14x18 - Auto-Motive

[bunniefuu]

up next a woman goes missing and her

family thinks it's foul play Michelle

wasn't going to take off and leave her

kids you know investigators learned some

of her friends have shady pasts

he had been convicted of r*pe and

attempted m*rder in Arizona but without

a body police had no solid Clues until a

suspect makes a tiny mistake they had

gotten a call that they may have

possibly found a body or something near

his property and he says that's not

possible

wait a minute what do you mean that's

not possible

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on a cool September morning in the small

town of awaygo in upstate New York Cal

Harris smoked early as he usually did to

help get his two children ready for

school and get to work

Harris owned several large car

dealerships in town but on this morning

he discovered his wife hadn't returned

home from her waitressing job the night

before that wasn't entirely surprising

the two were leading separate lives and

were planning a divorce she was always

staying at the house for the children

sleeping in the couch in the living room

Cowell told police Michelle sometimes

went out after work but staying out all

night was unusual Michelle was home

every night you don't want to see the

kids before they went to school in the

morning so we were all very alarmed

Michelle's van was found a half mile

from the house along a driveway on their

huge estate the keys were still in the

ignition but none of this necessarily

indicated foul play he figured she met

somebody into the driveway to go

drinking left the van there and left

with that person and just hasn't come

back yet

we found no blood no damage to the

vehicle and police found nothing

suspicious inside the home we could look

wherever we wanted and we checked every

room in the house we didn't notice

anything out of line troopers and search

dogs even scuba divers searched the

Harrises 250 acre property which

presented more than the usual challenges

there's a large number of laid up wells

so we brought in an underwater camera

and searched all those wells as we were

doing the organized searches in the

woods they had helicopters they had

divers in the lake

nothing no clothing no blood no no bones

no no nothing they found literally no

trace of her outside of that house

police traced Michelle's whereabouts for

the night before Michelle worked at a

local restaurant and co-workers said she

left when her shift ended at 9:00 p.m.

but she didn't leave alone she left with

one of the cooks Michael hates police

investigators they interview mr. heggs

he tells them that he said goodbye to

Michelle Harris that night in the

parking lot and that was the last time

he ever saw her the surveillance tapes

from the restaurant parking lot couldn't

confirm this but Hakes had an alibi he

said he left the restaurant and went

directly to his girlfriend's house and

we went back to her did mr. Hicks ever

ask you to make up an alibi for him or

to lie to the police

she said no there and he came here after

work that night he stayed all night

kake's girlfriend told police he arrived

there around 9:45 p.m.

but if Hakes left the restaurant at 9:00

p.m. and his girlfriend lived only 15

minutes away

there was a 30-minute period he couldn't

account for then a background check

revealed a sparkling piece of

information Michael Hicks had been

convicted of r*pe and attempted m*rder

in Arizona and served ten years in

Arizona state prison for that and he'd

been out of prison for about one year as

of that time Hakes employers at the

restaurant didn't know he was a

registered sex offender and apparently

neither did Michelle Harris I don't know

if she knew about his

background let me reconvince right away

that something untoward had happened

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police in upstate New York were baffled

by the disappearance of Michelle Harris

all they knew was that she failed to

return home from her waitressing job and

her abandoned car was discovered a

half-mile from her home

Michelle left the restaurant with a

co-worker

Michael Hakes a convicted sex offender

although no one knew he had a felony

conviction at the time when analyzing

Michelle's van criminalist found two

different sets of fingerprints on the

driver's side door that's something of

you know great significance to a case

the finger prints did not match

Michelle's co-worker Michael Hakes

so police searched mechele's cell phone

records and they revealed a man named

Brian early called Michelle on the night

she disappeared

he did call her on her cell phone that

night left a message for her asking her

to stop by his place

Brian early and Michelle Harris had been

dating for the past year he had recently

moved from Philadelphia to upstate New

York so he could be closer to Michelle

she certainly saw a great deal of him

and they had both had very strong

feelings and they were taking concrete

steps to move forward when police

questioned Brian he admitted seeing

Michelle the night she disappeared but

said she left his apartment around 11:00

p.m.

