JENNIFER HARRIS, 28 & PREGNANT, FLOATING DEAD IN RED RIVER, TEXAS

Summary

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

Episode: JENNIFER HARRIS, 28 & PREGNANT, FLOATING DEAD IN RED RIVER, TEXAS
Date: March 13, 2025
Podcast: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace – iHeartPodcasts & CrimeOnline

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Episode Overview

In this gripping episode, Nancy Grace investigates the mysterious disappearance and death of Jennifer Harris—a 28-year-old pregnant woman found floating naked in the Red River, Texas. The episode unpacks Jennifer's final days, the key suspects and relationships in her life, and the frustrating lack of resolution in her case, with contributions from Jennifer's family, forensic and psychological experts, and seasoned crime reporters.

Nancy and her panel explore why homicide is statistically the leading cause of death among pregnant women, sift through conflicting accounts and lost evidence, and challenge the official silence around Jennifer’s manner of death. This episode is an in-depth study of the obstacles and heartbreak that haunt cold cases—especially when the victim is young, pregnant, and surrounded by complicated relationships.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Timeline and Discovery of the Crime

• Mother’s Day Disappearance

  • Jennifer spent the afternoon at her friend Christy Farr's house and left around 8pm after mentioning she needed to go (02:38).
  • Her Jeep was later found abandoned near Lake Bonham, in a remote area, locked and missing her purse (05:03).
  • Volunteers and police searched the area to no avail (04:26).

• Body Found

  • Six days after her disappearance, Jennifer’s naked body surfaced in the Red River; it was so decomposed that cause of death could not be determined, only ruled as “violent homicide” (15:21; 42:28).
  • Notably, her uterus was missing—likely destroyed by aquatic scavengers, complicating confirmation of pregnancy (42:28; 46:23).

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2. Family’s Emotional Account and Jennifer’s Final Days

• Sister’s Testimony

  • Alyssa Warnick recalled:
    "It just seemed peculiar to me that she would leave her vehicle for any reason, much less without her dog, who she carried wherever she went..." (08:06)
  • Alyssa firmly dismisses the possibility of suicide:
    “Absolutely not. Not a chance… she had a lot of hope.” (11:27)

• Jennifer’s State of Mind

  • Jennifer was planning for the future: possible moves, job applications, and a hiking trip with her father (12:03).
  • There was no evidence she was suicidal—especially as a pregnant woman, which is statistically rare (13:27; 21:13).

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3. Jennifer’s Relationships and Motivations

• Long-Term Relationship with Rob Holman

  • Childhood sweethearts—“They were inseparable at the time… loved Nacogdoches. That was the happiest time of their lives…” (14:35)
  • Relationship fractures over different lifestyle desires (16:35–16:57).
  • Reports of escalating domestic disputes:
    “Jennifer says she got in an argument with Rob, who got so angry, he began punching the wall...Jennifer never reports the attack to police, but Alyssa notices a huge change in her sister's demeanor with her husband…” (29:12)

• Rebound with James Hamilton

  • James was married with a pregnant wife and a young child at the time of his involvement with Jennifer; relationship viewed skeptically by family (33:05).
  • Relationship ended badly—Jennifer filed for bankruptcy, business failed, and breakup was acrimonious (34:44).

• Return to Bonham & Contact with Rob

  • Jennifer returned to her hometown and was seen with Rob, who was living with a new girlfriend; speculated tension and discomfort in the arrangement (35:43).

• Jennifer’s Pregnancy

  • She revealed her pregnancy to a friend, stating Rob was the father; Rob seemed not to want the baby and was overwhelmed (37:06; 37:16).

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4. The Investigation and Forensic Challenges

• Crime Scene & Forensics
  • The Jeep found 12 miles from the body, suggesting she did not walk there (12:03).
  • Decomposition and animal activity in the river obscured cause of death and maternity evidence (19:36, 42:28, 46:23).
  • Officially, manner of death: “violent homicide,” but felt inconsistent given lack of precise cause (27:18).

Notable Quote:
“...if the tissue isn't there, it's hard to make a diagnosis. If a person was shot and that bullet only traveled through soft tissue and all we have left is skeleton, or we may not be able to tell whether or not a person has been shot…”
—Dr. Thomas Coyne, Medical Examiner (20:05–21:06)

• Caretaker’s Cottage
  • Nearby abandoned caretaker’s house burned down the night Jennifer vanished; suspected arson to destroy evidence (43:17).

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5. Witness Accounts and Eyewitness Challenges

• Eyewitness (Deborah Lambert)

  • Lambert claimed she saw a red-haired woman (possibly Jennifer) on the bridge with three men, two holding her by the elbows as she struggled (43:54).
  • Lambert’s mother reportedly said, “that girl's fishing to get raped and killed.” (44:25)
  • The sighting's timeline conflicted with Jennifer's known movements (45:23).
    “...the time of Mrs. Lambert's reported sighting… was several hours before Jennifer went missing.” —Barry Warnick (45:40)

• Police Lineup

  • Lambert picked Rob Holman out of a questionable lineup as one of the men she saw, but the procedure was poorly documented (45:49–47:06).

