Did someone want Bob Harrod gone?
What should have been a happy occasion, turned into tragedy, when 81-year-old Bob Harrod vanished shortly after reconnecting with his first love, Fontelle Hetter.
Bob Harrod was reunited with his former fiancé Fontelle Hetter, after almost 60 years apart, but was their happiness cut short by someone out to harm Bob?
Bob and Fontelle reconnect after almost 50 years
It was late June 2009 when 74-year-old Fontelle Hetter arrived at John Wayne Airport in Placentia, California. She had flown in from Missouri to meet Bob Harrod, the man she had been engaged to marry as a teenager, almost 50 years previously. They had been devoted to each other, but the relationship had drifted apart when Bob, a marine, had relocated to Camp Pendelton in preparation for being drafted out to the Korean War.
Although she now had a family of her own, being recently widowed and feeling without purpose, Fontelle had begun to wonder about her old love and what had become of him. Recruiting the help of her daughter Leisa, they quickly found Bob online and reached out, and to Fontelle’s surprise, he revealed that he had recently attempted to contact her too but was unsuccessful due to her changing her last name. He later told her that her call felt like the answer to his prayers.
The pair rekindled their relationship, talking every day on the phone for hours, and reminiscing about the times they shared in the small Missouri town of McFall where they first met. They had both lost their long-time partners and had struggled with loneliness, so it seemed that their finding each other again was a timely blessing. Bob invited Fontelle out to California for a visit, and she agreed.
Fontelle was thrilled to be embarking on this new adventure although she was a little apprehensive as they were both so much older now. She wore a vibrant pink jacket so she could be spotted easily by Bob. On her left hand, she wore the platinum diamond engagement ring that Bob had placed there almost 50 years ago. When she spotted Bob approaching, he looked much older but was still tall and handsome in a Hawaiian shirt and white cargo shorts. Fontelle says she looked into his twinkling grey eyes and knew the chemistry was still there. Bob told her she looked as beautiful as ever.
The next few days passed in a happy blur of dining out, long drives, and evenings spent talking into the night. During this time Bob asked Fontelle what he could do to get her to stay for good, and she said, she would move in with him if they were married. Bob proposed right then and there, and the next day they went shopping and bought simple gold wedding rings for each other. On June 29th they married quietly without any ceremony at the nearby courthouse. They visited close friends of Bob’s afterward to celebrate.
Fontelle returned to Missouri on July 7th to gather her belongings and pack for the big move to California. Bob was going to get the house prepared for her moving in during this time.
Bob calls a family meeting
On the 26th of July, two days before Fontelle was due to return Bob called a family meeting with his three daughters, Roberta, Paula, and Julie. The family had been more or less estranged for the previous six months due to bitter arguments concerning their mother’s estate. Bob’s daughters felt he hadn’t been keeping up with his duties regarding a trust fund their mother Georgia set up for them.
He was trying to cope with the long illness and subsequent death of his wife Georgia. On top of that their beloved little golden Pomeranian Sassy had recently passed away. As a result, Bob had become overwhelmed and depressed and had failed to provide them with the correct documents.
They sent him a legal letter demanding he carry out duties regarding the trust. The letter was the final straw for Bob and he had requested that his daughters don’t contact him. Once Bob became involved with Fontelle he did reach out again to introduce her to his family.
There are two accounts of what occurred during this meeting. Bob’s daughters said there was a degree of initial tension between them all, but once details of the trust, and what Georgia had left to the girls were straightened out, the family relaxed and were laughing and joking. Bob’s daughter Roberta has said they were teasing him about Fontelle and being a newlywed and it was like the row never happened.
Fontelle on the other hand recalled that Bob had called her after the meeting and had been very angry and upset. He argued with his daughters about adding Fontelle to his bank accounts, his house, and his estate. They were telling him to slow down as he was only just getting to know Fontelle again. The daughters deny this and say that to the contrary, Bob told them his finances were not Fontelle’s business.
