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The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is once again reaching out to the public for help regarding the mysterious case of Christopher Dansby, who disappeared in 1989.
At just two years old, Christopher was last spotted with his mother, Alison Dansby, on May 18 of that year. The pair had been on their way to the Martin Luther King Playground in New York City, situated at the intersection of Lenox Avenue and West 114th Street.
According to NCMEC, Alison momentarily left Christopher in the care of some relatives at the park while she quickly darted across the street to a grocery store. Upon her return, she discovered that Christopher, who had been playing with other children, had vanished without a trace.
Christopher’s grandmother recounted that she had briefly taken her eyes off him when he disappeared.
“It has been a long, hard process,” Alison expressed in earlier remarks. “Despite all the time that has passed, there is still no closure. It’s a situation that remains far from resolved. One of my children is missing, and I still have no answers as to what happened.”
Nearly three months later, on August 10, 1989, another 2-year-old, Shane Walker, disappeared in the same manner from the same park.
“I turned my head and turned back, and Shane was gone,” his mother, Rosa Glover, told ABC 7 New York.
Following Shane’s disappearance, NYPD Deputy Chief Ronald J. Fenrich stated that although “law enforcement could not definitively state” that the children were taken by the same person, the similarities in their disappearance were striking.
Both vanished during the evening, on a Tuesday, and both had been playing with the same two children in the park.
The children’s stories were subsequently featured on an “Unsolved Mysteries” episode on Netflix.
Retired NYPD inspector Ken Lindahl said that many theories have emerged over the years, with the most promising being that children could have possibly been sold on the black market, and not killed.
“We don’t have bodies,” Lindahl said on the show, according to Oxygen. “We have two missing kids. You gotta have belief that maybe they survived.”
Another hopeful theory is that someone who couldn’t have children maybe have taken the boys to raise as their own.
“Someone who wants a baby who is not qualified to adopt a baby might steal a baby or hire someone to do so.” Deputy Chief Ronald J. Fenrich said.
At the time, Christopher stood 2 feet, 6 inches tall, and weighed around 30 pounds. He has black hair, brown eyes, and a birthmark on his neck that resembles an “8.”
Shane stood 3 feet tall and weighed around 30 pounds. He has black hair, brown eyes, and a scar under his chin.
Anyone with information is urged to contact NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST.
The cases are being covered as part of CrimeOnline’s “Finding the Lost: Black and Missing” series, which will feature a missing Black person every day in February. The full series can be read here.
[Feature Photo: Christopher and Shane/NCMEC]