December 3, 2023 • 39 mins
Houston, TX and her destination of Corpus Christi.
Her son, Chien Si fought tooth and nail to keep his mom’s case in spotlight— to make people care… but without clues pointing to an answer, the attention on Tot’s case tapered off, and the trail eventually went cold. To this day, her case remains unsolved. This is “The Incredible Life of Tot Harriman, Part Two” from Murder, She Told, hosted by Kristen Seavey. Originally published in October 2022.
For sources and photos from this episode, visit: https://murdershetold.com/episodes/totharriman-2
If you have any information on Tot’s disappearance, I encourage you to contact the League City PD at (281) 332-2566.
Quick links to find Murder, She Told:
Apple: https://apple.co/42Zmd5X
Spo_fy: https://spotify.com/murdershetold
All others and social media: https://www.murdershetold.com/connect
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-consequences-true-crime--4347262/support.
Her son, Chien Si fought tooth and nail to keep his mom’s case in spotlight— to make people care… but without clues pointing to an answer, the attention on Tot’s case tapered off, and the trail eventually went cold. To this day, her case remains unsolved. This is “The Incredible Life of Tot Harriman, Part Two” from Murder, She Told, hosted by Kristen Seavey. Originally published in October 2022.
For sources and photos from this episode, visit: https://murdershetold.com/episodes/totharriman-2
If you have any information on Tot’s disappearance, I encourage you to contact the League City PD at (281) 332-2566.
Quick links to find Murder, She Told:
Apple: https://apple.co/42Zmd5X
Spo_fy: https://spotify.com/murdershetold
All others and social media: https://www.murdershetold.com/connect
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-consequences-true-crime--4347262/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey, true advocates. This ispart two of Todd Harriman's story, so
if you haven't listened to part one, I highly suggest starting their first.
We left off with Todd in herfamily starting their new life together in America.
I'm Kristin Sevie from murder, shetold, and this is true consequences.
(00:40):
Tahoe's mountains shrank in the rear viewmirror as Clint drove his family east.
Refreshed and ready to start their newlife, they moved near Clint's mother
in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, justsouth of Portland. Their home was spacious,
with panoramic views of the bay.Just steps from their front door was
Trundy Point, a small peninsula wherethey could watch waves crash against the bluffs
(01:04):
and cast lines into the water.It was perfect for tot fishing, reminded
her of home. Clint married oncemore, this time with an American marriage
certificate. Minn also took on theHareman name. He'd never gotten a chance
to know his biological father, whohad died when he was young, and
Clint embraced him as his own innineteen seventy seven. Two years later,
(01:30):
Todt and Clint welcomed another son.They named him Chinsea. Most Vietnamese names,
they have a meaning. A lotof the times. They're designed to
be a reflection on your character ora reflection on who your parents would like
you to become. And there aresome names, especially women's names, are
just evocative of like something in nature. I love flower is very common.
(01:56):
But my name and my dad andmy mom had just come back from the
world or and my dad wanted meto have a name that reflected something from
their time together. So yeah,he went home after I was born,
and he looked up in a VietnameseAmerican dictionary something along the lines of a
warrior or soldier, and that's howhe came up with my name. But
(02:21):
there's there's no there's no one elsereally who's received the name. So when
I go to Vietnam now and Itell them what my name is, you
know, they're they're either kind oflike, Okay, that's cool, or
like, well, you know thatthat's a pretty that's a pretty intense name.
Chinzi is sort I think is areflective of a Vietnamese force that existed
at a time that was just knownfor being brave. I mean, it's
(02:46):
a pretty strong name, right,So I think it's kind of like you
met someone and they said, youknow, hey, my name's Rambo,
you'd be like, oh, okay. I mean, you know, you
have a lot to live up toround a name like that. The kids
who were enrolled in school and Totstayed busy as a mother and a homemaker.
She was active in her children's schoolin extracurricular activities, and welcomed their
(03:07):
friends into her home. Two homsshared a memory of Tot's hospitality. I
remember coming home from high school dancesat eleven at night with friends, and
my mom would get up and cookus a full meal. She'd do a
stirfry and rice and some fruit,the whole nine yards. Naturally, the
house became the go to hangout spot. Many of her children's friends even called
(03:29):
her mom. Well, I putit this way, my mom was really
very generous with her time, reallygenerous with her energy, and she loved
getting to know people. She lovedmaking them feel at home. She used
to do a lot of cooking forthe neighborhood, and she'd invite people over
a lot that weren't Vietnamese, justpeople in our neighborhood and we'd have these
(03:53):
things called kitchen dinners, and we'dsit around a little table that we had
in the kitchen, and we'd allmy mom would make a great meal.
She was always known for her cookingand how great her cooking was, and
she fed a lot of people andit always felt lovely and everyone really appreciated
all of her time and all ofher thoughtfulness there, you know, of
(04:15):
her friends, and from her earlylife in Vietnam, the two things that
she became really skilled at were cookingand sewing. You know, I also
remember my mom giving people a lotof joy making dresses for them, especially
wedding dresses. She would just geta client that would come over with just
a picture of a wedding dress thatyou know, a lot of times maybe
(04:38):
was too extravagantly priced, and mymom would, you know, sort of
diligently cut all the cloth and makeall the patterns and build a custom wedding
dress with all the brocading. Andyou know, I would see my mom
sitting there late at night just beating, you know, one beat at a
time onto these wedding dresses. AndI think that gave her a lot of
joy, and I think she didit really food was a central part of
(05:01):
life. She taught cooking classes forfellow maners, and she even opened a
Vietnamese restaurant in Portland named after herdaughter, to Hum, where she was
known to Greek customers with big smilesand friendly conversation. Taught embraced American life
and later said that she considered herselfquote more American than Vietnamese, but she
(05:24):
also honored her roots. Although shewasn't able to raise her children in Vietnam,
she made sure that their lives wereinfused with its culture. My mom
was sort of funny, like shewas sort of like a cultural ambassador in
a way. I mean, Idon't want to like overblow it, but
yeah, you know she kind ofwas. You know, it didn't matter
how many people came. She youknow, she would throw big parties around
(05:46):
the Vietnamese New Year, and ourhouse would just be filled. I mean
it was like a nightclub. Youknow, you couldn't even sit down,
there's so many people there, foodfor one hundred people. I remember her
praying during the times of the ceremonyduring the Vietnamese New Year. You know,
she was bringing all of those experiencesover to Maine, and everyone you
know, would watch with a lotof respect, and you know, our
(06:09):
house to get really quiet, whilemy mom would pray even during those big
parties. She just had a wayof bringing people together and experiencing something new.
The Vietnamese population in Portland was verysmall when taught in her family arrived.
Even today, Maine as a wholeis ninety four percent white. She
(06:29):
wasn't just a minority. She wasone of the very few Vietnamese families in
Greater Portland when she arrived in nineteenseventy five. You know, my mom
with a handful of Vietnamese refugee families, you know, sort of started the
Vitnase community in the Greater Portland area. You know, the Vidnamese community that's
there now, you know, whenI went back there a few years ago,
has really grown. You know.I think it's a testament to people
(06:54):
that stayed and tried to make itgrow. And I mean it's really a
testament to the people name too,for letting them flourished there. And I
think she felt really lucky in asense that all the good things that happened
to her in her life in theUS happened. I think she felt an
indebtedness to the people of Maine.Tot volunteered with a refugee resettlement service,
(07:17):
helping immigrants adjust to American life.Todd even opened her own home to newly
arrived refugees, introducing them to Americanpastimes. She would sometimes recruit Chinse to
show them how to play basketball orbaseball. At Maine Medical Center, she
served as an interpreter for Vietnamese patients. Though her English wasn't perfect, she'd
(07:40):
sometimes mispronounce and misspell words. Herexpressive nature allowed her to communicate while teasing
herself about language mistakes became a trademarkof her humor. She also really liked
dressing up and becoming another person andbeing theatrical. She loved costumes and being
on stage. She actually knew howto sing some Vietnamese plays and Vietnamese operas.