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6. Shifting Stories and Ongoing Suspicion

• Changes in Rob Holman's Account
  • Initially admitted to police that Jennifer informed him of the pregnancy and that he’d asked her to have an abortion. Later, after lawyering up, he denied both (48:34–49:29).
  • Nancy’s commentary:
    “It's a problem not when you add facts to your statement, but when you actually change facts. That's when there's a problem.” (49:29)
  • Despite suspicions, Rob was never arrested or charged, and is not legally considered a suspect as of the episode's date (50:08).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The number one cause of death amongst pregnant women in America is homicide. Not high blood pressure, not a heart attack, not some complication of the pregnancy. It's homicide.”
  —Nancy Grace (02:54)

• “She was getting her life together. She was planning on a move… She actually scheduled a trip with her father a couple weeks later…”
  —Barry Warnick (12:03)

• “...statistically, I never see pregnant women commit suicide.”
  —Nancy Grace (21:54)

• “Her body is so badly decomposed, a medical examiner cannot determine her cause of death, only classifying it as a violent homicide. There is damage to some of her internal organs, and shockingly, Jennifer's uterus is missing.”
  —Narrator/Reporter (42:28, 46:23)

• “You would think it would raise more suspicions, but… Rob Holman… was never arrested, never charged, never had to face any more scrutiny for the fact that he changed his story…”
  —Claire St. Amant (49:41)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Mother’s Day events and disappearance: 02:15–06:15
• Sister Alyssa's account, family’s reaction: 08:06–11:48
• Jennifer’s relationships and life history: 09:38–16:35
• Body discovery and investigation focus: 15:21, 22:32–23:30
• Domestic dispute and unreported assault: 29:12–30:36
• Expert on forensics and decomposition: 19:36–21:06
• Discussion of suicide improbability in pregnant women: 21:06–21:54
• Jennifer’s rebound and move back to Bonham: 33:00–35:56
• Pregnancy revelation and Rob’s response: 37:06–38:36
• Caretaker’s cottage fire: 43:17–43:50
• Eyewitness bridge sighting: 43:54–45:42
• Lineup and change in Rob’s narrative: 45:49–49:41
• $50,000 reward call for evidence: 50:08

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Conclusion

The episode leaves the listener with a chilling sense of the unknown—no cause of death, no official suspects, inconsistent witness statements, and a family still desperately seeking answers. Jennifer Harris’s tragic death is emblematic of the hurdles faced by families and investigators fighting for justice in cold cases. Nancy Grace calls on the public's help:
“If you know or think you know anything about what happened to Jennifer, please dial 1-903-583-2143.” (50:08)

Transcript

[Nancy Grace]

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[Nancy Grace]

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[Nancy Grace]

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

[Narrator/Reporter]

A small town mom to be goes missing after visiting a friend. Her jeep discovered abandoned the next day. What happened to Jennifer?

[Nancy Grace]

Joining us tonight, an all star panel including Jennifer's family. Joining us in the search for what happened to Jennifer. It all started on a Mother's Day. Listen Mother's Day.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Jennifer spends the afternoon at friend Christy Farr's house. Around 8pm Jennifer says she has to go. Seemingly headed to other plans, she takes off in her green soft top Jeep. But Jennifer never makes it home that night. Family reports are missing early the next morning.

[Nancy Grace]

Very often we hear comments like you can't report someone missing until 24 hours have passed. When a woman disappears, it's often said, oh, she's taking some me time. She's out with her new boyfriend. Every time I have ever heard that it's been false. The person, the woman is either missing or dead. And we all know the single highest cause of death amongst Pregnant women is, is homicide. I'm sure there are all sorts of psychological or psychiatric reasons for that shocking statistic. But what I do know and what is relevant to me is that it's true. The number one cause of death amongst pregnant women in America is homicide. Not high blood pressure, not a heart attack, not some complication of the pregnancy. It's homicide. This beautiful young woman, just 28, pregnant, how did she end up floating dead in the Red river in Texas? That's what we're trying to determine. So we know Mother's Day. She spends the afternoon at a friend Christie's. Around 8pm she leaves, but she never makes it home. What else do we know? Listen.

[Claire St. Amant]

That afternoon Jennifer's car is found abandoned on the side of the road not far from a local music spot. It doesn't appear like there was any struggle and none of Jennifer's belongings are in the car. Foot searches of the area turn up nothing. Volunteers and police officers spend days combing the streets of Bonham looking for any sign of Jennifer Harris.

[Nancy Grace]

Joining us all star panel including Claire St Ore Armant joining us, author of Killer the Truth Behind True Crime tv. Claire, thank you for joining us. Explain to me where her Jeep was found.

[Claire St. Amant]

Thanks for having me Nancy. So Jennifer's Jeep was found on a county road near Lake Bonham. And it was a remote area, it was not highly populated and it was found there with the door closed, locked and her purse was missing.

