No new information on Hasanni Campbell one year after disappearance

It’s been one year since Hasanni Campbell went missing. The Fremont boy, who had cerebral palsy and used braces to walk, would be six years old now.

The Oakland Police Department held a press conference marking the anniversary Tuesday morning but didn’t have much information to add, though Sergeant Gus Galindo, a homicide investigator, used strong language in reference Campbell’s foster father Louis Ross, whom the police consider a suspect in the boy’s disappearance.

“Ross is obviously not being forthright,” Galindo said. “Hasanni Campbell met some kind of foul play at the hands of Louis Ross.”

Hasanni Campbell

Hasanni Campbell, 40 pounds and three feet tall, was last seen near Oakland’s College Avenue on August 10, 2009, according to Ross, who told police that he’d left the boy in a parked car near Shuz of Rockridge at 6012 College Avenue. Ross’ then-fiancée Jennifer Campbell, the boy’s biological aunt, worked at the store. Galindo said that he believed the boy never made it to the Rockridge shoe store.

Many community members rallied to help find the boy last year. His preschool graduation photo haunted newspapers for months after his disappearance. Volunteers searched Oakland and even Lake Elizabeth in Fremont for the boy.

On August 28, 2009, police arrested both Ross and Campbell on suspicion of murder, but no charges were filed and both were released. Since then the has couple split up, and both Ross and Campbell have moved out of state, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Galindo said that there are currently no new witnesses in the case and little new evidence. He said the police department’s completed “95 percent” of possible lab work in the investigation and that any relevant information wasn’t being publicly released.

Nevertheless, Galindo says the OPD is still pursuing its investigation. “Every week I’ve put time into this case,” the sergeant said, adding that he was working hand-in-hand with the FBI and the Alameda County District Attorney’s office.

Though Hasanni Campbell’s disappearance is still listed as a missing person case, Galindo made it clear Tuesday that the police believe that he may have been murdered and that they consider Ross a primary suspect. “He is a suspect because he is the last person who was with Hasanni Campbell when he went missing,” Galindo said.

Campbell’s supporters have planned a rally for 4 pm Tuesday in front of the Oakland courthouse; Oakland North will continue to cover the story.

Oakland North has created a timeline of the first six months of the Hasanni Campbell investigation that is available here, as well as a topics page with further information about the investigation into Campbell’s disappearance that is available here.

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