[SPEAKER_01]: dark cast network, indie pods with a dark side.

[SPEAKER_00]: On December 11, 1994, four-year-old Dewan Sims went with his mother, Dewana Harris, to do some Christmas shopping at the Wonderland Mall in Livonia, Michigan.

[SPEAKER_00]: According to Dewana, they arrived around 145 p.m.

and entered through the target store at the mall.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dewan followed his mother around the mall until one horrible moment when Dewana realized her son was no longer by her side.

[SPEAKER_00]: a massive search ensued, but there was no sign of the little boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: As the investigation intensified, Lavenia police began to wonder, was Dewan ever at the mall in the first place.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now over 30 years later, investigators are still trying to figure out exactly what happened that cold December day, and hoping to finally find Dewan.

[SPEAKER_00]: When a person goes missing, there's a special kind of pain and they're not knowing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to tell the stories of those who never came home.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today, I want to tell you the story of DeWan Sims.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Kona Gallagher.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm Ethan Flick.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is, and then they were gone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back everyone.

[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining us once again.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Kona.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm Ethan.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're the husband and wife team behind this podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Each week I tell you the story of an unsolved missing person's case.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ethan doesn't know anything about the case going into the episode and is here to provide his reactions and questions in real time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully asking some of the same ones you have at home.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a story I've been wanting to cover for a while, but I worry that there wasn't enough information out there, but you know, I figured a shorter episode would be okay after our two and a half hour marathon from last week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Besides, as I dug into the original news articles, when I was researching the case, I realized that there's actually a lot more out there than a may seem like from the more recent articles.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before we get started though, we've had some new folks join us over on Patreon, so thank you so much to A.K.

[SPEAKER_00]: Molly C.

and Kary.

[SPEAKER_00]: We really appreciate your support.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you all so much.

[SPEAKER_00]: As a reminder, if any of you would like to join them, you can get ad free episodes at any level starting at just $2 a month.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll also get a free copy of the ebook that I wrote.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that finished, let's get into the story of Duan Sims.

[SPEAKER_00]: Duan Christian Sims was born on October 29, 1990, to Duanaharras in Zachary Sims.

[SPEAKER_00]: At some point, Duanah and Zachary split in Duan [SPEAKER_00]: In late 1994, Duano was in a new relationship with a man named Victor Jackson.

[SPEAKER_00]: According to Duano, December 11th was a typical Sunday filled with chores and errands.

[SPEAKER_00]: She needed to vacuum her house and stopped by her mother Beverly Harris' house to borrow her vacuum cleaner.

[SPEAKER_00]: She also needed to catch up on Mondry so she and Dewan went to the laundromat where she did five loads.

[SPEAKER_00]: After that, the pair headed to Wonderland's Mall in Lvania, Michigan, arriving at around 145 p.m.

Dewan had parked her red Thunderbird and she and Dewan entered through a target.

[SPEAKER_00]: Duana later said that the target was too crowded so she and Duana went to the main part of the mall.

[SPEAKER_00]: The two walked around passing several stores.

[SPEAKER_00]: They got to a KB toys and Duana spotted some power Rangers.

[SPEAKER_00]: Power Rangers was a little boy's favorite show at the time, but Duana told them that they couldn't go in.

[SPEAKER_00]: They continue to walk but shortly after, Duana looked down and noticed that Duan was no longer by her side.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's every parent's worst nightmare.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're in a crowded shopping area and your kid is suddenly gone.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, this situation has probably happened to a lot of parents who are listening to this right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've probably felt that heart-stopping panic before finding your kid a few minutes later, hiding behind a clothing rack or looking at a toy or whatever.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was just going to say that kids dashing into clothing racks with Target or at any clothing store like they love hiding in those things.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean it's like a little encapsulated world for them, but it's terrifying for parents because we can't see them at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, it is and all of my kids have done that and I can't even get that mad at them because I remember being little and doing the same thing because there's just something so nice about like [SPEAKER_00]: it's really great.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Dwana began frantically searching for Dwana but she didn't find him.

[SPEAKER_00]: She alerted a mall employee who called security.

[SPEAKER_00]: After further search didn't turn up the little boy the police were called.

[SPEAKER_00]: Once police arrived, they and volunteers launched a massive search of them all in their surrounding area, but they still couldn't find DeWan.

