Nassau County police announced Tuesday that they may have a break in a missing persons case that stumped Long Island investigators for 54 years.
According to Nassau police officials, a Michigan man claims to be a 2-year-old boy who went missing from outside an East Meadow market in 1955. Marilyn Damman had left her son, Steven, outside of the market with his sister while she went inside to shop. When she came out, the boy was gone.
Jerry Damman, the father of the missing boy, told News 12 Long Island that he?s carried the case with him for more than five decades. He says there?s a possibility that the man who has come forward is his son, but he just doesn?t know yet.
Nassau Lt. Kevin Smith says the Michigan man contacted the department back in March claiming to be Steven Damman. A law enforcement source tells News 12 that the man claiming to be the lost boy said he never felt he was part of the family that raised him and that his mother murmered something about kidnapping on her death bed.
Sources say Damman started to look up missing persons cases that occurred not long after he was born and came across the Damman case.
The case was referred to the FBI. Investigators are awaiting DNA results to determine if the man's claim is true, Smith says.
Police say DNA results show there is a possibility the Michigan man and the missing boy's sister are siblings. The FBI is investigating the case and waiting for its own DNA results.