So this story is about Jennifer Harris, a 28 year old woman living in Bonham Texas, who’s nude body was found by a fisherman in the Red River, May 18 in 2002, so 18 years ago now.
Jennifer was a very smart and beautiful woman. She had this super red curly hair, that I just truly adore. Shortly after she graduated high school she married her high school sweetheart, ROB HOLMAN. She then went to college and got a bachelor’s in aquatic biology, and a master’s in kinesiology, wellness, and nutrition from Stephen F. Austin.
She loved nature and the outdoors and would go hiking and yoga, she was a cheerleader, played tennis, and was just described as a sort of kind free spirit.
via WCBI.com
So here’s where stuff starts to slowly lead up to the actual murder.
Jennifer and her husband at the time, Rob, didn’t have the smoothest of times. There were claims that he was abusive towards her, its never been confirmed if it was verbal or physical, cause there were no actual police reports filed, but there will be more on that in just a sec.
There was also the factor that at the time the couple was living in Dallas at the time and Jennifer loved it out there, but Rob liked the sorta quiet life back in Bonham and he did eventually move back there but before that her father had decided to visit and made a sort of discovery?
He said he remembers seeing holes in the wall. He had a good feeling that it was ROB and said on the 48 Hours episode that it looked like ..
”He took his fist and knocked five holes in the living room wall about as big as a softball…”
Jennifer and Rob Holman via WCBI.com
Jennifer’s sister also remembers issues with ROB and mentions that one might Jennifer had called her and her voice was just shaking and Jennifer had said that ROB had come home one night drunk and raped her. She never filed a report and honestly in fuckin 2002ish, I don’t blame her. And if it WAS an abusive relationship, being MARRIED only makes it that much harder to get out.
And here’s the fuck of it, after her disappearance, ROB had been interviewed by the police and told them that SHE was the abusive one. And in his interview he said this,
“She was hot-tempered when we were married. And it was generally her way or no way. …Sometimes I'd grab her, wrap her up, keep her from hittin' and shit.”
She had enrolled in this massage therapy school and met a guy named JAMES HAMILTON, and they got along really well and they wanted to start a business together and eventually did, and he just sorta moved in with Jennifer cause ROB had moved back home to Bonham.
Jennifer and James Hamilton via WCBI.com
Her sister said on the 48 Hours episode that the whole thing was just no good in her opinion cause at this time Jennifer was still married and Hamilton was living with the mother of his child, and they had another on the way. He apparently asked her multiple to marry him, but each time she just said no, and sorta lost interest. She eventually did get a divorce from ROB,but in spring of 2002 the business with Hamilton, as well as their relationship, had fallen apart, and she was bankrupt.
So with no way of making money she was just. Stuck. Her cousin Susan Bowen mentioned on the 48 Hours episode that Jennifer had told her that she had gotten back in touch with her ex-husband Rob, who had a new girlfriend. She also said that Jennifer said that she still loved ROB and that she wanted him back, and even told him so. ROB had even admitting to the police that they had had sex at least 4 or 5 times since Christmas.
She was seen with a moving truck outside her apartment by her cousin Susan and planned on temporarily living with her grandmother. But on May 12, 2002 at around 8PM Jennifer left a family friend’s, Kristy Farr, saying she was going to meet someone. And according to the 48 Hours episode she called ROB and asked to see him, but he refused. He said to the police that he had plans with his girlfriend since it was Mother’s Day. So Anyways, she got in her green Jeep and drove away. And that was the last time she was seen alive.
The following day, her Jeep was found down the Lake Bonham Hoe Down Hall, on county road 2680.
While she was still missing authorities called in James Hamilton and her ex-husband ROB Holman. Both men agreed to speak without a lawyer and were read their Miranda rights, even though they were not being arrested.
Hamilton had an alibi that checked out, he was over an hour away with some friends at a McDonald’s. He also took and passed a lie detector test, but I mean, those aren’t entirely reliable but I think everyone knows that now.
But Rob, the ex-husband, was concerned about his own alibi. He told them that he had gone out to buy beer and visit some friends, and when they weren’t home, guess what he decided to do. DRIVE AROUND FOR 5 HOURS ON THE BACKROADS OF FANNIN COUNTY. FIVE. HOURS. That’s like me driving to San Antonio from home, which for yall outta state is like driving halfway across fuckin Texas.
