The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages and is intended for a mature
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Welcome back everyone.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And we are the podcast Cold and Missing.
Where we cover cold cases and unresolved missing person cases.
And this week we are focusing on a missing persons case.
Alrighty, let's get started.
So today I have a missing person case.
But just as a quick content warning at the top, this case does involve a child and there
is a brief mention of suicide.
Today we are covering the missing person case of Dorien Thomas.
And this case actually comes to us from a listener, Nina, who sent us this story through
Instagram.
So thank you, Nina.
So the case of Dorien Thomas, this takes place in October of 1998 in Amarillo, Texas.
But first, a little bit about Dorien.
Dorien is 9 years old in 1998.
He was born May 6th, 1989 and he would be 33 years old today.
He was a student at Bivens Elementary School and family and friends said he was known for
cruising around the neighborhood on his aqua bike with white tires.
He loved being outdoors and could make friends with anyone.
He was also known for his gymnastics skills, specifically his back handsprings.
And now the timeline of events.
So on October 26th, 1998, the exact circumstances around his disappearance are unknown at this
time.
What we do know is that Dorien filled his aqua bike with white tires and the word freestyle
on the frame.
He filled his bike tires with air and was headed to a nearby truck stop for a snack.
According to Lieutenant Gary Trupe, he says, quote, the last time he was seen or known
of he was going towards the Tootin Totem there at Amarillo Boulevard and Hughes.
He was going to get a drink and some chips, end quote.
The Tootin Totem was very close to his house.
Dorien lived at the 1300 block of Northwest 9th Avenue.
It would have taken at the most three minutes to bike there.
Dorien was wearing a red shirt and blue jeans.
When Dorien didn't come home as night fell, no one was immediately worried.
Lieutenant Erik Bohannon says, quote, usually he was pretty easy to find.
He was a pretty well known kid.
They knew of some of the homes he would go to and some of the neighbors.
When that didn't prove fruitful, they started realizing that things were not as they should
be, end quote.
The next morning, October 27th, Dorien's family reports him missing.
It's been over 24 hours since he was last seen and the family believed that they had
to wait those 24 hours until they reported him missing.
A massive search is launched and I couldn't find the exact dates for events, but over
the next few weeks, police will canvas the area he was last seen.
People use bloodhounds and fly over the area, but not a trace of Dorian is found.
To date, his bicycle has never been recovered.
On November 10th, 1998, so this is two weeks after Dorien went missing, police, desperate
for clues, send divers to Martin Road Lake to look for clues.
Police chief Jerry Neal says at the time, quote, I made the decision based on some of
the information we've heard about him spending time around there.
And you just never know, end quote.
According to Dorien's family, he liked to play there.
Ultimately, nothing is found and police turn the case over to the Potter Randall Special
Crimes Unit on November 12th.
On Friday, November 20th, so this is 25 days since Dorien has been missing, police call
off all organized searches for Dorian.
Police chief Jerry Neal says, quote, as far as the organized searches go, we've pretty
much exhausted all possibilities, end quote.
But then the next week, November 22nd, police turn their attention to a drifter named Brandon
Wilson.
He had murdered a nine year old boy in a park bathroom in Oceanside, California on November
14th.
The boy was at the park for a family reunion and his aunt was waiting just outside the
bathroom when Brandon Wilson murdered him.
Wilson will ultimately confess and be put on death row.
Police in Amarillo believed that he was in the area when Dorian disappeared.
Brandon Wilson will die by suicide on death row on November 16th, 2011, leaving his involvement
in Dorien's disappearance unanswered.
Police also theorize about events that took place a year before Dorien's disappearance.
In August of 1997, a year before Dorian disappeared, Dorien is playing with friends at the Hilltop
Park when they find the body of Gloria Ann Covington.
She was a sex worker who had been stabbed to death.
Gloria's friend, Linda Gail Jackson, witnessed the murder and was injured herself in the
attack.
Linda said the murder happened inside a light colored pickup truck.
About a month later, Linda Gail Jackson was also murdered and witnesses reported her also
getting into a light colored pickup truck.
In September of 1998, so this is one month before Dorien went missing, a friend of both
Gloria and Linda was beaten by a white man with red hair, pulled into a ponytail, blue
eyes and a mustache.
The victim ran to Dorien's mother's house for help and the assailant followed her there.
She says the suspect saw Dorien and had threatened to hurt her again.