[Nancy Grace]

Huh. So tell me about this remote area. Why do you say it was remote and very under traveled?

[Claire St. Amant]

So Bonham is a small town to begin with. There are not a lot of people who live there. And this was a back road, it wasn't well lit, it didn't have many businesses on it. There was one business that was called the Hoedown but it was closed. It was like a local music venue and it was not having any activity that night. So the only reason to be on this road would have been if you lived over there or perhaps to go to the lake. But by the time, you know, her vehicle traveled this road, and we do have some various ways of knowing what time that her, her vehicle was going down this road, it was already after dark, so there wouldn't have been a whole lot to see.

[Nancy Grace]

Claire St. Armand joining us. Claire, what time according to the evidence was she driving along this remote area?

[Claire St. Amant]

So it was shortly after 8pm that she was found to be driving in this area. And we know that because she had left her friend's house after getting a recipe for chicken spaghetti. She had left her friend's house and said, it's almost 8 o'. Clock, I've got to go. And she didn't say who she had to go meet with or why she had to leave, but she specifically said, it's almost 8. I've got to go. And it doesn't take long to get from Kristi Farr's house to where her vehicle was found. And it's believed that she took a direct route, so it would have just been minutes. And there's even a neighbor who saw her car as she was taking her evening walk and she remembered that it had just started to rain. And so based on using weather data, we can really pinpoint the time that her Jeep arrived at this area and to just a few minutes after 8pm.

[Nancy Grace]

I'm not really sure that just because Jennifer, who spent the whole day with her friend Christy Farr, looks at her watch and says, oh, my goodness, it's eight o'.

[Claire St. Amant]

Clock.

[Nancy Grace]

I gotta go. I don't know that we can extrapolate to. She was meeting someone in some nefarious way. Why is her Jeep in this remote area? We don't know that yet. An empty music venue. But let's move forward. Jennifer's family is with us tonight. Straight out to Alyssa Warnick and Barry Warnick. This is Alyssa's husband to both the Warnicks. Thank you for being with us. Alyssa, I'm sure you recall when you learned your sister was missing. Tell me what happened.

[Alyssa Warnick]

Well, I was living in Austin and I got a phone call the day after Mother's Day that her Jeep had been found in the area of Lake Bonham, which is north of Bonham on a county road. And it just seemed peculiar to me that she would leave her vehicle for any reason, much less without her dog, who she carried wherever she went. So I just started calling and asking questions and wondering, you know, what she could be up to if she decided to take a trip somewhere or join someone somewhere. But the fact that she didn't come home at night was a major red flag.

[Nancy Grace]

How closely were you guys in touch?

[Alyssa Warnick]

We were three years apart, so we had different sort of life paths going on at that time. But we did touched base with each other, especially around Mother's Day, because we lost our mother. And that was an emotional time. But unfortunately, I didn't get a hold of her on Mother's Day. She had been in Sherman with my grandmother and her friend. But we did, we did talk from time to time. I wouldn't say every day, but recently up until her death, we were in touch quite a bit.

[Nancy Grace]

Very often when we solve cases and we hit a dead end, we circle back and we take a look at the victim. Listen.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Jennifer Harris grows up in rural Bonham, Texas. Parents Jerry and Alicia Harris couldn't be more proud. Jennifer is a wonderful sister, a cheerleader, part of student council, and is rarely found without her beau, Rob Holman. The couple starts dating in the sixth grade and has been inseparable ever since. Jennifer, known as the dreamer of the family, heads off to college three hours away in Nacogdoches. Three years later, Rob follows Jennifer to Dallas and asks her to marry him. A proposal she happily accepts.

[Nancy Grace]

And then a life changing event, the loss of her mother. Listen.

[Claire St. Amant]

Less than a year after her wedding, Jennifer loses her mother to a long battle with cancer. Jennifer experiences a great deal of personal growth as she grieves with her family. Jennifer and Rob settle in suburban Dallas so Jennifer can return to school now training as a massage therapist, while Rob takes a landscaping job.

[Nancy Grace]

Alyssa, this is Jennifer's sister. How did the loss of your mother affect her?

[Barry Warnick]

Well.

[Alyssa Warnick]

Unfortunately, we, we lived with her illness of cancer for, for quite a long time. And we both took turns visiting her every other weekend because I was living in Austin and she was living at SC and so we wanted to make sure that one of us was with her each weekend. But it was unfortunate that it happened to be the week that my mom passed, that she was visiting a friend in California. So she never forgave herself for not being there when it happened.

[Nancy Grace]

I've got a question, Alyssa. Do you in any way think Jennifer, who we believe was pregnant at the time, would have committed suicide?

[Alyssa Warnick]

Absolutely not. Not a chance. She actually in fact was putting her pieces of her own puzzle together and trying to pick up and start a new life. She had her sights on moving to Colorado or New Mexico and starting fresh. She even considered moving to Austin to be near me. And she had a lot of hope.

