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Cal Harris: ‘Dateline NBC’ Does Re-Do Of Owego No Body Murder Case Of Missing Mom Michele Harris After Husband Freed

By Traciy Reyes
Published on: 01:18 PST, Dec 15, 2016

Cal Harris’ case will be the leading story on Dateline NBC this Friday. The new episode titled “The House On The Lake” is a follow-up of the Dateline episode “Mystery At Empire Lake.” Calvin ‘Cal’ Harris has been on trial four times for the murder of his wife Michele Anne Harris, a mother who vanished over 10 years ago from her Owego, New York, home. Her body has never been found. Her husband, a wealthy car dealer and businessman, was convicted in her death during the first trial. Now, after four trials, he has been set free.

Circumstances of Michele Harris’ Disappearance

According to Dateline NBC’s episode, some time around September 11-12, 2001, 35-year-old Michele Harris vanished into the night. She was last seen by her co-workers as she left her shift and by her boyfriend, who told police that he saw her that night before she headed home. Michele was still living at home with her estranged husband, Cal Harris. They were going through a divorce, and it was messy. Cal and Michele were both seeing other people, and an independent investigation and appraisal of his car dealerships was about to take place. The investigation was going to cost the rich car dealer about $30,000. In fact, the whole divorce was costing Cal Harris a lot of money. He offered to pay a large settlement to his wife, which she refused.

Detectives looked for Michele Harris at the home she shared with Cal Harris, which was on a huge estate in Upstate New York. The search was massive, and they had to search some eerie underground wells on the property, according to a Forensic Files episode covering the case. Police also searched the lake and the woods.

The couple’s nanny received a call from Cal Harris, stating that Michele didn’t return home the previous night. When the nanny arrived, she found Michele Harris’ car abandoned at the edge of the driveway. There was no blood inside the car, and the keys were still in the ignition. The home seemed pristine during the investigators’ first search.

https://www.facebook.com/ABCNews/posts/10154431302868812?match=bWljaGVsZSBoYXJyaXMsbXVyZGVy

However, blood was found during a forensic examination. According to Forensic Files’ episode: Auto-Motive, prosecutors theorized that Cal Harris attacked his wife when she arrived home, and then she was beaten with a blunt object, dragged to the garage, then placed inside of a garbage bag before she was transported in his car and possibly buried somewhere on the property.

This theory is part of what led to the first conviction. But with three trials down the drain, Cal Harris was found not guilty in the fourth trial. That means he’s a free man. His children support him fully and do not believe that he killed their mother. Others believe that the evidence just wasn’t there to convict. Cal Harris has always said that he didn’t do it, and in the Dateline episode airing Friday, one of the guests stated that Cal was convicted on evidence that the prosecution should have never been allowed to base a case on.

Even more stunning is the revelation that a witness saw Michele Harris arguing with a man at the edge of the driveway. The witness, Kevin Tubbs, came forward with this information in 2007, Press Connects reported.

“Kevin Tubbs, who lived in Candor in 2001 testified, he read a newspaper report about the Cal Harris trial that stated Michele Harris was last seen around 11 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2001. Tubbs called Cal Harris’ then-defense lawyer Joseph Cawley to report what he had seen six years earlier. He testified he followed his normal farm work routine the morning of Sept. 12 that year. By 5:45 a.m., Tubbs said, he was driving past the Harris home on Hagadorn Hill Road in Spencer. He said he saw a pickup truck and an SUV at the end of the driveway and a woman who seemed to be upset was talking to a dark-haired man who appeared to be in his 20s.Cal Harris’ defense lawyer Bruce Barket says the man Tubbs saw matches the description of Texas resident Stacey Stewart, who was living in Tioga County in 2001. In court Tuesday, Tubbs said a photo of Stewart looked similar to the man he saw in the Harris driveway.”

Dateline’s coverage will show that in the fourth trial, the defense also brought new information regarding items found buried in a fire pit on the property of the last person who allegedly saw Michele alive. The items found, which include fragments of fabric that match the colors of clothing Michele Harris was last seen wearing, are as follows, according to ABC News.

  • a knife blade
  • a button
  • part of a shoulder strap from possibly a bra
  • a piece of a woman’s bathing suit or purse
  • fragments of charred fabric in dark blue/black and a light-color

Watch Dateline NBC this Friday night at 10/9 p.m. Central to see how they put the case together. And let us know what you believe in the comments. Read here to find out how Michele and Cal Harris met when the love was good.

https://www.facebook.com/datelinenbc/videos/10154679453681420/

[Featured Image by Rex Wholster/Shutterstock]

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