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

[GoBuckeyes]

Even if Caleb was speaking with someone, it doesn't mean that his death couldn't have been accidental. It would be interesting to know if he met up with someone that morning or if he never made it to his destination. Glad that there's someone new looking into it either way.

I, too, think the 10 retired law enforcement agents and psychologists helping Harris's family is a terrific development.

 

[vls12345]

Yes. But the issue, IMO, isn't the initial accidental fall into an open manhole, it's navigating a hard right angle into the much narrower lateral pipe at the bottom of the manhole.

For Caleb to have drifted into the lift station wet well some considerable distance away, his body had to decompose sufficiently enough to be washed through that lateral pipe. I have visited this question in earlier posts, but months later, I'm still not able to accept that this is actually what happened, for the following reasons:

(And for this review of hypotheticals, let's just assume that, in the middle of a March night, Caleb experienced a completely unprotected accidental fall into an open manhole in the crop field across Ennis Joplin Road from his apartment at The Cottages.)

If he falls in head first, maybe he's rendered unconscious or even breaks his neck. Either one explains why nothing is heard from the manhole in the next couple of days as volunteers, LE and police cadets are walking grid searches.

If he falls in feet first, I think it's more likely than not that he survives for a while. This makes it difficult to understand why nothing is heard from the manhole in the next couple of days as searchers are out in full force. To this day, we still don't know what happened to Caleb's phone, but if it was with him in the manhole, he wasn't able to use it to call 911.

Dead or alive, I think we have to accept that Caleb's body would be far too big to drift into a 10 or 15-inch lateral pipe, so we can assume it stayed there at the bottom of the manhole for weeks, decaying. I think I can believe that the location of that manhole was remote enough that smells rising from it may have been missed, but that field was searched and that field was used. After all, on April 17th, a woman noticed the uncovered manhole and contacted LE.

As we know, LE investigates that manhole on April 18th. They find nothing. They don't find Caleb and they don't find his phone. Further, they drain the manhole and find nothing, seemingly not one trace of evidence of human remains.

A little more than six weeks passed in the interval from the night Caleb vanished to the day the manhole was searched by LE. To accept that the manhole is how and where Caleb died, we have to accept that his body decayed so much between March 4th and April 18th that it and its clothing could wash into the narrow lateral pipe, navigating a hard right angle, and then be swept all the way to the Perry Place lift station, into the wet well, to finally be discovered, another six-plus weeks later, as a still partially intact skeleton.

LE drained the incoming lateral pipe and also drained the lift station well in the days after Caleb's remains were discovered. As far as I know, they didn't find his phone.

For me to accept the above hypotheticals, I'd need to see the final, complete autopsy and schematics of that manhole, the lateral pipes connected to it, and a detailed map of water sources carried to the lift station, as well as schematics of the lift station itself. Without that information, and without knowing the whereabouts of Caleb's phone, I still find it more probable that he was killed by a bad actor and either dumped directly into the lift station through its outer access panel or dumped in a body of watery that drains to it. JMO.

Not a week has gone by that I don't think about this sad, sad case.

Great thoughts, @Muddy K . I agree with your line of thinking.

Thinking of Caleb and his loved ones today.

 

[SMK777]

Yes. But the issue, IMO, isn't the initial accidental fall into an open manhole, it's navigating a hard right angle into the much narrower lateral pipe at the bottom of the manhole.

For Caleb to have drifted into the lift station wet well some considerable distance away, his body had to decompose sufficiently enough to be washed through that lateral pipe. I have visited this question in earlier posts, but months later, I'm still not able to accept that this is actually what happened, for the following reasons:

(And for this review of hypotheticals, let's just assume that, in the middle of a March night, Caleb experienced a completely unprotected accidental fall into an open manhole in the crop field across Ennis Joplin Road from his apartment at The Cottages.)

If he falls in head first, maybe he's rendered unconscious or even breaks his neck. Either one explains why nothing is heard from the manhole in the next couple of days as volunteers, LE and police cadets are walking grid searches.

If he falls in feet first, I think it's more likely than not that he survives for a while. This makes it difficult to understand why nothing is heard from the manhole in the next couple of days as searchers are out in full force. To this day, we still don't know what happened to Caleb's phone, but if it was with him in the manhole, he wasn't able to use it to call 911.

