What happened to Michael Dunahee?

Jordan If you were a child in the 1990s, you might remember the story as the reason your parents wouldn’t let you go anywhere alone.

News Clip Good evening. It’s every parent’s nightmare to look away for just a second and find that your young son or daughter has disappeared. A couple in Victoria, British Columbia is now living that nightmare.

Jordan Michael Dunahee might be the most famous missing child in Canadian history. Even 30 years later, his story has never been forgotten. The investigation into his disappearance remains to this day, one of the largest police investigations ever in this country, and reported sightings and suspects still emerge every few years. But after three decades, what is left to find? What stories have not been told which threads have been left dangling? And what happens if you pull it? And what is it like to lose your child and spend all that time hunting for without ever losing hope that he is still out there somewhere.

I’m Jordan Heath Rawlings. This is the big story. Laura Palmer is an investigative reporter. She is the host of a podcast called Island crime. The new season just released dives deep into the investigation surrounding Michael’s disappearance. Hi, Laura.

Laura Palmer Hello, Jordan.

Jordan I’m going to just get you to jump right into it. I think a lot of people will know the answer to this question because this case is so high profile. But let’s start at the beginning. And I’ll ask you who is Michael Dunahee?

Laura Palmer So Michael is a four-year-old boy who vanished from Victoria in 1991. And I know you have kids, Jordan. So you will know that by the time they reach that age four, almost five years old, their little personalities are just starting to take shape. And I’m going to play a clip for you now. It’s one of Michael’s little buddies. Her name is Felicia Burnie. And she’s describing her friend, Michael.

Felicia Burnie clip My absolute favorite story. And from everything I’ve heard, it just speaks to the kind of kid that he was and the kind of trouble he would get into. We were at church. And I obviously probably not behaving the way we should be. And so my dad separated us, like moved Michael over to the other side of him and I was sitting on the other so then was separating us. And in the middle of church, Michael stood up, like stood there, put his hips, his hands on his hips, looked at my dad and walked around and went and sat right back down beside me. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been told it but I just have this very clear image of him in my head, just glaring down my dad, and then just plopping himself right back down and just carry on the conversation that we’ve been having.

Laura Palmer Which,is the best, right? He’s, he’s, he’s an independent little guy. I hear that over and over again from people who knew him like Felicia. And on their last Halloween together, Felicia remembers that she and Michael dress as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Remember, this is 1991 The turtles are huge. And in home video that I’ve seen from Michael’s last Christmas with his family, he gets a big box of the turtles. And once again, that’s something I hear from everyone about just how much he loved the crime-fighting turtles. Hey, so he is wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle the day he vanishes. And that’s something that when you hear the description of Michael, you always hear about that as well. One of his aunts described him to me as that kid wearing the sunglasses and giving out the cool high fives on the bus. So like lots of personality. He’s bright and observant. He’s getting ready to attend kindergarten. That fall he would have been going to Vic West Elementary. One of his grandma’s. Kathy talked about how Michael knew his phone number, a phone number the Dunahee’s he’s still have, by the way, how he knew his way around town and would give her directions when they went out together. And she also talked about how she took him skiing to Whistler a couple of times. And folks will know of course that Whistler is a huge mountain. And here’s Michael just a little guy. He went for a full day lesson on his own on that big mountain. And I think that just speaks to the kind of, you know, adventurous little spirit he was.

Jordan So this is a case that is more than 30 years old. Now. I’m going to ask you Maybe first, to just tell me the basic details of his disappearance, because I know you cover this in a lot of depth in the podcast. And then, more importantly, why now 30 almost 31 years later.

Laura Palmer So the circumstances of Michael’s disappearance are perhaps one of the reasons it has maintained so much interest over the years. Michael is attending his mother’s football game, on a Sunday afternoon, March 24 1991. His mom has a game at one o’clock in the afternoon, and the family arrives, about 12:30 or so. And when I say family, Michael, his mum and dad, his baby sister, Caitlin, and a fellow teammate, a woman named Donna Federlee all arrive at the field together. Now on the way Michael asked if he can go play at the little school playground, so they’re playing on a field, which is near an elementary school, a school that’s no longer in use as an elementary school now, but back then it has a little playground, it has a field, and they arrive in the parking lot and allow Michael for the very first time to go play in that little playground on his own. The promise is that he will just stay in that playground and wait for his dad who is going to help take the baby and some of the equipment over to the field and then return to Michael in the little playground. That is the last they see of him. They don’t know if he actually made it to the playground, he leaves their little car their little red Datsun and heads out over the parking lot they had in the other direction. And minutes later, when his dad goes to get him, he’s just gone.

