COLUMBIA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — The man accused of murdering his wife is in court Monday, facing charges including homicide and abuse of corpse.
On Monday, around 10:00 a.m., 37-year-old Vincent Harp was brought to the Columbia County Court for a hearing.
The hearing lasted for two and a half hours, with the district judge ruling there was enough evidence to send the case to court for trial.
Harp is accused of murdering 33-year-old Katlyn Harp and then placing her body in a box and hiding it in a wooded area of Columbia County.
An investigation began on June 20, when Katlyn’s sister requested a welfare check after not having any communication with her. Vincent was questioned on the victim’s disappearance, and police stated, "(Vincent) Harp was inconsistent with his movements before, during, and after Katyln’s disappearance."
Through further investigation, police gathered surveillance video of Vincent’s whereabouts when Katlyn first went missing, and they reviewed his cell phone locations. In the videos, authorities said he is seen driving with a large green box in the bed of his vehicle.
On Saturday, a state police forensics team searched the Harp home on Fairview Drive.
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According to the complaint, Harp’s Chevrolet Silverado was seen on June 20 passing the location, also consistent with his cellular activity.
Then, on June 29, state police received a call from Katlyn’s sister stating she and a search party believed they found her on Harp Lane in Montour Township, at a property Vincent previously owned.
Once on the scene, investigators said a large green metal box, matching the one seen on video on the back of Vincent’s truck, was discovered along the mountainside of his former property.
As stated in the affidavit, "the box had a strong odor of decomposition… opening the box, human remains were discovered, Katyln Harp was identified via a tattoo."
According to the release, the body was "in an advanced state of decomposition secondary to being placed in the container consistent with a military type storage locker for over a week." The county coroner added that there were no signs of trauma or gunshot wounds. The exact cause of death has yet to be determined.
Harp and his lawyer insist that Katyln's death was due to a drug overdose, but the coroner says it’s still murder.
"I classified her death as a homicide based on the totality of the evidence; a drug overdose can still be a homicide," stated Coroner Jeremy Reese.
A State Trooper testified in court, stating that Vincent Hart told him, "he said that he and Katlyn were inhaling nitrous oxide to get high, she died from an overdose. I made up a story that she left on her own."
On the way out of the courthouse, Harp said, "It's all about drugs." Family and friends of Katlyn Harp were in the courtroom; however, they did not want to comment after the hearing.
I-Team reporter Andy Mehalshick will have more live coverage in Bloomsburg on later editions of 28/22 News.
