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

[marloweclover]

Regarding the fall, the link is to a US Dept. of Labor paper that discusses fall injury stats. If you do the math from the numbers provided, roughly 11% of falls between 11-15 feet were fatal for the period studied. It doesn't get into the landing position, or the surface below. But as a broad assessment, it's possible but rather bad luck to die from a fall of that distance.
Adobe Acrobat

 

[iamshadow21]

Regarding the fall, the link is to a US Dept. of Labor paper that discusses fall injury stats. If you do the math from the numbers provided, roughly 11% of falls between 11-15 feet were fatal for the period studied. It doesn't get into the landing position, or the surface below. But as a broad assessment, it's possible but rather bad luck to die from a fall of that distance.
Adobe Acrobat

Maybe unlikely he was killed by the fall itself, but if he was knocked unconscious... Humans can drown in only a few inches of water.

MOO

 

[Batgirl 2.0]

Breedlove said a human shoulder bone had caused the pump to jam

Hard for me to interpret “a human shoulder bone”—wonder if he means a scapula (shoulder blade), a clavicle (collarbone), a humerus (upper arm bone) or a shoulder bone complex of all three?

Everything We Know — and All the Unanswered Questions — Surrounding Missing Student Caleb Harris' Death

While the identification of Caleb Harris' remains provided some closure to his family, many questions remain unanswered, what his cause of death is to how his remains ended up in a wastewater well.

people.com

 

[LetsSolvIt]

Missing Student May Have Accidentally Fallen into Manhole, Police Say, as They Reveal New Details of Finding Body​

@MassGuy

A Corpus Christi, Texas, investigator sheds light on one of the biggest unanswered questions: how Caleb Harris' body might have ended up in a wastewater well
View attachment 519000

Missing Student Caleb Harris May Have Accidentally Fallen into Manhole, Police Say, as They Reveal New Details of Finding Body

As the investigation into missing student Caleb Harris' death continues, police are sharing new details about how the 21-year-old's body may have ended up at a wastewater well near his apartment without there being any evidence of "obvious homicide."

people.com

View attachment 519001

• Deputy Chief Billy Breedlove of the Corpus Christi Police Department tells PEOPLE that there was an open manhole located in a farm field about 600 feet from where authorities believe Caleb was last seen
• The exact cause and manner of Caleb’s death are still unknown, police said
• As the investigation into missing student Caleb Harris' death continues, Texas authorities are sharing new details about how the 21-year-old's body may have ended up at a wastewater well near his apartment without there being any evidence of "obvious homicide."
• The Corpus Christi Police Department announced on Wednesday, July 17, that human remains discovered on June 24 at the Perry Place wastewater lift station had been positively identified as belonging to Harris, who was last seen in the early morning hours of March 4 leaving his off-campus apartment.
  
  But as police shut the door on one aspect of Harris' death, other unanswered questions remained, chiefly, how did the student end up in the sewer system in the first place?
  
  Deputy Chief Billy Breedlove of the Corpus Christi Police Department tells PEOPLE that they still don't know exactly what happened. While it's possible that Harris was "harmed and then was put there" — authorities haven't yet ruled out the possibility of foul play, although they have no evidence of it — the investigator says it's also possible that an accidental fall was to blame.
  
  Speaking with PEOPLE on Thursday, July 18, Breedlove says that around 3:03 a.m. on March 4, Harris sent a Snapchat photo to a friend that showed a small bridge located a few hundred feet away from his apartment complex.
• About 600 feet away from there, investigators found a manhole in a field.
• The manhole] was covered with grass at the time and no one was [initially] able to find this or notice that this hole was there,” Breedlove says — but, importantly, its cover "had been knocked aside."
  "We don't know how that occurred," he adds. "It is an area that is farmed every year. So there's the likelihood that a farming implement knocked it off and with the high grass growing across there, it would be sort of camouflaged to most people walking around there.”
  Another factor that may have impacted visibility? Breedlove says that the night Harris went missing "was probably one of the foggiest nights we'd had."
• Although police can't say for certain how he entered the manhole, which measured 25 inches wide and 15 feet deep, Breedlove says police do believe that the open manhole was Harris' point of access into the sewer system.
• “There are four other manholes on the roadway, and we cannot rule out that he entered the system in one of those, but it is more likely to have entered through the open hole,” he says, adding that police are uncertain if there was water in the open manhole on the night of Caleb’s disappearance.
  
