Transcript
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The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
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All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
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Listener discretion is advised.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
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And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
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And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
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I'm Ali and it will just be me coming to you this week.
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Full disclosure, I was really late with my research this week.
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I went kind of down to the wire and then our neighbors were having a bit of a porch party
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in this really nice weather.
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So I am recording this very late at night and Eli has to work tomorrow so it is just
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me.
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Today we're back on our regular program.
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We had a two-parter last week and the feedback so far is that you guys seem to enjoy the
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two-part and kind of getting more in-depth.
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So hopefully we'll be able to do that with some more cases coming up.
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But today will just be a one-part episode.
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We are covering a missing person and just as a bit of a content warning at the top,
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this case does involve a young person and there are brief mentions of domestic assault.
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Today we are talking about the missing person case of D’wan Sims and this takes place in
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December 1994 in Livonia, Michigan.
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But first a little bit about D’wan.
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D’wan is four years old in 1994.
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He is a sweet little boy with a big radiant gap-toothed smile.
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Neighbors, family, and friends of D’Wan always said that he was a polite child and was often
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with his mother, D’Wanna.
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By all accounts, D’wan is a happy child and D’Wanna is an involved and kind mother.
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D’Wanna and D’Wan had recently moved into a new home in Detroit, but quite quickly the
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neighbors became accustomed to seeing the pair out and about in the neighborhood.
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So as we move into the timeline, there are a few different versions of the timing of
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the events.
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So I'm going to start off with the timeline that D’Wanna initially tells police.
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On Sunday, December 11, 1994, D’Wanna had spent the previous Saturday night out with
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friends and D’wan had stayed with a family friend.
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When D’Wanna woke up around 10 a.m., she gathered up some dirty laundry, put it in her car,
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and set off to go pick up D’wan.
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After she got D’wan, she headed to the grocery store to pick up some yogurt and plastic spoons
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before heading to the laundromat.
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Yogurt was one of D’wan’s favorite treats.
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She arrives at the laundromat around 1 p.m.
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She'll later tell investigators that she stayed around an hour.
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She used five washers and bought a large bottle of detergent.
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After the laundromat, she swings by her nearby mother's house to borrow a vacuum cleaner.
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She then heads to the Wonderland Mall to do some Christmas shopping.
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In the parking lot, D’Wanna will later admit that she scooped in and took a parking spot
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from someone else who had been waiting for it.
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By the time they get to the mall and park, it's right around 2 p.m.
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D’Wanna and D’wan entered the mall through the Target entrance.
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D’wanna says that she stayed inside the Target for about 45 minutes before leaving to go
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to the rest of the mall.
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From the inside of the Target, they had an interior entrance to the rest of the mall.
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To get to the rest of the mall, you had to walk through a walkway, essentially a very
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wide hallway.
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It was only 144 feet to the main mall concourse.
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There were a few stores in the hallway, including a KayBee's Toys, where D’wan stopped to stare
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at the Power Rangers in the window display.
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However, in the blink of an eye, D’wan is gone.
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D’Wanna turns back around, and he is not there anymore.
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D’Wanna starts to search for D’wan.
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She thinks he had just wandered off.
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This is the Christmas season, and if you'll remember malls in the 90s, they were packed
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at this time.
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With no online shopping, this was really one of the only places where you could get a lot
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of Christmas shopping done at once.
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D’Wanna searches, and she isn't finding D’wan.
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At around 4 p.m., she asks the security guards to help.
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D’wanna would have been missing for about an hour at this point.
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As security guards fail to find him, they call police who come to help assist in the
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search.
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D’Wanna even goes to get her mother, who is working at a shoe store in the mall, to help
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look for D’wan.
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As police arrive, they begin combing through the mall, but as minutes tick by, more and
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more police are summoned to help in the search until the mall closes.
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Police pull the surveillance footage from Target to see if they can see D’wan’s movements.
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They quickly pull tapes from the mall and different stores that day as well.
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During a quick viewing, police are unable to find D’Wanna or D’wan on the security footage,
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but they'll need to review it more closely later.
