Rico Harris

Rico, then 6 feet 8 inches (203 cm) and 215 pounds (98 kg), was an immediate sensation on the basketball court. His presence on the team transformed the previously undistinguished Temple City program into a contender, and drew college scouts. "Other teams would double- and triple-team him," recalled one of his coaches. "But you could just watch him for a couple plays and you could see the player he could be." Harris had been a fan of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers teams, and in particular emulated Magic Johnson's style of play.[2]

Off the court, Rico was initially shy and a poor student. However, after meeting a girlfriend whose academically inclined family helped him with his studying, he improved both socially and academically, achieving a 3.0 grade point average. On the court at that time, he became an even more dominant player, averaging 28 points and 15 rebounds a game during his senior season. The Long Beach Press-Telegram recognized him as one of the best high school players in the Western United States during the 1994–95 season, along with Chauncey Billups, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry, all of whom went on to long careers in the NBA.[2]

Jim Harrick, who had just left the head-coaching position at UCLA to take over the University of Rhode Island program, had his eye on Harris, who he had recruited at his former position. He believed Rico could be part of a powerful team at Rhode Island, with Zach Marbury and Lamar Odom, who he was expecting to sign for the next season. However, Harris's newfound academic success did not extend to the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), where he did not do well. UCLA had to withdraw its scholarship offer as a result.[2]

Harris went to Arizona State under Proposition 48, which limited him to taking classes during his freshman year in order to regain his eligibility. Without his family and friends close by, he struggled academically and socially, as he originally had at Temple City. In March 1996 he was arrested on a charge of unlawful imprisonment along with two teammates after two women said the players had forced them to perform sex acts against their will. The charges were dropped after investigators uncovered inconsistencies in the women's stories, but the university asked Harris to sit out another year nonetheless.[2]

Instead, Harris returned to California and enrolled in Los Angeles City College (LACC), a two-year junior college, in the hope of improving his grades and playing for Harrick at Rhode Island. On the court, Cubs' coach Mike Miller let Harris play the game his way—shooting three-pointers, leading the fast break with no-look passes and faking out other big men under the basket as it suited him. "He could do it all," a teammate recalled in 2014. "He was Lamar Odom before Lamar Odom."[2]

Harris was the team's biggest star, frequently regarded as the best player on the court from either team in every game he played. He averaged 16.5 points and 14 rebounds a game.[3] NBA scouts began attending games, hoping that Harris might consider foregoing his college career entirely once he was old enough to do so.[2]

LACC posted a 30–6 record that season.[3] It culminated in the school's first-ever California Community College Athletic Association state title, secured with an upset win over San Jose City College. Harris was named the championship tournament's most valuable player.[2]

A few weeks after that triumph, early in 1996, Harris signed his letter of intent to attend Rhode Island and play for Harrick there. However, he stopped attending a psychology class he needed to pass midway through the semester, and failed it as a result, leaving him still ineligible under National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules to transfer to a four-year college and play there. At the time there was speculation that he had deliberately failed the class to avoid having to relocate to the East Coast, far away from his hometown.[2]

That speculation notwithstanding, Harris made his first-ever trip east of Chicago later that year to visit UConn, where an assistant coach who had seen him play likened him to Donyell Marshall, a former Huskies' star who had left school early for an NBA career. He told the Hartford Courant that he had learned from his Arizona State experience. "This time around, I know exactly what I want," he said. In addition to a Division I program, he was still considering declaring for the NBA draft or playing in a professional league overseas. "I'm in no rush."[3]

Harris ultimately returned to LACC for his second season, which he would later say was a mistake.[4] He became less focused, partying heavily with his brother in the apartment they shared near campus, and drinking beer during the day to take the edge off his hangovers. It did not affect his game, however. A teammate recalls Harris showing up for a game once wearing heavy sunglasses to mask the effects of the alcohol. "He probably didn't get no sleep and [was] up all night—then dropped like 35 [points] that game".[2]

The team did not repeat as state champions, and Harris was later described as "a disruptive influence" during that season. Miller at one point suspended him for six games; Harris in turn faulted him for not controlling the team adequately. As the only returning player on that team, he explained, many of his teammates would not give him the ball. "I have no excuses," he told the Los Angeles Times. "I was playing against my own teammates and coaching staff."[4]

