SAN ANTONIO — The investigation into a missing college student from New Braunfels has expanded.
According to the Corpus Christi Police Department (CCPD), detectives are now traveling to San Antonio and New Braunfels to search for new leads in the case.
Caleb Harris, 21, lived at an off-campus apartment complex just a few miles south of Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, police say.
Randall Harris told KENS 5 his son took his dog for a walk at about 2:45 a.m. on Mar. 4. Caleb then let his dog back inside, Randall said.
“By 3 a.m., his phone was dead, and he was totally gone,” said Randall. “He does not have his wallet, he does not have any identification on him.”
Loved ones say Caleb was spotted barefoot in surveillance video. According to Randall, Caleb would never walk off in the middle of the night.
When his roommates couldn’t find him, Caleb’s family called police.
“We recover 96% to 100% of missing [people] every year,” said CCPD Chief Mike Markle. “This is outside the norm; the circumstances here, and we are certainly putting in the effort to find Caleb.”
On Wednesday, a CCPD spokesperson released the following statement:
"Corpus Christi Police Department officers, along with their federal and state partners, continue to work diligently to solve the disappearance of Caleb Harris. Harris is the 21-year-old Texas A&M Corpus Christi student who vanished without a trace from his off-campus apartment during the foggy early morning hours of Monday, March 4th, 2024.
Following the initial exhaustive, but unsuccessful, search of hundreds of acres surrounding Harris’s apartment complex on the 1900 block of Ennis Joslin Drive, Criminal Investigation Detectives turned their efforts toward establishing a timeline for Harris in the hours and days preceding his sudden absence, interviewing his roommates, friends, family members and acquaintances. Detectives at this point in the investigation have no reason to suspect any of these individuals had anything to do with Harris’s disappearance. Officers then went door to door throughout his and an adjacent apartment complex, scouring the area for possible witnesses or surveillance video, as well as searching over thirty vacant apartments for the missing student.
An investigative team consisting of Investigators from the Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division and Organized Crime Unit, the FBI, and the United States Marshals Service, along with several civilian crime analysts was formed within days of Harris’s vanishing and continues to work full time to solve his disappearance. The team meets daily to share information from the previous day’s efforts, discuss possible leads, and plot the course of the investigation. This past Friday, the investigative team met at Police Headquarters with a squad of five Texas Rangers to share all information on the status of the case and seek any advice the Rangers could provide. The consensus from the Rangers was that the investigative team was pursuing the most logical course of action in this search and pledged their continued assistance and technical support to the team.
The CCPD wishes to assure the public that while the search for Caleb Harris may be less visible than the early days of this investigation, it is by no means less intense. Teams of Detectives continue to interview potential witnesses here in Corpus Christi and have traveled both to San Antonio and New Braunfels to conduct interviews. Detectives are continuously following up on tips, are chasing potential leads and will expend every effort until Caleb Harris is found.
Despite these exhaustive efforts, Investigators still have not settled upon a motive for Harris’s strange disappearance, nor identified a suspect or person of interest. Detectives are seeking assistance from the public to solve this case. If you have information regarding the disappearance of Caleb Harris, please contact the Corpus Christi Police Department at (361) 886-2840 or (361) 886-2600.
Anyone who would like to keep their identity secret and still provide information to Detectives should call Crime Stoppers at 888-TIPS (8477) or submit the tip online."
Randall says he is still in Corpus Christi doing everything he can to help investigators find his son. The New Braunfels family is asking the community for continued prayers.