trial. According to Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey:

"He was soliciting individuals in the jail that had gang connections."

In December of 2013, officials at the jail would learn that Tony had offered members of the Eight Tres Gangster Crips, the Gallant Knights Insane, and the white supremacist 211 Crew more than $20,000 in cash (as well as a ring valued at $14,000 and a Mercedes-Benz) to kill the surviving victim from his case, who was residing in Denver at the time but would later move out of the region (for her own safety). Prior to this offer, he had a friend on the outside send nearly $7,000 to his inmate account, and he had used this money to curry favor with other inmates in an attempt to butter them up (buying them snacks and goodies), before eventually offering them more money to kill the woman from his sexual assault. Two gang members were later arrested and charged with soliciting murder, but for weeks and months after this, Tony would continue attempting to arrange the hit.

Eventually, Tony Dotson was charged with criminal solicitation to commit murder, and was later given a maximum sentence of 48 years in prison, which he would serve consecutively to his already-lengthy 96-year sentence.

After his arrest (and multiple convictions) in the mid-2010s, Tony would become an obvious person-of-interest in his sister's still-unsolved disappearance. Especially since - according to his own statements - he had been the last person to see her alive on the day she disappeared (November 19th, 2006). He had ultimately become one of the most outspoken advocates of her case, arranging for hundreds (if not thousands) of flyers to be put up in the surrounding area, and speaking to the press during several attempts at public outreach.

Some news articles I have found make mention of a death from 2009, which was a female business partner of Tony Dotson's who was found dead in her vehicle. Tony apparently inherited $300,000 from this woman's life insurance policy, and while he was never indicted in that case, police reportedly suspected his involvement. I have not been able to find out much info about this case (yet), but this seems to indicate a more widespread pattern of criminal activity, which may or may not be limited to his rape case and subsequent attempts to solicit the victim's death.

That being said, I don't know why Tony would want to kill his own sister, and I would hope that investigators thoroughly investigated his statements to them and the press, and thoroughly vetted his alibis from the weekend in question. Since his known and proven crimes include violent sexual assault, burglary, and solicitation of murder, I can't put anything past him, but I find it hard to believe that he would commit a crime like this unless there was something in it for him... but maybe I'm wrong.

When questioned about Tony Dotson in the years after his conviction, investigators from Jefferson County would only state that he had been on a list of persons-of-interest with other friends and family - those that had a personal connection - who were all suspected of potential involvement for one reason or another. At the time they were asked, back in 2015, these authorities would state that nobody had been cleared from the list. According to investigators at the time, everyone remained a suspect.

Nonnie Ann Dotson was 33 years old when she went missing in November of 2006. At the time, she stood about 5'3" tall, weighed around 115 pounds, had brown hair and brown eyes, and had a couple of noticeable scars, including one on her left knee (car accident), a large scar on her right shoulder (which ran from the top to under her armpit), and had several scars on her feet (bunion surgery). If she is still alive fourteen years later, she would now be 47.

In the decade-and-a-half since her disappearance, there has been no sign of activity from her lifeless bank accounts, nor from her credit cards or cell phone (which died just days after her disappearance and has not been turned on again).

Nonnie's family just want to put her to rest more than a decade after her disappearance, and long ago accepted the reality that she might be dead. Nonnie's mother, Candice Doyle, would tell reporters with the Denver Post back in 2007:

"She's probably rotting in the ground or down someone's well. She deserves better. She served our country. She has saved people's lives. We want to give her a Christian burial."

Years later, in 2017, Candice would tell Channel 9 News:

"There is no justice for Nonnie. Nonnie is gone now. I can't bring her back. I don't even care that the person who did this gets caught or punished. I don't even care [anymore]. All I want to do is bury my daughter. I know there's something left of her."

If you know anything about this case or believe you might know something, please contact the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office at 303-277-0211.

Until such a time, the story of Nonnie Dotson will remain unresolved.

Episode Information

Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Published on on November 8th, 2020

Producers: Roberta Janson, Ben Krokum, Gabriella Bromley, Peggy Belarde, Quil Carter, Laura Hannan, Damion Moore, Brittany Norris, Amy Hampton, Steven Wilson, Scott Meesey, Travis Scsepko, Marie Vanglund, Scott Patzold, Astrid Kneier, Aimee McGregor, Bryan Hall, Sydney Scotton, Sara Moscaritolo, Sue Kirk, Thomas Ahearn, Jo Wong, Seth Morgan, Marion Welsh, Patrick Laakso, Alyssa Lawton, Kevin McCracken, Meadow Landry, Tatum Bautista, Teunia Elzinga, Michele Watson, Ryan Green, Stephanie Joyner, Dawn Kellar, gravityheadzero, Elissa Hampton-Dutro, Ruth Durbin, and Sally Ranford