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Dorothy donovan

Dorothy Donovan

Real Name: Dorothy May Donovan
Nicknames: Dorothy Holden (name from first marriage)
Location: Harrington, Delaware
Date: June 22, 1991

Charles holden

Charles Holden

Case[]

Details: Seventy-year-old Dorothy Donovan was described by her family as a loving, energetic woman who loved gardening, canning vegetables, babysitting her grandchildren, and going to church. She was twice widowed and had three grown children named Charles Holden, Brenda Alexander, and Diana Rhinehardt. She lived in a farmhouse on the family's 163-acre farm near Harrington, Delaware. Charles, then forty-one, worked at the DuPont Company factory and lived in an adjacent trailer on the farm.
At around 12:30am on Sunday, June 23, 1991, at the end of his shift, Charles stopped by a Hardee's at the intersection of U.S. Highway 13 and State Highway 14 in Harrington. He ordered a hamburger and coffee. It was a typical night for him – until he left the restaurant. After doing so, he crossed the parking lot and got in his truck. As he began to back out, he noticed a stranger standing at the driver's side window.
The man asked Charles for a ride. Charles told him he was unsure if he could since it was pretty late. The man said that he was in a "big time bind", that his sister had just had a baby at Milford Memorial Hospital, and he needed to get there. Charles told him that he lived nearby, so he could not take him far. But in the end, he relented and agreed to take him part of the way. Harrington was a small town, mostly friendly. He assumed he had nothing to worry about.
Three miles down Highway 14, Charles reached the intersection with Killen Pond Road, where he normally turned to drive the half mile home. He said that he pulled off to the side of the road and told the man that that was as far as he could take him. Charles also pointed to a nearby phone booth and told him he could call for a ride. He became angry, saying he needed to get down the road and would not get out of the truck. Charles told him he could not go any further and reminded him that he had previously said he could only go a few miles.
The man, even angrier, said, "Listen, I got a problem, and I ain't getting out of this truck!" Charles apologized but told him that he could not help and that he had to get out. Without warning, he attacked. He punched Charles in the face and demanded both money and the truck. He also picked up a screwdriver from the truck's floor. Charles grabbed his keys and jumped out. The man tried to drive off but realized Charles had taken the keys. He then got out of the truck and went after him.
Charles ran to a nearby business named Blake's Garage for help. He banged on the windows, but no one was there. The man approached him and, wielding the screwdriver, said, "I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you right here!" Once again, he demanded that Charles give him the truck. Charles told him to calm down and said he would take him wherever he wanted to go.
Charles knew he had to act fast. As he and the man headed back to the truck, he made his move. He quickly got in the truck and drove off before the man could do so. He sped off in the opposite direction of his trailer, so the man could not follow him there. After driving for several minutes, he turned around. He did not see the man anywhere, so he decided to head back home. But when he reached his driveway, he saw him again. He was standing in Charles' yard, looking through his trailer's windows.
Somehow, by some disturbing coincidence, the man had found his way to Charles' trailer. At that point, he had an additional concern. It was adjacent to the small farmhouse where Dorothy lived. He rushed to a pay phone outside Hardee's and called the police at 1:19am. While waiting, he called Dorothy several times to alert her about the man. She did not answer. The police categorized the call as "low priority". At 3am, Corporal Myrna Williams Kinney of the Delaware State Police arrived at the pay phone and met with Charles.
Charles explained to Corporal Kinney how he had seen the man hanging around his and Dorothy's homes and wanted someone to go there with him. Once they arrived at his trailer, they checked and made sure that the front and back doors were locked. Corporal Kinney found nothing amiss.
Charles asked Corporal Kinney to look at Dorothy's house, which was about 60 feet away. They walked across the yard to the back door. They then discovered that the window to it was broken. They entered the house, and Charles called out to Dorothy. He knew something was wrong because she normally stayed awake until he came home.
In an upstairs bedroom, Charles found Dorothy's body. She had been stabbed more than two dozen times in the face, arms, and chest. The police believe she was killed around 1am. Her purse was untouched, and nothing appeared to be missing or out of place in the house. The police ruled out robbery and sexual assault as motives. Dorothy had no known enemies. When investigators heard Charles' story, their first instinct was that he had concocted an elaborate alibi.
Detective Gregory Nolt of the Delaware State Police says that the mere coincidences in Charles' story were difficult for investigators to believe. It was hard for them to believe that he had picked up the man, taken him a couple of miles, dropped him off, and then somehow, he showed up at Dorothy's house and killed her, despite having never met her or Charles before.
During questioning, detectives told Charles that they did not believe his story. They did not think the man could have walked a half mile and happened upon Charles' trailer while he was driving around. They discovered that Dorothy had taken out a life insurance policy shortly before her death and listed Charles as the beneficiary. They also learned that he was having financial problems at the time. Furthermore, he refused to take a polygraph test.
Detective Nolt said it was not until they were able to go back and interview people at Hardee's that they determined that the man actually existed. Several people inside and outside the restaurant said he had asked them for a ride. Some of them also saw him getting into Charles' truck.
One witness told the police they had seen the man chasing Charles at the intersection. Witnesses reported seeing him walking near Charles and Dorothy's homes. One witness said that he even knocked on the door of their home before he made his way to Dorothy's.
Other evidence also confirmed Charles' story. He had injuries to his face consistent with having been in a scuffle with the man. He also had burns on his wrist from when his coffee spilled on him during the scuffle. Finally, investigators obtained certain physical evidence at the scene – a bloody palm print on a banister and two sources of DNA (including blood left on the banister and light switch) – neither of which belonged to Charles. Because of this, investigators were able to eliminate him as a suspect.
Charles said what happened is like a "big nightmare" for him. He says it sometimes seems like it did not really happen, like he could drive over to Dorothy's house, and she would still be there. But he knows that she won't be there.
Brenda said that Dorothy meant the world to her. She called her every morning and evening. She said Dorothy was her best friend, and she misses her dearly. Diana said that if she had been killed in a car accident or died from a medical problem, she could have accepted that. She does not think anyone has the right to kill someone and take their life away like that.

