Faint hope has arisen this week for a Victoria family as police are looking into the possibility Michael Dunahee – missing for 22 years – may be living in Surrey.
Dunahee vanished from a Blanshard Elementary School playground in Victoria in 1991, when the boy was just four years old.
It sparked one of the biggest investigations of its kind in Canadian history, with sightings reported around the world generating 11,000 tips.
Recently, someone reported to Victoria police that a man with a striking similarity to Dunahee was living in Surrey.
Victoria police interviewed the man and are asking for a blood sample to rule him out as the missing boy.
He posted the ordeal on the non-hockey section of Canucks.com
I don’t know what to think, part of me thinks it could be but others don’t, I just want them to take my DNA and figure this out," he wrote under the name Canuckels. "And with my mom passing away recently doesn’t shed any light on me but we will see soon enough, I’m undicided."
He noted that he played hockey from age seven to 21 and went to several different schools when he was young. He said he doesn't remember anything prior to Grade 1.
A picture of an unnamed Surrey resident (right) who looks like an age-enhanced picture of Michael Dunahee (left) was posted on the VanCity Buzz blog on Wednesday. July 24, 2013.
Victoria Police said they don't believe it to be Dunahee, and that they're just ruling it out.
It is just one of several requests by the Victoria Police Department for individual's DNA samples to rule them out.
Anyone with possible information about the missing man’s whereabouts can share it at the Missing Kids website.
~with files from CTV