Camille Dardanes Dotson
Camille Dardanes Dotson (born February 23, 1964)[1] is a missing and endangered woman from Las Vegas. She is best known as the ex-wife of Gary Dotson[2] who was famously exonerated of a false 1979 rape conviction. At the time of her 1994 disappearance, she was engaging in sex work to support a drug dependency.[3] She was last seen on September 3rd, 1994 at 4:20pm leaving the Clark County Detention Center.[4] She has not been seen or heard from since. A missing persons report was filed in April of 1995. Her missing case is still open and is being investigated by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Background[edit]
Camille Dorothy Dardanes was born February 23, 1964[3] in California. She grew up in Chicago with her mother Barbara Kritzalis.[5] She excelled in academics and was equally gifted athletically, studying ballet for many years and becoming a semi-pro ice skater.[5]
In 1985, when Camille was twenty one years old, she found herself captivated by the ongoing Gary Dotson exoneration trial that dominated the news at the time. Upon learning that his clemency hearing would be open to the public, she decided to attend. Camille approached Gary at the hearing and presented him with a white flower.[6] The two kept in contact after the trial and were soon engaged.[2] Their engagement was a big news story, with the pair even appearing on Good Morning America together later that year.[7] When Gary's false accuser signed a book deal, she sent the $17,500 advance to Gary and Camille as an apology and they used it to elope in Las Vegas.[8]
In January 1987, they had a daughter that they named Ashley.[8] By this time, Gary had developed severe alcoholism and he began racking up charges for drunk driving and a domestic assault against Camille which he was held in prison for as it was considered a parole violation.[8] He admitted to fighting with Camille and drunkenly threatening to kill her and their daughter if she tried to leave him.[9] Camille refused to testify against him, stating "I didn't want him to go to jail. Everything just got out of hand."[8] He was released from prison on Christmas Eve 1987 and upon returning home, Camille told him that she wanted a divorce due to his alcoholism and violent tendencies.[10] He was back in jail just two days later after drunkenly assaulting a waiter over an incorrect sandwich order.[10]
Camille, now living separately from Gary, began to work at a string of bartending and waitressing jobs in order to support their young daughter Ashley. Gary did not handle the divorce well and continued to stalk and harass Camille, resulting in a 1989 arrest for trespassing in Camille's home after he used his old key to get inside and then refused to leave.[11] Camille decided at this point that the safest option for her and her daughter would be moving out of state. She chose to head to Las Vegas, Nevada where her mother Barbara lived.[5]
Life In Vegas[edit]
Once in Vegas, Camille continued working as a bartender while raising Ashley as a single mother. She soon discovered that with her natural good looks and years of dance training, she could make far more money as a topless dancer than she ever did tending bar.[5] She worked at multiple topless clubs along the Las Vegas strip, most notably at the Crazy Horse Saloon in the Paradise Market Strip, which was owned by mobster Jack Galardi.[12] During her time in these clubs, she began experimenting with drugs including marijuana, cocaine, and eventually crack cocaine.[3] As her crack cocaine habit worsened, she began to dabble in prostitution to support her addiction[3] - starting first with regulars in the club and later turning to the streets. She began to get arrested regularly for assorted charges, mainly soliciting and drug possession.[5]
In 1993, she began dating and living with a man named George "Cruz" Diaz Jr.[13] Soon after getting engaged, the relationship became abusive. On December 15th 1993, police were called to the Rummel Motel on a domestic disturbance call. Camille told police that Cruz had hit her. When her name came up as having an active warrant, they arrested her. She was released days later and followed through with the wedding, eloping with Cruz on December 23rd, 1993.[14] She got the name "Cruz" tattooed on her right hip in honor of her new husband.[15]
In early 1994, Camille's mother Barbara decided to temporarily move back to Chicago and everybody agreed that Camille's daughter Ashley should go with Barbara for some stability rather than staying in Vegas with Camille as her life spiraled out of control.[13] This would be the last time Barbara and Ashley saw Camille. Ashley and Barbara received regular calls and letters from Camille at the start of their separation but contact soon tapered off completely.[4] During this time, Camille and Cruz's relationship remained turbulent with repeated domestic abuse incidents, one even resulting in Camille's nose being broken. The couple appears to have been estranged by August of 1994 when Camille moved into the Siegel Suites Apartments on Paradise Road with a known drug dealer named Francisco "Kiko" Fernandez.[4] The exact nature of her relationship with Fernandez is still unknown, though it's believed that he was either her boyfriend or her pimp.[16] A police report from the previous January shows Camille and Cruz being arrested for drug possession at Fernandez's old address, suggesting that Diaz and Fernandez were most likely acquainted as well.
