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brand [Music] [Music] [Applause] never welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:46
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
00:01:51
football squad well you can just go up North and play for Michigan he is the captain welcome to rivalry week welcome
00:01:58
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
00:02:06
[Music] friend today tonight and for the rest of the week I am and we are drinking
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Harvest ale by the brilliant and hardworking people up at Founders Brewing Company garage grade it is
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impossible not to give this beer five out of five bottle caps listen up because just like Drew Barrymore used to
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favorite local hop Growers and thus the Harvest ale a bright IPA bursting with pine melon and citrus stay thirsty my
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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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big we like your jib to Colleen in Atlanta Georgia okay this one says get on it like a car Bonnet that is from
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Emma and Steve over the pond in Westcliff Essex UK and staying in the UK in Edinburg we have Alana next we have
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Adrien who says she loves to lash and listen and also to try Big Rock Brewery that's from Adrien in Calgary Canada we
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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
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fund donation from someone going by PMT who wants to recognize the end of watch for a good man a brave officer this is
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Deputy Burbridge of the patami County Sheriff's Department in Iowa unfortunately heam yeah I hope I said
00:03:39
that right but unfortunately he was killed in the line of duty earlier this year so of course on this week of giving
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thanks we want to thank Deputy Burbridge for his bravery and hard work for keeping families of that Community safe
00:03:52
for many many years and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family all right Captain everybody gather around grab a
00:03:58
chair grab a beer grab a turkey leg let's talk some true [Music] crime Sunday December 11th 1994 Leonia
00:04:34
Michigan a police officer is responding to the Wonderland mall on Plymouth Road on a report of a missing 4-year-old boy
00:04:43
upon arrival at the mall the officer met 25-year-old danana Harris danana is the
00:04:50
mother of danan Sims the missing 4-year-old boy the officer immediately obtained the
00:04:57
description of the missing child from from the mother dwan Sims is a 4-year-old African-American little boy
00:05:04
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
00:05:14
wearing a blue winter jacket over a multicolor windbreaker jacket dark blue sweatpants and black Fela low top tennis
00:05:23
shoes after receiving the description the officer contacted Leonia Police dispatch and reported Juan Sims is
00:05:31
missing a teletype to all area law enforcement agencies was sent the officer asked the mother to
00:05:38
explain exactly what happened when she entered the mall in detail danana says her and the little
00:05:46
boy left the Residence at approximately 1:30 p.m. she estimated that they probably arrived at the mall between
00:05:52
1:40 and 2: p.m. Dean Harris stated that she parked her Ford Thunderbird in the north
00:05:59
parking lot across from the Target and walked with her son into the mall entering at the doors between Target and
00:06:06
Famous Footwear danana and danan then went to the videotape department where she told
00:06:13
her son she did not have enough money to purchase a videotape for him she told the boy they would go ask
00:06:21
dwan's grandmother for some money dwan's grandmother is also danana Harris's mother Beverly
00:06:28
Harris bever is working part-time on the weekends at the lady's Foot Locker store
00:06:33
on the other side of the mall danana told the officer that her and danan walked through the Target
00:06:39
store just looking around for maybe 20 minutes stating that her and the little boy left the Target store together at
00:06:49
approximately 2:30 p.m. walking through the East Mall entry doors Yana said she walked next to her
00:06:57
boy until they came to the area of the the KB Toys where she says danan was talking to her as he walked behind
00:07:05
her she asked him a question to which he did not give an answer danana Harris turned around and just like that her
00:07:13
little boy danan was gone okay she thought he must have went to the toy store danana ran to the KB
00:07:22
Toy Store and looked for the little boy she ran up and down each aisle she did not find her
00:07:29
[Music] son she then checked the surrounding stores including the food court area of
00:07:34
the mall but she was still unable to locate dwan she told the officer I searched for
00:07:44
him for about 30 minutes then she located a cleaning lady working at the mall she tells her about
00:07:51
her son who is missing the cleaning woman calls the Wonderland mall security informs them of the
00:07:58
situation danana Harris along with several security officers searched the entire
00:08:06
mall for approximately 90 minutes during the search danana notified her mother Beverly that danan was
00:08:14
missing Beverly assisted in the search when the boy could still not be located Beverly called the Leonia Police
00:08:23
Department after speaking with dwan's mother and grandmother the responding officer met with security officer Randy
00:08:31
Fifer Fifer told the officer he was notified about the missing boy by one of the mall's maintenance workers at
00:08:38
approximately 3:45 p.m. at that time F and four members of the mall security team searched each
00:08:45
store and the parking lot along the way they informed all or most employees of the stores of the missing subject and
