Bob Harrod Pt. One

with him two days after he disappeared. Since Bob has a substantial net worth, the situation causes a lot of friction between Fontel and Bob's daughters about the division of his assets. But even though investigators suspect that Bob may have been a victim of foul play, no trace of him is ever found.

popular true crime TV show Disappeared. The title of the episode was long lost love because Bob Harod was an eighty one year old widower who reconnected with a long lost sweetheart named Fontale Heater, whom he had not seen for several decades, and they immediately decided to get married. The whole situation initially seemed like a very sweet, heartwarming love story, but things would take a much darker turn

when Bob inexplicably vanished without a trace. Now, in many missing persons cases elderly individuals, one of the most logical explanations is that the victim became disoriented or had some sort of medical issue which caused them to wander off, but that doesn't seem to be the case here, as the authorities are inclined to believe that Bob was the

victim of foul play. Even though Bob lived a modest lifestyle, he was actually worth millions, so his decision to get remarried caused some friction with his three daughters, who were not thrilled over the idea of Fontale getting her hands

on their father's estate. Not only that, but prior to reconnecting with Fontale, Bob had developed a close relationship with a much younger woman whom he had given a lot of money to, so given the circumstances, it seemed plausible that Bob's finances might have somehow played a role in

his disappearance. Without a body or any physical evidence to work with at all, investigators have been unable to crack this case, though at one point two unnamed persons of interest were briefly arrested and detained before they were released without charge. There are number of different possibilities here for what may have happened, which is why we're going to discuss them all on this series of episodes.

with and gave a lot of money to. You have his own family members, and then you know, could this be a random crime. There's kind of countless possibilities, which is likely why it's still an unsolved case. But I can't wait to hear more because again, there's so many different directions this case could be going.

to talk about a number of potential suspects here. And even though the Internet is not particularly fond of Bob's three daughters and how they're portrayed in this story, it is crazy to think when you wonder, could all three of them collude it together to make Bob disappear because

they wanted to inherit his money. Because there are many cases out there where the child will make their parent disappear or kill them in order to inherit their estate, but very rarely will you see three of them collude together in order to do something like that, which is why it's just very hard to get a hold on what actually happened here.

at the age that they're at. They have a certain expectation and if they feel like, given his behavior, those expectations won't be met financially, then it makes sense that they would be very cautious over anyone who's entering his life at that point and questioning their motives. That doesn't make them guilty of murder.

If it was something like you said, Jules, where there's been an expectation of, hey, kids, this is kind of how you know life's going to go when I am no longer here, Because that is a conversation adult children have with their parents. It would be a little nerve wracking to watch a much younger woman come in and take, you know, some of his resources and then he gets remarried, and you know, people are goible and loving and want to share with their new spouse and things like that.

But I am with you, Jules, from the get go. My default would be the girls are simply sitting there saying, hey, something's not right, and I'm getting frustrated with the situation.

in Placentia for the past seven years. A year and a half earlier, Bob's wife of fifty seven years, Georgia Herod, passed away after a prolonged illness, but he has three married daughters named ROBERTA Brady, Paula Borcher, and Julie Michaels,

as well as a grandson and three great grandchildren. Shortly after losing his wife, Bob's pet dog also got sick and had to be euthanized, so he went through a major depression, which included a six month period where he told his daughters that he wanted to be alone in order to gather his thoughts. However, Bob's outlook suddenly got a lot brighter when he was contacted by a seventy

three year old long lost love named Fontel Heater. Bob and Fontel had first met in nineteen forty nine while they were living in the small town of McFall, Missouri, and they would become engaged to be married the following year. However, Bob had joined the Marine Reserves, and before their wedding could take place, he was ordered to report to Camp

