Like Local 3 News on Facebook:
HOUGHTON COUNTY — It’s been four years since 31 year old Leah Harding went missing. Her family is desperate for answers, including her daughter who is almost ten years old.
May 15, 2015 Camie Harding attended her granddaughter Carly’s spring program at school. But someone was missing…Carly’s mom, Leah Harding was not at the program.
“I was angry. How did she not show up? Because that’s just not Leah,” says Camie Harding, Leah’s mother.
Camie immediately went to ask Leah’s then boyfriend, Camiel VanHaecke, if he had seen Leah. He told Camie he hadn’t seen Leah for two weeks.
Camie explains what Camiel told her, ” ‘Oh me and her got in a fight two weeks ago and I dropped her off at your house.’…No he didn’t and at that point I knew, something horrible happened.”
But where was Leah? The last anyone heard from her was a text two weeks earlier saying she was fighting with Camiel.
Leah’s aunt texted her to pick up some things at the store. Leah responded…
“Leah was like ‘I will tomorrow Auntie but don’t message back me and Camiel are fighting'” explains Camie.
Camiel previously spent twelve years in prison on charges of kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, and criminal sexual conduct.
“Oh yes, he was very abusive. There is a picture floating out there in the web…she was really beat up and she gave that picture to her cousin and said if anything happens to me look at Camiel,” says Pat Butler, a retired Michigan State Police Trooper.
Camie had reported Camiel to his probation officer for the abuse…and that made Leah angry. Leah and her mother didn’t speak for those two weeks before Camie realized Leah was missing. But Camie figured everything was fine because Leah’s daughter was speaking to her mom on the phone.
“That’s where the big mess up comes in, I really thought well Carly’s talking to mom so it’s okay,” says Camie.
But they later found out Carly wasn’t talking to Leah, she was talking to Leah’s answering machine. Leah hadn’t been seen or heard from for two weeks.
We will have more on Leah’s story and what’s happened in the four years since she’s gone missing tomorrow on Local 3 News at 6/5c.
Local 3 News has reached out to the Houghton County Sheriff’s Department multiple times and is waiting to schedule an interview.
See PART TWO of this story HERE.
See PART THREE of this story HERE.
Click here to go to the “Help Find Leah Harding” Facebook page.
If you know anything about the disappearance of Leah Harding, contact the
Houghton County Sheriff’s Office at (906)482-0055.
You can also submit an anonymous tip online at www.crimestoppersusa.org.
