He Mysteriously Vanished From His Aunt’s Car In 1985
In the fall of 1985, 4-year-old Timothy Jacob “TJ” Davison and his two brothers had lived with their aunt, Delany Davison, in Decatur, Illinois, for about a year.
Timothy’s parents, Dreyden Davison and Debra Deloach of Winter Haven, Florida, had gone through a divorce, and Delany was granted custody of her nephews.
The young boy, who had a speech impediment and was regarded as a “slow learner,” reportedly started to open up once he moved in with Delany. Yet, on October 15, 1985, he mysteriously vanished from his aunt’s car.
That day, Delany brought all the kids to Brettwood Village Shopping Center, located in the 3000 block of North Water Street. They arrived at 12:00 p.m., and she took Timothy’s siblings and her own child with her into a Kroger grocery store.
Meanwhile, she left Timothy, who was sleeping in the backseat, inside her red 1981 Dodge Omni. Delany reportedly didn’t want to wake him up.
She was gone for 30 minutes and claimed to have locked the car’s doors. However, when she returned, Timothy was gone.
Delany immediately contacted the police to report him missing, and authorities believe the car hadn’t actually been locked. Comprehensive searches of the area were conducted by officers, canines, and helicopters, but no evidence of Timothy’s whereabouts was uncovered.
Missing person fliers were also distributed, prompting people to submit numerous tips, none of which have been confirmed.
Most notably, a witness reported seeing a man and a woman putting a boy who looked like Timothy inside their vehicle not far away from the Brettwood Village Shopping Center. It was a black two-door Oldsmobile Cutlass with Indiana license plates, but even though investigators followed up on this tip, it led nowhere.
The police then looked into Timothy’s parents, Dreyden and Debra, who were cleared of any involvement. This caused his case to be classified as a non-family abduction.
Just over two years after Timothy vanished, there seemed to be a break in his case. In Juarez, Mexico, near the United States border, a deaf and mute boy was found wandering the streets who was close to Timothy’s age and looked like the missing boy. He also had the same speech impediment.
Nonetheless, authorities compared their footprints and confirmed it wasn’t a match. The boy wandering in Juarez was determined to be José Garcia, who was originally from Tampico, Mexico.
So, Timothy’s case has gone unsolved for over 39 years now, and his disappearance continues to puzzle investigators.
According to Delany, Timothy was last seen wearing a blue windbreaker and a baseball cap and had been wrapped in a blanket. Former police chief Mark Barthelemy shared his thoughts in 2014, calling the circumstances of his disappearance “fishy.”
“It just struck me funny that a sleeping child would have a ball cap on,” Mark said.
“To leave the child in the car unlocked for 30 minutes was a little fishy.”
Delany’s home on North Charles Street in Decatur, where she lived with the kids and her boyfriend, burned down in 2002, and nearly 30 years after Timothy vanished, the police and the FBI began digging for clues on the property in July 2013.
“There are some leads and some things we thought we could accomplish differently with technology and some of the resources available to us as well as the site location being available to us,” stated Decatur Police Lt. Jason Walker at the time.
Again, this was a dead end. After authorities spent almost a week digging, they came up empty. In spite of that, Mark noted the investigation remained open, saying, “You always have hope.”
At the time he went missing, Timothy was three foot four, weighed 40 pounds, and had brown hair and brown eyes. He was also missing his two upper front teeth and didn’t know his last name or home address.
The National Center For Missing & Exploited Children has created an age-progressed photo showing what Timothy might’ve looked like at 31 years old. He would be 44 years old today.
Anyone with information regarding his case is urged to contact the Decatur Police Department at (217) 424-2738.
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