Overland Park minister was strangled by her church elder husband, court docs say

Robert Harris drove “everywhere” looking for his missing wife, he told her worried mother by phone the evening of Jan. 8.

But by then, court records obtained by The Star show, Harris had already made several trips to a nearby Walmart to buy a large trash can, plastic bags, carpet cleaner and a filleting knife.

A neighbor of the Harrises in the apartment complex in the 8000 block of Perry Street in Overland Park told police he had heard loud stomping noises and believed he had heard someone yelling, “Help me!” earlier that afternoon, an affidavit filed in court says.

Later the neighbor saw Harris struggling with a heavy trash bin, thumping down one step at a time before getting it out to an SUV in the parking lot, he told police, according to the court document.

A preliminary autopsy would show that Tanisha Harris, 38, died that day from strangulation by someone’s hands, a detective said in the court affidavit. She also had signs of head trauma, including bleeding, that didn’t appear to be fatal.

Robert Harris, 30, was charged Jan. 10 with premeditated first-degree murder. His next court date is pending.

The heavily redacted court document pieces together some events that led police to Tanisha Harris’ bagged body in Cass County early Jan. 9 and Robert Harris’ arrest.

Receipts recovered by police show Robert Harris made numerous trips to Walmart on Jan. 8, as early as 9:30 a.m. when he bought a filleting knife, the court affidavit says. The receipts showed Harris purchased a 50-gallon trash bin at 3:30 p.m. that day. In multiple trips that day, receipts and surveillance video showed, he had also purchased knives and carpet cleaner.

In the court affidavit, the neighbor said he heard a noisy disturbance between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., and became concerned and called the police after he saw Harris struggling with the heavy trash bin around 4 p.m.

Police arrived and found Robert Harris alone in the apartment, the court documents say. The officers noted there was broken glass on the carpet near the front door and red stains on the carpet in the living room area. Upon leaving, the police searched the apartment complex’s trash bins and found nothing abnormal.

Early in the evening, Tanisha Harris’ mother was concerned about her daughter because she didn’t know where she was. The bank where she worked had closed and her car was gone. Her mother asked Robert Harris to go look for her. Later that evening, he told her had looked everywhere for his wife.

Around 8 p.m., Robert Harris summoned police to his apartment and reported that his wife was missing.

In the apartment, police noted in the court documents, there was a strong odor of bleach and it appeared Harris had been trying to remove the red stains in the carpet.

During further questioning, Harris admitted he had a role in her disappearance, police said publicly after his arrest.

After interviewing Robert Harris, detectives went to a field at East 163rd Street and Kentucky Road in Raymore, Mo., in the early hours of Jan. 9 where they found Tanisha Harris’ body in a black plastic bag.

Robert Harris, who worked at a hospital, and Tanisha Harris, who worked at a bank, were also top officials at a south Kansas City church — Repairers KC — where they had met, fallen in love and celebrated their marriage.

Tanisha was an associate pastor at the church and Robert was an elder. The church’s pastor, Carlton Funderburke, said on the day of Robert Harris’s arrest that there had been no indication at all of any problems between the couple.

The Harrises’ church is carrying on, “prayerfully,” Funderburke said Wednesday. “We are grieving. We are relying on our faith.”

A YouCaring.com fundraising page has been established to support Tanisha Harris’ 9-year-old daughter, the “Tanisha Love Memorial Fund for her daughter Alex.”

This story was originally published January 24, 2018 at 1:32 PM with the headline "Overland Park minister was strangled by her church elder husband, court docs say."