ON THIS DAY: The Disappearance of Doreen Jane Vincent, Wallingford, Connecticut

Doreen Vincent, age 12, had decided to go live with her father and stepmother in Wallingford, Connecticut. It was early June 1988, and Doreen hoped to enjoy her summer before starting 8th grade that fall.

Doreen had a hard time adjusting to rural life in Wallingford, however, and almost immediately she and her father began arguing often.

On the evening of June 15, 1988, Doreen and her father had yet another argument. Her father said she took some clothes and left the home, and he believed her to have run away. When his wife, Doreen’s stepmother, returned home from church a little after 9:00 pm., he told her that Doreen had left.

Her father’s story was inconsistent, and he never told Doreen’s mother that she had gone missing. Her mother tried to reach her daughter for a few days- or someone at the home- several times before she finally drove there on June 18th. It was Doreen’s mom that insisted on reporting her as missing.

Her father would eventually be arrested on unrelated weapons charges. After a search of his mother’s home, which he often visited, several items of Doreen’s were found. Included in these items were articles of clothing that her father had stated she took with her.