Disappearance of Michael Dunahee

2016 marked the 25th anniversary of Michael's disappearance, and to this day tips continue to come in from the public, especially around the anniversary of his disappearance each year.

In 2013, a man with the username Canuckels posted on the message boards of the Vancouver Canucks' official website claiming that the police were coming for a DNA test. They had requested a blood sample from a man in Surrey, British Columbia who they believed could possibly be Michael. However, on September 9, the Victoria Police Department stated that the Surrey man was not Michael after DNA testing was done.

In 2011, with the 20th anniversary of Michael's disappearance approaching, the police were notified of a man living in Chase, British Columbia who looked like Michael, but DNA testing later confirmed that he was not Michael.

In early 2009, police in Milwaukee, Wisconsin found a missing person poster of Michael at the home of Vernon Seitz, 62, who had confessed to his psychiatrist that he had murdered a child in 1959 when he was 12 and knew of another child killing. Seitz was later found dead by Milwaukee police, apparently from natural causes.

In 2006, reports of a young man who physically resembled Michael and had been living in the Interior of British Columbia since 1991 breathed new life into the case. However, this young man was confirmed by DNA testing not to be Michael.

Many Victoria residents recalled the day of Michael's disappearance as a "loss of innocence" for the city, as the fact that a child had been abducted in their community came as a shock. Fears and concerns about child abduction quickly began to rise among parents, kids, and schools in the months after the disappearance. Crystal became an advocate for missing children's issues in British Columbia, and has served as the president of Child Find British Columbia. In 2002, she lent her voice to support the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in calls to introduce an Amber Alert system in the province, as she believed that her son would have been found if such a program existed in 1991. The system has since been implemented in most regions of Canada. The community of Esquimalt, part of the Greater Victoria metropolitan area, holds an annual charity event called the Michael Dunahee "Keep the Hope Alive" Fund Run to raise money for Child Find. This event is organized by Michael's sister Caitlin.

On March 24, 1991, Michael and his family went to Blanshard Elementary School for his mother Crystal's flag football practice. Michael was wearing a blue hooded jacket, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt, rugby pants, and blue sneakers that day. The family arrived at the school around 12:30  pm, and when they got there, Michael asked his mom if he could visit the playground, which was near the field where the football practice was taking place. Despite having a gut feeling that "something wasn't quite right", Crystal allowed him to walk over to the playground by himself, but told him that once he got there, he had to "stay there and wait for Daddy to come". However, when Michael's dad Bruce came to the playground, Michael was not there. Around fifty people began to look for Michael, and his parents immediately notified the police.

Michael Wayne Dunahee (May 12, 1986 – disappeared March 24, 1991) is a Canadian missing child who disappeared from the playground at Blanshard Park Elementary School in Victoria, British Columbia on March 24, 1991 and has never been found or seen since. Michael was last seen that day around 12:30  pm at the playground as his mother Crystal Dunahee was participating in a female football practice to which his father was a spectator. Although he disappeared metres from his parents, no witnesses to his disappearance have ever been identified.