(Un)Willing Participant: Unique Harris

In this episode of Hunting 4 Answers: 24-year-old Unique Harris had dreams, plans, and two little boys who needed her. Then, in the dead of night, she vanished without a trace. For years, investigators struggled to piece together what happened to Unique on that October night in Washington, D.C. Until a chilling testimony and DNA evidence brings the truth into focus. But the most important question remains: where is Unique? Anyone with information about this case should contact the Metropolitan Police Department at 202-727-9099. 

This is the story of Unique Harris. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hunting for Answers is a production of the Black Effect
Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Welcome to Hunting for Answers, a
true crime podcast. I'm your host, Hunter, and today we
head into the heart of the nation's capital, Washington, DC, where,
in the fall of twenty ten, a young mother tucked

(00:22):
her children and her cousin's daughter into bed after a
movie night and then vanished without a trace. No sign
of a struggle, no goodbye, just the children waking up
the next morning to find nothing but silence. This is

(00:44):
the story of Unique Harris. October ninth, twenty ten. Unique
Raquel Leona Harris, a twenty four year old mother of two,
was at home in her apartment on the twenty four
hundred block of Hertford Street Southeast in Washington, d C.

(01:06):
She tucked her sons, ages three and five, into bed
beside her cousin's daughter, an eight year old little girl,
who was visiting for a movie night. But sometime between
the early hours of the morning between three and eight
thirty a m something happened, and come morning, Unique would

(01:28):
be nowhere to be found. Unique had moved into that
apartment just five weeks earlier. She wanted a fresh start,
closer to her mother in DC, and a place to
raise her boys. She had recently been accepted into massage

(01:49):
therapy school. She was focused, grounded, and hopeful. She grew
up in Richmond, Virginia, where she guides waited from high school.
She wasn't the type of person to drink, she didn't
do drugs, and she was in good graces with her
loved ones on the night she vanished. That next morning,

(02:14):
the children woke up at eight thirty am, shocked to
find Unique nowhere in sight. Her glasses were found neatly
folded on her pillow, her purse untouched, but her phone
and keys were missing, and according to reports, Unique's eyesight

(02:37):
was so poor she couldn't have walked out of that
apartment safely without her classes. Authorities initially found no signs
of forced entry, no struggle, and what they thought at
the time were no witnesses. The evidence they did discover, however,

(03:00):
the living room couch it's fabric had been sliced open,
with phone missing, as if someone had tried to erase
any traces of a crime outside. The neighborhood was a
pretty unforgiving environment. Her apartment was located in a high

(03:24):
crime area. The building security intercom didn't work, her door
didn't latch right, and in the days before Unique vanished,
she witnessed a murder from her window. Although police said
the two crimes were unrelated, still the air around her

(03:47):
was very heavy. Her boyfriend was out of town, and
both her ex who was the father of her children,
and her current boyfriend had passed polygraph test. There was
no reason, no good reason for Unique to just walk away,
not from her life, and definitely not from her children.

(04:14):
When investigators spoke to the children, they said that they
slept through the night, they didn't recall seeing or hearing
anything alarming, and so for years the case sat in
darkness with no leads and no answers, until twenty seventeen,

(04:38):
when a young voice broke the silence. One of unique sons,
who was only five years old at the time she vanished,
told police he remembered something, something terrifying. He said he
woke up that night, opened the bedroom door and saw

(05:00):
a man, a man he knew by a single name, Iceberg.
After closing the door, he then recalled hearing his mother
screaming from the other side, saying get out, get out.
Followed by more screaming. The same child would later say

(05:25):
he didn't remember seeing Iceberg at his mother's apartment, but
still that name Iceberg stuck. Police knew who he was.
Forty six year old Isaac moy a man already familiar
with law enforcement. His arrest history included assault with a

(05:50):
dangerous weapon, fugitive from justice, simple assault, and distribution of narcotics.
But he wasn't just to authorities, but to Unique as well.
Phone records showed they had spoken thirteen times on the
day she disappeared. He was interested in her, but Unique

(06:15):
didn't feel the same, and when forensic evidence came back,
the truth came to light. Moy's DNA was found on
the mangled couch inside Unique's apartment semen left behind. Despite
efforts to destroy, evidence linked him to the scene. In

(06:40):
December twenty twenty, Isaac Moyt was arrested. He insisted he
was innocent, said Unique had left on her own and
then disappeared without a trace. But the facts, however, told
another story. Moy was wearing a GPS ankle monitor at

(07:03):
the time. It placed him at unique department complex that
night on October ninth, and it showed him leaving early
the next morning. A police informant serving time behind bars
with Moy later told police that he had bragged about
what he had done, saying he did it the right

(07:25):
way and how they'll never figure it out. In twenty
twenty three, Isaac Moy finally stood trial for the murder
of Unique Harris. The prosecution faced an uphill battle, no body,
no eyewitness to the crime itself, but they had the timeline,

(07:48):
the phone calls, the DNA, the GPS evidence, and above all,
the chilling recollections. Her son initially gave. Moy's defense argued
Unique had left willingly, but jurors saw right through it.

(08:08):
In twenty twenty three, Moy was convicted of second degree
murder and sentenced to thirty five years in prison. Justice
was served, but unfortunately not a full sense of closure,
because till this day, Unique Harris's body has not been found,

(08:32):
but foul play is suspected. Despite that, her loved ones
are still grateful for Eunique's killer being held countable. At
the time of her disappearance, Unique stood somewhere between five
feet seven inches and five feet ten inches tall and
weighed one hundred and thirty pounds. She had brown eyes

(08:54):
and brown hair streaked with auburn highlights, as well as
a mole on her upper lip pierced ears in two tattoos,
the names Richard and you Andre inked across her lower back,
and her name Unique on her right upper arm. She

(09:15):
was extremely nearsighted, so her glasses were essential to her
daily life, but of course they were left behind on
her pillow. My thoughts and prayers are with Unique Harris's
family and friends as they continued to cope with the
aftermath of this tragedy. Her mother previously stated how all

(09:39):
of her loved ones are still grieving all these years later.
Anyone with information about Unique's case to contact the Metropolitan
Police Department. Their contact can be found in the description
box below. As we close out this episode, don't forget
to hit the follow button to stay updated on this

(10:01):
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you so much for joining us on another episode until

(10:23):
next time. Hunting for Answers is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
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(10:44):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.