[SPEAKER_00]: In those first days, local media broadcast DeWan's description and photo and is image-appeared on missing child fires distributed statewide.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lavenia police also expanded the search beyond them all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Officer scoured nearby neighborhoods, parks, and even areas around Duwana's home in Detroit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Petrolman Greg Jan, who would later become a Lavenia police captain, recalled being assigned to search places like Rouge Park and Detroit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He told reporters about he and dozens of officers spent days crawling through every place a small child's might hide or be hidden.

[SPEAKER_00]: Saying, quote, we had a lot of manpower invested in searching for him." [SPEAKER_00]: By December 15, 1994, four days into the search, there were still no solid leads.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dwana appeared at a press conference that day to hearfully pleading for her son's return.

[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, my only concern is finding my son.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever has my baby, I know he's safe and I know you're taking good care of him, but just bring him home.

[SPEAKER_00]: End quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: The public was on to on a side and the story of Duan's disappearance was covered daily in local media.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was actually really impressed with that when I was on newspapers.com looking for the original articles, it was literally something every single day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, that's great because that's not something we see often in these cases.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, and generally, you know, it wasn't front page, but Detroit is like a pretty big news media area.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: So just the fact that they were covering a daily, I think is a testament to how seriously they did take his disappearance.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was impossible not to empathize with a mother who was in such a nightmare situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, public sentiment would soon begin to shift.

[SPEAKER_00]: After the initial panic died down and police started to talk to Duana more about the timeline, they started to have questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: So in the intro, I talked about how Duana looked for Duana and then alerted a mall employee when she couldn't find him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, to want to apparently what missing around 2pm, but to want to didn't alert anybody until nearly two hours later around four.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then she says she was searching them all herself?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: For two hours.

[SPEAKER_00]: For two hours without saying a word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now listen, I can understand not immediately calling 911 because you're afraid you're overreacting, you know, like we said, I'm going to find him hiding is whatever, but to spend two hours looking in a crowded mall without awarding a single soul is just strange to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: to want to didn't alert a mal employee, a member of security, or her own mother.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because, here's another insane fact that wasn't reported on until several months after DeWan went missing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Duana's mother Beverly Harris worked as a Detroit fire inspector, but in addition to that, she also had a part-time job at the shoe store in the mall, and she was working that day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Get out of here, come on.

[SPEAKER_00]: But her daughter never came to alert her that her son was missing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's four years old.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knows his grandmother works at the mall.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't know what he knows.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he just turned four.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we don't know that to want new.

[SPEAKER_00]: That his grandmother was there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, fair.

[SPEAKER_01]: But wouldn't that be the first place that you would go?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, obviously, the first place you would go is back to KB toys.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: But my mind, I would think, okay, if my mom works here, and my son is missing, maybe he does know that she [SPEAKER_00]: or even if she doesn't think that Duan knew that his grandmother is there, you still go there and go, holy shit, Duan's missing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, come help me find that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you know what he looks like.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, let's go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to bother with a description to mall security.

[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's crazy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Soon, Livonia police were able to obtain and review hours of surveillance footage from security cameras inside [SPEAKER_00]: Shockingly, they found images of Duano walking the mall corridors, but there was no sign of Duan, not a single frame showed little Duan walking with her, like she claimed.

[SPEAKER_00]: In addition, no shoppers reported seeing a child matching Duan's description with Duana that day.

[SPEAKER_00]: By December 21st, police went public with their suspicions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lieutenant P.

Const of the Lavonia P.D.

[SPEAKER_00]: announced, quote, Evidence from the tapes at Wonderland would indicate that DeWan Sims was never at Wonderland.

[SPEAKER_00]: End quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: This revelation turned the case on its head.

[SPEAKER_00]: How could a child vanish from a mall if he was never there?

[SPEAKER_00]: The focus of the investigation shifted inward toward the family and their inner circle.

[SPEAKER_00]: By now, Duwana had undergone at least two police polygraph tests, and according to news reports, she felt both.

[SPEAKER_00]: For her part, D'Wanna believe that she was being unfairly scrutinized.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this was partly because the Susan Smith case had just happened two months prior in October 1994.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, for those of you who aren't old like we are, Susan Smith was a South Carolina mother who lied about her kids being kidnapped during her carjacking before later confessing to their murder.

