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Harp, Michael June 22,1977; New Mexico 24 YO
Topic Started: Aug 6 2006, 09:40 AM (519 Views)
oldies4mari2004
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http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/harp_michael.html
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oldies4mari2004
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Michael Daniel Harp


Above Images: Harp, circa 1977


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: June 22, 1977 from Las Cruces, New Mexico
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: May 18, 1953
Age: 24 years old
Height and Weight: 6'0, 160 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Light brown hair, hazel eyes. Harp has large pupils, which make his eyes appear darker in color than they really are. He is color-blind. Harp has a scar on his index finger and a surgical scar on his abdomen. His nickname is Mike.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A white shirt and dark brown pants.
Medical Conditions: Harp has an unspecified medical condition.


Details of Disappearance

Harp left a hospital in the vicinity of the 2400 block of south Telshor Boulevard in Las Cruces, New Mexico on June 22, 1977. He was last seen hitchhiking on Interstate 25 near the hospital. A truck driver picked up a hitchhiker who may have been Harp. He says he dropped the hitchhiker off south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The sighting has not been confirmed and Harp has never been heard from again. His case remains unsolved.


Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Deming Police Department
505-546-3011



Source Information
The National Center for Missing Adults
The Doe Network



Updated 2 times since October 12, 2004.

Last updated September 27, 2005; distinguishing characteristics updated.

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oldies4mari2004
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20N...g-Tresp-sidebar

Investigators using new tools to help uncover leads on missing person cases in N.M.

Natalie Guillén/The New Mexican
Posted Image
Photo: David Martinez, right, a state police investigator, answers questions from the Tresp family about the investigation into the disappearance of Emma Tresp, 71, near a memorial marking where her car was found.


Staci Matlock | The New Mexican

8/9/2008 - 8/8/08


Emma Tresp, who disappeared on her way to Pecos in 1998, is among 1,019 active missing person cases currently under investigation in New Mexico.

Across the country, there were 105,229 active missing or unidentified person cases last year, according to the FBI. More than half of them were juveniles. In Santa Fe, the most famous of these unsolved cases is that of Robbie Romero, who was 7 years old when he disappeared in 2000 from his Bellamah neighborhood home.

When a person goes missing, law enforcement officers try to piece together what happened from physical evidence and interviews. "To build a case, you take parameters and build a scenario," said retired New Mexico State Police officer Frank Jacoby. "Any time you go to a crime scene, you are trying to put together a story from beginning to end."

Everything at a scene becomes a clue to a missing person's whereabouts. Interpreting the clues takes a law enforcement officer's experience and intuition. Their efforts are helped increasingly by sophisticated tools for identifying human remains.

In the Tresp case, a variety of clues have lead state police investigators to believe she probably wasn't a victim of foul play.

For one thing, her Honda Civic, found stuck on a remote Forest Service road near Glorieta Baldy peak, was still in good shape. Police said that didn't fit the profile of a stolen car. "A stolen car is usually treated rough, "burned to a crisp, maybe the tires taken," said David Martinez, a state police investigator who took over the Tresp case last year.

Another small clue was the change left in the car. A kidnapper or thief would likely have taken any money in sight, even if it's just a few coins, said Martinez.

The Tresp family has had no response to its offer of a $20,000 reward for information regarding Emma Tresp's disappearance. That amount of money would be a big incentive for someone to come forward, police said.

Searching for remains of a missing person in the wilderness requires a unique set of skills, said Jacoby. Searchers "trained to look for live people are less likely to recognize human remains like bone fragments," he said.

A decomposing body blends in with trees and bushes. Many times people walk past a piece of cloth not realizing it is attached or covering remains, Jacoby said. Wildlife such as bears or coyotes may also scatter remains over a wide area.

Recent advances in DNA tests and other identification tools can help investigators identify remains that may be decades old. One of the biggest advances is the use of mitochondrial DNA testing to create profiles that can be used to link victims to their family members.

Martinez said the Center for Human Identification of the University of North Texas is a leader in identifying human remains using mitochondrial DNA. Data analyzed at the center is entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center database. Their work helped identify victims from the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks and Mississippi victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Martinez now is asking members of the Tresp family to provide DNA samples that can be entered into the database. The family's DNA will provide a profile that can be matched to Emma Tresp's remains, if they are found. "In 1998, they didn't have that option," Martinez said.

A billion dollars in federal funding allows the Texas center to offer law enforcement officers across the country free DNA collection kits for missing person cases.

Currently, the center has six family reference samples and three unidentified human remain samples from New Mexico.

Teeth also are used to identify remains. But what happens if a missing person, such as Emma Tresp, has only dentures? Martinez said he learned recently about advances in forensics that match X-rays of jawbones and roots to dental records in an NCIC database. He's asked the Tresp family to find dental records for Emma Tresp.

It is up to law enforcement officers who find human remains to gather samples and send them in to a laboratory such as the Center for Human Identification, Martinez said.

Martinez said the Tresp case is the oldest missing person case he's worked on. But one of the longest running cases for the state is that of Michael Daniel Harp, a 6-foot-tall, 160-pound, legally blind man who walked away from a mental ward in Las Cruces in 1977. His case was recently reopened, according to state police.

The oldest missing person in the state is 92-year-old William Lawrence Winter, who was reported missing from Deming and endangered in 2005.

One of the most recent disappearances is that of Nicole Pearl Kengeter, a 12-month-old girl from Alamogordo who was last seen in February with her grandfather, John Richard Kengeter, who was driving a silver Chevrolet Impala with Texas license plates. The elder Kengeter has also been listed as a missing person.

The decade-old Emma Tresp case is one that continues to baffle investigators. "It's like she vanished off the face of the earth," Martinez said. "There are no answers."

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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ILM980422 has been ruled out by Rock County Sheriff
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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