A Time To Kill

A Mother Disappears The Day After 9/11

(CBS)  Michele had also dated a co-worker Michael Kasper, a secret she kept from even her closest friend, Nikki Burdick. "That I did not know about. I think I was as surprised as anybody else that found out about that," Nikki remembers.


As it turned out, before Michele saw Brian on the night she disappeared, she had drinks after work with Michael Kasper.

Sue Mulvey says he did not have an alibi for that night.

Drinking with Michele and Kasper was another co-worker, Michael Hakes. A routine look into his background took investigators by surprise - he is an ex-convict with a serious record.

"He had a rape conviction in Arizona and had served ten years in prison," Mulvey says.

A convicted rapist, two boyfriends, and police were still looking at the estranged husband. As part of the investigation, forensic specialist Steve Andersen was sent to the Harris home to take a closer look.

"There’s quite obvious to me that we had blood spatter in the house. I could see it as soon as I walked in the house," Andersen says.

Andersen says he found tiny specks of blood on a kitchen doorway that investigators who had been in the home two days earlier didn't see.

Suddenly, investigators had a possible crime scene, which made Michele's husband look more and more like the prime suspect.

In the weeks following Michele's disappearance, the mystery weighed heavily on friends like Nikki Burdick. "I mean I look at how much I miss her. And she was just my friend. I can't imagine what her brother, Shannon, her dad and her kids are going through. I mean she wouldn’t want this for anybody, nobody," she says.

But Michele's husband, Cal, seemed to have no trouble moving on. Barb Thayer says Cal took up a relationship with an old girlfriend, less than three weeks after Michele disappeared.

Barb continued to watch the children for Cal after Michele disappeared. "He never asked me…'Have you heard from Michele? Did Michele call you? Is she wondering where the kids are?' He never has mentioned Michele to me. And I worked for him for a solid year afterward," she remembers.

Michele's father, Gary Taylor, says Cal never called him. Gary is deeply troubled by Cal’s apparent lack of concern. "When we'd have birthday parties for the kids, he would drive 'em down sometimes. And he would never look at you or look at you in the face," Gary explains. “So that’s when it became kinda more evident to me that I think he might have had more to do with it than I was initially thinking."

"You knew something had happened to Michele. But who did you think was responsible for her disappearance?" Moriarty asks Michele's friend Nikki.

"Her husband. There was never a question. Never, ever a question," she says.

But weeks turned into months, and no arrest.

"Investigators would call and say 'Don't worry,'" Gary recalls. "I was thinking, you know, is the money gonna buy him out of this?"

Michele’s family and friends weren’t the only ones who suspected Cal Harris killed his wife. So did the police, but there simply wasn’t much of a case. Without a body or a murder weapon, there is no cause of death. In fact, there's no proof Michelle is dead at all. What the police did have were tiny drops of blood in the kitchen and the garage. And there was Cal Harris himself -- what he did after his wife disappeared and what he didn't do.

"He never made a phone call that morning to find out where she was," says Capt. Lester.

Lester wondered why Cal didn't try to track his wife down. "If the mother of your children who takes care of them every morning suddenly doesn’t show up, I think your first reaction is gonna be to pick up the phone and make a call and say 'Hey, where the hell are ya?'" the state police captain says,

Nikki says Cal's demeanor was completely out of character. "That is not in his personality to be calm, cool and collected about anything," she says.

"Cal is a very explosive person. He has a temper," Barb says.

But that morning, Barb says Cal was unusually calm about Michele's disappearance, and after looking through Michele’s van made a strange request: "He said 'Oh my gosh this car is a mess.' He said 'I want you to drop it off at the dealership and I'm gonna clean it from top to bottom,'" she tells Moriarty.

And just days later, according to Barb, Cal began packing away all of his wife’s belongings and told Barb to sell them in a garage sale.

And there’s the strange story Michele told her sister-in-law and brother.

Shannon says a few months before she disappeared, Michele, in a kind of "laughing way," said that Cal had threatened her. "Hahaha, I got the perfect place to put your body, they’ll never find you," Shannon recalls.