During Camille's years in Las Vegas, she was known to sometimes use the first names "Renee", "Nicole", and "Kim" and the last names "Clark" and "Diaz".[4]
Disappearance[edit]
On September 2nd 1994, police were called to the Siegel Suites Apartments on Paradise Road. The building's manager stated that he could hear a man screaming at a woman in Apartment 26 and that she sounded upset and afraid. Inside police found Camille and Francisco "Kiko" Fernandez, a convicted felon with a history of domestic abuse and drug dealing[17]. They stated they owned the apartment and had been residing there for about two weeks. Camille admitted they had been fighting but said it was just verbal and that she was safe and did not need help. After noticing Kiko's hands behind his back moving something on the vanity, police searched the apartment and found a small bag of cocaine in the area that Kiko was seen touching. They also found a small package of marijuana labeled "For Kiko" in Spanish. The two were immediately arrested for drug possession and distribution.[4] Camille was released on bond from the Clark County Detention Center on September 3rd 1994 at 4:20pm and this was the last recorded time she was seen alive.[15] Camille (who was not known to have ever missed a court date before) did not show up for her arraignment hearing on September 26 1994, leading police to believe the events leading to her disappearance most likely occurred in the three week period between the 3rd and the 26th.[16]
Camille's mother Barbara returned to Las Vegas with Ashley in early 1995 and could not find Camille anywhere. Concerned over Camille's unknown whereabouts and abrupt decline in contact, Barbara began searching the streets, checking the clubs and hotels Camille was known to spend time in, and speaking to several of Camille's friends all to no avail.[5] After learning that Camille had told friends she was afraid of something (without elaborating on exactly what it was), Barbara went to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to file an official missing person's report in April of 1995.[3] The police were decidedly uninterested, making just a few phone calls before ending the report with a note saying “We have no reason to believe the missing person met with foul play or suspicious circumstances, so we have reclassified the case from unfounded to zero”.[4] This report was deleted just months later for unknown reasons[3]. Upon discovering that Camille's records were no longer in the system, her family filed a new missing persons report in 2003.[5] At this point, police agreed that nine years without contact was alarming so her status was classified as endangered/missing.[3]
In the years since, several different leads have emerged. Theories about police involvement have been floated due to the mysterious deletion of her original missing report and Camille's brother and daughter's recollections of her often accepting rides from and spending time with a local police officer.[4] Possible drug dealer retaliation or mafia involvement came to light when friends recalled Camille asking them questions about how confidential informants work.[16] This theory was strengthened when Camille's childhood bestfriend Sheri Miller called all of the phone numbers in Camille's old rolodex to see if anyone knew what happened to her, and one number (under the name "Dimitri") took her to a voicemailbox for the FBI.[4] However, the police and Camille's family continue to believe that the most likely explanation for her disappearance is either a random murder by a john while performing sex work, or domestic violence resulting in death from one of the known abusers she had previously spent time with. The latter has received the most focus due to the subsequent arrests of both Diaz and Fernandez for multiple violent crimes in the years since.[4]
DNA samples from Camille's daughter and parents were collected in 2006 and entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System to be compared with the DNA of unidentified bodies.[15] No matches have been found, leading detectives to conclude that if she is in fact deceased, her body has not yet been recovered.[4]
Camille's disappearance saw renewed interest in 2019 when Ashley Dotson and her friend Gabrielle began spreading her story via social media in an attempt to pressure law enforcement to take a second look.[16] Detectives finally established contact with Gabrielle in 2020 after Camille's story made waves on reddit, was profiled by several true crime youtubers, and became the subject of an episode of the Vanished Podcast.[16] In the months since, Camille's case was reopened by Sergeant Matthew Downing of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department - marking the first time her case has had a Missing Persons detective assigned to it in over a decade.[16]
References[edit]
- ↑ http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1063dfnv.html
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/20/us/gary-dotson-to-be-married.html
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 http://charleyproject.org/case/camille-dorothy-dardanes
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 findcamille (2019-12-14). "What Happens In Vegas: The Life & Disappearance of Camille Dardanes Dotson". Finding Camille. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Roeper, Richard (August 11, 2003). "The sad story of Gary Dotson's ex-wife". Chicago Sun-Times. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/20/us/gary-dotson-to-be-married.html
- ↑ https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-29-mn-13059-story.html
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "First DNA Exoneration, Center on Wrongful Convictions: Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law". www.law.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ↑ report, Rob Karwath and Tim Franklin Blair Kamin contributed to this. "DOTSON RETURNED TO PRISON AFTER STATE REVOKES PAROLE". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Martin, Andrew. "DOTSON'S BACK IN JAIL AFTER FIGHT". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ↑ "Dotson arrested on trespass charge at home of estranged wife". UPI. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ↑ "Video Vault | Trouble at Paradise Market, Part 1". KSNV. 2015-06-14. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Camille Dardanes Dotson disappeared in Las Vegas in 1994 – Missing Persons of America –". Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ↑ "MarriageDocumentsAvailable". clerk.clarkcountynv.gov. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 "The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)". NamUs.gov. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 "Camille Dardanes Dotson". ART19. Retrieved 2020-12-07.
- ↑ "Nevada Dept of Corrections". Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)
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