Penalty in California. The couple agreed to stay in touch, but even though Fontel attempted to send letters to a residence where Bob was staying in California, they were always returned to her. At the time, the woman who owned this residence was attempting to hook Bob up with her niece, so in retrospect, Fontel believed that the woman may have intercepted the letters and sent them back before Bob could

have read them. For his part, Bob never attempted to contact Fontel on his own because he feared he might be shipped overseas to serve in the Korean War. I did not want to hold her to a commitment if he did not survive. The couple completely lost touch and went their separate ways. As Bob soon met and married his wife, Georgia will Fontell went through two marriages of

her own and had a total of three children. By two thousand and six, Fontell was still living in Missouri, but was left a widow when her second husband passed away. Three years later. Fontel felt a sudden desire to connect with Bob, and her daughter managed to track him down on the Internet and obtained his phone number. Fontel gave him a call, and they spoke for the first time in nearly sixty years. Bob told Fonteale that he'd always wanted to track her down as well, but didn't know

what her married name was. Shortly after they connected, Bob mailed Fontell a letter which read, quote May third, two thousand and nine, the first day of the rest of my life. Dearest Fonteale, your call was an answer to my prayer. I've been thinking of you every day lately and many times over the years, and regretting leaving you under the conditions at the time. End quote stop.

an attempt right to communicate. There was a love that was still there. And then they moved forward with their lives. They lost other loves of their life, and now sixty years later, he writes a letter that says, your call was an answer to my prayers. I've been thinking of you every day lately. Think about how lonely he was.

You could tell he was looking for partnership and companionship because that's likely why he partnered with that younger girl, and you know, was willing to share his assets with her. But this is someone he actually had a faithful connection to at some point and that there still was a love that had never been a negative in his life whatsoever. It was just a part of the times. And so I find this incredibly romantic. I think it's super sweet.

I secretly hate that he was eighty one when this is happening, because they could have had decades together had it been you know, where he was sixty in reconnecting or something like that. But I think it's phenomenal. I think it's exciting from this. I don't feel like Fontell would have a motive to hurt him, because I think she was truly longing to reconnect with him.

of the story. And I remember seeing this for the first time when it was featured on Disappeared several years ago, and it was not like your typical episode because the first part of it was just so nice and sweet because you're learning this love story and how these people reconnected after sixty years and that Bob after like all these years of depression from losing his wife, was now experiencing happiness again for the first time in a while, and just he seemed destined to spend the rest of

his happy life with the woman that he had not seen in quite some time. And then just within the span of a few months, it just all goes completely downhill and he vanishes without a trace, and the story just gets very dark, very quickly. So for the next several weeks, Bob and Fontell continue to speak on the phone virtually every day until he invited her to California

to visit him. He proceeded to introduce Fontel to his three daughters and they managed to rekindle the relationship, and that given their advanced ages, Bob did not feel the need to take things slowly, so he decided to propose to Fontelle. Not only did Fontel say yes, but it turned out she still had the original engagement rank Bob had given her back in nineteen fifty, though they would

still both buy each other so new wedding rings. On June the twenty ninth, only six days after Fontel arrived in California, the couple decided to go to the county courthouse in Fullerton in order to obtain a marriage license, and they tied the knot that very same day. Of course, Fontel was planning to move in with Bob at his residence and Carnation Drive, but before she could do so, she needed to travel back to Missouri in order to settle her affairs, pack up her belongings, and move out

of her former residence. By the evening of Monday, July the twenty seventh, Fontel was only two days away from permanently relocating to Placentia, but she became concerned when she attempted to foam Bob multiple times and received no answer. At around midnight, Bontel received a call from Bob's daughter, Julie, who informed her that Bob was missing.

out of my old residence. I've got to settle all my affairs with my own children and things like that, and she's committed, she's ready to go, and two days before she's completely changing her life and starting a new chapter, he goes missing. And I do find it encouraging that the daughters reaching out to her, so it's not like they're estranged or angry with her necessarily. It seems like Julie knew Fontelle was important and needed to be somebody

included in on this information. So from there it seems like Julie at least respected Fontelle enough to say she's one of the most important people that needs to know this info. Well.

