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Jeanine Harms
LG woman disappears after Pruneyard visit
By Gloria I. Wang
A woman
who grew up in Campbell and attended Prospect High School has
turned up missing after an evening at the Pruneyard Shopping
Center.
Jeanine
Harms, reported missing from her Los Gatos home July 30, is
characterized by family and friends as responsible, well-known and
well-liked.
Harms'
oldest brother, Craig Sanchez, says his sister is an outgoing and
social person.
Harms,
42, has not been seen since the evening of July 27, after a male
friend left her Chirco Drive duplex.
Born
Jeanine Sanchez in San Jose, Harms grew up in Campbell and is the
youngest and only girl among three children. As a freshman at
Prospect High School in 1974, she met Janice Burnham and they "hit
it off instantly," Burnham said. The two have been close friends
for 27 years. Later on in high school, Harms met Campbell resident
Loretta Meyer, another lifelong friend.
"She
was always a real prominent fixture at Prospect," Meyer said. A
popular and outgoing figure on campus, Harms always dressed in the
latest fashions.
"She
instantly befriended everyone she met," Meyer said.
After
graduation, Harms attended San Jose State University and earned a
bachelor's degree in liberal arts. Meyer said Harms' neighbor, a
purchasing manager at Amdahl, a local high-tech company, hired
Harms fresh out of college. Harms has since "worked through the
ranks" in her 12 years at the Sunnyvale company.
Six
years ago, she married Randy Harms. The two purchased a home in
Discovery Bay and Harms commuted to Sunnyvale for three months
until the marriage fell apart.
Harms
and her husband have been separated for more than a year and are
in the midst of divorce proceedings, with a family court
appearance scheduled for next month, Meyer said. It has been an
"amicable divorce," and the two remained friends.
After
the separation, Harms moved back in with her parents for a time
and then lived with Burnham in Campbell for 14 months. About two
months ago, a friend told Harms that she had a unit available for
rent in her duplex on Chirco Drive in Los Gatos and was willing to
rent it out for $900 a month.
Harms
moved in April. Meyer says she visited the place at the time and
told Harms she was lucky because it was a safe neighborhood.
Harms'
friends say she loves her job and works hard. Meyer says that
Harms learned very quickly at Amdahl and grew friendly with
different vendors she'd encountered on the job. Since her
disappearance, various vendors have contacted Amdahl and
volunteered to contribute to a reward fund.
In
addition, Meyer said Harms is "spunky"--she has a wonderful sense
of humor and is extremely extroverted. That, combined with her
physical appearance--she is 5 feet 5 inches tall and has a great
physique, her friends say--attract people to her all the time,
especially men.
On July
27, Harms had dinner with Burnham and another friend at Bucca di
Beppo's in the Pruneyard. She had a date at 7 p.m., Harms told
Burnham, with a man she didn't know very well and wasn't intending
to spend too much time with. They were to meet at Rock Bottom
Brewery, also in the Pruneyard. That man, later identified by
police as William Alex Wilson III of Santa Clara, is not
considered a suspect in the case. Harms indicated to Burnham that
she planned to stop by a bar in Campbell later. Instead, police
reports indicate that Harms and Wilson went to Court's Lounge in a
group and returned to Rock Bottom, where Harms left with another
man, who has been interviewed by police. The two went to Harms'
house at around 10 p.m., and the man left at 1 a.m.
Burnham
said she tried to call Harms several times during the weekend and
left several messages on an answering machine. She also tried
calling Harms' cell phone, which was turned off.
When
Burnham called Amdahl on Monday morning, she was told Harms had
not shown up. Burnham, Harms' parents and her brother Wayne, and
the friend who owned the duplex went over on Monday morning. They
went inside and found that Harms was not there, although her car
was; they then called the police.
Los
Gatos-Monte Sereno police found that some of the items in the
house had been moved or removed "in such way that they could've
been consistent with foul play," said Sgt. Kerry Harris. Police
are not releasing detailed information because "if there is a
suspect involved, we want to have some things that only the
suspect will know about," Harris said.
Harms'
other brother, Craig, was in town from Washington, D.C., on a
family vacation when his sister was reported missing. "We were
kind of in shock at that point," Sanchez said. As soon as the news
leaked out, Sanchez said, there were literally hundreds of callers
and people coming by offering assistance.
Police
put out a missing person teletype all over the county and state,
and the investigation is continuing, with the use of K-9 units and
the county crime lab. Print and broadcast media have aired reports
with photos of Harms, and TV show America's Most Wanted was
scheduled to show a clip of the disappearance. Harms' friends and
co-workers have volunteered their time to help out; Amdahl is in
the midst of establishing a reward fund.
Craig
Sanchez, the family spokesman, says his cousin, Josh Golden, set
up a website, www.findjeanine.com. The family and Amdahl and
police are coordinating their efforts to print out a flier for
distribution.
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Campbell, California
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