MOHAVE VALLEY — Human remains were found early Saturday in a burned out vehicle that had rolled off Willow Drive, officials say.  Identification of the body and cause of death have not yet been determined, but the body is believed to be that of Patrick Andrew LaHaie, 47, of Michigan, who was reported missing from his sister’s home in Mohave Valley on Monday, said Trish Carter, Mohave County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.  

Fire department personnel were dispatched about 3:15 a.m. Saturday about 21/2 miles east of the end of the pavement on Willow Drive, said Fire Marshal Don Gibson, Mohave Valley Fire Department.  “On arrival, crews found a rolled over vehicle that had burned,” Gibson said. “The fire was out. Crews reported that the fire had happened several days prior to the call.”

Private investigators found the crash scene, Carter said.  “Our family is extremely grateful to Lyle Sharman and his search and rescue investigators,” said LaHaie’s sister, Barbara Dillon. “I think God brought them into our lives for a reason; within hours, they were able to find Patrick.  Christy Sahlstrom, a search and rescue volunteer with United Private Investigations of Bullhead City, reportedly located the crash scene.  “We were able to determine that after speaking with his sister Saturday, Patrick had gone out to the Fort Mohave Smokeshop on Willow Drive,” said Sharman, a  licensed private investigator and owner of United Private Investigations. “Employees there remembered him, and reported that he seemed to be having some car trouble. Sahlstrom is a mapping and searching specialist, Sharman said. She went out searching late Friday and found the burned out vehicle.

LaHaie apparently drove eastbound on Willow, past the pavement and onto a dirt road, Sharman said. He had turned around and was heading westward, back toward the river, when his car left the unpaved road, flipping numerous times and catching on fire.  "The debris field was 300 to 400 feet long,” he said. “It was a severe accident.”  The investigators were able to match parts of the vehicle and contents to the 1998 Black Dodge Durango belonging to LaHaie, Sharman said. 

LaHaie was reported missing Monday after speaking by phone about 8:15 p.m. Saturday with his sister, Barbara Dillon, who was traveling from California. When Dillon arrived home about 4:30 a.m. Sunday, she found the gates and garage and front door of her home on Peacock Mountain Drive open and unlocked. LaHaie’s vehicle, wallet and cell phone were gone, but his other personal items were still in the home.

“It’s really devastating,” Dillon said. “We’re still waiting on DNA matching, but we’re 99 percent sure it’s him. My mom and stepdad, Diane and Tom, and my brothers, Allen LaHaie and Ed Sheppard, want to thank everyone involved in helping us to find Patrick.”

All the private investigators involved in the search for LaHaie were volunteers, Sharman said. 

Formal identification and cause of death will be determined by the Mohave County Medical Examiner, Carter said. The Mohave Valley Sheriff’s Office is continuing to investigate.

Family's desperate search for mother continues: 'I don't have a good feeling about this'

