TX TX - Caleb Harris, 21, Texas A&M University student, Corpus Christi, 4 Mar 2024 #3

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Exactly. I didn’t used to know this. It was during the Summer Wells and Kiley Rodni cases that I first saw articles with this information, about both land and water searches. I had assumed if an area was searched, it could be crossed off the list. Not true.
I didn't either! The longer I've been a part of Websleuths, the more I see it. It's so darn normal to miss a body during searches. After awhile you'll start to giggle when people say the body was planted there after the first search.
 
<modsnip - quoted post contained social media rumors so was removed>

It will be interesting to follow— if the person fell into an uncovered manhole, there might be trauma such as fractured skull and other bones. If there is such trauma, I wonder how they would tell if it was due to an accident vs. caused by another person?

Any damage to soft tissues I don’t think will be visible due to decomposition and an extended period of submersion. Maybe they could detect if there’s any organ damage such as liver lacerations? Not sure they would be able to tell if COD was drowning…

Also curious about tox screen, if deemed to be an accident. All IMO.

I feel bad writing all these things :( RIP.
 
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I didn't either! The longer I've been a part of Websleuths, the more I see it. It's so darn normal to miss a body during searches. After awhile you'll start to giggle when people say the body was planted there after the first search.
This case is trending more towards an unfortunate accident. It seems pretty obvious now that the likely fall into the open manhole and the phone turning off happened simultaneously. What is frustrating is the reports of a thorough search being conducted and the body still missed. Surely the open manhole was discovered early in the search. That would have been an OMG moment to find an open manhole so close to where the disappearance occurred. But apparently whoever checked it and however it was checked did not reveal a body inside so it was never searched again. I did see a picture of two cones in the field alerting others to this open manhole so none of the searchers would fall into it. So this open manhole was made known by somebody.

It was a foggy night and this clearly played a big role in this disappearance. Why Caleb was outside taking pictures on a foggy night may never be known. If these are his remains (which seem to be likely) at least he has been found and can be returned to the family at some point in the future. RIP Caleb Harris.
 
To clarify: CC operates a system in which the storm-water runoff does not connect with a wastewater collection system or treatment plant link

Here is an image showing wastewater flow. The larger green dots are access points (manholes) link (p 55)

Does anyone know exactly where the 'open manhole' was alleged to be?
What is interesting to me is that the incoming line on the west side is only 10". That waste gets combined with the east and north side waste and goes out the 18" pipe on the west side.

Capture3.JPG
 

But also, is there a chance this perpetrator knew the searches were over and even lived locally? So knew when the best time would be to drop the body, as well as feeling reassured that by the time it was found, there would be little evidence left. Especially forensic or DNA evidence. The fact it’s so close to the house suggests someone has “staged” this to look like misadventure, after keeping tabs on when this search ended. A bit of a stretch maybe, and all MOO.
It would have been a very high risk decision or even madness for a perp to choose a location so close to the victims home which Google estimates to have been about a 30 minute walk (?). Of course, it would have been helpful if the manhole was already open, but how does the killer know this unless he had been out scouting for a good dump site. (If I remember correctly, the field is also considered private property.)

There must have been a heightened sense of awareness about Caleb's case of people living around the area of this lift station, and any unusual activity could have been quickly reported. Better to have chosen a spot where a body could have been dumped more quickly and easily thus evading detection from any of the locals, nosy neighbors or from people who just happened to be driving by.

Dragging the body to the manhole itself would have been taxing even if the perp himself was in great physical shape and used a car to get to the location. I hear some manhole covers can weigh upwards of 250 pounds and require a special tool for lifting and repositioning.

As far as Caleb is concerned, deciding to walk to this field is a bit perplexing even if he was wearing shoes at the time. I can envision him falling into an open manhole but I'm still wondering what he was even doing there to begin with.

Is CSI still at the scene sifting through the debris maybe searching for a gun, knife or any articles of clothing? I can't seem to find any information on this.
 
I can't come up with a single reason he would fall into an open manhole in the middle of a vacant field at 3 am without shoes.

Walking around, enjoying the middle of the night, exploring? Or perhaps waiting to meet someone nearby and walking around to pass the time? There must be some reason he went for a walk in the first place...

Occam's razor says it's most likely he fell in the manhole in the dark. His phone shut off at practically the same minute he took that picture in the foggy dark.

I don't think we'll get answers from the technical/work schedules so much as we'll have to make some assumptions after that data comes in.

It's more likely, imo, that if Caleb did fall in an unstable or open manhole cover, that it had been messed with by a citizen. Those lined creeks are popular with teenagers, skateboarders, BMX riders, etc. Bored people mess with unlocked stuff.

