D'Wan Sims ////// 160 | Forensic Files

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brand [Music] [Music] [Applause] never welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that knows that if you don't make it on the Buckeye
football squad well you can just go up North and play for Michigan he is the captain welcome to rivalry week welcome
to Turkey week yet turkeys it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a
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friends and harvest ale was brought to us by these magical friends first up we have Mindy in St Charles Missouri and a
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have the gentleman hobo from bismar North Dakota on this gentleman's Tuesday and last but not least we have a beer
fund donation from someone going by PMT who wants to recognize the end of watch for a good man a brave officer this is
Deputy Burbridge of the patami County Sheriff's Department in Iowa unfortunately heam yeah I hope I said
that right but unfortunately he was killed in the line of duty earlier this year so of course on this week of giving
thanks we want to thank Deputy Burbridge for his bravery and hard work for keeping families of that Community safe
for many many years and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family all right Captain everybody gather around grab a
chair grab a beer grab a turkey leg let's talk some true [Music] crime Sunday December 11th 1994 Leonia
Michigan a police officer is responding to the Wonderland mall on Plymouth Road on a report of a missing 4-year-old boy
upon arrival at the mall the officer met 25-year-old danana Harris danana is the
mother of danan Sims the missing 4-year-old boy the officer immediately obtained the
description of the missing child from from the mother dwan Sims is a 4-year-old African-American little boy
with black hair and brown eyes he is approximately 3T to 3 1/2t tall and weighing 45 to 60 lb he was last seen
wearing a blue winter jacket over a multicolor windbreaker jacket dark blue sweatpants and black Fela low top tennis
shoes after receiving the description the officer contacted Leonia Police dispatch and reported Juan Sims is
missing a teletype to all area law enforcement agencies was sent the officer asked the mother to
explain exactly what happened when she entered the mall in detail danana says her and the little
boy left the Residence at approximately 1:30 p.m. she estimated that they probably arrived at the mall between
1:40 and 2: p.m. Dean Harris stated that she parked her Ford Thunderbird in the north
parking lot across from the Target and walked with her son into the mall entering at the doors between Target and
Famous Footwear danana and danan then went to the videotape department where she told
her son she did not have enough money to purchase a videotape for him she told the boy they would go ask
dwan's grandmother for some money dwan's grandmother is also danana Harris's mother Beverly
Harris bever is working part-time on the weekends at the lady's Foot Locker store
on the other side of the mall danana told the officer that her and danan walked through the Target
store just looking around for maybe 20 minutes stating that her and the little boy left the Target store together at
approximately 2:30 p.m. walking through the East Mall entry doors Yana said she walked next to her
boy until they came to the area of the the KB Toys where she says danan was talking to her as he walked behind
her she asked him a question to which he did not give an answer danana Harris turned around and just like that her
little boy danan was gone okay she thought he must have went to the toy store danana ran to the KB
Toy Store and looked for the little boy she ran up and down each aisle she did not find her
[Music] son she then checked the surrounding stores including the food court area of
the mall but she was still unable to locate dwan she told the officer I searched for
him for about 30 minutes then she located a cleaning lady working at the mall she tells her about
her son who is missing the cleaning woman calls the Wonderland mall security informs them of the
situation danana Harris along with several security officers searched the entire
mall for approximately 90 minutes during the search danana notified her mother Beverly that danan was
missing Beverly assisted in the search when the boy could still not be located Beverly called the Leonia Police
Department after speaking with dwan's mother and grandmother the responding officer met with security officer Randy
Fifer Fifer told the officer he was notified about the missing boy by one of the mall's maintenance workers at
approximately 3:45 p.m. at that time F and four members of the mall security team searched each
store and the parking lot along the way they informed all or most employees of the stores of the missing subject and
instructed them to contact the security office if he was found after after meeting with security
officer Fifer the responding officer from LPD instructed Fifer to continue the search until further notice and he
requested more LPD to the scene an additional five officers and a sergeant on duty were dispatched and
sent to the mall once the officers arrived at the mall now seven of them they met at the
East end of the mall near the American Eagle store they were given a description of
the little boy along with a specific area for each to search they searched each store all of the hallways the food
court the movie theater each bathroom and the entire parking lot surrounding the
mall they searched behind stores and Alleyways first an organized grid search and then when they found nothing the
officers along with the security team remained on site and continued to search triple checking each area and
location two of the officers asked danana to go with them to the Target store there they learned the Target
store had stationary security cameras set up at each of the entry and exit doors to the
store the officers confirmed with the Target store security officer that the cameras were operating and recording
during the time that danana haris said she and dwan had entered the store the officers requested that they
be allowed to view this tape in hopes that danan would be seen on tape leaving the store giving the officers a better
idea of the time and potentially a suspect in the case danana Harris sat directly in front
of the television screen and viewed the video while a police officer and security guard were
present at approximately 1:44 p.m. video footage time danana stated there I am and pointed to the video screen
