Cold Case Break: Missing Woman Found Alive After 12 Years, Links to Alleged Multi-State Abduction Network

ARKANSAS — For 12 years, the disappearance of 23-year-old Danielle Morgan was an unsolved riddle in small-town Arkansas — a case with no witnesses, no wreckage, and no sign of the black Camaro she drove away in one Sunday afternoon in June 1998.

In 2010, that changed. A dusty, sealed storage unit auctioned off 200 miles from Morgan’s hometown contained her Camaro — keys in the ignition, a bullet hole in the hood, and, hidden inside, a cassette tape in her own voice warning that “if something happens to me, I didn’t just leave.”

What followed was a chain of discoveries that led not only to Morgan’s rescue in 2010 from a locked room behind an abandoned diner freezer, but to the exposure of what investigators now believe was a network of kidnappings, illicit transport, and long-term captivity operating across at least two states from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s.

The Disappearance

On June 21, 1998, Danielle Morgan left her family’s home around 1:15 p.m., telling her mother she was meeting a friend for coffee. She never returned.

Her friend — and former boyfriend — Clay Harrell, then 27, told police they hadn’t spoken in weeks. Harrell, son of a local businessman and owner of an auto body shop, became a visible face in community vigils but denied any knowledge of her whereabouts.

Initial searches turned up nothing: no skid marks, no debris, no sign of her Camaro. The case soon went cold.

The Camaro Resurfaces

In May 2010, contractor Vince Ramirez bought an abandoned storage unit at auction. Behind tarps and boxes was a pristine 1997 black Camaro — Danielle’s — locked from the outside.

The hood bore a small bullet hole. In the dust, someone had traced a smiley face.

Mason Morgan, Danielle’s brother, confirmed the car was hers — but the dust suggested it had been moved or cleaned just a few years earlier. Police found partial fingerprints, including Danielle’s on the trunk latch and an unidentified male’s on the passenger door.

Under the driver’s seat, Mason found a lighter — odd, since Danielle didn’t smoke. The glove box was jammed; inside, when Mason later forced it open, was a gas receipt from the day she vanished with “Clay” written on the back, and a cassette tape in Danielle’s voice directly naming Harrell.

From Cold Case to Active Investigation

Mason brought the tape to Officer Mark Langley, one of few deputies still familiar with the case. The recording, along with newly surfaced photographs showing Danielle with Harrell days before her disappearance, reignited suspicion.

Mason and veteran crime reporter Ellie Mazer — who had covered the case in 1998 — began piecing together Danielle’s last days.

They connected Harrell to Bayine Freight, a defunct trucking company with rumored irregularities, missing shipments, and past employee disappearances. Danielle had been investigating the company before she vanished.

The Hidden Network

A breakthrough came when a former Bayine employee, “Sierra,” produced Danielle’s hidden notebook. It contained names, vehicle plate numbers, and repeated references to “Unit 19” — the same number as the storage unit holding her Camaro — and cryptic mentions of “the broker.”

Soon after, Ellie uncovered a 1998 rental contract for Unit 19 signed by Harrell three days before Danielle vanished. The emerging theory: Danielle had been abducted in a planned operation tied to Bayine’s off-the-books activities.

The Rescue

Following a lead from Sierra about a “freezer room” behind an old diner, Mason, Ellie, and Langley located the building. Behind rusted metal stairs and unplugged freezers, they found a locked steel door.

Inside: Danielle Morgan, alive, bound, and in shock.

She told investigators she had been moved between locations for over a decade — first in a remote wooded site, then to the diner — and that Harrell was not acting alone. The figure she feared most was “the broker,” whom she identified as Carl B. Mertin, a former bank officer and Bayine consultant.

Mertin had disappeared in 2001; records showed he died under a new identity in Texas in 2009.

Expanding the Case

State police raids on property owned by Harrell’s cousin, former sheriff’s deputy Darren Harold, uncovered multiple freezer rooms, dozens of VHS tapes, and missing persons flyers — including one of reporter Ellie Mazer under a different name.

Tapes captured Harrell discussing moving “trouble” to Darren’s compound “per broker’s orders,” corroborating Danielle’s account.

Harrell on the Run

Before police could arrest him, Harrell fled. Days later, a burned-out truck matching his was found by a river. Inside was a partially burned note reading “Ask Darren.” Darren Harold remains a person of interest but has not been located.

In a letter recovered later, Harrell admitted helping to make Danielle “disappear” but claimed he never harmed her directly. He implicated Mertin as the network’s leader and acknowledged multiple payouts to keep participants silent.

The Ledger and the Key

Danielle’s safety deposit box — number 24,783, discovered via a key hidden in the Camaro — contained typed internal Bayine documents labeled “Operation Summary — Broker District 3.” It listed names, addresses, storage unit numbers, and bank transfers consistent with an organized abduction and trafficking scheme.

Where It Stands

Danielle spent three months recovering under an alias before testifying before a sealed grand jury. Two other potential victims linked to the network remain missing. Neither Darren Harold nor any other suspected members of the ring have been charged in connection with their disappearances.

The Camaro remains in police evidence. Mason still visits it. “They cleaned the smiley face off,” he said, “but sometimes, when the light hits right, I swear it’s still there.”

Authorities ask that anyone with information on Darren Harold’s whereabouts or other possible victims connected to Bayine Freight contact the Arkansas State Police tip line.