A woman is found dead outside a laundromat On a chilly November morning in 1976, the quiet city of Lewiston, Maine, awoke to a grim discovery. The body of 27-year-old Dorothy L. "Dottie" Milliken, a female, was found outside Beal's Laundromat on Lisbon Street. A paperboy on his early morning route made the tragic discovery at approximately 4:40 a.m. on November 6th. Milliken had been brutally beaten to death, with an autopsy later confirming the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head.
The evening before, on November
5th, Dorothy, a mother of three, had left her home in the nearby town of Sabattus after her husband had gone to bed. It was around 11:00 p.m. when she headed out to the 24-hour laundromat, a task she often undertook in the late-night or early-morning hours. She was preparing to return to work from maternity leave the following Monday. Her family awoke the next morning to the devastating news that she would never be coming home.
In the immediate aftermath and over the nearly five decades that have passed, no arrests have ever been made in connection with Dorothy Milliken's murder. The case grew cold, filed away among Maine's unsolved homicides. Investigators have pursued various leads and theories over the years, and while suspects have been interviewed, no individual has ever been charged with the crime. The motive for the violent attack also remains unclear to law enforcement.
Despite the passage of time, the fight for justice for Dorothy has never ceased, largely due to the tireless efforts of her daughter, Tonia, who was only seven years old at the time of her mother's death. She has worked to keep her mother's story in the public eye, hoping to unearth new information that could finally lead to an arrest. The family has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible. A recent book, "The Murder of Dorothy Milliken: Cold Case in Maine," has also delved into the decades-old mystery, examining the facts and unanswered questions surrounding the brutal and unsolved murder.
