Harrod, Robert 7-27-2009 CA

[Ell]

Search intensifies for missing O.C. newlywed, 81
3:18 PM | July 30, 2009
Placentia police ramped up their search today for an 81-year-old man who vanished just weeks after he married his childhood sweetheart.

Robert �gBob�h Harrod was last seen Monday afternoon by his son-in-law, who told authorities that he went to run an errand at Home Depot and that when he returned, Harrod was gone, said Placentia Police Det. Corinne Loomis. His wife filed a missing persons report that night.

Harrod and Fontelle Heeter wed June 29 in Fullerton. The two had reunited after spending 59 years apart. After the wedding, Fontelle Harrod went back to her home in Missouri to pack up her possessions; she returned to Placentia on Wednesday. She has not heard from Harrod since Sunday, Loomis said.

Loomis said police initially thought Harrod had left because he had gotten into an argument with another family member, and they had hoped he would return when his wife came back to Placentia.

�gMy personal sense was that if he did not return home by dark Wednesday night, we have a big problem,�h Loomis said. �gWe didn�ft ramp up a serious investigation in hopes he would come home yesterday. That was the break point.�h

Harrod�fs car and glasses are at the house, Loomis said, but his wallet and keys are missing.

Police also explored the possibility of Harrod getting cold feet after the wedding, Loomis said. �gHis wife is very worried,�h she said. �gMaybe he�fs off cooling off some place, but to think he would blow her off like that doesn�ft make sense. There are things in his home that indicate he was planning on welcoming her into his home.�h

Police are looking at his banking records and phone records. They have also canvassed the neighborhood to see if anyone has seen him.

�gI don�ft know that we have a working theory,�h Loomis said. �gWe aren�ft talking about a conniving 20- or 30- year-old. He�fs 81.�h

Harrod is described as 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighing about 140 pounds. He is balding, with gray hair, and he has brown eyes. He was last seen wearing white pants and a white hat and a shirt of an unknown color. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call Loomis at (714) 993�]8194 or Sgt. Scott Millsap at (714) 993�]8168.

-- My-Thuan Tran, reporting from Orange County
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009...ewlywed-81.html

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[Ell]

81-year-old who just married childhood sweetheart goes missing
From wire service reports
Posted: 07/30/2009 11:22:16 AM PDT
Updated: 07/30/2009 11:22:16 AM PDT


PLACENTIA - In a heartbreaking story out of Orange County, an 81- year-old Placentia man who recently married his childhood sweetheart was still missing today, police said.

Robert "Bob" Merle Harrod was last seen at his home in the 500 block of Carnation Drive about 1:30 p.m. Monday.

He married Fontelle Harrod June 29 in Fullerton, and she went to Kansas City to move her belongings and bring her dog to his Placentia home.

When she arrived yesterday, he was nowhere to be found, said Placentia police Detective Corinne Loomis.

Police are checking telephone records, possible credit card charges and other evidence that might provide clues to where he went, Loomis said.

"We're going to look into bank activity, identify bank accounts and get phone records," the detective said.

Police will also determine whether any of his movements, as outlined by witnesses in the days before he disappeared, can be confirmed by surveillance tape.

For instance, she said, Harrod's son-in-law told police that he went to a Home Depot on Monday, and when he returned, Harrod was gone.

Surveillance tape at the Home Depot might corroborate that account, or show something different, such as that Harrod was at the business with the son- in-law, she said.

There are no suspects or any indication at this point as to what might have happened, she stressed.

Loomis said she talked to Fontelle Harrod last night after her return


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from Kansas City.
"I talked to her at length last night," Loomis said. "She does not understand for the life of her what's happened. She came home to a house full of his kids and relatives and there's no Bob. She's totally confused and scared."

Family members said Harrod was looking forward to his new wife's return, Loomis said.

He has three daughters, with one living in Running Springs and another in Diamond Bar. Loomis did not know where the third daughter lived.

The couple were engaged for a time in the 1940s, broke up, then recently reunited, Loomis said. They married June 29 at the Fullerton Justice Center, six days after reconnecting.

The pair spoke twice daily by telephone while she was away, most recently Sunday evening, Loomis said.

Bob Harrod, with help from his daughter and son-in-law, had been rearranging things in his home to accommodate his new wife.

"There's all kinds of speculative theories, such as foul play, family issues," Loomis said.

He took his wallet and keys, but there has been no activity on bank accounts that police have initially been aware of, she said.

He is not believed to have his cell phone with him, and his car is in the driveway, Loomis said.

