Ann DeMatteo, Assistant Metro Editor
Jan. 16, 2012
Doreen Vincent disappeared from her father's house in Wallingford June 15, 1988, never to be seen or heard from again.
With no body and no evidence, police can't say for certain who may have been responsible for the 12-year-old's disappearance.
On the night she disappeared, Doreen had a disagreement with her father, Mark Vincent. He told police she left through the front door of the house he had recently moved into on Whirlwind Hill Road, a rural section of Wallingford.
His wife at the time, the late Sharon Vincent Hutchins, told police it would have been impossible for Doreen to leave through the front door because it was locked with a deadbolt that required a key.
Police have never been satisfied with Mark Vincent's account. "All we can say is his explanation of the circumstances surrounding her disappearance is suspect," said Wallingford Detective Lt. Robert Flis.
Vincent, 55, a contractor from Milford who is remarried and has a teenage son, is aware that police think he had something to do with Doreen's disappearance. He told the Register what he's told police time and time again:
"If you're looking to me, you'll never find Doreen." Meaning, he said, that she's "somewhere else other than here."
He believes his daughter left the house and hitchhiked somewhere. "She did it before," he said, recalling that when they lived in Bridgeport, Doreen hitchhiked to her mother's house in Waterbury.
Doreen's mother, Donna Lee, doesn't believe his theory at all.
June 15, 1988, was a Wednesday. Lee says she called her ex-husband's house, and got directions to Wallingford from his wife, Sharon. Lee had not been to Whirlwind Hill. Mark and Sharon Vincent had moved there less than two weeks before.
Comments