A day after the story broke of a north Garland man's disappearance and apparent discovery under a slab in his own backyard, the story broadens a bit in an article in today's Dallas Morning News. Reporter Michael Grabell brings new details forward by talking to neighbors.

I don't know many details about Mr Giles but it does appear he was friendly with his neighbors and was known to them. While it didn't save him from his fate, being a part of a community and knowing his neighbors does seem to have contributed to the information that led to his discovery. An incident reported a year ago by his neighbors helped establish the suspicion that served to focus the disparate details of his disappearance and led to an immediate arrest.

Many times such willingness to be good neighbors saves us from a burglary or worse. Looking out the window when an alarm sounds, reporting strangers and suspicious activities, calling neighbors that have left their garage door open, picking up a newspaper and moving it to the porch, or collecting mail when someone is out of town can increase our safety more than doubling or tripling the police force.

Unfortunately, being caring and watchful didn't help Mr Giles and it is sad that none of us were at the right place at the right time to prevent this tragedy.

I offer my condolences and prayers to the Giles family for their loss. I pray for justice and I pray that we all take just the few moments to watch and help our neighbors.

Slab cemented mystery of Garland man's disappearance

Garland: Its arrival sparked questions that led police to body

 

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, October 21, 2007
By MICHAEL GRABELL / The Dallas Morning News
mgrabell@dallasnews.com

 

GARLAND – The tan brick home on Wood Creek Lane looked as if someone was still living there. The white caladiums and delphiniums out front thrived next to an unrolled garden hose as if they had just been watered. A new carpet-cleaning ad and a Chinese restaurant menu hung on the door handle.

 

But neighbors in this middle-class neighborhood near Firewheel Town Center hadn't seen the home's last owner in more than a year.

 

Had Michael Giles moved out without telling anyone? they wondered. Had the military retiree grown reclusive? And just what was underneath the narrow concrete slab that some learned had been poured after he was gone?

 

On Friday, Garland police and the FBI dug up the slab and found what they believe to be Mr. Giles' remains, wrapped in what could be a carpet.

 

Police arrested Kwaneta Harris, a licensed nurse with unknown Dallas ties, in Detroit on suspicion of murder. Garland detectives were interviewing her Saturday with plans to extradite her on Monday.

 

Mr. Giles' family last saw him in June 2006. But until February, they had been receiving e-mails that were purportedly from him. They didn't report him missing until several weeks ago.

 

After he vanished, the house was foreclosed on and leased to someone else. And one day, the new residents came home to find the concrete slab – about three feet wide and 12 to 15 feet long – behind their house.

 

"We just couldn't figure out why it was poured," Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said. "It wasn't an extension of a patio. It wasn't big enough for someone to sit out on."

 

Police released few new details Saturday about what they suspect happened to Mr. Giles, who was 46 when he disappeared, or what led them to Ms. Harris.

 

"We're still working on exactly what their relationship was," Officer Harn said. "We're not sure why she was here. Was it just to see him? And how did they meet?"

 

He did confirm that Garland detectives were following up on a police call last year about a woman and several men seen moving furniture out of the house.

 

"We checked and everything seemed to be legitimate at the time," Officer Harn said.

 

Adding to the aura of mystery for neighbors was the coincidence that the man next door to Mr. Giles had shot himself in his back yard a few months ago, and that last year a neighbor down the street had been found in his house weeks after dying from a heart attack.

 

"It's kind of strange because normally it's just as quiet as can be," said Booker Horton, who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years. "It's – I wouldn't say scary – just shocking a little bit."

 

The neighborhood seems peaceful. The streets have bucolic names such as Deer Brook and Turtle Cove. The one-story brick houses that line them are next to an elementary school and back up to Firewheel Golf Park.

 

Neighbors said they knew Mr. Giles by his first name but rarely said more than a few words to him as they mowed their lawns or checked their mail.

 

"I don't try to be the nosy neighbor guy, but maybe I should," said Marvin Wess, who lives across the street. "Maybe it wouldn't have happened to him."

 

Mr. Wess and his wife said Mr. Giles had built a tall wooden fence and put French doors on his home just before he disappeared.

 

"It was sad to see that something like that could happen across the street and nobody know anything about it," Sylvia Wess said.

 

Hal Steinman, who lives next to the Wesses, said that he and his wife had often wondered what had happened to Mr. Giles, and that knowing about the concrete slab only added to their speculation.

 

"She saw the FBI and all the cars pulling up on the street," he said. "My wife went up to them and asked, 'Are y'all looking for a dead body in the back yard?' "

 

Mr. Steinman said he recognized the woman whom police arrested and thinks he had seen her coming and going a few times.

 

Little was known about Ms. Harris, 35, who police said didn't appear to have a criminal record.

 

Public records show her living in the Detroit area, with scant mention of Dallas ties. She had been a licensed practical nurse since 1998, according to records from the Michigan Department of Community Health. But it's unclear whether she was practicing.

 

Officer Harn said it wasn't a tip – just a good hunch – that led authorities to get the current owner's permission and dig under the concrete. But once police found something, they stopped digging and secured a search warrant.

 

"Nobody had said, 'Hey, Michael's buried back there,' " he said. "The more we heard, if nothing else, the curiosity killed the cat, and that's why we went out and did it."

 

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1 comment

Comments:

Comment from: Dorothy Brooks [Visitor]

Reading this story caused me to wonder several things.
1. Did Mr. Harris have a family in which he had a close and connected relationship? Since now we don't need closeness to have our basic needs met or to help us get ready for winter (killing hogs) or get ready for planting season (plowing up ground) or to reap a harvest....we can live isolated lives. We don't really NEED family anymore. THat is why establishing neighborhood organizations is so hard. We are all so independent. But this points out that a relative would have or SHOULD Have asked questions like "Why are you not pursuing every lead?" because this behavior is NOT typical. A relative would pursue faster and with much tenacity. The police have so many hours and so many people. Choices have to be made and I understand that. But I wonder if the same choices would have been made if more focus had been given to his steadfastness and reliability when his disappearance was fresh.
2. Will there be a service for this man or will his life "just end" very abruptly? If he had a home, perhaps he had ambitions, hopes and dreams. But if no one celebrates his life (not his death) then that is really sad to me. Is there anyone out there who will remember him?

10/24/07 @ 07:25

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