In 1945 Dorothy went shopping. She was seen returning home in the evening, and a neighbor thought "someone was with her, or walking behind her." Dorothy was attacked and nearly beaten to death. They never found who did it; robbery was not a motive, and Jules was ruled out as a suspect.

Then, in 1950, Jules called his wife to tell him he was going to a political banquet. Dorothy seemed in good spirits. She said, "Don't forget to miss me!" before she hung up. When he returned home later that evening, his wife was gone. The eldest daughter was away from home, but the two younger children were found huddled together in a bedroom. None of Dorothy's personal belongings were missing and the front door was locked.

The older of the two children at home that night (she would have been around 9 years old at that time) said she woke up and went to her mother's room. She saw a man coming up the stairs. She saw her mother lying on the carpet, face down. The man picked up her mother and told the little girl to go back to bed, that her Mommy was sick. She described her mother, who was wearing a red nightgown and red slippers, and the stranger, who was wearing a brown cap and a brown jacket with "something stuck in his shirt." He took the mother downstairs and out the door.

Nothing was disturbed in the house and there weren't any fingerprints.

Dorothy Forstein has never been seen again.