Second Bucks County inmate goes missing after failing to return from work release

For the second time in less than two months, a Bucks County inmate participating in a work release program has gone missing after failing to return from a Doylestown fast food restaurant.

This time it appears that 52-year-old Harlist Harak of Bensalem wasn’t scheduled to work when he left the jail shortly before 2:30 p.m. Sept. 16, according to a probable cause affidavit.

When he didn’t return to the Bucks County Correctional Center shortly before midnight, staff checked and learned from a restaurant contact that Harak wasn’t on the schedule and didn’t go to work, the affidavit said.

Harak was approved in August to participate in the work release program, which allows inmates to take jobs with approved employers in the community.

He was serving a six to 23 month sentence on a bench warrant related to a 2024 arrest. He’d pleaded guilty to misdemeanor false identification to law enforcement.

As of Sept. 25, Harak remains missing. An active warrant is out for his arrest on a felony charge of escape.

Also still missing is 49-year-old Philadelphia resident Kristy Lynn Lowmiller, who failed to return from her work release shift at a Doylestown Township bar and restaurant Aug. 1.

Restaurant staff told a corrections administrator that Lowmiller collected her paycheck and left the business at approximately 5 p.m.

Lowmiller had been working at the business since June, according to a probable cause affidavit.

She was serving eight to 23 months for violating her probation in a series of 2010 theft-related convictions, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Harak and Lowmiller are the first inmates who have failed to return from the work release program since 2018, according to county and state corrections records.