CANADA Canada - Michael Dunahee, 4, Victoria, BC, 24 March 1991

MDunahee.jpg
MDunahee1.jpg
MDunahee3.jpg
MDunahee2.jpg
MDunahee4.jpg

Left and Center: Dunahee, circa 1991; Right: Age-progressed image of Dunahee at age 17 (circa 2003); Last: Age-progressed image of Dunahee at age 26 (circa 2012)


Michael Wayne Dunahee
Missing since March 24, 1991 from Victoria, British Columbia Canada
Classification: Non-Family Abduction

Vital Statistics
    • Date Of Birth: May 12, 1986
    • Age at Time of Disappearance: 4 years old
    • Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 3'0; 51 pounds
    • Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Blonde straight hair; blue eyes.
    • Clothing: Multi colored rugby pants, white Ninja Turtles t-shirt, blue cloth hooded jacket
      with a red zipper and cuffs, blue canvas shoes with red and orange trim.
    • Dentals: Not available
    • DNA: Available
Circumstances of Disappearance
Dunahee was last seen at approximately 12:00 PM on March 24, 1991. He was in a school playground in Victoria, British Columbia at the time. Dunahee's mother was playing ball in an adjoining field and his father was watching from a side field at the time.
No one saw Dunahee vanish. Foul play is suspected in this case. Extensive searches revealed little in the way of evidence as to Dunahee's whereabouts.

Since Michael's disappearance, there have been alleged sightings of him in the Southern New Jersey / Pennsylvania / Delaware tristate area.

Michael was reportedly seen in the company of a black male, described as 5-foot-10, about 160-180 pounds, with a pockmarked face.

The last possible sighting of Michael Dunahee occurred on Wednesday, June 19, when a black male fitting the above description allegedly attempted to abduct a 7-year-old girl in Berlin Borough, New Jersey.
She and a companion both described a little boy in the back seat of the man's car as resembling Michael Dunahee. However, authorities have not positively confirmed any of the sightings, either of Dunahee or his possible abductor.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning Dunahee's case, please contact:
Victoria Police Department
Detective Don Bland
250-995-7654


The Royal Canadian Mounted Police

You may remain anonymous when submitting information to any agency.

Agency Case Number: 91-10349
NCMEC #: RCMP9107542
NCIC Number: M-486890823
Please refer to these numbers when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
America's Most Wanted
Crimestoppers
CA DOJ
Michaels Website
The Doe Network: Case File 148DMBC
 
MDunahee.jpg
MDunahee1.jpg
MDunahee3.jpg
MDunahee2.jpg
MDunahee4.jpg

Left and Center: Dunahee, circa 1991; Right: Age-progressed image of Dunahee at age 17 (circa 2003); Last: Age-progressed image of Dunahee at age 26 (circa 2012)


Michael Wayne Dunahee
Missing since March 24, 1991 from Victoria, British Columbia Canada
Classification: Non-Family Abduction

Vital Statistics
    • Date Of Birth: May 12, 1986
    • Age at Time of Disappearance: 4 years old
    • Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 3'0; 51 pounds
    • Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Blonde straight hair; blue eyes.
    • Clothing: Multi colored rugby pants, white Ninja Turtles t-shirt, blue cloth hooded jacket
      with a red zipper and cuffs, blue canvas shoes with red and orange trim.
    • Dentals: Not available
    • DNA: Available
Circumstances of Disappearance
Dunahee was last seen at approximately 12:00 PM on March 24, 1991. He was in a school playground in Victoria, British Columbia at the time. Dunahee's mother was playing ball in an adjoining field and his father was watching from a side field at the time.
No one saw Dunahee vanish. Foul play is suspected in this case. Extensive searches revealed little in the way of evidence as to Dunahee's whereabouts.

Since Michael's disappearance, there have been alleged sightings of him in the Southern New Jersey / Pennsylvania / Delaware tristate area.

Michael was reportedly seen in the company of a black male, described as 5-foot-10, about 160-180 pounds, with a pockmarked face.