  Breedlove tells PEOPLE that someone actually called authorities about the open manhole on April 18. But when they went to the location and drained it, "there was no indication of a body."
  
  Then, they even went to the lift station where Harris' body was eventually found and "drained the tank there," too — but again, they came up with nothing.
• Then late last month, Tropical Storm Alberto came through the area — and on June 24, employees at the lift station notified authorities that a sewage pump set off an alarm, indicating that something was jammed in the pipe.
  
  Because of the water accumulation, Breedlove says, “we believe that the body," which had been in the pipe, was then "pushed into that lift station."
  
  “They opened it,” Breedlove continues, “and found what appeared to be a human bone, which we now know was one of the shoulder bones."Missing American Teen Found Safe After Leaving Cruise Ship in Germany: Reports
  
  After authorities arrived, Breedlove says that the rest of the remains were gathered and transported to a facility where authorities could “spread it out and empty that truck."
  
  "We were able to find some small other pieces of bone," he adds. After the remains were identified, Harris' parents were immediately notified. “They were waiting,” Breedlove says. “They had given consent for us to collect [their] DNA so we could make a comparison since we did not have any DNA on file for Caleb."
  
  About the conversation they had with the family, Breedlove says: “We've had a good relationship with them. At the time, we were expressing our sadness. It was tragic [for] them losing this young man."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Caleb Harris.
  CALEB HARRIS/FACEBOOK
  
  Breedlove says the investigation into the case, which he describes as unique, is ongoing.
  
  “We put together a team of very experienced investigators,” he says. “We had what we would consider good leads of some vehicles coming and going from the area. They never materialized...it was very frustrating."
  
  Another source of frustration? The apartment complex where Harris lived "had no working surveillance cameras," so police had to make due with footage from a nearby complex, which did still allow them to "run down pretty much all the vehicles that had come and gone from that area at the time of his disappearance."
  
  The investigator says that police, like the entire Corpus Christi community, "really hoped that we would find him well."
  
  Instead, what they had to offer his family was a "different type of closure."
  
  Although they may never have all the answers, for now, Breedlove says police are "going to continue to investigate what we can."
  
  Harris' family released a statement after the remains were identified, saying, "we all have heavy hearts this evening as we learned of the positive identification of our sweet Caleb."
  
  "We will grieve our son," they continued. "Thank you for your prayers and support during this tragic time."

I just can’t get my head around a man of Caleb’s stature (5’11”) entering a man whole that is 25” wide (approx. 2ft in diameter — assuming it’s a typical circle) and only 15” deep. If it was open that night and he accidentally stepped into it, his leg would drop only a bit more than one foot. Granted that might have caused a fracture or sprain for one leg, but how would the rest of his body end up in there.

If he intentionally tried to enter the open manhole to start out on what is being referred to here as an urban adventure, turning his body in the space of 25” x 15” seems impossibly tight for his size and weight.

On another topic, most photos I’ve seen of Caleb show him as a brunette. But there is one where he appears to be very blond — an indication of his playfulness?

Rest in Peace, dear Caleb, and healing prayers for your loved ones.

 

[I am not Sherlock H.]

The alarm is for the pump system itself, not the network of pipes. If he fell in a manhole a distance away from the lift station, an alarm wouldn't sound until his remains, or some of them, actually reached the station and interfered with the machinery.

