Human remains found in Lake Ontario identified as prison guard who disappeared 40 years ago
Canada May 19, 2023
Provincial police have identified human remains pulled from a car at the bottom of Lake Ontario as those of David Hannah, a prison guard who disappeared more than 40 years ago.
Police divers stumbled across his car while searching for a completely separate, submerged vehicle in January. It was hauled to the surface using a barge in early May.
In a media release Wednesday, Ontario Provincial Police confirmed the remains were Hannah and said they continue to investigate, along with the Office of the Chief Coroner and Centre for Forensic Sciences.
“We hope that this gives some measure of resolution to his family,” OPP spokesperson Bill Dickson said in an interview Wednesday.
He described the circumstances around the discovery as unusual.
“I don’t know if you can call it luck or not, to actually have been in that area and [have] been able to make the connection to find this other vehicle.”
David Manuel Hannah was last seen in Kingston, Ont., on Jan. 4, 1983, according to a profile on the RCMP’s National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains.
It notes he was employed as a prison guard at the Millhaven Maximum Security Penitentiary and that his vehicle, a blue Oldsmobile Delta 88, had not been located.
Hannah, whom the profile says was Indigenous, was 36 when he disappeared.
It describes his hair as short, wavy, grey and white and says he stood about five feet, five inches tall, weighing around 165 pounds.
One shows him with darker hair, wearing big, wire-framed glasses and a beige, button-up shirt that’s loose around the collar. He appears to be on a bus or boat, surrounded by other passengers.
In the other Hannah seems to be sitting in a kitchen. He’s wearing a navy blue T-shirt and his hair is silver.
News clippings from the Kingston Whig-Standard provide a bit more information, though the details they provide about Hannah conflict at times.
A story from January 1984 said police had carried out ground and air searches, but came up empty.
The article also says Hannah was living with a woman in Amherstview at the time of his disappearance.
But a piece that ran in the paper about a 12 years later disputes that.
A Crime Stoppers blurb in the Whig-Standard from January 1996 says Hannah lived in the nearby hamlet of Millhaven, alone.
It adds he had been a guard at the Millhaven penitentiary for more than 10 years and provides a few more details about him.
Police had offered $50K reward.
On the day he disappeared, Hannah had worked nine hours of overtime and stopped at the Federal Employees Credit Union where he withdrew $100 from his account, according to the article.
“His apartment was found undisturbed and contained all his belongings,” it reads.
Another newspaper story about Hannah was published in the Whig-Standard in March 2011 when police offered $50,000 for information about what was then a very cold case.
Hannah had not accessed any of his bank accounts since he disappeared and, based on the information investigators have gathered, they suspect he was a victim of homicide, the article states.
It quotes OPP Sgt. Kristine Rae saying police “believe that there [are] persons that do know what happened to him” and they hoped the reward would encourage them to come forward.
Dickson said “exhaustive searches” were carried out when Hannah disappeared but had uncovered “no trace of him.”
The investigation continues into what happened to the prison guard and how his car ended up in the water. Anyone with information can contact OPP or Crime Stoppers.