(08:05):
She did that when we were reallyyoung, when we were first in
the US, as part of theannual Lunar New Year festivals. In photos
from this vibrant period in Todd's life, you can see her standing proudly with
her family, flashing smiles that werekind and welcoming, or, as Chinzee
said, like a ray of sunshinethat overcame a world of darkness. For
(08:28):
fourteen years, they lived together inthe house on Trundy Point. The family's
life in Maine was idyllic until thesummer of nineteen ninety two, when Clint,
at age seventy two, lost hisbattle with cancer. He'd been through
a lot, right, I mean, two three wars. You know,
he lived a long, full life, and I think all the stress of
(08:50):
those wars and smoking, and youknow, they just caught up to him.
You know, we found out thathe had cancer, and very quickly
he got quite and I think hedied maybe a little over a year and
a half after his initiative diagnosis.And that was obviously, you know,
heard on my mom heard on all. The following summer, the family buoyed
(09:15):
their spirits by taking a trip toVietnam. It was their first time back
since the nineteen seventy five evacuation,and Tot was thrilled to introduce her children
to the family. They'd grown substantiallysince they left to Ham had graduated from
the University of Maine, and Menwas working as an engineer with the Merchant
Marines. Chin Z was still inhigh school, but would soon move to
(09:37):
California to attend Stanford University. Tot'sroots were in Vietnam, but the United
States had become home for both herand her children. We spent the month
out there, mostly in the village. I mean the village would shut down,
you know, we'd come into certainparts of the village, like everybody
would want to stop and come tosee us. If we were driving through
(09:58):
the countryside, workers that were wereworking in rice fields would see us coming
from a distance and literally stop whatthey were doing to watch us pass.
We were true foreigners, and theywanted to know just like everything about us.
And they didn't know a little thethings that you hear about, you
know, Mickey Mouse and Rambo,for example, Like they knew some of
those things. And my mom wentback to go try and give her family
(10:24):
a better life. She was helpingmy uncle and my aunts by rice patties
and by generator businesses and things likethat to help give them a business before
she left and went back home.In nineteen ninety six, after Chinsey headed
off to college, Todd was alonein her house on the Bay. She
was in her early fifties and wantedto find another companion. She found John
(10:46):
Darby and moved to Milton, asmall town in the Panhandle region of Florida,
to be with him. The muggyheat near the coast was reminiscent of
Vietnam's tropical climate, a welcome changeafter eighteen frigid New England winters. She
decided that she'd have to start lifeanew and that's what brought her to Florida.
(11:07):
I think she wanted to start gettingcloser to her Vietnamese passions, and
you know, just warm weather andfishing and growing mangoes, and she was
really looking forward to that. Hernew home was smaller than the one in
Maine, but had the same easyaccess to water. It was just steps
away from the Blackwater River in lessthan a minute's walk to a state park.
(11:31):
Seated on a park bench, Totenjoyed the shade of magnolia trees as
she watched the river pulled ducks,fish, and kayaks slowly south. In
two thousand and one, after fiveyears in Florida, Tot's partner passed away
and she moved again, this timeto be closer to her children. That
summer, she drove to Texas tovisit them. Man and Tuhum lived close
(11:54):
to one another in the suburbs ofHouston. Man was in League City,
where he worked training astronauts at theUnited Space Alliance. Too. Hum,
who married a merchant Marine in nineteenninety five, was a homemaker living in
the neighboring town of Clear Lake.The siblings were growing roots in Texas and
they wanted Tot nearby to share intheir lives. But Tot wasn't sold on
(12:16):
the Houston area. She wanted tolive somewhere with better views of the water
and more access to the beach.She was also looking for a place where
she could buy property that she couldrent out as a landlord. She had
originally argued for Brownsville, the southernmostcity in Texas, right on the Mexican
border. Bet her children told herit was further from them than her home
(12:39):
in Florida. Corpus Christie was asfar as we'd let her go, said
Chinsey. It was less than afour hour drive from men and two Hum
and seemed like the perfect fit forTot. The coastal city is surrounded by
islands in bays and is a popularvacation spot that attracts millions of visitors each
year. Between permanent redis residences andvacation homes. There were an abundance of
(13:03):
real estate options available. Tot madean appointment with a realtor in Corpus Christie
for Friday, the thirteenth of July. Her children helped her prepare for her
trip. Touham mapped out her routedown the coast. Rather than take the
busy Interstate, she'd head south onHighway thirty five, a two lane country
road, though went through a seriesof small towns, It would take Tot
(13:26):
all the way to Corpus if shestayed on track. She planned to leave
early in the morning in order toavoid traffic. The evening before she departed,
Min checked Tot's car to make sureit was in good shape. She
drove a maroon nineteen ninety five LinkingContinental, a four door sedan. Her
Florida license plate red TOTSI. Thegas tank was three fourths full, enough
(13:50):
to get her to her destination withoutstopping. Tot planned to stay with some
friends overnight in Corpus Christie and wouldbe meeting with the reeltor the next day.
On the morning of Thursday, Julytwelfth, Tot woke early. Min
was still sleeping when she departed betweenfive and five thirty am, but he
(14:11):
briefly woke when she kissed him goodbye. At eight thirty am, a friend
called Tot and the phone rang fourtimes before going to voicemail. It would
be the first of many attempts toreach her. Based on the time that
she left Min's house, she shouldhave gotten to Corpus between nine and nine
thirty, but at ten thirty amthe friend called again, and this time
(14:35):
it went straight to voicemail, indicatingthat her phone was off. That evening,
after not hearing from his mother allday, Min called the friends that
she was supposed to be staying with. When he learned that she'd never arrived,
he immediately became worried. The nextday, Tot missed her appointment with
the realtor, and nobody heard fromher through that weekend, though In went
(15:00):
to the League City Police on Thursdayto report her missing. The date on
Tot's official missing person report was Monday, July sixteenth, four days after she
was the last seen. They reallydidn't allow us to file a missing person
claim, you know, until maybeseventy two hours after we last saw her,
and that's a long time, andwe got a lot of kind of
(15:24):
civil liberties thrown at us. Youknow. Oh, well, you know
she's she's a grown lady. Shecan do what she wants like, you
know, no, like why wouldshe you know, she wouldn't do this
is out of character for her.Well, you know, give it some
time, and those are the mostcrucial times. And I don't understand why
law enforcement feels compelled to have agroup of people wait long, especially for
(15:46):
their loved ones. While these initialdays of investigation and panic were unfolding,
Chinsey was oblivious to the truth.Having the trip of a lifetime out west,
a two hundred mile rafting trip throughthe Grand Canyon on the Colorado River.
I was in the bottom of theGrand Canyon in this old, two
million year old rock, and Ijust, I don't know. I just
(16:07):
started thinking about my mom a lotthat day and that night, and it
was just beautiful there, and Iwas laying there on the rock and thinking
about my mom, and I youknow, kind of drifted off to sleep.
It was sort of half asleep,and it felt like something bit my
back. You know, they're tellingus to be on the lookout for scorpions,
so I thought, you know thatI'd been bitten by a scorpion.
