A DNA sample has been requested by Victoria police from a Surrey man, following a tip that he might be Michael Dunahee.
Victoria police Const. Mike Russell said investigators don’t believe the unnamed man is actually Dunahee, who disappeared from a Victoria playground on March 24, 1991, at the age of four, but they are intent on following up to make sure.
Detectives are heading to the mainland to collect a blood sample from the man for DNA analysis. Information about the police request was posted under the name “Canuckels” in a section of the Vancouver Canucks online forum.
“We have been in contact with the Dunahee family and are collecting the DNA as part of our commitment to them and to Michael to exhaust no leads, no matter how small, until he is found,” Victoria police said in a statement. “We get dozens of similar tips every year and investigate them all thoroughly.”
Crystal Dunahee, Michael’s mother, said DNA tests have been done on look-alikes before, but she is not usually given advance warning. “I was forewarned about this one because of his posting. They wanted to give me a heads up about what was going on.”
There is usually a flurry of activity after new composite drawings are released, and police don’t want to rule anyone out, so, if they can’t confirm the identity, they go to DNA, Dunahee said.
“We have seen the picture of him and it’s touch and go. We have no idea,” she said. “From the picture, it looks as if he has green eyes and not blue eyes and that would be a dead giveaway, but you never know,” she said.
It is a roller-coaster ride each time there is a new lead, Dunahee said. “That’s why they don’t tell me everything that’s going on.”
But, over the years, she has never lost hope that Michael is still alive.
“You have to have hope, so you just keep going and one day…” Dunahee said, allowing the sentence to remain unfinished.
Russell said police have had thousands of tips to look into since Dunahee went missing. “Every time a composite drawing is shown or the photograph is shown we get hundreds of them and we follow each one up to the ends of the Earth, to either confirm or deny it. This is exactly what we’re doing here.”
The man who posted the information said he is 26 — which would be about the right age to be Dunahee — and that he was told a tip went to police saying he bears a “remarkable resemblance” to what Dunahee could look like as an adult.
His post, which has since been removed, said the situation is “really tough” for him, and that part of him thinks the possibility he is Dunahee could be true although he is “pretty sure” it isn’t.
A picture said to be the man was posted. It bears some similarity to Dunahee.
“I just want them to take my DNA and figure this out,” the post said. “Think about this for a second, you second-guess everything in a short period of time.”
He also wrote about a complicated family background. “I remember being at elementary school in Grade 1, but not much before.”
[email protected]
[email protected]