[Nancy Grace]

Mary Ornick joining us. This is Alyssa's husband, also an attorney and mediator. But thanks for being with us. Barry, what were your impressions of your sister in law, Jennifer? Do you agree? No way would she have committed suicide.

[Barry Warnick]

From everything that I know and I've learned about Alyssa and her family, that would have been the furthest thing from Jennifer's mind, especially at that time. I'm also a filmmaker and we're working on investigating Jennifer's murder and documenting it and putting together a docu series. And in so doing we're interviewing so many different people, but Just talking to Alyssa, talking to Jennifer's friends at the time, she had hope. She was getting her life together. She was planning on a move either to Austin, she was applying for jobs. She actually scheduled a trip with her father a couple weeks later to go down to the Guadalupe Mountains to go hiking. So she had plans moving forward. The other thing is her jeep was found 12 miles from the Red River. Now how? Someone gets out of their car, takes the purse, leaves everything in order. Of course there's a CD missing that she was planning on giving to her ex husband and somehow just gets herself naked, walks 12 miles or takes a ride 12 miles to, I don't know, put herself in the river.

[Nancy Grace]

Barry, I mean, I'm certainly not a shrink, but I do know this. And all the cases I have ever investigated, prosecuted or covered, I've never seen a person park their Jeep, go for a 12 mile hike and then go, oh, I think I'll kill myself. That just doesn't make sense. Also, the fact that she was pregnant, it's very unlikely statistically that she would have committed suicide while pregnant. Why? Again, I can't tell you that. But I do know what statistics tell me now also, Alyssa Warnick joining us. This is Jennifer's sister, likely the closest person in the world to Jennifer. So she had started dating, I guess that means holding hands with her soon to be husband all the way back in the sixth grade. And they became inseparable. She moves to the big city from Bonhomme to Dallas and then he wants to be with her so he follows her and they do get married. Is that correct, Alyssa?

[Alyssa Warnick]

Well, she, she moved to Nacogdoches to go to Stephen F. Austin University and Rob followed her there. They were inseparable at the time. They loved Nacogdoches. That was the happiest time of their lives, in my opinion. And it just wasn't until they both graduated and needed to start their careers that more opportunity was in the Dallas area. So that's when they moved to Dallas and they lived in Carrollton, I believe at the very beginning of their career journeys.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Police launch an exhaustive search. Six days later, a fisherman finds a naked body floating in Red River. Cooked up theories and public opinions, lead law enforcement on a wild goose chase for suspects. What red really happened?

[Nancy Grace]

Let me understand. The two of them marry and they settle down a suburban Dallas. She goes back to school to study massage therapy and he goes into landscaping. Is that where we're at at that point?

[Alyssa Warnick]

Yes. Correct.

[Nancy Grace]

And as Barry and I have discussed off air I mean, he is a lawyer now, filmmaker. And the title of that dot is planned to be justice for Jennifer. You know how one little fact. Barry can totally skew an investigation, much less a presentation to the jury. If you have one fact wrong, you could be screwed.

[Barry Warnick]

Yeah, that's correct. It takes. It puts everything else into jeopardy. Now it's really credible, you know, and everything loses credibility. So you want to make sure that, yeah, every fact, every detail that you have is correct and no presuppositions or anything else like that. We're talking about whether. Whether Jennifer could have committed suicide.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The couple seems happy in their first home together. But they begin to learn that they want different things in life. Jennifer loves frequent outings and their proximity to the city. But Rob hates the hustle and bustle, preferring the slower pace of Bonham and wants to settle down and start a family. Resentment builds between the childhood sweethearts. Friends and family start to take notice of the cracks in their relations.

[Nancy Grace]

The two break up. They wanted different lifestyles. She likes a big city. He wanted to go back home and acquire a pace of life. So they split. Let's get back to the present day. Jennifer is found face down, pregnant in a river. Let's go back to the time she disappeared. Listen.

[Narrator/Reporter]

When Jennifer Harris disappears without a trace, police immediately turn to the men in her life. Ex boyfriend James Hamilton and ex husband Rob Holman. Hamilton tells officers he moved on and hope Jennifer was happy. Hamilton says he was eating with friends at a McDonald's 50 miles away at 8pm on Mother's Day.

[Nancy Grace]

Back out to Claire St. Amont joining us, author of Killer Story, the Truth Behind True Crime tv. Claire, when the two separated, okay, when the husband went back home and she stayed in the big city, they both started seeing other people, right?

[Claire St. Amant]

Correct. They were no longer together. They continued to communicate. They continued to keep up a relationship, but they were dating other people.

[Nancy Grace]

Dr. Judy Ho joining us, renowned clinical forensic neuropsychologist and author of the New rules of attachment. Dr. Judy, thank you for being with us. You know, these two had been sweethearts since sixth grade. They split up. They want different lifestyles and find new loves. But, you know, it's not always as simple as it seems, is it, Dr. Ho?