00:08:54
instructed them to contact the security office if he was found after after meeting with security
00:09:00
officer Fifer the responding officer from LPD instructed Fifer to continue the search until further notice and he
00:09:07
requested more LPD to the scene an additional five officers and a sergeant on duty were dispatched and
00:09:14
sent to the mall once the officers arrived at the mall now seven of them they met at the
00:09:23
East end of the mall near the American Eagle store they were given a description of
00:09:28
the little boy along with a specific area for each to search they searched each store all of the hallways the food
00:09:37
court the movie theater each bathroom and the entire parking lot surrounding the
00:09:43
mall they searched behind stores and Alleyways first an organized grid search and then when they found nothing the
00:09:52
officers along with the security team remained on site and continued to search triple checking each area and
00:10:01
location two of the officers asked danana to go with them to the Target store there they learned the Target
00:10:08
store had stationary security cameras set up at each of the entry and exit doors to the
00:10:14
store the officers confirmed with the Target store security officer that the cameras were operating and recording
00:10:21
during the time that danana haris said she and dwan had entered the store the officers requested that they
00:10:29
be allowed to view this tape in hopes that danan would be seen on tape leaving the store giving the officers a better
00:10:36
idea of the time and potentially a suspect in the case danana Harris sat directly in front
00:10:43
of the television screen and viewed the video while a police officer and security guard were
00:10:49
present at approximately 1:44 p.m. video footage time danana stated there I am and pointed to the video screen
00:10:59
officers observed an African-American female holding the hand of a small child and exiting the
00:11:05
store danana positively stated that was her and Dewan the officers observed the two
00:11:13
subjects walking out of the East door of the Target and then standing directly at
00:11:18
the threshold of the store it appeared the female was talking to the child at this point danana said
00:11:26
see I'm telling him that we cannot buy a video tape because the checkout lines are too
00:11:34
long as the tape ran the woman walked further out into the mall still inside of the video camera danana said see yep
00:11:42
I remember walking out that way officers then observed the female with the child
00:11:47
in the video walks South toward the main isway danana stated yep there we go the officers continued viewing the
00:11:57
tape but did not not observe a single child or a child with an adult walk in the opposite direction or past the
00:12:06
camera police requested security to blow the image up to full view in doing so the police observed the
00:12:14
woman that danana claimed to be with the child in the video she was wearing a brown hooded jacket and a baseball cap
00:12:22
with a white emblem on the front the officers observed danana at the present time watching the video to
00:12:29
be wearing a black coat without a hood and no baseball cap the officer then requested that the
00:12:36
sergeant come and view the video with danana present again danana narrated her actions as she watched the subjects on
00:12:44
the screen go out the target doors with the image blown up to full view the officer pointed out to both the sergeant
00:12:52
and danana the differences in the clothing between the individual on the screen and danana Harris
00:12:59
when the officers confronted danana with this she sat silent for several minutes
00:13:04
and then reconfirmed what she had previously told the officers that's me and then added that's not a hood that's
00:13:12
my collar when the officers again pointed out the differences in clothing both color hood and ball cap once again
00:13:24
danana sat silent for several minutes and then she said oh well I guess that's not me the officers then sat with danana
00:13:33
and viewed the surveillance footage from an hour before she said she had arrived
00:13:38
at the store all the way through to an hour after she said the boy went missing at no time did the officers
00:13:47
observe danana and dwan enter the store at no time did the officers observe dwan
00:13:53
on any of the video footage the officer confiscated the surveillance footage AG from the Target
00:13:59
store and asked danana if she would go to the police department to give a statement to the
00:14:05
detective she agreed to go 4-year-old Dewan Sims was not seen on any video footage from that Sunday December 11th
00:14:14
1994 he was never located that night and after giving her statement to the detective danana Harris went home
00:14:23
that [Music] night this is the case of Dean [Music] Sims this is a strange case Captain
00:14:46
because we have a small boy who goes missing from the Wonderland mall in Leonia Michigan back in 1994 now this is
00:14:55
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
00:15:02
swing of the holiday shopping season and this case came recommended To Us by several of our listeners up in the great
00:15:08
state of Michigan now we were able to track down Randy Fifer who was one of the security guards working at the
00:15:16
Wonderland mall in Leonia Michigan that day that Dewan went missing just to give
00:15:21
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
00:15:29
little idea of the location here yeah and with it being turkey week there's going to be a lot of people shopping on
00:15:34
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
00:15:40
around and your kid is gone so let's introduce Randy who is working as a security guard at the Wonderland mall on
00:15:46
December 11th 1994 Randy can you tell us a bit about yourself and what occurred that day sure uh so my name is Randy
00:15:54
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
00:16:03
card um a security guard in Leonia Michigan in a mall it was called Wonderland mall and uh in the nice
00:16:12
