Remains of missing CNY women found. Discovery in Illinois is linked to Las Vegas area disappearance of Skaneateles native

Lindsay Marie Harris

Remains of missing CNY woman found
Discovery in Illinois is linked to Las Vegas-area disappearance of Skaneateles native.

A DNA match from a toothbrush nearly three years after the disappearance of a former Skaneateles woman closed her missing person's case last week, Illinois state police said.

Lindsay Harris, 21, was last seen May 4, 2005, in Henderson, Nev., a suburb of Las Vegas. She made a bank deposit and mailed a Mother's Day card.

It was the last communication the family had with Harris, family friend Janice Grieshaber said Tuesday. The card said, "I can't wait to be home."

Harris' parents, Martha and Robert Harris, of Skaneateles, were notified Saturday that authorities had matched her DNA to remains found outside Springfield, Ill., just 19 days after her disappearance, according to Illinois state police and Grieshaber.

Harris' death is considered a homicide, said Grieshaber, acting as a spokeswoman for the family.

Grieshaber is also executive director of the Jenna Foundation for Nonviolence.

Illinois state police were notified May 23, 2005, of the discovery of remains near Interstate 55, 15 miles south of the state's capital, Lt. Scott Compton said. They found two human legs.

State police notified the FBI of the find, Compton said.

Meanwhile, police in the Las Vegas area had found Harris' rented 2003 Mercedes-Benz in the parking lot of a hotel-casino on the strip, said Henderson police spokesman Keith Paul.

Harris had moved to Las Vegas two years earlier. She graduated from Skaneateles High School in 2002 and earned a degree in cosmetology from BOCES.
                                                                                                                                In Las Vegas, she frequented hotels and casinos on the strip and was associated with an escort business, Henderson police said in 2006.

The people Harris lived with in Henderson first told her parents that she was missing, Grieshaber said.

Stories about Harris' disappearance appeared on "America's Most Wanted" and CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."

In January 2006, family members traveled to Nevada to search the desert. More than 250 volunteers, police and Air National Guard members participated in the search.

Among the objects found was a piece of clothing, Paul said at that time. He would not elaborate further Tuesday evening.

"We don't release the minutia of the investigation while the case is ongoing," he said.

Police expressed little hope in 2006 that they would find Lindsay Harris alive.

"We had done a massive search for her in the area and none of her family had heard from her in quite some time . . . which made us believe she could have been killed," Paul said Tuesday.

Last month, the FBI alerted state police in Illinois to the Harris case in Nevada, Compton said.

DNA samples were sent to a lab in Richmond, Calif. State police learned May 6 that DNA from the Illinois remains and a toothbrush in Henderson matched, Compton said. They got official verification Friday that the DNA samples matched Lindsay Harris.

Henderson police then contacted the family.

"The irony of it was that three years ago, she was missing on Mother's Day weekend and she was found on Mother's Day weekend," Grieshaber said.

Police in Henderson and Illinois are still investigating how Lindsay Harris got from one place to the other.

But for the family "at least they can now put her to rest in her own community," Grieshaber said. "The goal here is to let the police do their job (and) let the family deal with the emotional and personal aspect of it finally."

Michele Reaves can be reached at mreaves@syracuse.com or 470-3198.







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