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

[ELB]

https://www.facebook.com/datelinenbc/posts/121432791333953



After a young California woman vanishes, it takes police nine years and some help from 'The Evidence Whisperer' to solve tonight's Dateline. Starting 9p/8c. This is the original case I first mentioned.

 

[ELB]

I just sent an email to Mr. Larry Montgomery asking him to look at the Bob Harrod missing case. If anyone else would be so inclined to do so, here's the email address:

[email protected]. Attention Larry Montgomery, the evidence whisperer.

Now, I don't know if I went through the proper channels to do so, but I did mention that Det Loomis and he had worked together before about another missing Placentia resident, which he solved, and that she had all the information on dear missing Bob Harrod.

 

[CHEL]

Bob's story is on ID right now.

 

[believe09]

It is gratifying to see this case ramp up again in the media. For those of you who are reading up, maybe for the first time, we have quite a few resources and timelines which may help you get a sense of it's simplicity and complexity. If that makes any sense! We can link them for you here in the interest of ease...:loveyou: Praying that this is the year Bob is returned to Fontelle and all who love and miss him.

 

[believe09]

I am not on my computer at this moment-can anyone link the Timeline/Media threads and the Court Documents threads?

:blowkiss:

 

[zwiebel]

Here they are, in my sig.

 

[zwiebel]

Infuriating about those ID TV schedules. Wish they'd send email alerts or something.

 

[zwiebel]

Bob's story is on ID right now.

Thank you!

 

[zwiebel]

I just sent an email to Mr. Larry Montgomery asking him to look at the Bob Harrod missing case. If anyone else would be so inclined to do so, here's the email address:

[email protected]. Attention Larry Montgomery, the evidence whisperer.

Now, I don't know if I went through the proper channels to do so, but I did mention that Det Loomis and he had worked together before about another missing Placentia resident, which he solved, and that she had all the information on dear missing Bob Harrod.

That was so kind of you. I am hoping Mr Montgomery is already aware of Bob's case and is working on it. I can't imagine, if he is, retiring without concluding a case like Bob's. That would be enough to drive a person to distraction......

 

[ELB]

Larry Montgomery, the "Evidence Whisperer" is amazing! He takes his time, what you don't want to hear from him is: "Hello, I have been watching you...." He has not retired and is still active, solving unsolvable cases as of spring 2014. People are asking him to write a book about his techniques, yes I would love to learn his techniques. I am trying to locate if he is already looking at the Bob Harrod case. I really believe he can do the impossible and bring Bob home, finally to Fontelle and all those who love this dear man.

 

[zwiebel]

I would love for Larry Montgomery to write a book too. I'd kinda like it better if he does it after Bob Harrod's found though - I don't want his time used up right now!

The OC 'Cold Case' Unit is a team effort too, with some great people working together. I think that's half the secret of their success. The other half is that its work is supported where it matters, from above. In some counties where investigators are hard pressed, cold cases often stand little chance of getting attention, it seems to me.

 

[zwiebel]

I was searching for the link to a story about another OC investigator who cracked a stone cold case with familial DNA, even though the suspect was long dead. I came across this though, and couldn't resist. It's where a defence attorney is desperate to keep Larry Montgomery off the stand, and even resorts to calling him St Larry!

BBM
'What or who recharged the investigation? As readers of this column know, the main answer is D.A. investigator Larry Montgomery, but through the first 29 prosecution witnesses, jurors never heard a peep from him.......

The defense never wanted them to.

.... Pohlson told Judge Froeberg "Allowing him to testify how he tracked down new witnesses with little to go on "imbues Mr. Montgomery with the aura of being a super-cop," Pohlson said. "I don't want St. Larry coming into the courtroom."

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/montgomery-307887-naposki-mclaughlin.html

 

[zwiebel]

Finally found what I was looking for. It was OC forensic scientist Mary Hong. She worked a case from 1996 to 2012 and just wouldn't let it go. Finally resolved it using familial DNA.

