CA CA - Bob Harrod, 81, Orange County, 27 July 2009 - #16

[chris24]

hmm that's an interesting view of the front, zwie, made me go huh, well, huh

Why is that?

I just have to say kudos, Disappeared...they do a darned good job with their sets, that looks nearly identical to the house actually on the show!

ETA - just have to add that if he was taken out in a box, and this is morbid, I'm sorry, it would be easy to "scatter" his body parts around town so there would never be a body to find but rather a few pieces.

 

[zwiebel]

Sorry Chris, didn't mean to confuse you. It's not a stage set. That's Bob's real house and real car, just a couple of days after he disappeared.

 

[sreshowtime]

well chris- thinking about backing up in the drive, so silly me went & looked at street view on google map, well duh I forgot how the walk angles off the drive & goes to that covered walkway to the door...
just thinking creatively about how Mr H mighta got out of the house rather unseen

 

[chris24]

Sorry Chris, didn't mean to confuse you. It's not a stage set. That's Bob's real house and real car, just a couple of days after he disappeared.

Oh I figured that! I meant that on the show Disappeared, their set looks nearly identical to Bob's actual house, except I think they had a different model Camry! They did a good job on the show of making their set looks like Bob's house.

sreshowtime, if you backed a car into the garage you could get things into the car without being seen. Also, if you backed a car up at an angle to the sidewalk in front of the house, because the walkway is covered you could probably load stuff into the trunk without being seen for the most part.

 

[deca]

I don't personally know Bob's neighborhood but I lived in a similar area on the other side of Los Angeles. These nicer middle/upper middle class neighborhoods can be ghost towns in the middle of the day. Heck, ALL day. In fact there have been crime sprees in these neighborhoods because all the adults work and have long commutes so there are no homeowners in the area for 10 hours or more during the day.
My parents haven't met some of their neighbors even though the neighbors have lived there for 15 years. The neighbors leave at about 6 am to go to work, work, do errands or whatever and come home at 6 or 7 and pull straight into their garage.
What I am getting at in my long winded way is that no one may be out and about looking around to see someone move a large object. Gardeners tend to work and have earplugs, hats and sunglasses on.

Secondly, if these house lay outs are similar to the ones I am familiar with, all the "living" areas are in the back. The front has a formal area and entry way. So if people are home they are in the back of the house in the family room and kitchen. So, no one is going to be looking out the front window.

I hate to go all "Godfather" on you all, but I wonder if Bob had rugs?

That house plan is very similar to ones that I grew up with. Most of those houses have a side gate right by the garage that opens onto the paved driveway area. We know that someone couldn't have pulled into the garage, but someone could have backed up to the side gate minimizing exposure time.

 

[Grainne Dhu]

Well, timid hand up here, but it did cross my mind that if a person was living in a house their dad owned, and knew he owned at least two, three- or maybe even more other houses, and had maybe given away a brand new car to me - and I was helping with his accounts.....

I might be able to deduce a rough idea of how much money and assets he owned, if I was interested in that sort of thing.

I worded it badly, sorry.

I meant that PMLsmom was the first person to pick up on that statement of ignorance by one of Bob's daughters and contrast it with the reality of the situation.

The interesting part, to me, is not whether Bob's daughters knew down to the nickel what he was worth but that they are trying to portray themselves as far more ignorant at the time he disappeared than logic says they were.

Little contradictions can be what blow a case open. And this family is rife with them.

 

[chris24]

I don't personally know Bob's neighborhood but I lived in a similar area on the other side of Los Angeles. These nicer middle/upper middle class neighborhoods can be ghost towns in the middle of the day. Heck, ALL day. In fact there have been crime sprees in these neighborhoods because all the adults work and have long commutes so there are no homeowners in the area for 10 hours or more during the day.
My parents haven't met some of their neighbors even though the neighbors have lived there for 15 years. The neighbors leave at about 6 am to go to work, work, do errands or whatever and come home at 6 or 7 and pull straight into their garage.
What I am getting at in my long winded way is that no one may be out and about looking around to see someone move a large object. Gardeners tend to work and have earplugs, hats and sunglasses on.

Secondly, if these house lay outs are similar to the ones I am familiar with, all the "living" areas are in the back. The front has a formal area and entry way. So if people are home they are in the back of the house in the family room and kitchen. So, no one is going to be looking out the front window.

I hate to go all "Godfather" on you all, but I wonder if Bob had rugs?

That house plan is very similar to ones that I grew up with. Most of those houses have a side gate right by the garage that opens onto the paved driveway area. We know that someone couldn't have pulled into the garage, but someone could have backed up to the side gate minimizing exposure time.

You are right. Everybody hangs out in the back of the house in Bob's type of house, so it's possible no one saw. Good point!