KINGMAN - It is a familiar cliché for anyone who has watched or read crime dramas, but things really don't add up for a private eye and the family that hired him to search for Nancy Hartz, who sold her home and her truck and left town last June with a man she met on an online dating site. Nobody has heard from her since. "I don't have a good feeling about this at all," said an emotional Denise Baggs, one of Hartz's four children, on Thursday. Baggs, 38, has been relentless in looking for her mom after the 71-year-old woman vanished without so much as a goodbye last summer. Baggs filed a missing person report with the Mohave County Sheriff's office. A lieutenant reportedly talked on the telephone with a woman claiming to be Hartz who allegedly told him she left because she no longer wanted anything to do with her children. The lieutenant was satisfied the case was solved and no further action was taken, but Baggs is not about to give up. The searcher The Miner first reported this story in early January. Since then, Baggs and her siblings have hired private investigator Lyle Sharman, who is also involved in the case of missing Kingman real estate agent Syd Cranston. Sharman did some sleuthing and was able to speak telephonically with a woman claiming to be Hartz on at least two occasions. He recorded both conversations and what he heard and shared with the family has raised more than one red flag. "I set her up with questions and she couldn't answer them," said Sharman, a former law enforcement officer who, as a private investigator, has solved 34 missing person cases. Not all of them have ended well, but they were solved and that gave their survivors a modicum of comfort. He intends to solve the Hartz case, as well. There were four questions Hartz and only Hartz could answer. They were: What was the name of the dog that died of smoke inhalation when our house burned down? What was the name of the man who lived across the street? What was the nickname Baggs' father gave her when she was a young adult in the 1970s? What color was the Dodge Charger you drove when we were children? The woman purporting to be Hartz said there never was a house fire or a dog that died in one. The correct answer is "Patches." The woman said she couldn't remember the neighbor's name, but she remembered he molested her daughters. The correct answer is "Birdwatcher." "He never molested us," said Baggs. "He was just kind of goofy and made us laugh." She had no nickname from anyone. And the Dodge Charger? The woman said it was blue in color - and that it was a 4-cylinder. One doesn't have to be a car buff to know Dodge never wasted its time producing a four-banger and calling it a Charger. "That was my own. My mom had a Dodge Charger," said Sharman. "Nancy never owned one." That isn't her voice For Baggs, the more disconcerting aspect of the taped conversations wasn't that the woman claiming to be her mom utterly failed to correctly answer any of the questions. "It wasn't her voice," she said. "My brother and sisters, we all listened and we all agree that wasn't our mom on the phone." The man was known as Ray, and then they determined his real name was James, but the woman who said she was Hartz refused to provide Sharman with a last name, and she said James would not be willing to speak with the private eye. "I have to put eyes on her," said Sharman. "If I determine she's alive and wants nothing to do with her kids, than I'm done and there's nothing more to do." Sharman said an investigator has to trust what clients say, and he believes Baggs and her siblings would know the sound of their own mother's voice. His own mother died 14 years ago, and he still remembers her voice. He also pointed out he works for free for many people in search of lost loved ones, but Baggs and her siblings scratched enough money together to pay Sharman his fee. "Why would they not be honest?" he said. Specific answers, all incorrect Then there's the matter of the questions. "Her answers were consistently inaccurate," said Sharman. "She had no clue to what she was talking about." Baggs said Hartz could be forgetful about the same things all of us can be absentminded about, such as where she left her car keys, but she was not suffering with dementia. She knew what year it is. She knew who the U.S. president is. Nonetheless, the woman, when asked to name her children's birthplaces, only mentioned three of them; all that were wrong. Hartz has four children. "She gave me specific answers," said Sharman. "And they were wrong." Still, he's not willing to say the woman he spoke to on two occasions is not who she claims to be until, as he put it, "I put eyes on her." The main question the woman refuses to answer under any circumstances: Where are you living? She said they live in New Mexico, on a forest road where the snow is three feet high. She doesn't have a name for the road, or the forest it stretches through, or the name of the closest town. Sharman called law enforcement agencies in New Mexico for help and learned there are no areas in the state, not even on top of the highest mountain, with three feet of snow. "I'm trying to match the phone number with an address," said Sharman. He knows a computer expert who has worked with him on other cases looking at IP addresses - each computer has its own Internet protocol address that does two things: It allows computers to communicate with each other via email and other means, and it also provides the physical address of where each computer is located. "I have to see her in person," said Sharman. "She kept saying she didn't want to be bothered by her kids. I told her the easiest way to make that happen is to have law enforcement do a welfare check. Once law enforcement verifies you're OK I will tell them to leave you alone." Fading hope The woman also told Sharman her children tried to get her declared legally incompetent in order to get "all my money." "We never tried to get anything like that done," said Baggs. "We never even thought about doing anything like that, ever." And as for all that money? Hartz was living on Social Security checks and a tiny pension. She sold her home in northern Kingman last year for $50,000 cash, but that money went with her and the deal was done before her children even knew she planned to sell the home, said Baggs, who lives in a nice home in a well-kept neighborhood. While the mystery of who James is might be a key concern of law enforcement down the road, his identity isn't important to Sharman. "Who cares who James is in the grand scheme of things?" he said. "What we want to know is, is Mom OK?" While James or Ray or whatever his name is refuses to speak to Sharman - he also has refused to reply to emails sent by the Miner - ostensibly because he feels unfairly put upon, Sharman said that is not what he's doing. "Our plan isn't to harass anyone. We just want to know Nancy is alive and well." The private investigator might have help headed his way. Baggs on Friday called to say she and Sharman met with the lieutenant from the sheriff's office who originally investigated the missing person report. She said that after showing him what Sharman has discovered, he seemed convinced the case of Nancy Hartz merits more scrutiny. Law enforcement will be able to subpoena records regarding her Social Security payments and reach out to other law enforcement agencies for assistance, said Baggs. After eight months, Baggs isn't holding out much hope for a happy ending and that her mom will be safe and sound, if not at least safe. Baggs has that sinking feeling that says her mom isn't even alive. She and Hartz were "best friends." They spoke every day. They shared confidences and memories and the love between a mother and daughter. "In my heart and in my soul, no. I don't feel like she's OK," she said. "Even if she wanted nothing to do with me, she would have told me so. She's always been there. She's my best friend."