Hugh Harlin

Coffee and Cases Podcast

Cloud10

True Crime

4.7 • 639 Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On November 1, 1986, 51-year-old Morro Bay fisherman Hugh Harlin vanished along Highway 1 between San Simeon and Cambria, California. His truck was discovered roadside under suspicious circumstances—but not a trace of Hugh. Did he flee secrets tied to his wife’s unsolved murder, or did the same hand that strangled Dian Harlin in 1982 come for him, too? For context, you’ll likely want to start with last week’s episode on Dian Harlin first: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e274-dian-harlin/id1492318464?i=1000723044083 If you are interested in bonus content for our show or in getting some Coffee and Cases swag, please consider joining Patreon. There are various levels to fit your needs, all of which can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/coffeeandcases Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Morrow Bay still carries the echoes of that chilling autumn in 1982, when the quiet rhythm of the coast was brutally interrupted by the discovery of Diane Harlan's body.
0:09.5	Her murder, a haunting puzzle, unsolved, cast a long shadow over the sleepy fishing village.
0:14.7	Four years later, as the town perhaps began to believe the worst was behind them, the shadow deepened.
0:19.8	On a November day in 1986, just 27 miles
0:23.3	up the coast from where Diane's life ended, the mystery twisted into an even more perplexing
0:28.0	disappearance, drawing her husband into the heart of another mystery. This man, a quirky fisherman with a
0:33.8	familiar face around town, sat out for a two-day construction job in San Simeon.
0:38.4	He left a friend's house after borrowing some tools, and that was the last time anyone saw him.
0:42.5	A few days later, a disturbing discovery was made near Cambria, his pickup truck, a 1967 Chevy utility bed abandoned on the side of Highway 1.
0:51.2	The scene was quiet, yet filled with questions.
0:54.0	The hood was up, the doors locked,
0:55.8	and his personal belongings, glasses, backpack, sleeping bag, and even his usual tin of tobacco were
1:01.1	left behind on the dash. The keys were found on the ground nearby, and a crucial fuel line
1:06.1	had been removed from his vehicle. Had he fled a pass he couldn't outrun, burdened by secrets
1:10.6	about his wife's death,
1:11.8	or did he too become a victim of the same unseen hand that choked the life from Diane.
1:16.2	His disappearance remains as stubbornly unsolved as Diane's murder,
1:19.5	leaving more obey to wonder if the same dark current pulled them both under.
1:23.3	This is the chilling story of Hugh Harlan.
2:06.8	No. This is the chilling story of Hugh Harlan. Welcome to coffee and cases where we like our coffee and cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Damron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that
2:12.4	someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law
2:16.6	enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.
	...

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