officers observed an African-American female holding the hand of a small child and exiting the
store danana positively stated that was her and Dewan the officers observed the two
subjects walking out of the East door of the Target and then standing directly at
the threshold of the store it appeared the female was talking to the child at this point danana said
see I'm telling him that we cannot buy a video tape because the checkout lines are too
long as the tape ran the woman walked further out into the mall still inside of the video camera danana said see yep
I remember walking out that way officers then observed the female with the child
in the video walks South toward the main isway danana stated yep there we go the officers continued viewing the
tape but did not not observe a single child or a child with an adult walk in the opposite direction or past the
camera police requested security to blow the image up to full view in doing so the police observed the
woman that danana claimed to be with the child in the video she was wearing a brown hooded jacket and a baseball cap
with a white emblem on the front the officers observed danana at the present time watching the video to
be wearing a black coat without a hood and no baseball cap the officer then requested that the
sergeant come and view the video with danana present again danana narrated her actions as she watched the subjects on
the screen go out the target doors with the image blown up to full view the officer pointed out to both the sergeant
and danana the differences in the clothing between the individual on the screen and danana Harris
when the officers confronted danana with this she sat silent for several minutes
and then reconfirmed what she had previously told the officers that's me and then added that's not a hood that's
my collar when the officers again pointed out the differences in clothing both color hood and ball cap once again
danana sat silent for several minutes and then she said oh well I guess that's not me the officers then sat with danana
and viewed the surveillance footage from an hour before she said she had arrived
at the store all the way through to an hour after she said the boy went missing at no time did the officers
observe danana and dwan enter the store at no time did the officers observe dwan
on any of the video footage the officer confiscated the surveillance footage AG from the Target
store and asked danana if she would go to the police department to give a statement to the
detective she agreed to go 4-year-old Dewan Sims was not seen on any video footage from that Sunday December 11th
1994 he was never located that night and after giving her statement to the detective danana Harris went home
that [Music] night this is the case of Dean [Music] Sims this is a strange case Captain
because we have a small boy who goes missing from the Wonderland mall in Leonia Michigan back in 1994 now this is
early December December 11th so we we have to put our El in the mindset of this mall at the time we are in full
swing of the holiday shopping season and this case came recommended To Us by several of our listeners up in the great
state of Michigan now we were able to track down Randy Fifer who was one of the security guards working at the
Wonderland mall in Leonia Michigan that day that Dewan went missing just to give
you a little bit of an idea here Leonia Michigan it's about a 25 to 30 minute drive west of Detroit to give you a
little idea of the location here yeah and with it being turkey week there's going to be a lot of people shopping on
Black Friday and the malls will be packed and this is a big fear for a lot of parents you go shopping and you turn
around and your kid is gone so let's introduce Randy who is working as a security guard at the Wonderland mall on
December 11th 1994 Randy can you tell us a bit about yourself and what occurred that day sure uh so my name is Randy
feifer um I grew up in uh a small town outside of Detroit and uh on December 11th 1994 I was working as a security
card um a security guard in Leonia Michigan in a mall it was called Wonderland mall and uh in the nice
suburban area of leavon Michigan I was going to school and then this was uh kind of during the summer I had taken
this job and then continued on um into the fall and into the winter so so obviously during the holiday season it's
going to be a little different can you take us through a typical day um so average day for us would be especially
during that time you know the malls crowded uh malls were still big back then there was no Amazon or anything of
that sort so uh typical day was uh just going in patrolling the areas of the mall Mak sure people are safe people are
doing the things that they're supposed to be doing uh helping Shoppers find things deterring crime if you want to
call it uh uh helping out with a typically like retail fraud type things as somebody tries stealing something and
that that business is always up around that time of the year you know and then dealing with lost children or Lost Child
calls uh which we typically would get probably about uh probably 10 a day maybe around that time um and they would
just be really quick uh hey um can you meet so and so by the food court or by the arcade or something they can't find
their kid meet up with those people or meet them at the information booth we I think the longest anyone we had ever at
up into that point found missing it was like 5 10 minutes tops they were always like I said in the arcade or in the toy
store or by the movie theater or something of that sort okay and then what happened on December 11th 1994 so
on this day in particular there was nothing nothing out of the normal had happened it was just a typical Sunday uh
Mall opened a little bit later on Sunday so everything was getting going so it's
about 2 3:00 in the afternoon and I got a phone call from one of our um help people uh maintenance people called to
say that there was a lady who had lost her child down by the Target area which is where one of the anchor stores were
so typically we went down there I talked to her for the very first time she was physically upset you know crying
everything asked her for the normal description of her son how old he was what he was wearing you know was the
last place he saw or she saw him and uh kind of just let us down we you know went hit the typical places the the toy
store he was three years old so I don't know how far he would have gotten at three years old I didn't have kid I was