Dead or alive, I think we have to accept that Caleb's body would be far too big to drift into a 10 or 15-inch lateral pipe, so we can assume it stayed there at the bottom of the manhole for weeks, decaying. I think I can believe that the location of that manhole was remote enough that smells rising from it may have been missed, but that field was searched and that field was used. After all, on April 17th, a woman noticed the uncovered manhole and contacted LE.

As we know, LE investigates that manhole on April 18th. They find nothing. They don't find Caleb and they don't find his phone. Further, they drain the manhole and find nothing, seemingly not one trace of evidence of human remains.

A little more than six weeks passed in the interval from the night Caleb vanished to the day the manhole was searched by LE. To accept that the manhole is how and where Caleb died, we have to accept that his body decayed so much between March 4th and April 18th that it and its clothing could wash into the narrow lateral pipe, navigating a hard right angle, and then be swept all the way to the Perry Place lift station, into the wet well, to finally be discovered, another six-plus weeks later, as a still partially intact skeleton.

LE drained the incoming lateral pipe and also drained the lift station well in the days after Caleb's remains were discovered. As far as I know, they didn't find his phone.

For me to accept the above hypotheticals, I'd need to see the final, complete autopsy and schematics of that manhole, the lateral pipes connected to it, and a detailed map of water sources carried to the lift station, as well as schematics of the lift station itself. Without that information, and without knowing the whereabouts of Caleb's phone, I still find it more probable that he was killed by a bad actor and either dumped directly into the lift station through its outer access panel or dumped in a body of water that drains to it. JMO.

Not a week has gone by that I don't think about this sad, sad case.

Very clarifying. I understand, and agree. Hopefully further investigation will find the truth.

 

[simpx22]

LE has stated that the autopsy showed no signs of major trauma. Were there any injuries to the body that would explain how he died in a fall into the manhole? Broken leg or neck? Sewage in the lungs to indicate drowning?

For me, finding no injuries (consistent with a fall) would make it easier to question how he ended up in the manhole. MOO

 

[mlhenn]

Sadly, another missing persons case where the person was found in an uncovered manhole. Sept 13

Missing 69-year-old woman found dead in uncovered manhole in northeast Harris County, family says

A 69-year-old woman was reported missing on Friday from the home she shared with her daughter, only to be found two days later less than 100 feet away at the bottom of an uncovered manhole.

abc13.com

A family is searching for answers after their loved one's body was discovered in a manhole behind their home.

The manhole that Lopez said was found uncovered is located on the apartment property.

"The guy that found her had to move (the grass) just so he could see the body," Lopez's husband said.

 

[slowpoke]

Sadly, another missing persons case where the person was found in an uncovered manhole. Sept 13

Missing 69-year-old woman found dead in uncovered manhole in northeast Harris County, family says

A 69-year-old woman was reported missing on Friday from the home she shared with her daughter, only to be found two days later less than 100 feet away at the bottom of an uncovered manhole.

abc13.com

A family is searching for answers after their loved one's body was discovered in a manhole behind their home.

The manhole that Lopez said was found uncovered is located on the apartment property.

"The guy that found her had to move (the grass) just so he could see the body," Lopez's husband said.

Wow, and this is also in Texas.
The article mentions that during their search, they rescued a dog that was unable to get out of what they think is an unfinished pool. I wonder if the poor woman fell in the manhole while looking for this dog? Maybe she heard the dog barking and crying.

Was the manhole Caleb fell in similarly obscured by tall grass or brush? I forget.

The daughter in this latest case said they found “several uncovered manholes” on the property. How prevalent is the uncovered manhole problem in TX???

 

[Sundog]

How prevalent is the uncovered manhole problem in TX???

<SBM>

It sounds like this manhole was in a construction zone, and the entire areas should have been secured during construction with other hazards around (like the unfinished or empty pool, etc.). The article says that now the area is closed off.

 

[Valiant]

For a while, people were stealing manhole covers and storm drain gates and selling them as scrap metal. No idea what the price of scrap metal is now and if it's still a thing, but here's an example from over a decade ago (and more show up with a Google search).

Manhole Covers Stolen for Scrap Metal

Thefts of manhole covers increase as metals prices soar

www.newsweek.com

 

[slowpoke]

For a while, people were stealing manhole covers and storm drain gates and selling them as scrap metal. No idea what the price of scrap metal is now and if it's still a thing, but here's an example from over a decade ago (and more show up with a Google search).

