Man Missing 11 Weeks Says He Wants to Be Left Alone

Art Harp, a retired longshoremen’s union clerk who disappeared 11 weeks ago after leaving his Rancho Palos Verdes home for a morning stroll, has told a sheriff’s detective that he is alive and well and wants to be left alone.

Detectives found Harp, 64, last week when he tried to use a charge card to rent a car at an Ugly Duckling rental agency in Escondido, Detective Sally Fynan said.

“He’s voluntarily missing and, of course, he has a right to be,” Fynan said. “We’ve closed the case.”

Fynan said a family friend also reported talking to Harp at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Harbor City about a month ago, but investigators delayed closing the case until they had talked to Harp themselves.

Harp’s abrupt disappearance May 30 touched off an intense search by his wife and two children, who feared that he had met with foul play while walking through nearby Peck Park in San Pedro.

Perplexed investigators said they were concerned because Harp had no illness that would account for his disappearance and had not told anyone he wanted to leave.

His wife, Cecile, said Wednesday that she has no idea why Harp would walk out on his marriage of 44 years without a word to anyone.

“I was just sick with worry . . . and now I’m just waiting. He knows where I’m at,” she said. “Who knows what he was thinking?”