[Dr. Judy Ho]

It really isn't, Nancy, because they've known each other pretty much all their lives, there's still going to be that connection. As we grow, of course, our preferences change. We start to know ourselves better. They decide they want different things. But that type of emotional connection, it's not just going to end Overnight. These individuals have seen each other grow up, have seen each other's dreams and hopes, have been seen each other through big things. And it's not just going to be as easy as we are broken up and we're never going to speak again. I'm never going to think about you again.

[Nancy Grace]

You know, earlier, Dr. Judy Ho, we were discussing the unlikelihood that Jennifer committed suicide. There is no COD yet cause of death, and I find that very, very interesting. Dr. Thomas Coyne joining me, Chief Medical Examiner, District 2 office in Florida. Dr. Coyne, I'm very surprised she's found floating dead in a river that they could not attribute her COD Cause of death to drowning more than likely because.

[Barry Warnick]

Of the processes of decomposition. Bodies in water are probably some of the most hardest cases that we encounter. The second you die, your body starts to basically digest itself as well as the bacteria that lines all of our cavities. Begin the process of putrefaction. Putrefaction will break down all of our body tissues. You know, causes massive color change, literal loss of tissue. Now you add that into a water environment where you have a number of other scavenging marine life, which include crabs, turtles, fish, you have other avian species that may be involved that actually come in and actually remove tissue. So when the body is received at the medical examiner's office, it may be very difficult to determine cause of death because you're just simply not missing a lot. You know, we base our decisions upon what we see with our eyes as well as what we see under our microscope. And if the tissue isn't there, it's hard to make a diagnosis. You know, it's hard to actually track hemorrhage in tissue if the tissue is absent. That's the like, you know, for instance, if we find a body outside and it has completely skeletonized, and very often it does that in the heat of Florida or in the heat of Texas. If a person was shot and that bullet only traveled through soft tissue and all we have left is skeleton, or we may not be able to tell whether or not a person has been shot. So, so again, decomposition, the actual scavenging of animal life, that can make it very difficult for us to determine how a person died.

[Nancy Grace]

To Dr. Judy Ho, how likely is it statistically that a pregnant mom commits suicide?

[Dr. Judy Ho]

Extremely unlikely. Nancy, as you mentioned earlier, that is a huge wrench in this supposed story that she would somehow take her own life. Usually that is a meaning to live life to the best of your ability for most people. And even sometimes when the Pregnancy is a surprise when the pregnancy is not necessarily planned. It's still usually, and we're saying usually because of course, there's always the exception. But usually it helps the person to say, no, I'm not living for myself anymore and no matter what happens, I gotta do better and I have to look forward to something for the future. And when you have hope and meaningfulness like that, you do not take your.

[Nancy Grace]

Own life, you know. Dr. Judy Ho, I knew you'd be able to explain it. I just know the statistics based on cases I investigate, try as a homicide and cover that I never see pregnant women commit suicide. And very curious to Claire St. Amant joining us, in addition to Jennifer's family, her sister and her husband who is so moved by this case, he's actually creating a documentary. Claire, again, thank you for being with us. Claire. The time period from the time she went missing, was reported missing to the time her body was found in the Red River. How much time passed?

[Claire St. Amant]

It was one week. So she's found in the Red River a week after she goes missing. And so it's a long period of time. It's difficult for her family. They're searching for her. They're looking in wooded areas, they're looking, you know, in bodies of water, trying to figure out where she could have gone.

[Nancy Grace]

Baby Lisa Irwin vanishes from her crib in the middle of the night. Then a key witness sees a suspicious man that night carrying a baby. This potential suspect has never been interviewed before, but Megyn Kelly tracks him down. Megyn Kelly Investigates is a five part series releasing every weekday beginning Monday, March 10th. Available on YouTube, SiriusXM and wherever you listen to the Megyn Kelly show podcast. Click the link in the description of this episode for more.

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[Nancy Grace]

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[Nancy Grace]

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

[Narrator/Reporter]

No suspects, lost evidence and dead witnesses stalls the search for a killer who had the most to gain by Jennifer's disappearance.

[Nancy Grace]

Another thing that I noticed, Dr. Thomas Coyne, is that while we don't have a COD cause of death, such as ligature strangulation, poisoning, gunshot wound, knife wound. We don't have the cause of death, but we've been thrown a little clue. We do know her death was ruled, quote, violent homicide. Now, I find that curious because if they won't tell me the cod, then how do they know it's violent homicide? I've got one other Clue. The only injury that we could get from the medical examiner's report was a wound on her abdomen and damage to internal organs. Now, that is in total contradiction of a theory. She could have committed suicide, right? What, did she beat herself and cause internal damage? No.

