A Las Vegas woman vanished nearly three decades ago, but there are so few circumstances surrounding her disappearance that it’s proven practically impossible to solve. Her name was Camille Dotson, and she was last seen on September 3, 1994. Is there a chance that this cold case could ever be solved –or will the loved ones of this missing woman forever go without closure?
The NAMUS database shares that Camille Dotson was last seen around 4:20 on the afternoon September 3, 1994. The NAMUS profile states that the missing Las Vegas woman had just been released from the Clark County Detention Center at this time. However, the historic Las Vegas case file on Dotson shows that she was actually arrested, and in police custody during this time. She was still in the system around the 15th or 16th of September, 1994, but a bench warrant was ultimately issued for her. On September 26, 1994 she was arraigned in court on a charge of selling cocaine, but she may have been arraigned in absentia, because the warrant for her arrest was still active at the time. The historical case information, which is public, shares that by 2004, the felony drug trafficking charge against Camille Dotson had been dropped. The state was unable to prosecute the missing woman after she had been gone for a decade. The warrant for her arrest was also lifted.
At the time of her disappearance, Camille was wrapped up in a lifestyle that only served to complicate the search for her. She was married to a man who was once the focus of a notorious rape scandal — though he was exonerated of any legal guilt. She was involved in possible hard drug use, and possibly trafficking in cocaine as she’d once been arrested for in 1994. She also worked as a dancer in various strip clubs in Las Vegas. As her drug use worsened, she turned to prostitution to make the money needed to continue using. When she came up missing, the possibilities were endless as to what might have happened to her — but there was no evidence that led detectives in any particular direction. Now it’s been nearly 30 years since she was last seen.
What happened to Camille Dotson?
What do you think happened to Camille Dotson? Could she have gone voluntarily missing 28-years-ago to avoid felony imprisonment over charges of selling cocaine? If this was the case, the missing Las Vegas woman would have maintained at least some kind of contact with her family members over the course of all this time. When Camille disappeared in 1994, she was the mother of a little girl. That little girl is now a grown woman, and she now carries the torch in the search for her mother. There are multiple media reports detailing interviews with the missing woman’s now-grown daughter. If Camille Dotson had been hiding out all this time, her daughter wouldn’t be searching for her — but she is searching for her.
What if she had fallen victim to a domestic violence related death — like so many women unfortunately do? Most of the coverage of Camille Dotson’s case mentions her husband Gary Dotson, because of his notorious history. Dotson had spent time in prison for sexually assaulting a teenage girl. However, he was later exonerated not only when DNA evidence concluded he didn’t do anything — but the so-called victim recanted her story. The woman, who “became deeply religious,” later admitted that she made the whole thing up to cover up the fact that she had premarital sex and became pregnant. Gary Dotson was a wrongfully convicted person. He was an innocent man. Furthermore, Camille was no longer actively with Gary at the time of her disappearance.
At the time of her disappearance, Camille Dotson had been dating a man named Francisco “Kiko” Fernandez. In fact, that is who she was with on the night of her arrest for cocaine trafficking. Police responded to calls of a man screaming at a crying woman in the Siegel Suites, and when they arrived they discovered Camille in an apartment full of cocaine. She supposedly blamed the baggies of cocaine on Kiko Fernandez, but was arrested and charged. According to some sources, Kiko was arrested as well. To complicate the situation even further, family members of the missing woman imply that Francisco Fernandez was never really investigated or interviewed when she went missing. Kiko was reportedly a convicted felon at the time, with a history of domestic violence and other criminal charges. Is it possible that he had something to do with Camille’s disappearance? Given the claims that she blamed the cocaine trafficking allegations on the man on the night of their arrests, and his history, it’s absolutely likely.
So where is Kiko Fernandez now in 2022? As of 2020 the loved ones of the missing woman were still asking for him to come forward and talk to them. There are multiple people with the same name in the United States, and several in Las Vegas alone — so it’s hard to tell if he’s still around or not. Someone of the same name was convicted of murder with a deadly weapon in 1999. Whether or not this is the same man isn’t easy to tell, but it’s possible. With police not really having any type of public presence in this case — aside from arresting Camille, that is — anything is possible.
What about Camille Dotson’s drug use? When she was arrested in early September 1994, she was held in the jail until mid to late September — not long enough to fully detox if you’re a hardcore drug user, but long enough to make a hardcore drug user downright desperate to get high. Is it possible that Camille ended up overdosing on drugs at some point, and then her body was concealed by people who didn’t want to take responsibility for it? That’s just a theory, but given her lifestyle, it’s a likely one — just as likely as her boyfriend killing her for narcing on him upon her release.
There is also the possibility that Camille was the victim of a random predator through her job as a dancer at the Crazy Horse, or any of the other clubs that employed her. The possibility of falling victim to a predator while working as a prostitute is even higher. If a random vacationing “John” kidnapped, killed and hid her remains, she could be anywhere in the country.
As you can see, there are numerous different avenues to investigate regarding the disappearance of Camille Dotson. However, it’s been nearly 30 years since she vanished, and there was never a big push to search for her in the earliest years of her case. She wasn’t officially reported missing until 1995 — several months to a year following her last known contact with loved ones — and the media never really reported it.
Chelsea Hoffman is a true crime writer with over a decade of professional writing experience. She is best known for her coverage of missing people including the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann as well as the heartbreaking cases of Dylan Redwine, Heather Elvis and many others.