(16:29):
The image of my mom got completelysquelched out, and it felt like something
was biting my spine. You know, had a friend with me. His
name was Rob. I said,Bob, you know, did something bite
my back? And you know,he looked up and down my back with
a slash light. Nothing, Andso I just sort of went back to
bed that night, not really thinkingmuch about it. So I came out
and the guide director said, hey, you know, you need to go
(16:52):
make a phone call. Something's happenedwith your family. And I gave a
call to my sister, and mycousin picked up the phone and said,
you have to come home right awaybecause your mom is missing. And I
remember just saying no, and youknow, putting me on the phone,
(17:14):
and they bought me a plane ticket. Tensey quickly made it to Texas and
was confronted with a strange new worldwithout his mom. And I walked into
the offices of Texas Ecuasearch and Iremember seeing flyers, pictures of my mom,
pictures of the car, and justthinking this is surreal. It wasn't
(17:40):
until the following Thursday, July nineteenth, that Todt's description was shared publicly in
the newspaper It read. Harriman isdescribed as being of Asian ancestry, standing
four feet eleven inches tall and weighingone hundred pounds. She has light brown
eyes and wears gold framed eyeglasses.She has black hair streaked with gray,
(18:02):
and wears seven gold bracelets on herright arm. The report also included a
description of Tot's car and urged anyonewith information to contact the League City Police
Department. The weekend of July twentyfirst and twenty second, over a week
after Tot's disappearance, volunteers retraced herroute down the seventy five miles of highway
(18:25):
between League City and Bay City,as well as Port Lavaca and Palacius,
areas closer to Tot's planned destination inCorpus Christi. The search was organized by
Texas Equisearch, an equestrian search andrescue group founded in response to another tragic
disappearance out of Leak City. Innineteen eighty four, a sixteen year old
(18:47):
girl named Laura Miller vanished after usinga payphone at a convenience store. Seventeen
months later, two children biking infields outside the city came across the remains
of another woman. When authorities cameand searched the area, Laura Miller's body
was discovered. Had the first accidentaldiscovery not been made, Laura's body may
(19:10):
never have been found. It wasclear to her father Tim that police efforts
alone could never cover the state's vastopen spaces when searching for missing persons.
He started equisearch as a way tohonor his daughter's memory and help other families
find answers to their loved one's disappearance. While no official connections have been made
(19:30):
by authorities, League City is hometo an area known as the Texas Killing
Fields. Since the nineteen seventies,several women's bodies have been found in and
around a twenty five acre patch ofland, while thirty additional bodies matching similar
descriptions have been found throughout the widerregion of southeast Texas. It is evident
(19:53):
that foul play was a factor inthe majority of these cases, leading many
to believe that several serial killers couldbe behind the unsolved murders. Although some
believe that Tot has a connection tothe Killing Field, she would be an
outlier. All of the other victimswere women between the ages of twelve and
thirty five, but Tot was fiftyseven. With Tim Miller leading them,
(20:18):
EQUA search volunteers spent the weekend scouringthe fields outside of Lake City under the
blazing Texas sun, hoping to findsome trace of Tot or her car.
They searched for miles on those routes, every body of water that they could
think of. They tried to plumbevery possible route they drove, looking for
(20:40):
god rails or something that looked likea car had gone off the road.
They flew multiple versions of the routeusing State police airplanes. We would put
horses on trailers and search for milesand miles along different routes where we thought
maybe there was a chance she couldhave gone off the road. On July
twenty fourth, about two weeks afterTot's disappearance, League City Police detective Richard
(21:06):
Renaisson told reporters that they had gottenseveral tips of sightings of the vehicle,
including claims that it had been drivenerradically on I forty five, the large
highway taught planned to avoid. Onewoman claimed to have seen a man driving
Tot's maroon Sedan three days after shedisappeared. In her account, he was
(21:26):
alone. A composite sketch depicting aslim black man in his early twenties was
released following her report. The amountof detail she was able to recall is
surprising, considering the fact that sheonly caught a brief glimpse of him while
driving on a major highway and aweek had elapsed before she reported the sighting.
(21:48):
Another caller said the car was parkedat a grocery store ten minutes away
from League City in Dickinson, andfortunately, since the reports came in over
a week after the sightings, therewas little that officials could do. Where
do we go look, questioned alieutenant with the Sheriff's department. Following the
July twenty fourth updates, more reportedsightings came in to Tot's family and the
(22:11):
police. A lot of leads turnedout to not be true, said Detective
Renaissance. We had hundreds of sightings, but none we could substantiate. Two
weeks passed and Tot's children were losingfaith in the ability of the police to
locate their mother. They hired aprivate investigator, and Chinzea, who was
twenty four uprooted his life, movingfrom California to Texas. In late July,
(22:37):
he launched a website, Fine taughtdot org to expand the case's reach.
The site contained photos of Todd,details of the case, and contact
information. He asked readers to reachout to major news outlets and TV stations
to spread the word about her disappearance. It is clear from Chinsey's words that
he believed exposure was the best wayto move the case. He's forward.
(23:00):
The bottom of his first post read, please help me find her. Contact
me and tell me your thoughts ordownload flyers because we really have no idea
where she is. Annie assistance couldhelp take them to your local hangouts and
post them. This is what theinternet is for, isn't it. It
(23:21):
gets people from everywhere involved. Chinseyalso used the site to tell the story
of his mother's life. He postedpictures of Tot with her family, including
one of her standing next to himat his graduation from Stanford the previous summer.
Though she is an entire head shorterthan her son, Tot stands tall
in the photo, beaming with prideat Chinsea's accomplishments. He wrote, Hello
(23:48):
everyone, this is my mother's sight. I've tried to put into it everything
that I could find. This ismy dedication to her memory and all for
which she stood. I don't knowwhere she is right now, and I
miss her. She was an incrediblewoman, beyond words at times, whose
life spoke for the good we allhope for, but sometimes let's slip away.
(24:18):
As July turned into August, hopesof finding taught dimmed. Flyers with
pictures of her car were fact topolice stations all along the coast, though
Chinsey didn't feel like they were doingmuch to help. I personally called up
many precincts across Houston and up anddown the coast, Galveston, Victoria,
all along the way, and Iasked them each individually whether they knew of
(24:41):
my mom's case, and in manycases they said no. And so it
really became a bit of a nota bit of It became a personal crusade
to just get my mom's image,get her case in front of people.
And I've spent a year of mylife just doing that pretty much NonStop.
Jinsey turned twenty five in early August. It was the first birthday in his
(25:06):
life where he hadn't heard from hismother. He wrote, if I knew
how my mom disappeared, I couldaccept that, but I don't. Instead,
I search every day to find cluesthat will bring her back to me.
I live now with only an imaginationthat runs wild with ideas, still
blind to the truth. On Augusteleventh, a local newspaper confirmed that police
(25:32):
had gone through Todd's phone records andcredit card statements, which showed that she
hadn't made any calls or purchases sinceher disappearance. The lack of activity,
Detective Renaistan admitted, was very unusual. The only thing they were able to
confirm was that her phone must havelost power or been turned off between eight
and ten thirty a m. Theday of her disappearance, as the first
(25:55):
call that went through rang four timesand the second call didn't ring at all.
He said, we've got a bigpile of nothing. Gen Z said
in the same article, it's beenreally tough. You want to get everything
done as fast as you can,and you want a million people out looking
for her, but it just doesn'thappen that way. It's the helplessness that's
(26:19):
what's hardest for me. You realizejust how fractured the system is and how
human it is, and how everyonejust is mostly just reacting to whatever's in
front of them and just prioritizing whatever'sfirst at hand. There's not this coordinated
effort to find missing people. OnAugust fifteenth, a sergeant from the state
(26:41):
Police summarized the efforts put forth sofar, saying, we started at the
residence and followed the route she plannedto take all the way to Pelashus,
which was the halfway point on hertrip to Corpus. We stopped at every
ravine, every bar, ditch,every body of water, three or four
places that she might have run offthe road. We weren't satisfied with what
(27:03):
we found, so we used aplane on Friday. We're going back in
a helicopter. There are a coupleof areas of water we're going to check
with a john boat. The familyis doing a lot of legwork. We'll
help the family and League City policein any way we can. We are
willing to do whatever it takes.The Victoria Advocate, a local newspaper,
(27:26):
printed two theories on the case inmid August. The first was that Tot
was involved in an automobile accident thatresulted in her car becoming hidden for example,
a deep section of one of thearea's wetlands. Houston's nickname is Bayou
City, and bayous are basically swampsthat contain murky, stagnant water, and
(27:47):
since bayous typically have poorly defined shorelines, it could be hard to spot them
from the road in a search.In twenty eleven, Texas Equisearch released sonar
pictures from three of the city's bayous, which revealed one hundred and twenty seven
vehicles sunk in beneath the surface,possibly with bodies trapped inside. In one
(28:11):
interview, Houston police insisted that evenif they attempted to extract the vehicles,
they would fall apart. Equisearch disagreed, insisting that it would be possible to
remove them intact. At the veryleast, they could recover license plates to
connect the cars to missing persons cases. Tim Miller, the founder, spoke
(28:33):
to The Houston Chronicle in twenty elevenabout police resistance to move forward with the
sunken vehicles. He said, Iwent to the detective and told him we've
got a problem. We've found allthese cars, and he said, you
need to shut up. The citydoesn't have the money and the public will
go crazy about this. The Houstonpolice disagreed with Tim's version of events,
(28:56):
but can see that there are stillhundreds of submerged vehicles. They remain unidentified
in the Bayous today. If Tot'sis among them, it rests silently waiting
to be recovered. The second theorywas that Tot was abducted and the car
was stolen. This was supported bythe sightings of Tot's vehicle being driven erratically,
(29:19):
as well as the family's instincts abouther disappearance. My brothers and I
believe there was foul play involved,said too Hum. In an interview with
the Bankwor Daily News, Jinsey alsoexpressed his inclination to believe that she was
abducted, telling a reporter, wehave thirty or more sightings of the car.
