Yellowknife woman identified as U.S. fugitive wanted in deadly 1994 crash

Kate Dooley, who lived in Yellowknife, died in December 2019. (Submitted by Kimberley Smale. )

A woman who lived in Yellowknife has been identified as a U.S. fugitive wanted in connection with a fatal drunk driving crash in Scottsdale, Ariz, police say.

Gloria Schulze, who lived in Yellowknife under the name Kate Dooley, was charged in 1994 after hitting a vehicle driven by 21-year-old Angela Maher, who was on her way to pick up a friend while visiting the city.

Police said the investigation revealed Dooley had been drinking and smoking marijuana the night of the crash.

Maher died from her injuries.

Dooley, who died in 2019, was charged with manslaughter and three counts of endangerment, but fled the state while awaiting trial.

Investigators said it's still unclear when Dooley arrived in Yellowknife.

A friend of Dooley's previously told My True North Now in an obituary article that she had arrived in Yellowknife sometime in the "early 1990s."

In 2001, the case was tried in absentia, meaning without Dooley, and she was found guilty on all counts.

In 2014, the case was reassigned to a criminal investigations unit detective.

Sgt. Allison Sempsis, the public information sergeant for the Scottsdale police department, told CBC the search never ended.

"We would get random tips here and there throughout the years," she said, "But they never amounted to anything."

After the case was reassigned to yet another Scottsdale police detective in 2020, investigators spoke to Dooley's brother, who said he received an "anonymous phone call" that she had passed away from cancer in Yellowknife in 2019.

Through various open-source search engines, investigators say they located an article about a tribute celebration for a woman named Kate Dooley, who passed away from cancer on December 1, 2019.

The article also contained a photo of Dooley, which resembled the age-progressed photo of Schulze.

The Dooley in question had been arrested in Yellowknife in 2009 for a DUI, and RCMP still had her fingerprints on file.

After analysis by Scottsdale's crime lab, the FBI and Interpol, they were found to be a match.

Police say senior analysts are currently speaking to friends of Dooley to further piece together the story.

Sempsis said detectives have spoken to two of Dooley's friends in Yellowknife, who had no idea of her true identity.

Dooley known as private person

Sempsis said after her death, friends found books in her possession on how someone could change their identity. Sempsis said friends found other "odd things" with her possessions but gave no further details.

Dooley was known as a private person who was known to work at mining camps and as a house painter.

"She kept her personal life very private", her friend Kim Smale said.

Smale said she didn't know anything about her having lived in the U.S. or her involvement in a fatal drunk driving crash.

"This kind of came as a shock to all of us who knew her," she told CBC. "She kept her personal life very private."

Dooley was known in Yellowknife as a "pyrotechnics master" for her long-time involvement in local fireworks shows.

The Schulze case has gained a significant internet presence, and has been featured on various television shows like America's Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries.

Police say Dooley's family has maintained they did not know her whereabouts.

Scottsdale police continue to investigate in collaboration with Yellowknife RCMP.