Who Is Brooke Harris? New Details About The Missing California Woman Who Was Just Found Dead
Brooke Harris vanished on Valentine's Day. A week later her body was found in her car.
Crime Online Police are baffled in the disappearance of a California woman. Brooke Harris, 48, was last seen in a casino in Placerville, CA on Feb. 14. She never returned home from that trip.
Brooke saw her daughter during the afternoon of Feb. 13 and spoke to her husband over the phone the following day. She was spotted on surveillance cameras by the casino at about 4:30 p.m. on Valentines Day. On Feb. 20, she was found dead in her car.
So who is Brooke Harris and what happened to her? Read on for all the details.
1. She's a mother.
Brooke Harris is a 38-year-old mother living in El Dorado, CA.
She was a registered nurse at one time and her husband, Manny, is also trained as a nurse but works as a firefighter. The couple has two daughters. Brooke’s social media feeds shows many family photos and they don’t show any signs of distress.
2. She worked as a nurse.
In 2014, Brooke was working as a nurse in a hospice facility when she was caught drinking on the job.
Newspaper accounts at the time said that Harris “was fired for admitting to drinking alcohol while working as a hospice nurse.” Brooke allegedly gave the reason for her behavior as “severe anxiety about seeing her husband.”
In 2016, Brooke surrendered her nursing license completely. However, in 2018 she petitioned to get her license reinstated. She provided letters of reference in her defense and the Board of Registered Nurses had agreed to reinstate her permit. The effective date for her new license was Jan. 10, 2019 with a three year probation period starting Feb. 8, 2019.
3. The last person to see her was her daughter.
On Feb. 13, Brooke saw her daughter in the afternoon and that was the last time anyone could confirm seeing her in person. On Feb. 14, she spoke to her husband by phone. At 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 14, she was visible on a surveillance camera at the Red Hawk Casino in Placerville, CA. It is unknown if she was a regular patron of the casino.
Her phone was found in her home after her disappearance and police didn’t think she had been abducted. Police cleared her family of any involvement in her disappearance, saying “We have investigated Brooke’s family and have found no evidence to suggest that anyone was involved in her disappearance. The family has been completely cooperative throughout this entire investigation.”
4. The police received tons of tips.
Police had asked the community to share information that might help them find Brooke. Many calls came in, some of which were about Brooke’s work history and her firing in 2014. Police responded to these reports with a statement.
“We have seen a number of comments regarding information which is not helpful in assisting us in locating Brooke. While this information is public record it is information that can be hurtful to the family members and the wellbeing of anyone involved. We ask that you think about what information you are sharing and what is the best way to help us locate a missing person. If you have information that you believe is important, please message us. Call us. Come down and talk to us. Spreading the information through the comment section, when there are hundreds of comments, is the least likely way to help us and most likely to cause unneeded stress to the family in an already difficult time.”
5. Police told the community to keep an eye out for her vehicle.
On Tuesday, Feb. 19, police posted photos of Brooke’s car, a gray Toyota Highlander, and asked the public to keep at eye out for the vehicle. The following day, someone reported seeing it.
“On February 20, 2019, at about 4:30 PM, the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office was dispatched to a report of an unresponsive female in a vehicle at a local church parking lot," the El Dorado Police department wrote on their Facebook page. "Fire and medical personal responded and declared the female deceased upon their arrival. When EDSO Deputies arrived, they recognized the vehicle as belonging to missing person, Brooke Harris.”
“EDSO Detectives and Crime Scene Investigators responded to conduct the death investigation. Brooke has been positively identified and next of kin notifications have been completed. Cause of death is under investigation and at this time there is no evidence of foul play."
It is still not known what happened to Brook Harris after her trip to the casino and what caused her death. Our sympathies go out to her family at this difficult time.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.
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