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In the meantime, police search dumpsters and the parking lot for any sign of the little
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boy.
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Immediately, police begin to question D’Wanna since her story isn't lining up with the
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security footage.
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Police ask if they can search D’Wanna’s home and the car that same night, and she does
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not hesitate and lets them.
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The search lasts into early Monday morning, but police are very tight-lipped with what
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they find during the search.
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Later that Monday, December 12th, police will give D’Wanna a polygraph test.
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They tell her that she fails, but they'll give her another shot the next day.
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Police continue to search the mall and surrounding area for any sign of Dewan, but nothing is
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turning up.
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Meanwhile, investigators continue to go through the surveillance footage from the mall that
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day.
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On Tuesday, December 13th, this is the second day of D’wans disappearance, and they give
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D’Wanna another polygraph test.
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It is reported that she also failed this one.
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But it's also reported that she walked out of the police station during their questioning.
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She told a local paper, quote, They have been questioning me for 18 hours.
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I feel that I have given them sufficient amount of information that they need.
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Once I got tired of the questioning, I got up and left."
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End quote.
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She also told a local news station, quote, They drove me through a park today and told
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me to show them where the body is at.
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These are the types of things I've been subjected to.
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End quote.
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Neighbors and families stand behind D’Wanna and do not believe that she had anything to
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do with D’wan’s disappearance.
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A neighbor from the neighborhood that D’Wanna grew up in says, quote, I don't think she
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had anything to do with it because she didn't seem like that type of person.
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She took very good care of her son.
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I was very proud of her.
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She was a young girl, but she was a mother, and she wasn't one of those girls who partied
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and ran around without her child.
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End quote.
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D’Wanna’S family and friends feel that they're trying to compare her to Susan Smith, a case
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that had happened earlier in 1994.
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In that case, Susan Smith told police that her two children had been kidnapped in a carjacking.
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A few days later, she admitted to killing them by putting them in her car and letting
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the car roll into a lake, ultimately drowning her children.
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Police believe that she was motivated to murder her children so she could be in a relationship
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with a wealthy man who had recently written her a letter saying that he didn't want a
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relationship with someone with kids.
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Police are also questioning D’Wan’s father and D’Wanna’s live-in boyfriend as well.
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Detective Ken Marlo says, quote, we are not focused on any one possibility.
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We are pursuing every possible theory.
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End quote.
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Police return to the mall to search the basement level and the nearby neighborhood, but these
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searches don't yield any sign of D’Wan.
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On Wednesday, December 14th, it's been three days, police refuse to officially say that
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D’Wanna is a suspect.
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In the local media, an anonymous police source said that during the search of Dewana's home
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and car, they found a letter from a man telling Dewana that he didn't want to be with her
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because he didn't want to be with someone who already had a child.
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D’Wanna holds a press conference at her mother's home to try to clear her name.
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She says, quote, this little black kid is lost in an all-white city.
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Lavonia just wants this thing to go away.
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One detective even said to me, why don't you just say you lost D’wan in Detroit so
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we can be done with this?
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Lavonia police had no comment on this statement.
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D’Wanna goes on to say, quote, I feel that this investigation has been focused the wrong
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way.
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I feel a lot of the turns they are taking is because of the Susan Smith case.
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I do understand what the Lavonia police have to do, and that's why I've been cooperating
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with them to the fullest extent.
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I was at the mall.
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Me and my son were at the mall.
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I don't know about the surveillance tapes.
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We walked through Target's door, end quote.
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The next day, Thursday, December 15th, police come out to make a statement that they never
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found a letter during their search of D’wanna’s home.
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Detective Marlow says, quote, that letter does not exist, end quote.
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Police, however, are saying that at this time D’wan and D’wanna are not seen on the surveillance
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footage from the mall at all.
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Police also begin sorting through over 200 tips that have been called in since D’wan’s
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disappearance.
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Police also reveal that D’wan's grandmother, Beverly, had recently taken out a life insurance
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policy for D’wan.
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Beverly scoffs at the idea that they would kill D’wan for the money.