I bet my life that one ofthem is true, which lends more
(29:41):
credence to the kidnapping theory. Tot'schildren knew their mother had strong survival instincts,
but in the same breath, Chinseyacknowledged his mother's outgoing tendencies, saying
she'd easily strike up a conversation.She always wanted to get a sense for
where she was and what type ofpeople lived there. You know, my
mom was fearless, just a fearlessperson. Hey, you know she had
(30:06):
this habit and some people thought itwas just just crazy, but she you
know, when she would go toother cities in the US, she would
just look up the names of Vietnamesepeople in the fun book. She would
just find last names that were vietnamease, and she would just call them up
out of the blue and say,hey, you know, are you from
Vietnam. I'm from Vietnam too,You know, you want to go hang
out. She's just a really goodperson. But the theories were merely speculation,
(30:29):
and Detective Renaissance expressed doubt that theywould get any further finding. Taught
we don't have any promising leads atthis point. Numerous people claim to have
seen the car. We've searched ground, air, water, and basically found
nothing. Ginsey continued posting updates onthe website daily, at times revealing his
(30:51):
cynicism about human nature. I can'tbelieve that she's gone, that someone took
her. What is wrong with people? Couldn't they see her beauty or her
kindness? Why is it that allthey could see was the weakness of a
small and frail woman. On Augustninth, an elderly man named Edgar Findersen
(31:12):
when missing in Yokum, an inlandcity that was about an hour away from
the closest city on Tot's route.Texas Equisearch looked for Edgar and kept their
eyes out for any clues that mightlead them to Tot. They searched around
both Yokum and a city closer toTot's route called Victoria, where police had
received a tip that Tot may havebeen seen on main Street. Tot's children
(31:37):
went to Yokum and Victoria to distributeflyers. On August seventeenth, a month
after her disappearance, a helicopter fromthe state covered thirty five miles of small
highway going through Yokum, and plainssearched the area the following day. It
was still summer and the trees werethick with leaves obstructing their view from the
(31:57):
sky. By Janie, the treeslining the highways of southeast Texas had shed
their leaves, and for a momentthere was renewed hope that increased visibility might
bring new discoveries. The children hadalready settled their mother's finances. They had
removed her things from the Florida housein order to lease it and pay the
(32:17):
mortgage. After taking several months offto aid in the searches, men returned
to work. They were learning tolive with their confusion and their grief.
In February two thousand and two,Chinsey wrote the world again, saying,
for anyone out there who doesn't thinkthat this is real, it is.
(32:37):
My mother has been missing for sevenmonths now, and then he addressed his
mom directly. I'm sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry that I haven't been
able to find you. I don'tknow where you are. I hope that
you're okay. No one will helpme, Mom. I've tried calling newspers.
(33:00):
They don't respond. I put yourstory in the newspaper again and again.
Only a few good people ever reply. The police aren't doing anything for
you anymore. They think that you'redead, but I don't know what to
believe. Sometimes I think that I'mgoing to die on the inside. I
(33:22):
miss you so much. I wasgoing to take care of you, and
I feel like I've let you down. I'm sorry, Mom, Please God
forgive me. I have never feltso helpless in my life. I love
you, Mom, and I missyou very much. We all do.
(33:44):
On July twelfth, two thousand andtwo, a year to the day after
Tot's disappearance, mourners filed through thefront doors of Spurwink Church in Cape Elizabeth,
Maine, leave swaye in a faintbreeze against the clear summer sky,
the trees. It's all only neighbourson a quiet country road. As people
walked inside the lonesome white chapel,Tot's face smiled at them from picture frames,
(34:08):
bringing them warmth and companionship. Ithad been one year since she kissed
her son goodbye and departed on ajourney from which she'd never return. People
listened from sunlit pews as men toohum and Chinsey took turns speaking about her
life. Ginsey considered the service tobe a chance for people to pay tribute
(34:29):
to his mom. They had traveledback to Maine for the occasion, the
place where Tat spent the most time, building a community and raising her family.
The service was attended by loved onesfrom every corner of Tot's life,
friends who'd sat around her kitchen table, indulging in Vietnamese dishes and laughing at
her jokes, fellow immigrants who she'dwelcomed to America with her kindness and hospitality,
(34:52):
and of course her family. Theyplaced a memorial marker for her in
the cemetery behind the church, thesame place their father, Clint, was
buried. Fresh cut grass cushioned theirsteps as they went to place flowers at
the modest headstone. Tot Tran Harrimanwas engraved in the flat gray granite marker
(35:14):
that was buried level with the ground. It was inscribed simply in all caps
military style, with one line devotedto a single word missing. Despite their
pain, Tot's relentless optimism lived onin her children. To Ham said,
aside from the nightmare, I actuallyfeel pretty blessed. I have a family
(35:37):
and friends surrounding me. In away, it's allowed me to realize what
I do have and not to dwellso much on what I don't. It's
been twenty years since Tot's funeral.I asked Chinsey what he thought happened to
his mom. Maybe worst case scenario, and I mean, probably what happened
(35:59):
is and she drove into one ofthese towns in Texas, And like I
said, she's very friendly, youknow, very fearless and maybe even sort
of charmed a little bit. Youknow, we didn't really know how rough
and violent Texas could be. Andit's possible that she just walked into a
(36:20):
cafe or you know, got somecoffee. You know, she left very
early that morning and she was juststopping somewhere and she said, hey,
how are you, and some guyslike you know, looking at her car,
and she wore gold jewelry and theygot no conversation, and she said,
yeah, I'm looking for property.And maybe someone was like, oh,
(36:43):
I've got property right down the road, you know, you want to
go see it, and you know, just some mix of maybe just some
evil person crossed paths with her.Maybe it was even racially motivated, and
her life ended, and you know, car was chopped up for parts and
the stones were taken out of therings and sold it pawnshops. I don't
think it could be worse than that. He spoke to me about the pain
(37:07):
of losing his mom. You know, I've had a lot of time to
heal, I've had a lot oftime to think about it. I've had
a lot of ways to make mypeace with it. But it doesn't really
make it that much easier, andI think all of us are still looking
for an answer. Doesn't change howmuch people love our mom or love our
(37:30):
father, you know, doesn't changeany of those things. It's just sort
of an open would you know thatyou just have to walk over, you
know, losing my mom. Shewas obviously one of the most important people
in my life. We were veryclose, and you know, I live
my life every day as if it'smy last. He has a soft spot
(37:54):
and his hard for other families whohave lost someone As a missing person a
Fate says he doesn't wish on anyone. I think it's an awful way for
a person's life to end. Iwouldn't wish that anybody to have someone like
that. You know, someone hasbeen right up the world like that.
(38:14):
To go like that without being ableto pay respect to that person in the
right way, you know, itmakes you so angry. Following the funeral
service, people gathered at Kate ElizabethMiddle School to trade stories about Tot,
her infectious laughter and her boundless energy. Gen Zy imagined what Tot would have
(38:38):
said if she had been there.I know that she feels lucky for having
gotten the time to spend with allof us. I think she would say,
thank you. My name is KristenStevie, and thank you so much
(38:59):
for joining me. If you likewhat you heard and you want more,
you can find my podcast, Murdershe Told on any platform. If you
have any information about the disappearance ofTodd Harriman, I encourage you to contact
the Leake City Police Department at twoeight one three three two two five sixty
six. A very special thanks toChinsee for sharing his memories with us.
(39:22):
A detailed list of sources and photoscan be found at murder sheytold dot com.
Thank you for listening, and staysafe New Mexico
Hey, true advocates. This ispart two of Todd Harriman's story, so
if you haven't listened to part one, I highly suggest starting their first.
We left off with Todd in herfamily starting their new life together in America.
I'm Kristin Sevie from murder, shetold, and this is true consequences.
(00:40):
Tahoe's mountains shrank in the rear viewmirror as Clint drove his family east.
Refreshed and ready to start their newlife, they moved near Clint's mother
in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, justsouth of Portland. Their home was spacious,
with panoramic views of the bay.Just steps from their front door was
Trundy Point, a small peninsula wherethey could watch waves crash against the bluffs
(01:04):
and cast lines into the water.It was perfect for tot fishing, reminded
her of home. Clint married oncemore, this time with an American marriage
certificate. Minn also took on theHareman name. He'd never gotten a chance
to know his biological father, whohad died when he was young, and
Clint embraced him as his own innineteen seventy seven. Two years later,
(01:30):
Todt and Clint welcomed another son.They named him Chinsea. Most Vietnamese names,
they have a meaning. A lotof the times. They're designed to
be a reflection on your character ora reflection on who your parents would like
you to become. And there aresome names, especially women's names, are
just evocative of like something in nature. I love flower is very common.
(01:56):
But my name and my dad andmy mom had just come back from the
world or and my dad wanted meto have a name that reflected something from
their time together. So yeah,he went home after I was born,
and he looked up in a VietnameseAmerican dictionary something along the lines of a
warrior or soldier, and that's howhe came up with my name. But
(02:21):
there's there's no there's no one elsereally who's received the name. So when
I go to Vietnam now and Itell them what my name is, you
know, they're they're either kind oflike, Okay, that's cool, or
like, well, you know thatthat's a pretty that's a pretty intense name.
Chinzi is sort I think is areflective of a Vietnamese force that existed
at a time that was just knownfor being brave. I mean, it's
(02:46):
a pretty strong name, right,So I think it's kind of like you
met someone and they said, youknow, hey, my name's Rambo,
you'd be like, oh, okay. I mean, you know, you
have a lot to live up toround a name like that. The kids
who were enrolled in school and Totstayed busy as a mother and a homemaker.
She was active in her children's schoolin extracurricular activities, and welcomed their
(03:07):
friends into her home. Two homsshared a memory of Tot's hospitality. I
remember coming home from high school dancesat eleven at night with friends, and
my mom would get up and cookus a full meal. She'd do a
stirfry and rice and some fruit,the whole nine yards. Naturally, the
house became the go to hangout spot. Many of her children's friends even called
(03:29):
her mom. Well, I putit this way, my mom was really
very generous with her time, reallygenerous with her energy, and she loved
getting to know people. She lovedmaking them feel at home. She used
to do a lot of cooking forthe neighborhood, and she'd invite people over
a lot that weren't Vietnamese, justpeople in our neighborhood and we'd have these
(03:53):
things called kitchen dinners, and we'dsit around a little table that we had
in the kitchen, and we'd allmy mom would make a great meal.
She was always known for her cookingand how great her cooking was, and
she fed a lot of people andit always felt lovely and everyone really appreciated
all of her time and all ofher thoughtfulness there, you know, of
(04:15):
her friends, and from her earlylife in Vietnam, the two things that
she became really skilled at were cookingand sewing. You know, I also
remember my mom giving people a lotof joy making dresses for them, especially
wedding dresses. She would just geta client that would come over with just
a picture of a wedding dress thatyou know, a lot of times maybe
(04:38):
was too extravagantly priced, and mymom would, you know, sort of
diligently cut all the cloth and makeall the patterns and build a custom wedding
dress with all the brocading. Andyou know, I would see my mom
sitting there late at night just beating, you know, one beat at a
time onto these wedding dresses. AndI think that gave her a lot of
joy, and I think she didit really food was a central part of
(05:01):
life. She taught cooking classes forfellow maners, and she even opened a
Vietnamese restaurant in Portland named after herdaughter, to Hum, where she was
known to Greek customers with big smilesand friendly conversation. Taught embraced American life
and later said that she considered herselfquote more American than Vietnamese, but she
(05:24):
also honored her roots. Although shewasn't able to raise her children in Vietnam,
she made sure that their lives wereinfused with its culture. My mom
was sort of funny, like shewas sort of like a cultural ambassador in
a way. I mean, Idon't want to like overblow it, but
yeah, you know she kind ofwas. You know, it didn't matter
how many people came. She youknow, she would throw big parties around
(05:46):
the Vietnamese New Year, and ourhouse would just be filled. I mean
it was like a nightclub. Youknow, you couldn't even sit down,
there's so many people there, foodfor one hundred people. I remember her
praying during the times of the ceremonyduring the Vietnamese New Year. You know,
she was bringing all of those experiencesover to Maine, and everyone you
know, would watch with a lotof respect, and you know, our
(06:09):
house to get really quiet, whilemy mom would pray even during those big
parties. She just had a wayof bringing people together and experiencing something new.
The Vietnamese population in Portland was verysmall when taught in her family arrived.
Even today, Maine as a wholeis ninety four percent white. She
(06:29):
wasn't just a minority. She wasone of the very few Vietnamese families in
Greater Portland when she arrived in nineteenseventy five. You know, my mom
with a handful of Vietnamese refugee families, you know, sort of started the
Vitnase community in the Greater Portland area. You know, the Vidnamese community that's
there now, you know, whenI went back there a few years ago,
has really grown. You know.I think it's a testament to people
(06:54):
that stayed and tried to make itgrow. And I mean it's really a
testament to the people name too,for letting them flourished there. And I
think she felt really lucky in asense that all the good things that happened
to her in her life in theUS happened. I think she felt an
indebtedness to the people of Maine.Tot volunteered with a refugee resettlement service,
(07:17):
helping immigrants adjust to American life.Todd even opened her own home to newly
arrived refugees, introducing them to Americanpastimes. She would sometimes recruit Chinse to
show them how to play basketball orbaseball. At Maine Medical Center, she
served as an interpreter for Vietnamese patients. Though her English wasn't perfect, she'd
(07:40):
sometimes mispronounce and misspell words. Herexpressive nature allowed her to communicate while teasing
herself about language mistakes became a trademarkof her humor. She also really liked
dressing up and becoming another person andbeing theatrical. She loved costumes and being
on stage. She actually knew howto sing some Vietnamese plays and Vietnamese operas.
(08:05):
She did that when we were reallyyoung, when we were first in
the US, as part of theannual Lunar New Year festivals. In photos
from this vibrant period in Todd's life, you can see her standing proudly with
her family, flashing smiles that werekind and welcoming, or, as Chinzee
said, like a ray of sunshinethat overcame a world of darkness. For
(08:28):
fourteen years, they lived together inthe house on Trundy Point. The family's
life in Maine was idyllic until thesummer of nineteen ninety two, when Clint,
at age seventy two, lost hisbattle with cancer. He'd been through
a lot, right, I mean, two three wars. You know,
he lived a long, full life, and I think all the stress of
(08:50):
those wars and smoking, and youknow, they just caught up to him.
