The Murder of Dorothy Milliken - (True Crime) by Sharon Kitchens (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

On November 5, 1976, twenty-seven-year-old Dorothy Milliken left her rural home in Sabattus, Maine, to go to an all-night laundromat. The following morning, her body was found slumped against the outside wall.

Despite various leads, there were no arrests for her murder. Dorothy Milliken became a name typed on an index card filed at state police headquarters, her crime scene displayed in grainy black-and-white photos in the evening newspapers. Nearly five decades later, author Sharon Kitchens examines the cold case, interviewing more than forty people, including Dorothy's family, friends, former neighbors, law enforcement and forensic specialists. Who was Dorothy? Why has her killer never been found? Did she know her murderer, or was her death due to a random, frenzied attack?

A portion of the profits from the sale of the book are being donated to the Forensic Anthropology Identification and Recovery (FAIR) Lab at the University of New Hampshire. The FAIR Lab trains students to excavate, recover and identify human remains.

Review Quotes

"Kitchens presents a wealth of well-researched facts--law enforcement decisions that weigh heavily still today, another murder that occurred the same night as Dorothy's death, evidence contamination--but never loses sight of Dorothy as a real woman, one who loved her family, worked hard, and struggled with her fair share of problems. This is a complex presentation of a complicated case, with no easy solution offered, but Kitchens stays true to her goal: a thoughtful, ethical retelling of a life ended far too soon."-- Publishers Weekly

"From the get go, Kitchens paints such a rich picture of, not just Dorothy, but the community in which she lived, that it felt like time travel to me. I don't think a lot of writers manage to put their readers in a specific time and place so deftly.." --Mark LaFlamme, Lewiston Sun Journal

About the Author

Sharon Kitchens has lived in Maine for a few decades. Her first book, Stephen King's Maine: A History & Guide, was published by The History Press in 2024. Every week, she can be seen carrying an armload of library books. She loves hanging out in cafés eating chocolate croissants and sipping lavender lattes. Her fondness for Patti Smith's poetry is matched only by her love of Taylor Swift's lyrics. She is a cat and dog person. Sometimes she writes at https: //deliciousmusings.substack.com.