Found Deceased OH - Harley Dilly, 14, walking to Port Clinton High School, 20 Dec 2019 #5

[Songbird1973]

For anyone still puzzled about how Harley COULD have pushed his coat and glasses out of the flue AFTER he was already in the chimney, I made a drawing using a stock illustration.

This shows how a stovepipe connects to a chimney flue.

If no stovepipe is connected to the flue, it is usually kept covered with something like this. It's like a tin saucer or plate, with flimsy wire brackets to hold it against the wall. It would be very easy to push this cover out from inside the chimney.


So for the chimney that Harley was found in, IF the "blockage" is about on the same level as the second story floor, then Harley could have reached the flue like this.


The illustration shows the sides of the chimney to be much thicker than normal. A normal chimney is only as thick as one brick, so the coat and glasses just needed to be pushed through a hole. For those still wondering how a bulky puff coat could go through a flue hole, I have observed that the new puff coats are much thinner than the ones from my childhood, and made of a slicker, sturdier fabric that wouldn't catch so readily on the bricks.

As far as to why Harley asphyxiated, it is my opinion that something changed after he got to the place in the chimney where he died. My morbid fascination with the horrible life of child chimney sweeps has led me to read about chimney construction. They don't get smaller as they go down. And I know the "cake pan" size of the chimney Harley was in seems small enough to sufficate a 14 year old, but it has been the standard size for hundreds of years. The same size the young chimney sweeps were forced to climb. Often near the top, they narrowed to 9x9" and they still had room to maneuver their arms enough to scrape and brush the chimney walls. There were two ways that I've read of that boys suffocated in a straight chimney. 1. If a large amount of soot fell on top of the their head and around their face. 2. Their body slipped downward past their knees, and they became jammed. The pressure of the knees against the chest prevented them from taking a breath.


These are all my own thoughts. I don't know that this is what happened. I don't know how Harley was positioned in the chimney, nor where the blockage or flue hole was.

Edited by me to fix minor typos.

 

[Linda7NJ]

For anyone still puzzled about how Harley COULD have pushed his coat and glasses out of the flue AFTER he was already in the chimney, I made a drawing using a stock illustration.

This shows how a stovepipe connects to a chimney flue.
View attachment 227115 View attachment 227116
If no stovepipe is connected to the flue, it is usually kept covered with something like this. It's like a tin saucer or plate, with flimsy wire brackets to hold it against the wall. It would be very easy to push this cover out from inside the chimney.
View attachment 227117

So for the chimney that Harley was found in, IF the "blockage" is about on the same level as the second story floor, then Harley could have reached the flue like this.
View attachment 227128

The illustration shows the sides of the chimney to be much thicker than normal. A normal chimney is only as thick as one brick, so the coat and glasses just needed to be pushed through a hole. For those still wondering how a bulky puff coat could go through a flue hole, I have observed that the new puff coats are much thinner than the ones from my childhood, and made of a slicker, sturdier fabric that wouldn't catch so readily on the bricks.

As far as to why Harley asphyxiated, it is my opinion that something changed after he got to the place in the chimney where he died. My morbid fascination with the horrible life of child chimney sweeps has led me to read about chimney construction. They don't get smaller as they go down. And I know the "cake pan" size of the chimney Harley was in seems small enough to sufficate a 14 year old, it has been the standard size for hundreds of years. The same size the young chimney sweeps were forced to climb. Often near the top, they narrowed to 9x9" and they still had room to maneuver their arms enough to scrape and brush the chimney walls. There were two ways that I've read of that boys suffocated in a straight chimneys. 1. If a large amount of soot fell in top of the their head and around their face. 2. Their body slipped downward past their knees, and they became jammed. The pressure of the knees against the chest preventedthem from ttaking a breath.
View attachment 227183

These are all my own thoughts I don't know that this is what happened I don't know how Harley was positioned in the chimney nor where the blockage or flue hole was.

Thank you for this. I will hope a massive amount of debris/dirt/ decades old soot smothered him quickly.

 

[ReadySet]

Thank you for this excellent post!!!

For anyone still puzzled about how Harley COULD have pushed his coat and glasses out of the flue AFTER he was already in the chimney, I made a drawing using a stock illustration.

This shows how a stovepipe connects to a chimney flue.
View attachment 227115 View attachment 227116
If no stovepipe is connected to the flue, it is usually kept covered with something like this. It's like a tin saucer or plate, with flimsy wire brackets to hold it against the wall. It would be very easy to push this cover out from inside the chimney.
View attachment 227117

So for the chimney that Harley was found in, IF the "blockage" is about on the same level as the second story floor, then Harley could have reached the flue like this.
View attachment 227128

The illustration shows the sides of the chimney to be much thicker than normal. A normal chimney is only as thick as one brick, so the coat and glasses just needed to be pushed through a hole. For those still wondering how a bulky puff coat could go through a flue hole, I have observed that the new puff coats are much thinner than the ones from my childhood, and made of a slicker, sturdier fabric that wouldn't catch so readily on the bricks.

