The family of Caleb Harris isn’t buying this story about his death being an accident!
As we previously reported, the 21-year-old college student went missing back in March. He was seen on March 4 near his apartment complex around the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi campus and had texted a friend in the early morning hours. But then he disappeared. No one saw or heard from him again afterward. Police searched for Caleb for months, but it wasn’t until June 24 that city workers conducting maintenance inside a wastewater collection well discovered human remains. And sadly, they were positively identified as belonging to him.
Related: Man Blamed Dog For Baby’s Horrific Death — Now He’s Being Charged With Murder!
As for what happened to Caleb? Well, that’s still a mystery. Law enforcement isn’t exactly sure. However, police said that the remains had “no obvious signs of homicide,” so they think this possibly was all an accident. You see, Deputy Chief Billy Breedlove previously told People that Caleb sent a photo of a bridge near his apartment complex to one of his pals on Snapchat at around 3:03 a.m. on the day he disappeared. Police later found a manhole roughly 600 feet away — with the cover knocked aside:
“[The manhole] was covered with grass at the time and no one was [initially] able to find this or notice that this hole was there. We don’t know how that occurred. It is an area that is farmed every year. So there’s the likelihood that a farming implement knocked it off and with the high grass growing across there, it would be sort of camouflaged to most people walking around there.”
Between this and the fact that it was a super foggy night when the Texas student vanished, investigators think he potentially fell into the manhole before eventually ending up in the sewer system. That said, police don’t know if this is really how he got into the hole. It’s just a theory. At the time of the discovery, Breedlove mentioned there was a chance Caleb was “harmed.” And unfortunately, police cannot rely on the autopsy report to get definitive answers on whether his death was accidental or not.
According to an autopsy report from the Nueces County Medical Examiner’s Office and obtained by People on Tuesday, Caleb’s remains were already in an “advanced state of decomposition and skeletonization” — meaning his cause of death “cannot be determined with certainty.” Oof. The medical examiners added:
“While no significant traumatic injuries are identified, the condition of the remains could have obscured subtle injuries and/or additional significant natural disease. The exact details leading up to the terminal event and death are currently unclear. Hence, the cause and manner of death are classified as undetermined at this time. If additional information becomes available in the future, the cause of and manner of death can be amended, if needed.”
Yet, no matter what the autopsy report states or the police say, his family feels they know at least one thing about what happened to Caleb — it was not just some freak accident! Speaking to the San Antonio Express-News on Wednesday, his father, Randy Harris, said the family is still working with law enforcement to solve this case as the investigation is “100% ongoing.” He then added:
“There are no updates at this point, but we fully believe this is a homicide and not an accident.”
Whoa…
Randy didn’t provide more details on that statement — like what made them believe he was murdered! And don’t expect investigators to share the reason, either! It doesn’t sound like they discovered anything recently to lead the family to that conclusion! Instead, Breedlove told People on Thursday that “not much has changed” since Caleb’s remains were identified. He added:
“There’s nothing in this autopsy that has given us any more direction to say it was a homicide, nor was there any direction to say it was not a homicide.”
At this point, Breedlove explained they have “pretty much exhausted all of the digital evidence and different videos” and have “covered everything we can” in the investigation. Despite the exhaustive work, they are unable to determine whether Caleb was murdered or not. And when asked why the family thinks his death wasn’t an accident, Breedlove responded:
“I don’t have any way to speculate on that.”
We cannot imagine how hard this must be on the Harris family, especially since they have so many unanswered questions about Caleb’s death. Whether they will ever get answers about what happened is unknown. But it doesn’t seem likely right now.
Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments.
[Image via Caleb Harris/Facebook, News 4 (WOAI) San Antonio/YouTube]
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