he says he walked her out to the car

kisses her goodnight and she leaves in

her van and that's the last time he ever

saw her and that as far as anyone knows

is the last time she was seen alive

fingerprint technicians identified Brian

Early's prints as the ones on Michelle's

car door

but Brian early said this was consistent

with his story but he leaned in through

the window to kiss Michelle goodnight

and he insisted this took place in his

apartments parking lot

although Brian was the last known person

to see Michelle alive police also had to

consider the possibility Michelle's

estranged husband was somehow involved

Michelle and Cal were going through a

divorce one that would be very costly to

him Cal Harris owned six car dealerships

the car dealerships were very successful

Cal made a settlement offer of three

quarters of a million dollars which was

rejected and shortly before Michelle's

disappearance the divorce court ordered

an independent valuation of Chows

business the valuation alone would cost

him $30,000 I think when he had gotten

the certified letter of the $30,000 for

the CPA he was furious I've yet to hear

of anyone getting divorced male or

female that likes to give up a dime to

the spouse that's leaving that's never a

happy prospect no matter what your

station in life Cal Harris also had a

history to his neighbors it was hardly a

secret

we saw the sight of him in his past

relationships where there was incidents

of domestic v*olence and controlling

behavior so police asked Cal Harris

Michelle's boyfriend Bryan early and the

cook at the restaurant Michael hates to

take polygraph examinations one of them

refused

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when police asked Michele Harris's

boyfriend Brian early to take a

polygraph test he willingly complied

they passed the exam anytime we needed

him for DNA fingerprints additional

questions no problem the cook at the

restaurant Michael hates a convicted sex

offender also took a polygraph

examination he too passed but the lawyer

for Michele's estranged husband Cal

Harris adamantly refused to allow him to

take the polygraph at least the one

administered by the police we obtained a

warrant and put a GPS on his vehicle and

he went to another part of the state and

took a polygraph test the private

investigator that he hired took him out

to that test then Cal Harris said

something unusual to investigators it

was something he said about Michelle's

van he says well I've got to get it back

to the dealer I want to get it detailed

and clean and put back on the lot

in other words Cal planned to sell in

Michelle's van as soon as possible

it's just wait a minute really you know

it it just didn't sit right

some of Michelle's friends told police

that Cal had threatened Michelle in his

anger over the upcoming divorce Cal said

you know if I wanted to k*ll you I don't

need a g*n to k*ll you and if I do k*ll

you they'll never find you

chin was quite vocal and her abject

terror of Calvin and what he would

ultimately do to prevent their divorce

Michelle told her family that the only

reason she stayed in the house was that

she'd lose custody of her children if

she moved out then ada got her for

abandonment the divorce judge or the one

that handled that said that she had to

stay there Michelle and Cal first met

when Michelle got a job at one of cows

car dealerships they had been married

for 11 years and there were problems

from the start he had cheated on her

many times amazingly they all look

similar to Michelle all petit plans very

nice women then he'd say well let's go

to a marriage counselor and so then she

would show up at the marriage counselor

and he wouldn't show up friends said

cows need to control the relationship

was all-consuming and divorced didn't

fit into that scheme on September 11th

many areas of Cal's life were Otakon out

of his control his wife was out of his

control the children were out of his

control and for a person of his

temperament and we have to imagine that

was pretty unbearable and on September

12 all those areas are back under his

control

investigators had done a cursory search

of the house the day Michelle went

missing now three days later they sent

in forensic examiners again nothing

seemed amiss until they stepped into the

kitchen and saw what appeared to be tiny

drops of blood on the walls

the parent bloodstains that I saw were

roughly a millimeter in size and then

there is on the one door molding there

is like an upside-down u-shaped pattern

that had a void in the center these

u-shaped patterns are formed when water

is mixed with blood causing the edge of

the stain to dry faster that was

indicative of a potential cleanup the

size of the bloodstains that hadn't been

cleaned was even more telling

this was medium-velocity blood spatter

which results from an object striking a

body more than once with extreme force

with a b*ating or kicking a type of

death you're gonna see the

medium-velocity blood stain or impact

spatter when investigators turned over a

throw rug in the hallway next to the

kitchen they found even more blood Steve

Anderson accounted something like 78 or

80 different bloodstains and again many

of them were a millimeter or less in

size it would be consistent with some

sort of as*ault of event having occurred

in the kitchen area no w*apon was

discovered but investigators found more

evidence of a cleanup in the garage you

in indications of a directional force

having wiped the floor because you have

blood pushed underneath a one edge of

the paint chips and not the others DNA

testing showed it was Michelle's blood

and we confirmed that with the use of a

toothbrush to get Michelle Harris is

known DNA profile this is starting to

paint a picture of what could have

happened to her except an important

piece of that picture was missing the

body of Michelle Harris and without a

body taking this to trial would be a

difficult decision

juries are so unpredictable you don't

know what they're gonna do I guess human

nature says without a body how do we

know what crime was committed how can

you prove that beyond a reasonable doubt

[Music]

