Valley Teenager Missing Since Thursday Night

The last time Denis Dunlap saw his son, Danny Dunlap was supposed to be walking two blocks to West Valley High School to pick up a permission slip for the marching band.

The 13-year-old boy never came home Thursday night.

“He’s just gone,” Denis Dunlap said. “He’s plain disappeared.”

Danny, an eighth-grader at Centennial Middle School, plays the baritone in the West Valley High School marching band. He played at the Apple Blossom parade in Wenatchee. He planned to play in both the Junior Lilac and Lilac parades in Spokane.

On Thursday night, Danny had just come home from band practice when he remembered to go back for his permission slip for Saturday’s Junior Lilac parade.

Since Danny’s disappearance, Denis Dunlap has printed hundreds of fliers with Danny’s picture and papered the area with them, going to the bus terminal, the post office and churches.

Denis Dunlap, a single father, also is raising Danny’s sister, Christy. Danny’s mother lives in Spokane, and she’s also helping to look for Danny, Dunlap said.

The West Valley School District plans to help try and find Danny as well, said Superintendent David E. Smith. Smith found out about the missing student Monday afternoon. He said officials plan to talk to Danny’s fellow band students.

“We’re going to try to help the father as much as we can,” Smith said.

Dunlap reported the disappearance Friday afternoon after checking with Danny’s friends.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Department then listed Danny as a runaway. Missing teenagers are generally listed as runaways unless the parents are sure they’ve been kidnapped.

Dunlap is convinced his son didn’t run away. Others who know Danny say he’s not the type to leave home. Clayton McDaniel, youth minister at Millwood Presbyterian Church, has known Danny since he joined the youth group in the fall.

Danny rarely missed youth group meetings and was there Wednesday night, McDaniel said.

“This is contrary to his character, running away,” McDaniel said. “That doesn’t make any sense. This is real disturbing news. I’m just really surprised.”

Danny is clean-cut, with blond hair and bluish-gray eyes. On Thursday night, he was wearing a brown T-shirt with an Indian design on the front, a black and blue flannel shirt, grey pants and new black tennis shoes.

He’s about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds.

Dennis Dunlap has spent the past few days waiting, searching, and talking to his son’s school and friends.

“Every time I leave the house, I leave a note for Daniel on the door,” Dunlap said. “It just says, ‘Call me.”’