[SPEAKER_00]: D'Wanna insisted that police were zeroing in on her only because of that high-profile case involving a lying mother, telling reporters, quote, I'm not going to stand accused of hurting my baby.

[SPEAKER_00]: I understand the world is sick, but that is not the case at this time, and quote.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or they could be zeroing in on her because there's no security footage of D'Wanna actually being at the mall.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's huge.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd be curious to know if they got any CCTV footage from the laundromat that she said that she was at with him as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will get a little bit deeper into the timeline later.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't believe there was CCTV footage of that in particular.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we're going to talk more about everything leading up to the mall in a little bit.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because again, that really came from the article that I mentioned that was published like several months after Duan's disappearance, the one in which I learned that Duan's mother worked at the flip-in mall.

[SPEAKER_00]: Despite her denial, Livonia Police officially declared Duanaharris a person of interest in her own child's disappearance.

[SPEAKER_00]: The media, in turn, began scrutinizing her every word and behavior.

[SPEAKER_00]: Local newscasts replay the surveillance clips showing her entering the mall alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Talk radio news papers questioned the inconsistencies in her story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Under this caught of suspicion, Dewana made a public stance, insisting that she didn't hurt her son and maintaining that Dewana must have been abducted by a stranger in the [SPEAKER_01]: Do we know any additional suspects like the one's father or the one is new boyfriend?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so what's so strange is they're barely mentioned in any of the 1994 news articles that I found.

[SPEAKER_00]: Victor her current boyfriend is mentioned, you know, just in passing and that, you know, it's her current boyfriend, but like in terms of his alibi or what he was doing at the time or anything, I have not seen a single thing written about him.

[SPEAKER_01]: and what about Zach, his father?

[SPEAKER_00]: The only time he's even referenced, because I only found like one little sidebar article and that's the only reason I know his name was when police were asking for DNA samples from Duan's parents.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Duana didn't want to give one.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but Zachary Duan's father did.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's, I don't know if they eventually got a DNA sample from Duana, but initially she didn't want to give one because she said that the police wanted her to just go with them to the hospital and she just didn't want to go to the hospital with the police.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's all that was written about it that I could find.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in terms of where he even lived or where he was, like, I have no idea.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I have to assume they were of course looked into.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's been 30 years, but like, they're just hasn't been any public information on that that I could really find.

[SPEAKER_00]: then of course the next question that I would have is do we have or have the police said anything about when there was actually a last confirmed yes and that's why I dug into newspapers.com because all of the more recent articles that I was able to find online when you just Google this case didn't say that and that was driving me crazy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was like, well, maybe the initial reports had that, and they did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we are going to get into that.

[SPEAKER_00]: As Christmas 1994 approached, the case grew more baffling.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lieutenant Const expressed the investigators frustration saying, quote, a child does not vanish in a vacuum.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are circumstances that surround an event.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're trying to put those pieces of that puzzle together and quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: Police conducted extensive searches of Duana's apartment and family vehicles for any sign of foul play.

[SPEAKER_00]: By December 22nd, after 11 days of exhaustive ground searches, LaVonia authorities reluctantly called off the coordinated search efforts.

[SPEAKER_00]: After announcing that they were pausing the act of search, Lieutenant Const told reporters, quote, we feel that we've searched every area that makes sense to search, and quotes.

[SPEAKER_00]: By then, DeWanna had retained a prominent criminal defense attorney to advisor.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a clear sign that she felt under siege from the investigations trajectory.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't blame her.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if her story is true.

[SPEAKER_01]: than, yeah, and the cops are like digging into you as a suspect.

[SPEAKER_01]: You absolutely need a war.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, either way.

[SPEAKER_00]: You absolutely need a war.

[SPEAKER_00]: So from what I read, she didn't necessarily hire him, but she was just getting advice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators continued working the case, but leads were dwindling.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every tip that came in, sightings of a boy matching to one's description, or rumors of Duana's past, was run down by detectives without any result.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lvonia Police Department eventually handed over primary responsibility for the case to a multi-agency task force in Detroit.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is partially due to resources, and partially because they recognized that if a crime occurred, it may have happened outside of LaVonia, since they believed Duan never arrived at the mall.