As far as to why Harley asphyxiated, it is my opinion that something changed after he got to the place in the chimney where he died. My morbid fascination with the horrible life of child chimney sweeps has led me to read about chimney construction. They don't get smaller as they go down. And I know the "cake pan" size of the chimney Harley was in seems small enough to sufficate a 14 year old, it has been the standard size for hundreds of years. The same size the young chimney sweeps were forced to climb. Often near the top, they narrowed to 9x9" and they still had room to maneuver their arms enough to scrape and brush the chimney walls. There were two ways that I've read of that boys suffocated in a straight chimneys. 1. If a large amount of soot fell in top of the their head and around their face. 2. Their body slipped downward past their knees, and they became jammed. The pressure of the knees against the chest preventedthem from ttaking a breath.
View attachment 227183

These are all my own thoughts I don't know that this is what happened I don't know how Harley was positioned in the chimney nor where the blockage or flue hole was.

 

[Linda7NJ]

New details from the report

The newly released police report reveals several details on the initial investigation that were not known until now:

• Harley was first reported missing by his father at the Port Clinton Police Department at 11:50 p.m. Saturday night, over one day after he was last seen.
• Harley’s father reported him missing because he was concerned about the length of time his son had been gone from home.
• Harley was with several of his friends Thursday night.
• On the morning of the day Harley was last seen, he tried to stay home from school and told his mother he didn’t feel well.
• Before Harley went missing, he had broken his phone and was angry because he parents would not get him a new one.
• Harley was living with ADHD and autism, according to his father.

Police report gives new details on Harley Dilly's disappearance

None of this is new information

 

[unitsix]

Police report gives new details on Harley Dilly's disappearance

"The third boy that Harley was with Thursday night said that he saw Harley Friday after school, the police report states. Port Clinton Police Chief Robert Hickman later explained during a news conference that the friend later realized he saw Harley Thursday after school, not Friday."



Well that helps some.

 

[ReadySet]

Police report gives new details on Harley Dilly's disappearance

Port Clinton Police Chief Robert Hickman later explained during a news conference that the friend later realized he saw Harley Thursday after school, not Friday.

 

[catch_22]

I think if police thought D was mistaken about when he saw Harley, they wouldn't have used D's description of the clothing he was wearing to update the national missing information.

Yeah, maybe. But why are we just hearing about this now? Shouldn't this "encounter" have been reported as the last known sighting of harley? And he probably wore that coat and shoes every day. I wonder what he was wearing that thursday, and what he was wearing when he was found. Also, i wonder how many pairs of sweatpants he had, how many were grey, and how often he wore them to school?

I'm not sure I'm buying D's story. I don't know if they got the days confused, or he thought he was helping a friend stay out of trouble, or he thinks lying to the police is cool, or what.

You would have thought that harley would have asked D if he could go to the game, when they were hanging out on thursday, and found out that all of the tickets were spoken for. Also, if google maps found the right place, it looks like D lives about 1.5miles from Harley. An hour round trip walk from Harley's house in the bitter cold. I guess 1.5 miles is not THAT far, but it's a lot farther when it is that cold....

 

[Tutter]

Police report gives new details on Harley Dilly's disappearance

Port Clinton Police Chief Robert Hickman later explained during a news conference that the friend later realized he saw Harley Thursday after school, not Friday.

hmmm....

poor Harley, I feel so sad when I think of him.

 

[AgeofAquaruis]

Police report gives new details on Harley Dilly's disappearance

Port Clinton Police Chief Robert Hickman later explained during a news conference that the friend later realized he saw Harley Thursday after school, not Friday.

Hmmmmmmmm.

 

[bellyup]

Police report gives new details on Harley Dilly's disappearance

Port Clinton Police Chief Robert Hickman later explained during a news conference that the friend later realized he saw Harley Thursday after school, not Friday.

Then why did they use his clothing description ? Weird.

 

[catch_22]

I wonder if they got the clothing description from the surveillance video......and it just happened to be the same as D's description?

 

[Sonic7273]

You would have thought that harley would have asked D if he could go to the game, when they were hanging out on thursday, and found out that all of the tickets were spoken for. Also, if google maps found the right place, it looks like D lives about 1.5miles from Harley. An hour round trip walk from Harley's house in the bitter cold. I guess 1.5 miles is not THAT far, but it's a lot farther when it is that cold....

and 1.4 miles (31 minute walk) from James’ house. So unless he REALLY REALLY didn’t want to go home Thursday night, how likely is it that after he left James’s house, he walked all the way over to Ds to ask him a question that he could have asked him while they were hanging out together and then all the way back home?