A composite of dorothy's killer

A composite of Dorothy's killer

Suspects: Dorothy's killer is described as a black male in his late twenties or early thirties (in 1995). He is 5'8" or 5'9", 150 pounds, with a slender build and a pockmarked complexion. He wore brown dress pants, a brown plaid shirt, and dark, large, plastic-framed glasses with oversized lenses. Due to the extremely violent nature of the crime, police believe he may have been high on drugs, most likely crack cocaine, at the time of the murder.
Investigators believe the killer may have been passing through the area and is now in another part of the country. They do not believe he knew Dorothy or Charles or that they were related.
Charles and other witnesses picked Rich Mitchell out of a photo lineup, identifying him as the killer. He had arrests for forgery and petty theft. He lived in Harrington at the time. However, he had a full beard, while the killer was clean-shaven. The bloody palm print also did not match him. As a result, he was ruled out.
Charles was initially considered a suspect by the police. They felt his story about picking up Dorothy's killer was hard to believe. They did not think he would have happened upon her house after Charles dropped him off some distance away. They also learned that Charles was the beneficiary of her life insurance policy and had financial problems at the time.
However, the police were able to locate witnesses at the restaurant who confirmed that the killer existed. Other witnesses also corroborated other parts of Charles' story. Furthermore, the bloody palm print and DNA at the crime scene did not match him. As a result, he was cleared as a suspect.
The police looked into the possibility that Charles may have hired the man to kill Dorothy. However, no evidence was found to support this theory.
Two days before her death, Dorothy told Brenda that she had heard noises in her house. She told her, "I'm afraid something strange is going to happen here...something bad is going to happen to me." It is not known if she was afraid of a specific threat or just afraid in general. However, her family notes that she had no known enemies.
Two FBI profilers who later examined his case concluded that Dorothy knew her killer. They believed the murder was premeditated and committed by someone she did not perceive as a threat. They note that she never got out of bed despite the broken window and the fact that "every floorboard creaked" in the house. They figured that she would have woken up if it was a stranger.
The profilers believed the killer staged the scene to make it look like a random crime. They pointed to Corporal Kinney's claim that the killer could not have reached through the hole in the broken window to unlock the door. They said that Dorothy's body was arranged to make it look like she had been sexually assaulted.
The profilers did not believe a random killer could have navigated Dorothy's house in the dark. A pillow was placed over her face, which could indicate that the killer did not want to look at her. Finally, they said the number of stab wounds indicated that he had shown a lot of anger, which would be unusual for a random crime.
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the May 12, 1995 episode.
  • It was also profiled on Forensic Files.
  • It was originally supposed to air in fall 1994 but was delayed.
  • It was submitted to the show by Delaware State Police.
  • Some sources state that the man and Charles met at midnight on June 22, the man's sister was in Georgetown, Dorothy was found at 1:19am, and the road they lived on was Kent 384.
Gilbert cannon

Gilbert Cannon

Results: Solved. In May 2004, the DNA found at the crime scene was uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), the national DNA database. In November 2005, the DNA evidence was matched to forty-one-year-old Gilbert E. Cannon of Delmar, Maryland. The bloody palm print was also matched to him.
Cannon was living in Delaware at the time of the murder. He had previous convictions in the state for robbery, theft, escape, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, burglary, and assault. He had also served seven years in a Maryland prison on drug and robbery charges and for a 1997 murder.
Prior to his release in September 2004, Cannon's DNA was collected, which was used to connect him to this case. Police also discovered that photos of him from around the time of the murder bore a strong resemblance to the composite sketch.
After the DNA match, the police were initially unable to find Cannon. Finally, on January 18, 2006, he was arrested at his girlfriend's house. He was charged with first-degree murder, possession of a deadly weapon during a felony, and first-degree burglary. When first questioned, he denied any involvement in the murder. However, when confronted with the evidence against him, he confessed.
Cannon told investigators that on the night of Dorothy's murder, he was high on cocaine and looking for more. He approached Charles at Hardee's and got a ride from him. A fight broke out when Charles would not take him any further than the intersection. He picked up a screwdriver from the truck's floor and chased Charles down. Charles agreed to drive him the rest of the way but then drove off, leaving him behind.
Cannon told investigators that he then started walking down Killen Pond Road. He passed a few houses, but they all had lights on. Looking for a place to sleep, he stopped at the first house that looked empty which was Dorothy's. When he broke through the back door, he woke her up. Fearing that she would identify him, he attacked and stabbed her with the screwdriver he took from Charles' truck.
Cannon confirmed that it was just a coincidence that he chose Dorothy's house. He said that he did not know either her or Charles. He was surprised when he found out that Charles was her son. He also confirmed that he acted alone. On April 24, 2007, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in this case and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Unfortunately, for several years, Charles, Brenda, and Diana did not speak to each other because they did not understand why he had given Cannon a ride. Following Cannon's guilty plea, they began to reconcile.
Sadly, on August 2, 2020, Diana passed away at the age of sixty-six.
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