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She had taken it out for him to hopefully help pay for college.
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There are some life insurance policies that you can take loans out on.
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Beverly says, quote, I don't even think that policy is even in effect.
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They haven't taken one payroll deduction out of my check.
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People have gold cars that are worth more than that.
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Why would anyone hurt a child for $25,000, end quote.
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Police have been holding daily press conferences, and on Thursday, this press conference, they
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show photos of D’wanna’s noticeable 1991 red Thunderbird car, asking if anyone saw it and
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to call that tip in.
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They say, quote, we're exploring every possibility.
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And one of those is that D’wan got separated, and possibly he tried to make it back out
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to the car.
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We're asking the public if anyone has any memories stirred by this and saw D’wan near
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the car, end quote.
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On Friday, December 16, it's been five days that D’wan has vanished.
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The family become frustrated with the investigation.
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Beverly says, quote, I think the police is doing everything they can.
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They're being very kind to the family, but I think their focus is wrong.
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They're focusing on D’Wanna when they should be focusing on D’wan.
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The reason why the police are focusing on so many ridiculous things is because they have
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no leads whatsoever.
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The only thing that bothers us is they seem to be looking for a body, not a baby, end
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quote.
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Police hold another press conference this day, and this time they show the public the
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same jacket that D’wan was wearing, saying, quote, we're looking for anybody who might
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recognize this coat.
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This might help refresh somebody's memory who was at the scene and saw young D’wan Sims
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with this particular coat on, end quote.
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At the one week mark, Sunday, December 18, police have D’Wanna retrace all of her steps
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from the day that D’wan disappeared.
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At this point, D’Wanna has remained firm in her story, but police say that they are unable
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to find any witnesses that saw D’Wan and D’Wanna together that day.
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The next day, around noon, police show up at D’Wans grandmother's house and ask Beverly
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if they can search her home.
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They do not have a search warrant, but she allows them to search anyway.
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She says, quote, the focus should be on finding D’wan.
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They're looking for signs of him.
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They're doing what they're supposed to do.
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We have nothing to hide.
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My family has nothing to hide, end quote.
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However, on the next day, Tuesday, December 20, it's been nine days since D’Wan’s disappeared
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and police come forward with a bold statement that they do not believe D’Wanna.
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They say, quote, we find no evidence that D’Wan Sims was at Wonderland Mall, nor has
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anyone come forward to place D’Wan at the mall.
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The evidence leads us to believe that D’Wan Sims was not at Wonderland Mall, end quote.
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D’Wanna and her family refute this.
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D”wanna says, quote, I gave D’Wan a little more freedom than he should have had, but
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I'm paying for that now, end quote.
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Police say that they can only find D”wanna in the security footage around 4 p.m. when
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she's looking for D’Wan with security.
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Police also say that they have retraced her steps and could not find any witnesses that
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could put D’Wanna and D’wan together that day.
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However, when local media talked to the laundromat attendant, they said, quote, police asked
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me if I knew anything.
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I said it was too busy.
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The place was crowded.
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It's like that every weekend, a madhouse, little kids all over, running and playing,
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end quote.
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The next day, after 10 days of searching, police call off the ground search.
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In the days that follow, Beverly will admit to local media that D’Wanna told her a different
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timeline of events.
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According to Beverly, D’Wanna told her that she was at the laundromat between 11 and 1130.
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Between 1230 and 1, she swung by Beverly's home to borrow the vacuum cleaner.
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While people were at home at Beverly's, they were all upstairs and D”wanna said that
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she stayed on the ground floor and in the garage.
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Someone who was upstairs did say that they thought they heard D’Wan downstairs that day.
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D’Wanna then went back to her house to drop things off.
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And then between 1, 15 and 1, 30, she left and headed to the mall.
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A month later, in January of 1995, police will confirm that witnesses did see Dewan
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and D’Wanna leave their home together at around 1, 15 to 1, 30.
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And then a few hours later, witnesses saw D’Wanna in the parking lot without D’wan.
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Police are zeroing in on the time between when witnesses saw D’wan get into the car
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with his mother and when D’Wanna is later seen on surveillance footage.
