Michele Harris: Disappearance, Four Trials, and Search for Remains

Michele Harris, a 35-year-old mother of four, disappeared from her home in Spencer, New York, on the night of September 11, 2001, and has never been found. Her estranged husband, Calvin “Cal” Harris, was indicted in 2005 and tried four times for her murder. He was convicted twice, saw both convictions overturned, faced a hung jury in the third trial, and was acquitted at a bench trial in 2016. The Michele Harris case remains open, and Cal Harris is now pursuing civil claims tied to his prosecution.

What Happened the Night Michele Disappeared

Michele had filed for divorce in January 2001, citing cruel and inhuman treatment. A court order required her and Cal to keep sharing their 252-acre property on Hagadorn Hill Road in Tioga County while the case worked through the courts. The house was tense. Both spouses had been unfaithful; Michele was seeing a 23-year-old named Brian Earley and had been involved with a co-worker, Michael Kasper.¹

On the evening of September 11, 2001, Michele finished her shift at Lefty’s restaurant in Waverly around 9:30 p.m. She spent time with Kasper and a friend, Michael Hakes, then went to Earley’s apartment in Barton. She left there between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m., apparently heading home.² No account of what happened to her after that has gone unchallenged.

The next morning, a family housekeeper found Michele’s gold 2000 Ford Windstar abandoned on the shoulder near the entrance to the Harris property, keys still in the ignition. Her attorney reported her missing that day. There has been no activity on her bank accounts, credit cards, or phone since.²

Why Investigators Focused on Cal Harris

New York State Police opened a missing-person investigation on September 12, 2001, and Cal Harris quickly became the primary suspect. Inside the home, investigators recovered small droplets of Michele’s blood in a kitchen doorway, on a throw rug, and on the garage floor. The total was roughly one-eighth of a teaspoon, about ten drops. A forensic specialist classified the droplets as “medium velocity impact spatter,” consistent with blunt force trauma. Fluorescein testing of the garage surfaces, however, came back negative for blood or its removal.³

Police cleared Earley, Kasper, and Hakes based on polygraph results and alibis. Cal Harris declined to take a polygraph.¹

Prosecutors built their case around motive and threats. They argued Cal feared the financial consequences of the divorce, including a business appraisal and an October 2001 trial date. Michele’s hairdresser, Jerome Wilczynski, said he overheard Cal tell her by phone to “drop the divorce proceedings and come back to the Harris family fortune” or he “could make her disappear.”³ Michele’s brother and sister-in-law testified she had told them Cal threatened her, saying he had “the perfect place to put your body, they’ll never find you.”¹

A Tioga County grand jury indicted Cal Harris on September 30, 2005, on one count of second-degree murder. There was no body and no weapon.⁴ A trial court dismissed that indictment in January 2007 after finding District Attorney Gerald Keene had “intentionally” put inadmissible hearsay and speculative opinion before the grand jury; prosecutors then obtained a new indictment.³

The Four Trials

First Trial: 2007 Conviction, Then a New Witness

In June 2007, a Tioga County jury convicted Cal Harris of second-degree murder on an entirely circumstantial case: the blood evidence, the threat testimony, and the absence of any sign Michele was alive.⁵

Five months later, a local farmer named Kevin Tubbs came forward. Tubbs told defense attorneys that between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. on September 12, 2001, he had driven past the Harris property and seen a blonde woman who appeared upset standing near a dark pickup truck at the end of the driveway with a “clean-cut” man in his mid-20s who was not Cal Harris.⁶ If accurate, that account meant Michele was alive after prosecutors said Cal had killed her. Judge Martin E. Smith set aside the verdict on November 2, 2007, and ordered a new trial.⁴

Prosecutors attacked Tubbs’s credibility. Sunrise that day was at 6:42 a.m., raising visibility questions, and Tubbs had seen Michele’s missing-person posters yet waited six years to speak up, contacting the defense only after reading about the guilty verdict.⁶ The Appellate Division upheld the new-trial order.⁷

Second Trial: 2009 Conviction, Reversed by the Court of Appeals

A Chemung County jury convicted Cal Harris of second-degree murder again in August 2009, and he was sentenced to 25 years to life. He served about four years while his appeals moved.⁵ The Appellate Division affirmed 3-to-1, but on October 18, 2012, the New York Court of Appeals reversed. The court held that during jury selection a prospective juror who admitted a preexisting opinion had said it would be “a slight part” of her deliberations, which fell short of the “unequivocal assurance” of impartiality the Constitution requires.⁸

Third Trial: 2015 Hung Jury

The retrial moved to Schoharie County. The defense sought to point at two alternative suspects: Stacey Stewart and Christopher Thomason, Texas steel workers in their early 20s who had been living in Tioga County in September 2001 and frequented Lefty’s, where Michele worked.⁹ Judge George Bartlett found the defense’s evidence against those men “thin and lacking in evidentiary quality” and barred it.¹ After 12 days of deliberations, the jury deadlocked. The judge declared a mistrial on May 15, 2015.¹⁰

Fourth Trial: 2016 Bench Acquittal

For the fourth trial, Cal Harris waived a jury and put the decision to Schoharie County Judge Richard Mott. Testimony spanned nearly 30 days.¹¹

