Found Deceased TX - Caleb Harris, 21, Texas A&M University student, Corpus Christi, 4 Mar 2024 #4

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Any theories as to how he got from The Cottages to the Greenwood facility?

According to Google Maps, it's a 3-hour walk but a 14-minute drive. I doubt he intended to go for a 3-hour walk in the middle of the night when he had a trip planned in just a few hours and an UberEats order waiting at his front door.

So did he meet someone near his apartments and, for whatever reason, that person drove him to the area near Greenwood?

Did he fall into Oso Bay and just float down that small creek which leads to the facility? (see attached photo) That doesn't seem likely to me because I feel like he would've been sighted earlier, though admittedly I don't know how deep that creek is, or how visible or frequented the surrounding area is, etc.

If someone placed him in the water facility, how come there don't appear to be signs of foul play?

I hope we get more answers in the coming days and weeks.
If he fell or was placed into a manhole closer to the cottages, his remains may have traveled by flow of the wastewater through the system, ending up in the Greenwood facility. Would depend on the diameter of the piping, other factors, etc. of course.
EDIT: Now see that the OP was corrected to Perry lift station. Please disregard.

The timing of the R posts still cast a shadow of suspicion that someone else may have been involved. MOO. If that was the case, I hope the forensic team will be able to cooberate it.

Prayers for the family.
 
The roommates described Harris as a homebody and a creature of habit, investigators stated. The initial search of the apartment complex and the immediate area surrounding it revealed no signs of a struggle or violence, nor any indication of a hit-and-run accident on the roads nearby.

While the identity of the human remains brings search efforts for Harris to an end, many questions remain on the events that occurred after 3 a.m. during the early morning hours on Monday, March 4, that ended his life.

 
The roommates described Harris as a homebody and a creature of habit, investigators stated. The initial search of the apartment complex and the immediate area surrounding it revealed no signs of a struggle or violence, nor any indication of a hit-and-run accident on the roads nearby.

While the identity of the human remains brings search efforts for Harris to an end, many questions remain on the events that occurred after 3 a.m. during the early morning hours on Monday, March 4, that ended his life.

Although the remains have been identified as Caleb Harris, this investigation remains open.

I wonder if law enforcement has any leaning towards accident or foul play, respectively, at this point in time.
 
The next information we’re going to be waiting on I suppose is whether this will be ruled accidental ( I think likely) or foul play.

View attachment 518686

Human remains found in a wastewater station in June were positively identified as missing Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student Caleb Harris, the city of Corpus Christi said in a press release Wednesday evening.

City workers discovered the 21-year-old's body in a wastewater collection well off the 5300 block of Lexington Road on June 24, about a block from his off-campus apartment where he was last seen on March 4.

The remains, in an advanced state of decomposition, were sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, where forensic analysts confirmed they belonged to Harris though DNA analysis, the release stated.

Local and national law enforcement agencies have participated in the investigation. Investigators served more than 50 digital search warrants, submitted 82 preservation requests and analyzed more than 1,500 gigabytes of data, according to the release.

Harris’ remains will be returned to the Nueces County Medical Examiner’s Office for a final autopsy report.

The investigation remains open and police encourage anyone with information to contact the department's Criminal Investigation Division at 361-826-2840 or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers at 888-TIPS (888-8477).

I found this statement interesting:

“The remains will be returned to the Nueces County Medical Examiner’s Office for a final autopsy report”

I’m thinking this means the autopsy was already completed and they were just waiting for confirmation of identity to complete the report? This may be obvious to everyone else, I just wasn’t sure how the sequence of events would work. RIP Caleb.

Editing to add: maybe they were also waiting for toxicology results.
 
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Just learned about the positive ID.

Horrible, horrible news. I am so very sorry for the family and friends of Caleb, and of course Caleb himself. No one deserves this fate at such a young age.

I’ve been following this case pretty early on. I guess one of the things that gravitated myself towards this one is the fact that Caleb reminded me of myself from my college years. An innocent soul who was enjoying life, and had so much to look forward to. Reminds us all of how fleeting and fragile life can be, and to remember to sit back and enjoy the ride before it inevitably ends.

Occam’s razor says he likely had some sort of accident and either fell into an open manhole, or somehow accidentally got into the sewage systems the night he went missing. The storm then managed to move stuff around, and he was then found by workers.

Is there any concrete evidence that has been released that shows this to be foul play?

Again, my condolences to Caleb’s family and friends.
 
The family was told days ago....before the statement. It was mentioned on the official fb page that they knew. I do not post rumors.

I truy didn't mean to imply that, as I figured it was opinion based on on likelihood and my comment was then my opinion. I did not know that DNA results were back yet.

Sincere condolences to Caleb's family. I am so sorry that this has happened.
 
Occam’s razor says he likely had some sort of accident and either fell into an open manhole, or somehow accidentally got into the sewage systems the night he went missing.

It's horrifying to think this happens to people by accident -- though of course it rarely would. So let's hope they can determine how.

You ask if any evidence has been released indicating foul play, but I believe the only thing confirmed so far was that different agencies were investigating, which isn't typical for a missing adult, so that has led to speculation.
 
So sorry for Caleb and his family.

From what I have read about the CC sewage system, there doesn't seem to be a way for his body to have wound up in the lift station accidentally, but hopefully the investigation will figure out what actually happened.
 
Hopefully this map will help.

View attachment 518708
@Centaurus, thank you for the map. I can't recall any discussion surrounding this open manhole. Was this reported to the CCPD at the time?

I can't conceive how LE and these numerous search organizations could have missed an open manhole in a field so close to his apartment. You would think *someone* would have reported this.
 
So sorry for Caleb and his family.

