Renewed push to find Michael Dunahee who disappeared 34 years ago in Victoria

It’s one of the country’s best-known missing persons cases. Now, police in Victoria are once again making a public appeal for help to solve the disappearance of Michael Dunahee.

Monday marked 34 years since the then-four-year-old vanished from a playground at an elementary school in the province’s capital.

The Victoria Police Department says there’s a dedicated tipline set up for any information on Dunahee’s possible whereabouts.

“All it could take is just one person to bring Michael home,” it shared in a post on social media.

The case has remained open, and the investigation is still active. There have been thousands of tips to date, but there’s never been anything solid enough for police that would lead them to an arrest, police explain.

It was March 24, 1991, when the family was on the way to a field for a football game when Dunahee asked to go to the nearby playground where there were other kids. He went as his parents unloaded the car. His father was supposed to go supervise him, but less than two minutes later, they turned around, and he was gone.

In a previous interview with 1130 NewsRadio, Michael’s mother, Crystal Dunahee, says her family has never given up hope.

“I can’t imagine anybody else having to go through what we’ve been going through. It’s a nightmare. It’s a continual nightmare because you just don’t know,” she said.

Despite the heartache, she maintains optimism that they will find him one day.

Over the years, different men have come forward claiming to be the young boy, but none of them have turned out to be him.

In 2021, to mark the 30th anniversary of his disappearance, police in Victoria released an age-enhanced sketch of Dunahee. They also launched the tipline and an online portal for information.

Anyone with more information on where Dunahee may be is urged to call investigators at 250-995-7444.