Search Continues Week After Bourbon Street Employee Dan Davis Went Missing

CHICAGO — It has been one week since the last confirmed camera sighting of missing 115 Bourbon Street employee, Dan Davis, leaving St. Donatus Church last Wednesday. Davis went missing after a car crash last week, where he is believed to have suffered a head injury.

Since Davis went missing, his daughter, Wendy Davis, has led a 24/7 ground search looking for her 59-year-old father, that has stretched from Blue Island to Joliet, and back to Blue Island again.

They’ve checked baseball fields, parks, church properties, hospitals, warehouses, waterways, greenhouses and rail yards. The search team has talked to overnight security officers, looked in Dumpsters, contacted shelters, hospitals and Metra stations. The shoreline of the Cal-Sag Channel has been regularly checked. They’ve driven up and down alleys and streets, calling his name.

Davis was last seen in person leaving 115 Bourbon Street, where Davis worked 25 years on the bar’s stage crew, around 1:15 a.m. on Nov. 25.

Dan Davis, 59, of Chicago

The evening before he disappeared, on Nov. 24, Davis had been involved in a head-on collision around 11:15 a.m. in front of the Garden Homes Fire Department at119th Street and Hamlin, according to a Cook County Sheriff’s Police accident report. He is believed to have suffered a head injury. Davis and the other driver both refused medical treatment. Neither driver was suspected of impaired driving.

The other driver arranged for his own private tow from the accident scene. Davis’s car was towed to another tow yard due to front end and fire damage. His family said sheriff’s police gave Davis a ride back to Bourbon Street, the last time he was seen in person.

According to a detailed timeline compiled by his daughter, Davis was captured several times on assorted Ring cameras on Nov. 25, cutting through yards and wandering the streets of Blue Island, and appeared to be in a confused and disoriented state.

Davis’s daughter and volunteers were out during the day Tuesday visiting Blue Island businesses nearby St. Donatus on Union Street, where a church security camera captured a blurry image of Davis leaving mass on Nov. 26. When neighbors started coming home from work, the search party went door to door to houses that had doorbell cameras, asking neighbors to please check their Ring cameras for video.

Hours before he disappeared, Davis had been involved in a head-on collision around 11:15 a.m. Nov. 24, in front of the Garden Homes Fire Department at119th Street and Hamlin, according to a Cook County Sheriff’s Police accident report. He is believed to have suffered a head injury. Davis and the other driver both refused medical treatment. Neither driver was suspected of impaired driving.

The other driver arranged for his own private tow from the accident scene. Davis’s car was towed to another tow yard due to front end and fire damage. His family said sheriff’s police gave Davis a ride back to Bourbon Street.

Over the weekend, the search team went to Joliet, after the owner of a vintage clothing store, reported spotting a man resembling Davis sitting on the base of a lamp pole at the intersection of Raynor Avenue and Jefferson Street. The store owner said he recognized Davis’s distinct, limited edition Harley-Davidson jacket. There were other sightings as well in Joliet, but there was no camera evidence to support the sightings.

“Doesn't mean they're false,” his family said in an update. “Just means we can’t prove he was there.”

In an update posted at 3:35 a.m. on the FIND DAN DAVIS Facebook page, his daughter, Wendy, writes:

“Knowing how [Blue Island] empties out after dark, and how prevalent [Blue Island Police Department’s] presence is overnight, we feel confident getting a few hours of sleep knowing that if Dan is out and about, (being the night owl he is), he will surely be spotted. All is takes is one person to look up at the right time.”

Davis lives in the Midpoint Apartments on 115th Street near Marist High School in Chicago. There has been no activity on his credit or debit cards. Cellphone towers show his phone last being pinged on Nov. 22.

Illinois State Police, at the request of Chicago police, have issued a Silver Alert. Davis’s name as also been added to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database.

At the time of his disappearance, Davis was wearing a red IU hoodie and black Harley-Davidson with white stripes on the sleeves. He is 5 feet, 7 inches tall, and weighs 140 pounds.

“We kindly ask our community to check your cameras, yards, alleys and properties. Your help could bring a father back home to his family. Thanks from the bottom of our hearts.”

If you see Dan Davis, call 911 first, then the CPD Area 2 Special Victims Unit at 312-747-8274.

Meanwhile, his family is praying for a Christmas miracle.