Case Details

Photo URLs:

This person was missing Missing Since 07/15/1981

Missing Since:

Missing Since 07/15/1981

Missing From:

Missing From Big Pine Key, Florida

Classification:

Classification Endangered Missing

Gender:

Female

Race:

Race White

Date of Birth:

Date of Birth 10/06/1953 (71)

Age:

Age 27 years old

Height and Weight:

Height and Weight 5’4 – 5’8, 120 – 135 pounds

Clothing/Jewelry Description:

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Red/blonde hair, blue eyes. Harris wore eyeglasses and dentures at the time of her disappearance. She is fair-skinned and, at the time she vanished, was known to occasionally wear wigs. Some agencies give her name as “Diane.”

Details of Disappearance:

In the summer of 1981, a woman named Harris vanished from Big Pine Key in Florida. She lived there with her boyfriend, Gary Argenzio, in a house known for parties. Harris worked two jobs and had recently moved from Michigan.

Her children were in Michigan for the summer with their father. Harris usually called them regularly, but the last call was in mid-July. She was supposed to pick them up in mid-August for a family wedding, but never showed. Her family reported her missing. All her belongings were left behind.

Argenzio became a suspect. A week after Harris disappeared, he fled to Mexico, stealing a boat. He was eventually caught, convicted of theft, and imprisoned. He died in 1992, but was never charged with Harris’s disappearance.

A witness claimed Argenzio confessed to killing Harris and said he’d seen blood and a hole in the wall of their house. Another witness supported this story.

The case remains unsolved. Some believe Harris’s disappearance may be linked to another unsolved case, that of Thomas Stump, who disappeared in Florida in 1995, because police interviewed some of the same people in both investigations. However, no direct connection has been confirmed.

Agency:

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office 305-296-2424

Source Links: