Police ask for eyewitnesses to come forward with information on missing student
Corpus Christi police are seeking eyewitnesses in the case of missing person Caleb Harris, who disappeared from his off-campus apartment complex in the middle of the night on March 4.
The Corpus Christi Police Department posted a message on social media yesterday asking individuals who believe they have seen the New Braunfels man to immediately call 911 or dial the non-emergency line at (361) 886-2600 to enable MetroCom personnel to rapidly dispatch officers to investigate the sighting.
Individuals with other information or tips are advised to call the Caleb Harris Tipline at (361) 826-2950 or report their tip anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 361-888-TIPS (888-8477). People can also call CCPD at (361) 886-2840.
CCPD detectives say they continue a diligent investigation to find the 21-year-old Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student, who was last seen walking a roommate's dog outside of The Cottages at Corpus Christi Apartment Complex in the 1900 block of Ennis Johnson Road near South Padre Island Drive early in the morning.
Searches began immediately after Harris' roommates reported him missing, starting with a preliminary walk of the sidewalks, fields and wetlands surrounding the area at 7 a.m. on March 6, with police officers, college students, residents, friends and family in attendance, and progressing to deeper expeditions of the roads, shorelines, nature preserves and heavily vegetated and secluded areas of North Padre Island, Oso Bay and Flour Bluff in the last two months.
Police say an investigative team of detectives from the Criminal Investigation Division and Organized Crime Unit formed with FBI, U.S. Marshals and several civilian crime analysts right away to solve the case, with teams of detectives persisting to interview potential witnesses in Corpus Christi, San Antonio and New Braunfels. CID detectives continue to interview Harris' roommates, friends, family members and acquaintances and report they have found no reason to suspect that these individuals were involved in the student’s disappearance.
On March 28, CCPD senior officer Jennifer Collier published a timeline on the CCPD blotter detailing the events of the night of March 4, describing how Harris spent the night inside his apartment with two roommates and a mutual friend and former classmate from Colorado. The report states that a doorbell camera at a nearby apartment revealed Harris, his friend and one of his roommates in the parking lot playing with a puppy belonging to the girlfriend of one of the roommates, with a quick sequence of events following that included Harris ordering food from UberEats for school the next day and returning outside to walk the puppy again after his roommates went to sleep.
At about 2:44 a.m., Harris shared a Snapchat video with his younger sister that depicted him walking the puppy through what appeared to be the apartment complex parking lot. At about 3:03 a.m., he sent another Snapchat photo to a high school friend currently living in San Antonio that depicted a small bridge over a drainage ditch on the 1900 block of Ennis Joslin, within a few hundred feet of the entrance to the apartment complex.
The student's last known location was confirmed by data that his cell phone shared with the nearest cell phone tower at 3:12 a.m. His keys, wallet and vehicle were left at the apartment complex.
Photos of the bridge began circulating on social media posts around March 25 and are among the unofficial pictures, snapchats, and chat logs published by friends, acquaintances and strangers who have become involved in the search and rescue effort for Harris in parallel to the official police investigation as speculation foments about Harris' whereabouts.
Amidst the professional investigation, friends, acquaintances and strangers have formed an online search community through mobile networks to share pictures, snapchats and chat logs on social media intimating details of Harris’ last known whereabouts. Witnesses have come forward to give interviews on national media with family members and FBI agents, offering first-hand accounts of seeing Harris walking under the bridges, infrastructure and embankments of Oso Bay.
With detectives rounding the corner on the ninth week of investigations, they assure the public they are thoroughly evaluating every sighting and tip that comes in and continue to request the community's assistance in finding the young man.
Harris was wearing teal pants and a white shirt. He weighs 180 pounds, and he is 5 feet, 11 inches tall.
More: Police publish timeline of events for missing Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student
More: Body found at Padre Island National Seashore Wednesday is not missing Texas A&M student
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Corpus Christi police ask eyewitnesses to help find student
