On July 17th, 1912 Dorcas Snodgrass was reported missing by her brother in law in New York after saying she was going shopping in the city.

On July 28th, 1912, Dorcas body was found on the banks of a creek near Catskill, New York.

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In the Summer of 1912, 25-year-old 'society girl' Dorcas "Doc" Iyams Snodgrass was living in Mount Vernon, New York with her sister and brother in law.

On her 25th birthday, she entered the training school for nurses in Mount Vernon, New York. According to a New York newspaper, she became a nurse to learn more about medicine and that her success was "marked". It is also said that she enjoyed her work.

At a dance that Winter, she met F. Edgar Schmit, "fell in love", and quickly became engaged.

Dorcas brother in law, John Crider was given the chance to be the chief engineer of a road in Oakland, California and planned to move there with his wife. According to the same New York Newspaper, Dorcas was going to stay behind in Mount Vernon but decided to give up her career and move with them ( on August 1st) because of her sister.

The article also says that her fiance would finish his contract in the East and join the family in California where they would have the wedding that Winter.

On the day of her disappearance, Dorcas complained to her sister about a pain in the head. But because she often complained that the heat in her room by the hospital ( where she often stayed) was suffocating, nothing came of it.

She then walked a mile to the station where she either took the train or the trolly. It is not known which one she took.

Dorcus was expected home at 3 and when she wasn't back by 7 her sister started to worry. It was said that they assumed she stayed in the city with friends. But that same article says that she knew very few people in the city, didn't know the city well, and that it was odd she didn't call.

The next day her fiance started a search party that resulted in nothing found.

For three days it was kept quiet as according to the newspaper article the family was " exclusive and averse to publicity".

After three days the local police were called in. They searched hospitals and morgues. Nothing was found.

The first time her family talked to the newspaper, they ( her sister) said that Dorcus was level headed and that she couldn't think of any reason why she would leave on her own free will. The sister also says that she was totally in love with the man she was going to marry and that she was "happy and carefree".

Her fiance says in that article that he believes that she was murdered.

During the search, there were multiple people who came forward saying that they saw her.

One was a maid who told her employer that she saw Dorcas in the city, but when asked what she was wearing, it was a totally different outfit than what she had on when she left home. Another person said that they saw three men dragging a young woman into a car.

Nothing came of any of the tips.

On July 24th The Evening World reported that there were rumors that Dorcus fiance said that he thought her body would be "found in a river" and that the family did not like him and hoped that the move to California would end the engagement.

He denied all of that

In a July 26th newspaper article from the The Fairmont West Virginian, a family member says that he believed that while she was engaged, that she was still in love with a past sweetheart, Dr Smith. He also says that Dorcas and Dr Smith were engaged at one point but that it was broken and that they still saw each other. Dorcus sister says in another article that Dorcus was never seen with the doctor and that they were never in a relationship.

On July 28th, her decomposing body was found face down in shallow water/tall reed grass in Dubois's Creek near Catskill, New York. According to a July 29th article, the police said that because of how decomposed her body was, that it was impossible to do an autopsie to find out if she was dead or alive when put in the water.

At the time of this article, the police believed that she was poisoned and then dumped in the water by a boat. Her lungs were found to have little or no water in them. Dorcas hat was also found 100 feet away from her in the marshes. The hat still had the pins in it leading the police to believe that it had been removed by force. Her purse ( with money in it) and her engagement ring were still on her.

The local police said that there was no way anyone could have taken a boat or walked into the creek as you can only get to it at high tide and because it is so small. This caused them to believe her body was carried by tide.

A test was done with a dummy where it was placed at the mouth of the creek. The dummy floated to where the body was found.

However, this article also reports that the coroner and Dorcus sister believed that she killed herself. The sister also ads in this article that along with having a pain in her head, that she was moody, despondent, and would not talk about it.

Then on August 3rd, it was reported that Dorcus family had no interest in any other theory then that she took her own life. It was also reported that they were already on there way to California. After this, the police said that they saw no reason to keep looking into it and they dropped the case.

This write up says that neither her sister, brother in law, or fiance went to her funeral, but I can't seem to find any article that says that or that backs up a few other things in it as well.

What I think

I'm for sure not a doctor, but after reading everything I could about this case, I strongly suspect that she had a undiagnosed medical condition that was not caught on time. I think it's possible that she fell into the water ( while grabbing onto her hat to try and get it off) when she was in the process of either passing out or even dying from whatever was wrong. I also think that her family was just a stereotypical wealthy family in the early 1900s who didn't want anyone looking into their business and was somewhat standoffish to the rest of the public.

But I really don't think she purposely killed herself.

What do you think happened?

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Sources I used

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Edit

I forgot to say, this case was often compared to the still unsolved case of Dorothy Arnold.