That kind of painstaking, endless lab work isn't as media-friendly as the drama of a courtroom, but it's so important, in my opinion.

http://ocsd.org/news/details?NewsID=1867&TargetID=88

Here's more about the case.
http://nixle.com/alert/4908457/

 

[zwiebel]

Talking about forensic laboratories; that new fingerprint dating technique I can't stop talking about is being field tested for a year by law enforcement agencies worlwide, including the FBI and Scotland Yard.

I really hope the Netherland Forensic Institute asks the OC Forensic Unit to participate, and it agrees. I think it could be a really useful experience for both.

Here is an article that mentions the field testing.
http://en.twwtn.com/Bignews/69243.html

 

[zwiebel]

It's Father's Day Sunday. I actually think that would be a wonderful day for daughters to beg media to highlight their missing father's case.

If it was me, I'd get together photos of us together, if possible with one that illustrated a touching story I'd write about him. I'd include 'What does a daughter do on Father's Day, when that father is still missing?' I'd write about how it feels.

I'd persuade a good photographer to take another photo, of all the family sitting around a dinner table, with an empty chair at the head. I'd put Banquet dinners on everyone's plates, because they were his favorites, and I'd tell the press about that too.

If any media published the story, I'd send a copy to Banquet Dinners, and beg them for support in the search for my father. I'd do anything to get help finding him.

 

[zwiebel]

Or imagine posters saying, 'Happy Father's Day. Mine's still missing. Please help me search.'

I'd respond to that, and try and help in any way I could. Something like that might even attract professional SAR people who could organize a search on my behalf, if I wasn't capable of it.

It would be so good if there were boots on the ground, searching for Bob.

 

[zwiebel]

Friday 13th I was sitting laughing about how silly people get about bad luck, when news came up that a little girl had gone missing in some huge great forest in NoCal. In a swim robe.

I spent the last many hours since then, just checking and checking. I was SURE she would be found safe.....but feared I might be wrong. Little Ida Rothschild was found today though, safe and unscathed and thanking all her rescuers politely.

Her Father just got the best Father's Day present he is ever going to get.

But all the search updates I followed since Friday made me look back at coverage of Bob's case - and those searches just don't seem to be there. If police were conducting searches for Bob early after he went missing, I can't see any reason for that information to have been witheld from the media. And if those searches weren't conducted, why not?

I mean, at least one of Bob's children though he had dementia and wandered off. So did Placentia police ask, for example, San Bernardino LE for help, in case Bob had wandered off to visit family there?

There is usually some suggestion, when a person goes missing, about where they might have gone or be from family. But I just can't find anything in mainstream media like that, for Bob.

Here is the much happier, Found Alive thread for the little one anyhow, if anyone needs some good news.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=246680&highlight=ida+rothschild

 

[zwiebel]

Besides alerts and requests for people to look out around all family members' houses - if LE and family thought Bob wandered off - the area of his previous residence in Monrovia would have seemed a likely place to me. Bob lived there for so long.

But given his bad knees and the residential places everyone lived in, I suppose it was expected a bus or cab driver would come forward to say Bob was seen in their vehicle, or alternatively, LE were waiting for Bob to be found in someone's yard or behind a store or other quiet area somewhere.

When he wasn't found though and police suspected foul play, I'd have thought at least one search of the natural terrain nearest to Placentia could have been arranged. It looks like the area around Chino Hills state Park would be nearest to Placentia? Or maybe just the other side, off highway 91?

I really don't think Bob went far, and I don't believe he was left in an official trash dump either - it requires a special kind of recklessness, and stupidity, to join a line with a deceased person in your vehicle. Anyone who'd hurt an 81 year-old doesn't have any bravery at all, in my opinion.

 

[zwiebel]

I have vanished website just pointed out this new article about Namus. It's really interesting. I have to look up tent girl now. I never heard about her.

http://www.startribune.com/local/263166441.html

 

[zwiebel]

Correction, yes I have. I think someone may have linked her story earlier in this thread even. I was thrown by the tent reference. It was just the canvas in which Barbara Ann Hackman Taylor was found.

Bless her. Barbara's death led to help for so many missing people. Todd made a database of missing that merged with the Doe Network and went on to work with Namus afterwards I think.

http://www.angelfire.com/tn3/masterdetective2/