Suglo
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Here's the timeline for anyone new to Bob's case.
Case Overview
Compiled from information gathered by websleuths posters over the years.
1950, Kansas, Missouri. Young, newly-enlisted marine Bob Harrod becomes engaged to Fontelle, both Missouri natives. Hes called up for training and never returns to her. Her letters to him are returned, opened but without reply. Eventually, she moves on with her life and marries someone else. She keeps her engagement ring though, and her memories.
2008, March, California. 80-year-old Bob Harrod of Placentia, OC, became a widower. His marriage to Georgia had lasted 56 years and he and his wife had brought up three daughters, now adults. They, along with a son-in-law and one adult grandson, all lived in California within easy driving distance of Bobs home. Grandson lived only a few of blocks away.
Financially, Bob was very comfortable. He was at least a millionaire and owned several properties, some of which family members lived in, one of which had many thousands of debt attached to it, not incurred by Bob. He and his wife had made a will and trust so that their money and property could pass to their children after their deaths without incurring large tax bills. Georgia Harrods Safekeeping Will was filed in Orange County, CA Probate Court on April 1st, 2008, less than a month after her death.
Bob, legally blind and with bad knees, struggled to adjust to a life alone and his closest friend became a neighbour, who has blogged about that time: (http://paulkestes.blogspot.de/2010/0...one-year.html:) Bob also became closer friends with a woman who had been he and Georgia's hairdresser for several years. He began to give her money. This concerned his daughters, who made reports of elder abuse before he disappeared. Bob refuted these. After his disappearance, Bob's daughters' brought a court case against the hairdresser for the return of monies given to her by Bob, which they lost. The OC register later reported police as saying she had a solid alibi for the day Bob disappeared.
2009, Spring. California: Bobs faithful companion, sassy (a little Pomeranian dog) dies. Bobs friend and neighbour said Bob told him he had paid each of his daughters $15,000 and asked them to leave him alone for six months.
2009, May. Missouri. 75-year-old Fontelle is living alone and, like Bob, is legally blind. She has loving children around her though, and an internet-savvy daughter asks if she can help find old friends. Fontelle asks her to find Bob Harrod and, almost immediately, daughter is able to. Fontelle picks up the phone.
June 23, 2009, California. Fontelle answers her long-lost fiances invitation and arrives in Placentia for a visit. They take up where they left off decades before, and decide to get married. Neither of them know much about what has happened to each other in the intervening years; Bob doesnt know about Fontelles divorce, Fontelle doesnt know Bob is a millionaire.
June 29, 2009. Bob and Fontelle get married unexpectedly (theyd just gone to book their wedding) at Fullerton Courthouse, OC.
July 2, 2009. Bob tells his daughters about Fontelle .and that they are now married.
July 7, 2009. Fontelle (now referred to as Mrs Harrod) goes home to Missouri to pack her things and say goodbye to family and friends. She is scheduled to return on Wednesday 29 July. Bob tells his neighbour how happy he is. The media get to hear about the story and interview Bob, and eagerly await Mrs Harrods return. Following his disappearance, internet posters claiming to be Bobs daughters said they made a report of financial elder abuse (for the second time) at this time. An investigator does arrive to investigate eventually, but it is not until two days after Bob had disappeared.
July 17, 2009. Bob receives an attorney letter from a daughter, RB, regarding her mother's will. In it, she states how Bob had launched an angry, uncalled-for tirade against his son-in-law JeM about the will, and had also blamed his eldest daughter, PB.
July 20, 2009. Bobs close friend and neighbour reluctantly moves away to a different state. He has a lengthy conversation with Bob before he goes and later says he is willing to attest to Bobs happy mental state and feelings for Fontelle to police. The following week, he is told about Bobs disappearance by another neighbour of Bobs, the day after Bobs disappearance. He says he tried to contact one of Bobs daughters but his calls were not returned, and when he posted about Bob on a website, one of Bobs daughters sent him a threatening message to stop posting.
July, possibly 26/27, 2009. Bob arranges for his cleaner to visit his home on Monday instead of her normal Tuesday, to prepare the house for Mrs Harrods return. It is not known if Bob informed anybody else about this arrangement.
