John Hartenfeld’s Cold Case and His Son’s Long Search for Truth

In August 1996, John Hartenfeld drove into the mountains of northern New Mexico for a solo fly fishing trip and never came home. His Toyota 4-Runner was found two months later on remote ranch land — every fingerprint wiped from the vehicle. His credit card had already been used, four days after he vanished, to buy a small and troubling amount of two-stroke fuel. Private investigators and law enforcement both concluded foul play. No one was ever prosecuted.

John's son James Hartenfeld is a Portland comedian who has spent most of his adult life with this unresolved wound. He joins us to talk about the moment as a kid when he searched under beds and in closets hoping his dad was pranking him, about the phone call his dad made to a close friend reporting that someone was messing with his car — days before he disappeared — and about a jaw-dropping development that happened just weeks before this recording: New Mexico cold case investigators found remains in the area where John vanished, and they need James's DNA.

James is also building My Little Cold Case, a six-episode documentary series about his father's disappearance. It's a project designed for the families that most cold case content ignores — the ones with no ending, no arrest, no resolution. Just a missing person and a family still waiting.

• The last confirmed sighting of John Hartenfeld and the fishing trip that never ended
• The credit card charge investigators believe may have been used to purchase fuel for dismemberment equipment
• John's final phone call to his friend Muggsy: "Someone's messing with my car"
• A wiped-down truck, refused polygraphs, and a case that went cold
• The tensions investigators cited as the most likely motive — and why they're hard to talk about
• DNA samples collected in 1996 that have never been tested
• The brand-new development: recently found remains and a pending DNA test
• What it's like to grow up, build a career, and still carry an unanswered question
• Why James built My Little Cold Case — and who it's really for

Links from this episode

mylittlecoldcase.com — follow the project and support James's documentary series

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We're here with James Hartenfeld, whose dad went missing, John Hartenfeld, in August 1996. He went fly fishing in the high desert in New Mexico. And so uh James, you want to introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Yeah, I'm James Hartenfeld. And um my dad disappeared in the foothills of Taos, New Mexico in the summer of 1996.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Yeah, and you started uh MyLittle Coldcase.com. Do you want to tell people about that?

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yeah, My Little Cold Case is a project that I started with a lot of help from my friends in Portland, Oregon. And um it's an effort to, you know, learn more about my dad, but also um make a project about a cold case that hopefully other people who have you know unsolved cold cases are living with, are also living with that. Um hopefully it's something that they find um, you know, hopefully it's something that they're able to relate to and um see themselves in. And um it's kind of yeah, and it's ideally uh this this series that we're working on. So it's like a six, six episode series is kind of what we're we're trying to create around it.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

It'll help people understand what the family goes through, and then for families that go through this, they have something to look to, you know, where they can be like, oh, I I identify with what James is saying, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Yeah, absolutely. Um, and so such a high percentage of um cold case projects are um are made because they're solved, they have some closure to them. So they we get a lot more attention on cold cases that have been but are relatively complete, and um we don't get to watch or experience a lot of cold case projects that um are about things that are are totally unsolved or um are or are more open.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Um so represent other those people.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Good. That sounds good. About your dad, um what what type of person, what memories do you have of John? Um what do you what would you explain how he was?

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Yeah. Um I uh I uh I just immediately I was like, I wonder what this interview will be like, and I immediately am like, oh man, that's pretty emotional. Oh yeah. And that's good. You know, I love thinking about um the positive qualities of my dad and um and what an awesome dad he was at that too. Um he was known for being really funny, but also you know could be very blunt with people. Um he was known at being he was very charismatic and social, but he was also very private and needed to kind of do things alone a lot as well. Um he was a great builder, he was extremely creative. He wanted to just build custom homes and do carpentry, and um, he was a great surfer. He was known for being an awesome surfer in Santa Cruz in the 70s. Um and his friends still talk about like what a great surfer he was, and he was a phenomenal swimmer in high school and middle school, and um that translated well to surfing, and um and uh he was yeah, he was known for making gifts for people and giving them very nice custom gifts and just being so creative and um and uh and being a great builder too, and um yeah, and that's you know, and very outdoorsy and obviously fishing, you know, being right there too, and and stuff like that. So um that's kind of that combination of things.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

