
Seven years after fishermen pulled her body
from the dark waters of the Red River, the
mystery of who killed Jennifer Harris of
Bonham remains unsolved.
May 12, 2002, Jennifer Harris left a
friend's house promising to return in a few
hours, but she didn't get to keep that
promise.
Police found her green 2000 Jeep Wrangler a
few hours later near Lake Bonham.
Twenty-four hours later, police declared
Jennifer missing and six days later,
officials told her father, Jerry Harris, his
daughter had died.
Jerry Harris said he almost didn't want to
talk about the anniversary this year. In the
past the family has held vigils or issued
statements. Jerry Harris said his reluctance
to do those things this year had nothing do
with healing from the pain of grieving for
his daughter. It sprang from frustration
that has reached a point beyond expression,
almost.
"The reality is, if you loved the person,
(losing them in such a way) is a horrible
nightmare that simply shatters your life,"
Jerry Harris said. That pain that entered
his world in May 2002 has been his constant
companion.
When asked about the case and any new
developments, Jerry Harris sighed deeply and
sat quietly for a long moment before saying
there really haven't been in any in a while,
at least none that he knows about.
Weary of the slow nature of the case,
Jennifer' Harris' family decided to put up a
Web site. A selection of pictures of a
vivacious young woman, her red locks
cascading in curls down her back, greets
visitors to the page, with the words,
"There's an empty chair at our table now ...
A voice unheard and yet somehow
In the quiet stillness of the night
She calls to us to make things right."
It is the first stanza of the poem written
by Jennifer's Aunt Sandra Schneider. It
continues:
"We take comfort that the gorgeous red glow
Has now moved ahead to a bright halo.
In a place more fair than earth had to offer
She has joined her mother, daddy Red and her
Papa."
Harris said he really hasn't had a lot to do
with putting the page together. His sister
asked if it would be okay with him, and he
agreed.
"I look at it as more of a tribute to
Jennifer and (a way) to make a public
display of the fact that she is not
forgotten," Harris said.
"But maybe by some outrageous stroke of luck
we might get someone to remember something
that they heard or something that they know
that might lead to the killer," he
continued.
The Web site is called
justice4jennifer.org,
but Harris said that notion of justice is
something of misnomer in his opinion.
"Justice can never be done in Jennifer's
murder because nothing can ever bring
Jennifer back to us," her father said.
It is still important, he added, that the
person responsible for killing his daughter
be found, prosecuted and punished.
"I happen to think that the person who
killed my daughter may go on to kill others
and very well may already have done so."
Law enforcement authorities have spent
countless hours working on the case, but
still can't point to any particular person
as a suspect.
Fannin County Sheriff Kenneth Moore said
this week that his office has some
information it didn't have a year ago and
that might lead somewhere.
"There are three people that we are going to
speak with in the very near future,'' he
said. But he said he would have to stop
short of calling those people suspects.
"There is an individual out there somewhere
that knows what happened. To me that person
is a psychopath ... almost seven years have
gone by and that person has not said one
word (about the crime) to anyone ... that is
odd even in today's world," Moore said and
then stressed that it's only his opinion.
"Opinions are like ears, most people have at
least one."
"Every lead we get, no matter how we get it,
we follow it up," Moore said before adding
that he looks at some part of the case file
every day at work.
He can't help but look at it because
two-thirds of the case sits stacked on his
desk and the rest of it occupies a chunk of
space nearby.
"We want to solve this. This case is
solvable," he said before acknowledging that
the statement will make more than one person
ask, "Then why hasn't it been solved?"
The answer, he said, is complicated and
frustrating.
"We are pulling from every resource and
following every lead we get trying to solve
it."
And still, he said, he can almost understand
Harris' heartbreak about the slow road the
case has traveled so far.
"I hope I never know (the feeling of) how
heartbroken he is. I am sure every waking
moment of his life he thinks about her."
Jerry Harris said most of his thoughts about
Jennifer bring back happy memories, but
talking about them, he said, just makes him
miss her even more.
However, he said he hopes people continue to
talk and think about what happened to
Jennifer until someone, somewhere remembers
something. And the memory provides that one
clue that opens the whole thing up and
brings to justice the person who ripped his
world apart.
Talking about Jennifer's case is good, Moore
said, noting that, "the more people that
know about a problem law enforcement has,"
adds to the likelihood that the case will
get solved.
Moore stressed, however, that some of what
has been said about the case is just talk or
rumor or gossip ... whichever word one
chooses.
One such report is the claim that Jennifer
was pregnant when she died.
"I heard that from the start ... and as
recently as a few months ago."
He said there is nothing in the case that
points to her being pregnant. It is just
speculation. But even that speculation has
been investigated.
"If we don't follow up (on every lead) it
could come back to haunt us."
He said he doesn't want to end up on a
witness stand trying to convict someone for
the crime and have the investigation
questioned.
Another person who is eager to get the case
to the point of a witness stand is Fannin
County District Attorney Richard Glaser. He
said the case will remain open until it is
solved, and his office looks forward to
being able to prosecute the person
responsible for taking Jennifer away from
her family and friends.