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Case 326: Cooper Harris (Patreon)

Published:
2025-08-16 06:46:32
Imported:
2026-06
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When doting mother Leanna Harris arrived to pick up her 22-month-old son Cooper Harris from daycare in Atlanta, Georgia on June 18 2014, she was shocked to find that Cooper wasn’t there. She soon discovered that her husband, Ross Harris, had made a fatal mistake, leaving Cooper to die in the backseat of his hot car after forgetting to drop him off on his way to work.

As details about Cooper’s death emerged, many questions arose. Was this another innocent family who had fallen victim to the phenomenon known as Forgotten Baby Syndrome, or was something more sinister at play?

Team:

Anonymous Host - narration

Elsha McGill - research, writing

Milly Raso - creative direction

Mike Migas - production, music

Anthony Telfer - audio editing

Files

Comments

Jessamyn Fields

Thank you and goodnight Casefile listeners!

John

Yeas!!!!!

Courtney Mackey

Ahhh this was a hard listen for sure. Poor baby.

Hailey Mills

Not even a trigger warning could prepare me for how gut wrenching that story would be. I honestly don’t know how first responders cope with this type of case.

Suicide Sauce

Take a drink every time Casey has to say "picture(s) of his erect penis." I am having a great time and am already too drunk to remember that a kid died in a horrible way. ETA: I sentence Ross Harris to Estrogen pills. He can then grow his own breasts which he can view at his leisure, negating the need for him to constantly ask other people for pictures of theirs. I also sentence him to chemical *and* physical castration so that Casey never has to say "pictures of his erect penis" again, at least until Pictures of His Erect Penis Anderson is elected Prime Minister of Australia

Michael Brodie

Brilliant episode Casefile! One of the earliest podcast series I listened to was from the Atlanta Journal Constitution called "Death in a hot car." The verdict always bothered me. Ross was a flawed creep, but evidence of that was neither propensity, nor in any other way probative....it was simply prejudicial. Who has not walked into a room and immediately forgotten what they were looking for? These tragic deaths happen all the time. Ross could not have behaved in a completely normal way during that day. So hearing the verdict was overturned on appeal was a relief.

Bob Trenwith

The final outcome was the right one, given the nature of the evidence, or lack thereof. But looking at photos of Ross Harris, one has to wonder how a teenage girl could have had any attraction to him. Perhaps they saw what others were claiming - a devotion to his family which was tempered by his addiction.

Magz

Excellent episode, i love these non-traditional stories

Alanna Baker

I’ve been listening to Casefile since it started, but I never thought they’d hit so close to home. Literally. Until last summer, I lived in the neighborhood where this happened. Drove past Home Depot HQ every day, got breakfast at that CFA and did the same u-turn on Cumberland Pkwy. So I followed the trial very closely. That said, I’ve always thought that Ross was a narcissistic *** who wanted out of his family, but I really waver on whether he did this deliberately.

Alanna Baker

The AJC podcast is excellent. I went in sure that he was guilty, but by the end of the podcast, I definitely saw the reasonable doubt.

Lydia

Jesus I just came here to make that same comment we’re all sharing the same brain 😭

Suicide Sauce

Remember to being your lunch bag when we board the bus to Hell

Ernesto Ortiz

Im sorry I understand these things can absolutely happen accidentally but I just can't understand how he didnt notice anything wrong when he went back to his car. As mentioned this poor child likely didn't die peacefully and quietly. Something would have caught his attention!

Suicide Sauce

1. They burn out 2. They get REAL weird. 3. They get real weird and then burn out.

Napoleon in Rags

Every time I turn off my car I get a message on the console to “check the back seat”. I believe this case was a contributing reason why I get this message each time…

Douglas Kennedy

He wasn't monitoring the car throughout the period where the child experienced the horrific and deadly ordeal, so I can't really see how the peaceful and quiet (or otherwise) nature of Cooper's passing is probative. As indeed was the view of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Ross does not seem like a good guy but I definitely felt like justice was served by the outcomes related by the conclusion of the episode as opposed to the initial conclusion of the jury. The failure to sever the sexual predation from the murder/child neglect charges was highly prejudicial, I was amazed this wasn't recognised earlier in the criminal justice process and pleased to see this was corrected later. Hats off to Casefile team for their work on this episode, it was excellent.

Douglas Kennedy

He went back to his car for a few seconds and only threw the light bulbs he had bought onto the passenger seat. It does not seem like an encounter which would give you any inkling of the unfolding tragedy (especially if Cooper had very recently passed away or had already been rendered unconscious by the time he returned from his lunch with colleagues, which seems more likely than not on the facts of the case). Read the GA supreme court's report if you'd like to understand that part of the incident better, it's linked as one of the references in the Wikipedia article 'Death of Cooper Harris'.