The last possible sighting of Michael Dunahee occurred on Wednesday, June 19, when a black male fitting the above description allegedly attempted to abduct a 7-year-old girl in Berlin Borough, New Jersey.
She and a companion both described a little boy in the back seat of the man's car as resembling Michael Dunahee. However, authorities have not positively confirmed any of the sightings, either of Dunahee or his possible abductor.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning Dunahee's case, please contact:
Victoria Police Department
Detective Don Bland
250-995-7654


The Royal Canadian Mounted Police

You may remain anonymous when submitting information to any agency.

Agency Case Number: 91-10349
NCMEC #: RCMP9107542
NCIC Number: M-486890823
Please refer to these numbers when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
America's Most Wanted
Crimestoppers
CA DOJ
Michaels Website
The Doe Network: Case File 148DMBC

this is the first i have ever heard of a sighting in new jersey and mention of a black man. is this correct?
 
this is the first i have ever heard of a sighting in new jersey and mention of a black man. is this correct?

Those were within the 1st couple of months of him going missing - there were many "sightings"... I think the New Jersey one came after Michael was featured on America's Most Wanted.

"Michael was reported spotted at a highway rest stop in New York; at a convenience store in New Jersey; in a home video filmed on northern Vancouver Island. Every lead was checked out. Someone called in to say Michael, the cherubic, blue-eyed boy from the Missing posters, had his skin dyed black and was living in the United States. That, too, was checked out."

Little Michael Dunahee, gone without a trace
 
Those were within the 1st couple of months of him going missing - there were many "sightings"... I think the New Jersey one came after Michael was featured on America's Most Wanted.

"Michael was reported spotted at a highway rest stop in New York; at a convenience store in New Jersey; in a home video filmed on northern Vancouver Island. Every lead was checked out. Someone called in to say Michael, the cherubic, blue-eyed boy from the Missing posters, had his skin dyed black and was living in the United States. That, too, was checked out."

Little Michael Dunahee, gone without a trace
ahhh this makes much more sense. thank you for clarifying :)
 
As far as I'm aware from what I've been able to find online, the best suspect in the case is late Wisconsin native, Vernon Seitz, who died in 2009 at the age of 62. After he died, it was found that he was a pedophile, had sexually explicit photos and drawings of boys being tortured and murdered and that he had confessed to his psychiatrist that he had murdered a least 2 children and a poster of Michael Dunahee was found in his home. There isn't much else that I've been able to find online, but I'm sure things can be checked... like if he traveled to Victoria, BC in 1991; whether he owned a brown coloured cargo van in 1991.





I just wanted to post this because its one of those cases that got under my skin again.

Michael has been missing since 1991- thats 14 years without his family. I just feel that there is a slight glimmer of hope in this case- as Michael was seen some 3 months after his dissapearance in the US, alive with a man who was trying to abduct a little girl. Maybe Michael is somewhere now and doesnt know he was ever missing. Please look at his photo carefully..........


Missing Since: March 24, 1991 from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Classification: Non-Family Abduction
Date Of Birth: April 12, 1986
Age: 4 years old
Height and Weight: 3'0, 45-51 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Sandy blond hair, blue eyes. Thick hair. He may have freckles; he was starting to show them when he disappeared. His body is hourglass-shaped and he is very articulate for his age. Some agencies may spell Dunahee's first name "Mich

From Meggily Weggilys site
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/d/dunahee_michael.html

Age progression- please look carefully

Does anyone have any theories about this case? Its very unusual indeed- not nearly because people invariably commit these kind of crimes against someone of the same race. But also because if Michael was sighted in Berlin Borough, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware - someone took him across the border to the US and tried to abduct another child- but why??
 
As far as I'm aware from what I've been able to find online, the best suspect in the case is late Wisconsin native, Vernon Seitz, who died in 2009 at the age of 62. After he died, it was found that he was a pedophile, had sexually explicit photos and drawings of boys being tortured and murdered and that he had confessed to his psychiatrist that he had murdered a least 2 children and a poster of Michael Dunahee was found in his home. There isn't much else that I've been able to find online, but I'm sure things can be checked... like if he traveled to Victoria, BC in 1991; whether he owned a brown coloured cargo van in 1991.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...to-family-of-missing-michael-dunahee-1.786019
January 8, 2009
''A "missing person" poster of Michael was found in the Wisconsin home of the late Vernon Seitz, 62, when local police searched it last month, Milwaukee police have said.''

