In the early morning of March 4, 2024, Caleb Harris, a 21-year-old Texas A&M student, was hanging out at an apartment complex in Corpus Christi, Texas. Harris played video games with four other men that night, ordered Uber Eats around 2:30 a.m., and then took a walk. He was never seen again.
Harris’ mysterious disappearance launched a massive, months-long manhunt that culminated in the discovery of human remains at a wastewater lift station near the apartment where Harris was last seen. To date, those remains have not been identified, but many speculate they belong to Harris.
If those remains are, in fact, those of Caleb Harris, did he die in a tragic accident, or was there foul play involved? If forensic testing is unable connect them with Harris, then who are they? Here’s what’s known about the hours before Harris vanished, how his movements were tracked, who he was last with, and when the missing student’s family may finally have answers.
Were any of the men Caleb Harris was with involved?
Missing person cases like Caleb Harris often gain viral attention and national media coverage, especially when someone disappears under such mysterious circumstances. Corpus Christi police have a detailed timeline of Harris’ movements before he went missing, based on security footage, Uber Eats records, Snapchat messages Harris sent, and the testimony of his two roommates and a mutual friend who were with him that night.
According to Corpus Christi news outlet KIII, Harris played video games at an off-campus apartment with two roommates, a mutual friend, and briefly, another former classmate from Colorado. Around 1 a.m., a Ring doorbell camera captured Harris playing with his roommate’s girlfriend’s puppy in the apartment complex parking lot.
From there, Harris sent Snapchat messages to his sister at around 2:45 a.m. while walking the dog again. And at about 3 a.m. he messaged another friend in San Antonio. At some point, Harris returned the dog to the apartment and left. About 20 minutes after that, Harris’ Uber Eats order was delivered.
The next morning, his roommate found the order on the doorstep around 11 a.m. Harris’ truck was still there, as were his wallet and his keys, but his cell phone was gone. Harris’ roommates reported him missing. There were no signs of struggle or foul play.
“We’re not able to be completely transparent and share everything we know, but we can very confidently say we have ruled out the roommates as having anything to do with this disappearance,” Corpus Christi Assistant Police Chief Todd Green said, referring to the case. “His friends that he was communicating with that night over social media — we’ve ruled them out. We’ve ruled out the Uber driver that made the delivery,” Green added.
The bridge in the Snapchat message photo
Caleb Harris’ final Snapchat message to his friend in San Antonio could offer one clue as to what happened to him. There was a picture of a bridge, which raises the possibility he was near the wastewater lift station where the human remains were later found. Police say his cell phone’s final location has also been determined, but that information has not been made available to the public.
The remains discovered at the lift station were sent to the University of North Texas for an autopsy, but the results could take weeks to return. The remains were badly decomposed, and as of this report, the age and gender of the person had not been confirmed. It’s also possible the body washed into the well from somewhere else in the city, which might explain why the remains were not found when the police searched the area.
Unconfirmed Caleb Harris theories
With so much still unknown about Caleb Harris’ tragic disappearance, online theories have proliferated on Reddit and other social media platforms. These are just speculation, but one Reddit thread suggests Harris may have had a hookup that night related to a sexually explicit Reddit page purportedly linked to the student, and whoever that person was could have been involved. But for now, Harris’ family can only wait.
“Unfortunately we can’t tell the public everything we know in this investigation, it doesn’t work that way,” Corpus Christi Assistant Police Chief Todd Green said. “There’s no evidence of wrongdoing, but there’s no evidence at all. And so it’s a matter of looking at every inch, everything we could possibly think of. It is a mystery,” Caleb’s father, Randy Harris, added.