18 years old at the time so I didn't know I it wasn't around many three-year-olds so now that I think
about I was like where would a three-year-old go and in a mall without somebody saying something so we checked
the arcade checked the toy store food court didn't see them so we continued to walk down the mall a little bit further
and you know at that time got the information out to all the other security guards out there even in the
out uh the trucks that were out patrolling the mall and the out parking lots and internally and over the
loudspeaker time some time went by probably about 45 minutes went by before we actually called the police um I don't
know if that's just you know I guess we just weren't in that frame of mind and we've never had anything anything like
this happened there was no kind of uh timetable to to call anyone or there was no protocol behind it so we just did our
best there so we called the police police showed up uh they met with her you know we did continue to walk around
the mall went to the offices to make phone calls if anybody had you know I believe if if anyone that she knew had
him or you know had come up to the mall or anything of that sort but kind of a typical situation for this time period I
mean you have an average of about 10 kids that go missing per day day in this case you have all hands on deck and you
come up empty-handed we came up empty-handed so a little bit later in time we you know a couple hours go by
and we're in uh the target anchor store and the police are with her and I'm in the the uh loss prevention area with her
where all the target's cameras are and and at that time our Mall only had stationary cameras they were black and
white and we only had a couple of them at the entrances but we were lucky that at the entrance that I met her at there
was one so that that that came up a little bit later in the the investigation that kind of set the
framework for the time uh but anyway we were in Target and we were going through
the cameras with the leavon police and we were asking her to kind of point out where she was where she come in at
the time she came in um we didn't have her and him on camera at any point in time coming into into the Target store
or into the mall they began to ask her questions such as can you try and point out uh it does anyone look like your son
that was leaving any of the entrances there she was pointing out a couple people one of them she pointed out uh
was uh uh definitely uh not somebody that would meet the description of her son and I think at that point the the
leavon police started getting a little suspicious they started asking asking a little bit different questions and she
was getting upset um about that so she started to clam up didn't really say anything and then right around that time
the father of the boy came in and met us there and they weren't together apparently so he came in and we were
talking and and he was you know where is he at where's our son this and that and
he was getting pretty upset about it too as well from that point on we left the Target store and continued just to till
a walk around the mall trying to figure out what was going on you know and we pretty much had every cop in Leonia at
the mall at that point that that lasted till around I want to say like almost 7:00 at night the mall had already
closed and we were still looking so you guys spent the majority of that day searching the mall the mall closes at
6:00 p.m. on that Sunday several of the other stores including the Target store they remained open for a few hours after
that did you only search that day for dwan Sims up until then like days after we tore that mall apart even that night
we it was a mall that was a little bit older and it used to be an exterior mall where there was no covering and they
just put a roof on it so it had all these exterior doors so part of the thing was to search that mall top to
bottom I mean there were stairways and basements that were drywalled over we knocked through them to see if there was
anything behind there we had to get in every single back Corridor every single uh back room and basement and and of
every store that was in there and we searched that thing top to bottom with probably about 30 people and came up
empty-handed the mall wasn't the only thing that was searched you know they expanded that search into the areas
around her home uh railroad tracks by her house if I'm not mistaken to as well and there's just never been a trace of
of the child found anywhere and uh it's just it's just sad [Music] this show is sponsored by better help do
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cheers captain we're talking with Randy Randy we're talking about dwan Sims four-year-old danan Sims has gone
missing tell me in a little more detail about when you first encountered his mother mother danana I mean was it
everything you expected to see as it the typical reaction by a parent who has lost a child and where and how did she
say that they got separated she basically said that uh they came to the mall they went in the front entrance of
an anchor store which is Target which is an exterior entrance not directly in the
mall um she they were walking around and she just looked down and he was gone um
and then at that point she was looking around for him and then came out to the exterior Mall and got a hold of one of
our maintenance people to call and asked for help to help find the boy yet her demeanor was exactly what I would expect
from somebody who was missing a child um you know she was upset and uh gave all the all the description she could of
what her son was wearing that day um how old he was what his name was and stuff and and was pretty Cooperative at that
point walking around trying to find him so her demeanor is pretty typical of a parent that has just lost their child
and does she have any bags with her I mean she claims that she was in the mall shopping for a while no as I recall it
she didn't have anything with her um she still had her jacket on and was when I met her uh it was just a typical quick
conversation what does he look like don't worry we'll find him um this isn't a big deal I remember saying you know he
this is this happens all the time this is probably like the fifth or sixth kid we've had missing we'll find him in a
couple minutes I'm pretty sure he's probably either in the toy store or in the arcade which was very close to that
entrance and and uh just was very positive about the outcome being good you know who would have thought anything
different at that time so after you guys retrace danana steps looking for the boy
