2-year-old Caleigh Anne Harrison missing from a Massachusetts beach on 4.19.12 after her Mother turned her back for just a minute/LE is NOT ruling out Foul Play/Update: 11.12.12 Pair of pants consistent with Caleigh's found in ocean debris on beach

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Caleigh Harrison: No new clues in renewed search for toddler

Posted: Nov 14, 2012 9:31 AM CST
Updated: Nov 14, 2012 6:05 PM CST

GLOUCESTER (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - The search for 2-year-old Caleigh Harrison resumed Wednesday after a pair of tattered pink pants washed ashore.

VIDEO: Search crews gather to search for Caleigh Harrison

Family, friends, and volunteers from the organization Mission for the Missing began searching the Good Harbor area at 12 p.m. hoping recent storm may have churned up new evidence.

Unfortunately, the search did not turn up any new clues as to what happened the days of her disappearance.

A pair of pink pants was found Friday on Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. That's what Caleigh was wearing when she vanished from nearby Long Beach on April 19 while playing with her 4-year-old sister.

Her parents said they were "99.9 percent" sure the pants belonged to their daughter, but were not totally sure because they were not intact. Allison Hammond, Harrison's mother, said she can't remember if they were the same pants Caleigh was wearing when she disappeared.

Caleigh's parents told reporters at the scene they're hoping learn what happened to her and put their daughter to rest.

Their mom walked away to get a ball and Caleigh was gone. Police believe she was swept into the tide.

Massachusetts State Police and Rockport Police said shreds of the pants were located in some fishing gear about a mile away from where Caleigh disappeared. Investigators said the pants were consistent in size, color and style with those that Harrison was wearing the day she went missing.

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by Chelsea Hoffman

What Truly Happened to Caleigh Harrison?

November 14, 2012 06:55 PM EST

What really happened to Caleigh Harrison? The 2-year-old Massachusetts girl vanished in the spring of this year after her mother claimed to have turned her back on her for a short time to retrieve a lost ball. The child is believed to had been swept out to sea, as no evidence of otherwise was found. All of a sudden there is an update in the case as a pair of pink capris belonging to the missing tot have been found. Could this discovery mean that she wasn't swept out to sea, or is this still the agreed-upon theory by officials on the case?

A renewed search for the missing Gloucester child is underway after the discovery of a pair of pink capri pants. The pants, which most likely belonged to the girl, were found in some debris a short distance from the beach where she vanished in April of this year.

Allison Hammond, the child's mother, had only recently acknowledged that the girl was likely swept to sea after weeks of alleging that her other daughter saw a man take the 2-year-old. With the discovery of these pants, is it possible that the child wasn't swept away? Reports have not indicated that the pants have any traces of DNA such as human decomposition or skin cells -- which would be found in crime lab testing. If she was wearing these bottoms when she vanished, wouldn't some remnants of her be in them? Wouldn't they be destroyed or show signs of elemental damage?

It's still unlikely that Caleigh Harrison will ever be found -- especially if she was truly taken out to sea by a tide or by otherwise falling into it. However, if the discovery of these pants opens the possibility of other theories, there could still be closure in this case.

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November 15, 2012

Caleigh searchers mull their next steps
By Marjorie Nesin
Staff Writer

A day after search dogs and teams of trained volunteers combed the beach to no avail, looking for evidence in the case of missing Gloucester toddler Caleigh Harrison, organizers of the effort paused Thursday “mulling and trying to make out what makes sense” as a next step.

The search was rooted in the shreds of a pair pink capri pants found on Good Harbor Beach Friday and thought by Caleigh’s parents and law enforcement officials to be very similar to those she was wearing on the day she vanished from Rockport’s Long Beach while on an outing there with her then 4-year-old sister Elizabeth, mother Allison Hammond and the family dog.

Police plan to soon send the pink pants for DNA testing, as is standard practice. And, Caleigh’s father Anthony Harrison, estranged from her mother, told reporters Wednesday that he thought scientific evidence of the pants having been Caleigh’s would be enough for him to begin finding closure.

“I’d have to think about that — I think so,” Harrison said, when asked if the pants would be sufficient for him.

Hammond said while she was unable to identify the found pants as Caleigh’s with “absolute certainty” for police, but said she has been “accepting” that the pants are Caleigh’s.

“I don’t want to hope to find anything because I want to find my daughter,” Hammond said, “but at the same time, I want closure.”

The search Wednesday, pulling in both of Caleigh’s parents, their family members, an estimated 30 volunteers and five search dogs, including Gloucester’s Trident, yielded no results, with findings of only animal bones. Boston-based nonprofit, Mission for the Missing brought the volunteers together for the search.

”We are still sort of processing (Wednesday’s activities),” said Maureen Flatley of Mission for the Missing, and of Essex. “I’m not sure we’ll have really hard and fast plans for the next couple of days.”

Flatley and other Mission for the Missing volunteers had hoped the land search might lead to clues of where to begin mapping out a water-based search for remains. Thursday, however, Flatley also said the lack of results in no way signifies a wasted efforts, emphasizing that searchers can rule out the scoured beaches.

Still, Flatley said, the group plans to continue working on the case, but the search hinges on part on new findings.

”When the incident happens, it makes sense to just jump in there,” Flatley said. “But when a lot of time has passed and especially when you’re dealing with a really dynamic environment, you really want to be thoughtful.”

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