suburban area of leavon Michigan I was going to school and then this was uh kind of during the summer I had taken
00:16:17
this job and then continued on um into the fall and into the winter so so obviously during the holiday season it's
00:16:24
going to be a little different can you take us through a typical day um so average day for us would be especially
00:16:30
during that time you know the malls crowded uh malls were still big back then there was no Amazon or anything of
00:16:34
that sort so uh typical day was uh just going in patrolling the areas of the mall Mak sure people are safe people are
00:16:42
doing the things that they're supposed to be doing uh helping Shoppers find things deterring crime if you want to
00:16:48
call it uh uh helping out with a typically like retail fraud type things as somebody tries stealing something and
00:16:54
that that business is always up around that time of the year you know and then dealing with lost children or Lost Child
00:17:00
calls uh which we typically would get probably about uh probably 10 a day maybe around that time um and they would
00:17:08
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
00:17:15
their kid meet up with those people or meet them at the information booth we I think the longest anyone we had ever at
00:17:22
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
00:17:27
store or by the movie theater or something of that sort okay and then what happened on December 11th 1994 so
00:17:35
on this day in particular there was nothing nothing out of the normal had happened it was just a typical Sunday uh
00:17:40
Mall opened a little bit later on Sunday so everything was getting going so it's
00:17:44
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
00:17:52
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
00:17:58
so typically we went down there I talked to her for the very first time she was physically upset you know crying
00:18:03
everything asked her for the normal description of her son how old he was what he was wearing you know was the
00:18:09
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
00:18:16
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
00:18:20
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
00:18:25
about I was like where would a three-year-old go and in a mall without somebody saying something so we checked
00:18:30
the arcade checked the toy store food court didn't see them so we continued to walk down the mall a little bit further
00:18:36
and you know at that time got the information out to all the other security guards out there even in the
00:18:41
out uh the trucks that were out patrolling the mall and the out parking lots and internally and over the
00:18:47
loudspeaker time some time went by probably about 45 minutes went by before we actually called the police um I don't
00:18:54
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
00:18:58
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
00:19:07
best there so we called the police police showed up uh they met with her you know we did continue to walk around
00:19:12
the mall went to the offices to make phone calls if anybody had you know I believe if if anyone that she knew had
00:19:18
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
00:19:24
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
00:19:31
come up empty-handed we came up empty-handed so a little bit later in time we you know a couple hours go by
00:19:36
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
00:19:44
where all the target's cameras are and and at that time our Mall only had stationary cameras they were black and
00:19:49
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
00:19:55
was one so that that that came up a little bit later in the the investigation that kind of set the
00:20:00
framework for the time uh but anyway we were in Target and we were going through
00:20:03
the cameras with the leavon police and we were asking her to kind of point out where she was where she come in at
00:20:12
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
00:20:18
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
00:20:24
that was leaving any of the entrances there she was pointing out a couple people one of them she pointed out uh
00:20:29
was uh uh definitely uh not somebody that would meet the description of her son and I think at that point the the
00:20:36
leavon police started getting a little suspicious they started asking asking a little bit different questions and she
00:20:42
was getting upset um about that so she started to clam up didn't really say anything and then right around that time
00:20:49
the father of the boy came in and met us there and they weren't together apparently so he came in and we were
00:20:56
talking and and he was you know where is he at where's our son this and that and
00:21:02
he was getting pretty upset about it too as well from that point on we left the Target store and continued just to till
00:21:07
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
00:21:13
the mall at that point that that lasted till around I want to say like almost 7:00 at night the mall had already
00:21:18
closed and we were still looking so you guys spent the majority of that day searching the mall the mall closes at
00:21:25
6:00 p.m. on that Sunday several of the other stores including the Target store they remained open for a few hours after
00:21:32
that did you only search that day for dwan Sims up until then like days after we tore that mall apart even that night
00:21:40
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
00:21:46
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
00:21:51
bottom I mean there were stairways and basements that were drywalled over we knocked through them to see if there was
00:21:57
anything behind there we had to get in every single back Corridor every single uh back room and basement and and of
00:22:04
every store that was in there and we searched that thing top to bottom with probably about 30 people and came up
00:22:10
empty-handed the mall wasn't the only thing that was searched you know they expanded that search into the areas
00:22:15
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
00:22:21