 

[zwiebel]

Thanks for all the local info about the community everyone - it echoes what Bob's friend and neighbour said about things being so quiet during the day that it would be very possible for no-one to have seen a thing.

About 1.26 on this video there is a shot of the inside of Bob's garage. It looks far too crowded to me for there to have been any room to get a vehicle in there - what do others think?


www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwXpl6VGOIQ

 

[zwiebel]

BBM

I don't personally know Bob's neighborhood but I lived in a similar area on the other side of Los Angeles. These nicer middle/upper middle class neighborhoods can be ghost towns in the middle of the day. Heck, ALL day. In fact there have been crime sprees in these neighborhoods because all the adults work and have long commutes so there are no homeowners in the area for 10 hours or more during the day.
My parents haven't met some of their neighbors even though the neighbors have lived there for 15 years. The neighbors leave at about 6 am to go to work, work, do errands or whatever and come home at 6 or 7 and pull straight into their garage.
What I am getting at in my long winded way is that no one may be out and about looking around to see someone move a large object. Gardeners tend to work and have earplugs, hats and sunglasses on.

Secondly, if these house lay outs are similar to the ones I am familiar with, all the "living" areas are in the back. The front has a formal area and entry way. So if people are home they are in the back of the house in the family room and kitchen. So, no one is going to be looking out the front window.

I hate to go all "Godfather" on you all, but I wonder if Bob had rugs?

That house plan is very similar to ones that I grew up with. Most of those houses have a side gate right by the garage that opens onto the paved driveway area. We know that someone couldn't have pulled into the garage, but someone could have backed up to the side gate minimizing exposure time.

I don't know about rugs - I'll look through some of the photos available from before Bob disappeared - but he definitely had carpets, because his children said they were being cleaned, the day after he disappeared.

 

[Oriah]

I can quite understand a 20 something-year-old needing help, and not being privy to a parent's financial state. But I'm still puzzled why a 50-something accountant daughter, who helped Bob out with his tax affairs once or twice a month, would have no idea how much he was worth.

Can you prepare tax returns in the US without knowing how much money/investments etc someone has?[/quote]

BBM:
Nope. Not doing business as a CPA or professional tax preparer of any sort. There's an acceptance of liability that goes along with preparing someone elses' taxes for them. So it's in the best interests of any tax preparer to know exactly what they are reporting and paying tax on.
Right?

 

[Oriah]

Thanks for all the local info about the community everyone - it echoes what Bob's friend and neighbour said about things being so quiet during the day that it would be very possible for no-one to have seen a thing.

About 1.26 on this video there is a shot of the inside of Bob's garage. It looks far too crowded to me for there to have been any room to get a vehicle in there - what do others think?


www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwXpl6VGOIQ

Frankly I think any vehicle backed up either to the garage, or pulled into the garage, was/is a cause for concern. Because there was so much stuff inside the garage, there would be no good reason to, say, facilitate moving something large or bulky into the house via the garage. And unless the purpose of entering/exiting a vehicle were to empty the contents of the garage into a vehicle beginning at the garage door- well, there would be no point either? And if Mr. Harrod's vehicle was parked as pictured, well, nothing makes sense to me. Seems logical that whoever last parked Mr. Harrod's vehicle was driving, and likely intended to enter the residence via the front door.

Maybe instead of a last seen for Mr. Harrod, we should focus on a last seen for his vehicle?

 

[Cubby]

I don't personally know Bob's neighborhood but I lived in a similar area on the other side of Los Angeles. These nicer middle/upper middle class neighborhoods can be ghost towns in the middle of the day. Heck, ALL day. In fact there have been crime sprees in these neighborhoods because all the adults work and have long commutes so there are no homeowners in the area for 10 hours or more during the day.
My parents haven't met some of their neighbors even though the neighbors have lived there for 15 years. The neighbors leave at about 6 am to go to work, work, do errands or whatever and come home at 6 or 7 and pull straight into their garage.
What I am getting at in my long winded way is that no one may be out and about looking around to see someone move a large object. Gardeners tend to work and have earplugs, hats and sunglasses on.

Secondly, if these house lay outs are similar to the ones I am familiar with, all the "living" areas are in the back. The front has a formal area and entry way. So if people are home they are in the back of the house in the family room and kitchen. So, no one is going to be looking out the front window.

I hate to go all "Godfather" on you all, but I wonder if Bob had rugs?

That house plan is very similar to ones that I grew up with. Most of those houses have a side gate right by the garage that opens onto the paved driveway area. We know that someone couldn't have pulled into the garage, but someone could have backed up to the side gate minimizing exposure time.

Bob's home has a side gate right by the garage. It's on the right side when looking at a photo of the home. There is a small walkway on that side of the house where the view is obstructed from the home on one side and a large cement (cinder block?) wall on the other side.

