Images 3 and 4: Age-progressed to 32 and 38 years
Images 3 and 4: Age-progressed to 32 and 38 years
Name: Doreen Jane Vincent
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: June 15, 1988
Location Last Seen: Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut
Date of Birth: September 30, 1975
Age: 12 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 110 lbs.
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Hazel
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: She has a small beauty mark on her abdomen. Her ears are double-pierced.
Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Available
Clothing: Denim jacket.
Jewelry: Black and gold stud in each ear.
Additional Personal Items: Yellow hair clip and a blue denim purse.
Doreen Vincent was last seen leaving her home during the evening of June 15, 1988. She had money and clothing with her.
Ten days before her disappearance, she had moved from Bridgeport to Wallingford with her father and stepmother. She didn't like Wallingford, but chose to remain with her father when he moved and appeared to be happy with him. She was about to enter the eighth grade at West Woods Christian Academy in Hamden. Doreen's stepmother said Doreen felt isolated living in the woods of Wallingford and longed to be back with her friends in Bridgeport. Doreen had run away from home once before, to her mother's house in Waterbury.
She was not reported missing until three days after her disappearance. Because investigators initially believed they were looking for a runaway girl who left to be back with friends in the city, the evidence trail went cold.
Doreen's fathers account of what happened was contradictory. Her father admitted to the police that he had a volatile temper and that on June 15th he had become angry with Doreen. He said he had hit her and pushed her into a window, breaking it.
While searching Doreen's paternal grandmother's Bethel home for possible clues, Wallingford police discovered a gun. Bethel police charged Doreen's father with possession of a revolver by a felon due to a previous conviction, he served a two-year jail term. There was never any substantial evidence to link him with her disappearance.
Police interviewed serial killer Hadden Clark. They didn't adopt the theory that Clark was responsible for Doreen's disappearance and state police came to a similar conclusion after taking Clark on a tour of possible victim burial sites.
Police have searched Huntington Park several times through the years since Doreen disappeared, parts of which are in Redding, Bethel and Newtown.
Foul play is suspected.
Agency Name: Wallingford Police Department
Agency Contact Person: Detective Mark Colavolpe
Agency Phone Number: (203) 294-2850
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: 2001-0023199 (88-9112)
NamUs Case Number: 2562
NCIC Case Number: M114910404
NCMEC Case Number: 711414
NamUs
NCMEC
The Harford Courant News Archive (Nov 1, 1993)
Record-Journal News Archive
Added: 8/3/08; Last Updated: 05-18-2022 - By: Htmlcnvtr
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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