CA CA - Bob Harrod, 81, Orange County, 27 July 2009 - #17

[zwiebel]

If I'm not mistaken, RB not only worked for the police department, but one?? of her husbands was a police officer. Yet another headline-grabbing wedding with family heirloom jewels on show. Over a hundred years old too.

Missing people and murder cases get inherited as well, I've found, but you wouldn't want that sort of stuff in the newspaper. People might be mean about it, even if it wasn't your fault.

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/31903403/

Yet RB said didn't know she was 'allowed' to notify police Bob was missing as soon as she knew he disappeared. Says she feels 'helpless' and still doesn't know how to help. Can't she ask some old friends/contacts of her husband what she and the family can do to bring Bob Harrod home?

Amending my list now. Bob had/has
A search and rescue professional in the family
A police officer
Someone who worked for the police department
A trained EMT

Yet none of his blood relatives reported him missing. Or carried out searches. Or seem to have carried out any actual, physical activity on his behalf at all since he went missing over four years ago. Or tried to 'work' any useful contacts they might have had in California. Why not?

 

[zwiebel]

'husband....as well as serving with the (unreadable) police department..'

Who is/were this Bell and Howell more than one of them seemed to work for? Did Bob work there too, and help family get jobs there?

 

[zwiebel]

Glad you are all ok, zwie'.

Thinking about OC's work on Bob's case. I wonder how many people they have reinterviewed and if all agreed to come in, or not.....

Praying this case is both solved and Bob comes home soon.

I just hope, hope they open this case up. I think people have had the chance to offer 'alternative' theories about what may have happened to Bob quietly, around the community, and it's not worked in favor of finding him.

More people would help in the search if they knew more, I'm sure.

 

[zwiebel]

Bob's blood family could have moved heaven and earth to find him with all their connections in CA - of that I am convinced. Some connections I think they had or have now are:

Masons
Job's Daughters
Police
Emergency services
Charitable/volunteer Organizations
Local History Organizations
Entertainment Organizations
Creative Organizations
Online Communities
IT-skilled workers

There are more, I'm sure. Probably outdoor enthusiasts/physical training/leisure groups too.

 

[zwiebel]

Plus, they now have a large forune they can draw upon too.

 

[Cubby]

I don't have a subscription for the newspaper link.... I thought RB's ex was a disabled vet? I thought she married and divorced the same guy twice. (source very old RB ROTW post... not sure if it is still up, or someone here has a copy of it.)

 

[sreshowtime]

old co. methinks related to/given proximity to motion pic industry- has changed hands since
Bell & Howell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Grainne Dhu]

I'm not sure, but the longer a case has been 'dormant' or static, the longer it seems to take for any re-investigation to make solid progress. I suppose because there is a fog of time to work through, where people forget and evidence disappears. There is also the factor of lots of existing documents to go through. That takes so much time. Especially if a person doesn't know exactly what they are looking for, but just knows they will know it when they see it.

Given that the Cold Case Unit will be dealing with lots of cases, it's doubtful if anyone is able to spend even a whole day at a time working on Bob's case. So....it is going to take time. No doubt. I just hope Bob's case will get under the skin of an investigator, as it has with us. So that he will always be at the back of someone's mind and they'll return to his case again and again, whenever they get the chance. They will find something, I'm sure.

O/T: talking of solid, my house has been stabilized, at last. It's enabled a professional (I took your advice Grainne) to get a look at the structure now. The bad news is, there isn't any. Every supporting beam at first floor level that could go, has gone. It was hanging on air. I don't understand timber-frame houses, for sure. The dog likes it though, as he can see right through the holes in the wall to outside now.

But that means I must be really lucky because I didn't end up squashed under a houseful of clutter. The dog too. And Mr Z. So we can all spare half to pass on to Bob and Mrs Harrod. That means fifty per cent of the luck of three very lucky people/critters is winging across the stratosphere right now. Hope it lands (gently) right in the lap of an OC investigator.

BBM

From reading about various cold cases, it seems to me that various units organise in different ways.

I've read about cold case units where each investigator is assigned several cases to work until they've made as much progress as they feel they are going to. In other units, investigators look over the cold case files and pick one to work on until they've made as much progress as they feel they are going to. Another way of organising is done via a type of triaging where each cold case is reviewed and sorted into categories according to what needs to be done or how likely it is to be solved.

As for your house, yikes! I've read that the great strength of timber framed houses is that the frame interlocks, which spreads the load throughout the entire frame. This is also the great weakness since that very strong frame can conceal problems until they are far advanced.

 

[Grainne Dhu]

'husband....as well as serving with the (unreadable) police department..'

Who is/were this Bell and Howell more than one of them seemed to work for? Did Bob work there too, and help family get jobs there?

According to wikipedia, Bell & Howell started out manufacturing film projectors in 1907 and then branched out from there into cameras and various consumer goodies. They also did some military contracts.

I don't know if that is where Bob worked... I thought he worked in some sort of avionics? Or maybe I'm confusing Bob with a different case.

 

[zwiebel]

I don't have a subscription for the newspaper link.... I thought RB's ex was a disabled vet? I thought she married and divorced the same guy twice. (source very old RB ROTW post... not sure if it is still up, or someone here has a copy of it.)

