Crystal Dunahee has lived through personal tragedy and become a community leader and advocate for services to families whose children go missing.

Mrs. Dunahee’s son, Michael, disappeared in 1991 when he was four years old.  This triggered one of Canada’s largest-ever police investigations, generated thousands of tips from around the world and remains one of the highest profile missing children cases.

From this adversity, Mrs. Dunahee emerged as an advocate for missing children’s issues, becoming president of Child Find BC and Child Find Canada.

Rather than becoming hopeless, she has continued to offer total support to the police officers and community members who rallied to her side. Simply put, she is working to ensure such a tragedy never happens again.

Every year, Mrs. Dunahee and her family organize the Michael Dunahee Keep Hope Alive Drive to raise money for Child Find.  Large numbers of people turn out every April to run and walk through the streets of Esquimalt.

In 2002, Mrs. Dunahee gave her support to introduce the AMBER Alert system in B.C., which has since been implemented across Canada, providing up-to-date information about child abduction using widespread media broadcasts.