(CBS DETROIT)When D’Wan Sims’ mother, D’Wanna Wiggins, reported him missing from the Wonderland Mall in Livonia, he was four years old. The matter is still unresolved thirty years later.
On December 11, 1994, Wiggins reported to the police that her kid had vanished while they were out shopping. However, D’Wan was not visible on the surveillance footage, which only showed the Detroit mother entering the shopping center.
Wiggins passed away on December 7, 2020, in Durham, North Carolina.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s website still has D’Wan classified as missing. He was last spotted sporting dark blue sweatpants, low-top “FILA” brand shoes, and a blue winter jacket over a multicolored windbreaker.
“I would say that your memory is not lost if D’Wan is still alive somewhere. “I will never forget that day,” Livonia Police Capt. Greg Yon said.
Police captain says he never forgot about D’Wan Sims
After 38 years with the Livonia Police Department, Yon was a police officer in 1994 when he and a team of cops were tasked with searching the area around the mall, including D’Wan’s neighborhood and Rouge Park in Detroit.
The current skipper stated on Wednesday that he will always remember the case.
“I think about it because of all of the manpower that we had invested in searching for him, the investigation that took place subsequently that eventually, we realized he had never entered that mall,” Yon told CBS Detroit on Wednesday.
According to Yon, he wonders what D’Wan would be doing now that he is 34 years old, even if the police have not yet discovered what happened to the boy.
“It is hoped that he may still be alive and unaware of his abandonment or any other possible events. “A life that was never lived could be the other end of that,” Yon stated.
According to Yon, some cops who were given the case in 1994 are still on the force and continue to discuss it. He claims that both personally and as an officer, the case influenced him.
“As a young man and a parent of small children at the time, you consider your own family and your children as well as the other individuals who suffer from kidnappings and sudden catastrophes involving their children. As a parent, it always weighs on you,” he remarked. “When you see it on a basis like we do where things can change in a moment and it definitely weighs on your heart.”
Man claims to be D’Wan Sims but DNA testing proved otherwise
A man came forward in 2019 and said he might be D’Wan. DNA tests, however, disproved that theory.
Wiggins told The Associated Press at the time that she was tagged in Facebook posts where the man claimed to think he was D’Wan. He informed her he was looking for his birth family, she said.
“I made contact with him. In 2019, Wiggins told The AP, “We spoke on Facebook. “After the Facebook story got viral, I contacted him. I was attempting to show him and his narrative some sympathy. The probe is still ongoing. It’s serious.
While acknowledging the potential that the individual was not D’Wan, Yon says they were hopeful that the case would be resolved at that time.
“A lot of thoughts go through your head when someone steps up and believes they are the one. Do they genuinely think they are the person, or are they just attempting to get some publicity? In this instance, it appears that he believed he might be D’Wan based on his scant knowledge of the past. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be him, despite the strong hopes that it would be,” Yon stated.
Where does D’Wan’s case stand now?
Yon urges anyone with information to come forward as the case is still open.
“This is something that nobody should have to keep quiet about, and we would hope that if they do know something that they would contact us and give us viable leads so we can at least solve this not only for D’Wan but for his family members,” he stated.
Livonia police are asking anyone with information about the case to contact them at 734-466-2470.
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