The Kidnapper's Wife

49. During

Henry Harris

Part Three of Recorded Interview

Date: Sunday, November 6, 2016

Duration: 21 Minutes

Location: Frederick County Sheriff's Office

No. of Pages: 3

Conducted by Officer Daniel Brown

Officer Brown: Thank you for coming in Mr. Harris.

Henry Harris: Is there any news?

Officer Brown: Unfortunately, at this time there are no substantial new developments...however the task force is working relentlessly to find your daughter.

Henry Harris: If they're working so relentlessly, then why isn't she here? Why haven't they found her? How can no one even have seen her? It doesn't make any sense. You don't think she's dead, so she's somewhere, and he must be getting food, and supplies, and...

Officer Brown: We believe Mr. Carter has been preparing for this event for a long time. He may not need supplies for months, or even years. It's very likely that no one, in fact, has seen him. 

Henry Harris: Well then why aren't you banging down doors, investigating, I don't know, open forest?

Officer Brown: Unfortunately there are hundreds of thousands of miles of open forest where they may be. We simply don't have the man power to search all of it.

Henry Harris: Well if there's nothing you can do why am I even here? What's the point? It sounds like you've given up.

Officer Brown: We have not given up at all Mr. Harris. This investigation is still very much active. We are coming up with plans to tease Mr. Carter out of hiding, and we think we have a solid lead in place that might show us where he is. But it will take time for these things to work. In the meantime, we want to ask you a few questions, to make sure we follow every possible path.

Henry Harris: Alright, lets hear them then.

Officer Brown: We received information that your family had received a private tip. We called you in to tell us about that.

Henry Harris: A private tip? What? Oh wait...you mean...the psychic?

Officer Brown: We believe a woman by the name of Loretta Jenkins contacted you. We would like to hear what she had to say.

Henry Harris: Why? Surely the police haven't stooped so low as to place value on the words of a psychic.

Officer Brown: Although we might not necessarily believe in the existence of extraordinary powers of intuition, we are obligated to follow all leads, regardless of our opinions. However, the more pertinent reason we take the information of psychics seriously is that we find, sometimes, when a person has knowledge of a crime, whether it be a crime they committed, a crime a loved one committed, or even just a hunch that they don't feel is strong enough to officially report, something they often do is claim to have come by the information psychically. 

Officer Brown: It absolves them of guilt for telling on someone they love, and allows them to give information that they feel they might be wrong about, without worrying they will be harassed by the police. We see it relatively often in large scale, high profile cases like this. Now, this woman who contacted you may be completely fabricating her story, but on the off chance she is not, it's important to take anything she might have told you into consideration.

Henry Harris: I don't think this woman fit into any of the categories you just described. She isn't even from this area. She's from California. And ever since she tricked my wife into speaking with her - which she insisted be recorded - she's sold the audio to the news agencies, claiming that she's solved the case and that the police are incompetent. I'm sure you've seen the news segments. She took advantage of my wife, who is very vulnerable right now. My wife would do absolutely anything to get Anna back. So would I, but my wife is more emotional, more susceptible to these hoaxes. It's despicable. 

Officer Brown: So Loretta Jenkins called you on the telephone, is that correct?

Henry Harris: Yep. My wife answered, because we answer every call, thinking maybe it's Anna, when in reality it's everybody and their mother wanting to tell us some stupid tip, which we report to you, or just wanting to know about the investigation. It's exhausting. But my wife and I, we answer every call. 

Officer Brown: And when did she call?

Henry Harris: She called on Friday. In the morning sometime. I remember because I was sitting at the table drinking my coffee and reading a magazine - can't read the papers anymore because of all the stuff about Anna so I've turned to trash magazines instead.

Officer Brown: And what did she tell your wife?

Henry Harris: My wife would probably be better at remembering honestly. I don't even know what she said at first because, like I said, my wife answered the phone. But she demanded that we both be on speaker phone in order to tell us whatever she wanted to say so my wife brought the phone over to the table. 

Officer Brown: So she spoke with you both from then on?

Henry Harris:  Yeah. She started by saying we both needed to place all five fingers of one hand on the phone so that she could sense our connection to Anna through the phone line. At first I wouldn't do it but my wife looked like she was about to cry when I refused, so I humored her. Once I did there was a lot of humming and uming and then she announced that she felt Anna. 

Officer Brown: And then what?

Henry Harris: My wife asked if that meant she was dead. Loretta Jenkins replied that it did not, that in fact she could sense that Anna was alive. She told us that Anna was suffering, that she wanted to come home. She told us that Anna was trapped, she couldn't leave. But that she needed us, she wished we were there. She said she sensed woods. And she also sensed chains. And blood, she said Anna was hurt. Anna's alone right now, she said, Connor isn't there. 

Officer Brown: Did she say anything else?

Henry Harris: Not really. Said something about a lake. No highways. I mean, that could be literally anywhere. And she just kept repeating Anna needed us.

Officer Brown: So was that the end of the conversation?

Henry Harris: Pretty much. She ended by saying that she could lead us to Anna, but we would have to fly her out here. Of course that part's not on the news, she edited that out. My wife almost said yes, but I said absolutely not. Load of bull. If she knew where Anna was, she could just tell us. And if she really thought she could find Anna, she'd feel a sense of responsibility to help us. Or ask us to pay her if she produced Anna. No, this woman just wanted us to pay for her free publicity. As was clear when she sold us out to the media. 

Officer Brown: Okay. We will be reaching out to Loretta Jenkins ourselves, but we wanted to hear from you how the conversation went down. Although it's in the media, like you just said, we were concerned that editing of the conversation might have occurred.

Henry Harris: Like I said, its a waste of time to bother with that woman. You ought to be spending your apparently limited resources tracking down my daughter, not speaking with crooks and frauds. 

Officer Brown: We really appreciate you taking the time to come in Mr. Harris. We never know where information may come from, one sentence could be all it takes to inspire the thought that locates your daughter. Try to remember that.

Henry Harris: If you say so.