Authorities in Oregon announced Tuesday that remains discovered in a home weeks earlier belong to “Mickey Mouse Club” alum Dennis Day, who was reported missing last July.
A statement issued by Oregon State Police confirmed that Day, 76, was found dead in his Phoenix home on April 4. It’s unclear how authorities determined the body belonged to Day, as state police mentioned that they weren’t able to use dental records or DNA testing “due to the condition of the remains.”
Oregon State Police Captain Timothy Fox told People magazine that Day’s home was searched last summer when he disappeared. However, it’s unclear whether his remains were there when the initial search transpired.
Day reportedly shared the home with his longtime partner, Ernest Caswell. The Oregonian reported that Caswell had been suffering from memory loss and was in a care facility when he reported Day missing on July 15, 2018. The Mail Tribune reported that Caswell’s memory loss provided an obstacle for police at the onset of their investigation.
A missing persons report stated that Day “uncharacteristically” left his dog with a friend the same day he vanished. On July 26, his car was found approximately 200 miles away at the Oregon coast—with two strangers inside who claimed the child actor had let them borrow it, according to TMZ.
“They said they brought in cadaver dogs, too. But they never found anything that would imply a crime had happened,” Day’s sister, Nelda Adkins, told NBC’s “Dateline.”
NBC News reported that Day’s family weren’t aware of his disappearance until January, when a local news station did a story on it.
Day was a Mouseketeer from 1955 to 1957. Afterward, he continued a career in entertainment, becoming director of the California Renaissance Pleasure Faires & Dickens Fair, according to the Mail Tribune.
State police impounded Day’s vehicle and continue to investigate his cause of death.
[Featured image: Dennis Day/Facebook]