When the police searched Bob’s house they found a note relating to adding Fontelle’s name to his bank account but found nothing about adding her to estate.
The day of Bob’s disappearance
Bob’s son-in-law Jeff arrived at his house early to work on some repairs Bob had needed help with. He worked in the house most of the day, leaving and returning several times to pick up supplies. When he returned from Home Depot around 3.30 pm he found Agnes, Bob’s housekeeper, sitting on the wooden bench in the garden waiting to get in.
Bob had requested Agnes come a day early to help him prepare for Fontelle’s arrival. Jeff let her inside and Agnes asked him to look and see if Bob was upstairs. After a few minutes, Agnes called up to Jeff and he indicated Bob was not at home.
Agnes had worked for Bob for over a decade and instinctively felt something was wrong in the house. Bob was always home when she came over and on the rare occasion when he wasn’t he would leave a key in the letterbox for her. She decided to carry on with her housekeeping duties but on entering Bob’s bedroom she noticed that his bed sheets were crumpled and unmade. This had never happened in the 10 years she’d worked there, and the sight of them made her heart sink. Agnes was the last to leave, pulling the door behind her on the empty house with no sign of Bob.
In the evening Fontelle called Bob as usual, but couldn’t reach him. She kept trying every 30 minutes or so up until around midnight when she received a call from Bob’s daughter Julie saying that Bob was missing. Bob’s daughters then asked the police to carry out a welfare check which they did but nothing unusual was found.
The next day on the 28th, Fontelle filed a missing person report with the Palencia Police Department. The police searched Bob’s home and found that his wallet and car keys were gone, but, his eyeglasses and credit cards were still at the house. His car, a white Toyota Camry was out front in its usual place. There were no signs that a struggle or any kind of foul play had taken place in the home.
When Fontelle arrived at the house on the 29th, and there was still no contact from Bob, the police began to think this was more than someone taking off for a couple of days and they started to consider the possibility of a homicide.
As Jeff was the last one to see Bob, he was interviewed by police and he showed them receipts he had from the stores he had visited on the day Bob vanished. Jeff also mentioned that he noticed a Silver SUV driving slowly up and down Bob’s street that day in a suspicious manner. This was similar to a vehicle driven by a friend of Bob’s called Josey who had also been his wife’s hairdresser. After Georgia died she became closer to Bob and received over $15,000 in loans from him. Bob’s daughters felt she was taking advantage of his vulnerability and even filed a complaint with adult social services asking them to investigate Josey’s elder abuse of Bob.
Josey was interviewed but had an alibi for the time frame in which Bob went missing, and was open about the money and gifts she had taken from Bob, so she was not considered a suspect at that time.
The Police have said that the problem with this case is that it would be very difficult for anyone to have harmed Bob in such a narrow time frame. They say that he received several phone calls on the morning of his disappearance but will not say from whom. They feel that Bob’s wealth is probably a motivating factor in his going missing and after combing through his papers it was estimated that his estate was worth almost five million dollars.
Further Developments after the disappearance
Fontelle moved into Bob’s house, but shortly after the relationship with Bob’s family broke down, so she changed the locks. They wanted her to leave, but she dug her heels in saying she wanted to see justice for Bob.
There was a long court battle for Bob’s estate, which his daughters won, and five years after marrying Bob, they evicted Fontelle from the home so she returned to Missouri.
On August 21st 2022, Fontelle Harrod passed away in her hometown of Kansas city, Missouri at the age of 86.
Bob’s family have been cleared by the police and are not considered persons of interest in this case.
In April 2019 the police arrested a couple of associates of Bob Harrod’s but released them pending further investigation. There have been no further developments since then.
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Sources:
ID Channel Disappeared Series 5 Long Lost Love
Trace Evidence Podcast The disappearance of Bob Harrod
Paloma Esquivel: The LA TimesThe
Charlie Project: Robert Harrod