The murders and the attack remain unsolved and investigators are unsure if these are
linked with Dorien's disappearance.
On January 18, 1999, so back into the timeline of events here, we're in the new year, police
put up billboards pleading with the public for information surrounding Dorien's disappearance.
Dorien's mother, Pat Thomas says, quote, I just hope this does something.
I appreciate what everybody's done, but I just hope this helps, end quote.
And then the case really goes cold.
Of course, local media will report the case at anniversaries.
They'll bring it up, but there's no new clues, no new suspects and no new information about
what happened to Dorien or even the events surrounding his disappearance.
In 2008, so this is 10 years since Dorien disappeared, there are still no suspects or
leads in the case.
Lieutenant Gary Trupe says, quote, I truly believe it's more of a personal deal, but
I think there is someone in town who knows what happened to Dorien, has an idea, has
more than just a rumor.
They have some ideas.
They have some names they can put to someone.
Really, 10 years is long enough to hold back.
Tell us who it is.
Everyone needs that closure, end quote.
In 2015, so this is 17 years since Dorien has been missing, police say that they have
used dental records and DNA over the years to eliminate bodies found all across the country.
Lieutenant Erik Bohannon says, quote, everyone seems to presume that something bad happened
to Dorien, but he still could be alive, end quote.
At the 20 year anniversary in 2018, police say that they still receive the occasional
tip about Dorien, but police are able to rule all of them out pretty quickly.
Lieutenant Bohannon says, quote, the unfortunate thing is that people call us and say they
saw someone who looks like Dorien in a city.
They call about little Dorien, and I'm glad everyone is still thinking of him, but he
would be 28 years old today, end quote.
In March of 2022, so this is 24 years Dorien has been missing, Dorian's brother, Brandon
Thomas, starts a petition to get a street in Amarillo named after Dorien.
Brandon says, quote, just some way to commemorate him, you know, so that his memory lives on,
because a lot of people here, you know, it affected a lot of people more than I thought,
end quote.
Brandon was successful in getting those signatures, so that is something that is in the works
in Amarillo, the renaming of a street after Dorien.
But if you know anything about the disappearance of Dorien Thomas in October of 1998, or his
whereabouts today, please reach out to the Amarillo police at 806-378-3038.
And the sources for today's podcast come from KFDA Amarillo, NBC News, MyHighPlains.com,
Fort Worth Star Telegram, the Austin American Statesman, the Facts, the Tyler Courier Times,
the Marshall News Messenger, and the Amarillo Globe News.
Okay, so that's the case of Dorien Thomas.
Do you have any questions about the timeline?
I don't have any questions about like how he went missing.
I think I have, well, let me start with just my first thought and I'm sure some questions
will come from that.
My, it took, it actually took me a minute to, I guess, like find the red flag, you know,
or not red flag, but like where as someone who is interested in true crime, I look for
where something was maybe missed, you know, and as I was listening, I was just listening,
you know, I, that part of my brain didn't turn on until the police officer, I believe,
and you can answer me since it's kind of a question, who said it just seems like maybe
it was like a personal issue and that someone knows like that it was.
That was Lieutenant Gary Trupe.
Okay.
That was my first major red flag because if my kid was missing, I would want any officer
on the case to be taking it very personally.
I think that that's like the unique position of leadership that a police officer can have,
honestly, is like care as personally as if it, like if it's your job and your life's
work, you would think that that would be the reaction.
And I just had an issue with that.
Like it was, at least the way that I perceived it, it just felt like there, I'm an actor,
so I'm using this, like there were no high stakes around it.
It's like, well, we're just going to wait until someone tells us because we think that
that's what it is.
So you know, and like that didn't sit right with me.
It's like then you focus all of your energy and dig through who you, if it's a personal
issue and you don't want to get personal about it, then sift through the information of facts
that you have about the people who were personally close to this child.
I agree with you.
And that's interesting because I didn't necessarily interpret that quote that way.
I I'm not saying you're wrong.
I just don't know how else he would mean it.
I took it as I believe it's more of a personal deal.
So I took that as somebody who knew him as opposed to like a stranger abduction.
Okay, so yeah, yeah.
But I think there, yeah, I think it was more of a personal deal.
But I think there is someone in town who knows what happened to Dorien.
So like, you don't don't.
I think what I'm saying is, if you have a sneaking suspicion, you better, you better
be sure before you start saying something like that.