Yes, and I’ll not find it up thread now…… but pretty sure that the alarm was to alert that the system or some pump / conduit / pipe was clogged or plugged IIRC? And that was the alert to check the system? MOO

 

[IDK]

I’m curious why they didn’t find anything when they initially inspected the pipes with the sewer pipe camera? I googled a picture and they look like a small diameter, very flexible tubing with camera attached that would easily fit and navigate through the pipe and its’ fittings. IMO.

 

[IDK]

I just can’t get my head around a man of Caleb’s stature (5’11”) entering a man whole that is 25” wide (approx. 2ft in diameter — assuming it’s a typical circle) and only 15” deep. If it was open that night and he accidentally stepped into it, his leg would drop only a bit more than one foot. Granted that might have caused a fracture or sprain for one leg, but how would the rest of his body end up in there.

If he intentionally tried to enter the open manhole to start out on what is being referred to here as an urban adventure, turning his body in the space of 25” x 15” seems impossibly tight for his size and weight.

On another topic, most photos I’ve seen of Caleb show him as a brunette. But there is one where he appears to be very blond — an indication of his playfulness?

Rest in Peace, dear Caleb, and healing prayers for your loved ones.

I thought I read it was 15 feet deep, not 15 inches?

 

[Muddy K]

I just can’t get my head around a man of Caleb’s stature (5’11”) entering a man whole that is 25” wide (approx. 2ft in diameter — assuming it’s a typical circle) and only 15” deep. If it was open that night and he accidentally stepped into it, his leg would drop only a bit more than one foot. Granted that might have caused a fracture or sprain for one leg, but how would the rest of his body end up in there.

If he intentionally tried to enter the open manhole to start out on what is being referred to here as an urban adventure, turning his body in the space of 25” x 15” seems impossibly tight for his size and weight.

On another topic, most photos I’ve seen of Caleb show him as a brunette. But there is one where he appears to be very blond — an indication of his playfulness?

Rest in Peace, dear Caleb, and healing prayers for your loved oneonesthe

The manhole in question is 15 feet deep, rather than 15 inches, as @IDK mentioned

In this terribly bizarre case, there are so many measurements, dimensions, engineering terms of art, grates, grills, chambers, tanks, lifts, pumps, covers, access panels, it's dizzying.

I am happy to try to learn all of them in pursuit of understanding what happened to Caleb in a way that I can completely accept as feasible and probable. Until then, my questions outweigh what little acceptance I have been able to muster so far.

 

[SMK777]

The manhole in question is 15 feet deep, rather than 15 inches, as @IDK mentioned

In this terribly bizarre case, there are so many measurements, dimensions, engineering terms of art, grates, grills, chambers, tanks, lifts, pumps, covers, access panels, it's dizzying.

I am happy to try to learn all of them in pursuit of understanding what happened to Caleb in a way that I can completely accept as feasible and probable. Until then, my questions outweigh what little acceptance I have been able to muster so far.

What is also confusing is the amount of agencies— FBI, US Marshals, Texas Rangers — who believed in foul play but now seem to be leaning toward accident. I suppose because of where Caleb was found…. but there must not have been any evidence or leads pointing to any suspect prior to finding him, then.

 

[LetsSolvIt]

I thought I read it was 15 feet deep, not 15 inches?

OM Gosh! That is certainly a different situation. Of course his entire body could drop in there!

Apologize for my dyslexia :/

 

[IDK]

OM Gosh! That is certainly a different situation. Of course his entire body could drop in there!

Apologize for my dyslexia :/

No apologies needed!

 

[PommyMommy]

JUL 25, 2024

Caleb Harris 'Always Had a Smile on His Face,' Family Says at Memorial Service After His Body Is Found

Caleb Harris, the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student who was missing for almost four months before his remains were found, was remembered at a “celebration of life” service

people.com

[...]

“Caleb was a happy go-lucky person,” his uncle, Jeff Wright, said in a eulogy at the service. “He always had a smile on his face. He was very close to his family, talking to his mom and dad daily.”

“In the last couple of years, Caleb embraced his dad’s passions,” Wright continued, “He shared the same joy of fishing and grilling."