Harris's drinking increased as the season wore on, leading to social isolation and costing him his relationship with the girlfriend who he had benefited from in high school. Recruiters from other four-year college programs continued to call and write, but Harris did not respond, believing many of them to be interested in him only for his athletic ability and not his personal development. Instead he declared himself for the 1998 NBA draft.[2]

NBA scouts still saw lots of potential in Harris, and invited him to a pre-draft camp in Chicago for the most highly regarded prospects. But as he had the year before, he would not take the opportunity. Shortly before the camp, he not only decided he would not attend but withdrew from the draft, believing that he was not ready for the challenge on a personal level.[2]

The opportunity to play for Harrick at Rhode Island was still available to Harris, and many friends and observers believed he would take it. In September 1998, he called Bobby Braswell, then the head coach at Cal State Northridge, whom Harris had come to know three years earlier when Braswell had recruited him while an assistant at Oregon. Braswell later recalled that he thought Harris was calling for guidance.[2]

Braswell congratulated Harris on signing with Harrick at Rhode Island. "That's not happening", Harris told him. He did not want to move that far away, and believed LACC coach Miller was trying to get him to go there strictly out of his friendship with Harrick and not out of any consideration for Harris's best interests. Instead, he asked if he could he play for Braswell, whom he trusted, at Northridge, closer to his family, where he could transfer his credits from Arizona State and LACC to become eligible immediately.[4]

Since another local high school player that Northridge had offered a scholarship to had lost it after purposely failing a class, there was space for Harris at the small state school, which had not posted a winning record the seven seasons it had been in Division I. Braswell immediately told Harris the opening was his.[4] Harris believed Braswell's reputation for strict discipline was what he needed most to develop as a person and a player.[2]

With a player of Harris's level, talent rarely seen at a smaller school like Northridge, Braswell hoped he could realize his goals of a winning season, a Big Sky Conference title and a berth in the NCAA tournament. But while there was plenty of potential for Braswell in the relationship, observers saw less for Harris. Miller told him he was severely compromising his chances of signing with an NBA team by playing for such a small school in a less competitive conference, and others who knew him wondered if instead of leading the Matadors to new heights as he had in his first season at LACC, he would instead pose a threat to team unity again.[4]

Braswell was optimistic. "Rico wants to make the best of this opportunity," he said to the Times.[4] But early in the season it seemed as if the doubters had been correct. Harris had attempted to reconcile with his father in the offseason but had been rebuffed. He continued drinking heavily and could no longer fully contain his underlying emotional difficulties; early in the season Braswell suspended him briefly after he argued with other teammates and coaches.[2] A hip pointer also sidelined him for five games.[5]

He still performed well, averaging 10 points a game and leading the team in rebounds, but the NBA scouts who had been following his career could see that his performance was off from his previous heights, and took him off their lists of prospects. Near the end of the season Braswell suspended Harris again; the player did not attend a meeting with his coach in Braswell's office to mark his reinstatement. Harris would never play college basketball again, and left Northridge shortly after the season's end.[2]

Harris could not play for any other college as his eligibility had expired. He still had not given up on possibly making the NBA, and like his father before him took up semi-professional basketball. He played for short periods of time with the International Basketball League's San Diego Stingrays and St. Louis Storm. Rapper Master P, a former NBA player who had played briefly with the former team, put together a traveling team for which Harris played a few games. During this time, he drank less and worked on his jump shot, hoping the NBA had not completely lost interest in him.[2]

In spring 2000, Harris opted instead to join the Harlem Globetrotters. His skills were ideal for the Globetrotters' shows, and he seemed to have found his niche. However, a month after he joined the team he was out driving with a girlfriend in South Los Angeles when he got into a dispute with some people there. After he left the car to confront them, someone hit him on the back of the head with a baseball bat.[2]

Harris was able to leave the scene and drove off. But soon he started having intense headaches and had trouble keeping his balance. These aftereffects of the head injury persisted, and he had to leave the Globetrotters. At the age of 24, his basketball career was over.[2]

Song called Fernandez when Harris failed to return to Seattle when expected. Recalling that he had once disappeared for a few hours to San Diego, they decided to wait and see if he would return on his own. By October 14, several days after he had missed the job interview, they realized he was not going to do so, or that something had gone wrong, and reported him missing to the Alhambra police.[2]