[Barry Warnick]

Sure. And I assume those injuries could be determined to be not from animal scavenging or decomposition. But it's not uncommon for medical examiners to rule on a manner of death and not a cause of death based upon the circumstances. You know, given the fact that she was found so far from her vehicle, the police investigation did not, and the family interviews did not show any evidence to suggest perhaps that this was suicide. I'm assuming also the autopsy at least disclosed that she had no underlying natural disease processes, although decomposition was present. But you could still sometimes determine if whether or not there was any other serious disease processes, you know, that were present. So my assumption is, is that based upon all of the circumstances, they were able to at least render a manner of death in this case, which is homicide.

[Nancy Grace]

You know, I was talking to Dr. Judy Ho earlier about how things are not always as they seem. I remember my first high school boyfriend with great affection. This guy she had known since sixth grade. Okay, listen.

[Dr. Judy Ho]

On a visit to Jennifer's Dallas home, Jennifer's father, Jerry Harris, notices five large holes in the living room wall. When asked what happened, Jennifer says she got in an argument with Rob, who got so angry, he began punching the wall. Late one night, Alyssa Harris gets a call from her older sister. Jennifer tells her Rob came home drunk and angry and forced himself on her when she tried to calm him down. Jennifer never reports the attack to police, but Alyssa notices a huge change in her sister's demeanor with her husband that.

[Nancy Grace]

Was never reported to police. And the husband, the ex husband, has never been accused or charged in that event. Alyssa, what do you recall of that conversation with Jennifer?

[Alyssa Warnick]

I just remember she called me, and she was very upset. She was crying, and she didn't understand how. How could this happen? It's her husband. And she felt like she couldn't report anything because how do you go to the authorities and say, you know, my husband forced me to have sex with him or, you know, forced me onto the bed or whatever. She felt like things had gotten out of control with the drinking, and it really forced her to look at some bigger issues. And that's when she began therapy.

[Nancy Grace]

Darrell Parker is joining us. Certified Criminal Defense Investigator, President of Blackfish Intelligence. Darrell, why is it that so many women report rape in this case, if it's true and the husband, the ex husband, of course, denies it. We have no claim, no police report. So many women feel they cannot report a rape because. Fill in the blank. I was married to him. I was out on a date with him. I had been drinking, My skirt was too short. Have you noticed that so often alleged rapes do not get reported for a multitude of reasons? Darrel?

[Narrator/Reporter]

Yeah, I mean, a lot of times these women are invested in these relationships. You know, they either for financial reasons, security, the length of the relationship, fear of further violence, those kind of things. All those are reasons why someone might not report a rape.

[Nancy Grace]

Well, we definitely need to shrink for this. Why is it when you break up so often, you fear bounce back? A rebound relationship. And that's what Jennifer did. Listen.

[Narrator/Reporter]

With her marriage on the rocks, Jennifer meets someone new at massage therapy school. James Hamilton, who lives with the mother of his child and has a second one on the way, is Rob's polar opposite. James has big dreams and likes Jennifer as much as she likes him. Friends warn Jennifer about getting involved with James with her husband at home.

[Nancy Grace]

To Dr. Judy Ho, what do you make of the rebound relationship?

[Dr. Judy Ho]

Well, Nancy, it's a pattern that obviously we see sometimes, maybe we've even done ourselves after we break up with someone. And the reason is this. There's that emotional attachment, and sometimes the breakup is very sudden, or there's a feeling that, am I making the right choice? So then there's all of these feelings, and you got nowhere to go. And in that time, your decision making is going to be a bit clouded. You may not decide on the best partner. You just want somebody, somebody who's around who's going to fill that void, at least temporari. And this is why a lot of times when people have a rebound relationship, friends and family members are commenting because, hey, maybe this is not the person you should be with. But the reason is you're just looking for anyone, anyone that you can cling on to during that emotionally vulnerable moment, and you're not making your best decisions.

[Nancy Grace]

Alyssa, what did you think of your younger sister Jennifer's rebound relationship?

[Alyssa Warnick]

I thought it was a little quick and based on emotional, not, not, not so much brain, but more heart. And I thought she could think things through better and take things a little slower. I do feel like it was solely based on shared dreams and aspirations and not so much.

[Nancy Grace]

Well, not only that, Alyssa, the guy has a pregnant wife at home and a baby. That's not a good choice. Well, she came to that realization.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Listen, not long after finishing school, Jennifer hands Rob, divorce papers and he returns to Bonham a single man. James quickly moves in with Jennifer and the couple decides to start their own spa together. As they struggle to get their business off the ground, James begins hinting he wants to get married. But Jennifer is starting to regret leaving Rob. As the spa fails, Jennifer's relationship with James also fails. Jennifer files for bankruptcy and breaks up with James on bad terms. A small town mom to be goes missing after visiting a friend. Her jeep discovered abandoned the next day. What happened to Jennifer?

[Nancy Grace]

Claire St. Amant joining us. Claire. So she breaks up with the new love, James. Isn't it true that when they were dating, James was married, had a pregnant wife and already had one child with the wife?

[Claire St. Amant]

Yes, it was a complicated relationship, Nancy. So Jennifer was involved with James at the same time that she was still married to Rob. And so they had met in massage therapy school and James had another relationship. Jennifer had another relationship. There was nothing, you know, very clean or traditional about their relationship.