You know, we found out thathe had cancer, and very quickly
he got quite and I think hedied maybe a little over a year and
a half after his initiative diagnosis.And that was obviously, you know,
heard on my mom heard on all. The following summer, the family buoyed
(09:15):
their spirits by taking a trip toVietnam. It was their first time back
since the nineteen seventy five evacuation,and Tot was thrilled to introduce her children
to the family. They'd grown substantiallysince they left to Ham had graduated from
the University of Maine, and Menwas working as an engineer with the Merchant
Marines. Chin Z was still inhigh school, but would soon move to
(09:37):
California to attend Stanford University. Tot'sroots were in Vietnam, but the United
States had become home for both herand her children. We spent the month
out there, mostly in the village. I mean the village would shut down,
you know, we'd come into certainparts of the village, like everybody
would want to stop and come tosee us. If we were driving through
(09:58):
the countryside, workers that were wereworking in rice fields would see us coming
from a distance and literally stop whatthey were doing to watch us pass.
We were true foreigners, and theywanted to know just like everything about us.
And they didn't know a little thethings that you hear about, you
know, Mickey Mouse and Rambo,for example, Like they knew some of
those things. And my mom wentback to go try and give her family
(10:24):
a better life. She was helpingmy uncle and my aunts by rice patties
and by generator businesses and things likethat to help give them a business before
she left and went back home.In nineteen ninety six, after Chinsey headed
off to college, Todd was alonein her house on the Bay. She
was in her early fifties and wantedto find another companion. She found John
(10:46):
Darby and moved to Milton, asmall town in the Panhandle region of Florida,
to be with him. The muggyheat near the coast was reminiscent of
Vietnam's tropical climate, a welcome changeafter eighteen frigid New England winters. She
decided that she'd have to start lifeanew and that's what brought her to Florida.
(11:07):
I think she wanted to start gettingcloser to her Vietnamese passions, and
you know, just warm weather andfishing and growing mangoes, and she was
really looking forward to that. Hernew home was smaller than the one in
Maine, but had the same easyaccess to water. It was just steps
away from the Blackwater River in lessthan a minute's walk to a state park.
(11:31):
Seated on a park bench, Totenjoyed the shade of magnolia trees as
she watched the river pulled ducks,fish, and kayaks slowly south. In
two thousand and one, after fiveyears in Florida, Tot's partner passed away
and she moved again, this timeto be closer to her children. That
summer, she drove to Texas tovisit them. Man and Tuhum lived close
(11:54):
to one another in the suburbs ofHouston. Man was in League City,
where he worked training astronauts at theUnited Space Alliance. Too. Hum,
who married a merchant Marine in nineteenninety five, was a homemaker living in
the neighboring town of Clear Lake.The siblings were growing roots in Texas and
they wanted Tot nearby to share intheir lives. But Tot wasn't sold on
(12:16):
the Houston area. She wanted tolive somewhere with better views of the water
and more access to the beach.She was also looking for a place where
she could buy property that she couldrent out as a landlord. She had
originally argued for Brownsville, the southernmostcity in Texas, right on the Mexican
border. Bet her children told herit was further from them than her home
(12:39):
in Florida. Corpus Christie was asfar as we'd let her go, said
Chinsey. It was less than afour hour drive from men and two Hum
and seemed like the perfect fit forTot. The coastal city is surrounded by
islands in bays and is a popularvacation spot that attracts millions of visitors each
year. Between permanent redis residences andvacation homes. There were an abundance of
(13:03):
real estate options available. Tot madean appointment with a realtor in Corpus Christie
for Friday, the thirteenth of July. Her children helped her prepare for her
trip. Touham mapped out her routedown the coast. Rather than take the
busy Interstate, she'd head south onHighway thirty five, a two lane country
road, though went through a seriesof small towns, It would take Tot
(13:26):
all the way to Corpus if shestayed on track. She planned to leave
early in the morning in order toavoid traffic. The evening before she departed,
Min checked Tot's car to make sureit was in good shape. She
drove a maroon nineteen ninety five LinkingContinental, a four door sedan. Her
Florida license plate red TOTSI. Thegas tank was three fourths full, enough
(13:50):
to get her to her destination withoutstopping. Tot planned to stay with some
friends overnight in Corpus Christie and wouldbe meeting with the reeltor the next day.
On the morning of Thursday, Julytwelfth, Tot woke early. Min
was still sleeping when she departed betweenfive and five thirty am, but he
(14:11):
briefly woke when she kissed him goodbye. At eight thirty am, a friend
called Tot and the phone rang fourtimes before going to voicemail. It would
be the first of many attempts toreach her. Based on the time that
she left Min's house, she shouldhave gotten to Corpus between nine and nine
thirty, but at ten thirty amthe friend called again, and this time
(14:35):
it went straight to voicemail, indicatingthat her phone was off. That evening,
after not hearing from his mother allday, Min called the friends that
she was supposed to be staying with. When he learned that she'd never arrived,
he immediately became worried. The nextday, Tot missed her appointment with
the realtor, and nobody heard fromher through that weekend, though In went
(15:00):
to the League City Police on Thursdayto report her missing. The date on
Tot's official missing person report was Monday, July sixteenth, four days after she
was the last seen. They reallydidn't allow us to file a missing person
claim, you know, until maybeseventy two hours after we last saw her,
and that's a long time, andwe got a lot of kind of
(15:24):
civil liberties thrown at us. Youknow. Oh, well, you know
she's she's a grown lady. Shecan do what she wants like, you
know, no, like why wouldshe you know, she wouldn't do this
is out of character for her.Well, you know, give it some
time, and those are the mostcrucial times. And I don't understand why
law enforcement feels compelled to have agroup of people wait long, especially for
(15:46):
their loved ones. While these initialdays of investigation and panic were unfolding,
Chinsey was oblivious to the truth.Having the trip of a lifetime out west,
a two hundred mile rafting trip throughthe Grand Canyon on the Colorado River.
I was in the bottom of theGrand Canyon in this old, two
million year old rock, and Ijust, I don't know. I just
(16:07):
started thinking about my mom a lotthat day and that night, and it
was just beautiful there, and Iwas laying there on the rock and thinking
about my mom, and I youknow, kind of drifted off to sleep.
It was sort of half asleep,and it felt like something bit my
back. You know, they're tellingus to be on the lookout for scorpions,
so I thought, you know thatI'd been bitten by a scorpion.
(16:29):
The image of my mom got completelysquelched out, and it felt like something
was biting my spine. You know, had a friend with me. His
name was Rob. I said,Bob, you know, did something bite
my back? And you know,he looked up and down my back with
a slash light. Nothing, Andso I just sort of went back to
bed that night, not really thinkingmuch about it. So I came out
and the guide director said, hey, you know, you need to go
(16:52):
make a phone call. Something's happenedwith your family. And I gave a
call to my sister, and mycousin picked up the phone and said,
you have to come home right awaybecause your mom is missing. And I
remember just saying no, and youknow, putting me on the phone,
(17:14):
and they bought me a plane ticket. Tensey quickly made it to Texas and
was confronted with a strange new worldwithout his mom. And I walked into
the offices of Texas Ecuasearch and Iremember seeing flyers, pictures of my mom,
pictures of the car, and justthinking this is surreal. It wasn't
(17:40):
until the following Thursday, July nineteenth, that Todt's description was shared publicly in
the newspaper It read. Harriman isdescribed as being of Asian ancestry, standing
four feet eleven inches tall and weighingone hundred pounds. She has light brown
eyes and wears gold framed eyeglasses.She has black hair streaked with gray,
(18:02):
and wears seven gold bracelets on herright arm. The report also included a
description of Tot's car and urged anyonewith information to contact the League City Police
Department. The weekend of July twentyfirst and twenty second, over a week
after Tot's disappearance, volunteers retraced herroute down the seventy five miles of highway
(18:25):
between League City and Bay City,as well as Port Lavaca and Palacius,
areas closer to Tot's planned destination inCorpus Christi. The search was organized by
Texas Equisearch, an equestrian search andrescue group founded in response to another tragic
disappearance out of Leak City. Innineteen eighty four, a sixteen year old
(18:47):
girl named Laura Miller vanished after usinga payphone at a convenience store. Seventeen
months later, two children biking infields outside the city came across the remains
of another woman. When authorities cameand searched the area, Laura Miller's body
was discovered. Had the first accidentaldiscovery not been made, Laura's body may
(19:10):
never have been found. It wasclear to her father Tim that police efforts
alone could never cover the state's vastopen spaces when searching for missing persons.
