NY NY - Steven Damman, 2, East Meadow, 31 Oct 1955

Welcome to Websleuths!
Click to learn how to make a missing person's thread

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

Well, I was wrong on this one. I hope both families can find peace after this false alarm.
 
SleuthyMama said:
Well, I was wrong on this one. I hope both families can find peace after this false alarm.
Click to expand...

I was wrong as well. really believed this to be the real deal with the scar & private dna test, etc. Then looking at the photos, I thought wow, there's really something to this. It's very sad but I feel the most for the father Jerry Damman having these old wounds open up, getting hope in his heart that this could be his 'little boy' brought back to him. :(
 
txsvicki said:
I just saw the slideshow pics on Yahoo, but didn't bring the link. I don't think he looks like the man who raised him at all, but actually looks like both the people who lost the little boy years ago. He looks just like that baby pic. I hope it's him, and if not, I hope he's able to figure out why he feels the way he does.
Click to expand...

I have to say I'm pretty shocked over the test results. He REALLY looks like the pic of the toddler and he bears a strong resemblance to Steven's dad.

I wonder why he didn't start off by having his DNA compared to the father who raised him, or the sister? It seems like that would have been easier to do, and saved a lot of grief all around. Maybe he wanted to and his family didn't cooperate?

I hope he finds peace. I hope the family he was raised with (probably his real family!) can find it inside themselves to forgive him.
 
I don't think it could be the same person. After reading all about this second crime, the only thing I could think would be maybe he read something about the first crime, which perhaps prompted him to try it? Thing is, Angelo was hard up for money, he was driving around wondering how he was going to pay his bills. He was a taxi driver, and was driving around when he saw the baby lying in the stroller. On the spur of the moment he scrawled a quick note asking for money, grabbed the baby who was only one month old, and left the note. Than he got back in his cab and waited. The next day he went to pick up the money he asked for, but saw police. And left with the child in tow. Than he got scared with all of the police and newspaper coverage. He left the 1 month old alone in some grass, where the baby died of malnutrition. He even, when found by police, told them where he left the child and claimed he left the baby safe and sound. When cops showed up to where the baby supposedly was, they found the decomposing body of the child. I think this was a first time offense. Because well, he wasn't very good at it. And usually if you screw up the first time you do something like that, you learn from the mistakes and do it better the next time. Also, if he had done it right the first time, why would he make so many mistakes on this time around? He was also quite honest when caught by police, and if he was willing to confess to one crime, why not confess to both crimes? He got the death penalty for what he did.
In Steven's case, things were quite different. If LaMarca wanted to take someone, why not take the baby? She would have been easier. She couldn't try to tell someone who she was, (too little), less identifiable, (most babies look alike), etc. Also two children? Why would he take both of them away from the bakery just to steal the older child? No I have a few different ideas as to what may have happened to Steven. None of them I like to think about, but I honestly don't believe for a second that cash had anything to do with Steven's abduction, and everything to do with little Peter's abduction.
I think Steven could have been abducted by a pedophile, who was into little boys and not girls, thus why the baby was left unharmed. I think perhaps, (and I hope I am wrong), the mother could have had something to do with it. it's easy to lose it with a small child, and it happens a lot today. It happened a lot back than too, just not as much media coverage on those things. Or has anyone considered the possibility that Steven could have pushed the carriage and walked around with his baby sister, and someone could have stolen him that way? He walks a few blocks away pushing the carriage and than someone picks him up? And keeps him? Or harms him? Anyways, just some ideas floating around in here.
 
*I posted that this was not him today in another thread. I, as you may have noted, have not figured my way around WS yet..haha.

I just wanted to say that I was looking at this child's picture and the man claiming to be him and noticed the ears appear to stick out on the child and not on the man. Anybody else notice this? I know facial features can dramatically change but could ears change that much in your life? Barring plastic surgery, of course. Just curious.

ETA: *I was in no way trying to say I posted this first. lol I was obviously days behind you guys.
 
Wait a minute! Okay I hate to ask this, but I think I need to. Okay. What if... What if Steven's mother was the one who had heard about the other case? If she did something to Steven, she could have left the stroller a block and a half away from the store, and than gone over to the store alone. It could have either been a very busy day at the store, where she didn't think anyone would notice her not leave a carriage, or a very quiet day with almost no one in the store. She could have calmly done her shopping, walked outside, and than started to scream and cry about her children being missing, and no one would have been the wiser for it. Just a thought. She could have purposely modeled this to look like the other kidnapping.
 
Laura_Bean said:
She could have purposely modeled this to look like the other kidnapping.
Click to expand...

... that happened 8 months later?

Nope, she couldn't have modeled it on that kidnapping but whereas plenty of people thought the McCann case was staged - even though it increasingly looks like it wasn't - nobody would have taken that idea seriously 50 years ago. On the other hand a genuine abduction would have been almost inconceivable too.
 
Bud said:
I find it hard to believe Barnes is not Steven Damman. The resemblance is uncanny... and the scar and the mole... so many coincidences.

If Steven was the result of an affair... the DNA would come back negative for the 'father' but a possible match for the sister... since they would be half-siblings.

Just speculation... but stranger things have happened.
Click to expand...

