The Most Wanted Man in Zimbabwe

On June 15, 1978, tragedy struck at Sanyati Baptist Hospital.
The first realization Shirley had that something was wrong was when Margaret, Archie Dunaway's wife, came from next door.
“Shirley, Archie’s not home and it’s almost seven. I’m worried. His car is at the hospital side entrance but only Jojo is inside barking. I know he usually takes Jojo for a walk before supper, but he always lets me know where he is because of the curfew.”
Margaret as the Midwifery tutor had been working late in the OB/GYN ward taking care of a very sick newborn. She was also concerned as Archie had just received a threatening letter the week before.
Margaret called John Monroe, the Hospital Administrator and dentist, and his wife Mary and asked them to drive around the mission station with her to check on places, like the garage and generator, where Archie might be working. They returned empty-handed to her house around 8:00pm.
Mary stayed with Margaret while John went next door to the Randalls to get Maurice, who had just finished a surgery at the hospital. Together they continued to look for Archie on the station and at the hospital.
Margaret said, “He’s gone. When I walked back from the hospital, I saw Archie standing above our tree and he was smiling at me. He came to tell me goodbye.”
Shirley protested, “No, no.”
But Margaret said, “The staff didn’t say Maneru (Good evening) back to me when I left the hospital. Something is going on; they always return a greeting.”
“Shirley, you know I’ve been really busy helping my students get ready for their midwifery exams and Archie and I haven’t had much time together. But we had a good devotional this morning, a special teatime and a good lunch together.”
Shirley went back to her house to check on the sleeping girls, Sheila and Susie. The hospital called the house asking for Dr. Randall as they had a newborn not breathing well. Since Shirley didn't know where Maurice was, she called the new medical receptor, Trudy Nelson, over at the apartments. and asked her to go to the hospital to check on the baby. Then she became worried that it might be a trap, and called the hospital to tell them to tell Trudy to come back. Maurice and John were actually in the hospital still looking for Archie and Maurice answered the hospital phone. Maurice checked in OB and there really was a sick baby. Also, there was a woman in labour there who needed a C-section. Maurice and John scheduled the C-section for about l0:00 pm and continued looking for Archie.
After checking on the sleeping girls at her house Shirley felt that with all the uncertainty it would be better to wake them up and bring them over to the Dunaway’s house too, which is what she did. She told them that Uncle Archie was missing. The BSU nurse, Trudy Nash, and MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship) pilot's wife, Judy Holtz, also joined everyone at Margaret's while Maurice and John were doing the C-section. Margaret decided to start packing up some barrels as she felt like it was all over. Two missionaries were away from Sanyati that night, nurse Mary Louise Clark who had gone to KweKwe for the weekend to stay with John and Ann Faulkner and Gary Gaunt, a journeyman working at the hospital who had been flown to Umtali by Steve Holtz, the MAF pilot. They returned early the next morning. That night Maurice and John Monroe were the only two missionary men on the mission station but while they were operating in the OR the ladies were alone at the Dunaway’s house.
The ladies decided to call the police in Gatooma (an hour and a half away) at about l:00 a.m. and let them know of our situation. They said they could not come until daylight as it wasn’t safe to travel on the road at night. Margaret called her children and other family members to tell them their Dad was missing. They also called the mission chairman, Logan Atnip in Bulawayo, and John Faulkner in KweKwe. He and John Faulkner notified the missionaries and other personnel that Archie was missing. Many started praying around the world from that time onward for the situation at Sanyati.
Shirley called the telephone operator at the little town of Golden Valley about an hour away to ask them to help put calls through to the U.S.A. The operator asked if they had trouble at the mission and Shirley said "yes". The kind operator said she would keep the party phone line open to be used only by the mission for the rest of the night.
At 6 am Friday morning the police arrived. The missionaries were up waiting as they had been praying and reading their Bibles all night. The police reserves discovered that the fence to the garage had been cut with wire clippers as if someone intended to cut off the wires to the mission switchboard, but this had not been done and nothing had been taken, not even the petrol (gasoline) had been stolen from the garage.