It sounds like you have a lot in common with your dad because you're also, you know, you do comedy and you're also kind of an artist, and um, you know, and it sounds like he was too, you know.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Yeah, that's something I've always um, you know, you'd go through life thinking about things that I would want to share with my dad or wish that he, you know, could be there for. And sometimes I'll wrap up a show and um and I'll be like, man, I wish my dad was there for that one. Like that one felt uh like he really liked unique things that were kind of one of one. And um sometimes I'll leave a show and I'll be like, I would think he would have really liked that. I thought that was fun. And yeah, um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

I'm sure he would. I mean, I'm sure he's proud of you, you know, where where he where he is, which is in whatever is after this, you know. Um but uh let's talk about you know the day he went missing and everything, um, or about you know him going missing. Um so he's supposed to go fly fishing and then he just didn't return home. Um so what do you remember about that day?

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Yeah, the the day it's so the the way that kind of worked out was um he was in an ar he he and my mom were in an argument. Um and uh and he the agreement was that like okay, they're in this argument, and it was about largely about where we were living in New Mexico. My mom didn't really want to be living there doing this. My dad was developing um, I forget what building specifically, but he was managing some projects in New Mexico and through Colorado, and they just didn't like where they were. We were always living in places where they were building a lot of suburbs and stuff like that. And my mom was unhappy, and my dad was too, um, but that's what was paying the bills, and they'd get in arguments about that, and um this one the agreement was that like okay, he'd go on a fly fishing trip solo. And uh so he had some some spots picked out um to go fishing, and then my family was like, well, my mom was like, Well, we're gonna go get away in Northern California with her side of the family. And um, so we were on these two separate trips, and um and I forget what day it was, but it was like my mom was like, Oh, it's strange that John hasn't called us. And so we kind of drove home without hearing from my dad for a day or two. And then when we got home, he was supposed to already be there. And that's when it was weird, where we hadn't heard from him and he wasn't back at the house yet. Um she was much closer to where we were living. We were in Northern California.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Um, and I remember looking for him in the house, and that's a hard memory. Um to be like, oh well dad's, you know, dad's funny, like he's probably pranking us.

SPEAKER_03 7:03

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

And um, and I remember looking, you know, under beds and in closets like a kid. Um and then uh and then I remember the feelings intensifying um and that snowballing pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Yeah. Um so I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that sounds awful. Um now one of the things I wanted to ask you about was the credit card situation with your father. There was a credit card used after he went missing, and I was gonna ask you what what did police tell you about that?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Yeah, so I'm um I'm under the impression that um it was it is a weird situation where it's like, okay, a credit card was used, and it was used to purchase a very small amount of gasoline. Um that gasoline would be um was like two-stroke gasoline, basically. It'd be like something that's used for a chainsaw or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, or weed eater or something.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Yeah, so it was such a small, so it was weird. Like my dad wouldn't buy that much gas. Super weird. Um, and then it where it gets gnarly is um you know using phrases like dismemberment and stuff like that. That's coming up in the investigation um and correspondence and stuff, where it's like, is this being used for you know a machine to dismember a body? Um yeah, so that's where it goes from the credit card goes from like, okay, this is weird, to, oh, is this actually horrific? Um and that's you know, and that's a weird thing. I could also see my dad being someone that's like, oh, this is someone that needs I don't know, a few bucks worth of gas and buying them gas, sure, maybe something like that.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Um but that's um that's my understanding of the final final credit card purchase.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Okay. And then, you know, the other thing is the Toyota was totally wiped down, according to police. Like they couldn't get any fingerprints or anything. Um and I find that incredibly strange, you know, um, obviously. Um, but you know, that's another thing is like d did police have any theories as to like, you know, I guess just people covering their tracks or something like that?

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yeah, it it's and and the short answer is no. Like the there's there's no direct no in the sense of like obviously union is covering up some of their actions, but it's not clear as to like if that's because they just didn't want to be stuck with you know the vehicle or something like that. They didn't want to be connected to the vehicle or if they actually did something to my dad. Um and then it gets it also gets weird where um you know, looking at some of the the people that are quote unquote suspects in this um you know, who's the most likely to be in that vehicle? That's where there's also some some confusion there. Or it's you know, it wasn't investigated enough to to really find that because everyone's refusing polygraph. Um one of the last conversations my dad had with his good friend Mike, Mike Lasowski, um, we call him Muggsy. Um no, and it's sorry, Mike Yap. There's two Mike's um kind of involved. They're both friends of my dad. Um but Mike Yap is Muggsy, and um uh one of the last conversations Muggsy had with my dad was my dad saying, like, hey, it's weird out here, someone's fucking with my car. Oh wow. And that is like a really that's where things get like, oh, that's really alarming to hear that.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Um and uh and so you know, who was that and why?

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Um Yeah. Did you know, since he was building buildings and you know, he was making all this uh great like craftsmanship. Do you think anybody was like mad at him over something that he may have done?

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Or um there was might you know, some family had some speculation around some of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Um but the interesting thing about my dad was that he didn't want to build uh malls and stuff like that. He wanted to build zombie tables and like custom homes and things like that. But um he got this job with uh with this bank that was invested in developing stuff, and they're like, well, we can use our skills as a project manager. So um I think my dad would say I don't know if he would call some of his latest work uh great craftsmanship. Um but uh depending on what you think of, you know, a marshals, but yeah. But uh yeah, so there was, you know, there was some, you know, I don't even know what we call it like speculation, really. I feel like that's even too firm of a term to use. People were wondering was he wrapped up in working with some people that um that weren't weren't great ultimately, or were those unions weird or something like that? Um I don't know. Um they thought that um the biggest motive was that he was fishing in an area where he shouldn't have been. Um in New Mexico at the time, there was a huge problem where they were like, wow, like you know, a lot of white people are moving here, and this is um causing a lot of tension in communities and in in certain areas, and um, that's hard to bring it's something that is really hard to bring up into the case.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Um, but that was also something that that was probably brought up more than anything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

It's hard to bring up, but it's worth it's worth noting, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Yeah. And um oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Um yeah, so these were r really secluded areas where there weren't a lot of people in general to where we were fishing.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

So now there was a skull found in 1997, and there hasn't been DNA testing of it until I think you said, I don't know if you if you want to tell this, but there may have been DNA testing recently, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Yeah, so we are currently in the process of um it's such an interesting, I can't believe it, where I'm like, I got a call um probably three weeks ago now, um from the cold case unit in New Mexico, and they were like, we found some remains um in the area your dad disappeared, and um I'm now in this database because of friends who have been helping with my project. And um, and so I I was like, Well, cool, are you guys gonna send me like a a tube to spit in and like a 23 and me? And they're like, no, we're just Portland police are gonna come to your home.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

And uh and Jessica was like, well, that makes sense. We can't camp or we don't wanna, everything needs to be as direct as possible.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

But yeah, it was a very exciting call um where you wait, you know, so long for someone to help you with anything in this, especially with law enforcement and um so that testing hasn't been done yet. Um and they're the scheduling around it, they're like, they'll just call you. It'll be a matter of weeks, maybe months before they come over and do this.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

It was like it was great, and now I have a contact in the cold case unit within Mexico, and it was really special to do that. And if I'm not a match, I'm gonna help other people who might be.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Yeah. At least you're making progress, you know. That's that's the thing with a lot of these, is there's never any progress made because you know, sometimes people don't follow up or the police don't follow up or something, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah, it's really hard to know what you're what you can do.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Um, and I think that's what's so great about your project is that you know, something you can do is just put more information out there for people.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Um and platform them. And um, and that's absolutely a few steps people can be making. And um, but the one thing I will say about the skull was that we were trying to check dental records against the skull, but like I can't that's a dead end for me right now, is is getting my dad's dental records.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Oh yeah, yeah, it was so long ago, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah. So that's that's really tough. Right, right. I'm not giving up on the possibility of getting them, but uh I don't know what those steps look like right now.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Yeah. Yeah, well, God willing everything will work out, but um well, uh I guess I'll let you go and I'll call you right back. Okay, sounds good. All right, bye.