Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Where Is Private Dulaney?’ On Hulu, A Docuseries About A Missing Marine And His Family’s Frustrating Quest To Find The Truth

Sometimes true crime docuseries aren’t as much about the victim as the relatives who are trying to get to the truth, despite being stonewalled by law enforcement, or in the case of Where Is Private Dulaney?, none other than the U.S. Marine Corps. In this new ABC News docuseries, we meet Carol Dulaney, the mother of missing Marine Leroy Dulaney and someone who we’d want in a foxhole with us.

WHERE IS PRIVATE DULANEY?: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The sun coming up over a small town neighborhood. We hear Carol Dulaney’s voice as she reads a letter to the president (Carter or Reagan, we’re not sure) about her son Leroy.

The Gist: Where Is Private Dulaney? is a three-part docuseries about the 1979 disappearance of Marine private Leroy Dulaney from Camp Lejune in North Carolina, and his mother Carol’s determination to find out the truth. Through interviews with Carol Dulaney, his brothers Greg and Michael, his widow Brenda and others, we get a picture of life in Weirton, WV, where Dulaney grew up, his path to the Marines, and how Carol got stonewalled by them after he disappeared.

The first episode introduces us to Carol, who married young to basically stay settled in one place and not move with her parents again; she had her three boys as her doctor advised her to get a hysterotomy. She divorced their dad and worked many jobs to support her kids. In other words, she’s a tough cookie. Leroy is her oldest son; he met and fell in love with Brenda when they were both in high school. He joined the Marines because the factories in town didn’t have the opportunities they once had.

We also hear from Marines from the time period when Leroy was there, 1977-79. Recruitment had flagged post-Vietnam War, and the Marines added more marginal recruits to their ranks. After going through basic training and marrying Brenda during his furlough, he was stationed at Camp Lejune. He went missing on May 23, 1979; the more Carol and Michael pressed to find out what happened, the more they’re told that Leroy has gone AWOL. Even when they tracked down the last person he was with, and the man more or less admitted that he killed Leroy, the base commanders didn’t want to listen.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Where Is Private Dulaney? is a pretty straightforward ABC News docuseries, along the lines of The Murders Before The Marathon.

Our Take: Where Is Private Dulaney? starts off slowly, giving us a lot of biographical information about Carol Dulaney, then information about her son Leroy. Yes, it builds a picture of how tough Carol is and how much she loved her boys, as well as the lack of options available to someone graduating high school in a Rust Belt town in the late ’70s. But when your docuseries is only three parts, having so much biographical fill-in just tells us that there isn’t enough information to fill the time.

Another thing we noticed was an overreliance by the filmmakers on very early ’70s-era archival footage of Marine recruitment and scenes of basic training. There’s a segment where the whole idea of Marine basic training, where the individual is broken down to the point where he or she can be built back up into being a proud Marine, that felt like it didn’t need to be there, either, given how most of the people watching the docuseries likely got a taste of what it’s like via films like Full Metal Jacket.

Still, the story of Leroy Dulaney’s disappearance is more about the strength of his mother Carol, and her determination to get to the truth. It will also be interesting to see some of the criminal goings-on, including cult activity, in Camp Lejune and in Jacksonville, NC, the town where the camp is located. It would have made for a great 90-minute documentary. As a 3-hour docuseries, though, it’s a bit mushy and sloppy.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Carol: “I called the TV station and the newspaper, and I said, ‘You want a story? Meet me at the base, because I’ve got one for you.'”

Sleeper Star: Michael and Greg Dulaney have had their problems in life, but their memories of Leroy, and the affection they have for their mom, is heartwarming.

Most Pilot-y Line: There was some sloppy use of clips, like one where Carol mentions the state police, and there’s a closeup of a state police license plate from the early ’70s. The only problem is is that the plate is from New Jersey, not North Carolina. It may be a small thing, but it speaks to filmmakers who aren’t paying attention to detail.

Our Call: STREAM IT, but only to see the force of nature that is Carol Dulaney. Where Is Private Dulaney? didn’t need to be a three-part docuseries, but we did need to be introduced to Carol Dulaney, so that makes the docuseries worth watching.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.