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Lost Children: The 1989 Park Kidnappings in Harlem

Jennifer
7 min readAug 1, 2024

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Parents take their children to parks every day. They run off steam, they can play with other children and they can enjoy some time outside.

A trip to the park is supposed to be a fun and enjoyable time.

In 1989 there would be multiple instances in which a park was not a safe place, for two families specifically that lived in Martin Luther Jr Towers in Harlem, New York.

For these families, a children’s playground will forever haunt their memories.

In May 1989, Allison Dansby, along with her mother, took her young children to a playground near their home. Allison left to run to the store, and when she returned, she couldn’t see her 2-year-old son playing. Her mother said she just took her eyes off of him for a second.

Two-year-old Christopher Dansby had disappeared.

Three months later, in August 1989, Rosa Glover took her 19-month-old son to the park at Martin Luther King Jr. Towers.

She sat on a park bench with her son, Shane, when two older children approached them and asked to play with Shane. At first, Rosa was reluctant. These children were older. But she finally gave in and let them take Shane to the swings.

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Jennifer
Jennifer

Written by Jennifer

Jen is the host of the missing persons podcast: "Where are they?”

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