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Police further reveal that when they do see D’Wanna on the surveillance footage, they see
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her enter the mall without D’Wan and walk straight to the area where she initially asked
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for help to search for her son.
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Over the year of 1995, there will be a few stories about D’wan, but no new leads in his
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case.
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When suddenly, in October of 1995, a grand jury is held just a few days before D’wan's
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fifth birthday.
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However, the grand jury will end with no charges filed.
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Since grand jury proceedings are confidential and sealed, the public has no idea what went
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on in them.
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In November of 1995, D’wan has been missing for 11 months.
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A letter is mailed to police and news organizations offering tips in the case.
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The letter claimed that D’wan was put in a dumpster in Detroit on December 13, two days
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after he was reported missing.
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The letter said, quote, First of all, D’wan is dead and has been for a while, unquote.
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The letter goes on to say that financial issues in the family led to the plot to make D’Wan
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disappear.
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The letter also claimed that they had attempted to do this earlier, but, quote, Everyone got
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scared.
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The people behind the whole thing are so scary, end quote.
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D’Wanna is also threatened in the letter.
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It says, quote, D’Wan’s mother is supposed to die next, end quote.
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When the one-year anniversary rolls around in December, the media asks the police about
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this letter.
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Detective Marlow said, quote, It doesn't give us any information we didn't have, end
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quote.
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When asked to elaborate, they refuse.
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Over the last year, D’Wanna had married her boyfriend and they were expecting their first
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child together in the next few months.
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However, in August of 1996, D’Wan has been missing for 20 months, D’Wanna is arrested
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and ultimately pleads guilty to domestic assault.
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It's reported that she threatened her husband with two knives when he didn't take their
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daughter out shopping with him and his other child.
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D’Wanna will only have to attend a domestic violence class and the judge will order that
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she continues her counseling.
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The next big update in the case comes in July of 1999.
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It's been four and a half years.
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The case is reopened by Detroit Major Crimes Unit who feel confident that they're closing
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in on the suspect and an arrest will come any day.
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While police don't name who their prime suspect is, D’Wanna has no doubts that it's her.
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She tells a local paper that the investigator, quote, has assumed he could get me to confess
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to something that I did not do.
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As long as the investigation focuses on me, it will never be solved, end quote.
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A few months later in November of 1999, police will conduct an intense search of Hines Park,
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which was about halfway between the mall and D’Wan’s home.
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Police find a few items and even bones, but it does not appear that any of these items
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were significant since there are no future updates about what was found during the search.
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I'm assuming if the bones had been D”WAN’s, they would have announced that.
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They do have his parents' DNA on file, so they have something to compare it to.
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In 2006, the mall is torn down.
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Those who followed the case closely wondered if anything would be found in the rubble,
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but just like with everything else, no additional clues about D’wan's whereabouts were unearthed.
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In December of 2009, it's the 15-year anniversary of D’wan's disappearance and his family has
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missed him every single one of those days.
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D;wan's family blame police and the media for focusing so heavily on D’Wanna during the
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first few days of the investigation and not on D’Wan.
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Livonia police say that D”wanna is still a suspect after all these years, quote, we're
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pretty confident D”wan never made it to Wonderland Mall, end quote.
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However, in 2009, they do acknowledge that they do have witnesses that also saw D’wan
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and D’Wanna at the laundromat, which previously they said they had not.
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On the 25-year anniversary of D’wan’s disappearance, this is December of 2019, a man walks into
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the Livonia police station and offers his DNA as he believes that he is D”wan.
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D’Wanna had spoken with this man as well, but she had her doubts.
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The man didn't have D’Wan birthmarks and couldn't tell her D’wan's birthday.
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Police do take his DNA and have it tested, but it takes over a year for the results,
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which conclude that he is not D’Wan.
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While waiting for the DNA results, at the end of 2020, D’Wanna passed away.
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With her passing, police acknowledge that the case is now harder to solve, but they
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remain committed to closing D’wan's case and finding answers.