Manhole Covers Stolen for Scrap Metal

Thefts of manhole covers increase as metals prices soar

www.newsweek.com

That’s terrible. Scrap metal dealers should not be allowed to accept them from random people. Then, problem (mostly) solved?

Was the cover lying nearby the open manhole they think Caleb fell in, as in—it was knocked off by the farm machinery—or was it stolen, I wonder.

 

[Rosiebones]

Usually manhole covers fit down in the hole and the upper surface is flush or even with the surface. It takes a tool like a crowbar to lift an edge to pull it off. I don't think it can be knocked off by farm equiment. MOO MOO MOO

 

[slowpoke]

Usually manhole covers fit down in the hole and the upper surface is flush or even with the surface. It takes a tool like a crowbar to lift an edge to pull it off. I don't think it can be knocked off by farm equiment. MOO MOO MOO

But, CCPD Asst. Chief Todd Green had stated (LINK):
“Our investigators went out there the following day, on April 18, and they did find that there was an open manhole cover,” he said. “It wasn't just the cover, it actually -- the entire top of the manhole had been knocked off. They looked into the manhole, which is about 18 feet deep.”

So, where was this “knocked off” part, I wondered. Yeah, I didn’t know it could get knocked off, but then again, some of those farm machines are pretty powerful, maybe? JMO

 

[STLBlues]

But, CCPD Asst. Chief Todd Green had stated (LINK):
“Our investigators went out there the following day, on April 18, and they did find that there was an open manhole cover,” he said. “It wasn't just the cover, it actually -- the entire top of the manhole had been knocked off. They looked into the manhole, which is about 18 feet deep.”

So, where was this “knocked off” part, I wondered. Yeah, I didn’t know it could get knocked off, but then again, some of those farm machines are pretty powerful, maybe? JMO

It has me wondering about what type of manhole is was. I'm wondering if it's something similar to this image. Where the green line (I added) is the ground and the conical part (red arrow) is above the ground. If it were something similar to this, could the entire top/conical part have been knocked off? Maybe the top part wasn't as tall as the image in this instance.

 

[Valiant]

I believe if you look back you'll find this was a raised manhole. So the top was above ground as if the ground level was the green line in the image above.
Farm equipment is big and heavy. It has to be do deal with the conditions where it operates.

 

[Muddy K]

But, CCPD Asst. Chief Todd Green had stated (LINK):
“Our investigators went out there the following day, on April 18, and they did find that there was an open manhole cover,” he said. “It wasn't just the cover, it actually -- the entire top of the manhole had been knocked off. They looked into the manhole, which is about 18 feet deep.”

So, where was this “knocked off” part, I wondered. Yeah, I didn’t know it could get knocked off, but then again, some of those farm machines are pretty powerful, maybe? JMO

It has me wondering about what type of manhole is was. I'm wondering if it's something similar to this image. Where the green line (I added) is the ground and the conical part (red arrow) is above the ground. If it were something similar to this, could the entire top/conical part have been knocked off? Maybe the top part wasn't as tall as the image in this instance.
View attachment 532520

I believe if you look back you'll find this was a raised manhole. So the top was above ground as if the ground level was the green line in the image above.
Farm equipment is big and heavy. It has to be do deal with the conditions where it operates.

Yes to all of the above regarding the manhole in question. The thing is, IMO, it will never be about the manhole itself, but rather - if Caleb fell into it - how his remains came to be discovered in the Perry Place lift station wet well. It's just not as simple as it seems.

Trapped in an 18-foot-deep, 25-inch-diameter manhole, the body of a healthy young man decays enough in six weeks to become essentially skeletal and then wash into a 15-inch lateral pipe which flows to the lift station. The many complexities of this hypothesis make it more than improbable to me.

For now, like with so many seemingly unexplainable deaths, IMO, it seems logical to start with where the body was found. Caleb wasn't found in that manhole. At no time was any evidence of his body or his clothing found in that manhole, not even after LE drained it and drained the lateral pipe that fed to the lift station. Nor was his phone, a solid object lacking buoyancy, found there.

