LIVONIA, Mich. – It has been 30 years since 4-year-old D’Wan Sims was reported missing from the Wonderland Mall in Livonia.
His mother, Dwanna Harris, told police he disappeared while shopping with her. That was on Dec. 11, 1994.
“The focus is finding D’Wan, he’s 4 years old, he’s alone and he needs to come home to his mother,” Harris said in a 1994 news conference, just days after his disappearance. “The only thing that I want the public to know, is that my only concern is finding my son.”
“Whoever has my baby, I know he’s safe, and I know you’re taking good care of him . . . What I’m hoping is that someone may have ran across my child . . . We’ve got your Christmas ready, so, just come home.”
According to police, surveillance video showed Harris at the mall but did not show her son. Investigators believe he was never at the mall and the family became the focus of suspicion.
“I was here at the department and we looked at all of the video, we checked everything, and we never saw D’Wan with Ms. Sims,” Livonia police Captain Ron Taig said.
D’wan Sims was last seen wearing a blue winter jacket over a multi-colored windbreaker and dark blue sweat pants. He was wearing low-top ‘FILA’ brand tennis shoes. Sims would be 32 years old now.
Dwanna Harris died in 2020 without answers in her son’s disappearance. Taig said in 2020 that the case would remain open.
“As far as making a statement whether D’wan is alive or dead, obviously, over this time frame, it’s discouraging for us that we haven’t received any other tips or any other information,” Taig said in 2020.
The case remains unsolved and Sims is still considered missing. Police are asking anyone with new information about this case to contact the Livonia Police Department at 734-466-2470.
(Local 4’s Pamela Osborne will have new reaction on this case during Local 4 News at 5 p.m. on Wednesday)
Read: Michigan cold case coverage
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