And why does it not come with and we are going to find who you are?
Sometimes every like, where's the energy, I guess?
If it's right, if it's right there, and you think it's right there.
Where are you?
So those are my questions is like, I get what you're saying, like personal and whatever.
But like, I don't know, maybe maybe I'm wrong.
But that I think that's just, that's where I feel like the issue went wrong, like, or
not the issue.
That's where I feel maybe an error occurred is again, what we see in a lot of these cases
is like, it becomes like a careless case over time.
Yeah, and this quote is coming 10 years after Dorien disappeared.
But the person who is experiencing like, the loss or the missing person, it doesn't, it
feels like the first second.
Every day, every week, month, year.
So I don't know, I feel like if one of my loved ones was missing, and even 10 years
later, I heard that on TV or something.
Maybe it's because like, I'm a pretty hopeful person, like that would swing me in a direction
for sure.
Especially if a person in leadership with a lot of power and responsibility is saying
it.
You know, so I think that's where that's just like where I happen to be focusing.
I'm sure other folks listening or, you know, maybe don't see that or disagree with me
or are seeing it somewhere else.
But this is my thought process so far.
And yeah, I mean, it's, it's hard to know that he would be our age, you know?
Because even though we were in different parts of the world while we were both nine, Dorian
sounds like a kid that I would have been friends with.
That I would have ran around with for sure on my bike.
Right.
Yeah.
Like it sounds like he tore it up on his bike.
And I was one of those kids too.
Yeah, for sure.
I think anybody who is around that age in 1998 can remember the freedom of just like
being on your bike and riding around.
I still like very vividly remember to this day, the first day I had like the training
wheels came off and I had it.
And I, I sw it felt like I was going to ride grooves into the cement because I was just
in the same spot, you know?
Yeah.
And to like think about, you know, that that's how he hopefully is still, you know?
It's like, I don't care that it's been 10 years, get that person like back in the world,
you know?
Like that spirit and energy, like everyone deserves to feel like they're riding free
on their bike every day.
Yeah.
And that it was already such a specific quality about him and that the way people were talking
about him to, to know what it feels like to ride a bike and feel that freedom.
Like it says a lot about, I think what his spirit was probably like, is probably hopefully
like.
Yeah.
Again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Dorien, what happened in October of 1998
or his whereabouts today, or the whereabouts of his bicycle, which has never been recovered,
please call Amarillo police at 806-378-3038.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
I mean, as always, it's hard to not find a personal connection to a lot of these people.
They're people, you know?
And at the end of the day, we all are and I'm grateful to get his name back out there.
Yeah.
And thank you again to Nina, who brought this case to our attention.
And you know, that goes for any listener.
If there's a case out there that means a lot to you that you grew up near or that you read
about that you can't get off your mind that you think more people should know about, you
can message us on Instagram, cold and missing.
You'll find us right there.
Or you can email us cold and missing at gmail.com and we'll be in touch.
Yeah, but this this was great.
This was, you know, when this case was brought to us, it was immediately important to me
and was a case that I couldn't stop thinking about.
So it was necessary to cover on the podcast as quickly as possible to get Dorien's name
back out there.
Because we should we should know we should know where he is today or what happened to
him.
And we'll be able to answer those answers.
It's it's been a long time and his family is working to keep his memory alive.
Hopefully we'll have an update soon once the street is renamed, we'll be able to do a quick
update.
We'll have that on our Instagram again, cold and missing.
You can follow us there.
And while you're in your podcast app, if you can go ahead and rate and review us if you're
an Apple podcast or five stars, I'm going to take a second to actually just rate and
review right now.
And I wanted to go to this just before you kept going.
But my wife isn't going to say this for herself.
But when Ali hears someone's name who is, you know, part of a cold case or a missing case,
she only has to hear it once and she will never forget that person.
And so when she says to you, like, please send them, like, I know I'm partial, she's
because she's my wife, but like, send them here because they these are cases that can
be held and like held safely.
And yeah, so that's a little review for you, babe.
Okay.
Thank you.
Yeah.
But back to the contacts.
No, we already did it.
Um, yeah, you can rate and review us in your podcast app or subscribe.
You'll never miss an episode that way.
And that's it.
That's it.
That's all I have for this week.
We'll be back next week with episode 34.
So have a good week and stay safe, y'all.
Stay safe, y'all.