Her voice is heartbreakingly good. I hope she is found safe.
"I don’t want to smooth out the rough edges, I don’t want to make myself into something or some one that moves with the tide. I want to own one wave, own the bubbles and the rough edges and the swooshing of that one wave and know that I move with it, move like it, because I wish, not because I can gain the whole ocean from it."
----
Unfortunately, this kind of mindset virtually guarentees that the person will end up dashed against the rocks lining the shore on a regular basis, and requires that they be tough as nails, emotionally & spiritually.
This talented and beautiful young lady grew up in my neighborhood. So this is particularly heartbreaking for me. Even more so if Dora's attitude expressed so poetically refers not only to music but also to resistance to treatment for depression.
For many with this illness, the wave will indeed hit the shore; the journey through the wilderness will lead to the abyss. For most who seek help these days, treatment is eventually effective and need not dull creativity or artistic ability. In fact, by freeing the mind from a great weight, it should open up new horizons of potential for achievement.
Thank you for picking up this story, which has yet to be reported by Dora's hometown paper!
Great post Steve. I am glad you picked up on a story "which has yet to be reported by Dora's hometown paper" (according to George).
Perhaps it is due to my experiences working with creative writers, but I have a soft spot for raw creativity and how depression often entwines itself with such creativity. I do not know which comes first, the creativity or the depression, but my heart goes out to all true poets/writers/musicians living in this fast-paced and high tech world.
I hope Dora finds her way home soon.
I hope Dora finds her way home too. 
Steve, I got the message "video no longer available" when I clicked on the video at the top of this entry. Do you think they removed it? I really want to hear her voice, so I'll try others. Thanks.
Taximom, the video at the top of this post is fine. YouTube had a major outage today, which may have had something to do with what you experienced. A video Dora once had posted in her own account has definitely been removed, though. I managed to download and then re-upload the one you see in this post to my own account.
This story was picked up by CW11 News on their Sunday night 6:30 newscast. Its posted online at www.cw11tv.com
When the car goes missing along with the person, we should ask the question: Is there a body of water that the car could have been driven into, either accidently or intentionally?
What an incredible, beautiful voice. I hope they find her well very soon.
Nana - that is what I was thinking, too. Especially reading that the car was a loaner (in this article: http://tinyurl.com/29wppa) and that could have been a factor, since the new car might have been a little unfamiliar to Dora and an accident could have resulted. I also checked the weather for University City, MO on Wednesday (2/20) and Thursday (2/21) and it was pretty damn cold on both days, especially Thursday, with a wintry mix moving in on that day as well. I wonder if that mix came a bit early on Wednesday night.
Finally this is getting more local press coverage, on TV news last night and a very short bit in the Post-Dispatch.
In rereading my earlier comment, I want to clarify. I am not for a moment critical of Dora's choices; I don't know even know what they have been.
I was responding to the previous comment about her wave metaphor, a comment that had initially seemed to me to be insensitive, but I had then come to see as perhaps speaking to a broader truth.
Having seen the destructiveness of depression, heard and read some very unhelpful attitudes expressed, and become aware of the dramatic promise of treatment, I was simply choosing to make a generalized comment in case any readers might be influenced in their own choices or those affecting loved ones with depression.
As to Dora, I can only say I continue to hope and pray she is safe, and that all appropriate efforts are being made to find her.
Dora's body and car have been found. May she rest in peace.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday...FA?
OpenDocument
ST. CHARLES COUNTY - A woman reported missing last week was found dead Sunday night in St. Charles County, authorities said.
Dora Magrath, 22, was found shortly after 11 p.m. near her dark blue Chrysler Sebring on Highway N near Highway Z, authorites said. Police do not suspect foul play.
Magrath was reported missing last week by her mother.
This is so heart-breaking. What a lovely voice and such a sweet smiling face that has been haunting me.
Dora and my daughter lived in the same house at Hampshire and she has been dazed by this news.
We all hope and pray that Linda Holtzman gets her daughter back, safe and sound, soon.
Amazing how quickly the Post-Dispatch picks up on it once she's dead. Bet it'll be front page. Something's wrong with that approach to the news.
How unbelievably sad... and all I can hear is her singing "Amazing Grace" ... My heart goes out to her family.
Thank you all for your continued support.
Please send good thoughts/love vibes to her family. It will be greatly appreciated in this time of need.
--The Cranky yellow Team
(Dora's Record Label)
Note: We've discontinued Dora's Album. We will distribute the remaining copies to her friends and family for free.
For Dora: http://tinyurl.com/3dtp3u
Mr. Kidvai, i'm sorry for your daughter as she mourns Dora and also the great loss that Dora's family has to deal with. I hope Dora found peace.