From what I have read about the CC sewage system, there doesn't seem to be a way for his body to have wound up in the lift station accidentally, but hopefully the investigation will figure out what actually happened.
Though I think I read or heard that stormwater and wastewater systems were run through separate pipe systems, the two can get mixed during heavy rains, according to this:

Poor sewage systems and heavy rains can cause bacteria levels to rise.
Enterococcus, or fecal bacteria, is naturally occurring in the intestines of humans and animals and can be found in their excrement. But sometimes, when there are heavy rains and in cities with outdated sewer systems, bacteria-filled sewage spill into waterways.

“A lot of the aging pipes can leak raw sewage, or other pipes can get overwhelmed when there’s too much rain. And that can lead to raw sewage going into our creeks, bayous, and then into our beach waters,” Metzger said.” (LINK)
===
The above site was specific to TX; this one is just in general:

“Arguably the biggest problem with poorly maintained sewers is that over the years breaks, cracks and corrosion of pipes, lids and other parts of the wastewater infrastructure allow rain and stormwater to infiltrate in and totally overwhelm the system causing overflows of untreated sewage into local waterways.”
(LINK)
===
So, perhaps that’s what Chief Markle was referring to, when he stated:
"And with this tropical storm, I guess we got like seven inches of rain over the whole event. And that just kind of shook up the sewage system. And wherever that body may have been, it kind of flushed it out." (LINK)

JMO
 
Prayers to Caleb’s friends and family! I am still leaning towards foul play, as the investigation is still open. Also, according this article dated 6-27-24 3NEWS has learned that the lift station was locked when a Corpus Christi Water employee discovered the human remains while conducting maintenance. That means that someone would have had to have a key to get in to where the wet well is located, which is where the human remains were found.. . .”Corpus Christi Police are attempting to determine how the human remains found their way into the wastewater lift station collection well”.


Many have stated that his body would not have fit through any of the pipes leading to this station and alarms would have sounded if the body was there for a long time. It is my thought that he was placed there possibly shortly before the discovery of the remains, time will tell as new info is released.
 
<modsnip: not an approved source>

It is my understanding that the Greenwood waste water facility was searched though.
 
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Prayers to Caleb’s friends and family! I am still leaning towards foul play, as the investigation is still open. Also, according this article dated 6-27-24 3NEWS has learned that the lift station was locked when a Corpus Christi Water employee discovered the human remains while conducting maintenance. That means that someone would have had to have a key to get in to where the wet well is located, which is where the human remains were found.. . .”Corpus Christi Police are attempting to determine how the human remains found their way into the wastewater lift station collection well”.


Many have stated that his body would not have fit through any of the pipes leading to this station and alarms would have sounded if the body was there for a long time. It is my thought that he was placed there possibly shortly before the discovery of the remains, time will tell as new info is released.
Also, the Perry Lift Station was searched multiple times.
 
Any theories as to how he got from The Cottages to the Greenwood facility?

According to Google Maps, it's a 3-hour walk but a 14-minute drive. I doubt he intended to go for a 3-hour walk in the middle of the night when he had a trip planned in just a few hours and an UberEats order waiting at his front door.

So did he meet someone near his apartments and, for whatever reason, that person drove him to the area near Greenwood?

Did he fall into Oso Bay and just float down that small creek which leads to the facility? (see attached photo) That doesn't seem likely to me because I feel like he would've been sighted earlier, though admittedly I don't know how deep that creek is, or how visible or frequented the surrounding area is, etc.

If someone placed him in the water facility, how come there don't appear to be signs of foul play?

I hope we get more answers in the coming days and weeks.

One of my initial theories was that CH went to meet up with someone and it went wrong, somehow. That the person may have waited to dispose of the body and knew the area.

Problem with my theory is that this person would have had to carry more than 140 pounds down to the water treatment area, etc. Of course, such a person could use a hand truck in the middle of the night. I cited a case where a guy wrapped a dead body in multiple layers of plastic and kept it in his bedroom for quite some time. In that case, the guy eventually departed for parts unknown and his mother found the body. There are a few cases of that type.

I figured that in an apartment complex that contained a lot of students and was within walking distance to the university, that many would not have cars and therefore would be trying to dispose of the body locally.

I think LE may have some ideas (from digital records) about who this person is, but with no body, they found it difficult. I would assume that this person would scope out where cameras might be, and avoid those.

I think it would be very hard for the entire body to end up under that manhole area by coming down the creek, there would be many constrictions and much decomp along the way, leading to much less than entire body (as this seems to be) being in that treatment facility.

I am also guessing that, as with many delayed findings of bodies, it might be quite difficult to ascertain cause of death and manner of death. Caleb disappeared almost 4 months earlier. Unless he was stabbed (and bones were struck) or shot, it might be hard to determine such things as asphyxiation or drowning, because those are diagnoses of exclusion and circumstance.

It's also possible that, if he did drown and come in through the creek side, there could be some signs of that, but it's hard to believe there was enough flow to push the body rapidly down into that position - but I surely don't know the creek or the bay or its currents, at all. For example, one would expect marks on the body from coming in through that system of pipes, perhaps forensic evidence (hair caught in parts of the incoming pipe, decomp stages affected differently due to partial submersion, etc).

Lots to have to work out.
 
I'm confused, he was found in the water system 3 hours away or by the apartment complex? Sorry, I'm losing track of what is going on. Thanks
Caleb's remains were discovered in the Perry Place lift station, on the other side of a wide plowed-under field across the street from the apartment complex. Scroll a little bit back upthread to see an excellent map posted by @Centaurus .

The distant Greenwood waste treatment facility is connected solely by the fact that CCPD investigated there as well, IMO to determine if any fragments of the remains may have drifted out of the lift station and ended up there.
 
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