[SPEAKER_01]: after reading a few initial articles on the case and finding out that to one was never seen on surveillance at the mall like we were just talking about my first question was when was he last team you know are you talking months I mean he's he said he just turned four so he may not have been in any type of daycare situation what I was thinking for school so not somebody that would be seen by [SPEAKER_00]: And outside and outside.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's certain.

[SPEAKER_01]: On a regular basis.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: So our heads, of course, are in the same place because we've covered cases like that before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've covered the case of Cody Bigsby of Oran and Orson West, where their parents reported the missing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it turned out that they hadn't been seen in weeks or months prior to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It should also probably be noted that the parents in both of those cases were convicted of murder.

[SPEAKER_00]: I read all of the recent articles that I could find, but nothing answered that question.

[SPEAKER_00]: Same with the initial articles from 1994.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't until March 13, 1995 that Joe Swickard wrote an article for the Detroit Free Press that gave Duwann's entire timeline.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now Duwanna Duwann and Duwanna's boyfriend, Victor Jackson, had recently moved into a new [SPEAKER_00]: Unlike Oran and Orson West's neighbors, Duwana's neighbors recall seeing Duwana out frequently.

[SPEAKER_00]: They said that he was a friendly, energetic little boy, and Duwana always seemed to carefully watch over him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Duwana enrolled Duwana at Sunnybrook Day Nursery, so he had definitely been seen in the days immediately preceding his disappearance.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Further, on December 10th, so the day before he disappeared, Duana and Victor had a date night planned, so Duana stayed with a family friend, Stacey Perrier.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the morning of December 11th, Stacey was getting her kids ready for church while they waited for Duana to come pick Duana up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I found this next part interesting, and this is directly from the article.

[SPEAKER_00]: quote, per year, said she had to remind DeWan to eat some breakfast.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was distracted by the anticipation of buying power ranges on a shopping expedition with his mother, and quote.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, so proof that this was all planned, the trip to the mall, I mean, that's what it seems like.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have proof that he was alive that morning and I find it so interesting that apparently Duan knew about the power Rangers and that he mentioned it to Stacey, who mentioned it in this interview.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then, according to DeWanna, when they saw the power Rangers a keybie toys, she told DeWanna they couldn't go and look at them.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this is a four-year-old's, maybe he knew that they were going to the mall, and he was thinking I can go to a toy store at the mall and get power Rangers.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe, but it's so specific or you think you're thinking suspicion-wise that this woman might be kind of in on this whole thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I don't think that's okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what I think, honestly.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just think it's really weird.

[SPEAKER_00]: that especially if you don't believe DeWanna's story, and DeWanna was never at the mall, had they actually been planning on going to the mall, and that's why DeWanna had this idea in his head that he was getting power Rangers, and then something happened before [SPEAKER_00]: But then, on the other hand, it's December 11th.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's two weeks before Christmas.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is she really going to tell her four-year-old that they can go by, twice?

[SPEAKER_01]: No, I mean, my thought would be that's the reason why she specifically said, no, we're not going into the story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and that makes sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just, like I said, it just struck me as weird, and I don't really know what to make of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: According to the article, it was between 1.30 and 1.45 when Dewan was last seen getting into his mother's car.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't, they didn't clarify where that was though.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they didn't clarify if that was at the laundromat or if that was at Beverly's house when they were barring the vacuumer, you know, like where that was or if there's that their own house.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or if 130 is when Dewan came to pick Dewan up from Stacey's house.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: But apparently he was seen around 130 to 145 p.m.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's really just the next two hours.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's in question.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now as we said before, it was around 4 p.m.

when Duana told a maintenance worker at the mall that her son was missing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now of course, being a mall this was not an uncommon occurrence.

[SPEAKER_00]: and the worker used her radio to alert mal security.

[SPEAKER_00]: They searched and when they came up empty, Livonia police were called.

[SPEAKER_00]: Two patrol officers were sent out initially, they looked, couldn't find them and then detectives arrived around 7pm.

[SPEAKER_00]: What police later found confusing was not only that she searched for two hours apparently without alerting anyone, but that no one [SPEAKER_00]: When all staff and customers were asked later, no one remembered a frantic mother looking for a four-year-old.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's also strange is that KB toys is right next to the mall's business and security offices, which were clearly marked.