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
00:24:53
missing tell me in a little more detail about when you first encountered his mother mother danana I mean was it
00:24:59
everything you expected to see as it the typical reaction by a parent who has lost a child and where and how did she
00:25:07
say that they got separated she basically said that uh they came to the mall they went in the front entrance of
00:25:14
an anchor store which is Target which is an exterior entrance not directly in the
00:25:17
mall um she they were walking around and she just looked down and he was gone um
00:25:23
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
00:25:28
our maintenance people to call and asked for help to help find the boy yet her demeanor was exactly what I would expect
00:25:34
from somebody who was missing a child um you know she was upset and uh gave all the all the description she could of
00:25:42
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
00:25:49
point walking around trying to find him so her demeanor is pretty typical of a parent that has just lost their child
00:25:56
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
00:26:02
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
00:26:09
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
00:26:15
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
00:26:21
couple minutes I'm pretty sure he's probably either in the toy store or in the arcade which was very close to that
00:26:25
entrance and and uh just was very positive about the outcome being good you know who would have thought anything
00:26:31
different at that time so after you guys retrace danana steps looking for the boy
00:26:37
in the mall and the Target store you come up empty-handed it's at this point that the police officers are going to
00:26:44
ask toana to view some of the security footage with them from the Target stores yeah correct so uh what had happened was
00:26:51
is we had gone into the room there is I believe there was two Leoni police officers with us we were going through
00:26:57
the tapes of the times that she said she entered the mall and even a half an hour
00:27:01
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
00:27:07
or her son on camera she the only time she ever pointed anything out on camera was not um her child was somebody who
00:27:13
may have been walking with another kid I think at some point she even pointed out
00:27:16
a little girl that was with somebody but uh you know when the leavon police started to question her more and more
00:27:22
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
00:27:30
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
00:27:36
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
00:27:42
about where their kid is where their kid was um and then the lonia police um started asking a lot of questions like
00:27:50
where did you come from you like did what time did you get here what did you do this morning things of that sort
00:27:54
started to try and dig a little bit deeper into the situation and at that point she decided that she was uh going
00:28:01
to I'm not going to say she was completely combative or not Cooperative but she started getting upset at S2 and
00:28:06
just throwing out things like why are you not looking for my son you know and then it it just turned into her just
00:28:12
being quiet and then walking along with uh the rest of the police just answering
00:28:15
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
00:28:21
now her actions kind of seem a little suspicious but before this was she begging for you guys to like call the
00:28:27
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
00:28:34
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
00:28:40
and that was a whole um another thing that happened to us there was things that happened after this that got put in
00:28:45
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
00:28:51
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
00:28:57
was probably like 23 at the time none of us had any experience with any of these
00:29:00
things and and there was nothing written down about calling the police but we eventually did and uh they came and it
00:29:07
you know escalated greatly from there so well there's no protocol for this sort of thing because like you said you guys
00:29:14
get reports of missing children constantly throughout the day and they're always easily located 5 10
00:29:20
minutes later at the arcade or the toy store in the food court now regarding that day was there any
00:29:28
that stands out to you as suspicious about Dan's Behavior to that point one of the one of the big things that that
00:29:34
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
00:29:40
cared to share that information with anyone her mother worked at a Lady Foot Locker uh that was down in the center of
00:29:46
the mall completely opposite end of where we were and not once did we ever walk down there and and apparently she
00:29:52
knew that her mother was working that day but again we never went down there uh to well we went went down that area
00:29:57
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
00:30:05
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
00:30:12
for I believe the jail down here in Wayne County okay so at this point suspicion is turning on danana Harris
00:30:19
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
00:30:26
questioned by them and being questioned by dwan's father did danana do anything that caused you to question things that
00:30:33
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
00:30:41
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
00:30:46
actually like I said where the Leonia Police Department started becoming suspicious started acting some you know
00:30:51
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
00:30:56
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
00:31:03
think it was 200 uh 7 maybe it was right around that time that the lonia police off uh lonia police department actually
00:31:10
finally came out and made a statement this many years later that they do not believe that that that Dean Sims was
00:31:15
