rewrite this title Missing Woman’s Sister Finds Her Body in Metal Box Last Seen in Husband’s Pickup: Police

The woman’s husband told police that he woke to find her gone the morning after an argument, though his ‘inconsistent’ stories and growing evidence of his activities around her disappearance quickly cast doubt.

By the end of that same day, Vincent Harp, 37, had been arrested and charged for the murder of his wife. Here’s how police unraveled what really happened in the days surrounding her disappearance.

The Search for Katlyn Harp

Katlyn was last seen in Bloomsburg, Columbia County in Pennsylvania on June 19. The next day, Heather contacted the Hemlock Police Department after her sister missed their daily phone call, which was “not like her,” according to a probable cause affidavit seen by The Lewistown Sentinel.

She said that she had spoken with Vincent, though, who told her that he and Katlyn had gotten into an argument the previous evening and when he woke up that morning, she was gone.

More concerning, Heather shared that she and her sister have Life360, a location sharing app, on their phones and Katlyn’s had not updated since the evening of June 19, which was also unusual.

Police made contact with Vincent, who told them he’d not been in communication with his wife since June 19 between 9 and 11 p.m., showing them unanswered text messages he had sent her after that time.

After two days interviewing family members and friends with no luck, according to People, the case was reassigned to Pennsylvania State Police on June 22. The following day, Vincent was called in for his first interview about the disappearance of his wife.

Immediately, troopers began to notice what they described in their criminal complaint as “discrepancies” in his recollections of where he was and what he was doing in the days leading up to and after the disappearance of his wife.

He alternately told them he had met with his counselor on June 20 and that he had not met with his counselor. He also told them he had his phone that morning and then said that he’d left it at the office.

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Investigation of Vincent Harp

After that initial interview with Vincent, investigators began looking into his activities for themselves. One curious piece of evidence came when they found security footage of Vincent at a Sunoco gas station on the day of Katlyn’s disappearance.

In the footage, he asks if the store sells gloves, per the complaint, as detailed by Law & Crime. But when the cashier tells him they do not, Vincent then asked if he could borrow a pair from an employee.

The cashier gave him a pair and he put them in his back pocket before the cameras show him leaving in his silver Chevy Silverado pickup truck — a vehicle that would show up later in a key piece of video evidence.

On June 24, just one day after he was questioned by troopers, Vincent sold a utility vehicle. Investigators quickly tracked the vehicle down and had it brought in for testing. The criminal complaint notes that it “showed a presumptive positive for human blood.”

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Police also tracked his movements to a remote mountain road — in a GMC Yukon — on the morning of June 20, the day Katlyn disappeared. He got stuck in the mud while there.

By tracking his cell phone, investigators determined that he returned to this area that evening, between 6:20 and 6:30 p.m., per the Sentinel. Later, “drag marks” were found in the ground and going into the woods. But Vincent was “unable to articulate a reason” to police why he was there, per documents.

What would turn out to be one of the most damning pieces of evidence was when footage was uncovered just a few hours later showing Vincent driving in his own truck on that same day with a large green metal box in the truck bed. Video surveillance from a nearby VFW also showed him driving by with the green box clearly visible.

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Katlyn Harp’s Body Found

At 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 29, police got another call from Heather Lane, this time to tragically reveal that the search was over. She’d found her sister’s body.

According to the legal documents, Katlyn’s body was found in a green metal box approximately 180 yards from the side of a cliff in a densely-wooded area. It was on a 40-acre property that Vincent had previously owned.

After obtaining permission from the current owners, law enforcement made their way to the location, where they found the box and described a “strong smell of decomposition” coming from inside. After cutting the lock on the outside, they were able to identify the human remains inside as belonging to Katlyn by a distinctive tattoo.

An examination of Vincent’s cell phone records showed that he had been in the area where Katlyn’s body was found on two different occasions on June 21, the day after she was pronounced missing.

Vincent was subsequently arrested at 7 p.m. that same day and charged with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence. He is being held in the Columbia County Corrections Facility without bail and next scheduled to appear in court on July 14.

“Unfortunately this missing person case is now a Criminal Homicide Investigation,” said PSP trooper Anthony Petroski, per CBS affiliate WHP. “Although an arrest was made, our condolences go out to the Victim’s family and friends.”

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