[SPEAKER_00]: So why not just go straight there?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or to the shoe store where her mother worked, like we said before.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the worst part.

[SPEAKER_00]: In my opinion, this is the closest we get to a smoking gun in this case.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to quote directly from the article here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, close to reviews of the security tapes showed that it was not until 4pm.

[SPEAKER_00]: that Harris was seen entering the mall alone and going directly to the area where she met the maintenance worker.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one was not on the tapes.

[SPEAKER_01]: There you go.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he's seen somewhere at 145-ish getting into her car.

[SPEAKER_01]: Something happened two hours later, she goes to the mall to create an [SPEAKER_00]: But despite this, no arrests were made into one's case.

[SPEAKER_00]: There had been massive searches of the area around the mall involving dogs, aircraft, ATVZ, Neymet.

[SPEAKER_00]: They searched to one's house.

[SPEAKER_00]: They searched her mother's house where Duana was staying after Duana's disappearance.

[SPEAKER_00]: But nothing turned up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Duana's story didn't add up, but there was no actual proof that she had harmed her son in any way.

[SPEAKER_00]: and so the case went cold.

[SPEAKER_00]: By the five-year mark in 1999, no arrests had been made.

[SPEAKER_00]: Publicly, no suspects were named either, besides DeWanna herself, but no charges were filed.

[SPEAKER_00]: DeWan Sim's feet was a complete mystery.

[SPEAKER_00]: During the late 90s, public opinion largely turned against DeWanna.

[SPEAKER_00]: The media coverage, which was sympathetic in the immediate aftermath of DeWanna's disappearance, grew more skeptical as police hints of motherly foul play became known.

[SPEAKER_00]: But DeWanna and her family maintained that she had nothing to do with DeWanna's disappearance.

[SPEAKER_00]: In 1999, Duana's mother spoke to reporters about the toll of living under a cloud of suspicion.

[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, just think about trying to function every day with a missing child under all of the scrutiny and everything that has been said about my family.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't begin to tell you how it has been, how my crying spells have not ended, and quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joanna granted few interviews herself, but whenever she did, she stuck to her story that Dewan was abducted by an unknown person, and that she had nothing to do with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But there's video evidence that he was never at the mall, but he never came into the mall with her.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like so, how are you going to stick to that story?

[SPEAKER_01]: And the timeline isn't correct.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, that she gave.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's so strange because also, like, what was the motive?

[SPEAKER_00]: If something, if she did do something to them, there's no known history of abuse.

[SPEAKER_00]: Financial motive has been pointed to.

[SPEAKER_00]: So apparently, Beverly DeWanna's mother had recently taken out a life insurance policy onto one that was worth about $25,000.

[SPEAKER_00]: So people were saying that this was a scheme that they all kind of cooked up together in order to get that money.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Beverly told reporters she's like, I just did that because my job offered it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember she worked for the city of Detroit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she was like, and it sounds like it was one of those life insurance policies that you could use it for other things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because she talked about wanting to use it to pay for his college down the line.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then she told reporters she's like, I don't even think it's in effect because I haven't even gotten any money taken out of my paycheck yet for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't even think it's valid at this point.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I never saw any follow up on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know if it was or it wasn't in effect.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that has kind of been thrown out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: In 2003, nearly a decade after Dewan vanished, detective sergeant Shelley Holloway of Livonia police told reporters that Dewano was still the prime focus of the case.

[SPEAKER_00]: quote, we are confident that Duan was not at the mall when his mother arrived there.

[SPEAKER_00]: She is the one and only suspect.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've looked at other things, but it always leads back to her.

[SPEAKER_00]: We think would ever happen to Duan happened someplace else.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there is a lack of evidence, and that's why there's never been a charge, and quote.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, the inconsistencies aren't enough to prove a no body case.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, like, that's, there's just, there's just no other evidence.

[SPEAKER_00]: As the early 2000s came and went, Duan's case remained unsolved and officially open.

[SPEAKER_00]: Age progressed to renderings of Duan were released periodically by the National Center for Missing Inexploited Children in hopes that someone might recognize the boy's face as he would look as he grew older.

[SPEAKER_00]: But no credible sightings have her materialized, and I will stay over the years there were plenty of sightings, you know, there was a pretty major one in Florida, but of course they all turned out to be other kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Wonderland Mall, the last place to one was reported to have been seen, was shuttered and demolished in 2003.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yet, police like Greg Yon never forgot.