blood spatter evidence indicated

Michelle Harris had been att*cked in her

kitchen Michelle's blood was also found

on the garage floor the amount was

difficult to judge I cannot accurately

provide you with an estimate of the

original amount of blood that was there

we're dealing with what was left over

the only question was where was her body

her estranged husband Cal Harris had a

motive their upcoming divorce was going

to be very costly to him and he made

numerous incriminating statements to

friends he was at a family picnic after

she had disappeared they had gotten a

call that they may have possibly found a

body or something near his property and

he says that's not possible

wait a minute what do you mean that's

not possible as the search for

Michelle's body continued Cowell went on

with his life within days he sold

Michelle's clothes and kept seeing his

girlfriend he asked that girlfriend to

come to his house on the night of

Michelle's birthday at the end of

September and she was afraid that

Michelle was going to come home and he

said don't worry she's not coming home

investigators found no blood on or in

any of the family's vehicles

coincidentally Cal had his truck washed

at his car dealership the day Michelle

went missing

but if Cal did it how did he get

Michelle's body out of the house he

could have put her in a garbage bag or

wrapped her in a blanket again we don't

know although prosecutors arrested Cal

Harris and charged him with Michelle's

m*rder they waited several years before

bringing the case to trial they feared

the defense would argue that Michelle

was still alive we wanted to take away

that argument from the defense that you

know for all we know she's not even dead

it was difficult for Michelle's family

to deal with Cal while he was out on

bail awaiting trial we'd get the

grandkids for birthday parties and stuff

and he could never look you straight in

the face would never make eye contact

with you or anything like that

almost tells us he's involved somehow he

hired fabulous attorneys very competent

attorneys my only thought was is I hope

they've got enough evidence because

there definitely will be the best law

firm defending him despite a lack of

evidence one fact was inescapable Cal

was the one person I had something to

gain from Michelle not being here

even without a body prosecutors were

convinced Michele's battered blood could

prove she'd been k*lled even if it's not

the strongest case in the world that

deserves to be tried and we owe it to

her we owe it to her family

prosecutors believe Cal was in the

kitchen when he heard Michelle's van

coming into the garage and he may have

been angry after learning the divorce

court ordered an independent valuation

of his business that would cost him

$30,000 when Michele walked inside Cal

att*cked

hitting her at least twice with a blunt

object producing the blood spatter found

on the kitchen floor blood spatter on

the molding shows he hit her at least

once more as she was on the ground the

evidence shows he carried Michelle into

the garage where she bled onto the

concrete floor prosecutors believe he

placed her body into a plastic bag and

then put her in the back of his truck

and buried her somewhere on their huge

property back at the house he drove her

van to the edge of the driveway over a

half mile away and left it there

[Music]

investigators think he wanted to get the

van farther away but didn't want to risk

anyone seeing him walking home which

will be hard to explain once he got back

in the kitchen he tried to clean the

blood but there was simply too much the

blood pointed to where the crime scene

was the crime scene was in control of

k*ll Harris for somebody who wanted

everything in order he was the one who

cleaned up that blood he didn't do a

good job of doing it when Cal Harris

good trial he took the stand in his own

defense what he couldn't make his

testimony fit with the testimony of all

the witnesses they had testified in the

case he basically accused them of being

Liars that they lied about critical

facts in the case just to fabricate a

case against him the jury also learned

that cell phone records showed Cal never

called Michelle's cell phone on the

morning she went missing other times

when she stayed out too late or he did

it you know she didn't come home there'd

be a volley of phone calls to her cell

phone telling her to get home I'm more

inclined to think that it was planned

out that he had thought about how he

could do it where he could do it and

where he would put the body Cal Harris

was convicted of second-degree m*rder

and was sentenced to 25 years to life in

prison I don't know if they would have

gone to trial without the blood but

after hearing everything that I heard I

don't know that the outcome would have

been any different they keep on changing

venue I think I've been tried in Egypt

and with the amount of evidence that the

State Police had gathered and the way

that Keane presented it

you know they could have later found him

guilty anyplace

sadly Michelle's body has never been

found we'll always look for we still

received teletypes Michels DNA and

dental records are entered into

international databases people still

call in with tips and theories and we

talked to everybody

psychics still call us with ideas so the

state police will always look into where

Michelle Harris is

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