I agree it sounds like an accident, though I think a manhole could have been accidentally left open, if that's what happened.

I don't think anyone would have placed him there after he was reported missing. Too risky, IMO.
 
Does anyone know exactly where the 'open manhole' was alleged to be?
What is interesting to me is that the incoming line on the west side is only 10". That waste gets combined with the east and north side waste and goes out the 18" pipe on the west side.

View attachment 513381
Snipped for focus by me. This is exactly what mystifies me. IIRC, media reported that the remains were found in the wet well chamber, which is the outgoing side of the lift station.

One, how could the remains travel through a 10" pipe into the gravity chamber, then under or through the filter and into the wet well chamber and then not flow west, out through the 18" pipe?

Two, if the remains actually moved in the opposite direction, arriving from the west through the 18" pipe, how did they move upstream, against the flow of the waste water?

I 'm likely missing something key. There is so much to learn yet, including whether this is the last of Caleb. I hope it is, even as I also hope it isn't.
 
The manhole in the field with the cones around it has been that way since, at the very least, Feb of 2023, as per the dated Google Maps street view. It's presence has been known for sometime by whoever is farming that field. The cones were more than likely placed there to warn the tractor driver of it's location while either cutting, plowing, or harvesting. I have not seen in any news reports that this particular manhole was uncovered, though I may have missed that report.
 
There is an interactive map publicly available of all the wastewater mains in CC and it gives the size of each pipe.
There is one for storm manholes and other infrastructure as well.
I don't know deeply how to interpet the interactive map, however , it appears there are no lines that go from that manhole that was found in the corn field people are talking about on social media. They went to the Greenwood Waste Water Recycling location after the next morning to search there too, and it's location is 10 miles northeast from The Cottages and the Pump station where the found original remains. If they went to the Greenwood station too, it seems to me his body was likely dumped somewhere in between.
 
I just can't understand this...."no obvious signs of a homicide"....One would think you must have the skull before determining if there has been a homicide or not. If they have a skull, they would compare this to known dental records and make a determination right away if they were Caleb's remains or not..... am I missing something??
 
Strange. None of this explains why the roommates panicked and called police.

It will be interesting to see if the body that was discovered was in response to a city employee checking on a malfunction with a piece of equipment at the station.

Something doesn't add up for me.
They called the police because the next morning they woke and found his Uber order outside at their door, and he wasn't in his bedroom, etc.
 
We already know he was outside at that time shoeless. The following photos are from his Instagram. He obviously liked to do a little night time exploring. In one of the photo he's under a bridge with some friends at night. The other photo he is in some sort of skinny stairwell? with a spray paint can lid in his hand. I'm guessing adventuring at night in places he wasn't supposed to be was a normal activity for Caleb. IMO

edit: grammar and photo clarificationView attachment 513362View attachment 513361
However those are storm water drainages, not waste water which are separate.
 
I just can't understand this...."no obvious signs of a homicide"....One would think you must have the skull before determining if there has been a homicide or not. If they have a skull, they would compare this to known dental records and make a determination right away if they were Caleb's remains or not..... am I missing something??
I agree: It’s confusing. They must not have the skull, or they could have quickly used dental records to identify.

But as you note, if someone is shot in the head, that’s not going to show up without the skull.

I guess this is why they said “no obvious or apparent signs of homicide”. Working with what they have, one assumes.
 
I just can't understand this...."no obvious signs of a homicide"....One would think you must have the skull before determining if there has been a homicide or not. If they have a skull, they would compare this to known dental records and make a determination right away if they were Caleb's remains or not..... am I missing something??
The body or body parts were decomposed too much for them to be able to determine, that is why they've sent them to the other facility in Texas which has more capability. I assume there wasn't anything like a gunshot wound that would be more visible, is what they mean.
 
Thanks for confirming they aren’t connected.

I don’t really understand how they can impact one another if they are separate…

From article below:

Corpus Christi Police Chief Mike Markle told local news outlets the body was in an advanced state of decomposition and identification will take time.

“Probably a month to six weeks depending on what they have available for forensics,” Chief Markle said, noting that a recent storm brought the body cloister to the surface.

“It’s been pretty dry lately,” he said. “And with this tropical storm, I guess we got like seven inches of rain over the whole event. And that just kind of shook up the sewage system. And wherever that body may have been, it kind of flushed it out.”

I attribute this to the police chief just not knowing this at the time (concerning, but not surprising).
It's unfortunately caused a lot of unecessary speculation about drainage ditches and stormwater system manholes.
 
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