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

Wooden crosses were passed around Saturday evening in Cole Park for community members to sign their names and write their condolences to later send to Caleb Harris' family in memory of the loss of their son.

Nearly 40 people were in attendance for a candlelight vigil for Harris, the 21-year-old Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student who went missing in March. Human remains were later found in late June and were identified as Harris July 17.

The vigil started off with a prayer and then several community members shared their thoughts and condolences for Harris.

Tammy Willett led the speakings off with a letter to Harris' family.

"Our hearts are heavy with the sorrowful news of Caleb's passing," Willett said to the crowd. "As we observe Bereaved Parents Awareness Month, which is July, we're reminded of the profound pain faced by those who lost a child. This month serves to bring awareness and support to parents. This loss touches us all."

Questions left unanswered

Plenty of questions still surround the case of Harris, even after Corpus Christi police informed the community the human remains found inside a wastewater collection well are his.

Last month, city workers discovered the 21-year-old's body in the Perry Place Wastewater Lift Station off the 5300 block of Lexington Road, about a block from his off-campus apartment where he was last seen.

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, according to a release sent out by the Corpus Christi Police Department Wednesday.

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.

CCPD Assistant Chief Todd Green said the case is the most unusual one that he has been involved in during his 34 years with the department.

On Friday, he explained how the police investigation involved a two- to three-day search of city storm water and wastewater drains and facilities directly outside of the Cottages at Corpus Christi apartments.

Crews began by lifting all the manhole covers on the storm drains lining the sidewalks along the road in the initial days after his disappearance. The drains are about 4-feet deep on average and allow storm water that drains off the roads to flow into the city’s storm water system, Green said.

“We opened all the manhole covers on the storm drains from South Padre Island Drive all the way back to Holly Road,” Green said. “There’s always an opening for the drains, so potentially someone could get in there.”

He pointed out that sewage manhole covers are found in the middle of the streets in the area, but police did not check those due to their location and the difficulty involved in opening them.

'No one noticed that'

At the time, people were unaware that a manhole cover was located in one of the adjacent fields across Harris' apartment complex that was part of the drainage system. It was situated about 110 feet from the sidewalk.

“To our knowledge, no one noticed that, found it or reported it during that initial search,” Green said. “We don’t know if it was open at that time or not.”

Green said on April 17, a woman was walking her dog through that field and noticed the manhole was open and the cover was missing. She posted the finding on Facebook and then notified CCPD, he said.

CCPD detectives went to the field the next day and located the open manhole, which was partially filled with water, Green said. Though they saw nothing suspicious, they contacted Corpus Christi Water's wastewater department and went over to the Perry Place lift station to talk to wastewater personnel. 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. With the water level in the lift station collection having been pumped to a low-enough level to inspect it, the crew began to search for a body or missing items.

Harris' remains found

The lift station is designed to convey wastewater to treatment facilities through a system of pipes and pump stations. As the name implies, it operates by pumping, or lifting, wastewater to a higher point from low areas of land from pipes that lie deeply underground, allowing the water to flow by gravity or to be pumped under pressure to a treatment plant.

“These manholes are from the ‘50s and are made out of brick, and brick is porous,” Green said. “When you get a lot of rain, rain will soak through the soil and the brick, and a lot of water will start entering into the sewage system.”

The pipes that comprise the sewage system range in size from smaller pipes to larger pipes about 12- or 15-inches in diameter, Green said. Manholes that are about 24-inches in diameter drop down about 18-feet to a concrete pit.

The pit provides an access point to the well for the wastewater department and is covered by a steel grate secured with a padlock. Workers inside the building were checking on the pumps when they first discovered clothing that alarmed them, Green said.

An alarm will sound if something jams the pump, Green said, which happened the day the remains were found.

Green said when the Corpus Christi Fire Department went outside to open the pit, a portion of Harris' body was visibly clear through the grate – including his head.

No evidence of foul play

The next day, members of the wastewater department returned to the lift station with a large tanker truck to pump the rest of the contents of the well into the truck and transport them to another facility, finding clothing and bones.

A week after finding Harris' body, police returned to the lift station to run a camera up the length of pipe leading from the pump station to the manhole in the field to see if they could find any other items, such as Harris' phone which has been missing since the day he disappeared.

"We can’t say with certainty how that body got in the system,” Green said. “We don’t know for a fact. We don’t have any definitive proof one way or the other.”

Throughout the investigation, police have stated they have never found a single piece of evidence that suggested foul play.

After a thorough preliminary search of the area by detective patrol officers, they interviewed Harris' roommates, who agreed to polygraph tests, Green said.

"After we searched that area as thoroughly as we did, the thought was that maybe he reached out to somebody for a ride," Green said. "We didn't find anything like that on his phone. All the vehicles that came into that area during the time period where he went missing we were able to identify through phone records, the tower dumps, the geofence and there was no connection. They just happened to be in the area at that time."

There was nothing about Harris' background that led police to believe someone may have wanted to harm him, Green said.

'He is at peace now'

Visiting from Rockport, Tiffany Gough spoke at the candlelight vigil about how she lost her daughter 10 years ago and knows the pain Harris' family is feeling is "immeasurable."

"I pray Caleb's family finds peace," Gough said. "I know they won't find out everything they need, but I pray they know he is at peace now. The grief never ends, but it gets easier as time goes on."

Willet said the community needs to unite and stand in solidarity to honor Harris' memory.

"This is not a journey that is over in a week or two," Willett said. "We need to acknowledge even though his family has faith, they will be plagued with unanswered questions that will keep them up at night. Let us not forget them in the weeks, months or even years to come. Our lives may go on, but their's will stand still."

The group ended the hour-long ceremony with a prayer circle before parting ways.