Not a single trace of flesh, bone, fabric or phone. The absence of those things is critically important, IMO, and I have no problem accepting they were never there to begin with.

 

[Bigditch]

I hope the new dream-team investigating Caleb's untimely vanishing cracks the case.

 

[Bosie]

Regarding the eventual "falling into the manhole and ending up at lift station"-theory. I measured out two manholes here out in the yard. The larger one is 29 inches and the smaller one is 21 inches. I measured myself and my husband's shoulder width: me at: 16,5 inches and my husband at 19 inches. That leaves a space of 3,9 inches on either side of each shoulder of the manhole for a shoulder width of 16,5 and 5 inches each side (aprox.) for a shoulder width of 19 inches. 16 inches is normal range, and 19 inches is regarded as slightly broad for an adult male.

This is a tight fit, but not impossible. You have to drop straight down, hitting your head on the way down is not too easy, most likely if you hit the frontal lobe (due to lack of reach in the other angles). But, taking gravity to account making the head (if hitting) rather slide than a hard impact, and it being the frontal lobe and not the back of the head-you have to be very very unlucky for it to render you unconscious due to such a severe concussion, in milliseconds, and not regaining consciousness as you hit water.

And all this is if he ever did fall into the manhole, which there actually is no evidence for that he did.

If the hole was open, and the water temp was high and microbes active making it possible for the body to break down in such a short amount of time - the smell would have been unbearable. A slight breeze and you would notice it, at least 50-100 meters away (a human nose).

Question: During the first day, C.H was missing, did nobody walk that field and saw that there was a manhole open?

 

[Muddy K]

Regarding the eventual "falling into the manhole and ending up at lift station"-theory. I measured out two manholes here out in the yard. The larger one is 29 inches and the smaller one is 21 inches. I measured myself and my husband's shoulder width: me at: 16,5 inches and my husband at 19 inches. That leaves a space of 3,9 inches on either side of each shoulder of the manhole for a shoulder width of 16,5 and 5 inches each side (aprox.) for a shoulder width of 19 inches. 16 inches is normal range, and 19 inches is regarded as slightly broad for an adult male.

This is a tight fit, but not impossible. You have to drop straight down, hitting your head on the way down is not too easy, most likely if you hit the frontal lobe (due to lack of reach in the other angles). But, taking gravity to account making the head (if hitting) rather slide than a hard impact, and it being the frontal lobe and not the back of the head-you have to be very very unlucky for it to render you unconscious due to such a severe concussion, in milliseconds, and not regaining consciousness as you hit water.

And all this is if he ever did fall into the manhole, which there actually is no evidence for that he did.

If the hole was open, and the water temp was high and microbes active making it possible for the body to break down in such a short amount of time - the smell would have been unbearable. A slight breeze and you would notice it, at least 50-100 meters away (a human nose).

Question: During the first day, C.H was missing, did nobody walk that field and saw that there was a manhole open?

@Bosie thanks for the excellent experimentation and resulting post.

Regarding your question, I'll have to use some kind of wayback machine on the case to prove the following as fact, but I do clearly recall LE mentioning that they conducted exhaustive grid searches within the first 24-48 hours of Caleb's disappearance. They said they brought police cadets to perform line grid searches in all open areas and fields in the vicinity of The Cottages apartment complex where Caleb lived. I actually remember seeing in a local TV station clip video footage of those cadets walking what I believe is the crop field in question, right there across Ennis Joslin Road.

Assuming my memory is accurate, it seems pretty unlikely to me that a thorough grid search of the crop field would have missed an open manhole. To the contrary, I think it would have been a major discovery and, IMO, instantly become a primary actionable lead. The fact that that didn't happen suggests only two possibilities that I can see: 1, the open manhole was missed; or 2, the cover was on the manhole and in fact was knocked off some time later, before April 17th. On that second possibility, it's easy for me to believe a tractor turning the crop field over or mowing it accidentally hit the manhole, breaking the entire shoulder and collar, and dragging the cover off. The tractor operator may never even have realized his rake or plow, or whatever implement, had struck an object, especially as the scrubby, stalky weeds there were overgrown.

If the manhole were in fact intact and undisturbed on the day it was discovered that Caleb was missing, the prevailing theory cannot hold without several major revisions, can it?