[Nancy Grace]

Alyssa, what did you make of her rebound relationship, being with a guy who was in a relationship with a pregnant woman that already had one child?

[Alyssa Warnick]

Well, I mean, I was clearly not supportive. It was not ideal. I felt like it was something out of the Springer show or something like it just, it, it reeked of just drama and chaos.

[Nancy Grace]

Clara it wasn't long after that that without any income, not knowing what to do next, Jennifer decides to move back home. Isn't that where the ex is?

[Claire St. Amant]

Correct, Nancy. So Jennifer moves back to her hometown of Bonham, Texas and she moves in with her grandmother and she's seen around town with Rob Holman, her ex husband at that point.

[Nancy Grace]

Claire, wasn't Holman already in another relationship?

[Claire St. Amant]

Yes, he was. Rob was dating his new girlfriend and they had moved in together. But he was seeing Jennifer also and it was something that she felt really uncomfortable about. She knew that he was going to continue to see his ex wife. Now Rob said that it was just like a cordial relationship. It was because their families knew each other and they had known each other for so long. But many people wondered if something else was going on.

[Nancy Grace]

Yeah, for her to move back where he is. And then a bombshell. He says it's a cordial relationship and that's it. Well, what about this?

[Dr. Judy Ho]

Jill Wagner gets a call from her best friend Jennifer. When Jennifer leads with, you're not going to believe the mess I'm in, Jill takes a wild guess, you're pregnant. Jennifer tells her Rob Holman is the father and she doesn't know what to do. Holman doesn't seem to have any intention of breaking up with his girlfriend. Jill doesn't have much advice to offer, telling her friend to follow her gut.

[Nancy Grace]

And when she decides to tell her ex she's pregnant, she does not get the response most women hope for.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Jennifer gets the courage to tell Rob about her pregnancy. On a drive in date, the couple talks about their options, but Rob says he's overwhelmed and needs some time to process. They go their separate ways that evening without committing to any decision about the future.

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[Nancy Grace]

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[Narrator/Reporter]

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[Nancy Grace]

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. So let me understand, Alyssa. Jennifer's pregnant. And we're leading up to the moment she's discovered face down in the Red River. She believes it's her ex, Holman's baby. She tells Holman, and he says he's overwhelmed and that he didn't know what he wanted to do. He actually admits, we just saw him on tape stating, she told me she was pregnant and it was mine. Did you know all that?

[Alyssa Warnick]

I didn't know she was pregnant until I got to the house, my grandmother's house, when she was missing. And I started kind of pilfering through items in the bathroom, trying to find out any indication of what her mindset was. And I did find pregnancy tests. And that coupled with the fact that I found out that she was seeing Rob on the side, it just indicated to me that she was pregnant with his child. Yes.

[Nancy Grace]

The pregnancy test you found, had it been used? Did it say positive?

[Alyssa Warnick]

It had not been used. It was a packet of like two, and one was missing.

[Nancy Grace]

It's not long after this where she tells the ex that she's pregnant by him. Her body is found. Listen.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Six days into the search for Jennifer, a fisherman in the red river called, calls 91 1. He sees a woman's naked body floating face down in the water. She has reddish brown hair. It's Jennifer. Her body is so badly decomposed, a medical examiner cannot determine her cause of death, only classifying it as a violent homicide. There is damage to some of her internal organs, and shockingly, Jennifer's uterus is missing. Forensic experts cannot explain why, but believe it was destroyed by fish and turtles.

[Nancy Grace]

And that is why the meat cannot confirm she was pregnant. But we know that she was. Also, we are learning about a caretaker's home, an abandoned caretaker's home that was burned down the night Jennifer disappeared. What can you tell me about that, Claire? St. Amant.

[Claire St. Amant]

So this is a fascinating development, Nancy. There was a small caretaker's cottage that was near a private boat ramp in Fannin County. And this cottage burned to the ground that night. And it's no known cause for why this would have burned down. There was not any electricity to the cabin. It really points to arson, an intentional lighting of this property, possibly to destroy evidence in Jennifer's murder.

[Nancy Grace]

And then more added to the mystery. Listen.

[Narrator/Reporter]

A year after Jennifer Harris's murder, Deborah Lambert sees Jennifer's face on the news and realizes she recognizes her. Lambert immediately calls police. She says she was driving on the Red River Bridge and saw a red headed woman with three men. Two of the men had the woman by the elbows while she struggled to get away. Lambert says she was too scared to get involved at the time, but she now believes that was Jennifer Harris.

[Alyssa Warnick]

I made eye contact with her and she was scared, terrified look on her face.

[Claire St. Amant]

My mom seen her too. And she said, that girl's fishing to get raped and killed.

