When Shane Donahue suddenly said, “Mom, I’ve got to go,” shortly before dinner, Donna Donahue didn’t know what was happening — but she never imagined it would be the last time she would see her 23-year-old son.
That was two years ago this month, and no one has figured out why Shane Donahue left and never returned.
“I had no sense of where he was going,” Donna Donahue said. “There was absolutely nothing.”
Shane Donahue left his parents’ house with a friend who appears to be the last person to have seen him alive. That friend is now serving a four-year prison sentence for burglarizing Nokesville gun stores in the months after Donahue vanished, court records show.
Donna Donahue said some of her son’s acquaintances broke into his apartment shortly before he went missing, stealing medications. Shane “was highly upset” about the incident, she said.
But no one has been linked to Shane Donahue’s disappearance on March 22, 2010 or charged in the case.
“All I want, is someone to just come forth,” said his mother, who calls her son “Bubba.”
Donna Donahue said her family thinks Shane is dead — they’ve purchased a burial plot — but believes she will still get answers.
“I do have faith,” she said.
Shortly after her son went missing, police searched a nearby woods for his body. This winter, authorities drained a quarry. Both searches left investigators empty-handed.
Donna Donahue has plastered signs around Nokesville, including one in front of her house, and created a Facebook group to raise awareness about the disappearance. Every day she wears a button that bears his photograph.
Shane Donahue would be 25 years old now. He is described as white, about 5 feet 11 inches tall and 180 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone who has information about his disappearance is asked to call Prince William County Crime Solvers at 703-670-3700 or 866-411-TIPS (8477).