So year after year, the family holds a keep the hope alive run. And that’s their way of ensuring that Michael’s story remains in the public eye. And they have been really successful in keeping, you know, local reporters focused on the story. And in the early days, there was a ton of attention on this case, it was featured on Oprah and America’s Most Wanted. But you know, in all of that, and this is a story I have followed over the years, I found myself thinking just how much of the coverage is really focused on a few narrow themes. The details that I just described to you are about all anyone ever talks about in terms of Michael’s disappearance. But there is a lot more to Michael, and a lot more to the story and how it impacted his community and beyond. And so I wanted to look into that. But I also wanted to get further into the investigation, because again, outside of those early few months, there’s not a lot of focus on the investigation itself. And I would also say that, well, it’s hard to see solving a 30 year case as urgent, I really do feel that time is crucial now, people involved in the investigation. Detectives, witnesses are dying, and some suspects are dying as well. And so I do feel that the window to solve the case could be shrinking.

Jordan So you decided this would be your story for season three and that you would really dig in as you did that. What was the first thing that stood out to you?

Laura Palmer Well, so many things as I began to talk to people, but first of all, I want you to listen to another little bit of tape.

Micheal Dunahee clip *Sounds of sounds of Michael playing with his sister *

Laura Palmer That’s the sound of Michael Dennehy that little voice. That’s him. He’s actually rolling around on the bed with his little baby sister Caitlyn. Now Crystal and Bruce, Michael’s parents shared home video with me quite a bit of home video with me. And it wasn’t until I sat down and watched those videos that I really felt the loss of this child. I mean, you know, you’ve seen the missing posters. He is a super cute little guy. He’s all kind of dimples and rumpled blond hair. But, you know you watch the videos and talk to people, lots of people who love Michael and miss him so very deeply. It just really brought him into sharp focus for me.

Jordan How So ?

Laura Palmer Michael is really special to so many people. This is Michael’s Aunt and Karen Dunahee.

Karen Dunahee Clip I remember when he was born, I went to the hospital. I remember holding him and looking at him and thinking, oh my god, this is what love means. Because before that, you know, was just existing and life is just whatever. And he came along and Oh, I get it now. This is the meaning of life, holding him.

Laura Palmer This is a really close family. Back then Karen talked about how they’d all have Sunday dinners together. Michael is the first grandchild. And Crystal is also the very first on her football team, the Hellcats to have a child. So that group of women too, who are all there that day, he vanishes. They have spent years watching Michael grow and they love him too. I had a chance to interview a half a dozen of them for this series, they remain close to this day. And many of them told me that the trauma of what happened on the field that Sunday bonded them together for life. And that’s that’s a big focus of the second episode.

Jordan So we’ve spoken before, as you did your last season about gone boys, and I know, the way you approach these stories tends to be very victim focused. So you know, I’ll ask you a little bit about that. How did Michael’s disappearance impact his parents, Bruce and crystal and, you know, obviously, incredibly traumatic at first, but but over the decades?

Laura Palmer Well, in incredibly traumatic then. And now. It’s not the kind of thing that ever goes away, you know, Crystal says occasionally, you know, she’ll hear that from people like, you should move on, you know, how, obviously, how, how can you How could you. And so they and crystal in particular, I would say have dedicated their lives, really, to keeping his memory alive and keeping that whole, that he’s still alive out there. And also, Crystal has been very involved in helping to keep other kids safe. She’s worked with Child Find DC, and has also been instrumental in getting the Amber Alert system put in place out here. But I would say even after all this time, it’s just not easy for them to talk about Michael. But I did sit down with them in their home a couple of times. And here’s how Crystal Dunahee remembers her little boy Michael.

Crystal Dunahee Clip Inquisitive, always wanting to play learn he is learning how to ride his bicycle without the training wheels and all that. Good stuff, the fun stuff the boys like to do. Yeah, the complex where we lived at time, there was a playground in the middle of the complex. So he was always out there playing like planes and cars, like every little boy does dump trucks. And so it’s just starting to get that adventurism to venture out and play on his own. His his very articulate, yeah, he’s not wasn’t afraid to talk, communicate. He easily made friends, just his father’s nature.

Laura Palmer You know, Bruce and Crystal also talked to me about how excited Michael was to welcome his new baby sister, Caitlin to the family. I watched home video of Michael at the hospital meeting Caitlin and lots of times he spent with her. And he is so gentle and sweet with her. There’s video of him helping to bathe her and sleeping with her and helping to unwrap her Christmas presents. And I did interview Caitlin as well. And she just holds on to those. She didn’t she doesn’t have specific memories herself. She’s just a baby. But what she’s been told and what she can see of just how fond of her he is and what a fantastic big brother he would have been to her.