My daughter and Dora were inseparable in kindergarten and first grade when Dora was double promoted. Dora's life force is the kind legends are created to tell. Ellen and I ran into her at a club in the loop not long ago and I would have known her anywhere, as familiar as she was dancing to Aladdin bringing her own essence to it and bringing the rest of us with her. Dora, I don't know what happens now, but I wish I could get you back home where you belong with Linda and Mike and Alex, and with us all who loved and admired you near or far, in space or time. I'm shattered for their loss and can imagine enough of it to know the inadequacy and adamance of words. It's all I can give and it's nothing in the face of such a stellar soul's loss. Her short life has been blessing to those who will go on without her, and an unspeakable empty place, like a black hole, where she should always be for those who expected her always by their sides. This is so wrong on too many levels for me to comprehend. I'm more than sorry, there aren't words that fit.
I appreciate your attempt at "delivering the news," however the manner in which you discuss my good friend Dora is unimaginably disrespectful. While it may be morbidly fascinating for you to blog about the disappearance of an amazingly talented, incomparably sweet person, it is disgusting to speak of her like she is a curiosity for you.
My heart goes out to anyone who has Dora in theirs. For those who objectify the loss of such an amazing person, I hope you feel ashamed.
To the credit of this blog, it got the news out well in advance of the local media, at a time when, depending on the circumstances, it may not have been too late and minutes and hours mattered. I don't personally feel this has been sensationalizing or objectifying coverage, though we are each entitled to our own opinion. I offer my sympathies to all.
LilyW - I am very sorry for your loss.
I want you to know that as an avid reader of Steve's blog - he writes each entry with the upmost respect and compassion. His readers and commenters are among the most mature and respectful I've seen on any site and I assure you that no disrespect was intended.
LilyW -- I wrote that I have a bias for possibly clinically depressed musicians because I am a clinically depressed musician, and have been battling depression for the better part of 30 years, at least.
I also lost my brother to suicide. He was bipolar, and disappeared repeatedly before he finally killed himself.
Because you say you were Dora's friend, I'm not going to respond angrily or say anything beyond this -- you completely misread my tone, and in this instance, I don't think it was my fault, but something to do with some perception on your part.
I'm sorry you've lost your friend, but if you were that close to her, maybe the last place you need to be is leaving angry messages to anyone online. Her family and other friends are surely utterly devastated. They need your care more than anyone else needs your anger or jumping to conclusions.
Oh No! I just listened to Dora's Cd,
Absolutely beautiful ,
it was like embracing an essence and having that essence touch you with an amazing light and sad grace and
then with an elfish smile,a beautiful secret knowing smile,she becomes an ellusive spirit.
My heart is broken tonight for Dora's family and I can only light a candle, that you might find some comfort in having had Dora in your lives for that brief moment.
Susan and Vincent (Mother and Son of a Bi-Polar daughter/mom)
Steve,
I want to thank you so much for this. I sporadically follow your blog and I appreciate you covering this, as there were very few details out there, and I know how helpful you and your follows can be in gaining information about missing individuals.
I knew Dora from Hampshire College and she was an amazing person. First time I met her she cheerfully introduced as "Dora, like the explorer."
I would also like to apologize for LillyW's comments as I suspect who it she is. We, our college as a community, do not handle loss very well and try to seclude our pain from the real world. Its hard to handle someone you knew and saw as a wonderful person summed up in a few words promoting the hardships of her life by a stranger. Others from our community feel much differently. I have forwarded your posting to my friends, and they have found it to be very supportive and helpful for us trying to deal with our loss and recover from the shock.
I apologize for writing so much. I just wanted to convey my respect for you and send a thank you from our community.
Thank you, Jaye. I truly appreciate the message.
In this blog, I don't like to go too personal -- it's too popular, and too many people read it for crime stories, not for my personal stuff. But with my own history of battling depression, I couldn't help but take note of Dora's story and want to get the word out. I did suspect that the police were right, and there was no foul play, but just in case, I wanted something up.
And speaking as a musician, I was struck by her grace and talent. She'd developed a unique and appealing vocal style, one that seemed to do for real what a popular singer like Lily Allen only tries to do -- look back to her stylistic forebears like Billie Holiday but still be current, and strikingly original.
Anyway, thanks again, Jaye -- it means a lot that you'd take the time to say something.
My thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends.
And, to Steve, thank you for sharing the story as it broke. Without your story I would never have experienced her beautiful voice and unique style of singing. Without your story, I would know nothing about this beautiful person and her talents. She will hauntingly remain in my heart.
Absolutely - I agree with every word of that jadensmokes.
"Amazing Grace" a/k/a "Amazing Dora"!
Prayers have been said here for this beautiful young gal, her family, and friends! This world would be so much better with more Dora's in it!
She will leave that hole that is never filled, a missing beautiful sound like no other, and a smile that could reach into the very core of every heart.
I am so very sorry so read about another young person feeling such despair. Just as quickly as she seemed to have hurdled every musician's dream with the release of her very own CD, she is gone. What a loss!
I will never understand why loved ones do this, yet, I will never understand severe depression (two in our extended family ~ never knew it was coming ). As a mother, I cannot imagine the heartache.
I don't understand how so many of the "undetermined" deaths are found to be suicides(?)
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