 

[Kiranerys]

Police report gives new details on Harley Dilly's disappearance

"The third boy that Harley was with Thursday night said that he saw Harley Friday after school, the police report states. Port Clinton Police Chief Robert Hickman later explained during a news conference that the friend later realized he saw Harley Thursday after school, not Friday."



Well that helps some.

It fits the narrative that Harley was dead before HD got the call from school,whilst the original statement certainly cast a big shadow over the time of death. Lucky D realised his mistake!

 

[deugirtni]

Then why did they use his clothing description ? Weird.

Is it reported somewhere that LE had used this friend's description of HD's clothing rather than someone else's or perhaps the CCTV footage, etc?

 

[AgeofAquaruis]

Is it reported somewhere that LE had used this friend's description of HD's clothing rather than someone else's or perhaps the CCTV footage, etc?

So what clothes did he have on when found?

 

[heed101]

Why was Hickman so vague about if Harley had challenges if it was reported in the initial report that Harley was autistic?

That’s REALLY important information to include in missing child information.


Why was this child just allowed to roam where ever without his parents knowing who he was with or even where he was?

Also, why did Marcus GO to the police station vs calling?

This just makes me have 1,000 more questions.
We know why the description of what he was wearing changed now though. It was initially just the coat but they confirmed D saw him and gave a full description.

"Dilly told police there had been previous incidents where Harley wouldn’t come home from school on a Friday and wouldn’t return until Saturday morning. Dilly said he had not reported these previous incidents to police."
Police report gives new details on Harley Dilly's disappearance

"...According to Port Clinton Police Chief Rob Hickman when asked if Harley had run away before, Hickman stated that his typical behavior is that if something is wrong, he will leave for the night. He has a few friends in town that he stays with and officers have talked to those friends. However, it is not typical for Harley to be gone for more than a night or two.."

Also wondering why "this child just allowed to roam where ever without his parents knowing who he was with or even where he was? " If a child is in trouble why is he allowed to go over a friends house ??

 

[AgeofAquaruis]

Remember, the friend gave a statement a couple of days later. I'm sure LE (including the FBI) were able to confirm the actual date of the Cavs game and realize this young man had confused the day he last saw Harley. Witness statements are notorious for incorrect information, not lying, recalling info incorrectly. IMO, this released report is just a super super small snippet of the actual case file w/ follow up notes.

That doesn't make sense though. Because Harley left that house Thursday at What 7:30 pm? IIRC. So did he go the kids house asked to go to the game,then stay till the kid's dad sent him home. Or did he leave right after finding out (at the last minute on Friday) there were no more tickets the game????????????????????????

 

[PKnopf]

So, do either of his parents claim he did in fact return home Thursday night? I've never seen any discussion of their having confirmed he was home in his own bed the night before his mother "talked to him" between 6-7 am. There's nothing in the police report or MSM (maybe I missed it) that states when father Marcus is said to have last seen him. No anecdotal "He came home and was here for sure Thurs after leaving his friends." Only a statement by the Mom. Wouldn't they have asked him too?

 

[heed101]

So, do either of his parents claim he did in fact return home Thursday night? I've never seen any discussion of their having confirmed he was home in his own bed the night before his mother "talked to him" between 6-7 am. There's nothing in the police report or MSM that states when father Marcus is said to have last seen him. No anecdotal "He came home and was here for sure Thurs after leaving his friends." Only a statement by the Mom. Wouldn't they have asked him too?

So why is it not clear where he was Thursday night ?

 

[Diddian]

So why is it not clear where he was Thursday night ?

IMO, it isn't clear because no one at his home has publicly stated that he spent Thursday night in the home.

We learn that his father told police when reporting him missing that:
1. Harley spent Thursday evening at a friend's house;
2. Harley tried to stay home from school Friday but his mother told him to go; and
3. Before Harley went missing his phone was broken and he wanted a new one, but was told he'd have to earn it, which made him angry.

As to #2, we learned from Harley's mother's own words when being interviewed on camera on the front porch of her home, that Harley's mother "did not see him, I talked to him, and there is a difference." The interviewer was not able to clarify what that meant precisely (did they speak in a dark room, though a closed door in the house, or through an entry door to the house, with her on the inside and him on the outside?) because Harley's mother said that she could not say more because "doing so might jeopardize him."

Nowhere, to my knowledge, has anyone stated for the record that Harley arrived home Thursday evening, spent the night there, and departed from there the next morning. The only evidence we have that Harley was near his own home on Friday morning was the grainy surveillance photo.