Tessa

I had forgotten how bloody diabolical the details of Ross’ online activities were

AR

No matter how many times I hear this case I just cannot ever get over him reading about children dying in car deaths mere days before his child dies in a car death. This detail, combined with the extremely bizarre way he acted and sounded on the bodycam recording, combined with what we know about other fathers who've tried to get rid of their kids in order to maintain a free-wheeling casual dating lifestyle (Scott Peterson, Chris Watts) — it's all extremely compelling circumstantial evidence to me.

Bob Trenwith

Haven't there been plenty of other cases where there has been similar 'compelling' evidence, but where the suspect has ultimately been proved innocent. I'm thinking of a home invasion case that was done here, but I can't recall the specifics.

Suicide Sauce

In my day we had to wait for someone to flash their high beams at us to get us to check the back seat. Generally there was a guy with an axe back there though, not a baby.

Kate Coen

I’d be surprised if a teenage girl was attracted to a man’s (supposed) devotion to his family.

Kate Coen

Listening to the first 30 minutes of this episode while my two year old slept in his car seat behind me made me want to stop the car and hug him tight. Cooper must’ve been so frightened. I’m so sorry little man 😭

Bob Trenwith

I wasn't thinking 'attraction' when I wrote my final sentence. I was thinking more that they were enticed by the taboo - the greater the devotion, the greater the taboo, and the greater the potential damage.

Kes

I don't often cry at these cases but this one got me.

Celine

This case really affected me when it happened. I know he's guilty. What a disgusting man 🤬

Celine

Poor sweet boy. My God 😞

Niki Walkey

Whether or not this 'man' was guilty of inflicting a horrible death on that poor child or not, and there's no evidence to suggest that he wasn't, a sexual predator never changes, and I doubt the police have heard the last of him! He is and always will be a creep.

Niki Walkey

If he did forget the child it was more likely because he was thinking about his d**k!

Mandy G

Oh no, not this one. 🥺

Minnie

I don't think he did it on purpose. No one could be that evil.But his last thought wasnt that child. All his extra activities consumed his mind. That poor poor child 😢

Demi V

When my cousin's first was born, she and her husband would send a picture of the baby every morning to show who had him and he was brought inside/to daycare. One day my cousin on autopilot took the picture of an empty car seat and it took them 30 minutes to notice. They forgot the baby was staying with the grandparents and neither had the baby. I'm just saying it's that easy to forget. They had a system and while the baby was fine, it just as easily could have gone the other way. I don't think Ross is a good person but I can't say from what was presented he did it on purpose.

Penny Power

Why didn’t the day care call to say the child hadn’t been dropped off?

Mandy G

I think I lean more towards this thought. He was completely distracted with his double life which led to his child’s death. I think he did leave Cooper there by accident in the morning, but most likely remembered at some point before he found him in the car and panicked. He knew he was guilty to a certain extent and that would explain his odd behavior afterwards. Plus, he knew his online activity and infidelity was going to be exposed. Regardless, he definitely deserves to be in prison.

Denise de la Vaux

I don’t even have children and I was utterly horrified by this. I do remember when it happened; my brother lived in Atlanta and we visited him often. Their heat and humidity is miserable. As others have said, Ross is really a self-centered, horrible person. But I don’t think he meant to kill his baby. I do wonder if he hadn’t been so obsessed with his sex life and all the women he was juggling if he would’ve remembered his child was in the car. I don’t know. Hearing the statistics of how often this happens in a year was heartbreaking beyond belief. I wonder how the mother is doing. Something like this, is truly a life sentence of pain. Poor sweet baby.

Manuel

While I don’t have children, I did have a rear facing child seat in one of my cars for a while. It was part of a custom interior, a show piece. The amount of times I forgot things placed on that seat was off the charts. It was like a black hole. Ross is without a doubt a terrible person, but I don’t think he purposely murdered little Cooper.

Meagen Reason

I have lived in Atlanta since 2013 so it's crazy to see Casefile cover this one, it's still fresh on people's minds here even a decade later. I feel so sorry for poor Cooper and his mother who had to live with the simultaneous loss, betrayal, and public humiliation and shame this brought. As usual an excellent presentation of the facts, and many are still torn as to whether this was intentional vs criminal negligence but yea Ross is a POS.

