CA CA - Bob Harrod, 81, Orange County, 27 July 2009 - #18

[zwiebel]

There's a Julie Harrod-Michaels jumping about genealogy websites, telling people how she's kept treasured family photos of important people. I guess that can't be this Julie Michaels-Harrod though. It took Bob's family so long to get photos of Bob out, and then they came crowded with hairdressers, kids, and kitchen taps.

Bob's daughters seemed to particularly want one to be shared that showed him smiling, sitting beside a hairdresser he and his wife had known for years. That's the one they chose for his missing poster. Nasty, in my opinion. An attempt to sully his reputation, and hers. And with the risk it would discourage people from helping search.

Or distract them from asking the important questions, maybe.....like exactly what time son-in-law Jeff Michaels last saw Bob Harrod. Because he was then, and still is now, the last known person to have seen Bob Harrod alive. And the only one who did absolutely nothing to help when poor Bob disappeared.

 

[Jmoose]

It's peculiar. Julie (Bob's youngest daughter) and Jeff Michaels are Andrew Harrod's parents. Only Jeff Michaels wasn't always known by that name, as he changed it from Finke/Fink. Can't recollect now. Julie seems to have changed hers too, to Harrod-Michaels with a hyphen, when it suits her.

Then their son Andrew Michaels, who had all those complicated loans with Bob that edged towards a million dollars, changed his middle and last name, so he became Andrew Robert Harrod. In his court deposition, it was revealed that it may have led to some accidental confusion with Bob's financial advisor. Andrew somehow ended up reading an email or maybe two, meant for Bob.

I'm sure Andrew Michaels AKA Andrew Robert Harrod informed anyone who made that mistake straight away though.

I laughed and laughed when I read this part!

 

[Jmoose]

So-it sounds to me like they (JuM, JeM, and ARH) might be a bunch of con artists-who does that kind of thing as a family, especially when they don't all take the same surname? That is bizarre!

 

[newbiesluethie]

Is Fontelle still in the home? This whole thing sickens me. Those daughters seem so angry and uncaring. The eldest one seems "off" in the ID show in my opinion. Doesn't mean they killed him of course, but someone in that fam knows something. I wish there would be some sort of update.

 

[zwiebel]

Fontelle is still in the home. Although it seemed like at one stage daughters were spying on her and posting every time she left the home, to visit family back in Missouri. Also, about anyone who visited. As though that was some kind of crime.

To me, it seemed almost criminal that all that effort was devoted to spying on Fontelle, while absolutely no effort was devoted to the search for their missing dad.

Actually, that's unfair. We have the $50,000 reward offered from Bob's own money, with that discouraging 'family excluded' claim. We have the one missing poster daughters have issued, in five years.

We have the first interviews with Julie Michaels/AKA Michaels-Harrod when Bob first disappeared. Before she fell silent. On the subject of Bob, at least.

We have daughter Paula Borcher/AKA Borcher-Harrod's odd statement about overhearing her brother-in-law on the Namus report, and she also participated in the 'Long Lost Love' show. Not a lot in five years, but it's something.

We Have Roberta Brady AKA Brady-Harrod giving the most media interviews in the couple of years after Bob disappeared, and posting a lot of info (if it's really her) on a forum. Right up until she arrived at Bob's disappearance and the Long Lost Love show aired. At which point, she also 'disappeared'.

We have sole grandchild Andrew Anthony Michaels/AKA Andrew Robert Harrod who was there for the welfare check in 2009, and a later court appearance - to NOT explain what happened to all the money Bob loaned him.

And, of course, we have son-in-law Jeffrey Fink/AKA Michaels. Last known person to have seen Bob Harrod alive. Husband of Julie, dad to Andrew. Actually in the house within minutes of Bob Harrod's disappearance, at whatever time that was. In the search for Bob, he has............................

Done absolutely nothing, that I can see. Even though he's supposedly a search and rescue volunteer in Running Springs, San Bernardino County.

 

[Angelo]

I'm quite convinced LE knows exactly who is responsible here. In this case, I think LE simply hasn't reached the 'beyond reasonable doubt' threshold. I'd rather LE wait until they are confident with their reaching that threshold.

No way would we want to see those responsible acquitted.

Justice will be served in this case, even if it takes a little longer than we hoped.

Agree! This is not a "mystery" or a "who done it".

 

[Angelo]

The courts have declared Mr. Harrod as deceased, so how long will it take his daughters to divvy up his money amongst themselves? :thinking:

 

[Cubby]

The courts have declared Mr. Harrod as deceased, so how long will it take his daughters to divvy up his money amongst themselves? :thinking:

I assume that happened immediately upon Bob being declared deceased.

 

[Jmoose]

Yes-that money's gone; all assets likely were split up immediately, except for the house-and the stuff the sisters grabbed before he was officially declared dead. This really makes me mad-even if none of them had any part in his disappearance. At the very best, these girls didn't seem to like their father much, to be so distrespectful of him. And as Zweibel said, where is the obit, now that he's been declared dead? He must have had friends and neighbors and professional acquaintances who'd like to read it. They wrote one for their mother...