Harrod has some short-term memory problems typical of people his age, but Loomis said he had left notes at the house that were cogent and lucid. She said police do not suspect he became confused and wandered away.

Harrod was known to take walks near his home, but none of neighbors remembered seeing him since Saturday, Loomis said.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_12946442

[burnsjl2003]

Aug 9, 2009 8:42 am US/Pacific
81-Year-Old Newlywed From Placentia Still Missing
Bob Harrod Recently Married His Childhood Sweetheart
PLACENTIA, Calif. (CBS) ―


An 81-year-old Placentia man, who recently married his childhood sweetheart, was still missing Sunday.

Bob Harrod married his childhood sweetheart June 29, at the Fullerton Justice Center before he disappeared from his home in the 500 block of Carnation Drive.

After marrying him, Fontelle Harrod went to Missouri to move her belongings to his Placentia home. When she returned home, he was gone without a trace.

The pair spoke twice daily by telephone while she was away, Placentia police Detective Corinne Loomis said.

"I don't know… I don't know what happened. But he just would not have walked away," Fontelle Harrod said.

Family members said Harrod was looking forward to his new wife's return, Loomis said.

"We were just getting started again… no he would not have left on his own," his wife said.

He took his wallet and keys, but there has been no activity on bank accounts that police are aware of, according to Loomis.

He did not have his cell phone and his car was in his driveway.

Harrod has some short-term memory problems typical of people his age, but Loomis said police do not suspect he became confused and wandered away.

According to Loomis, Harrod was known to take walks near his home, but none of his neighbors remembered seeing him.

http://cbs2.com/local/newlywed.groom.missing.2.1120666.html

[mimi]