in the mall and the Target store you come up empty-handed it's at this point that the police officers are going to
ask toana to view some of the security footage with them from the Target stores yeah correct so uh what had happened was
is we had gone into the room there is I believe there was two Leoni police officers with us we were going through
the tapes of the times that she said she entered the mall and even a half an hour
before there if she got her times so we went through a ton of tape and uh she could never point out herself on camera
or her son on camera she the only time she ever pointed anything out on camera was not um her child was somebody who
may have been walking with another kid I think at some point she even pointed out
a little girl that was with somebody but uh you know when the leavon police started to question her more and more
about time where she was what are the exact areas she was in in in the store and uh could get nothing or no video
confirmation to where she was at the at the time she said she was there and at that time the father showed up and he he
was very upset and he seemed upset with her too and I I'll even go as far as saying that he seemed upset with her
about where their kid is where their kid was um and then the lonia police um started asking a lot of questions like
where did you come from you like did what time did you get here what did you do this morning things of that sort
started to try and dig a little bit deeper into the situation and at that point she decided that she was uh going
to I'm not going to say she was completely combative or not Cooperative but she started getting upset at S2 and
just throwing out things like why are you not looking for my son you know and then it it just turned into her just
being quiet and then walking along with uh the rest of the police just answering
pretty much the exact same questions uh that over and over that the police had came up for U and and were asking her so
now her actions kind of seem a little suspicious but before this was she begging for you guys to like call the
police like you know help me find my kid and once she couldn't find the kid did did she go hey call the police no not at
all so it was part it got to be enough time to where we decided that we weren't going to be able to find the child and
and that was a whole um another thing that happened to us there was things that happened after this that got put in
place because we didn't call the Poli in time you know we we were all under the gun about why didn't we call Sooner why
didn't you know but hey I mean I was 18 years old and I think the oldest person that was working as secur in the mall
was probably like 23 at the time none of us had any experience with any of these
things and and there was nothing written down about calling the police but we eventually did and uh they came and it
you know escalated greatly from there so well there's no protocol for this sort of thing because like you said you guys
get reports of missing children constantly throughout the day and they're always easily located 5 10
minutes later at the arcade or the toy store in the food court now regarding that day was there any
that stands out to you as suspicious about Dan's Behavior to that point one of the one of the big things that that
came out over the years and and I had known for a long time is that um her mother worked in the mall and never
cared to share that information with anyone her mother worked at a Lady Foot Locker uh that was down in the center of
the mall completely opposite end of where we were and not once did we ever walk down there and and apparently she
knew that her mother was working that day but again we never went down there uh to well we went went down that area
but never made contact with her mother um nothing was ever said about that that I know of uh and the time that I was
with her and her mother actually was if I'm not mistaken she was at the time of Wayne County Sheriff uh sheriff's deputy
for I believe the jail down here in Wayne County okay so at this point suspicion is turning on danana Harris
she's starting to look like she may know a lot more than what she has told the police by this point but after being
questioned by them and being questioned by dwan's father did danana do anything that caused you to question things that
she had told you and your staff that day yeah other than going quiet no because uh it was just that she couldn't cor uh
couldn't corroborate any of the stories that she said with what was on film you know they just didn't line up and that's
actually like I said where the Leonia Police Department started becoming suspicious started acting some you know
follow-up questions to a lot of the stuff and I think it became less of a focus as to you know we need to find
this child in the mall as opposed to where is this kid we don't think he's here um and it wasn't until a couple I
think it was 200 uh 7 maybe it was right around that time that the lonia police off uh lonia police department actually
finally came out and made a statement this many years later that they do not believe that that that Dean Sims was
ever in that mall at the time that she says that he was there they don't believe that he was ever in the mall
with her that she didn't bring him to the mall and that he was never there how many more interactions did you or the
security staff from the mall have with the Leonia Police Department after that day yeah sure so um I spent a couple
days after in the police department working with one of the detectives a sergeant there um who actually
consequently was retiring at the end of the year going through videotape and I was telling him that uh you know around
the certain time that we were there cuz apparently there was a discrepancy of an
hour of time as to when she actually reported him and when I actually said that it had happened and it was came
down to that the times were wrong on the vide tapes so there was a whole hour of
difference there that that it took place uh but we did finally go through the tapes where I said exactly I was and
where we met her and we actually found the only piece of video that we have of her on camera is of her meeting me at
the time I said it was in the mall entrance where where you know down by the the anchor store of Target and that
was the only time she was ever been on videotape alone or I'm sorry um up until that point so just to be clear we have
no footage of danana the mother on footage no surveillance footage at all and we have no surveillance footage at
