Just a note before we begin this episode, there's no question that many of our episodes aren't suitable for all listeners, that sort of comes with the territory.

But I did want to warn you that there will be some stuff in this one that some listeners are going to find troubling and possibly offensive, so listen at your discretion.

And don't say we didn't warn you.

On the cold morning of December 12, 1910, a 25-year-old socialite and ares named Dorothy Harriet Camille Arnold left her parents home in Manhattan to go shopping for a new dress. Her younger sister was making her society debut.

It was the holiday season in New York at a time for festivities, gallows, and balls, and Dorothy was said to have been especially excited about this one.

Dorothy was a carefree young woman, or so everyone thought at the time.

Who left the house to buy that dress and then just vanished without a trace.

The mystery of her disappearance remains as baffling today as it did more than a century ago.

There were no solid clues about where she went, but there were plenty of theories as we'll soon see.

A newspaper in 1911 wrote about Dorothy.

She disappeared from one of the busiest streets on earth at the sunniest hours of a brilliant afternoon with thousands within sight and reach.

Men and women who knew her on every side and officers of the law thickly strewn in her path.

But of course none of that really mattered.

Because Dorothy Arnold was gone.

Welcome to American hauntings, the podcast dedicated to the history, hauntings, legends, lore, and the dark side of American history.

And welcome to our brand new season, Gone, which is hosted and produced by Cody Beck and written and performed by Troy Taylor.

That's me.

America is a place that is filled with mystery and darkness.

It's a place where tragic events occur and where mysteries for which no rational explanation exists happen far too often.

Those mysteries often include unexplained disappearances just like the ones we'll be talking about this season.

We open the files about people who have vanished without a trace, never to be seen again.

Their stories are often bizarre, unexpected, and sometimes seem impossible.

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