TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A Tucson man lost his life in a flash flood during monsoon, and his sister is sharing his story in hopes others will take the dangers of flooding more seriously.
Roy Harris was last seen on July 19, 2008, near the Bronx Wash. His sister, Teia Streeter, said he was not supposed to be in that area, but took a different route home after other roads were closed. When he encountered backed-up floodwater, he attempted to reverse his car.
"One of the neighbors there was out like checking on his yard because it was flooding, and they said the reverse lights came on and unfortunately, like a big surge of water grabbed the front of the car and sucked it in, so he wasn't even actually attempting to go across," Streeter said.
His car then began to turn in the rushing water.
"But he was able to get his door open before the car fully finished turning. The witness said he took a couple of steps and went down, and then that was that," Streeter said.
In a matter of seconds, Harris was swept away. Search and recovery efforts continued for weeks with no sign of him — until eight months later.
"There were two young girls that were actually walking their dog in the wash, and the dog recovered his skull," Streeter said.
On March 15, 2009, Harris's remains were found in the Santa Cruz River near Cortaro — about 12 miles from where he was swept away. DNA testing confirmed the skull belonged to Harris. He was only 28 years old.
Streeter said she and her parents participated in a tradition where families that have missing family members leave the porch light on 24/7.
"That way the light is on for them to come home, and then when his remains were recovered, and then you know we did have to do DNA testing to confirm that it was him, once that was confirmed, we started turning the light off," Streeter said.
Streeter says the amount of remains recovered was about 70%.
"Just because you know it is, it is the desert, we do have animals, and you know things like that," Streeter said. "So the hardest was not so much the call but just OK, it's time to go down to the coroner's office and pick up the remains and the autopsy report."
Harris was Streeter's only sibling, 6½ years older than her, and the two shared a close bond.
"We were very into like WWE wrestling, Star Trek, and then of course sports because I played myself, and then he would be umpiring my baseball games and like calling me out at home, and then I would yell at him later about it," Streeter said.
Harris was dedicated to high school sports, refereeing, and umpiring games.
"Helping kids kind of develop emotionally in this kind of way and you know overcoming challenges and being together as a team and how to be cohesive — and then of course when any of them would be like kind of interesting in reffing or umpiring, he would, you know, really, really encourage them," Streeter said.
"Actually, what's cool is the AIA, the Arizona Interscholastic Association, they did, in honor of him, you know, the Roy Harris Most Improved Umpire Award for a few years."
His lifelong passion for sports — especially his devotion to the Boston Celtics — inspired his sister and mother to honor him with a tattoo of the team's mascot, Lucky the Leprechaun.
"And actually on his gravestone, it is in the shape of a whistle, and we got special permission to have the Celtics and the Chicago Cubs emblem on his gravestone," Streeter said.
Streeter hopes that by sharing her brother's story, others will become more mindful of their surroundings and never underestimate the danger of floods.
"It can happen so fast, and you just have to be aware of your surroundings kind of thing because you know, of course, the would have, could have, should have is like, oh if he'd sit in the car he would have been fine," Streeter said. "Because you just you never know how you're going to react in an emergency yourself, so just stay put. These storms in Tucson, they do hit fast, but they're over pretty quick, so you know, you just hang out. Nothing, nothing is near important enough."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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Vanessa Gongora is KGUN 9's Westside reporter.. Vanessa fell in love with storytelling by growing up in sports. She was fascinated by how sports reporters go beyond the x's & o's to tell players' stories, and how sports bring people together, inspiring Vanessa to provide the same impact as a journalist. Share your story ideas and important issues with Vanessa by emailing vanessa.gongora@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