Alan

I don't understand... Why don't people just get a divorce? It clearly wasn't based on moral grounds--obviously--but that's the one line people won't cross? 🤯 Cooper deserved a better life. The only person who knows their intentions that day was Ross, but he was too busy sexting to have noticed. I don't think he could have planned that with how little blood flow he had going to his brain.. Excellent aural ambience to this episode, quite foreboding.

Eminemlover420

I looked up a picture of Cooper and it made this case hit me even harder. Hot car deaths have been an interest of mine since I found kids and cars org and then fatal distraction the article. I don’t believe Ross did this on purpose, like many other parents. I feel for his ex wife for the destruction That followed Cooper’s death. Justin didn’t plan to kill her baby, but he did kill Cooper and unfortunately the rest of their lives quickly blew up too.

Wyatt (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-08 03:00 Why tf is Home Depot selling life insurance policies???
2025-08-19 00:05

Brock

My daughter was exactly 3 weeks old at the time that this episode came out. I was driving home from dropping family at the airport, I put this on, and I didn’t even read the description prior. My god, I got my daughter straight out of her car seat when we got home and just held her for at least an hour straight.

AR

unless someone suddenly pops up with video footage of Ross looking in the back seat when he leaves his car, there's no way to prove anything in this case, certainly not innocence. All you can do is what his defense did — cast doubt on a mountain of circumstantial evidence.

Kelli Hynes

I think newer systems do this

Demi V

Since Casefile is international, not sure if this is a serious question so sorry if I overstep! In the US, employers with more than 50 employees have to give health benefits and most also provide life insurance as part of the package. Since Ross worked for Home Depot, they would have offered him the policy for his spouse and beneficiaries.

Megan

This case is so infuriating. Ross Harris is a huge piece of shit. I hope Cooper rests in peace. Hot car deaths are totally preventable and I think anyone who leaves a child in a hot car should be in prison for their natural life.

Willow Hall

I don’t think he did it on purpose-but I do think he was a horrible human. Frankly; I have read all the articles, watched the videos, including the one described in the episode, and created habits to prevent this with my kids, and a couple years ago, I got a stressful phone call right as I got home, and I forgot my baby in the car. Thankfully it was a chilly day and my baby was fine, but it’s the most heardstopping, horrific feeling I have ever had as a parent. Just knowing it’s a thing isn’t some sort of vaccine for your brain not to fuck you over when it really matters.

Willow Hall

I wish they would make car seats that sounded an alarm when it had a kid in it and the car shuts off. Like something that plugs into the cigarette lighter or something. We have to have the tech to make it happen.

simmo

This Casefile is a hard one to judge. Yes, Ross Harris is a terrible human being and deserved prison for his grooming of a minor. However, I find it hard given the facts and how that fateful day played out that he deliberately murdered his son. To act so normally at work whilst poor Cooper was in the car park is beyond cold if he knew that. I think maybe he was so wrapped up in pursuing his sexual desires he forgot about Cooper. But then, can you forget your son is in the car in less than one minute?

Kelli Hynes

I love those suggestions about putting bags in the back seat etc, phone reminders, excellent advice, simple solutions to a very important issue

Alex M

I want to believe he is innocent because the alternative, that he murdered his own son in such a cruel and heartless manner, is utterly horrific.

Iain Strachan

How do you 'know'? Can you read his mind retrospectively?

Iain Strachan

The 'man' is a total prick. Doesn't mean he killed his son ffs. Men are dicks. I hate men, and I'm a man 😄 All this macho BS. If you're going to cheat, have the balls to tell your wife that you want out. Argh!!

Celine

I worded that wrong. I should have said that I feel that he's guilty. There was lots of evidence that he was guilty.

Marissa Gottfried

My theory: the cops were butt hurt when he told them to shut the fuck up so from then on he was in their cross hairs 🎯

Ashley White

They do but they tend to be pricier.

Amber Craig

Wow… this was a haaard Casefile to listen to. I almost couldn’t finish it but thank you for always bringing these cases forward. I always appreciate you guys and the work you do ♥️

Kylie H

There's alarms in many new cars, if you open the door then don't open it again when you leave, it'll keep beeping until you open the back door. In Italy you must install an alarm manually if your car doesn't have one. Noticed this when travelling there with a toddler.

Kylie H

A custom interior with a rear facing child seat??? What?

Manuel

This is like hugely off-topic, lol buuut: I was restoring an old BMW station wagon and decided to do something special with the interior. New fabrics from a much newer model on all the seats, door panels, etc and the cherry on top was a baby seat in the same fabric. It looked stunning.

Diane Natale

Very hard to listen to but I agree that his sexual life should have never been brought out. He must have had an inexperienced attorney.