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
00:31:20
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
00:31:27
security staff from the mall have with the Leonia Police Department after that day yeah sure so um I spent a couple
00:31:34
days after in the police department working with one of the detectives a sergeant there um who actually
00:31:40
consequently was retiring at the end of the year going through videotape and I was telling him that uh you know around
00:31:46
the certain time that we were there cuz apparently there was a discrepancy of an
00:31:49
hour of time as to when she actually reported him and when I actually said that it had happened and it was came
00:31:56
down to that the times were wrong on the vide tapes so there was a whole hour of
00:32:00
difference there that that it took place uh but we did finally go through the tapes where I said exactly I was and
00:32:07
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
00:32:14
the time I said it was in the mall entrance where where you know down by the the anchor store of Target and that
00:32:19
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
00:32:26
no footage of danana the mother on footage no surveillance footage at all and we have no surveillance footage at
00:32:35
all of danana and her son dwan none that I have ever seen or have been made aware
00:32:40
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
00:32:45
right next to the anchor store that she could have very well walked through as well instead of even going through
00:32:49
Target which kind of makes more sense because Target's video never showed her on there but just to be clear that's not
00:32:55
the entrance that she said that she went into when she told your staff and when she told the Leonia Police Department
00:33:02
she states that she went into a different entrance and this entrance would have had security camera footage
00:33:08
correct and there's no footage of her going in to that entrance there's not and that Monday after she walked through
00:33:16
the whole mall with there was it was pretty much like a media um Extravaganza all the media uh Outlets were there
00:33:24
Channel 2 Channel 7 Channel 4 channel 5050 at the time they were all there in the mall we brought danana Harris back
00:33:30
into the mall to retrace her steps throughout the whole day as to where she was where she went and all that so they
00:33:38
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
00:33:44
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
00:33:52
going to carry this with you yeah this is something that has stayed with you Randy and this is something you have
00:33:56
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
00:34:05
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
00:34:11
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
00:34:18
what we've asked for is just somebody please come forward it is enough time has passed please somebody say something
00:34:25
since you've been falling this case for so many years and you're local to the case as well what has happened since
00:34:30
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
00:34:37
spattering of this and that they had um news I believe one of the news companies
00:34:42
hired a psychic to come in that after the house that she had lived in they brought a psychic in to try and figure
00:34:48
out what had happened that ended up being nothing uh there was a period of time where they found bones in a park
00:34:54
not too far from the house that they had tested they ended up being animal bones
00:34:58
there's been numerous things over the year have happened every time there's a a child abduction or or something of
00:35:04
that sort along um that happens it always kind of gets brought up everyone remembers this in uh remembers this
00:35:10
incident here in Leonia um you know you bring it up and anybody who was around that time will know it some of the
00:35:16
things that seem really significant now is the fact that I'm a parent now like I
00:35:20
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
00:35:28
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
00:35:34
Natalie Holloway's husband or father is now possibly found bones remains of her of of his daughter you know that guy
00:35:42
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
00:35:49
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
00:35:57
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
00:36:05
her alone leave her family alone that were causing her undue stress that you know she doesn't want to deal with this
00:36:12
and you know her her boy's gone things of that sort I mean she almost pretty soon after this happened she moved away
00:36:19
from the area I find that odd because you know who would move away from the area that your your child's missing from
00:36:25
um you know she basically started new like I believe she has kids now and got remarried I understand the fact that you
00:36:30
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
00:36:39
know just completely missing from your life that your your daughters don't know about it that you have now it's just
00:36:45
it's just very odd uh she commented to a newspaper um not too long ago many year
00:36:51
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
00:36:58
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
00:37:05
Facebook when we've you know had interactions or there's nothing at all in any of her social media that even
00:37:12
mentions her son at all so I find that very odd what information Randy do you have regarding the investigation itself
00:37:19
and any type of uh communication that danana would have had with the Leonia Police Department to that point I think
00:37:26
it was the day after or two days after she took a polygraph test and failed it uh she failed the first polygraph test
00:37:33
went back in and took a second and she actually physically ripped the paper out of the polygraph machine because she did
00:37:39
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
00:37:48
point to her point to her 100% there's nobody else that has any information about where this boy is um the things