all of danana and her son dwan none that I have ever seen or have been made aware
of um there was the other kind of and it's not so much a theory but there is a separate entrance to the mall that's
right next to the anchor store that she could have very well walked through as well instead of even going through
Target which kind of makes more sense because Target's video never showed her on there but just to be clear that's not
the entrance that she said that she went into when she told your staff and when she told the Leonia Police Department
she states that she went into a different entrance and this entrance would have had security camera footage
correct and there's no footage of her going in to that entrance there's not and that Monday after she walked through
the whole mall with there was it was pretty much like a media um Extravaganza all the media uh Outlets were there
Channel 2 Channel 7 Channel 4 channel 5050 at the time they were all there in the mall we brought danana Harris back
into the mall to retrace her steps throughout the whole day as to where she was where she went and all that so they
and the lone place was the lon police was with her that whole time as well no I never worked security so I'm kind of
the odd man out you did Nick did yep um if this if something like this happens you're going to remember this you're
going to carry this with you yeah this is something that has stayed with you Randy and this is something you have
carried with you for for years many years to this day right I I I set up a website for it um I I just want people
want to know like what happened to this child and if not where he is he has to be somewhere and somebody has to know
where he is or where he was at the time somebody has to know there's somebody out there that knows this and and and
what we've asked for is just somebody please come forward it is enough time has passed please somebody say something
since you've been falling this case for so many years and you're local to the case as well what has happened since
1994 with this case yeah so I mean there's been a lot of things I you know the first five years after were just a
spattering of this and that they had um news I believe one of the news companies
hired a psychic to come in that after the house that she had lived in they brought a psychic in to try and figure
out what had happened that ended up being nothing uh there was a period of time where they found bones in a park
not too far from the house that they had tested they ended up being animal bones
there's been numerous things over the year have happened every time there's a a child abduction or or something of
that sort along um that happens it always kind of gets brought up everyone remembers this in uh remembers this
incident here in Leonia um you know you bring it up and anybody who was around that time will know it some of the
things that seem really significant now is the fact that I'm a parent now like I
have two girls and if my kid ever went missing that would be my life's work for the rest of my life until I figured out
what happened um you know I think just locally now we or I'm sorry not locally but just in the news we hear about is it
Natalie Holloway's husband or father is now possibly found bones remains of her of of his daughter you know that guy
never stopped like nothing would stop me as a parent to find out where my child was if he was missing even even 20 years
going by I'd still want to know um and she has and and I'll be as bold as saying she's pretty much
wiped him from the face of the Earth um you know she's reached out to a group that I ran on Facebook uh about leaving
her alone leave her family alone that were causing her undue stress that you know she doesn't want to deal with this
and you know her her boy's gone things of that sort I mean she almost pretty soon after this happened she moved away
from the area I find that odd because you know who would move away from the area that your your child's missing from
um you know she basically started new like I believe she has kids now and got remarried I understand the fact that you
move on with your life but to to wipe any kind of EX any kind of information about a son that you had years ago G you
know just completely missing from your life that your your daughters don't know about it that you have now it's just
it's just very odd uh she commented to a newspaper um not too long ago many year
about five six years ago about she about her having a picture of her son in her car are and that she looks at it every
single day before she goes to work um you know I I don't know how true that is but I know that she has nothing on her
Facebook when we've you know had interactions or there's nothing at all in any of her social media that even
mentions her son at all so I find that very odd what information Randy do you have regarding the investigation itself
and any type of uh communication that danana would have had with the Leonia Police Department to that point I think
it was the day after or two days after she took a polygraph test and failed it uh she failed the first polygraph test
went back in and took a second and she actually physically ripped the paper out of the polygraph machine because she did
she failed it a second time and then uh left yeah there is so many things out there that uh that just point I'm sorry
point to her point to her 100% there's nobody else that has any information about where this boy is um the things
leading up to that that's that's the whole point that's the mystery of of everything is where was she the night
before and up until the point where she said she got to the mall where was her son uh there's a little bit of
information out there uh some of the reports that I've been able to get a hold of I know from the Detroit Police
Department a lot of the stuff was blacked out but uh I did get a chance to talk to some of the detectives not too
many years ago about the case who are on that and there's they've they've even speculated as far as that the the child
actually didn't belong to or was not the the man who met us uh that day that it was not his child that it happened to be
uh the child of some guy that she was hanging out with who she just so happened to be with that evening there's
several stories that went around as that uh uh from the neighborhoods about um the guy that she was with didn't want
any kids so she got rid of them I mean obviously all speculation and just just rumors from around that part of town but
uh yeah nothing nothing else there's nobody there's been no Ransom note there's been no phone calls nothing it's