[SPEAKER_00]: In a 2024 interview, he said, quote, if DeWan is out there somewhere, I would say your memory is not forgotten.

[SPEAKER_00]: That days, not forgotten.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yon and DeHanful of others who were the original case still to this day, talk about DeWan and wonder what really happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: Inside the Harris family, life had to go on, painfully.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dewan and Victor eventually married and she gave birth to a daughter about a year after Dewan's disappearance.

[SPEAKER_00]: In 1996, she was arrested on misdemeanor domestic violence charges after threatening Victor with a knife during an argument.

[SPEAKER_00]: The couple eventually divorced and Dewana later remarried taking the last name Wiggins in later years, and I do believe she might have had another [SPEAKER_00]: In 2008, she relocated to Durham, North Carolina, seeking a fresh start away from the Detroit Media glare.

[SPEAKER_00]: That year, speaking to a reporter, Duana described the year since 1994 as, quote, very tough and quote, but said, quote, you've got to try to stay positive and quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remarkably, she maintained hope that DeWan was still alive, saying, quote, if he was deceased, I think someone would have found a body by now.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel someone has him and is taking good care of him." [SPEAKER_00]: End quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe she said that because that's what happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe she didn't harm him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he wasn't dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe she gave him to somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so weird when I was going through all the old newspapers, one of the smaller articles about this was just a little sidebar.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was another story directly next to it, about a mom who had been arrested for trying to sell her child in a mall parking lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: Get out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're nose the mom's boyfriend who is trying to do it, but either way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I mean, maybe it was something along those lines, because it clearly wasn't that if Duana had anything to do with it, it wasn't that she didn't want to be a mother, because she got pregnant.

[SPEAKER_00]: Really?

[SPEAKER_00]: Pretty quickly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Quickly after that, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe it was a situation in which Victor didn't want to raise somebody else's child.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, maybe.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she thought that they needed to have a fresh start.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's absolutely nothing to back that up.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was just pure speculation.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm just trying to figure out what could have happened in two hours.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, a lot can happen in two hours.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know.

[SPEAKER_01]: Who knows?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's just no evidence to point in any direction.

[SPEAKER_00]: There isn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: But interestingly, in late 2019, that wish that DeWan was still alive somewhere being taken care of appeared as though it might have been coming true.

[SPEAKER_00]: On December 11, 2019, exactly 25 years to the day since DeWan disappeared, [SPEAKER_00]: Lavenia police announced that a 25-year-old man had come to them claiming that he believed he might be Duan Sims.

[SPEAKER_00]: The man, whose name was later reported as Mike Cash on social media, said that he had been adopted as a child, and while searching for his biological family, he saw a photo of Duan and felt like he bore a strong resemblance to the missing boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: He also said that he and memories of living in Michigan as a small child.

[SPEAKER_00]: His bold claim quickly spread on Facebook and other platforms, stirring up a frenzy of speculation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Could to one have reappeared as an adult, not even knowing his own identity?

[SPEAKER_00]: Lovonia police were cautiously intrigued because apparently this guy did actually look a lot like Dewan.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think they probably found other childhood pictures of him, and there was a resemblance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Detectives arranged to interview the man and more importantly to collect a DNA sample from him.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the 25th anniversary of Duan's disappearance, they took the man's DNA for testing against Duan's family DNA.

[SPEAKER_00]: Captain Tag told people magazine quote, it's a very odd situation, and quote, saying that the man asked for confidentiality, but had already broadcast his theory all over social media.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the man had even reached out directly to DeWanah on Facebook.

[SPEAKER_00]: DeWanah later told the Associated Press that she did communicate with the man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Saying, quote, I reached out to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: We had conversations via Facebook.

[SPEAKER_00]: Once the story went viral on Facebook, I was trying to be compassionate.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is still an investigation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a joke, and quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: However, DeWanna also admitted that she was wary and didn't really want to be in the spotlight again.

[SPEAKER_00]: She eventually blocked the man on Facebook after he could incorrectly answer some personal questions about DeWanna's early life.

