NYS court officer Michael Dotzler mysteriously disappeared from Long Island almost 2 years ago. His family still holds out hope for his return.

Every day for almost two years, Mirna Dotzler has dialed her husband’s cellphone, hoping against reason that this time he might answer.

The call always goes to voicemail. She still listens, she says, just to hear his voice.

Michael Dotzler, 59, vanished on Jan. 17, 2024. No one — not his family, not his closest friends, not the investigators now studying his case — has seen or heard from him since.

The only sign of him that day came from his car, discovered the next morning at the Point Lookout marina. Inside were no keys, no wallet, no phone. There was no note. No hint of where he might have gone or why.

"Just nothing," said his brother, Raymond Dotzler.

What preceded his disappearance only deepened the mystery. The day before he vanished, Dotzler transferred $280,000, money he had received from the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, from a joint account he held with a co-worker to one he shared with his wife. Whether that move is connected to what came next remains unclear.

Nassau County police said the case is still an active missing person investigation. They declined to elaborate.

Jay Salpeter, a former NYPD detective turned private investigator who has taken on the case, said he believes more may be at play.

"The investigation, and what I’ve uncovered, is that Michael might have met with some harm," he said. Salpeter is well-known on Long Island for helping to overturn Martin Tankleff’s murder conviction after 17 years in prison.

Dotzler’s family has struggled to imagine he would harm himself, though in the first frantic days, they considered every possibility. He had endured a series of health blows: amyloidosis after volunteering with 9/11 recovery efforts, followed by chemotherapy and radiation, and eventually a second diagnosis — aggressive small cell lung cancer that had spread to his liver.

Still, those close to him said, he had remained determined. He was living with his mother after her knee replacement surgery, helping her recover and managing her appointments. Suicide, they said, simply didn’t square with the man they knew.

"I don’t see Mike jumping into the water," said Judith McCabe, a longtime co-worker whom Dotzler trusted enough to share access to his patient portal and bank accounts; she helped him manage both because he struggled with computers. "If he wanted to commit suicide, he could have driven into a tree. There are a million other things he could have done. Jumping into icy water — it just doesn’t make sense."

Facing tough times

Dotzler, a New York State court officer, had hit a rough patch in his life. After helping out with the recovery after 9/11, he had contracted amyloidosis, a disorder caused by buildup of abnormal proteins, which sidelined him from his job. The New York City resident went through treatment, radiation and chemotherapy, and the disease appeared to be in remission until he was diagnosed with aggressive small cell lung cancer that had spread to his liver.

Even with the double dose of bad news, family and friends said, Dotzler was determined to beat it. Besides, his mother also had gone through a series of health problems; ever the doting son, his family said, he was determined to be there for her.

They said they looked all over for him. They hired divers to search the water, dogs to search the marshland nearby, asked local businesses to post missing person flyers and check surveillance cameras for footage of Dotzler’s car.

Money from 9/11 fund

Police told them his cellphone pinged a cell tower for the last time around 3:10 p.m. That also was the last time his Fitbit registered movement, his brother said. He said a surveillance camera from a local shop caught his car driving near the marina around 5:45 p.m.

His family has retraced his steps in the days leading up to his disappearance, looking for clues.

On Jan. 16, 2024, he transferred most of the money that he had received from the 9/11 fund to the account he shared with his wife.

McCabe said he had not previously told his wife about the money.

"He was acting very strange the last couple of weeks before he disappeared," McCabe said. "I kept asking him, 'What's wrong? What's wrong?' ... He just seemed very anxious, but he wouldn't tell me."

"He’s my brother," she said, dismissing any question that they were romantically involved.

His wife was not comfortable talking about the money, only confirming it was a significant amount.

"I think whatever Michael was doing, he was doing it to try to take care of me, which is what he’s always done. He’s the most generous person that I know," his wife said.

Last day he was seen

The day Dotzler went missing, his brother said he had an MRI scheduled for that morning, and then had plans for the next day to take his mother to a doctor’s appointment.

McCabe said doctors were worried about the cancer spreading to his brain, but when she looked in the patient portal, she saw the scan came back negative.

"We spoke for a little bit," she said. "How'd it go? What do you think? And that was it. That was the last time I spoke to him."

His sister-in-law Joanne Dotzler said she had texted him around 1:30 p.m. to verify that he was going to drive his mother to her MRI scan the next day.

He confirmed that he would.

"I said, ‘OK, what about yours?’ ” she said, reading from the saved text on her phone. "He goes, all done. Came back good with prayer signs. I wrote awesome good news. He goes, yes, definitely a thumbs-up."

Mirna Dotzler said that after the doctor’s appointment, he came to the couple's home and then went to his mother’s house.

"I remember the last thing that I did for him was tie his shoes because of his sciatica," she said. "He was agitated in some kind of way, but I just figured he was nervous about his test."

Michael Dotzler left his mother’s house around 2:30 p.m. that day. No one knew where he was going.

As night came, Mirna Dotzler became worried. They had discussed having leftover chili for dinner. When he hadn’t come home, she reached out to his brother.

I think whatever Michael was doing, he was doing it to try to take care of me, which is what he’s always done.

- Mirna Dotzler, Michael's wife

As the night wore on and they still had not heard from him, they reached out to police.

McCabe and his family said they are unhappy about the way the Nassau police responded to his disappearance.

"I feel like everything was taken so lightly," Mirna Dotzler said.

They said police sent helicopters to search the shoreline and put boats in the water to look for his body, but never deployed divers or cadaver-sniffing dogs.

A trail gone cold

Since then, the trail has gone cold. His wife said police have stopped returning her phone calls.

Frustrated by what the family said was a lack of information coming from police and no recent development in the case, Mirna Dotzler hired Salpeter to look into the disappearance and hopefully provide answers where there haven’t been any.

"I think like many cases, sometimes it's put on a shelf, and it's not, you know, more needs to be done," Salpeter said. "I want to use my experience to bring these people closure. A wife, a brother and a mother."

Mirna Dotzler said she just hopes her husband returns.

"I’m keeping my hopes up and being prayerful that one day I’m going to see him walk back through that door," she said.