00:37:55
leading up to that that's that's the whole point that's the mystery of of everything is where was she the night
00:38:00
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
00:38:06
information out there uh some of the reports that I've been able to get a hold of I know from the Detroit Police
00:38:10
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
00:38:17
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
00:38:24
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
00:38:31
uh the child of some guy that she was hanging out with who she just so happened to be with that evening there's
00:38:36
several stories that went around as that uh uh from the neighborhoods about um the guy that she was with didn't want
00:38:43
any kids so she got rid of them I mean obviously all speculation and just just rumors from around that part of town but
00:38:51
uh yeah nothing nothing else there's nobody there's been no Ransom note there's been no phone calls nothing it's
00:38:57
just been complete radio silence since the day it's happened locally what are the rumors and uh what's some suspicions
00:39:04
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
00:39:12
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
00:39:20
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
00:39:25
other could be the truth at the moment any strange leads that you have come across through the website what's really
00:39:32
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
00:39:38
danan and that they didn't know who their parents were and they felt like their parents were lying to them they
00:39:43
felt like they were the son they were Dewan Sims and they felt like they uh looked very similar to him and and they
00:39:49
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
00:39:55
information we have and I forward it over to the leavon police department what happened with it at that point um I
00:40:00
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
00:40:07
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
00:40:13
there ever any other child abductions in that area during that time period so when it comes to other abductions in the
00:40:20
area at the time or even in the past zero none there was there was absolutely nothing on on the radar if anyone ever
00:40:27
being abducted in that City uh on that scale let alone a child um and anything up until this point I mean uh never
00:40:36
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
00:40:42
searched uh yes yeah the the she was definitely her house was searched uh I know that there were people who lived
00:40:48
right by her who who had recounted that you know the days that the the police were there going through the house and
00:40:54
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
00:40:59
that they did go through her house after she had moved out of it there was a public Rally or some type of Candlelight
00:41:06
vigil where we have danana Harris going on record and complaining that because of the Susan Smith case now this took
00:41:14
place just months before Dean went missing she's claiming because Susan Smith was in the
00:41:20
news that her son is not they're not searching for Dean the way that they should be correct so yeah I definitely
00:41:28
I'm glad you brought that up because yeah the Susan Smith case was taken up was brought up uh right around that time
00:41:34
was when if I'm not mistaken that was the case where um Susan Smith had said that her child was abducted by an
00:41:40
African-American gentleman and uh it really wasn't the case she actually I believe drowned them or something of
00:41:46
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
00:41:56
for her son or this doesn't have um you know larger larger outpouring of support
00:42:02
was that it was a young black child and nobody was looking for him in a White City it was something along that lines
00:42:08
I'm definitely paraphrasing though you have firsthand knowledge that law enforcement and the community was not
00:42:13
taking this case lightly yeah not at all and I'm glad you hit on that too as well
00:42:17
cuz I mean they were out enforced leavon Police Department immediately you know uh was working with the Detroit Police
00:42:23
Department if I'm not mistaken that the Detroit poli police Department also that
00:42:27
also then brought in the FBI so you had like three different um forms of law enforcement or districts or whatever it
00:42:34
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
00:42:41
even have to do this but volunteer just go walk the railroad tracks looking around her area of her house looking for
00:42:47
her son um you know at that point obviously the police were thinking that maybe somebody dumped him or she had
00:42:52
possibly maybe done something with him but uh you know weeks had passed people were still out looking for him um one of
00:42:59
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
00:43:05
after this had taken place uh somebody had heard some gossip or thought they heard something on the news that he was
00:43:11
found in a dumpster in the back of the mall and a bunch of people started running towards the back of the mall and
00:43:17
come to find out there was nobody out there uh it was just a movie theater garbage or um um trash compactor that
00:43:24
was back there and there was nobody out there they didn't find anything but somebody started almost like a little
00:43:28
bit of Hysteria in the mall and like probably 10 to 20 people were running through the mall trying to trying to go
00:43:33
see if they they had found him in the back of a dumpster Randy what if anything could have law enforcement done
00:43:39
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
00:43:47
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
00:43:54
they were equipped for something like this happen happening no one would have expected something like this to happen
00:43:59
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
00:44:06
would have thought that would have happened there well Randy thanks for taking the time out to talk with us
00:44:10
today and thanks for your continued work on this case yes thank you Randy for all
