Thirty-Five Years of Searching and Advocacy for Michael Dunahee | Crystal Dunahee | WW

On March 24th, 1991, Crystal Dunahee drove to a women's flag football game in Victoria, British Columbia. Michael — her four-year-old son with blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles — asked if he could play at the park. She looked. There were a couple of kids already there. It was a normal Sunday afternoon.

She said yes. It was the first time she had ever let him go to the park by himself.

When his father Bruce walked to the playground minutes later, Michael was gone.

In this Witness Wednesday, Crystal Dunahee sits down with Kevin to share who Michael was — not the case, not the timeline, but the boy. The four-year-old who was learning to ride his bike without training wheels and had taken a wipeout. Who was getting ready for kindergarten in September. Who was so excited about his baby sister Caitlin, who had just been born six months earlier. Who was a trusting, innocent kid who would follow his friends into the trees and come home covered in rashes from the spiders.

Crystal talks about what that afternoon looked like from where she was standing. About the investigation that followed — one of the largest missing child responses in Canadian history — and what it was like to go through it as a mother while also being questioned as part of the family investigation that every case requires. About the toll of 35 years of leads and dead ends, and why the detectives eventually stopped telling the family every detail of every tip — not because they stopped working, but because the emotional weight of each false lead was too much.

She talks about Caitlin, who grew up living in the shadow of her brother's disappearance, seeing herself as an only child.

She talks about the 2021 age-enhanced sketch of Michael at 34 — and how strange it is to watch your child age through a forensic artist's rendering instead of through life.

She talks about Child Find BC, the advocacy organization she helped bring back from dormancy — the Hope Alive run, the education work, the belief that the conversation about personal safety with children has to start young and be repeated often. If something doesn't feel right, trust your body. Those are her words.

And when Kevin asks what she thinks happened that day, Crystal says what she has said for 35 years: wrong place, wrong time.

And when he asks what she would say to Michael — wherever he is — she says: we never gave up hope. That motherly instinct. He's out there. It's just a matter of time for something to trigger, to make him realize this is not who I am. This is who I am.

**If you have information about Michael Dunahee's disappearance: **
Victoria Police Department tip line: 250-995-7400 ext. 44
Online: vicpd.ca

ECHO 1953 - THE HOLLIS FILES, BOOK ONE
Launching July 27, 2026. Pre-order on Amazon now.

THE HALLS OF MEDIOCRITY
Sports. True crime. Athletes who had everything and threw it away.
Launching July 14, 2026. Find us wherever you get your podcasts.

MIDNIGHT MYSTERY ARCHIVE
True crime. Cold cases. Every Friday.
midnightmysteryarchive.com | Patreon

Follow us: X | Facebook Group

Thanks to our monthly supporters

• William
• jared K
• Lisa Mooney
• Jamie Mcconnell

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★