“She always celebrated birthdays or planned parties,” said Janice Burnham, a longtime friend of Harms, who disappeared nearly two months ago. “She was really friendly and young at heart.”

Burnham said she often recalls stories of Harms, 42, and is waiting to hear news from her or about her since she was reported missing on July 30. A reward fund of $15,000 has been set up for information that could lead to her return.

Harms graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in liberal arts and was last seen at the Rock Bottom Brewery in the Pruneyard Shopping Center in Campbell on July 27.

“It is awful (not knowing),” Burnham said. “You go on trying to pretend it isn’t happening.”

Jeanine Harms

Reports from the Los Gatos/Monte Sereno police department stated that she met a man at the brewery and they both went back to Harms’ home. Maurice Xavier Nasmeh was the last one to see Harms, and he left her home after midnight.

Burnham met up with Harms at Buca di Beppo in Campbell before Harms went to the brewery.

She met up with her date at the brewery where they went to Court’s Lounge with a group of people and when they returned to the brewery, she left with another man, according to police reports.

Although it has been eight weeks since Harms vanished, there are no suspects in the case, said Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Sgt. Kerry Harris.

“We are following up on leads and contacting individuals we spoke to initially and we are going back and following it up,” Harris said.

It is still being considered a missing persons case, but the police are concerned that Harms could have been a victim of foul play, Harris said.

Jesus Sanchez, Harms’ father, said the past two months have been difficult to deal with.

“We keep hoping that the worst didn’t happen,” Sanchez said. “We hope she’ll turn up somewhere. It is the only thing to cling to right now.”

Sanchez said he was in shock when he found out that his daughter was missing.

He said he didn’t realize how serious it was until the police towed away Harms’ 2000 black Ford Mustang from her home on Chirco Ave. in Los Gatos.

“The Mustang had been towed away as evidence,” Sanchez said. “(I thought) maybe something serious had happened.”

Chigiy Binell, a close friend of Harms, said she is waiting to hear anything about her whereabouts.

“Not knowing is terrible,” Binell said. “It isn’t like mourning someone who passed away. She was like my sister and this is very difficult.”

Harms failed to attend a family barbecue on July 28, but neither her friends or family suspected anything out of the ordinary because she could have been out with other people, Binell said.

However, after Burnham tried calling Harms’ house repeatedly over the weekend and her workplace on Monday morning, Burnham said she became worried because it was unusual that Harms hadn’t called back to report her date.

“All weekend I was telling some friends of mine,” Burnham said. “At that point I didn’t think anything had happened.”

Burnham saw Harms’ car outside of her duplex the weekend of July 27th, so she didn’t worry until she called Harms’ co-workers at Amdahl, a hardware and software company.

Her co-workers said Harms, who works as a senior buyer in the purchasing department, hadn’t shown up that morning, Burnham said.

Since Harms has disappeared, her friends and family have poured themselves into the effort to find her.

Immediately after her family filed a missing person’s report they began handing out fliers at Harms’ local hangout spots such as the California Café and the Rock Bottom Brewery.

Friends and family of Harms are slated to hold an event at 6p.m. on Wednesday at the Britannia Arms Almaden on Almaden Expressway.

But posting fliers hasn’t brought solace or comfort into Sanchez’s life.

“I feel rundown,” Sanchez said. “For two months nothing, and for us it is a nightmare. It is almost impossible to accept that she vanished.”

Harms, who stands at 5 feet 5 inches, was last seen wearing a knee-length, short-sleeved light-blue floral pattern dress and black strap-style high-heeled shoes.

Sanchez said his daughter made friends easily and was a social and compassionate person. She would often treat her parents to lunch or dinner.

“At night my wife and I talk about it and my wish for whatever reason is that she just needed a change and she went some place with someone and now she can come back to life. The logic about my daughter is that she could never do that,” Sanchez said. Sanchez said he still has hopes she can be found.

“I hope she’ll call from some place and say, ‘Dad come and get me,’ ” Sanchez said.

•  •  •

For information about Jeanine Harms visit the Web site www.findjeanine.com.

Anyone with information about Harms can call the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department at (408) 354-8600 or at the anonymous tip line at (408) 395-1101.