Where is Dawnette Harrell

Nov. 15, 2006

The billboard on US 31 shows a young woman wearing wire frame glasses with her dark hair pulled back in a tight pony tail. She has a wide smile and innocent, pretty features. And it has one word in flaming red letters. “Missing!”
Her mother, worried and despairing, paid for the billboard that’s located south of Chum’s Corners in Traverse City, said Michigan State Trooper Roger Bloom, who is leading the investigation..
The question is this: Was Dawnette Harrell kidnapped or did she leave town on her own accord to escape a bad marriage? Or was she murdered?
Harrell has been missing since April 2, but the flyers didn’t go up until six months later saying she was an “endangered” missing person. State Police said they wanted to exhaust all leads before issuing a missing person’s alert.
On the day she was last seen, she had gotten into a fight with her husband, left their house, and moved in with her mom. She visited with friends that evening. A gentleman friend told State Police that he dropped her off in the K-Mart parking lot at the Cherryland Center in Traverse
City at 3 in the morning and drove away as she walked to her car.
Her brother-in-law found a locked red Toyota Tercel in the parking lot about five days later, her mom said in a Traverse City Record-Eagle article.
Her mom, Donna Hart, of Traverse City declined to be interviewed for the article saying (by way of a State Trooper) that she was too stressed.
PREGNANT
Harrell was reportedly 10 weeks pregnant with a due date in November. She’ll celebrate her 29th birthday this month.
It is clear from court records that all was not well with Dawnette’s marriage to Timothy Harrell, a skilled worker. She filed a personal protection order against him last year, and he filed one against her. Two other people have petitioned for personal protection orders against him. His name was not in the phonebook and he couldn’t be reached for an interview. He is still in the area, Bloom said.
In 1998 a Kingsley woman petitioned for a personal protection order from Timothy Harrell. She said they lived together from August to the end of October. She described several violent assaults and claimed that he killed her puppy by throwing it against a wall. It must be underscored, however, that these allegations were never proved in court and could be exaggerated or even untrue. The judge granted her request.
Then in 2003, a Kingsley man petitioned for a personal protection order. The man wrote in the court records that he had known Tim since he was a teen, and claimed that Tim had threatened to beat him and kill his girlfriend.
A year later, things had calmed down, and Dawnette and Tim stopped over for a visit. They told him they were living out of their car, and asked him if they could spend a week or so at his house. He agreed. Their stay ended in a violent fight and the man claimed he had to go to an emergency room for gashes on his arm, according to Grand Traverse County Circuit Court records. Again, these charges are the allegations behind a personal protection order request, and may or may not be true.

SEEKING PROTECTION
Dawnette, who married Tim in 2001, filed a personal protection order against him in Benzie County on September 21, 2005, asking that Timothy stay 20 to 50 feet away from her house. She alleged that he broke his probation by drinking and that he tore a ligament in her left finger which required a splint. She asked that he pay the doctor’s bill and not come to her house, although he could still call her. Her petition was granted.
Timothy requested a personal protection order against her a month later, asking that she stop making harassing phone calls to his cell phone. Both terminated their petitions on the same day in early December of 2005.
Trooper Bloom said he has nothing to substantiate that there was any foul play, but considers the case an open investigation. This kind of case is difficult because women sometimes walk away from abusive relationships never to be seen again. But the fact that so many months have gone by has caused him to take her disappearance seriously.
“The majority of people who are reported missing are found the next day. Or they might hear that they’re missing and check in with the police or a relative. Very rarely do we have someone gone missing for months,” he said. “Her name is in the missing persons national network, so if she was stopped by the police for any reason, her name would pop up on the computer. But her name has not appeared, and that is concerning to me.”

If you have any information about Dawnette Harrell, call the Michigan State Police at 946-4646.