CCPD Update Timeline of Missing TAMUCC Student Caleb Harris

Corpus Christi Police Department

CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS (News Release) - As the search entered its third week, Corpus Christi Police Department Detectives, along with their federal and state partners, continue to work fervently behind the scenes to solve the disappearance of 21-year-old Texas A&M Corpus Christi student Caleb Harris.

Missing TAMUCC Student Caleb Harris.

After having interviewed Harris’s roommates, friends, and family, as well as having reviewed hours of surveillance camera footage, Detectives have established a timeline for the night Harris disappeared. Detectives have learned that Harris spent the evening hours of Sunday March 3rd inside his off-campus apartment on the 1900 block of Ennis Joslin Road, along with his two roommates and a mutual friend. Harris and his friend played video games online for over an hour with another former high school classmate currently residing in Colorado. At approximately 12:56 am on Monday, March 4th, a doorbell camera at a nearby apartment captures Harris, his friend, and one of Harris’s roommates in the parking lot playing with a puppy belonging to the girlfriend of one of Harris’s roommates. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, and the three young men returned to Harris’s apartment. Their mutual friend departed shortly thereafter. At approximately 2:20 am, the second of Harris’s two roommates informs Harris that he (the roommate) is going to bed. Harris replies that he is going to stay up to order snacks via UberEats for his school lunch later that day (Monday). At approximately 2:44 AM, Harris shares a Snapchat video with his younger sister that depicts Harris walking the puppy through what appears to be the apartment complex parking lot. At approximately 3:03 AM, Harris sent another SnapChat photo to a high school friend currently residing in San Antonio. The photo depicted a small bridge over a drainage ditch on the 1900 block of Ennis Joslin, within a few hundred feet of the entrance to his apartment complex. At approximately 3:12 AM Harris’s cell phone last shared location data with the nearest cell phone tower. At approximately 3:20 am, the UberEats driver delivers Harris’s order to his apartment, leaving it outside near the front door per the order request. This is currently the best timeline investigators have been able to compile working with the existing available data, but this is an evolving investigation and is subject to change as more data and information is acquired.

At around 11:00 am Monday morning, one of Caleb’s roommates discovered the UberEats order outside the front door, and Harris’s pickup truck parked in front of the apartment; Caleb’s wallet and keys were left behind in the apartment and all that appeared to be missing was Harris and his cell phone. Caleb’s roommates, who described him as a homebody and a creature of habit, immediately became alarmed by Caleb’s absence. After searching for Caleb by themselves for a short time, the roommates called the CCPD to report Harris missing.

The initial responding officer, after having obtained the information from the roommates, immediately checked all local hospitals for any unidentified patients matching Caleb’s description. None were found. A preliminary search of the apartment complex and the immediate area surrounding it revealed no signs of a struggle or violence, nor any indicia of a hit and run accident on the roads nearby. The officer then ensured that Harris was entered into the national computer database as a missing person. Detectives from the Criminal Investigation Division were then called to the scene, while an intensive and large-scale search of the surrounding area was organized and conducted.

Detectives searched Caleb’s apartment and found no evidence of a struggle, violent act, or any signs that the apartment had been recently deep cleaned. Firearms and fishing gear, including waders, that belonged to Caleb were found in the apartment. A laptop belonging to Caleb was collected and has been turned over to Forensic Computer Examiners within CCPD’s Organized Crime Unit for examination and analysis.

Caleb’s roommates, friends and family members have been extremely cooperative with investigators since the onset of this investigation. Detectives, through a variety of investigative techniques, have completely excluded them as having anything to do with Caleb’s disappearance. Detectives have also identified and interviewed the UberEats driver who delivered Caleb’s order that evening. The 31-year-old woman told Detectives that she was driving alone that night and did not see Caleb or anyone else at or near the apartment complex. Detectives confirmed that she was alone by reviewing surveillance video from the convenience store where she picked up Caleb’s order. She also has been eliminated as a suspect in Harris’s disappearance.

Investigators have scoured the surrounding area of Caleb’s last known location for surveillance video, checking well over fifty businesses and private residences. Thus far, investigators have retrieved video from twenty-seven different locations, including city owned traffic cameras, but continue to search for additional sources. Detectives have written 16 search electronic search warrants, submitted over 70 preservation requests, and issued 14 subpoenas for electronic data related to this investigation. Forensic Computer Examiners have already reviewed over 600 GB of electronic data and continue to pour over data as it arrives on an almost daily basis.

The investigative team, formed during the first days of the search, continues to meet daily to share information from the previous day’s efforts, discuss possible leads, and plot the course of the investigation. The team consists of Investigators from the Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division and Organized Crime Unit, the FBI, the Texas Rangers, and the United States Marshals Service, along with three Forensic Computer Examiners, and one civilian crime analyst. Detectives have reviewed, and followed up where appropriate, on fourteen Crime Stoppers tips, 31 tipline tips, and several others from various sources.

If you have information regarding the disappearance of Caleb Harris, please contact the Corpus Christi Police Department at (361) 826-2840 or you can submit an anonymous tip at Crime Stoppers 888-TIPS (888-8477). The tipline number set up by the Harris family is (361) 826-2950.