But Cal's friends Kevin O'Hara and his wife Tracy see Cal's behavior in a different light. "It’s interesting that people who haven’t gone through a certain situation are very quick to say that someone else should have reacted or acted in a certain fashion. To me, the way he acted was Cal," Kevin says.

[klhudson01]

I think this is really a sad case for our judicial system. Someone''s love one lost her life and our justice system failed her and her family. I wonder if Cal with his errogant attitude may have paid off the local mortitian to burrie her or to have her cremated without anyones knowledge? Just my thoughts!

[dr1321]

i worked for cal. he was a hot headed control freak, and oh by the way he did it and recycled her body at the steel yard and everybody in Owego knows it.

[carolcape]

Cal is Guilty, of course. I heard this case before, but did not know what the outcome was. Sorry to hear that he was released . The man that came forward, this man is probably being paid off. If he is not being paid off, he saw someone who Cal hired to abduct her and murder her and dispose of her body far from his land. My opinion is, She is Not on that Land. Someone took her somewhere else and murdered her and placed her in an unknown location, probably even in another state. A fine tooth comb should be taken to any monies he removed from his accounts previous to this, because he could afford to pay a hit man. Also, the fact that he tried to get rid of her possessions two weeks after she went missing, that proves it in itself. I have things here belonged to my mother who died a year ago of natural causes, I have to go through them and everyday, I put it off and it''s over a year. I know there is things I have to throw out. So give me a break, he is Guilty, Guilty, Guilty. And his new girlfriend indicating he said to her when she went to his home that she was afraid his wife would walk in, his words, "oh, she won''t be coming home". He knew she was dead and that is why she wasn''t coming home. I hope he gets the death penalty.

[newsreader57]

I haven''t read all the comments but a did read quite a few;no one seems to mention the "private lake" that was part of the estate. The police never mentioned any divers searcing the lake for a body or weapon.

[dlucero76]

Well there is alot of Polumbo''s, Revolver P.I.''s, Miami SUV''s, and old ladies who wrote about it on here and some of you are probably right-she''s probably under that slab but they will never be able to go in there and dig it up and the bottom line is this guy will walk eventually- no body, murder weapon, just little spots of blood that a Court of Appeals will through out. The bottom line is, as usual the police dropped the ball, they should have secured the home from the very beginning and brought in the pro''s but they didn''t....Sorry.

[donnaleac]

Not only was a new concrete floor poured the day after she went missing but has anyone thought that Cal may have also used one of the cars on his lot to remove the body from the house, dispose of it under the floor where the new concrete was to be poured, and cleaned the vehicle or disposed of it? I think that floor should be jack hammered up to look for evidence.

[dlucero76]

People need to stop watching so much T.V...What happen to "guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt"? Do I think he did it? YES. Would I have found him guilty?NO. Why? Because the prosecution did not prove their case "Beyond a shadow of a doubt". Come on people, the idea is to let a guilty person walk before putting an innocent guy behind bars. That''s why over and over we are seeing people that were wrongly convicted set free after many years behind bars. And it''s because-Oh I think he did it, or he might have did it, or he could have did it or my gut tells me he did it ..GET REAL!

[compry]

the nieghbor who came forward to state he saw Michele at the end of the driveway had told his wife that thier money toubles had been resolved, hinting that he was paid by Cal Harris. The rumours in Owego is that Cal took the body of Michele in the trunk of a car that was then shreded at a local metal recyclable place owned by a criminal named Wietsman who owed a lot of money in taxes and fines. Th fact that the Judge in the murder trial has alowed the testamony of a person whose own wife calls a liar shows that the trial should be moved to a county where the judges would not be bribed so easily by Cal Harris.

[leslielyn-2009]

WHY HAVE THEY NOT CHECK THE BARN WHERE THE HORSES ARE KEPT, HE COULD HAVE TAKEN HER OUT ON HORSE BACK TO GET RID OF THE BODY, CHECK STABLES, STALLS, AND SADDLES, ETC..... LESLIELYN

[mrsjp-2009]

just a thought.....we have (or did have) Phil Jordan living in Tioga County. He has been featured on Court TV and Discovery Times finding missing people and solving crimes. WHY didn''t anyone consult him?

