Charles Edward Hartlerode, an 84-year-old male White / Caucasian from Prescott, Arizona, was reported missing in late November 2019 after family and friends lost contact with him, prompting an investigation by the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities noted that he was last seen on Monday, November 25, 2019, at the home of a family friend on Idylwild Drive in Prescott, where he left behind most of his belongings except for a small blue bag he routinely carried.
In the days around his disappearance, Hartlerode told someone by phone that he intended to travel to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a community where he had previously lived. He reportedly indicated that he expected to be back by November 28, but he never arrived in Santa Fe and did not return as planned, heightening concern among those who knew him and leading deputies to treat the situation as a missing-person case.
The search ended tragically when his body was discovered on a Thursday in early December, partially hidden on the property of the same family friend where he had last been seen. Detectives with the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office stated that, based on their preliminary findings at the scene, he appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his remains were transferred to the Yavapai County Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy. Subsequent listings in public databases and memorial sites record his death as occurring in Prescott on December 6, 2019, categorize the manner of death as a firearm-related “death by force,” and explicitly mark the case as “solved” with the cause identified as self-inflicted.
Across the available public records and case-tracking summaries, there is no indication that investigators identified any suspects or pursued a homicide investigation in connection with his death. Instead, law enforcement and later case compilations consistently describe the event as a self-inflicted shooting, and there are no reports of arrests, named suspects, or charges arising from the circumstances surrounding the discovery of his body on the friend’s property.