"The search warrant yielded drawings by the deceased of children in sado-masochistic situations but absolutely no evidence that he was involved in any crimes," she said.

The search was undertaken after Seitz, in his dying days, asked his psychiatrist to tell police that he had killed a boy in 1959 and knew of another child killing.

Among the hundreds of items seized in Seitz's basement were scores of drawings of nude boys in bondage, a video tape reportedly showing the kidnapping of a four-year-boy and books on cannibalism, according to documents obtained by CBC News on Tuesday.''
 
Seitz sounds like a degenerate weirdo but there isn't really anything to tie him to the case.

Scary truth is that there's opportunistic predators everywhere, just waiting for the right moment to strike and satisfy their perversions.
 
I heard about this website from a podcast covering a completely separate case, and I knew I should come on here and read about cases I'd never heard of and look at cases I had heard of and see what other people's thoughts were on them.

This is the FIRST case I really delved into, as it is a local case and is still unsolved, for obvious reasons.

I currently reside in Victoria and have done so my whole life; I was only 3 years old at the time that Michael was abducted. I saw some posts talking about how irresponsible it was to leave their child alone at the park near the game. It was the 90's and Victoria was (and still kinda is) a picture-esque little town where nothing really bad happened. You knew a lot of people who all seemed to know each other (this still happens as I always come across someone I know who knows like 5 other people I know), even if only by sight. So it wouldn't have crossed their minds if even though they told Michael to not go far he still should have been ok going to the car to get something before going to the playground area or rejoining his father to watch the game.

This all really changed after he went missing. Parents didn't let their kids go as far without adult or at the very least teenaged supervision. Parents were on edge, and my mom, being a single parent and me the ONLY child became more overprotective. With good reason, if a child can be abducted on the same field/park as their parents it wasn't out of the question that it could happen anywhere.

I'm not going to rehash all the details here, as you all have done an awesome job covering them and sifting through what little we have to go on, but I think he was possibly taken up-island and once the ferries were re-opened perhaps they left the island via the Nanaimo port when they thought it was safe.

To blame the parents, I feel, is cruel. They know they messed up, they probably scolded themselves, saying over and over "if only we'd done this differently, or that. If only, if only if only". They've already been ruled out as suspects or having any sort of hand in it, and 29 years later, if they did have something to do with it, I think we would have found out by now. I'd hope. Saanich and VicPD mess up sometimes but not always. (re: Lindsay Buziak)

My mom believes that he's not alive anymore, which is valid, after so long the chances of him still alive and being held captive, or having been brainwashed into thinking he was someone else are so slim. I personally hold onto the hope that he will be found.

Hopefully my rambling made a little sense, I'm running on little sleep and no coffee heh.
 
I wonder if all of the sex offenders that were registered at the time on the island and who could've abducted Michael Dunahee were thoroughly checked re. alibis and possible involvement in this crime. I know they most surely were, but I just hope there was enough investigation to completely and as much as possible eliminate each and every one.
 
Bumping for Michael. Coming up on the 30th Anniversary this year! Hopefully the Dunahee family will finally get answers!

Omg, I can't even believe it has been that long! As a longtime BC resident, I will never forget this missing person! I mean, the perp could've easily died by now and we will never know what happened so much time has passed. Or perhaps a relative or family member knows or the perp himself will make a deathbed confession. IF any of these can do so, please please give Michael's family an answer!!!!! Even if it is anonymous, let them know where he is. It would be the very least you could do.
 
I placed on a tip on Dunahee a few years ago. Found a John Doe in a database. It was nowhere near Dunahee's last-seen location but there was a partial clothing match with the same-colored shoes and a teenaged-mutant ninja turtles shirt. The height was six inches off too but I just couldn't ignore the clothing. They took it seriously but it wasn't a match, unfortunately.
 
I placed on a tip on Dunahee a few years ago. Found a John Doe in a database. It was nowhere near Dunahee's last-seen location but there was a partial clothing match with the same-colored shoes and a teenaged-mutant ninja turtles shirt. The height was six inches off too but I just couldn't ignore the clothing. They took it seriously but it wasn't a match, unfortunately.
I'm glad you sent it in! Are they sure, just asking.
 

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