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So with that, if you know anything about the disappearance of D’Wan Sims in 1994 or his
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whereabouts today, please call the Livonia police at 734-466-2470.
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And the sources for the timeline today come from Detroit Free Press, Battle Creek Inquirer,
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Lansing State Journal, The Item, and The Province.
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So that is the case of D’wan Sims.
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This is a case that when I started to look into it, I realized that this is actually
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a case where there was a lot of coverage.
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This got national news coverage at the time in 1994.
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And over the years, it has continuously kind of been covered by different podcasts, different
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media.
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But I personally had not heard of this case.
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And once I learned more about it, I needed to research it and I needed to get into it
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because depending on what you're listening to, what you're reading, what you're watching,
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the story shifts a lot.
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And you can probably even tell from my timeline today how much the timeline can shift and
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the inconsistencies not only from D’Wanna, but also from police.
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There's a lot of inconsistencies in everyone's stories.
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So that for me brings up a lot of questions.
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One of the things that I wish I could do in this case, like if I could do anything, I
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wish I could just pull the case file and review everything and just really understand what
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has been said, when it was said, and what evidence do we have to back it up.
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We know that D’Wanna, who has been the focus of not only the police during the investigation,
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but also other podcasts, other media, a lot of people focus on her inconsistencies.
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And I want to acknowledge them as well because they bring up a lot of questions.
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But police also have inconsistencies.
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We know that police are allowed to lie during the course of their investigation.
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And we know that oftentimes they pretend they don't have as much as they really do.
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We see that happen quite a bit.
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But in this case, they originally are saying that D’Wanna and D’Wan are not seen at all
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on any surveillance footage.
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They don't see them at all.
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But then later they're like, well, D’Wanna was there, but D’wan wasn't there with her.
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And there are just numerous instances of that happening where they say no one can confirm
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that she was at the laundromat.
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But then years later, they'll say that they do have witnesses that saw D’wan and D’Wanna
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at the laundromat.
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So for me, in just wanting to understand what happened in this case, if I could pull out
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that case file and just put it all up on a whiteboard and understand truly what police
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do have, what they have been able to verify and what they have not, and then what D’Wanna
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said to police and what she said to her family because we know that that story and the timing
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differs from the timing she told police to the timing she told her family.
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So that's a big thing for me, and I'm sure it's a big thing for a lot of folks in this
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case is just trying to really pin down any fact in this case is hard.
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It does seem though that they have witnesses between 1.15 and 1.30 that did see D’wan get
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in the car with his mother.
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And it does seem that at around 4pm, they do have D’Wanna on surveillance footage, searching
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for D’Wan in the mall.
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It does not seem that police have any other footage before 4pm to show that D’Wanna was
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in the mall, even though she said she was there around 2.
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So it's really those few hours that really need to fill in the blanks.
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And it's so frustrating because it feels like you should be able to draw kind of a map,
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like a circle around a map and say like, okay, worst case scenario, D’wan, something happened
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and D’Wanna needed to get rid of D’wan’s body, whatever that may be.
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She couldn't have driven hours across state lines.
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She couldn't have driven into Canada.
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They do have like federal agents at the beginning of the case because Detroit is so close to
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Canada.
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But it's like, she couldn't have driven too far in order to be back at the mall by 4pm
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when she is caught on security footage.
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So it almost feels like you can circle a map, you know, with an hour radius, an hour to
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get somewhere, an hour to get back.
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And it's like D’wan is there somewhere.
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She's somewhere in that circle, which is so frustrating to think that it's that small.
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But I know in scale, it's really so big.
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Another question that I had that seemed almost like a little thing, and maybe you all picked
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up on it as well, but the letter that is sent to the police and news media that said that
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D’wan was put in a dumpster two days after he was reported missing, that the family did
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this for money and that D’Wanna was next.
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When police are asked about this a month later, they said that no new information was gathered
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from the letter.
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So to me, that would say that they knew that D’wan was put in a dumpster, that they had
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heard this, they had evidence of this, that was a working theory.
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Is that part of what they've known?
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Do they believe that to be true?
