Police go quiet in B.C. over new development in historic case of missing boy

VICTORIA – Police have gone quiet and a website has pulled postings in the wake of a social media frenzy about the latest development in an historic and infamous cold case involving a four-year-old missing boy.

Michael Dunahee disappeared without a trace from a school playground at Blanshard elementary March 24, 1991, sparking one of the biggest missing persons investigations in Canadian history.

Victoria police announced Wednesday they’re collecting DNA from a B.C. man identified by a tip as the possible grown-up Dunahee, but investigators have been careful to say they believe it is unlikely the man is Dunahee.

Since then, media sites have been swamped with stories noting the uncanny resemblance between the two, and one posting on Facebook went so far to say the man “could be missing child Michael Dunahee.”

But on the Facebook page “We will never forget Michael Dunahee,” a poster identified as Dunahee’s sibling says the DNA tests are a formality so police can be 100 per cent sure before dismissing the tips.

The Victoria police say they are no longer granting followup interviews on the issue, and the moderator of canucks.com, a hockey site where the development first broke, has deleted several threads.