California firefighter was presumed drowned while facing federal charges. Now the FBI believes his death may have been staged

More than three years after a California firefighter disappeared during a late-night fishing trip, the FBI is back looking into his case. Investigators now suspect his reported drowning may have been staged to keep him from facing a federal criminal case.

According to Guessing Headlights, Charles Johnathen Harris, a former firefighter with the Alameda County Fire Department, disappeared on April 4, 2023, in Suisun Bay, north of Concord, California.

Search and rescue teams found his capsized 15-foot boat, but they never recovered his remains. At the time, the incident was treated as a boating accident. Now, investigators are looking at whether Harris may have faked his death rather than face the charges against him.

His conduct was troubling to his former colleagues at the fire station

The federal case against Harris had begun months earlier. In March 2023, a grand jury indicted the Modesto-born firefighter on charges of possessing images of prepubescent children.

The investigation started with a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Federal prosecutors alleged that Harris had uploaded child sexual abuse material through the messaging app Kik. Some of the uploads allegedly happened while he was working at Alameda County fire stations, making the accusations particularly troubling for his former colleagues.

Harris surrendered to federal authorities on March 7, 2023, and was released on bond. His conditions included strict limits on internet access. If convicted, he faced up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. He was due back in court on April 19, 2023, but by then, he was already missing.

In the early hours of April 4, Harris had been out fishing with his brother. According to reports from NBC Bay Area, his brother managed to swim to a dock after their 15-foot boat capsized. He told a good Samaritan that Harris had drowned after spending hours in the water and becoming exhausted.

That account did not settle the matter for federal prosecutors. Court records show that Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Volkar later said parts of the brother’s story “don’t quite match up.” Harris then missed his scheduled court appearance, and a federal arrest warrant was issued on April 21, 2023.

The FBI’s San Francisco division has now brought the case back into the public eye after conducting more interviews with Harris’s family members and associates. Investigators have also received several independent tips from people who said they saw him in California after he was believed to have drowned.

The FBI is looking for leads

Scott Schelble, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Francisco field office, said the witnesses were “very confident” when they identified Harris in photographs. The reported sightings have added another question to an already unusual case: whether Harris ever died in Suisun Bay.

The FBI is asking anyone who knows something about Harris’s disappearance or whereabouts to get in touch. He is described as a 46-year-old white man, 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing approximately 220 pounds.

For now, investigators are still trying to establish what happened after the boat capsized. Harris’s remains have never been found, and the reported sightings have given the FBI another lead to follow.