That afternoon, a Yolo County deputy sheriff patrolling along a stretch of California State Route 16 along Cache Creek north of Rumsey saw a black Nissan Maxima sedan in a county park's lot for the second straight day. He looked inside and saw CDs, credit cards, and various papers scattered around. The car had not been reported stolen, so his superiors contacted the Alhambra police when they found out who it was registered to, and officers there informed Fernandez that it had been found, but not her son.[2]

A search of the surrounding terrain of Cache Creek Canyon began shortly afterward. Search and rescue teams began looking over the lightly forested terrain surrounding the stream. They were assisted by teams on all-terrain vehicles and helicopters. An airplane with a thermographic camera flew over the area, and search dogs were brought in as well.[2] The area within a five-mile (8.0 km) radius of the parking lot was covered, as well as the 27 miles (43 km) of Route 16 through the canyon.[6]

But after three days, the searchers had found nothing. Many were incredulous. Rico at that time had reached his full adult height of 6 feet 9 inches (206 cm), and weighed 300 pounds (140 kg), reflecting the less active years since the end of his basketball career. They could not imagine how such a large person could have disappeared so completely.[2]

When Harris's description was circulated in the area, a few sightings subsequent to October 10 were reported. One passerby along Route 16 reported seeing a man who fit his description walking along the road at 5:30 on October 11, while another motorist believed he had seen him sitting on a guardrail overlooking the creek near the parking lot.[2]

Harris's car was towed away and searched. It was out of gas and the battery was nearly dead.[7] Investigators found Harris's wallet and all of his credit cards save one, a Discover Card on which no charges have been made since Harris vanished. He had also taken his phone and driver's license. Detectives also found two plastic bottles, one mostly full of some type of hard liquor and the other empty but smelling strongly of the same beverage.[2]

On October 18, eight days after Harris's last voicemail message, another sighting was reported. A man who had driven past the parking lot where the Nissan had been told police he saw a large man wearing light-colored pants, similar to those Harris had been wearing when he left his mother's house, early that morning. The next day, a trail of fresh foot impressions, left by size 18 sneakers consistent with those Harris wore, were found leading from the parking lot to the creek near where the Nissan had been parked.[2]

Investigators were also able to find Harris's backpack, left by the side of the road about 1,500 feet (460 m) from the guardrail he was reported to have been sitting on the morning after his last phone call. In it they found his phone and charger and some other items not considered relevant to Harris's whereabouts. The phone contained pictures of the creek and some selfies, including one in which Harris was standing in front of a sign welcoming drivers to Yolo County striking a playful pose. There were also some videos, apparently taken unintentionally, showing Harris singing along to music playing in his car and casually flinging CDs around the passenger compartment. They were timestamped the night of October 10, demonstrating that Harris had been alive and in his car at that time.[2]

On October 22, the sheriff's office announced it was scaling back the search.[6] Divers were called in to search the nearby sections of the creek in mid-November, but found nothing. The investigation is continuing.[2] In 2016 the Investigation Discovery channel series Disappeared devoted a segment to the case.[8]

Dean Nyland, the detective working the case for the sheriff's office, has ruled out the possibility of foul play in Harris's disappearance. The photos and video on Harris's phone suggest he came to Yolo County voluntarily and alone; no evidence of any kind of struggle was found in or near the car. His backpack and phone also do not show any signs that they were taken forcibly; Nyland believes Harris may have left them where they were found himself, either accidentally or purposely, to avoid being tracked via the phone.[2]

Nyland believes Harris may have made a wrong turn after getting gas and followed the road up into the hills of Yolo County. Seeing the parking lot, he may have decided to take a nap before driving further. When Harris woke up later that day, Nyland believes, the unresolved issues from his past came into play and he may have decided not to continue to Seattle just yet. "To him, this must have seemed like heaven", he said, showing a reporter the spot on the guardrail overlooking the creek where one driver reported seeing Harris the next morning. In the accidental videos on the phone, he adds, Harris seemed like "a free man".[2]

After wandering the area for a few days, including those in which he had been sought, he returned to his car and found it gone, Nyland believes. At that point he either walked away into the woods or towards another town. "We have no sightings, so he probably got a ride", the detective says.[2]