The critical difference from the third trial was that Judge Mott allowed the defense to argue “third-party culpability” involving Stewart and Thomason.⁴ A January 2016 excavation of a burn pit on a Lockwood property formerly owned by Stewart, about seven miles from the Harris home, had turned up a knife blade, a decorative button, a partial shoulder strap, and charred fabric in colors matching the navy blue shirt and khaki shorts Michele was reportedly wearing when she vanished.¹² The defense also said witnesses would testify that Stewart and Thomason had spoken of burning blood-stained clothing on September 12, 2001. Judge Mott admitted the culpability theory but excluded much of the burn-pit evidence itself.¹³

On May 24, 2016, Judge Mott delivered a verdict of not guilty.¹¹ District Attorney Kirk Martin confirmed the acquittal barred another trial on the indictment. No criminal charges have been brought against Stewart or Thomason.¹³

Disputed Evidence and Misconduct Claims

The reliability of the prosecution’s evidence became a running fight through the four trials and into later civil litigation. The defense pointed to several problems:

Investigators allegedly adjusted the exposure on photographs of the bloodstains. Lead investigator Steven Andersen acknowledged the change made the blood appear “fresher in nature.” The defense called this an attempt to manufacture a recent crime scene.³
Investigators allegedly swabbed the bloodstains with distilled water for testing before photographing them, a sequence the defense said violated standard forensic protocol.³
The defense characterized the blood-spatter and blood-aging analyses as “junk science” and noted investigators had acknowledged the methods were considered “obsolete.”³
The defense alleged that witnesses, including hairdresser Wilczynski and family nanny Barbara Thayer, expanded or altered their accounts after speaking with investigators. Cal Harris disputed, for example, that the specific threat language attributed to him by the hairdresser appeared in his initial statement.³

The defense also offered an innocent explanation for the blood in the house. Michele had told her attorney she cut her hand on ice during a physical altercation with Cal, an account the defense argued fit the small volume recovered.³

Where the Case Stands Now

Cal Harris filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on August 22, 2017, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, Harris v. Tioga County (No. 3:17-CV-932). The complaint brought Section 1983 claims for malicious prosecution, fabrication of evidence, conspiracy, and municipal liability, along with state-law malicious prosecution claims. Named defendants included Tioga County, former District Attorney Gerald Keene, State Police Investigators Steven Andersen and Susan Mulvey, and former witness Barbara Thayer.³

A partial settlement on August 13, 2025, resolved the claims against Tioga County and Keene. Attorney Bruce Barket described the confidential monetary terms as “sufficient.”⁹ The remaining claims against the State Police investigators and Thayer were scheduled for trial beginning October 27, 2025, in Albany.¹⁴ Court records show the case remained active as of January 2026.¹⁵

In a separate track, Harris announced in January 2025 that he was seeking at least $3.5 million from New York State under the Unjust Conviction and Imprisonment Act, which allows people wrongfully imprisoned to pursue compensation from the state. That proceeding was set for trial in March 2025.¹⁶

The Search for Michele’s Remains

Michele Harris has never been found. On May 22, 2025, Cal Harris announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of her body, appearing alongside two of the couple’s children, Taylor and Jenna. His legal team said depositions and document subpoenas from the civil case had produced new leads and a “reasonable possibility” of locating her.¹⁷ New York State Police stated they had no connection to Harris’s private tip line.¹⁸

On the 24th anniversary of the disappearance in September 2025, State Police said the agency “remain[ed] committed to finding answers” and that investigators would conduct additional searches for evidence in the coming weeks. The locations were not disclosed.¹⁹

1
CBS News. 48 Hours Presents Cal Harris: The Final Verdict
2
Charley Project. Michele Anne Harris
3
FindLaw. Harris v. Tioga County
4
Press & Sun-Bulletin. Michele Harris Disappearance Murder Case Timeline
5
CNN. Cal Harris Murder Trial Verdict
6
Press & Sun-Bulletin. Cal Harris Murder Trial: Tubbs Testimony
7
New York Courts. People v. Harris
8
vLex. People v. Harris, 19 N.Y.3d 679
9
Press & Sun-Bulletin. Cal Harris Malicious Prosecution Lawsuit Partly Settled Before Trial
10
ABC News. Cal Harris Found Not Guilty at 4th Murder Trial
11
Press & Sun-Bulletin. Not Guilty: Cal Harris a Free Man
12
ABC News. Cal Harris Defense Raises Evidence Ahead of 4th Murder Trial
13
Press & Sun-Bulletin. Cal Harris: What Happens Next
14
Press & Sun-Bulletin. Cal Harris Lawsuit Trial Claims Malicious Prosecution by NYSP
15
CourtListener. Harris v. Tioga County – Parties
16
WBNG. Cal Harris Seeks $3.5 Million From New York State
17
Press & Sun-Bulletin. Cal Harris Offers $100K Reward for Tips Leading to Michele
18
WBNG. Cal Harris Offers $100K Reward for Information Leading to Recovery of Michele’s Remains
19
Press & Sun-Bulletin. Michele Harris Disappearance: NYSP to Conduct More Searches