Stolen Kids

Who abducted two young boys from a playground in Harlem, and could they still be alive after 30 years?

CASE DETAILS

MLK towers with a gray sky above

The family goes to a playground adjacent to the MLK Towers.

CHRISTOPHER DANSBY

In 1989, Allison Dansby lives in the Martin Luther King Jr. apartments in Harlem with her mother and two children, Christopher and Levon. On May 18th, at around 6:30pm, the family goes to the playground adjacent to the MLK Towers. Allison leaves the kids with her mom while she walks to the grocery store. A half hour later, she returns to find Christopher is missing. That night, police comb a 24-square block area of Harlem and canvas the 10 multi-story buildings of the King Towers complex, going door to door asking if anyone has seen Christopher. The next day, police dogs are dispatched, and a scuba diving team searches the Harlem Meer – a shallow, manmade pond at the north end of Central Park. Despite these efforts, Christopher Dansby is not found.

Three police officers with flashlights in a basement hallway

Police canvas the 10 multi-story buildings of the King Towers complex.

SHANE WALKER

Three months later, on August 10, 1989, Rosa Glover brings her 19-month-old-son, Shane Walker, to the same playground. Like Allison, Rosa lives in the MLK apartments, but was at Disneyworld with Shane when Christopher disappeared and has no idea a child has been abducted from the park. When they arrive at the park, a 10-year-old girl and her 5-year-old brother ask if they can play with Shane. Rosa says, “He’s a little young, but yes, you can play with him.” Shortly after, a man sits down on the bench next to Rosa and starts talking about how parents don’t pay enough attention to their children. This distracts Rosa for a minute or two, and when Rosa turns around, Shane and the other two children are gone. As she frantically searches for Shane, Rosa sees the boy and girl in the playground without Shane, and they claim they have no idea what happened to him. Within two hours, 200 police officers descend on the park to search for little Shane. Again, police canvas the apartment buildings and every building for 13 blocks. The two children who last saw Shane are questioned extensively, as is the man who was sitting next to Rosa on the bench. But there is nothing to implicate them in the abduction. Despite months of exhaustive searches, not a single trace of Shane surfaces.

Young boy smiling

Young boy sitting in his mother’s lap

Shane Walker

Christopher Dansby

What puzzles Robert Lowery of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is that both of these cases involve young male children–typically, it is girls who are abducted. Lowery believes these children may be alive and that they were abducted by someone who wanted a child. It’s highly probable that whomever took the toddlers raised them far away from New York City. Lowery believes that at this point, Christopher and Shane are old enough to be asking questions about their true identity. One piece of evidence these kids can’t ignore is that their birth certificates are likely fraudulent. He says, “There is always hope these children will be found.”

17 Comments

  1. Nicki

    This unsolved case broke my heart. I’m so sorry to the two mothers who have had to bear this pain since the 80s. Someone was watching that park, they were in the background ready to take a child. I think it was a predator. I live in the UK and we had the Madeline Macan case. A little girl taken from her room in Portugal where the family was on holiday. I pray someone somewhere comes forward for these two mums.

    Reply

  2. no

    you need to talk to the young woman who worked at the store by the park. that’s all I”m going to say.

    Reply

  3. Mary

    So the one thing that relates the 2 cases is that both of the moms goes to the same shop/market near the park, to buy something to snack (at the same hour, from 17hs to 19hs) Cristopher mom goes always to that store, so the persone now really well Cristopher, the second mom, shane mom goes to the store, the person saw Shane and did the same thing after. It would be really easy to take them to the store and hide them. Perhaps the person who worked at the store at this hour was someone hired part time job too. Search please.

    Reply

  4. karim

    It is very sad, the mothers of these 30 years are very sad, I pray that these children will be found

    Reply

  5. Sophie

    If the relatives sign up for as many DNA ancestry tests, the child if grown up may do a DNA test and it can link them that way. Might be a worthwhile avenue.

    Reply

  6. Rachael

    There is a person I follow on TikTok. She says she thinks her & her sister were kidnapped when they were little. She was “adopted” but her adoptive parents both went to prison. She says the adoptive parents burned the adoption records so they can’t show her any evidence. She says she moved 47 times by the time she was 12 and they home schooled her. She says she lives in Alabama. Her TikTok is @amandakorneghy1.

    Reply

  7. Becky

    This case is heartbreaking, I’m so sorry

    Reply

  8. NORMAN ASHLEY

    Searching for
    My aunt “Helen” was taken away and adopted out, after her mother had a stroke, by the State of California social worker. The other children were returned. My father and Alice think it was a neighbor who wanted a child. Her Father passed earlier in the year.
    Lived at Lindenville housing project was a World War II naval built along the 40-line south of South San Francisco
    Helen Jean Ashley
    born: 8 Nov 1943
    San Mateo general hospital
    Her Father: John Ashley passed: 1944 Aortic Aneurysm
    Adopted from Redwood City Court House 1945
    Her Mother: Delta “Foster” passed: 1965 stroke
    Sibling: Alice 1933 passed: 2012 heart failure
    ” ” ” “: Norman 1935 passed: 1994 massive heart attack
    ” ” ” “: John 1941 passed: 1983 enlarged heart
    I am Norman’s oldest son, and I am continuing his search.
    Any help or if anyone knows about this, please help.
    norman_91789@yahoo.com

    Reply

  9. alex

    ok am 9 and am doing so meany resarch on this so i try to help

    Reply

  10. Haydn

    am so sorry i am from washington and that is just crazy ther was this case here a while ago about two girls who were walking to the bus stop and one got kidnapped and then a couple months later the other one got kidnapped and they found out what happened this guy named Ward Weaver the Third buried them underneath a concrete slab in his backyard and told the police that it was for a hot tub and the police dog when they went searching would not stop barking at it and then that’s when theyf ound out it was a crazy story I had to do a book report about it if you look up Ward Weaver the Third in your Google search bar you’ll find the whole case it was crazy but again I am super but again I am super sorry

    Reply

  11. ashlee schuller

    hi i am sorry i will help solve the case even i am 12 in inania

    Reply

  12. Aleksandra

    I am really sorry for telling you that, but I am from Eastern Europe and if some child got missing here, all of us we know what’s happened…… children organ transplantation… because the original way to do this takes a lot of time and money, there are a lot of illegal hospitals and doctors who are doing this for much less money…. I am really sorry and I hope that’s not the case here, but that’s how it works here in the East. Maybe that’s why they needed 2 children in the case in New York, because it’s possible that the first one was not passing for the operation….. please check the all illegal hospitals in New York and speak already with the arrested doctors in the area. That’s my tip!

    Reply

  13. Rzeelie

    My heart goes out to these mothers, hope and pray they all will reunite one day, thanks to Netflix for this!

    Reply