Scars and birthmarks (most compelling evidence) aren't genetic - i.e. don't imply any genetic connection here.
 
And hold on there is no way this man could have tried to take Steven. He was in jail by the time little Steven went missing. So he is 100% accounted for. I also found out he killed himself before they could execute him. Anyways... he is accounted for. But a copycat or the mother etc, now that could have happened.
 
Interesting opinion piece:

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/nation/ny-nyhen2112900277jun19,0,1268286.column

I didn't even realize that this weekend is Father's Day. The above article's author is right: what a sad Father's Day this will be for both Jerry Damman and Richard Barnes.

Also, I had completely missed the fact that the ages of Steven Damman and John Barnes don't match up--John was born in the year that Steven went missing. That really makes me feel like John Barnes was really stretching the facts to fit what he wanted to be his story. There's not a lot of difference between a 55 year-old man and a 57 year-old man, but there's a heck of a lot of difference between a 1 year-old and a 3 year-old, or a 3 year-old and a 5 year-old. There's no way the Barnes family could have lied about his age consistently enough over the years for John Barnes to think he actually could have been old enough to Steven Damman, or that Mrs. Barnes could have passed him off as their child to an unsuspecting father who had been out at sea or something.

Also, really good article here about how his town is dealing with the news:

http://www.record-eagle.com/local/local_story_170071031.html

There's a picture of the Barnes sibling and their father at that link. If you ask me, he looks very much like his brother and sister--they all have the exact same nose and mouth.


(Was originally written before DNA results had come back, and has been updated since. The "how he'll feel if the results are negative" remark refers to the "related to the Dammans" DNA test, not any test that Barnes, Sr. has taken.)
 
There's been a little mix-up here. Steven Damman was kidnapped on Oct. 31, 1955. Peter Weinberger was kidnapped on July 4, 1956. LaMarca didn't commit suicide, he was executed at Sing Sing Prison on August 7, 1958. My thinking in bringing the Weinberger case up in the first place was that, perhaps the Damman boy was LaMarca's first attempt at kidnapping. He bungled it and thought he'd have better luck the second time around. Now that you bring up Mrs. Damman as a suspect, that gives us another direction to look at. I thought of it myself, too.
 
Just curious, who did they test dna from, stevens dad?? What about the mom? What if steven wasnt the bio child of that father? That would be why it didnt match. If I am wrong just let me know, I dont know enough about it but thought I would throw that out there.
 
Your right sorry got the dates mixed up. Could LaMarca have heard about the Damman case and tried to do something similar?
 
Your right sorry got the dates mixed up. Could LaMarca have heard about the Damman case and tried to do something similar? Also, I still think the motives were different. I think someone wanted Steven, not money, because money was only asked for much later after he was taken and the police and FBI believed that the ransom note that finally did come had nothing to do with the person or persons who really took Steven.

Now, on the other hand, the person who took Leroy wanted money. He put a ransom note down the second he took the child. He needed money.

So, that leads me to believe that LaMarca only did the one. If LaMarca was a pedophile, they would have found marks on the other boy, reason to believe he was sexually harmed before left in that area to die. And if they HAD found marks on him, I would say it is very plausible that LaMarca took the first child, sexually abused him and killed him, and than figured he'd do it again, but also ask for money as well. Since there were no marks on the other child, just the child having died of exposure, it leads me to believe there was no reason for him to have taken Steven. A pedophile would definitly not have been able to keep his hands off of a baby he had stolen. So why take Steven? He wasn't a pedophile, and he didn't ask for money. It makes no sense. Why get into that much trouble?
 
Halloween will mark the 54th anniversary of Steven's disappearance.
 
I did a search on this child (disappeared in 1955) and didn't find anything. If there is a thread, please feel free to delete this.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=7861320&page=1

This 2 year old disappeared from Long Island NY. The article is interesting and the man claims he started searching for his real family after him "Mom" told him things about himself when she was in the hospital.

<snip>

Barnes' search for the people who could be his biological family began last fall when he was apparently told something by the woman who'd raised him, Greer told ABCNews.com.

Greer said that in a phone call to Pamela Horne, Barnes said his mother was in the hospital and on medication when she blurted out the information that started his search. Barnes looked intomissing children that matched his description. That's when he found the Damman family.

On Oct. 31, 1955, Steven Damman was nearly 3 years old when he and his baby sister, Pamela, disappeared from a sidewalk outside a Long Island store while their mother was inside.

Pamela, then about 7 months old, was found by a family friend in her carriage around the corner from the store. Steven was never seen again. The family eventually moved from Long Island to the Midwest. Their parents divorced and their father, Jerry Damman, remarried.

This is another article about the boys father:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=7851668

Jerry Damman and his wife, Charlotte — who is not Stephen Damman's mother — said they believe the Michigan man might have stopped by their farm last fall.

The missing child's sister also got a visit from the same man, they said. "She looked at this guy, and he looked like Jerry," Charlotte Damman said.


I hope this man and this family get the answers they deserve!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is DeKalb County John Doe (2022)?

Members online

... and 113 more.
Total: 2,223 (members: 114, guests: 2,109)

Online statistics

Members online
114
Guests online
2,109
Total visitors
2,223
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
605,367
Messages
18,186,249
Members
233,338
Latest member
adr5879
Back
Top