“It was like he disappeared into thin air,” Tamecka Harris told Dateline. “They can find no trace of him.”
Tamecka’s son, Corey Daniely, has been missing for almost three months. The 33-year-old was last seen on August 7, 2023, in Kerman, California, west of Fresno.
It was his birthday.
Tamecka told Dateline that she raised her six children in San Diego. Corey is the second oldest. “Corey is and always will be a free spirit,” she said. “A friendly young man, very talented, very talented in music.”
“Like anything he touches—any instrument he touches—he automatically has a gift for,” Tamecka gushed. “He played the drums and a piano, and then just one day—the next thing I knew, he was playing the guitar and recording music.”
“Corey has a band called ‘Crumb Dread,'” Tamecka said. “It was named after him because he had long dreadlocks.”
At the time of his disappearance, Corey was living in Santa Rosa with a roommate.
Tamecka told Dateline that she spoke to her son on July 26. “I was at work, and I got a random text: ‘Hey, Mom. Can you do my Cash App for $10?’” Tamecka recalled. “I said, ‘You have a birthday on August 7. I’ll send you some nice little birthday money to spend, and I’ll send you more after your birthday.”
Tamecka said she ended up sending Corey the money on July 30, a little early. “I texted him, and I said, ‘Son, hey, there’s your money. I love you. Talk to you again next week,’” he recalled. “He was like, ‘Mom, thank you. I love you.'”
Tamecka said Corey also told her he was on his way to Los Angeles. “I said, ‘OK, be safe.'” And that was my last contact with Corey.
A week ago, on August 7, Tamecka texted her son for his birthday. “I don’t have an answer,” he said.
At first, he said he didn’t think anything of it. “I said, ‘Maybe he’s having fun on his birthday. He will answer later,’” he said. But when Tamecka woke up the next day, there was still no text from Corey. “He didn’t even look at the message,” she said.
Then Tamecka received a worrying text from her daughter. “My daughter took a screenshot of a message found on my son’s Facebook page,” he said. “It was a message from a guy saying, ‘Hey, has anyone seen Corey? Contact me and let me know because I have his phone. I have his backpack.'”
Tamecka told Dateline that she contacted the person who made the post. He said he told him Corey was at a house in Kerman around 3 a.m. on Aug. 7. “He said (Corey) and one of the men in the house were arguing,” he said. “She said Corey got mad, left the house, and walked away.”
“I said, ‘Well, was Corey bleeding when he walked away?’ (He said, ‘No, he’s not bleeding,'” Tamecka recalled. “I was like, ‘Well, are they pushing? Do they make fists? What happened?’ He won’t give me a straight answer.”
Tamecka said the man also told her that her son left the house without clothes. “None of my sons—none of them are without clothes,” he said.
Kerman is about two hours away from Los Angeles. Tamecka told Dateline she wasn’t sure why Corey was in Kerman but believed someone drove her son there from LA. He said that his son was not familiar with the area. “He doesn’t come to California’s Central Valley very often,” Tamecka said. “There was nothing there but cornfields and orchards.”
Tamecka told Dateline that the person she spoke with suggested that Corey might have been riding back to Santa Rosa from Kerman—about four trips. “I didn’t feel good after that,” he said.
Dateline reached out to the person Tamecka said she spoke to about the night but has not yet received a response.
On August 9, Corey’s family reported him missing.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office is investigating Corey’s disappearance. Public Information Officer Tony Botti told Dateline in an email that on August 4, Corey and a friend were dropped off at a home along the 2500 block of South Bishop in Fresno County. He said the friend knew the people staying at the house.
According to Officer Botti, Corey was last seen around 3 a.m. on August 7, leaving home and walking northwest toward the city of Kerman. He noted that “it is not clear what caused him to walk.”
Officer Botti told Dateline that the Fresno County Search and Rescue Team is conducting an extensive ground search centered on the location where Corey was last seen. “Those searches included deputies and volunteers on foot, cadaver dogs, drones, and off-road vehicles searching an approximate six-mile diameter from the last known location. The off-road vehicles expanded the search area to an estimated 14-mile diameter,” he wrote. “On one of the search days, the search and rescue unit totaled 33 members. Our search area consisted of orchards, vineyards, open fields, canals, ponding basins, houses, and outbuildings.
A search warrant was also conducted at the home. “Evidence has been collected, which is still being processed forensically,” said Botti.
The official told Dateline that detectives are interviewing several people who may know something about Corey’s disappearance. Currently, there are no persons of interest in Corey’s case, but authorities suspect foul play. “This is because Corey is an active person who talks to people or often attends events, so it’s strange for him not to be seen or heard from,” said Officer Botti.
Tamecka told Dateline that Corey’s band had a show on August 11 in the Bay Area. “I said, I hope, ‘Cross our fingers that he will show his performance,’ because he never missed a performance.”
But Corey never showed up.
Tamecka lives in Illinois, but two of her children live in California, and she immediately went out to find Corey. “And then, when I got up there, I’m looking for Kerman. I searched the fields. I went to the city,” he said. “I was looking around the trash cans. I went to Fresno. I went around Fresno. I looked at the homeless camps. “
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office is also looking, he said. “There were drones. They had dead dogs,” he recalled. “They had everything there, and it was like he disappeared into thin air.”
Tamecka told Dateline that she believes her son encountered foul play and that several people were involved. “This case is really crazy,” he said. “I mean, the whole thing was amazing.”
One thing Tamecka said she knows for sure is that Corey would never leave his family, especially his 1-year-old son. “She has a son who will be 2 years old in February,” she said. “His son started walking. That’s something he’s very happy about. “
Tamecka told Dateline that Corey talks to her regularly as well. “My birthday is October 11. He is always the first one of my children to contact me to wish me a happy birthday,” said Tamecka.
Tamecka’s birthday came and went. Corey never got in touch with him.
However, Tameka has not yet lost faith. “I always had a little hope that he would come back to me,” she said. “I think because of the parent-child relationship, I always had hope that he would.”
Corey is 5’8″, 190 lbs., with brown eyes and black hair. He was last seen wearing red sweatpants, no shirt, and Nike shoes.
Anyone with information about Corey’s disappearance is asked to contact the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office at (559) 600-3111.