00:44:16
of your insights regarding The Disappearance of Dewan Sims you have a wonderful and happy turkey day my friend
00:44:22
you too thank you [Music] this is one of those cases captain that once you when you really start diving
00:44:34
into the details you really hope to find wait hold on once you can get to the details
00:44:40
this was one of the hardest cases I mean any of the research I did online it was
00:44:44
like uh kind of fictitious stories fake news everywhere well you really hope that you can find somewhere in there
00:44:52
that the mother is right that what she's complaining about to the security and the police department what she's
00:44:58
reporting to them that holds some truth the fact of the matter is there's nothing there there's no evidence that
00:45:04
she was telling the truth at all that day we have we have eyewitness testimony that states that that she didn't arrive
00:45:12
at the mall when she said she arrived right and that she was seen in the parking lot pulling in and getting out
00:45:17
of her vehicle without anybody with her without a boy a girl anybody with her at
00:45:22
all yeah and I believe there there was more than two eyewitnesses but there's at least two credible eyewitnesses that
00:45:29
saw her get out of her car with nobody with her and we also have a situation where we have her changing her story
00:45:37
throughout the time that she's with the police officers we have the police report that was taken that evening now
00:45:44
we might have some people that have reviewed that police report and they'll say well uh Randy says that the security
00:45:50
department was the one that notified the police the police report I believe states that dewan's mother I'm sorry
00:45:57
deana's mother Beverly Harris called the police right it's very likely that both
00:46:02
of them did the fact of the matter is that no report states that danana Harris was the one that called police or states
00:46:09
that that the police should be called yeah and I don't know if that matters but I think what matters here is the
00:46:16
times that she is possibly lying you know or like people will say well maybe she didn't go into that entrance so she
00:46:24
wouldn't have been seen on tape well she says that she you know lost contact with her son somewhere in the
00:46:32
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
00:46:39
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
00:46:47
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
00:46:52
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
00:46:59
to corroborate that then once once that's pointed out to her her story changes just a little bit mind you she
00:47:06
failed to lie detector test within days of her son having gone missing yeah again so if you want to make an excuse
00:47:13
you can say well maybe you chock that up to nerves but when you're pointing out people on surveillance cameras and
00:47:20
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
00:47:27
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
00:47:37
evidence points to that something happened and this was her idea to cover it up you're exactly right this this
00:47:43
looks to me like a pivot Captain like something happened I don't know if it was something on purpose or some type of
00:47:51
accident but something happened and then she had to Pivot and she came up and presented this whole story of you know
00:47:57
I'm going to take myself to the mall and I'm going to make it I'm going to report
00:48:00
that he went missing he was walking with me through the stores through the mall and that's what happened to my son and
00:48:07
to my little boy yeah she wasn't truthful that day she wasn't truthful afterwards and when her story started to
00:48:14
fall apart what she ultimately did was she turned this around on the police and the community and both the police and
00:48:21
the community had her back from the beginning they wanted to believe her story well they wanteded to look for an
00:48:27
an abductor yeah but we don't know what the interactions are or were from the get-go with the police officers well
00:48:35
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
00:48:40
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
00:48:47
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
00:48:53
her way and once they didn't look Beyond her her she basically said you know what
00:48:58
they're screwing up this investigation they're centering this thing around me they're not handling this thing the
00:49:03
right way they're not looking for my boy because he doesn't look like the rest of
00:49:08
this city they're not doing everything that they can to find him and we know that that's not the truth there are
00:49:13
plenty of police of newspaper reports right third party reports that the Detroit Police Department was extremely
00:49:22
active in the search for this little boy and act in the investigation into what could have happened with this little boy
00:49:29
well and if they weren't told lie after lie after lie they might know where to actually look we actually have uh one
00:49:36
statement that came from the Leonia Police Department to the media at the time that said this came out just before
00:49:42
Christmas where the police department announced that they had received over 700 tips M by the Christmas time and
00:49:49
since the boy had gone missing that they had paid out over $43,000 in mandatory overtime because of all the searches for
00:49:57
the boy and just because the holidays were coming up the mandatory overtime would not end they announced that their
00:50:03
officers may have to see their families um may not get to see their families on the holidays or spend time with their
00:50:10
families that they would have to work that around this mandatory overtime while this investigation was still hot I
00:50:16
wonder if she picked them all as a coverup story because her mother worked there that's one thing that to me almost
00:50:22
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
00:50:29
that she may have pulled something off and gotten away with something because I think she outsmarted a lot of us even