Additionally, a pick up truck could be backed a few inches or even a foot into the garage and that could obstruct the view without pulling the truck entirely into the garage.

While we don't know of any rugs missing, we do know Bob's youngest daughter changed the linens on his bed within a day of his disappearance. She posted about doing so on her community forum and claims she bought the sheets as a wedding gift, but I do not believe her. There is no valid reason to not have given Bob the sheets at the family meeting the day prior to his disappearance and we have never heard about a reciept to indicate when the sheets were purchased.

They could have been purchased long before Fontelle came into the picture, or even when Georgia was still alive. Or, they could have been purchased the day of or following day after Mr. Harrod's disappearance.

I think Jeff, Julie and Andrew are up to their ears in 'this'.... and Paula and Roberta are doing their damndest to cover it up because they fear they might lose their share if any family member is arrested.

 

[Cubby]

Bob's is a double wide drive able to fit two cars side by side. Was there enough room to open the garage door where Bob's car was parked? I'd imagine it was with the number of packages Fontelle had been sending from Missouri. I don't think Bob would have wanted to move his car for each delivery.....

Someone only needed to be able the back a vehicle in only a few inches to obstruct the view of what was being loaded.

 

[Grainne Dhu]

Frankly I think any vehicle backed up either to the garage, or pulled into the garage, was/is a cause for concern. Because there was so much stuff inside the garage, there would be no good reason to, say, facilitate moving something large or bulky into the house via the garage. And unless the purpose of entering/exiting a vehicle were to empty the contents of the garage into a vehicle beginning at the garage door- well, there would be no point either? And if Mr. Harrod's vehicle was parked as pictured, well, nothing makes sense to me. Seems logical that whoever last parked Mr. Harrod's vehicle was driving, and likely intended to enter the residence via the front door.

Maybe instead of a last seen for Mr. Harrod, we should focus on a last seen for his vehicle?

I wonder if Bob kept track of his mileage for any reason? If so, it might be possible to infer about what the mileage on his car should have been Monday morning and to see whether there was a large enough discrepancy to be noticed.

I know my father keeps track of his mileage for every trip in a little spiral bound notebook, where he notes mpg at every fill up and maintenance. It might seem a little obsessive but if results count, he's doing the right thing. His beloved Mazda is a 1983 model and it purrs like a kitten.

 

[deca]

:twocents:

I don't know exactly how much money my parents have...or my inlaws...or my friends...but I do know what lifestyle they have, what type of cars they buy and whether they have loans for things or not. More importantly, I know their professions and even if I don't see a paycheck, I can guess how much a lawyer makes, how much a teacher makes, etc.

Of course, we can never tell what goes on behind closed doors and whether or not someone is living beyond their means but usually once you know a person well enough you know whether they are a spendthrift, frugal or whatever.

Basically his daughters had to have a general idea how much money Bob had. Heck, although I haven't seen numbers I have a general idea of how much money Bob had!

 

[sreshowtime]

ya know that Monday morning phone that LE hasn't elaborated on?? Like around 10 a.m. Has anyone else wondered if maybe it was to (or even from) Mr. H's attorney? Considering the previous days event...

 

[zwiebel]

I always hate to say I don't believe someone, but I don't see how you can reconcile the not-so-subtle hints/suggestions/unkind words that have flown around about Fontelle marrying Bob for his money, and daughters having 'no idea' Bob had any money.

How did they think he paid for the houses some of the family lived in? He obtained mortgages at 70-something years old? Why were they so worried about the barber lady and 'financial abuse', if they didn't know Bob had any money? Why were there accusations of Bob being too 'mean' to pay for this or that, if they didn't know he had the money to do so?

Maybe I'm just missing something here. I am no financial expert. But it is my opinion that, if Bob's children, son-in-law and grandson did not know exactly what Bob was worth, they at least had a very good idea.

Whether they 'had the right' to inherit all those assets, or Bob had the right to spend, give them away or share them with Fontelle, is another matter.

My first concern on chancing upon Bob's case was that he was not buried in his own backyard. That gave me nightmares. I thought he might be there and Mrs Harrod might stumble across him one day. My second, now I'm sure he isn't, is to get him home, wherever he is. My third, will be to see his murderer in a place where they cannot murder anyone else. Wherever that is. Join my uncle, for all I care. They'll get on well.

My fourth is the money. I hope Mrs Harrod never ends her days in poverty, worrying about how to pay the utility or hospital or food bills, that's all. Bob would never have wanted that, I'm sure.

 

[zwiebel]

ya know that Monday morning phone that LE hasn't elaborated on?? Like around 10 a.m. Has anyone else wondered if maybe it was to (or even from) Mr. H's attorney? Considering the previous days event...

Yes sir we have!

 

[sreshowtime]

I figured as much

 

[zwiebel]

We didn't work out if it was or not though.