He starts off by saying he never saw her, but when hes pressed his story changes. He it to saying, he saw a jeep that MIGHT have been hers, to flat out saying
“I was on 898 at the stop sign by the blinkin' light… then I turned north. She was in front of me. She was comin' from town.”
I feel like I should also mention, just going back a tad, that he did get a phone call from her the day she disappeared and that her agreed to take a polygraph test, but there wasn’t one ever done.
Six days later a fisherman would find Jennifer’s body in the Red River, completely naked and severely decomposed. When the original autopsy was done, the medical examiner classified it as a “Violent Homicide” and that her wounds had affected some of her internal organs. And like that’s all pretty typical I feel like, but there’s something else. Her uterus was missing. Now this could be a result of her injuries before she actually died, or from the wildlife in the river, but I have to bring it up because according to Jennifer’s best friend Jyl Wagner, she was pregnant.
And get this, its corroborated by ROB. He told police that about a month before, he had met with Jennifer near a drive-in, and she had told him she was pregnant, and that it was HIS.
When he was interviewed again with a lawyer, he says that he didn’t believe she was actually pregnant,
Now, there was no actual evidence behind this, and it was even said by forensic experts in Dallas that there was no evidence that it was cut out by her killer, more likely a result of just the decomposition. So I GUESS the whole pregnancy motive, thread thing could really be thrown out, but I want to mention it just in case new info comes up or in case there’s new leads that could maaaaybe come from it’?
I honestly don’t give this bit of info too much weight because there’s really not a ton of evidence and there’s just too many conflicting testimonies. And unfortunately in this case, there’s a lot of bits to this story like that. Rumors got a hold of this story BIG time. For a brief moment, the district attorney overseeing her case got blamed for her murder and he’d never even heard of her. Let alone met her.
A year after the murder, Deborah Lambert had seen a news report about the case and went to the detectives and told them that she saw something the day Jennifer went missing.
She said. “there was three guys out there and a girl. And two guys had the girl by her elbows and it was like she was trying to get away from them and they were restraining her……I made eye contact with her and … she was scared, terrified look on her face… my mom seen her too and she said "that girl's fixin' to get raped and killed”
the Red River bridge via WCBI.com
She said at the time that she was too scared to report it to the police, and like yeah, I mean I get it, but if you’re mom’s saying something like “shes gonna get raped and killed” ya gotta do something. And I mention this right after the rumor bit because the time that Deborah Lambert and her mother saw this, according to Deborah herself, was at around 5PM. And the problem with that is that Jennifer left her family friends place closer to 8. And in the 48 Hours episode they had a detective from like Jersey or New York, something like that, but he basically said, the time she said may not have been accurate at all, because how often are you actually looking at the time? And that it was still a lead worth looking into.
So. this is already pretty long, but I have one last lil bit to plug in. Not necessarily under the rumor tab, just like. Additional stuff.
Jennifer’s brother-in-law (sister’s husband?), Barry Wernick, her father Daryl Parker, and a PI Jim Holloway are working in making a docu-series called Justice for Jennifer. They have a website called Red Rabbit Justice, and we’ll throw a link to it somewhere so you can all check it out.
But they made a few discoveries that are worth mentioning.
When Jennifer’s body was found, there was this blue mud on her, and according to local fishermen there are only two places in several miles where that mud shows up. And they happened to find a riverbank nearby that had that same blue mud. And even better, the same night, on that blue bank, a small caretaker cottage burnt down. And before you ask, I couldn’t find exactly where that is, I looked on google earth and I’m just pretty sure the trees are covering whats left and that’s literally just a square concrete slab.
They had a whole crew go to that area and gave it like a 10-15 foot sweep as well as digging out and searching a well that was nearby, but they didn’t find anything. And part of me is really hoping that they had some professionals out there, because the idea that there COULD have been evidence but it was destroyed or overlooked just barely stresses me the fuck out.
But honestly, that’s it. That really just sums up the case. As of now there is ZERO evidence and ZERO leads. There’s an abundance of motives but none that have any weight to them.
But to take one from Jensen and Holes, if you or a family member was were around the Bonham/Ivanhoe area Mother’s day in 2002, so May 12th, and saw Jennifer or heard anything please contact the Fannin County sherriff’s department and let em know. Their number is 903-583-2143, I’ll also try and put up a link to their website as well.
Sources: Synovaink, KTEN, Herald Democrat, CBS News, Justice for Jennifer Harris, KTEN, 48 Hours (Season 31 Episode 50)