And like you talked about earlier, when your kids and your your parent is getting up to an advanced age and you assume that they're going to leave you everything. Just having this new change in your life to up rut any thing can cause a lot of friction.

sitting outside on the front porch. Agnes had been Bob's housekeeper for over ten years, and even though she usually worked for him on Tuesdays, Bob had arranged for her to come by the house one day earlier than normal in order to clean the place. Agnes told Jeff that she arrived sometime between three and three thirty, but discovered that the front door was locked. When no one answered the door, Agnes proceeded to wait on the porch for

the next fifteen minutes until Jeff returned. Jeff was able to let himself and Agnes into the house through the back door and even though Jeff initially thought that Bob might be upstairs taking a nap, he was nowhere to be found. Bob's nineteen ninety seven Toyota camery was still parked outside, and even though his wallet and keys were

not at the residence, he left behind his eyeglasses. Bob did not own a cell phone, so no one could call him to see where he might be, and Agnes was surprised to discover that Bob's bed was unmade, which she said was very uncharacteristic of him whenever she frequented the residence. In spite of this, Jeff was not initially concerned, since he thought that Bob might have stepped out to go for a walk or visit a neighbor, so he and Agnes continued their work fixing up and cleaning the house.

Jeff left at around six p m. While Agnes left a short time later, but by that point Bob still had not return. Later that evening, Julie called the residence in order to check on Bob, but there was no answer, and when she called her two sisters, Roberta and Paula, they both said that they'd not heard from their father. This compelled Roberta to call the Placentia Police Department to ask them to perform a welfare check at Bob's residence,

but when they arrived, the house was still empty. Julie then decided to call Fontel in Missouri to see if she'd heard from Bob, but since Fonteale also knew nothing about his current whereabouts, she contacted the Placentia PD in order to officially report Bob missing.

are not there. It's almost like either he voluntarily got up in a hurry and needed to go do something and then got apprehended or something away from the home, or that someone entered the home and rushed him to get ready and leave. But I understand where they're coming from. For an elderly person to be out and about, especially

on foot. They would be home and before the sun goes down, right, we all know you're eating at four pm for dinner and you're coming home at you know, five, and you're getting ready and sitting and watching TV and going to bed. So I can just feel the panic that was rising when you see things are out of sorts.

He doesn't have his glasses, what he needs. Bed wasn't made, but he did take his wallet and his keys, which makes me think maybe he did leave and locked the door up because the door was locked, but he doesn't have his car, so he shouldn't have been going that far. It's almost like something happened into him when he left the residence.

window of only like thirty to forty minutes. And there's just no evidence to sus jess why other than the fact that his is a wallet and keys are are gone. So did he leave with someone in a vehicle? Did he walk and something happened to him. It's just so strange that this would happen and he just kind of vanished without a trace.

I think maybe that detail matters. The second question is did they check the phone records to see if there was any incoming calls around the time that Bob may have gone missing.

but are just not revealing it publicly. So, according to the someone initially shared a theory with them that Bob might have disappeared voluntarily because he regretted having gotten remarried, but this idea didn't hold much water, as there would be no further activity on Bob's bank accounts or credit cards, or any evidence to suggest that he was still alive.

Bob's daughters claimed that he had recently been experiencing some memory problems and would sometimes repeat himself or forget how to do things, but Bob's doctor told police that he saw no signs of him having dementia or any serious medical conditions, and described him as the healthiest eighty one year old he had ever seen. On July to twenty ninth, two days after Bob was last seen. Bontel arrived in California and took residence in Bob's house, but he still

did not resurface. Investigators would soon discover that even though Bob lived a modest lifestyle, he was actually quite wealthy. He had retired after a long career in contract administration and saved his money well. Bob also made some successful real estate investments and owned a number of properties, so his total net worth was around five million dollars. According to Bob's daughters, they had no idea how wealthy he really was until after their mother, Georgia, passed away and

they saw paperwork about the couple's finances. Bondell also claimed that she was unaware of Bob's net worth when she married him, but handwritten notes were found in his house to indicate that he had been planning to include his new wife in his will and put her name on some of his assets, including his properties. In fact, this

situation caused some tension between Bob and his daughters. Back in nineteen ninety five, Bob and Georgia had created a trust and made their children the beneficiaries, and after Georgia passed away, the family's attorney sent Julie, Roberta, and Paula a letter informing them that Bob was the trustee and he would report to them about how the trust was

being managed on a regular basis. However, over the course of the next year, Bob did not keep his daughters informed about this, so they decided to draft a formal letter to it demanding that he complied with his responsibilities