July 26, 2009. A family meeting with Bob, his three daughters and his son-in-law is held at Bobs home, in order for Bob to provide them with copies of the first Mrs Harrods will, which, according to his daughters, Bob had failed to provide. This will had been filed in OC Probate court one year and three months before and was a publicly available document which anyone was entitled to obtain a copy of, if they visited the courthouse. According to Bobs middle daughter, RB, the meeting was NOT heated. Bob became heated because he was selfish and conditional: (http://www2.ocregister.com/articles/...e=2#slComments). According to Bobs grandson, AH however, there had been fighting in the family.
Bob's wife, Fontelle, later said that Bob told her in a phone call that night that he had informed his daughters and son-in-law that he was going to add her to his accounts, and they were unhappy about this.
Monday, 27th July, 2009.
10AM: Police say Bob was at home in the morning and answered a phone call. Details of who the call was from were not released. It was possibly to arrange for the cleaners visit that day.
Morning, unknown time: Bob's youngest daughter, JuM, said in a TV interview with ktl that her husband (Bob's son-in-law) JeM, was at the house that day to carry out some minor repairs and we think Bob went missing between noon and one.
11.30am-12pm: Daughter PB says that she also called Bob, and overheard Bob's son-in-law telling Bob he was going to the hardware store: (www.findthemissing.org/cases/2706 )
12noon (approx): The cleaning lady says she arrived at Bob's house to find no answer to her knock and no key left in the mailbox for her. This was unusual and she was very concerned (see Disappeared TV show, Long Lost Love). Son-in-law JeM drives up to the house at this point, lets her in and says Bob must have gone to visit a neighbour. The cleaner is even more concerned when she finds Bob's bed unmade, which she has never known before.
3pm approx: Cleaner says she finished her work and left Bobs house, and that the son-in-law had left a little earlier.
3.04pm: Son-in-law gets a receipt from Home Depot, according to police statements. At some point he leaves a note in Bobs house telling Bob he will return to finish the repairs in the morning. Time unknown.
4pm
5pm
6pm
7pm
8pm
9pm
From 3.04pm until 9pm the activity/whereabouts of Bobs family in California are unknown/unconfirmed. Mrs Harrod has stated she made calls to Bobs home during this period but received no answer.
The following times are all pacific time.
9pm : Mrs Harrod stated to police she received a phone call in Missouri from Bobs daughter JuM in California. JuM told her Bob had been missing since 11am that morning and that her husband, JeM, had been working in the house at approximately that time. She also said JuM told her that her husband had seen a suspicious car driving outside Bobs house that morning, for about ten minutes, and he thought Bob might have got into it.
9-9.30pm approx: Either Mrs Harrod in Missouri or Bobs family in California ask police to carry out a welfare check. Internet posters claiming to be Bobs daughters have stated they asked LE to carry out the welfare check, but this is not mentioned on the police report.
9.32pm: Police arrive at Bobs home to conduct a welfare check. Bobs locked car is parked outside. They are met on the front drive by Bobs grandson, AH, the son of JeM and JuM. He explains he has a key and wants officers to check the home with him. Police find the home clean, freshly vacuumed, with the bed made and no apparent disturbance. AH tells police it was not like his grandfather to leave without telling anybody, there had been fighting in the family recently, Bob was very frustrated over this and probably left to get away from the family problems.
12-12.22am. 27/28 July According to the police report above, police make out a missing person report for Bob and return a call to Mrs Harrod in Missouri, who has called earlier to report Bob missing. The exact time of the initial call to report Bob missing (rather than the welfare check) is not stated.
LE Response Times
If Bob went missing at noon, there is a nine and a half hour gap before police first went to his home that day. Police can only respond when they are informed though, and if it was Mrs Harrod who called them around 9pm, the first response time was 32 minutes. After the 9.32pm welfare check though, there is a gap of almost three hours until the missing person report is written out and filed, by an officer who has called Mrs Harrod back in response to an earlier call (time not stated).
Tuesday 28 July, 2009: Bobs daughter JuM enters Bobs house and changes the sheets on his bed. Her husband JeM does not return with her to finish the repairs, as he had said in the note he left Bob the day before. Media are present and she gives the interview with ktla (link above) and states her husband JeM was working in the house that day, went to the hardware store between noon and one, and Bob was gone when he got back. The reporter also quotes JuM as saying her father is showing signs of dementia. Later in 2009, Bobs doctor strongly refutes this.