But Harris also "had many passions throughout his life: guitar, music, cooking, cars, biking, fishing, hunting, camping, skateboard, Legos and anything water-related," his uncle said. "With these passions, he wanted his friends and family to experience the joy he got from them.”

Indeed, Harris spent his final Saturday before he died showing his mom all his favorite spots in Corpus Christi.

[...]

 

[mlhenn]

As far as I'm aware, it's not been stated if that manhole had rebar ladder rungs in it.

This is the closest I’ve seen about any type of ladder or access..and honestly I’m not sure if the article is referring to the manhole (in theory he fell into) or the lift station tank (area his body was found)?

Article states:
They manually activated the pump to lower the water to a level that would allow the police to see down to the bottom.
Green said they did not notice anything or have a way to enter the sewer.

'No one noticed that': CCPD Assistant Chief provides details on Caleb Harris' remains

A candlelight vigil was held for Caleb Harris at Cole Park Pier Saturday evening.

www.caller.com

 

[Same Old Stella]

I’m curious why they didn’t find anything when they initially inspected the pipes with the sewer pipe camera? I googled a picture and they look like a small diameter, very flexible tubing with camera attached that would easily fit and navigate through the pipe and its’ fittings. IMO.

Unless the sewer pipe camera wasn't long enough, there is no way it could've missed him.

 

[MAHBOOBOO]

This is all MOO.

I still don't know if we're allowed to share the manhole picture, last time I did that it got removed. So I'll just share what I saw of the manhole. It looked like there were two or three rungs at the very top, and none further down. Perhaps the other ones rusted off or were never there to begin with. This wasn't your typical manhole like the one or two next to it. This one was older or surplus. City workers had full access to that same system through the 1 or 2 manholes just feet away from it, so there would be no need to have rungs on this particular one.

And as far as trying to climb out of the hole, I think he would have hit his head on either the wall or one of those rungs, or seriously injured one of his legs as he was falling. Climbing out would have been impossible. His phone was probably damaged by the water also, so he would not have been able to call unless it had a waterproof case on it. Personally I think he was unconscious from hitting his head on the way down by the time he reached the water. And I think he floated slowly toward the pump station as time went on. The tropical storm created enough water pressure to push him to the station. If you've ever seen the Grand Canyon you understand the kind of force that water can exert.

I operate liquid pumps for a living. If you try to start a pump that has an object blocking the pump inlet, the pump will immediately shut down due to low suction pressure and you will get an alarm. Then you send a technician out to see why the pump won't run.

LE & MSM currently believe that this is what happened to Caleb. It's a tragic way to die. The only comfort I can offer is that I don't think he suffered long and him getting to see the face of Jesus erased any sorrow or regret he may have had.

And last of all - I'd REALLY like to know whether that dang manhole has been covered up yet or not. I also hope that cities will implement a routine of checking ALL their manhole covers at least semi-anually.

 

[Fireflye]

This is all MOO.

I still don't know if we're allowed to share the manhole picture, last time I did that it got removed. So I'll just share what I saw of the manhole. It looked like there were two or three rungs at the very top, and none further down. Perhaps the other ones rusted off or were never there to begin with. This wasn't your typical manhole like the one or two next to it. This one was older or surplus. City workers had full access to that same system through the 1 or 2 manholes just feet away from it, so there would be no need to have rungs on this particular one.

And as far as trying to climb out of the hole, I think he would have hit his head on either the wall or one of those rungs, or seriously injured one of his legs as he was falling. Climbing out would have been impossible. His phone was probably damaged by the water also, so he would not have been able to call unless it had a waterproof case on it. Personally I think he was unconscious from hitting his head on the way down by the time he reached the water. And I think he floated slowly toward the pump station as time went on. The tropical storm created enough water pressure to push him to the station. If you've ever seen the Grand Canyon you understand the kind of force that water can exert.