as trustee, which made him angry. On the day before he disappeared, Bob held a meeting in his house with Julie, Roberta, and Paula, where he was supposed to provide them with copies of their mother's bypass trust, which Bob was legally obligated to do because of the financial mechanisms set up by the estate. But when his daughters arrived, Bob still did not have copies of the trust, and this caused

a heated argument. Bob's daughters maintained that the tension soon dissipated and they peacefully resolved the situation and left on good terms. However, Fontale claimed that when she spoke to Bob on the phone later that night, he still sounded quite shaken about the situation and told her his daughters were not happy about his decision to add Fontelle's name to the house and his checking accounts. In fact, he also allegedly suggested that his marriage be annulled.

is Reagan with you right now? And I'll say, Mama, she's a dance and she's like, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you say that. And at first my brother and I both said, like, I'm really worried because you'll say somebody in the same conversation and she won't remember.

And my mom said, if I don't have my hearing aids at the right point, I hear about every third or fourth word you say, and I don't want to make you repeat everything you say, so I just go along with it, and then sometimes I needed no information that I've already I've already asked. So when she told me that, I don't question that anymore. It's very possible that he was having issues with his hearing and the

kids interpreted that as a memory loss issue. I'd probably default to what the doctor said, because God bless, when you're that old, you're going to the doctor quite often. That's like your social event of the week. So I bet his doctor knows, and so I think that the him being confused is probably out. But when you get

down here, this meeting time is very odd. The day before he disappears, the girls are confronting him or trying to get information about the trust, and that's right after he's gotten married, so they want to know kind of what's included, what's happening with the money, and he doesn't have information for them. Everyone's frustrated, and they weren't happy about his decision to be adding her, and they want him to get annulled from this marriage. It's very fishy

and odd timing one. At that point, your dad needs still have the best life he can. He doesn't have very long to live, so you go, do you dad, and whatever's left, like share it with all of us. Okay, that's fine, but they seem very entitled that like that's ours and you better not spend any money because we get we get it when you die. That would be a very hard way to live your life when your children are kind of holding your feet to the fire

like that. However, like you said earlier, if the girls are the ones who planned this, all three would have to be involved. Because if my brother and I met with my parents and my brother was hateful about it and fuming and left and I was kind of uncomfortable and frustrated, and then they go missing, you better believe I'd tell the police, like we were fine when we left, but my brother wasn't, you know, or my sister wasn't.

So I feel like of the three girls, if everybody hadn't truly resolved it, or everybody wasn't on the same page, or if all of them were not involved in his disappearance, at least one of them would have told the police. I'm getting uncomfortable, and I feel like my sister's not telling you everything she knows.

So I wonder how much of this was Bob just going along with what Georgia wanted on how much was actually Bob's idea, because it seems like there's a lot of pushback from him. Even though he is legally obligated to be giving information, he's very resistant. So I can see both sides. I can see that he has this estate, he's earned this money, he has the right to spend it.

But also if you have this trust set up and your children have a certain expectation and you are legally obligated, I can understand where the daughters are coming from as well.

daughters in his last days. We don't really have all this much information about their lives before he disappeared and what kind of relationship they had with their deceased mother, because you'll often see in these shows when someone goes missing, their family is saying, like all the stuff in the interview is saying, oh, they were just such a wonderful father, such a loving person. They lit up a room whenever

they walked inside of it. But I noticed that the Bob's daughters don't really talk all that glowingly about him during their interviews on the Disappeared episode, And I always wondered,

was their friction like their entire lives. Did they just not have such a great relationship like possibly maybe Georgia was the one who wanted them to be financially taken care of, but maybe Bob just didn't think so highly of his kids and that's why he was being more stingy about it and maybe was feeling more compelled to leave everything to Fontelle.

shouldn't have let Fantel into the house. A short time later, Bob's daughters filed a petition of conservatorship in order to gain control of his assets, claiming that they needed to do this in order to maintain their father's home and pay his bills, as well as hire a private investigator and put up a fifty thousand dollars reward for information. Fontell responded by contesting the conservatorship application, as she changed the locks on Bob's house and continued to remain living there.