just been complete radio silence since the day it's happened locally what are the rumors and uh what's some suspicions
that you have had you know the rumors that uh she sold her child or gave her child to somebody you know that one was
around a long time uh but you know for the longest time I believe that he was alive and now I mean there's so much
time that's pass now he I I don't believe he's alive I believe that this child's dead I don't I don't see how any
other could be the truth at the moment any strange leads that you have come across through the website what's really
strange is we did have um last year or two years ago we had somebody reach out to us and think that uh um they were
danan and that they didn't know who their parents were and they felt like their parents were lying to them they
felt like they were the son they were Dewan Sims and they felt like they uh looked very similar to him and and they
don't have they don't have a lot of recollection of their past which we took that pretty seriously I I I took all the
information we have and I forward it over to the leavon police department what happened with it at that point um I
don't know but uh that's the only time anyone's actually come forward and said hey I believe I'm this child but um see
as though we that was a while ago I don't nothing ever came of it so I doubt it was anything of substance Randy was
there ever any other child abductions in that area during that time period so when it comes to other abductions in the
area at the time or even in the past zero none there was there was absolutely nothing on on the radar if anyone ever
being abducted in that City uh on that scale let alone a child um and anything up until this point I mean uh never
there's never been anything that I know of of of a child abduction in that City but you do believe that her house was
searched uh yes yeah the the she was definitely her house was searched uh I know that there were people who lived
right by her who who had recounted that you know the days that the the police were there going through the house and
even after she moved out they went went back through the house um I don't know what time period that was but I know
that they did go through her house after she had moved out of it there was a public Rally or some type of Candlelight
vigil where we have danana Harris going on record and complaining that because of the Susan Smith case now this took
place just months before Dean went missing she's claiming because Susan Smith was in the
news that her son is not they're not searching for Dean the way that they should be correct so yeah I definitely
I'm glad you brought that up because yeah the Susan Smith case was taken up was brought up uh right around that time
was when if I'm not mistaken that was the case where um Susan Smith had said that her child was abducted by an
African-American gentleman and uh it really wasn't the case she actually I believe drowned them or something of
that sort but um yeah she I believe she went on record saying that if this was the only reason that um nobody's looking
for her son or this doesn't have um you know larger larger outpouring of support
was that it was a young black child and nobody was looking for him in a White City it was something along that lines
I'm definitely paraphrasing though you have firsthand knowledge that law enforcement and the community was not
taking this case lightly yeah not at all and I'm glad you hit on that too as well
cuz I mean they were out enforced leavon Police Department immediately you know uh was working with the Detroit Police
Department if I'm not mistaken that the Detroit poli police Department also that
also then brought in the FBI so you had like three different um forms of law enforcement or districts or whatever it
would be working on this case um I know that areas of Detroit I even went on a couple and we were walking down I didn't
even have to do this but volunteer just go walk the railroad tracks looking around her area of her house looking for
her son um you know at that point obviously the police were thinking that maybe somebody dumped him or she had
possibly maybe done something with him but uh you know weeks had passed people were still out looking for him um one of
the I remember one night I was working in the mall and some lady I believe it was probably maybe like a week or two
after this had taken place uh somebody had heard some gossip or thought they heard something on the news that he was
found in a dumpster in the back of the mall and a bunch of people started running towards the back of the mall and
come to find out there was nobody out there uh it was just a movie theater garbage or um um trash compactor that
was back there and there was nobody out there they didn't find anything but somebody started almost like a little
bit of Hysteria in the mall and like probably 10 to 20 people were running through the mall trying to trying to go
see if they they had found him in the back of a dumpster Randy what if anything could have law enforcement done
differently in this case you know I'm a firm believer if they had that uh some of the technology that we have today I I
I the the only thing I can say and and this is not against any of the police department is that I don't think that
they were equipped for something like this happen happening no one would have expected something like this to happen
in a city like that and I think that's maybe where any if any misstep was was taken it was just that fact like nobody
would have thought that would have happened there well Randy thanks for taking the time out to talk with us
today and thanks for your continued work on this case yes thank you Randy for all
of your insights regarding The Disappearance of Dewan Sims you have a wonderful and happy turkey day my friend
you too thank you [Music] this is one of those cases captain that once you when you really start diving
into the details you really hope to find wait hold on once you can get to the details
this was one of the hardest cases I mean any of the research I did online it was
like uh kind of fictitious stories fake news everywhere well you really hope that you can find somewhere in there
that the mother is right that what she's complaining about to the security and the police department what she's
reporting to them that holds some truth the fact of the matter is there's nothing there there's no evidence that
she was telling the truth at all that day we have we have eyewitness testimony that states that that she didn't arrive
