FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Indianapolis, IN -- The Dattilo family has new information about missing college student Molly Dattilo. Molly, a student at IUPUI and Eastern Kentucky University has been missing since the evening of Tuesday, July 6, 2004.
As previously announced, Molly placed her last phone call around 11:00 PM from a pay phone at a Thornton’s gas station on Crawfordsville Road in Indianapolis. At this time, she was with John E. Shelton, the last person known to have seen her.
Recently, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department reassigned Molly’s case from its Missing Persons Unit to its Homicide Unit. It is believed that a significant factor in the decision to reassign the case was information provided to IMPD by John E. Shelton. Shelton has been or is presently considered a person of interest in the investigation.
John E. Shelton
A number of sources have confirmed that Shelton told IMPD that he has substantial information concerning the disappearance of Molly Dattilo. Shelton, who is currently incarcerated on unrelated charges, has offered the information about Dattilo in exchange for a plea bargain. The Dattilo Family applauds the decision of IMPD to step up its investigation of Molly's disappearance and once again asks that anyone with useful information please come forward immediately.
$100,000 reward still in effect
Background Information:
Photographs of Molly, please see
Molly’s Activities that Week
Molly attended classes that morning at IUPUI.
-Molly dropped just one of three classes at IUPUI, this was the last day to drop classes without a penalty
A receipt dated July 6th was found in her car showing Molly had purchased supplies for her hobbies and her classes. The receipt also showed the purchase of a child’s toy which indicated her desire to attend her nephew’s birthday party as planned later that July.
Additional job applications were found in Molly’s car.
-Molly left on foot to pick up an application from a nearby Wendy’s restaurant towards the evening hours.
-Molly made it back to Westlake Apartments, the largest apartment complex in Indianapolis and has not been seen or heard from since.
All Molly’s personal items were left behind including her identification, money, ATM card, cell phone, clothes and her car.
Molly’s activities the day she disappeared clearly point to the conclusion that she did not leave of her own free will.
Molly was enrolled and planned to attend her fifth year at Eastern Kentucky University in the fall after just completing a four year running scholarship the previous school year. When she disappeared she was living with her brother in Indianapolis while taking summer classes at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI).
One of those classes was a voice class meant to help prepare her for an upcoming audition of American Idol.
The weekend before she disappeared she commented to her sister that she was preparing for that audition in August and that’s she planned to attend her nephew’s birthday party later in July. She also spoke of her desire to get a summer job to keep the car her father purchased for her so that she had transportation to the American Idol auditions.
Physical Description
Biography and Personality
She is a talented achiever and excels in academics, athletics and music. At the universities she attended she received A’s, even in the most challenging of classes.
She excelled at running and while in high school she placed in the top eleven in cross country and the top seven in track three years in a row a the state level.
During her senior year, she competed in an All-State competition where she placed fifth in the mile run.
Molly was known to talk to the participants from many of the other teams during state meets and would congratulate them at the finish line making her known in the running community throughout Indiana.
Additionally, Molly is also a talented singer and would often sing the National Anthem at the high school athletic games and had since engaged in singing karaoke in her spare time.
She is loved by those that know her in the small town where she grew up and was known to stop to visit many community members at their homes and businesses to chat about life.
She enjoyed talking on the phone with friends and family members on a regular basis.
3 comments:
It's just so sad to look at his rap sheet and realize that if the Department of Corrections in Indiana hadn't contiunally relaesed Shelton early, he would have been locked up in jail the day/night Molly disaapeared and we all know she would still be alive.
No, we don't all know that. Much as I'd like to know what became of this young woman and see justice done, there's still a presumption of innocence in this country that is absolutely fundamental to living in a free country with a rule of law. And secondary to that, a rap sheet that contains pretty much nothing but violating a lifetime suspension of a license and receipt of stolen property does little to suggest that this person was likely to commit a violent crime or that society would be best served by keeping him locked up for full term (which, if he behaved while in prison, isn't an option for the state anyway).
His rap sheet has resisting arrest, and intimidation. He is also a habitual offender. He is likely to offend again. The fact that he has additional information but wants a deal leads one to believe he may have had something to do with her disappearance.
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