He started equisearch as a way tohonor his daughter's memory and help other families
find answers to their loved one's disappearance. While no official connections have been made
(19:30):
by authorities, League City is hometo an area known as the Texas Killing
Fields. Since the nineteen seventies,several women's bodies have been found in and
around a twenty five acre patch ofland, while thirty additional bodies matching similar
descriptions have been found throughout the widerregion of southeast Texas. It is evident
(19:53):
that foul play was a factor inthe majority of these cases, leading many
to believe that several serial killers couldbe behind the unsolved murders. Although some
believe that Tot has a connection tothe Killing Field, she would be an
outlier. All of the other victimswere women between the ages of twelve and
thirty five, but Tot was fiftyseven. With Tim Miller leading them,
(20:18):
EQUA search volunteers spent the weekend scouringthe fields outside of Lake City under the
blazing Texas sun, hoping to findsome trace of Tot or her car.
They searched for miles on those routes, every body of water that they could
think of. They tried to plumbevery possible route they drove, looking for
(20:40):
god rails or something that looked likea car had gone off the road.
They flew multiple versions of the routeusing State police airplanes. We would put
horses on trailers and search for milesand miles along different routes where we thought
maybe there was a chance she couldhave gone off the road. On July
twenty fourth, about two weeks afterTot's disappearance, League City Police detective Richard
(21:06):
Renaisson told reporters that they had gottenseveral tips of sightings of the vehicle,
including claims that it had been drivenerradically on I forty five, the large
highway taught planned to avoid. Onewoman claimed to have seen a man driving
Tot's maroon Sedan three days after shedisappeared. In her account, he was
(21:26):
alone. A composite sketch depicting aslim black man in his early twenties was
released following her report. The amountof detail she was able to recall is
surprising, considering the fact that sheonly caught a brief glimpse of him while
driving on a major highway and aweek had elapsed before she reported the sighting.
(21:48):
Another caller said the car was parkedat a grocery store ten minutes away
from League City in Dickinson, andfortunately, since the reports came in over
a week after the sightings, therewas little that officials could do. Where
do we go look, questioned alieutenant with the Sheriff's department. Following the
July twenty fourth updates, more reportedsightings came in to Tot's family and the
(22:11):
police. A lot of leads turnedout to not be true, said Detective
Renaissance. We had hundreds of sightings, but none we could substantiate. Two
weeks passed and Tot's children were losingfaith in the ability of the police to
locate their mother. They hired aprivate investigator, and Chinzea, who was
twenty four uprooted his life, movingfrom California to Texas. In late July,
(22:37):
he launched a website, Fine taughtdot org to expand the case's reach.
The site contained photos of Todd,details of the case, and contact
information. He asked readers to reachout to major news outlets and TV stations
to spread the word about her disappearance. It is clear from Chinsey's words that
he believed exposure was the best wayto move the case. He's forward.
(23:00):
The bottom of his first post read, please help me find her. Contact
me and tell me your thoughts ordownload flyers because we really have no idea
where she is. Annie assistance couldhelp take them to your local hangouts and
post them. This is what theinternet is for, isn't it. It
(23:21):
gets people from everywhere involved. Chinseyalso used the site to tell the story
of his mother's life. He postedpictures of Tot with her family, including
one of her standing next to himat his graduation from Stanford the previous summer.
Though she is an entire head shorterthan her son, Tot stands tall
in the photo, beaming with prideat Chinsea's accomplishments. He wrote, Hello
(23:48):
everyone, this is my mother's sight. I've tried to put into it everything
that I could find. This ismy dedication to her memory and all for
which she stood. I don't knowwhere she is right now, and I
miss her. She was an incrediblewoman, beyond words at times, whose
life spoke for the good we allhope for, but sometimes let's slip away.
(24:18):
As July turned into August, hopesof finding taught dimmed. Flyers with
pictures of her car were fact topolice stations all along the coast, though
Chinsey didn't feel like they were doingmuch to help. I personally called up
many precincts across Houston and up anddown the coast, Galveston, Victoria,
all along the way, and Iasked them each individually whether they knew of
(24:41):
my mom's case, and in manycases they said no. And so it
really became a bit of a nota bit of It became a personal crusade
to just get my mom's image,get her case in front of people.
And I've spent a year of mylife just doing that pretty much NonStop.
Jinsey turned twenty five in early August. It was the first birthday in his
(25:06):
life where he hadn't heard from hismother. He wrote, if I knew
how my mom disappeared, I couldaccept that, but I don't. Instead,
I search every day to find cluesthat will bring her back to me.
I live now with only an imaginationthat runs wild with ideas, still
blind to the truth. On Augusteleventh, a local newspaper confirmed that police
(25:32):
had gone through Todd's phone records andcredit card statements, which showed that she
hadn't made any calls or purchases sinceher disappearance. The lack of activity,
Detective Renaistan admitted, was very unusual. The only thing they were able to
confirm was that her phone must havelost power or been turned off between eight
and ten thirty a m. Theday of her disappearance, as the first
(25:55):
call that went through rang four timesand the second call didn't ring at all.
He said, we've got a bigpile of nothing. Gen Z said
in the same article, it's beenreally tough. You want to get everything
done as fast as you can,and you want a million people out looking
for her, but it just doesn'thappen that way. It's the helplessness that's
(26:19):
what's hardest for me. You realizejust how fractured the system is and how
human it is, and how everyonejust is mostly just reacting to whatever's in
front of them and just prioritizing whatever'sfirst at hand. There's not this coordinated
effort to find missing people. OnAugust fifteenth, a sergeant from the state
(26:41):
Police summarized the efforts put forth sofar, saying, we started at the
residence and followed the route she plannedto take all the way to Pelashus,
which was the halfway point on hertrip to Corpus. We stopped at every
ravine, every bar, ditch,every body of water, three or four
places that she might have run offthe road. We weren't satisfied with what
(27:03):
we found, so we used aplane on Friday. We're going back in
a helicopter. There are a coupleof areas of water we're going to check
with a john boat. The familyis doing a lot of legwork. We'll
help the family and League City policein any way we can. We are
willing to do whatever it takes.The Victoria Advocate, a local newspaper,
(27:26):
printed two theories on the case inmid August. The first was that Tot
was involved in an automobile accident thatresulted in her car becoming hidden for example,
a deep section of one of thearea's wetlands. Houston's nickname is Bayou
City, and bayous are basically swampsthat contain murky, stagnant water, and
(27:47):
since bayous typically have poorly defined shorelines, it could be hard to spot them
from the road in a search.In twenty eleven, Texas Equisearch released sonar
pictures from three of the city's bayous, which revealed one hundred and twenty seven
vehicles sunk in beneath the surface,possibly with bodies trapped inside. In one
(28:11):
interview, Houston police insisted that evenif they attempted to extract the vehicles,
they would fall apart. Equisearch disagreed, insisting that it would be possible to
remove them intact. At the veryleast, they could recover license plates to
connect the cars to missing persons cases. Tim Miller, the founder, spoke
(28:33):
to The Houston Chronicle in twenty elevenabout police resistance to move forward with the
sunken vehicles. He said, Iwent to the detective and told him we've
got a problem. We've found allthese cars, and he said, you
need to shut up. The citydoesn't have the money and the public will
go crazy about this. The Houstonpolice disagreed with Tim's version of events,
(28:56):
but can see that there are stillhundreds of submerged vehicles. They remain unidentified
in the Bayous today. If Tot'sis among them, it rests silently waiting
to be recovered. The second theorywas that Tot was abducted and the car
was stolen. This was supported bythe sightings of Tot's vehicle being driven erratically,
(29:19):
as well as the family's instincts abouther disappearance. My brothers and I
believe there was foul play involved,said too Hum. In an interview with
the Bankwor Daily News, Jinsey alsoexpressed his inclination to believe that she was
abducted, telling a reporter, wehave thirty or more sightings of the car.
