The Murder of Dorothy Milliken: Cold Case in Maine

by Sharon Kitchens

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.

208 pages, Paperback

Published June 3, 2025

Reviews

[Nick Guzan · Rating 3 out of 5]

great research here, fulfilling the author’s stated goal to center her narrative around late Dotty while painstakingly outlining the details around her murder. the author’s focus scatters a bit but she definitely reinforces 1970s small-town Maine as dangerously creepy as Stephen King’s novels suggest

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well researched, but reads like notes on a police report. It is incredibly dry, the sentences are choppy, and the information is not presented in a way that keeps your attention. Definitely not an engaging read.

[Karami Mantz]

A tremendous amount of research has gone on to writing this book. Sharon tells the story of Dorothy Milliken with great empathy and compassion.

[Mariah Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

No resolution