[Nancy Grace]

Now from our friends at CBS 48 Hours to Daryl Parker joining us, board certified criminal defense investigator at Blackfish Intelligence. Darryl, I'm torn. When you spot a redhead, which is really statistically not often that stuck in this witness's mind. Okay. She says she made eye contact with the woman, the redhead, and that she looked terrified. Her mother, the witness's mother saw the redhead and said, that girl's fixing to get raped and killed. Interesting. They did not call police, they did not report it, and they say there were three men. I find it very difficult to believe, Darrell, that three people have managed to keep quiet all this time.

[Barry Warnick]

Yeah.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Whatever Ms. Lambert saw that day, it.

[Barry Warnick]

Didn'T have anything to do with Jennifer Harris. Jennifer Harris's whereabouts throughout the day were.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Pretty well known through the investigation. And the time of Mrs. Lambert's reported sighting of whatever happened was several hours.

[Barry Warnick]

Before Jennifer went missing.

[Nancy Grace]

Aha. So we've got an inconsistency. But then there's the issue of a lineup. Listen.

[Dr. Judy Ho]

Police create a lineup for Deborah Lambert in an attempt to identify the men she saw with Jennifer. Lambert picks Rob Holman out of the lineup. Sure he was one of the men she saw. But currently investigators cannot attest to the quality of the test. There are no records on who was included.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Family members still looking for the murderer who left Jennifer's body naked and floating in a river. And what happened to Jennifer's baby? Six days into the search for Jennifer, a fisherman in the red river calls 91 1. He sees a woman's naked body floating face down in the water. She has reddish brown hair. It's Jennifer. Her body is so badly decomposed, a Medical examiner cannot determine her cause of death, only classifying it as a violent homicide. There is damage to some of her internal organs and shockingly, Jennifer's uterus is missing. Forensic experts cannot explain why, but believe it was destroyed by fish and turtles.

[Nancy Grace]

Claire, tell me about the ill fated lineup.

[Claire St. Amant]

So, Nancy, people wonder if this lineup was done properly, if there was a way that possibly it was tainted, that it could have been that the position that, you know, Rob's photo was in, that it, it led the eyewitness to use it. But you know, ultimately he was identified as who they believed to be the person on the Red River Bridge.

[Nancy Grace]

And there's more. Listen.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Mother's Day. Eight years after Jennifer Harris's murder, Fannin County Lieutenant Sheriff Darrell Parker takes a stack of Harris family photos to Rob Holman's home. Holman is struck by a photo of Jennifer swimming in muddy water and seems to get emotional. Parker gives Holman his card and just a few hours later gets a call. Holman wants to talk. Caught off guard, Parker schedules an interview for the next day. But by then Holman's lost his nerve and lawyered up.

[Nancy Grace]

Did you have anything to do with.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The death of Jennifer Harris? No.

[Nancy Grace]

Jennifer's pregnancy, did you believe she was pregnant? No, I didn't think she was. Did you think that she believed she was pregnant?

[Alyssa Warnick]

No.

[Nancy Grace]

That. From our friends at CBS 48 Hours. Claire, explain to me what we are hearing. So the ex, who is not named a suspect at this juncture, so the ex wants to confess, they say come in the next day. And by then he's lawyered up and won't give a statement.

[Claire St. Amant]

Correct. And he no longer is willing to talk. He's no longer willing to take a polygraph as he had previously said that he would be willing to do. You know, in the recorded interviews that we have with Rob Holman, Right. When Jennifer goes missing, I think we have the most reliable information. That's whenever he says that he knew that she was pregnant, that he asked her to get an abortion, that he didn't want her to have the baby, he, that it would ruin his life, that she had threatened to come to the house and tell his new girlfriend that she was pregnant with his child, and all of these things are just sort of spilling out of him. In this initial interview with police, but in future conversations, once he's represented by an attorney, he says he didn't know she was pregnant. He says he didn't have any idea that the baby, you know, that there was a baby or that it could be his and he's completely changed his story.

[Nancy Grace]

Nancy Claire St. Amant that's a problem. It's a problem not when you add facts to your statement, but when you actually change facts. That's when there's a problem.

[Claire St. Amant]

You would think it would raise more suspicions, but in, you know, Rob Holman's case, he was never arrested, never charged, never had to face any more scrutiny for the fact that he changed his story, that he now says that he didn't believe that, that she was pregnant. You know, this, this should be a huge investigative turn, I would think. But he was never arrested, never charged again.

[Nancy Grace]

He is not named a suspect. He has not been charged. Just because he gave conflicting statements does not mean he's going to be charged with murder. As of right now, we don't even have a COD cause of death. There is a $50,000 reward for evidence information regarding what happened to Jennifer. If you know or think you know anything about what happened to Jennifer, please dial 1-903-583-2143. We stop now and remember an American hero. Lauren Michael Court, Detroit PD Shot and killed in the line of duty. Survived by grieving mother Lillian and father, a retired Detroit police officer. Wife Kirsten, now a widow and son Darien daughter Devin, American hero, Police officer Lauren Michael Quartz, Nancy Grace, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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[Alyssa Warnick]

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[Dr. Judy Ho]

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[Nancy Grace]

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