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[Music] Sunday December 11th 1994 Livonia Michigan a police officer is responding
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to the Wunderland Mall on Plymouth Road on a report of a missing four year old boy upon arrival at the mall the officer
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met 25 year-old DeWanna Harris Tawana is the mother of duan sims the missing four
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year old boy the officer immediately obtained the description of the missing child from the mother the juan sims is a
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four year old african-american little boy with black hair and brown eyes he is approximately three foot to three and a
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half foot tall and weighing 45 to 60 pounds he was last seen wearing a blue winter jacket over a multicolored
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windbreaker jacket dark blue sweat pants and black feel alota tennis shoes after
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receiving the description the officer contacted Livonia police dispatch and reported Dewan sims is missing a
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teletype to all area law enforcement agencies was sent the officer asked the mother to explain exactly what happened
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when she entered the mall in detail Tawana says her and the little boy left the residence at approximately 1:30 p.m.
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she estimated that they probably arrived at the mall between 140 and 2 p.m. Dajuan harris stated that she parked her
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ford thunderbird in the north parking lot across from the target and walked with her son into the mall entering at
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the doors between Target and Famous Footwear Tawana and dawan then went to the videotape department where she told her
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son she did not have enough money to purchase a videotape for him she told the boy they would go ask to
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Juan's grandmother for some money the Juan's grandmother is also DeWanna Harris's mother Beverly Harris Beverly
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is working part-time on the weekends at the ladies footlocker store on the other
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side of the mall DeWanna told the officer that her and dawan walked through the Target store just looking
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around for maybe 20 minutes stating that her and the little boy left the Target store together at approximately 2:30
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p.m. walking through the East mall entry doors DeWanna said she walked next to her boy until they came to the area of
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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
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not give an answer Tawana harris turned around and just like that her little boy
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Dhawan was gone okay she thought he must have went to the toy store Tawana ran to
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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
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checked the surrounding stores including the food court area of the mall but she
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was still unable to locate Dhawan she told the officer I searched for him for about 30 minutes then she located a
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cleaning lady working at the mall she tells her about her son who is missing the cleaning woman calls the
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Wunderland mall security and informs them of the situation Tawana harris along with several security officers
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searched the entire mall for approximately 90 minutes during the search Tawana notified her mother
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Beverly the Dewan was missing beverly assisted in the search when the boy could still not be located beverly
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called the Livonia Police Department after speaking with diwan's mother and grandmother the responding officer met
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with security officer Randy Pfeiffer Pfeiffer told the officer he was notified about the missing boy by one of
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the malls maintenance workers at approximately 3:45 p.m. at that time five her and four members of the mall
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security team searched each store and the parking lot along the way they informed all or most employees of the
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stores of the missing subject and instructed them to contact the security office if he was found after meeting
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with security officer Pfeiffer the responding officer from LPD instructed Pfeiffer to continue the search until
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further notice and he requested more LPD to the scene an additional five officers
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and a sergeant on duty were dispatched and sent to the mall once the officers arrived at the mall
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now seven of them they met at the east end of the mall near the American Eagle store they were given a description of
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the little boy along with a specific area for each to search they searched each store all of the hallways the food
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court the movie theater each bathroom in the entire parking lot surrounding the mall they searched behind stores and
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alleyways first an organized grid search and then when they found nothing the officers along with the security
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team remained on site and continued to search triple checking each area and location two of the officers asked
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Tawana to go with them to the Target store there they learned the Target store had stationary security cameras
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set up at each of the entry and exit doors to the store the officers confirmed with the Target store security
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officer that the cameras were operating and recording during the time that DeWanna Harris said she and Diwan had
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entered the store the officers requested that they be allowed to view this tape in hopes that Diwan would be seen on
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tape leaving the store giving the officers a better idea of the time and potentially a suspect in the case Tawana
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harris sat directly in front of the television screen and viewed the video while a police officer and security
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guard were present at approximately 1:40 4:00 p.m. video footage time DeWanna stated there
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I am and pointed to the video screen officers observed an african-american female holding the hand of a small child
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and exiting the store Tawana positively stated that was her and Diwan the officers observed the two subjects
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walking out of the East door of the target and then standing directly at the threshold of the store it appeared the
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female was talking to the child at this point DeWanna said see I'm telling him that we cannot buy a videotape because
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the checkout lines are too long as the tape ran the woman walked further out into the mall still inside of the video
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camera DeWanna said see yep I remember walking out that way officers then observed the female with the child in
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the video walk south toward the main aisle way DeWanna stated yep there we go the officers continued viewing the tape
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but did not observe a single child or a child with an adult walk in the opposite
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direction or past the camera police requested security to blow the image up to full view in doing so the police
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observed the woman that DeWanna claimed to be with the child in the video she was wearing a brown hooded jacket and a
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baseball cap with a white emblem on the front the officers observed dwana at the
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present time watching the video to be wearing a black coat without a hood and no baseball cap the officer then
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requested that the sergeant come and view the video with the wanna present again Tawana narrated her actions as she
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watched the subjects on the screen go out the target doors with the image blown up to full view the officer
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pointed out to both the sergeant and dwana the differences in the clothing between the individual on the screen and
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DeWanna harris when the officers confronted Tawana with this she sat silent for several minutes
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and then reconfirmed what she had previously told the officers that's me and then added that's not a hood that's
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my collar when the officers again pointed out the differences in clothing both color hood and ball cap once again
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to Juana sat silent for several minutes and then she said oh well I guess that's
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not me the officers then sat with DeWanna and viewed the surveillance footage from an hour before she said she
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had arrived at the store all the way through to an hour after she said the boy went missing at no time did the
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officers observe Tawana and dawan enter the store at no time did the officers observed Juan on any of the video
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footage the officer confiscated the surveillance footage from the Target store in asta Juana if she would go to
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the police department to give a statement to the detective she agreed to go for year-old dawan Simms was not seen
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on any video footage from that Sunday December 11 1994 he was never located that night and after giving her
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statement to the detective DeWanna Harris went home that night [Music] this is the case of Diwan sins
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[Music]