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Over the years, police have said that, you know, they remain hopeful that D’wan will
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come home alive, that they'll be able to bring him home.
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But you know, they recognize as the years pass that that chance was slimmer and slimmer
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and slimmer.
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But at no point did or has the investigation ever truly switched to a homicide investigation.
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So what does this mean?
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You know, I'm left with, did they think that he was put in a dumpster?
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Or did they just say like there was no new information, like no new clues?
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There, you know, that letter was bogus, so nothing new was learned from it.
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There's just like a lot of ways to interpret it.
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And it seemed like the media at the time picked up on that and police just refused to elaborate
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anymore.
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My future hopes for this case is that the case remains active.
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It doesn't seem like a secret to me.
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And I'm sure if you're listening, you also picked up on the fact that police were very
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suspect of D’Wanna.
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But with her passing, I really hope that police continue to look into this case and review
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it and investigate it.
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Especially, you know, if she has passed on, if she had something to do with it, maybe
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people will be more likely to come forward in the future.
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But if she didn't, then I think that she deserves to have her name exonerated.
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She has maintained her innocence over the years.
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And even though her story timeline has shifted some, it has stayed the same as far as the
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sequence of events, you know, picked up on a laundromat, mall, or and the vacuum cleaners
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in there too.
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So it just feels like if she had nothing to do with this, then her name should be cleared.
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And I hope that police are able to find answers in this one way or the other for D’wan, ultimately.
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00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:10,400
And that's something that his grandmother said again and again and again in this case
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is that, you know, people are focusing on D’Wanna, not on D’wan.
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And I think that is true to an extent.
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And I understand that, you know, they have to investigate people.
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But it really did feel like so much focus media attention was on kind of proving Dewana
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wrong.
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And again, like, I don't know, I really don't know if she had anything to do with it or
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not.
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I can kind of talk myself in circles around and around about it.
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You know, as soon as I'm convinced of her guilt, I think, well, her story hasn't changed
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in all these years, they've never been able to bring a charge against her.
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So they don't have anything.
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And then I'm also once I'm in that camp, I'm like, but the security footage didn't catch
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D’wan anywhere.
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So I can really talk myself back and forth.
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So I know that the community of Detroit and Livonia who, you know, remember this case
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are still very much involved in the case and committed to it.
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Before I was reading message boards and things like that, so many people in the comments
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00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:26,880
section lived in the area and think about D’wan all the time.
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So they deserve answers.
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His family deserves answers.
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And yeah, I think the one way or the other, knowing if his mother was involved, like,
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those are my hopes for this case that we can get answers to all of those things.
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And ultimately, like, I would love it if he came home.
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00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:54,040
But again, if you know anything about the disappearance of D’wan Sims in 1994, or his
427
00:30:54,040 --> 00:31:02,360
whereabouts today, please call the Livonia police at 734-466-2470.
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00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:08,400
We will be posting photos of D’wan and some age progress photos on our Instagram.
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So please make sure you're checking that out.
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You can find us at cold and missing will pop right up.
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00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:19,280
If you're in Apple podcasts, if you wouldn't mind leaving us a written review.
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00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:23,320
If you're not an apple if you could give us five stars thumbs up whatever that metric
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00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:29,960
is, it helps other folks find this podcast and it's a free way to support the podcast
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00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:32,640
and get these stories out there.
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00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:34,040
If you've already done it.
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00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:35,040
Thank you.
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00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:36,040
Thank you.
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00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:37,040
Thank you.
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00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:38,040
You're the best.
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00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:41,200
I know we've gotten a few new written reviews this month and I'm just over the mute.
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00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:47,120
I'm immune over the moon with how kind and supportive you all are.
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00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:49,720
It really means the world to me.
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00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:55,080
If you or someone you love is hard of hearing, we have transcripts on our website cold and
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00:31:55,080 --> 00:32:00,400
missing.com so you can follow along with the podcast there.
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00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:03,400
But that is all that I have.
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00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:06,480
Thank you so much for listening to cold and missing.
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00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:07,880
I'm Allie.
448
00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:12,040
Have a good week and stay safe y'all.