[nikila40]

OK, you''ll probably think I''m crazy with this post. I do remember while watching 48 Hours that Calvin supposedly said he knew where to hide a body where nobody would find it. He doesn''t seem too concerned about his own land, as it didn''t bother him at all that they searched there. What about a cemetery? A newly dug grave? Any cemeteries nearby that held a burial on 9/11? That''s one place nobody would look - in the grave of another. Yikes...just a thought!

[heisguilty1]

Cal is guilty as sin and I trust that he will be convicted in this next trial and justice will finally be served. Why did he have no emotion? You have to have a heart to have emotion. He was having affairs while they were still married, long before Michele and they were legally separated before she starting seeing anyone. It''s too bad that the courts (or her lawyer?) required that they stay together in the same home during the divorce proceedings. I''m sure that just added fuel to the fire in an already bad marriage. As far as this Tubbs guy, I agree, he is NOT a credible witness and ironically his back taxes were recently paid! I hope they are keeping an eye on his bank account. Something definitely smells rotten in Denmark!

[wegoagain]

Erin Moriarty, my concern is for the children in Tioga County. Please contact The National School Safety and Security Services. "School Safety Post Crisis Consulting Support" This community seems to have done some math. They will pay all expenses. Lets help the community move forward. They seem to be flip flopped.

[calvindidit]

He is the only suspect who wouldn''t take a lie detector test...Wonder why?

[paul_in_va]

I think it is tragic that a panel of 12 jurors can review the evidence, convict a murderer in under 4hrs, and one debt ridden, authority plagued, story teller, can interupt justice and put this man back on the streets for a year. Gee, Maybe OJ didn''t commit murder either!! Justice has not been served here.

[sun4girl]

I HAVE KNOWN MICKELLE SINCE I WAS IN SCHOOL , SHE WAS A GOOD GOOD GIRL FROM A GOOD FAMILY , CAL SHOULD PAY FOR WHAT HE DID, SOMEONE SAID THERE WAS A NEW CONCRETE FLOOR PUT IN THE CAR DEALERSHIP THE DAY AFTER SHE DIED I BELIEVE SHE IS BURIED UNDER THERE AND SOMEONE SHOULD CHECK IT OUT. AS FAR AS THE NEW WITNESS GOES THOSE PEOPLE ARE NOT RELIABLE I KNOW THEM TO THEY ARE PROBABLY GETTING PAID GOOD FOR THE NEW INFO.

[kimynoregon]

can see Cal''''s lack of emotion concerning his wife. Put yourself in his shoes; he''''s just watched the love of his life, the mother of his children, throw everything away. Reject him and start a life of absolute debauchery and narcissistic hedonism. He''''s watched the most precious person in his life has become a two-bit *** having multiple flings with whoever she could run up against. If it were me, I too would have withdrawn emotionally and just prayed that this whole thing would be over and that she''''d take the shame and insult she''''s brought to him and his family away. He undoubtedly knew that her new behavior would be ruinous, and just wanted it over. How doesn''''t matter how so much as she could have decided simply to move away with some other *** and complete her transformation into a real whorish scumbag. Matter of fact we don''''t know that that didn''''t happen!

Terrible jeff82, poor taste on your comment.
I''ll just leave it at that.

[auntblue]

There are plenty of reasons to think he is guilty of murdering his wife. However, proving it a second time won''t be easy. The so called witness was a ridiculous attempt to insure a second tial. More than likely, this one will get him aquitted.

[mommyann1]

For a witness to come forward 6 years after the crime, with a vague at best description, and for that testimony to be deemed worthy enough to grant a new trial is beyond ridiculous. As an area resident familiar with the case, I am disgusted that this man is considered credible. He claims he didn''t hear about the case at first, and then didn''t consider what he says he saw important. (!?!?!?) It''s a true mouth breather moment, folks. Please keep the children in your thoughts and prayers. Imagine their lives for the past 6 years, and it''s only going to continue.

[thespectre24]

Yeah, Owego sure did take the spotlight, wegoagain. Which is why you find out about this roughly three days ago, which if my math tells me right, is roughly 6 YEARS after it happened. No one''s saying that this was more important than 9/11, it merely HAPPENED around that time.