 

[zwiebel]

Well. Still no public obituary for Robert Merle Harrod. Wonder if family are waiting for someone to write one for him?

 

[zwiebel]

The BBC in the UK keeps a huge archive of obits for people not yet dead. It has to because it's public funded and expected to mark the passing of anyone newsworthy at all. It's really inclusive, from local charity workers to very high-profile people. Special kinds of journalists are tasked with interviewing people who haven't yet died, for their own obits.

But of course, they always miss someone. Peaches Geldof (daughter of singer Bob) was one. No-one expected her to die so young. Then they have to go with just the basic birth/death info available, and their interpretation of that person's life.

So I guess what I'm saying is, if Bob's own children won't create a public obituary in his honor, it is entirely possible for people who never knew him to do that, on his behalf.

 

[Cubby]

I don't think there will be an obit. They wouldn't want to draw more attention to their fathers still unsolved 'disappearance-presumed murder', or that JeM never answered even the most basic questions about Bob's disappearance.

An obit would draw attention.... kind of like media, and a bigger reward now that they don't need permission from the court to do so. And, dropping that silly family exclusion from the reward.

No, an obit would certainly bring too much unwanted attention.

 

[Jmoose]

I don't think there will be an obit. They wouldn't want to draw more attention to their fathers still unsolved 'disappearance-presumed murder', or that JeM never answered even the most basic questions about Bob's disappearance.

An obit would draw attention.... kind of like media, and a bigger reward now that they don't need permission from the court to do so. And, dropping that silly family exclusion from the reward.

No, an obit would certainly bring too much unwanted attention.

Wouldn't that only be a problem if one of the family members actually committed the crime? They've decided, because of his disappearance and age and lack of evidence that he's alive, that he is no longer with us-interesting that they wouldn't have an obit. Certainly does stink a little, doesn't it?

 

[Laughing]

Gosh, we know about him! WE oughta try submitting an obituary for Bob to, oh, I don't know, a few dozen California newspapers....

Well I just asked Frank Girardot of Pasadena Star-News & the San Gabrielle Valley News Group to consider Bob's situation. Girardot provided excellent coverage of the "Clark Rockefeller" events a few years ago.

 

[zwiebel]

Thank you, Laughing! What an excellent move!

Can't hang around. Working on an obituary.

 

[Cubby]

Wouldn't that only be a problem if one of the family members actually committed the crime? They've decided, because of his disappearance and age and lack of evidence that he's alive, that he is no longer with us-interesting that they wouldn't have an obit. Certainly does stink a little, doesn't it?

I'd think so. I'd also think clearing up the timeline questions would only be a problem for the same reasons.

 

[zwiebel]

The one person with the best knowledge of the time Bob Harrod disappeared has chosen never to speak to media, or appeal for help in finding his missing father in law.

His wife Julie, Bob's youngest daughter, appears to have been told by him that Bob disappeared between 12 and 1pm. That's the time she told media anyhow. So unless she was at the house too, I'm guessing that's information from her husband.

In an abstract way, daughter Paula has sort of hinted she's a supporting witness for that time, with her statement on Namus that she overheard her brother in law in the background when she spoke to Bob, saying he was going to the hardware store at 11.45ish. But no suggestion she directly asked her brother in law what time he left the house, and therefore what time Bob disappeared.

Daughter Roberta, (or someone claiming to be her) posting elsewhere, has outright stated she never asked her brother in law what time Bob could have disappeared, as she didn't think it necessary.

It's so rare to have a missing person case where all close family members seem so disinterested in discovering what time their loved one disappeared. It's usually the first thing families try to find out, so they can let the public know when they should be trying to recall seeing anything, as well as where.

It's too late now, I think, five years down the line. That carelessness has effectively ruined any chance of anyone remembering seeing anything. It's the sort of thing people need to be asked straight away.

I do still wonder if those construction workers were there Monday 27th July 2009 though, and if police ever asked them if they saw any vehicles leaving Bob's house.

 

[zwiebel]

In the case of their mother, Bob's first wife, her obituary was published March 30th, 15 days after her death. Maybe one for Bob will be forthcoming. You never know.

 

[here]

Newlyweds, aged 96 and 95, investigated after family complain the marriage complicates their inheritance

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ds-ages-96-95-questioned.html#article-2748931

Virginia couple fights to stay married

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/loc...virginia-couple-fights-stay-married/13395503/

 

[Jmoose]

Newlyweds, aged 96 and 95, investigated after family complain the marriage complicates their inheritance

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ds-ages-96-95-questioned.html#article-2748931

Virginia couple fights to stay married

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/loc...virginia-couple-fights-stay-married/13395503/

This is ridiculous! Jeez-maybe these vultures will get lucky, and the husband will die first, so her children will inherit both their mother's estate, and that of her new husband!