Wednesday July 29, 2009. Mrs Harrod returns from Missouri to Bobs house and gives interviews with waiting media, stressing Bob would not have left on his own. Bobs daughters JuM and RB are in the house waiting, daughter PB has just left. An investigator from OC social services arrives, to follow up on the allegations of elder abuse by Bobs daughter made on July 7, the day Mrs Harrod had left Placentia for Missouri. TV reports from that day state that Bob was legally blind, had bad knees and had NOT taken his glasses or car with him. Later, Bobs daughters say he may have taken his glasses with him.
August, 2009: Days after Bob disappeared, Mrs Harrod says Bobs daughters came to the house and told her she had no right to live in it.
August 7,2009: Bobs daughters, PB and RB, file a petition for conservatorship to gain control of their fathers assets, at Orange County Probate Court.
August, 2009: Bobs grandson, AH, stops making his regular repayments to Bob on a loan of hundreds of thousands of dollars. In a deposition later he says that is because he understood the loan was to be forgiven upon Bobs death, although Bob left no record of this amongst his detailed financial records. As of this date, February 5, 2013, Bob has not been declared dead.
April 8, 2010: Bobs daughter, JuM, compiles an extensive list of the items she and Bobs other daughters and grandson want from his house, where Mrs Harrod is still living. It contains more than 79 items, as well as a requirement for a day to go through the house for any items not listed, or items the daughters cannot recall until they see, at a time when Mrs Harrod and her family are away from the house. Later, all these items are duly taken, including the sheets JuM put on the bed the morning after Bob disappeared. Despite items including a bed, sheets and teacups being taken, JuM also instructs that the elevator chair must remain intact and NOT removed(sic) from the house; per Dads request. Being legally blind, Mrs Harrod finds the stairs difficult and dangerous to negotiate with a stair elevator in place. This was installed before 2008, for the benefit of the first Mrs Harrod, not Bob.
2009-20013
The initial descriptions of what Bob was wearing that day have included a white shirt, an unknown colour shirt and a may have been wearing. That, and if he had his glasses with him, remain uncertain.
Times that Bob disappeared and son-in-law went to the hardware store have ranged from 11am 3pm, with many of these times provided by son-in-laws wife, JuM. JeM, the son-in-law, has never spoken to the media, it is believed.
A facebook page and myspace page for Bob were created by posters here and handed over to Bobs daughter. After a long period of inactivity, uncomplimentary interests for Bob are posted and deleted, and there is little activity after that.
A $50,000 reward was offered by Bobs daughters for his location, payable from Bobs estate. They excluded any family members from claiming this reward.
Bobs daughters PB and RB, have been appointed co-conservators of his estate. Fees are payable for this. They have undertaken legal proceedings against Bobs hairdresser and his wife, and Bobs grandson said in the deposition linked above that they threatened to take them against him as well. Legal fees, conservators fees, and the reward offered for Bobs location can all be paid from Bobs own estate. Bob did not get the chance to add Mrs Harrod to his accounts, will or trust before he disappeared. She lives in Bobs house but does not own it, and is fighting ongoing legal battles for the right to stay in it and receive a monthly allowance from her husbands estate.
Bobs daughter PB has asked for, and been granted, permission to stop her rental payments to Bobs estate.
Bobs grandson AH never did resume his repayments to Bobs estate and eventually came to an agreement with his aunts, the co-conservators of the estate.
July 31, 2013. CBS runs a news item on Bob's case and interviews Mrs Fontelle Harrod. She says she believes there has been foul play and, inside her and Bob's Placentia home says: 'truthfully, I think he was murdered in that bathroom up there'.
Just finished watching the Disappeared episode which was broadcast this morning. This poor man. His story really struck a chord with me. My dad is 85 and I can't imagine me or my siblings acting this way. There are so many inconsistencies in his family's story. The speed with which the beneficiaries of his will went forward is truly astounding. Vultures comes to mind. I sincerely hope he is found soon for Fontelle's sake and that justice is served. Hats off to those of you who are keeping Bob's case alive.
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