When Bob's daughters filed a claim in probakeport in order to get Bontel removed from the residence, the judge ruled against them. While Fantel never directly accused any specific individuals, she expressed her belief that Bob was the victim of foul play and was killed inside his upstairs bathroom. Either intentionally or accidentally. There was evidence to suggest the bathroom had been damaged and repaired, though nothing to definitively prove that foul play had taken place.

really distinct looking guy. He was a bald guy with really thick glasses, so he would definitely stand out if you saw him coming out in public. But surprisingly, it doesn't sound like there were too many witnesses who saw him, which makes me think that something did happen to him in the house and that he didn't wander off on

his own. So even though Bob's son in law, Jeff Michaels, was the last known person to see him alive, time stand for seats and surveillance footage did back up his story that he visited home depot on the afternoon Bob went missing, and a forensic search of Jeff's vehicle turned

up no evidence. Investigators have stated that neither Jeff nor any of Bob's daughters are considered suspects in his disappearance, but Jeff did state that while he was at Bob's house that day, he recalled seeing an suv driving slowly down the street past the residence on multiple occasions. This suv was believed to belong to a forty four year old woman named Josie who owned a barbershop up that Bob and his late wife, Georgia, had frequented for years.

Following George's death, Josie attended a memorial service in which the Herrod family was taking her ashes out to sea. In spite of their massive age difference, Josie started becoming closer to Bob, even though Josie was married to another man at the time. It's unclear if she and Bob became romantically involved, but he did reportedly lend her a total of eighty six thousand dollars over the course of

nine months. Bob's daughters became concerned enough to contact the Department of elder Social Services, who proceeded to interview Bob, and while they believed that Josie had taken advantage of him financially, they also believed that Bob was of sound mind, and since he did not want to pursue the matter any further, there was nothing the department could do. After getting married to Fontelle, Bob asked Josie to repay him the money she owed, though he went missing before this

could happen. In spite of this, Josie reportedly had an alibi on the day Bob vanished, and both she and her husband were cleared of any connection to his disappearance.

distress for her or kind of anger in her? But it seems like she was cleared by the police, so that ends up being a dead end.

he was abducted by someone who was targeting him. Maybe they were watching the house and just happened to abduct him during that small window of time when he was alone.

belief that he was not harmed by a stranger. A number of Bob's family members, friends, and acquaintances were interviewed and polygraphed, and Bob's daughters would hire a private investigator

and post flyers offering a fifty thousand dollars reward. There would be an interesting development in the case in April twenty nineteen, when the Placentia PD announced that they had arrested and detained two local residents in connection with the case, whom they classified as persons of interest and quote associates of Bob. The two individuals names were never disclosed publicly, and both of them were soon released pending for their investigation.

Investigators have not shared any details about why they were arrested, but there have not been any new developments in the case since then. Sadly, fonteal Heater, who continued going by her married name Fontel Herod until the very end, passed away on August twenty first, twenty twenty two, at the age of eighty six. So after nearly seventeen years, Bob Herod continues to remain a missing person.

his quote associates and then later released them. Just because they were not released, or just because they were released, doesn't mean that they're not still somebody on a suspect list. It simply means law enforcement couldn't fulfill the bar that was needed to hold them or to continue with a case against them, and so there's really nowhere else for

the investigation to go. In the back of my head, I wonder, are those still two people that the police say It takes one phone call where we'd have enough to actually go apprehend these two individuals, or do you think they were truly cleared.

don't have enough evidence to file charges. And I've always wondered about the usage of the word associates, Like they never specifically said family members, but I'm thinking to myself, well, if they said family members, then that wouldn't really keep the identities of these people private because everyone would immediately figure out that it's their daughters. So I'm wondering why they chose associates. Are they doing it because they don't want to tip their hand too much about who these

people are? Or are these people who are kind of like associated with Bob but don't really have a close familial tie to them. So many un answered questions.

they hurt my dad. I feel like there would be you know, it wouldn't have to be the police who exposed too, it was I feel like that might naturally come out at some point. Well.

of their siblings and said I suspect them. So if they were all involved, then they're keeping their mouth shuts and staying together. So I think that about brings an end to Part one. Join us next week as we present part two of our series about the disappearance of Bob Herod.

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