Dori Ann Myers went missing in 2006. What's happening now to find her?

ST. LUCIE COUNTY − Messages about a 17-year-old missing person case are on two billboards as part of new efforts to solve what a veteran investigator called a “mystery.”

The billboards − one off U.S. 1 in the area of the St. Lucie/Indian River county line; another in Okeechobee County near the north shore of Lake Okeechobee − relate to the 2006 disappearance of Dori Ann Myers, then 43.

“It is a fantastic idea, and it has worked across the country,” St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Detective Paul Taylor said in a recent interview. “There have been times where people have seen the billboards and called in tips.”

Taylor, the agency’s cold case detective, in recent years has closed a number of cold case homicides, the oldest dating to 1969. 

Taylor said the Myers case haunts Sheriff Ken Mascara, noting Mascara spoke with Myers’ father, now deceased, many times. Sworn in for his sixth, four-year term in 2021, Mascara has said the current term will be his last.

“He just always said, as a father, this case has bothered him over the years,” Taylor said.

Taylor said Mascara reached out to the Florida Sheriffs Association, and asked if it would pay for advertising for the case. It did.

It’s the first time Taylor has been involved in an investigation where billboards were used since he started working cold cases in 2019.

What happened?

Myers on Jan. 10, 2006, was at the St. Lucie Inn north of downtown Fort Pierce.

She played poker, Taylor said, and “would go to the different bars and play in poker tournaments and things like that.

“Some other patrons that detectives talked to said that there was a couple guys that she met in the bar,” Taylor said. “They had supposedly said they were in the Marines and had just got back from Iraq.” 

Myers, a hair stylist, is said to have left with the two men.

Later in the evening she called her boyfriend, a long-haul truck driver. She told him she brought the men to her home “and was going to play poker, which he said was not unusual for her because he described her as a free spirit,” Taylor said.

Around midnight, a neighbor heard voices in the driveway at the Myers home on Salerno Road in the Lakewood Park area of northern St. Lucie County.

“There was always people coming and going from the house so they didn't think anything about it,” Taylor said.

About 3 a.m. they heard arguing in the driveway and doors slam.

“The neighbor looked out, saw Dori’s car backing out of the driveway,’’ Taylor said.

The neighbor went to the restroom, and when she got out she heard noises.

She looked outside, saw flames coming from the back of the home, and called 911.

Officials determined the fire was intentionally set, and investigators issued a be-on-the-lookout bulletin for Myers and her vehicle.

Hours later, investigators learned a vehicle was found on fire at a boat ramp west of Lake Okeechobee. Rescue divers, and crime scenes officials were unable to find Myers or any evidence of her.

“She wasn't in the car. So it is a mystery,” Taylor said. “There's been no contact with her since then.”

Taylor said from the evidence, it appears Myers was abducted and murdered.

“Her vehicle was taken over to the other side of Lake Okeechobee in the middle of nowhere and set on fire,” Taylor said.

Billboards aim to help solve case

The billboard location on U.S. 1 by the St. Lucie/Indian River county line was selected because it’s in the area where Myers lived.

“The other board is put over in Okeechobee County near Lake Okeechobee, because that's where her vehicle was dumped,” Taylor said. “That vehicle was dumped there for a reason.”

He suspects the suspect or suspects involved lived somewhere in the area.

“That's why that vehicle was taken so far away and dumped in the middle of nowhere,” he said.

The billboard messages are expected to run until the end of October.

Tipsters could get up to $10,000 in rewards if the information leads to a conviction.

Aftermath

The case was featured on national television programs, such as “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren,” which was on Fox News from 2002 until 2016.

An order declaring Myers legally dead was signed by a circuit judge in 2007. Family members at the time said they had not given up hope, but it allowed her heir to take possession of her damaged home and collect insurance money needed for repairs.

Myers’ sister, Donajean Kapp, became a vocal missing persons advocate.

In a 2016 article in the St. Lucie News Tribune, Kapp said she will never get over the fact it has been 10 years and her sister is still missing.

“So much time has gone by, and the circumstances are horrible,” Kapp said. “I just want to know what happened.”

Taylor said Kapp has since died.

He wishes someone will come forward.

“Hopefully someone who a suspect did talk to years ago, maybe they were in fear of them back then, and maybe that fear has went away,” Taylor said. “Or they were friends with them back then; they're no longer friends now.”

Those with information are asked to contact Taylor at 772-462-3386 or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at 800-273-TIPS.

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Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Dori Ann Myers missing persons case from 2006 featured on billboards