D'Wan Sims /// True Crime Garage | Forensic Files

[Music] Sunday December 11th 1994 Livonia Michigan a police officer is responding
to the Wunderland Mall on Plymouth Road on a report of a missing four year old boy upon arrival at the mall the officer
met 25 year-old DeWanna Harris Tawana is the mother of duan sims the missing four
year old boy the officer immediately obtained the description of the missing child from the mother the juan sims is a
four year old african-american little boy with black hair and brown eyes he is approximately three foot to three and a
half foot tall and weighing 45 to 60 pounds he was last seen wearing a blue winter jacket over a multicolored
windbreaker jacket dark blue sweat pants and black feel alota tennis shoes after
receiving the description the officer contacted Livonia police dispatch and reported Dewan 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 Tawana 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 140 and 2 p.m. Dajuan 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 Tawana and dawan 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 to
Juan's grandmother for some money the Juan's grandmother is also DeWanna Harris's mother Beverly Harris Beverly
is working part-time on the weekends at the ladies footlocker store on the other
side of the mall DeWanna told the officer that her and dawan 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 DeWanna said she walked next to her boy until they came to the area of
the KB Toys where she says Dhawan was talking to her as he walked behind her she asked him a question to which he did
not give an answer Tawana harris turned around and just like that her little boy
Dhawan was gone okay she thought he must have went to the toy store Tawana ran to
the KB toy store and looked for the little boy she ran up and down each aisle she did not find her son she then
checked the surrounding stores including the food court area of the mall but she
was still unable to locate Dhawan 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
Wunderland mall security and informs them of the situation Tawana harris along with several security officers
searched the entire mall for approximately 90 minutes during the search Tawana notified her mother
Beverly the Dewan was missing beverly assisted in the search when the boy could still not be located beverly
called the Livonia Police Department after speaking with diwan's mother and grandmother the responding officer met
with security officer Randy Pfeiffer Pfeiffer told the officer he was notified about the missing boy by one of
the malls maintenance workers at approximately 3:45 p.m. at that time five her 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 meeting
with security officer Pfeiffer the responding officer from LPD instructed Pfeiffer 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 in 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
Tawana 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 DeWanna Harris said she and Diwan had
entered the store the officers requested that they be allowed to view this tape in hopes that Diwan would be seen on
tape leaving the store giving the officers a better idea of the time and potentially a suspect in the case Tawana
harris sat directly in front of the television screen and viewed the video while a police officer and security
guard were present at approximately 1:40 4:00 p.m. video footage time DeWanna 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 Tawana positively stated that was her and Diwan 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 DeWanna said see I'm telling him that we cannot buy a videotape 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 DeWanna said see yep I remember walking out that way officers then observed the female with the child in
the video walk south toward the main aisle way DeWanna stated yep there we go the officers continued viewing the tape
but did 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 DeWanna 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 dwana 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 the wanna present again Tawana 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 dwana the differences in the clothing between the individual on the screen and
DeWanna harris when the officers confronted Tawana 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
to Juana sat silent for several minutes and then she said oh well I guess that's
not me the officers then sat with DeWanna 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 Tawana and dawan enter the store at no time did the officers observed Juan on any of the video
footage the officer confiscated the surveillance footage from the Target store in asta Juana if she would go to
the police department to give a statement to the detective she agreed to go for year-old dawan Simms was not seen
on any video footage from that Sunday December 11 1994 he was never located that night and after giving her
statement to the detective DeWanna Harris went home that night [Music] this is the case of Diwan sins
[Music]

True Crime Garage

Brief Summary

The episode details the 1994 disappearance of four-year-old Dajuan Sims in Livonia, Michigan, and the subsequent search efforts.

Key points

The Disappearance of Diwan Sims. A mother searches for her missing son in a mall, leading to a frantic police response.
Surveillance Footage Confusion. Tawana identifies herself in the footage, but discrepancies arise about her clothing.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Just like that, her little boy was gone.

Tawana's realization of her son's disappearance.

3:10WatchNov 22, 2017

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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