Things were going pretty well this summer for Robert Merle Harrod.
Until he vanished.
A wealthy Placentia man, Harrod, 81, was just getting over the prolonged ordeal of the death of his first wife, Georgia, in 2008.
To battle his loneliness, he had rekindled an old flame – a woman to whom he had been engaged in Missouri before the Korean War. She flew out to visit, and the two married at the county courthouse in Fullerton June 29 after a whirlwind re-ignition of their romance.
Late in July, Bob Harrod was cleaning out some clutter from the home he and his first wife had shared in central Placentia. He was preparing the home for Fontelle Harrod – his new 75-year-old wife – to move in.
She had been settling her affairs back in Missouri so she could join her new husband.
July 27, two days before Fontelle Harrod's plane touched down at LAX, nothingness swallowed up Bob Harrod, leaving Placentia police, his friends and family baffled more than two months later.
Whether he left on his own or was the victim of a crime is a mystery of the most befuddling kind. In real life, no one is lurking in the library with a candlestick waiting to be discovered.
"Any theory that we have is beset by problems that make it either unworkable or illogical," said Placentia police Detective Corinne Loomis, one of the lead investigators in the first weeks of the case and a spokeswoman for the department. "It's like a water balloon; when you squeeze it in one place, it pops out in another."
Though there is no evidence to suggest that someone killed Bob Harrod, there's no evidence to suggest someone didn't.
"We've treated this as a homicide investigation," said Placentia Police Chief Jim Anderson. "Because you can't go back in time and retrieve evidence. But our chief concern is for Mr. Harrod's safety."
But the possibility that Bob Harrod is holed up in a hotel somewhere has grown slimmer over the past months, police say. His wallet and keys were gone when he disappeared, but his car and glasses were left behind.
Police report there has been zero activity recorded in any of his bank or credit accounts.
THE DISAPPEARANCE
Police say Bob Harrod's son-in-law Jeff Michaels was doing work at the house July 27 in preparation for Fontelle Harrod's arrival.
Michaels told police he left the house for Home Depot to buy supplies around 2:30 p.m., and time stamped-receipts bear him out, Loomis said.
About 2:30 p.m. was the last time anyone says they saw Bob Harrod.
Michaels said he returned to the house after 3 p.m. to find the Harrods' longtime maid sitting on the front stoop, saying the door was locked. Bob Harrod talked to the housekeeper on the phone earlier that morning and told her to come.
Michaels told police he thought Bob Harrod may have retired for a nap, and said he let himself and the maid in the back door.
Bob Harrod wasn't in sight, but his keys and wallet were gone. Michaels told police he concluded Bob Harrod had visited a neighbor or gone for a walk. Michaels finished his tasks and the housekeeper cleaned and left. Michaels locked the house and headed home to Running Springs outside San Bernardino.
Harrod's daughter Julie Michaels, Jeff Michael's wife, called the house later that night, and there was no answer. She called her sisters, Roberta Brady and Paula Borcher.
They called Placentia Police to do a welfare check at the residence, Brady said. Officers found the house was as empty as Michaels said he left it.
Bob Harrod's daughters called Fontelle Harrod in Missouri, and she called in a missing persons report to police.
July 28 passed as police began the search – interviewing Michaels, the housekeeper and neighbors. Nobody saw Bob Harrod after 2:30 p.m. July 27.
July 29, Fontelle arrived, and the media got wind of the disappearance.
THE AFTERMATH
Notes written in Bob Harrod's hand found around the house indicate Bob Harrod intended to put his new wife's name on various accounts, Loomis said. Police say that, including properties and other assets, Bob Harrod was a multi-millionaire.
Bob Harrod and his three daughters had an argument over finances the Sunday before he vanished.
His daughter, Roberta, acknowledged the exchange, saying her father lost his temper. She said he had failed to provide copies of their mother's will, which he was obligated to do because of the financial mechanisms set up by the estate.
"It wasn't a heated meeting," she said in a phone interview. "Dad got heated. He's very selfish, very conditional. The day before he went missing in the afternoon, he was going to provide us copies of the will, and we went over to get the copies. He didn't have them."
Fontelle Harrod said several days after Bob Harrod disappeared, his three daughters came to his house where Fontelle was staying and told her she wasn't entitled to any of their father's assets.
According to records from Orange County Probate Court, Brady and Borcher filed a petition for conservatorship to gain control of their father's assets Aug. 7.
Fontelle Harrod is contesting the action and is still living in Bob Harrod's house, with the locks changed.
Brady said they brought the matter to court because they wanted to free up some of the money to offer a reward for information leading to Bob Harrod's whereabouts, as well as money to pay for bills and maintenance at the house.
The judge ruled against them.
Records pertaining to the case in probate are sealed, and the next hearing is Nov. 10.
WHAT HAPPENED?
There are no suspects, Loomis said. There's not even any evidence of a crime.
The three daughters told police initially they suspected Bob Harrod's barber – a woman who attended their mother's funeral in 2008 – of some connection with the disappearance. Police have cleared the barber and her husband of any connection with the case.
Loomis said simple logic would dictate that Bob Harrod's money would be the motive for someone to get rid of him, which would hypothetically connect Harrod's daughters to the disappearance. But Jeff Michaels' story checks out, and neither he nor any of the daughters are suspects in the disappearance, Loomis said.
Julie and Jeff Michaels, contacted through Roberta Brady, would not comment for this story.
Add in the timing of the disappearance – when the maid was scheduled to arrive – and it makes foul play even more improbable. If the hypothetical abductor were to have waited an hour or two more, he could have acted and Bob Harrod wouldn't be missed for a day and a half, Loomis said.
If a stranger had abducted Bob Harrod, it would be necessary for that stranger to have lured Harrod out of his house. That would have been something the neighbors had noticed, Loomis reasoned, which no one did.
Plus, if he were snatched, why did Bob Harrod lock the front door and bring his wallet and keys?
Fontelle Harrod and her children by previous marriages wouldn't have anything to gain by Harrod's disappearance, either.
Loomis said that though Fontelle's family isn't wealthy, they are solidly middle-class. More importantly, Harrod hadn't signed anything over to Fontelle Harrod by the time he disappeared, and both Loomis and Fontelle Harrod herself said Fontelle had no idea how rich Bob Harrod was before he disappeared.
What if Bob Harrod left on his own accord? He was a lucid, adult man, but he didn't take his glasses or his car, and he left when he knew his son-in-law and maid would miss him.
Had Bob Harrod waited a couple hours longer, he could have taken his car and been in Texas or farther before anyone missed him – he could have ditched it wherever he stopped if he were worried about being traced, Loomis said.
If, contrary to his doctor's statements, he were beset by some dementia and wandered off, overwhelming odds are that he would have appeared at a nearby intersection or shopping center, disoriented and drawing attention to himself – especially with his face all over television and the newspapers, Loomis said.
"It doesn't make any sense," she said.
Harrod spoke to several people on his home telephone the day he disappeared. Police seized those phone records, and they aren't giving out the numbers to anyone.
Chief Anderson was cryptic in his responses during an interview about the future of the investigation.
"I don't want to show my hand to you," he said. "We have a couple of ongoing roads we're going to go down. I don't want to alert possible suspects. We have nothing to focus on directly yet."

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/harrod-...ntelle-michaels