00:50:35
though we were suspicious of her I think that was her one dumb move was going to
00:50:40
where her mother worked at this part-time gig yeah but what I'm saying is that out of all the people in her
00:50:46
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
00:50:54
mother right right her mother so by having him supposedly going go missing where you work and where there's
00:51:02
surveillance cameras that you know you're not going to focus on me well from everything that I read this is this
00:51:10
is what makes it a little tough for the investigators from everything that I read regarding this case was that
00:51:18
Beverly the grandmother deana's mother she was in full support of her daughter during the course of this whole
00:51:24
investigation however I do want to be very iing Beverly the grandmother she was extremely Cooperative with the
00:51:34
police and she she's the one that called the police right she's the one that called the police her home was searched
00:51:40
after uh during this investigation as well but where we remain to this day Captain basically the facts of this case
00:51:48
are are this dwan Sims was never seen on any of the surveillance footage from that day when he was report reported
00:51:55
missing there is not one single person that has ever come forward stating that they saw danan at the reported location
00:52:02
of his disappearance there is currently no activity on this case the leavon the Leona police department they still to
00:52:11
this very day hold the belief that dwan Sims was not at the mall that day that he was reported missing well I think
00:52:17
that's where all the evidence points and I think if you're going to say otherwise
00:52:21
well then you have to prove some evidence of that mhm and we also have the mother who failed two lie detector
00:52:27
test just days following him him having been reported missing there have never been any charges filed against anyone in
00:52:34
this case and dwan's mother danana to this day maintains her innocence in this case but it also seems to me Captain
00:52:42
like this investigation um even though they left it open it looks to me that because of
00:52:49
the person that this should center around when she up and left town I think she left her her son her son's memory
00:52:56
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
00:53:04
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
00:53:11
missing child and the parents leave that town it's very odd yeah it's suspicious
00:53:17
it's not it doesn't seem to be typical Behavior now we do understand that sometimes people have to leave because
00:53:23
of their jobs because their families other things pull them away to other cities but nine times out of 10 Captain
00:53:30
what we see is that a mother or a father parents of people that disappear of children that go missing they don't up
00:53:38
and move especially children that are of a young age because their thought is you
00:53:44
know what if he or she ever breaks free if they have that moment with where they
00:53:49
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
00:53:57
the time they don't even change their phone numbers yeah because for fear that one day if they get the chance to pick
00:54:02
up a phone and call and reach out for help I better have that same phone number I better be there to answer the
00:54:09
phone or answer the door when my child my missing child comes back for help and comes back to me now if all this
00:54:16
evidence is wrong if there's a logical explanation for all this evidence then I do feel for her and that would make some
00:54:24
logical Sense on why she would want to move away and maybe why she doesn't have all these uh things on her Facebook
00:54:30
about her missing son because basically all the fingers Point towards her and I'd like to tell you that there's a
00:54:36
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
00:54:43
very strange that they've not recovered any remains that turned out to have been
00:54:48
dwan to this point right I mean we're over 20 years later they have from time to time released you know the age
00:54:55
progress progressed photos of what he may look like but I just I just don't see this one getting solved without any
00:55:04
help from his mother without any help from danana or the the close family members there's a good chance that if
00:55:12
anybody knows what happened it's the mother but there's also the potential that somebody else in that family might
00:55:17
know something right that maybe she told somebody and without that information I
00:55:22
just don't see getting the break in the case that this thing needs how about a little recommended reading Captain all
00:55:27
right hit me okay here we go this one is this one has been long awaited for and I
00:55:32
highly recommend this one it's called member of the family and this is by Diane Lake who is Diane Lake well she is
00:55:39
the youngest member of the Manson family and Charles Manson just uh died in late
00:55:45
1967 at the young age of 14 Diane Lake became one of Charlie's girls fully recruited and fully accepted into the
00:55:54
Manson family she was with she was in the family for about 2 years and she described the mixture of sexual
00:56:01
manipulation psychological control and physical abuse that came with being a member of the family she also talks
00:56:08
about Charles Manson's true nature Diane did not participate in the gruesome murders committed by the members of the
00:56:15
family but some of the members confessed to her following her arrest she was able
00:56:20
to transform trauma into Triumph finding the courage to face man and testify against him in court do yourself a favor
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00:56:49
moment where we give thanks we want to thank everybody for listening we want to thank everybody for telling a friend and
00:56:55
for subscribing to the show everybody have a very safe and Happy Thanksgiving until next week we will see you back
00:57:03
here in the garage until then be good be kind and don't [Music] [Applause] litter
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