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Dorothea B. Cunningham (1927-1994) was born and raised in St. Albans, Queens, New York. She attended parochial schools and graduated a year late in 1946, due to a year lost from a childhood bout of scarlet fever. She pursued a business course in school and did clerical work at two companies before being hired to work at Catholic Charities. Until her marriage she lived at home with her parents and brothers. After her father's death in 1948, they moved into a small apartment in Glen Oaks.

Also in the late 1940s Cunningham met Ivan Wolf. They dated for several years before marrying on January 2, 1953. Sometime after 1950, Ivan had returned to Venezuela to perform his compulsory military service as a lieutenant in the Venezuelan Navy. This period was a time of political intrigue in the country involving coups, assassinations and fixed elections, and this environment took its toll on Wolf's mental health.

Cunningham moved to Venezuela in October 1953 to join her husband, who had by now secured a position with Creole Petroleum Corporation in Venezuela's booming oil industry. They settled in the Amuay oil camp on the Paraguana Peninsula in northwest Venezuela. By Febuary 1954, Cunningham became ill with gall bladder disease, which resulted in emergency surgery at Creole's company medical facility, Caraboto Hospital in Maracaibo. Unfortunately, Ivan Wolf soon began to manifest mental illness. He lost his job at Creole and moved his bride to live with his family on Avenue Panama in the Las Acacias neighborhood of Caracas. Painfully shy and not speaking much Spanish and no German, Cunningham was uncomfortable in this situation. Wolf's relationships with his family were strained and his health deteriorated further. After a violent outburst, Cunnningham decided to return to New York. She never saw Ivan again.

Cunningham moved back in with her family and began work as a secretary at Marine Midland Bank. She corresponded with Ivan on and off from 1954-1960, but their relationship had reached an impasse. Although Ivan refused to cooperate in divorce proceedings, Cunningham obtained a Mexican divorce and annulment in order to marry D. Anthony DeMaio in November 1960. She moved to his home in Garden City, New York, where they raised two daughters. She died in 1994.