I operate liquid pumps for a living. If you try to start a pump that has an object blocking the pump inlet, the pump will immediately shut down due to low suction pressure and you will get an alarm. Then you send a technician out to see why the pump won't run.

LE & MSM currently believe that this is what happened to Caleb. It's a tragic way to die. The only comfort I can offer is that I don't think he suffered long and him getting to see the face of Jesus erased any sorrow or regret he may have had.

And last of all - I'd REALLY like to know whether that dang manhole has been covered up yet or not. I also hope that cities will implement a routine of checking ALL their manhole covers at least semi-anually.

If the body was stuck in the manhole or possibly in the pipes leading to the well, it has been stated that it would have clogged the system and caused an overflow before the storm and alarms would have sounded. In your experience is this true? The remains were found on June 24, Tropical Storm Alberto hit the Corpus Christi area around June 19. Wouldn’t the remains have pushed through the system to the well sooner?

 

[Henry2326]

This is how they found the body....It wasn't by a camera. They used the camera to look for phone and small items.
______________________________________

Local officials are now awaiting results from the Nueces County Medical examiner’s final autopsy report, which will rule the cause and manner of death to inform how the investigation will move forward.
The lift station is located close to where Harris was last seen by his roommates the night he disappeared.

But because the investigative search began with local law enforcement searching ditches, fields and brush areas in the immediate areas of Harris' apartment, many are wondering how Harris’ body wound up where it did.

<modsnip: copyright> MORE AT LINK…

'No one noticed that': CCPD Assistant Chief provides details on Caleb Harris' remains

A candlelight vigil was held for Caleb Harris at Cole Park Pier Saturday evening.

www.caller.com

 

[MAHBOOBOO]

No, I don't think a body would have prevented tens/hundreds? of thousands of gallons of water from flowing through open pipes. I think the people that have said that are just assuming it and have no professional knowledge to back it up, then again, I have no professional training in that arena either.

And there's no way for us to know the capacity that system will hold before the pump needs to be started, or on what day they started it post tropical storm. His body probably began to float a little further down the pipes each time it rained. I don't imagine that stormdrain lines stay liquid full. It's probably like you see in the movies, 20% water in the bottom, 80% air up top. Would probably take a fair bit of water to get such a large item floating/flowing. So the stormwater got his body floating and the pump got it flowing. In retrospect, the pump could have been running for a few hours before his body got to it.

 

[Fireflye]

No, I don't think a body would have prevented tens/hundreds? of thousands of gallons of water from flowing through open pipes. I think the people that have said that are just assuming it and have no professional knowledge to back it up, then again, I have no professional training in that arena either.

And there's no way for us to know the capacity that system will hold before the pump needs to be started, or on what day they started it post tropical storm. His body probably began to float a little further down the pipes each time it rained. I don't imagine that stormdrain lines stay liquid full. It's probably like you see in the movies, 20% water in the bottom, 80% air up top. Would probably take a fair bit of water to get such a large item floating/flowing. So the stormwater got his body floating and the pump got it flowing. In retrospect, the pump could have been running for a few hours before his body got to it.

Thanks for the info.

 

[IDK]

This is how they found the body....It wasn't by a camera. They used the camera to look for phone and small items.
______________________________________

Local officials are now awaiting results from the Nueces County Medical examiner’s final autopsy report, which will rule the cause and manner of death to inform how the investigation will move forward.
The lift station is located close to where Harris was last seen by his roommates the night he disappeared.

But because the investigative search began with local law enforcement searching ditches, fields and brush areas in the immediate areas of Harris' apartment, many are wondering how Harris’ body wound up where it did.

<modsnip: copyright> MORE AT LINK…

'No one noticed that': CCPD Assistant Chief provides details on Caleb Harris' remains

A candlelight vigil was held for Caleb Harris at Cole Park Pier Saturday evening.

www.caller.com

According to the police chief, the manhole was drained 4/18/24 right after it was initially reported to be uncovered. They first used the camera to look for any signs of Caleb at that time and then used it again after the discovery at the lift station.