PA PA - Katlyn Harp, last seen at home by husband, 18 June 2025

[borndem]

Welcome to Websleuths,
braincells !!​

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[Judy Sleuth]

I am local. ...

Thanks for the great insight!

To your points and concerns about civilians organizing their own search, it's interesting that the first thread I stumbled upon after reading your post was about a lost hiker out in Los Angeles, and the local PD there have posted a VERY clear statement with REASONS about why they do NOT want civilians searching right now.

Here's part of their the quote, from Facebook, but which I found in the Websleuths thread for Monica Reza, a 60-year-old hiker who is currently missing in Los Angeles National Forest, California:

"LASD - Montrose Search and Rescue Team
on Tuesday
We Hear You—Here’s How You Can Truly Help

Over the past several days, Montrose Search and Rescue and Crescenta Valley Station have received countless messages, phone calls, and offers from members of the public wanting to help search for Monica Reza in the Mount Waterman area. Your compassion and concern have been heartfelt and deeply appreciated.

That said, we want to be clear: We are not requesting or accepting civilian volunteers at this time.

While your willingness to help comes from the right place, there are critical reasons why untrained public participation in an ongoing search can create more harm than good:

• Lack of Coordination: Search efforts are meticulously planned and coordinated. Spontaneous volunteers—without briefing, assignment, or radio contact—can compromise search patterns or become lost themselves, requiring additional rescue efforts.
• Lack of Training and Equipment: The rugged terrain of the Angeles National Forest is dangerous and unpredictable. Our team members undergo hundreds of hours of specialized training and operate with technical gear to navigate and survive in these conditions.
• Incident Within an Incident: Every additional person in the field increases the risk of a second emergency. If someone gets injured, lost, or experiences a medical emergency while searching, our attention and resources are diverted—putting more lives at risk.
• Destruction of Tracking Evidence: One of the most critical tools in our search is the ability to identify subtle signs—footprints, broken branches, compressed vegetation, scent trails. Civilians moving through the area may unintentionally obscure or destroy this evidence. In fact, we may unknowingly begin following another searcher’s tracks instead of the missing person’s, which can lead to delays and misdirection."

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I thought their points and explanations were really clear and useful.

Judy Sleuth

 

[Cloudydiamond]

The people commenting on these missing posts always baffle me. "Look into the husband" when it's the AWARE foundation. They always assume they know more than law enforcement as well and that law enforcement is just doing nothing.

In this case, there are a couple facts in those comments, if you dig deep enough on your own. This case is no different than a few other cases where the outcome was expected.

 

[Cloudydiamond]

I am local. I think it would help greatly if LE, whether local jurisdiction or state police, did a press conference. I have not seen any kind of “official” statements from LE, other than the original missing flyers and requests for information, and rumors are flying.

I assume it is friends and family that are organizing searches tomorrow, but they claim they have to do it because PSP has no funds to do it, which is not true. It is also being claimed that the PSP have approved of this search, but again, I have seen nothing official stating this.

It is all being done on social media, and generating more and more rumors. Honestly, the locals are itching for a reason to be up in arms.

I see people asking, “Can I bring my dog on the search?”, and these are not trained SAR dogs, but family pets. The response has been “Sure, bring your dog!”, and I don’t even want to think about what problems that could cause.

We have had tremendous heat here this week, with temperatures at 95*+, and the heat index pushing the real feel temperatures well into triple digits. I doubt that most of these people have any idea what a real search involves or are adequately prepared for it.

The terrain in the area immediate to the home where she was last seen is hilly, wooded and overgrown this time of year. There is a fairly large creek within a 1/4 mile. There is also a very large quarry within about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile. Neither one of those areas should be searched by random people off the street.

As in most missing persons cases, I think LE has a pretty good idea what is going on, and of course is not obligated to make that information public, for more than one very good reason. But that won’t satisfy the public!

BUT, there are a couple other issues with the local PD. They experienced a lot of very harsh criticism when Frank Spencer was murdered. It was reported the PD knew about the threats to his life, but did not take action as Frank himself declined to pursue charges against his ex-wife. Many felt his murder could have been prevented, and I am not they are right or wrong.

Local PD where this is happening is also a small, rural department, that covers multiple townships as PD locally has been consolidated, and Hemlock Township contacted to cover other townships. While not actually Bllomsburg proper, this is a rural area not far off I-80 and covering a large, very rural area geographically.

My hope is that PSP has been called in to run this investigation. The locals assume the FBI will step in, which it won’t as a certain criteria would not to be met plus they must be asked.

I drove by the house, where Katlyn was last seen, twice yesterday, and you would not know anything out of the ordinary is going on. No LE presence, no signs of anything being any different. I will also add this- the current residents have embraced this property’s unique and somewhat gory history in a very odd way. I am not sure how much I can say about it here.

ETA: Just saw this from 2 days ago that states PSP is involved.

Missing woman sought in Columbia County

Katlyn Harp, 33, last seen nearly a week ago at her home near Bloomsburg

www.wnep.com

Someone mentioned earlier about the houses' past. Glad to see the PCP is handling this.

 

[cutter99]

I have horses and am a very active trail rider. When I say trail rider, I don’t mean little jaunts around my farm or the pasture. I camped and rode last weekend, and we did a total elevation change of over 2100 feet on one ride alone.

I personally would not want myself or my horses out in this weather. I hauled home on Sunday before the real heat hit, and have not ridden since. My horses are standing around sweating with no activity, and they are fit and used to this.

Many of these people do not get off the pavement ever, have no background in LE or SAR, and have an axe to grind either against potential suspects or LE. As this is unusual weather for us, I would anticipate physical issues with volunteers- heat exhaustion or heat stroke, injuries due to health issue or terrain issues, etc.

Imagine a large group of untrained people out in this heat. Although we have been baking since Sunday, we had over 2” of rain last week, as recent as the night Katlyn was last seen.

The creek near the house where Katlyn was last seen flows into the Susquehanna River, and it can be a very fast moving, dangerous river, especially when there has been a lot of rain.

Honestly, my hope is there will be a presser from PSP before any search groups go out. Give the masses something just to quiet them while the professionals do what needs to be done.

This search is about torches and pitchforks. That will not accomplish what needs to happen. But let LE do their jobs, and if something nefarious has occurred, and I believe it has, let LE have all they need to get a proper conviction and appropriate sentence.

 

[cutter99]

The Press Enterprise is the local newspaper in Bloomsburg. I do not have a digital subscription, so can’t get a link to put here, but the husband gave an extensive interview to the paper yesterday and it was published today. He also talks about his history there, which includes issues concerning domestic violence. Don’t know if someone else can pull this up!

There is also a side article concerning the search.

 

[cutter99]

The search schedule for tomorrow has been canceled according to social media posted by KH’s sister. She also said LE has been out to the location where the husband got stuck using a dog, but came up with nothing.

We just got hit with a downpour that dropped over 1/2” of rain in less than half an hour. Temperatures are supposed to get cooler with more rain headed this way for the weekend.

Hopefully something breaks in Kathlyn’s favor quickly!