U.S. keeps close eye on search for Harris in Brazil

U.S. government officials in Brazil are closely watching a police investigation into the disappearance of former Washington State University basketball star Tony Harris in South America's largest country.

"We are aware of the incident, and we know the local officials are engaged and we're closely monitoring them as they handle the investigation," Steve Royster, spokesman for Consular Affairs at the State Department in Washington, D.C., said Wednesday.

U.S. Consul-General Simon Henshaw in Brazil said his office is working "not as investigators, but to get the story and help in the investigation." He said Brazilian authorities have jurisdiction in the case.

Henshaw said his office learned about the disappearance of the Garfield High School graduate on Nov. 5, the day after Harris last spoke by phone with his wife, Lori Harris, who lives in Kent.

"We've spoken directly to everyone involved," Henshaw said.

Now his office is re-interviewing people who last saw Harris in hopes of turning up clues.

"So far we haven't found we have missed anything," he said. "It's a mystery still."

Tony Harris left Seattle on Oct. 31 to play basketball for a professional team in Brazil's capital, Brasília, where he previously had played for several years. The former Cougar guard, who led WSU to the NCAA tournament in 1994, had most recently been employed at a juvenile-detention center, but he was laid off in February, according to his wife.

Harris was supposed to return to Washington for a visit in December, when the couple's child is due.

After only a few days in Brazil, Harris was anxious and talked about wanting to come home, Lori Harris said.

The last time he was playing in Brazil, "he didn't leave on good terms," she said. "He heard that his old coach said some things that were not true, [things] that could put him at risk." She declined to give further details.

Harris couldn't leave because the team was holding his passport, she said, so his plan was to stay with a friend in northern Brazil and wait for a replacement passport.

Lori Harris last heard from her husband a week and a half ago, when he was on the way to the friend's house. He used a Brazilian taxi driver's cellphone on his last call to his wife. He told her he loved her and would talk to her later, his wife recalled.

Brazilian media showed photos of Tony Harris to people in the Brasília area and asked if they recognized him. The media outlets told Lori Harris that two people claimed they had seen him and that he had apparently been asking for food and money. Both sightings were unconfirmed.

On Wednesday morning Lori Harris' stepfather and a friend purchased airline tickets for Brazil. The two are flying out Friday and will stay for a week.

"They are going to be a family presence there, so that we can get a better idea of what is really going on there," she said.

Seattle Times staff reporters Jayda Evans and Jennifer Sullivan contributed to this report.

Christina Siderius: 206-464-2112 or csiderius@seattletimes.com