at the mall when she said she arrived right and that she was seen in the parking lot pulling in and getting out
of her vehicle without anybody with her without a boy a girl anybody with her at
all yeah and I believe there there was more than two eyewitnesses but there's at least two credible eyewitnesses that
saw her get out of her car with nobody with her and we also have a situation where we have her changing her story
throughout the time that she's with the police officers we have the police report that was taken that evening now
we might have some people that have reviewed that police report and they'll say well uh Randy says that the security
department was the one that notified the police the police report I believe states that dewan's mother I'm sorry
deana's mother Beverly Harris called the police right it's very likely that both
of them did the fact of the matter is that no report states that danana Harris was the one that called police or states
that that the police should be called yeah and I don't know if that matters but I think what matters here is the
times that she is possibly lying you know or like people will say well maybe she didn't go into that entrance so she
wouldn't have been seen on tape well she says that she you know lost contact with her son somewhere in the
mall again this there's no footage of this there's no footage of her in that mall with her son there is no eyewitness
that can place her and her son in that mall there's no footage of her entering the the mall or the Target store in the
entrance that she said on more than one occasion that she used and what I mean by more than one occasion is she's gone
she's had to go through her story time and time again and and she will stick to one story until there's no video footage
to corroborate that then once once that's pointed out to her her story changes just a little bit mind you she
failed to lie detector test within days of her son having gone missing yeah again so if you want to make an excuse
you can say well maybe you chock that up to nerves but when you're pointing out people on surveillance cameras and
claiming that's you and your son and they know that's not you and then later on you know the cops have to point her
out to her walking by herself um the times never line up um it's it's very fishy it's it's you know to me all the
evidence points to that something happened and this was her idea to cover it up you're exactly right this this
looks to me like a pivot Captain like something happened I don't know if it was something on purpose or some type of
accident but something happened and then she had to Pivot and she came up and presented this whole story of you know
I'm going to take myself to the mall and I'm going to make it I'm going to report
that he went missing he was walking with me through the stores through the mall and that's what happened to my son and
to my little boy yeah she wasn't truthful that day she wasn't truthful afterwards and when her story started to
fall apart what she ultimately did was she turned this around on the police and the community and both the police and
the community had her back from the beginning they wanted to believe her story well they wanteded to look for an
an abductor yeah but we don't know what the interactions are or were from the get-go with the police officers well
what I do know is that they took her statements and they let her go at the end of the evening yeah um that that's a
fact well and we knew we know that they called in a bunch of backup so they had a lot of officers at that mall looking
for this child right and but what I'm getting at here is when when she didn't tell the truth and when things didn't go
her way and once they didn't look Beyond her her she basically said you know what
they're screwing up this investigation they're centering this thing around me they're not handling this thing the
right way they're not looking for my boy because he doesn't look like the rest of
this city they're not doing everything that they can to find him and we know that that's not the truth there are
plenty of police of newspaper reports right third party reports that the Detroit Police Department was extremely
active in the search for this little boy and act in the investigation into what could have happened with this little boy
well and if they weren't told lie after lie after lie they might know where to actually look we actually have uh one
statement that came from the Leonia Police Department to the media at the time that said this came out just before
Christmas where the police department announced that they had received over 700 tips M by the Christmas time and
since the boy had gone missing that they had paid out over $43,000 in mandatory overtime because of all the searches for
the boy and just because the holidays were coming up the mandatory overtime would not end they announced that their
officers may have to see their families um may not get to see their families on the holidays or spend time with their
families that they would have to work that around this mandatory overtime while this investigation was still hot I
wonder if she picked them all as a coverup story because her mother worked there that's one thing that to me almost
seems like a dumb move on her part and I don't think that danana Harris I don't think she's stupid by any means I think
that she may have pulled something off and gotten away with something because I think she outsmarted a lot of us even
though we were suspicious of her I think that was her one dumb move was going to
where her mother worked at this part-time gig yeah but what I'm saying is that out of all the people in her
life and her son's life that would probably be really up in arms about this or be suspect of her mhm it' be the
mother right right her mother so by having him supposedly going go missing where you work and where there's
surveillance cameras that you know you're not going to focus on me well from everything that I read this is this
is what makes it a little tough for the investigators from everything that I read regarding this case was that
Beverly the grandmother deana's mother she was in full support of her daughter during the course of this whole
investigation however I do want to be very iing Beverly the grandmother she was extremely Cooperative with the
police and she she's the one that called the police right she's the one that called the police her home was searched
after uh during this investigation as well but where we remain to this day Captain basically the facts of this case