I don't have a sub either. But the text of the whole page is scanned in by a computer below the newspaper image. Some of it comes out wrong, but part of it definitely says her husband works at Bell and Howell and also serves with something something police department. It was a revows ceremony?

 

[zwiebel]

That newspaper wedding is probably the first wedding. It is from 1973 and it calls RB the former Miss Roberta D Harrod. Her bridesmaid was PB and they were all living in Arcadia, except for Bob and Georgia, in Monrovia.

Honeymoon was lake Tahoc. Is that where Bob drove to see the friends police interviewed?

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/31903403/

 

[sreshowtime]

I think the friends were towards the coast iirc

 

[Opie]

My guess is Alhambra PD.

 

[sreshowtime]

Police Department Reserves
Alahambra, yes Opie

http://www.cityofalhambra.org/government/finance/downloads/8PoliceDepartment.pdf
see pg 8

so this is like a cop junior position?

reading around a little on different sites- it can be a paid or volunteer position

 

[mikkismom]

That newspaper wedding is probably the first wedding. It is from 1973 and it calls RB the former Miss Roberta D Harrod. Her bridesmaid was PB and they were all living in Arcadia, except for Bob and Georgia, in Monrovia.

Honeymoon was lake Tahoc. Is that where Bob drove to see the friends police interviewed?

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/31903403/

No mention of her youngest sister? Also, isn't RB's last name NOT M?

jmo

 

[Cubby]

BBM

From reading about various cold cases, it seems to me that various units organise in different ways.

I've read about cold case units where each investigator is assigned several cases to work until they've made as much progress as they feel they are going to. In other units, investigators look over the cold case files and pick one to work on until they've made as much progress as they feel they are going to. Another way of organising is done via a type of triaging where each cold case is reviewed and sorted into categories according to what needs to be done or how likely it is to be solved.

As for your house, yikes! I've read that the great strength of timber framed houses is that the frame interlocks, which spreads the load throughout the entire frame. This is also the great weakness since that very strong frame can conceal problems until they are far advanced.

With budgets as they are, I think all CC units prioritize cases, or choose to work on cases they deem solvable. I'm sure the OC cold case unit reviewed the case and deemed it solvable before accepting it.

 

[Cubby]

I see klaaskids is organizing a search in Orange County this weekend. It looks like it might be too far for the two hour window, if that two hours is accurate, but I am always hopeful searchers out for any MP case in the area might find Bob.

Really a shame it's always the families of other MP's in the area organizing searches. Hopefully Bob will be found by another family looking for their loved one. We can always hope, because there is little to no chance of Bob's family ever organizing a search for their missing father/grandfather/father-in-law.

Always praying today is the day Bob comes home.

 

[zwiebel]

No mention of her youngest sister? Also, isn't RB's last name NOT M?

jmo

In msm it's always been Brady and, more recently, Brady Harrod. I don't see any mention of JuM. Maybe away at school at the time?

 

[zwiebel]

I see klaaskids is organizing a search in Orange County this weekend. It looks like it might be too far for the two hour window, if that two hours is accurate, but I am always hopeful searchers out for any MP case in the area might find Bob.

Really a shame it's always the families of other MP's in the area organizing searches. Hopefully Bob will be found by another family looking for their loved one. We can always hope, because there is little to no chance of Bob's family ever organizing a search for their missing father/grandfather/father-in-law.

Always praying today is the day Bob comes home.

I just looked at the FB page for Bryce Laspisa who Klaas is searching for this weekend. It is amazing what family have done in a few months, compared to what Bob's family have done in years. Very sad too, for Bob.

I saw something OC Cold Case Unit have been doing recently, which is searching the offices of a now disbanded law firm which some local authority members in OC have made accusations against. It sounds like an horrendously complicated case where the DA's office has to tread a very fine line between two powerful parties which seem to be in opposition at the moment.

That must be drawing a lot of resources at the moment, I'd think. The details are on the OC Weekly website but I don't really want to link it as they are very, ummmm .....outspoken?

I don't think they would look at Bob's case either Cubby, if they thought there was no hope. I do believe they have the capability and the will to resolve his case at the OC Unit. I suspect they might have already cut through the 'fog' like butter, and are now just seeking the evidence they need. That's my hope.

Is it just me, or are there often members of DAs' offices who have a very intimidating appearance, even when they're smiling? As though they are pleasant and polite but their eyes are sort of saying, 'There is no chance you can mislead me. Please don't attempt to do so. It will not help you.'

 

[zwiebel]

There are still people in the Placentia vicinity just hearing about Bob's case! Whatever we've been doing, we have to keep on doing it and get the word out!

An idea I had - Bob's an alumni of William Jewell College in MO, I think? And a long-term donor too? It has some very high achieving alumni there. Press, attorneys, FBI.....I wonder if the college is aware he's missing? Maybe they could mark the fact an alumni has been missing so long in a suitable way, at one of their events?

http://www.jewell.edu/home

Of course, by posting that here it gives an opportunity for anyone to get in first and request the College not to co-operate with any search/publicity efforts. But if they do that, I think the college should pass the details straight to the OC Cold Case Unit, because it would be very suspicious if anyone should not want Bob to be found.