LIVONIA, Mich. (AP) - A funeral is planned for Saturday for a woman who claimed her 4-year-old son disappeared at a suburban Detroit shopping mall in 1994.
Dwanna Wiggins eventually moved to Durham, North Carolina, where she died Monday, according to Burthey Funeral Services.
Wiggins told police that D’Wan Sims disappeared while they were shopping at Wonderland Mall in Livonia, two weeks before Christmas in 1994. Surveillance video showed the Detroit woman inside the mall but not her son, police said.
Hundreds of tips poured in as state police and the FBI joined the investigation. Dogs, horses and all-terrain vehicles were used to search for D’Wan, who wasn’t found.
“I can tell you that not one person who worked on that investigation believed her story,” former Livonia police Chief Robert Stevenson told The Detroit News.
A man stepped forward a year ago to say he’s Sims. He provided a DNA sample, which still is being analyzed at a lab at the University of North Texas, said police Capt. Ronald Taig, who attributed the delay to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The case is open and we’ll continue to investigate,” Taig said.
Wiggins told The Associated Press in 2019 that she had contact over social media with the man who claims to be her son.
“I have no clue whatsoever,” Wiggins said. “You would like to be hopeful.”
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