I bet my life that one ofthem is true, which lends more
(29:41):
credence to the kidnapping theory. Tot'schildren knew their mother had strong survival instincts,
but in the same breath, Chinseyacknowledged his mother's outgoing tendencies, saying
she'd easily strike up a conversation.She always wanted to get a sense for
where she was and what type ofpeople lived there. You know, my
mom was fearless, just a fearlessperson. Hey, you know she had
(30:06):
this habit and some people thought itwas just just crazy, but she you
know, when she would go toother cities in the US, she would
just look up the names of Vietnamesepeople in the fun book. She would
just find last names that were vietnamease, and she would just call them up
out of the blue and say,hey, you know, are you from
Vietnam. I'm from Vietnam too,You know, you want to go hang
out. She's just a really goodperson. But the theories were merely speculation,
(30:29):
and Detective Renaissance expressed doubt that theywould get any further finding. Taught
we don't have any promising leads atthis point. Numerous people claim to have
seen the car. We've searched ground, air, water, and basically found
nothing. Ginsey continued posting updates onthe website daily, at times revealing his
(30:51):
cynicism about human nature. I can'tbelieve that she's gone, that someone took
her. What is wrong with people? Couldn't they see her beauty or her
kindness? Why is it that allthey could see was the weakness of a
small and frail woman. On Augustninth, an elderly man named Edgar Findersen
(31:12):
when missing in Yokum, an inlandcity that was about an hour away from
the closest city on Tot's route.Texas Equisearch looked for Edgar and kept their
eyes out for any clues that mightlead them to Tot. They searched around
both Yokum and a city closer toTot's route called Victoria, where police had
received a tip that Tot may havebeen seen on main Street. Tot's children
(31:37):
went to Yokum and Victoria to distributeflyers. On August seventeenth, a month
after her disappearance, a helicopter fromthe state covered thirty five miles of small
highway going through Yokum, and plainssearched the area the following day. It
was still summer and the trees werethick with leaves obstructing their view from the
(31:57):
sky. By Janie, the treeslining the highways of southeast Texas had shed
their leaves, and for a momentthere was renewed hope that increased visibility might
bring new discoveries. The children hadalready settled their mother's finances. They had
removed her things from the Florida housein order to lease it and pay the
(32:17):
mortgage. After taking several months offto aid in the searches, men returned
to work. They were learning tolive with their confusion and their grief.
In February two thousand and two,Chinsey wrote the world again, saying,
for anyone out there who doesn't thinkthat this is real, it is.
(32:37):
My mother has been missing for sevenmonths now, and then he addressed his
mom directly. I'm sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry that I haven't been
able to find you. I don'tknow where you are. I hope that
you're okay. No one will helpme, Mom. I've tried calling newspers.
(33:00):
They don't respond. I put yourstory in the newspaper again and again.
Only a few good people ever reply. The police aren't doing anything for
you anymore. They think that you'redead, but I don't know what to
believe. Sometimes I think that I'mgoing to die on the inside. I
(33:22):
miss you so much. I wasgoing to take care of you, and
I feel like I've let you down. I'm sorry, Mom, Please God
forgive me. I have never feltso helpless in my life. I love
you, Mom, and I missyou very much. We all do.
(33:44):
On July twelfth, two thousand andtwo, a year to the day after
Tot's disappearance, mourners filed through thefront doors of Spurwink Church in Cape Elizabeth,
Maine, leave swaye in a faintbreeze against the clear summer sky,
the trees. It's all only neighbourson a quiet country road. As people
walked inside the lonesome white chapel,Tot's face smiled at them from picture frames,
(34:08):
bringing them warmth and companionship. Ithad been one year since she kissed
her son goodbye and departed on ajourney from which she'd never return. People
listened from sunlit pews as men toohum and Chinsey took turns speaking about her
life. Ginsey considered the service tobe a chance for people to pay tribute
(34:29):
to his mom. They had traveledback to Maine for the occasion, the
place where Tat spent the most time, building a community and raising her family.
The service was attended by loved onesfrom every corner of Tot's life,
friends who'd sat around her kitchen table, indulging in Vietnamese dishes and laughing at
her jokes, fellow immigrants who she'dwelcomed to America with her kindness and hospitality,
(34:52):
and of course her family. Theyplaced a memorial marker for her in
the cemetery behind the church, thesame place their father, Clint, was
buried. Fresh cut grass cushioned theirsteps as they went to place flowers at
the modest headstone. Tot Tran Harrimanwas engraved in the flat gray granite marker
(35:14):
that was buried level with the ground. It was inscribed simply in all caps
military style, with one line devotedto a single word missing. Despite their
pain, Tot's relentless optimism lived onin her children. To Ham said,
aside from the nightmare, I actuallyfeel pretty blessed. I have a family
(35:37):
and friends surrounding me. In away, it's allowed me to realize what
I do have and not to dwellso much on what I don't. It's
been twenty years since Tot's funeral.I asked Chinsey what he thought happened to
his mom. Maybe worst case scenario, and I mean, probably what happened
(35:59):
is and she drove into one ofthese towns in Texas, And like I
said, she's very friendly, youknow, very fearless and maybe even sort
of charmed a little bit. Youknow, we didn't really know how rough
and violent Texas could be. Andit's possible that she just walked into a
(36:20):
cafe or you know, got somecoffee. You know, she left very
early that morning and she was juststopping somewhere and she said, hey,
how are you, and some guyslike you know, looking at her car,
and she wore gold jewelry and theygot no conversation, and she said,
yeah, I'm looking for property.And maybe someone was like, oh,
(36:43):
I've got property right down the road, you know, you want to
go see it, and you know, just some mix of maybe just some
evil person crossed paths with her.Maybe it was even racially motivated, and
her life ended, and you know, car was chopped up for parts and
the stones were taken out of therings and sold it pawnshops. I don't
think it could be worse than that. He spoke to me about the pain
(37:07):
of losing his mom. You know, I've had a lot of time to
heal, I've had a lot oftime to think about it. I've had
a lot of ways to make mypeace with it. But it doesn't really
make it that much easier, andI think all of us are still looking
for an answer. Doesn't change howmuch people love our mom or love our
(37:30):
father, you know, doesn't changeany of those things. It's just sort
of an open would you know thatyou just have to walk over, you
know, losing my mom. Shewas obviously one of the most important people
in my life. We were veryclose, and you know, I live
my life every day as if it'smy last. He has a soft spot
(37:54):
and his hard for other families whohave lost someone As a missing person a
Fate says he doesn't wish on anyone. I think it's an awful way for
a person's life to end. Iwouldn't wish that anybody to have someone like
that. You know, someone hasbeen right up the world like that.
(38:14):
To go like that without being ableto pay respect to that person in the
right way, you know, itmakes you so angry. Following the funeral
service, people gathered at Kate ElizabethMiddle School to trade stories about Tot,
her infectious laughter and her boundless energy. Gen Zy imagined what Tot would have
(38:38):
said if she had been there.I know that she feels lucky for having
gotten the time to spend with allof us. I think she would say,
thank you. My name is KristenStevie, and thank you so much
(38:59):
for joining me. If you likewhat you heard and you want more,
you can find my podcast, Murdershe Told on any platform. If you
have any information about the disappearance ofTodd Harriman, I encourage you to contact
the Leake City Police Department at twoeight one three three two two five sixty
six. A very special thanks toChinsee for sharing his memories with us.
(39:22):
A detailed list of sources and photoscan be found at murder sheytold dot com.
Thank you for listening, and staysafe New Mexico
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