Authorities say the remains found at a Texas wastewater plant are those of missing college student Caleb Harris. The search had been going on for months.
Workers doing repairs at a Corpus Christi, Texas, wastewater lift station found dead bodies in a well last month and called the police, the Corpus Christi Police Department said on Facebook.
The bodies had “no obvious signs of homicide,” but cops took them to the Nueces County Medical Examiner’s Office to be looked at.
As the body was in an “advanced state of decomposition,” the medical investigator could not identify the person or “provide a manner or cause of death,” the authorities said on Wednesday.
They were sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification (UNTCHI) so that they could compare them with Harris’s parents’ DNA.
“Approximately 2.4 sextillion times more likely to be observed if the unidentified remains originated from a biological child of (Caleb Harris’s parents) rather than if the unidentified remains originated from an unrelated individual from the Caucasian population,” the UNTCHI Missing Persons DNA Report said.
“We all have heavy hearts tonight because we learned that our sweet Caleb has been positively identified.” His family said in a statement on Wednesday, “We will grieve our son.” “Thank you for your prayers and support during this tragic time.”
Harris, a student at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi who is 21 years old, was reported missing in early March.
The Corpus Christi Police Department says that after he walked his dog early in the morning, his friends couldn’t find him and his family reported him missing.
Randy Harris, Harris’s dad, told KI, an ABC station in Corpus Christi, that his dog came home, but his son never did. Police say he left his keys, wallet, and car behind. Police said he had his phone with him, but it was turned off.
Investigators have carried out more than 50 digital search warrants, sent in 82 preservation requests, and looked at more than 1500 GB of data since Harris went missing, cops said on Wednesday.
The death of Harris is still being looked into, according to the police.
