Dorothy Forstein

Dorothy Cooper Forstein's story begins with a terrifying attack in 1945 when she was found badly beaten and unconscious on the pavement near her Philadelphia home. She had a broken nose, fractured jaw, broken shoulder, and a concussion. Dorothy could not identify her attacker, and despite investigation by her husband Jules Forstein, a Philadelphia city magistrate, no assailant was ever found.

Dorothy recovered and life returned to some normalcy. But on the evening of October 18, 1949, while her husband was at a political dinner, Dorothy vanished from their locked home. When Jules returned at 11:30 p.m., the house was dark and Dorothy was gone. Their nine-year-old daughter Marcy told her father she had been awakened by sounds and looked downstairs to see a man carrying her unconscious mother out the front door.

The investigation revealed no signs of forced entry, suggesting Dorothy either let her attacker in or they had a key. Her purse, coat, and shoes were left behind—she appeared to have been taken in her nightclothes. Despite the Forstein family's prominence in Philadelphia politics and an extensive police investigation, no trace of Dorothy was ever found.

Jules Forstein hired private detectives and pursued the case for years. He died in 1956 without ever learning what happened to his wife. No body, no ransom demand, no credible sighting of Dorothy ever materialized. The case predates many modern investigative tools, and with all principals now deceased, it is unlikely to ever be solved. Dorothy Forstein remains one of Philadelphia's most enduring mysteries.