 

[Bigditch]

Dear Caleb, We haven't given up on finding out what happened to you. An update from the powers-that-be, would be a welcome (timely) gift. Thank you.

 

[Bosie]

@Bosie thanks for the excellent experimentation and resulting post.

Regarding your question, I'll have to use some kind of wayback machine on the case to prove the following as fact, but I do clearly recall LE mentioning that they conducted exhaustive grid searches within the first 24-48 hours of Caleb's disappearance. They said they brought police cadets to perform line grid searches in all open areas and fields in the vicinity of The Cottages apartment complex where Caleb lived. I actually remember seeing in a local TV station clip video footage of those cadets walking what I believe is the crop field in question, right there across Ennis Joslin Road.

Assuming my memory is accurate, it seems pretty unlikely to me that a thorough grid search of the crop field would have missed an open manhole. To the contrary, I think it would have been a major discovery and, IMO, instantly become a primary actionable lead. The fact that that didn't happen suggests only two possibilities that I can see: 1, the open manhole was missed; or 2, the cover was on the manhole and in fact was knocked off some time later, before April 17th. On that second possibility, it's easy for me to believe a tractor turning the crop field over or mowing it accidentally hit the manhole, breaking the entire shoulder and collar, and dragging the cover off. The tractor operator may never even have realized his rake or plow, or whatever implement, had struck an object, especially as the scrubby, stalky weeds there were overgrown.

If the manhole were in fact intact and undisturbed on the day it was discovered that Caleb was missing, the prevailing theory cannot hold without several major revisions, can it?

Yes, I agree. I do find it vert unlikely due to the extensive searches in the area by both LE, search groups and private persons to miss an open manhole in the field. But, if it wasn't open then, at some point it was, and it could well be that a tractor accidentally moved it. However, if it wasn't open when the searchers searched, Caleb could not have fallen into it? Right?

A mean, a person need tools to open a manhole. You need a type of metal bar or crowbar usually. A tractor may have moved it, maybe. I guess it is possible. But if it was moved and opened, a person would have to go out there say early morning and put it back on. Only to then accidentally run over it again and opening it? Why would that person not say so? Perhaps, due to legal reasons if it was a landowner not wanting to get into trouble. But, if that person suspected someone could have fallen in, wouldn't he at least be careful not to run it over again?

Does anyone know if it was private land or not? Because if it was, wouldn't LE have to have a warrant to search it?

 

[Muddy K]

Yes, I agree. I do find it vert unlikely due to the extensive searches in the area by both LE, search groups and private persons to miss an open manhole in the field. But, if it wasn't open then, at some point it was, and it could well be that a tractor accidentally moved it. However, if it wasn't open when the searchers searched, Caleb could not have fallen into it? Right?

A mean, a person need tools to open a manhole. You need a type of metal bar or crowbar usually. A tractor may have moved it, maybe. I guess it is possible. But if it was moved and opened, a person would have to go out there say early morning and put it back on. Only to then accidentally run over it again and opening it? Why would that person not say so? Perhaps, due to legal reasons if it was a landowner not wanting to get into trouble. But, if that person suspected someone could have fallen in, wouldn't he at least be careful not to run it over again?

Does anyone know if it was private land or not? Because if it was, wouldn't LE have to have a warrant to search it?

I don't know if the crop field was private property or leased public land, but either way I doubt LE would have needed a search warrant to conduct grid walk searches.

The manhole in question, situated at the edge of the field farthest from Ennis Joslin Road and closest to the Perry Place lift station, was broken. It wasn't simply a matter of the cover being off.

It's helpful, maybe, to imagine a short-necked soda bottle. Picture the cap, neck and shoulder. Per the description offered in the article I've linked below, the manhole was broken back to the shoulder, dislodging its neck, the metal collar in which the cover sits, and the cover itself. In short, at the time LE examined it in April, the manhole was open because it was heavily damaged. There would have been no way to put the cover back on, only rig up something temporary in its place until proper repairs could be made.

The fact that the manhole was broken so extensively - and may have been on March 4 - is the only reason I can think of for it to have been missed by searchers, mainly because of overgrown weeds, etc., but I still find that just so hard to believe, that it was missed in the first place.

Assistant Chief Todd Green offers a lot more information relevant to the issue of the manhole in this fairly detailed July interview with KIIITV in Corpus Christi.

Manhole, etc.