are are this dwan Sims was never seen on any of the surveillance footage from that day when he was report reported
missing there is not one single person that has ever come forward stating that they saw danan at the reported location
of his disappearance there is currently no activity on this case the leavon the Leona police department they still to
this very day hold the belief that dwan Sims was not at the mall that day that he was reported missing well I think
that's where all the evidence points and I think if you're going to say otherwise
well then you have to prove some evidence of that mhm and we also have the mother who failed two lie detector
test just days following him him having been reported missing there have never been any charges filed against anyone in
this case and dwan's mother danana to this day maintains her innocence in this case but it also seems to me Captain
like this investigation um even though they left it open it looks to me that because of
the person that this should center around when she up and left town I think she left her her son her son's memory
and anything to do with him in the rear view that day and when she left I think every lead in any potential of possibly
solving this case left with her that day and I think we both agree for the most part on U the idea that when you have a
missing child and the parents leave that town it's very odd yeah it's suspicious
it's not it doesn't seem to be typical Behavior now we do understand that sometimes people have to leave because
of their jobs because their families other things pull them away to other cities but nine times out of 10 Captain
what we see is that a mother or a father parents of people that disappear of children that go missing they don't up
and move especially children that are of a young age because their thought is you
know what if he or she ever breaks free if they have that moment with where they
could get reach out to me right they'll come back to their home where they grew up where they remember living or most of
the time they don't even change their phone numbers yeah because for fear that one day if they get the chance to pick
up a phone and call and reach out for help I better have that same phone number I better be there to answer the
phone or answer the door when my child my missing child comes back for help and comes back to me now if all this
evidence is wrong if there's a logical explanation for all this evidence then I do feel for her and that would make some
logical Sense on why she would want to move away and maybe why she doesn't have all these uh things on her Facebook
about her missing son because basically all the fingers Point towards her and I'd like to tell you that there's a
little light at the end of this tunnel Captain I don't see it here I don't see this case getting solved I mean it's
very strange that they've not recovered any remains that turned out to have been
dwan to this point right I mean we're over 20 years later they have from time to time released you know the age
progress progressed photos of what he may look like but I just I just don't see this one getting solved without any
help from his mother without any help from danana or the the close family members there's a good chance that if
anybody knows what happened it's the mother but there's also the potential that somebody else in that family might
know something right that maybe she told somebody and without that information I
just don't see getting the break in the case that this thing needs how about a little recommended reading Captain all
right hit me okay here we go this one is this one has been long awaited for and I
highly recommend this one it's called member of the family and this is by Diane Lake who is Diane Lake well she is
the youngest member of the Manson family and Charles Manson just uh died in late
1967 at the young age of 14 Diane Lake became one of Charlie's girls fully recruited and fully accepted into the
Manson family she was with she was in the family for about 2 years and she described the mixture of sexual
manipulation psychological control and physical abuse that came with being a member of the family she also talks
about Charles Manson's true nature Diane did not participate in the gruesome murders committed by the members of the
family but some of the members confessed to her following her arrest she was able
to transform trauma into Triumph finding the courage to face man and testify against him in court do yourself a favor
and check out member of the family by Diane Lake and for holiday gifts if you want to check out our website true Crim
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moment where we give thanks we want to thank everybody for listening we want to thank everybody for telling a friend and
for subscribing to the show everybody have a very safe and Happy Thanksgiving until next week we will see you back
here in the garage until then be good be kind and don't [Music] [Applause] litter
[Music] you can start your day off right when you find a professional on Angie to get
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D'Wan Sims ////// 160

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December 11, 1994; Dwanna Harris went to the Wonderland Mall in Livonia, Michigan with her son D'Wan. D'Wan is just a little guy, four years old and about three foot tall. The Wonderland mall was very busy with holiday shoppers. The two talked together as they made their way through the mall. D'Wan was walking almost directly behind his mother as they talked. Dwanna asked the little boy a question but he did not answer her. She turned around and her son D'Wan was gone. Tonight we discuss one of Michigan's most famous missing child cases.

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Brief Summary

Dewan Sims vanished from a Michigan mall in 1994; his mother’s inconsistent story raised suspicions during the investigation.

Key points

The Missing Boy. A 4-year-old boy goes missing from the Wonderland mall in Leonia, Michigan.
The Search Begins. The frantic search for the missing boy unfolds as security and police mobilize.
Surveillance Footage. Police review security footage in hopes of finding clues about the missing boy.
The Search for Dwan Sims. Despite extensive searches, no trace of four-year-old Dwan Sims was ever found.
Suspicion Turns to the Mother. As the investigation unfolds, suspicion begins to focus on Dwan's mother, Danana Harris.
Failed Polygraph Test. Danana Harris failed a polygraph test, raising further questions about her involvement.

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