Apache County search continues for missing man last seen near Houck
Harrison Ashley, 66, was last seen walking from Houck toward Sanders on July 9, and Navajo police are asking Apache County residents to call with any tip.
Navajo police and Apache County Emergency Management are still searching for Harrison Ashley, 66, who was last seen walking from Burnt Water Road in Houck toward Sanders on the night of July 9. The route runs near Interstate 40 in southern Apache County, where wide stretches of open country and long distances between communities can make even a small lead important.
Ashley is described as 5 feet, 7 inches tall. When he was last seen, he was wearing a blue denim jacket, a white button shirt, jeans, brown hiking boots and a black hat. Those details are central to the search because investigators are trying to narrow down whether he continued along the Houck-to-Sanders corridor or stopped somewhere along the way.
Officials asked anyone with information to call Navajo police at 928-871-6111. The appeal comes as officers and county emergency personnel work across a large part of Apache County, which the county says covers about 11,127 square miles and is the third largest county in Arizona by area. A U.S. Census Bureau profile puts Apache County’s land area at 11,198.3 square miles and also ranks it third in the state by total area.
The geography around the search area adds to the urgency. Sanders sits at the junction of U.S. Route 191 and Interstate 40 and had a 2020 census population of 575, leaving few people across a broad rural landscape to notice a missing person or a vehicle that does not belong. The county’s remoteness means residents, motorists and ranchers often provide the kind of early observations that help search teams focus their efforts.
The Navajo Nation Police Department’s public missing-person postings show how long some cases can remain unresolved on the Nation. A recent updated poster listed 73 unresolved missing-person cases, including 22 women and 51 men. The department also has a separate listing for Peter S. Ashley, 70, who was last seen in Burntwater, Arizona, in January 2021.
For now, the search for Harrison Ashley remains centered on the same stretch of country where he was last seen, with police and county crews depending on the next credible sighting to move the case forward.
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