Two-year-old Steven Damman went missing from East Meadow on Halloween almost 69 years ago, sparking one of the largest police searches in Nassau County and Long Island history.
It remains the Island's oldest unsolved missing persons case.
It started on Oct. 31, 1955, when Steven's mother, Marilyn Damman, took the toddler and his 1-year-old sister, Pamela, to a Food Fair store on Front Street, leaving them in the stroller just outside the establishment while she shopped. When Damman exited the store, both children were gone. A quick search turned up Pamela nearby in the stroller. But Steven — clad in dungarees, a blue shirt, red sweater and brown shoes — was nowhere to be found.
Newsday reported at the time that a massive search was launched. Volunteers and police combed woodlands, dragged swamps and creeks and went door to door to ask if anyone had seen Steven. The child’s father, Airman Jerry Damman, was set to leave the service from his base at Mitchel Field but extended his enlistment by about two months to aid in the search
Months passed and Steven was never found. His disappearance became the most publicized Long Island missing persons case since 1937, when Cold Spring Harbor socialite Alice Parsons, 37, disappeared and a ransom note was delivered asking for $25,000. Although the ransom was offered, it was never collected and Parsons was never found.
A $3,000 ransom note was delivered to Steven’s parents as well, but it was likely a hoax, police said at the time.
Interest in the story was rekindled in 2007, when a Michigan man named John Barnes told authorities he believed he was Steven Damman. The sudden appearance of Barnes, who reportedly bore a slight resemblance to Steven, ignited hope that the mystery would be solved. The story again made national news and the FBI stepped in to do a DNA comparison to determine if Barnes was in fact Steven. But the results came back negative.
“It wasn't easy when it happened more than 50 years ago,” Jerry Damman, 78, told Newsday from his home in Newton, Iowa, in 2007. “It's not easy now. Naturally, I'm disappointed that this man wasn't our son.”
Social Security indexes show that Jerry Damman and his former wife, Marilyn, are deceased. Steven’s sister, Pamela, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Nassau police said Steven’s disappearance is still an active case
Exhaustive searches were launched to try to find these seven Long Islanders, but their cases remain unsolved.
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