Jordan So the early episodes of the show are mostly focused on the disappearance itself and then the impact on the family as we just spoke about, but in the second half of the season, you get really deep into the investigation. So can you tell me a bit about that?

Laura Palmer Yes, I speak with four detectives on the record and a few on background for this series. And I have perspectives that span the three decades of the investigation and you’re going to hear the incredible lengths they go to to find answers and how this case really does still. Stay with them after all these years. Don bland who is one of believes early on, invites the FBI to help them. And this is significant because, you know, you always have that kind of true crime trope where the local detectives don’t want to let anybody else into the investigation. And Don bland makes the decision, that’s not going to be how he plays it. The local detectives even approach the American space agency to see if there are satellite images of the crime scene. When I say crime scene, I mean, where Michael vanished from there’s no actual crime scene per se. They do a full reenactment of the day Michael goes missing, inviting all the football players back. And I’ve watched some video of this, you can see Bruce and Crystal arriving in their little red dots. And of course, but this time without Michael in the car.

One of the other things that stood out for me about the investigation is I heard from several people that they were hypnotized. As part of the investigation as well. It seemed unusual that given what a busy area this was, and how many people were coming and going, that no one saw anything. So they thought, let’s try to use hypnosis, to maybe bring forward a memory that someone just isn’t aware of that they have, and might have seen something that could be key so that they did that as well. And I think for listeners who may have concluded there’s simply nothing there that this case will never be solved. They will be surprised to hear just how much substance there is to the investigation itself. Here’s current lead on the case Detective Sergeant Michelle Robertson.

Detective Sergeant Michelle Robertson Clip We have tiers of people we’ll have tier a tier b or c of people and we go through those. It’s not a case of there’s just nothing like it’s there’s just that one little piece to connect it. I feel strongly it’s probably one of those people. That’s just my gut.

Jordan What does your gut say, Laura?

Laura Palmer Oh, you know, I. I tend to agree with detective Robertson. I’ve spoken now to multiple detectives and people who have consulted on the file over the years. And there are good, viable suspects that they just haven’t been able to get enough information on to push them over the edge. And it is certainly my hope that this podcast and the awareness on it now could bring forward that one last phone call. They need to get them going in the right direction. And, you know, nail an actual suspect in Michael’s case.

Jordan So last question, then there’s a dearth of good news around to report on lately and to people who are listening to this, especially people like me, with children around this age who are thinking there’s so much tragedy out there right now. Or people who think you know, true crime is not really my thing. I know me and you have talked a lot about what’s good, true crime and what’s not. Why should people like that? Listen to this show?

Laura Palmer The disappearance of Michael Dunahee it is a tragic story. But I would also say this, missing Michael is a story of hope, of friendship, of love. Of courage, really. And I think people will find the story of how the den he’s and those who love them have managed their lives in the 30 years since Michael vanished to be absolutely inspiring. And for those who care about the West Coast, this is really a story about Victoria’s history as well. The den he’s have always appreciated the public support for their son. And although they’re not podcast people, I let them know that the podcast was doing well. And they were beyond words so that this means something to them as well. And I do want to make sure I say a huge thank you to Bruce and Crystal, and Caitlin and all of the family and friends who spoke to me. And a thank you as well to the Victoria Police those still on the job and the retired detectives still determined to find answers. I say this in the podcast but I want to say it here as well. Go to Michael Dunahee.ca and click on the reported tip button if you have any information and I will also add if for some reason you are not willing or able to go to the police but you have specific information that you think’s important to share. Contact me, Laura at Laura palmer.ca.

Jordan Laura, thank you so much for this and for all your work on island crime. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you.

Laura Palmer Thanks, Jordan.

Jordan Laura Palmer, host of island crime, you can of course, listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts. The first two episodes of season three missing Michael are out now. And new episodes arrive every Tuesday. You can find this podcast at thebigstorypodcast.ca You can find missing Michael if you are so inclined at frequencypodcastnetwork.com.You can talk to us on Twitter @TheBigStoryFPN you can write to us by email at [click here!]. The big story much like missing Michael is available in every single podcast player. If you find us, if you find Island crime, if you find any podcast you like share the love, rate it and review it. Everybody with the show loves it when you do. Thanks for listening. I’m Jordan Heath Rawlings. We’ll talk tomorrow