[SPEAKER_00]: For a couple of anxious months, investigators and the public waited for the DNA results.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the man truly was DeWanna, it would mean a miraculous ending to a 25-year-old mystery and possibly an exoneration for DeWanna.

[SPEAKER_00]: Police Captain Greg Yon said that when they first heard about the man's claim, quote, the hopes are absolutely it would be him and quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: But of course, Yon and others had to temper their optimism because the odds were that it wasn't going to pan out.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the end, science delivered the answer.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I assumed as much since we're doing an episode on him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but it's always so heartbreaking when a situation like this happens.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's heartbreaking.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure for DeWanna, but also for this guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, because he thought he was getting answers at least, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: LaVonia police announced that the DNA test showed no match.

[SPEAKER_00]: The 25-year-old was not DeWann Sims, and DeWann's case remained open.

[SPEAKER_00]: Trajically, DeWanna did not live to see a resolution in her son's case.

[SPEAKER_00]: In December 2020, Duana died suddenly at her home in North Carolina.

[SPEAKER_00]: She was only 51 years old.

[SPEAKER_00]: Police said that the cause appeared to be a heart attack.

[SPEAKER_00]: She died just a few days before the 26th anniversary of Duana's disappearance and was laid to rest one day after it.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the end, we don't know whether Duana carried to her grave the burden of not knowing what happened [SPEAKER_00]: Lavonia's former police chief Robert Stevenson openly wondered about that after her passing, saying, quote, I think she had that secret.

[SPEAKER_00]: She kept it back and didn't share it with anyone, and then took it to the grave, and quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, as of 2025, the case of DeWan Sims remains officially open and unsolved.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's been 30 years, but investigators like Captain Greg Yon haven't forgotten that little boy with the bright smile.

[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, this is something that nobody should have to keep quiet about, Yon urges, in hopes that even now, someone with knowledge or a long buried secret might break their silence.

[SPEAKER_00]: The case of Duan Sims is a heartbreaking story that leaves us with tough questions about truth, [SPEAKER_00]: did to want to really know more than she ever admitted.

[SPEAKER_00]: If so, why would a mother harm her own child?

[SPEAKER_00]: And how did she conceal it for so long?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's the part that I just, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's so tough for me to figure out where he could have been put in two hours.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or like you said, he is alive and she gave him weight to somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, he could still be out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not that one guy, but maybe another one.

[SPEAKER_00]: If Duana was truly in a sense, then who abducted Duana in a crowded mall that December afternoon and how did absolutely no one notice and how did he not end up on any video?

[SPEAKER_00]: Duana's Sims would be 35 years old today.

[SPEAKER_00]: In an alternate reality, he might be living a full life, perhaps with a family of his own.

[SPEAKER_00]: Back in 1994, Captain Gregyon was a young officer and a father himself, and he admits that this case changed him forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, as a parent, he think about your own kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: It weighs on your heart, and quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: 30 years later, the weight of not knowing still lingers with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, the hopes are that maybe he is alive somewhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other end of that is potentially a life that was never lived, [UNKNOWN]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dawan Christian Sims has been missing from Elvonia, Michigan since December 11, 1994.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was approximately three feet tall and 50 pounds at the time of his disappearance.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is a black male with black hair and brown eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dawan was last seen wearing a blue-hitted three-quarter length winter jacket over a yellow blue and green windbreaker, dark blue sweatpants, and low top fielus nakers.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was four when he went missing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He would be 35 today.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you have any information on the disappearance of Dewan Sims, please contact the Livonia Police Department's Missing Person's Unit at 734 or 666-2470.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can see all the sources for this episode along with photos and videos at our website and then they were gone.com.

[SPEAKER_01]: and be sure to follow us on social, and then they were gone pod on Facebook and at ATTWG pod on Instagram and TikTok.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you like what we're doing, please subscribe and consider leaving a five star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

[SPEAKER_01]: It will help new listeners find us, and the more people that listen, the more chances we have of bringing someone home.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll see you here next week for a brand new episode.

[SPEAKER_01]: See you next week.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then they were gone as hosted by Cone Gallagher and Ethan Flick, our research writing and editing is done by me, Cone Gallagher.

[SPEAKER_00]: The music is the stork by Katza.

[SPEAKER_00]: Additional music is provided by Kai Engel, and then they were gone is a little monster production.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, you could go in!