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The bodies of more than 30 people, each with vastly different manners of death, were dredged up in Houston-area bayous this year — and locals fear a burgeoning serial killer may be on the loose.
Last week, three bodies were recovered near bayous in Harris County, according to the Houston Police Department. The new discoveries brought the year-end total of bodies recovered in the swamps up to 34, just one short of 2024’s record, as reported by the Houston Chronicle.
Many latched onto viral rumors that the deaths were the handiwork of a serial killer.
“The math isn’t mathing, I think there’s a serial killer. I get Nevada’s ‘for you’ page now, and even in Nevada, they’re talking about Buffalo Bayou, so it’s that bad, it’s reaching another state, across state lines,” Juan Sandoval, a tourist in Houston, told ABC 13.
“There must be someone out there, no? Because it’s ridiculous that so many people are dying in the bayou, I think it’s unfortunate that they haven’t found the person,” Sandoval’s friend, Erick Cortez, added.
Houston authorities are trying to get in front of the rumors and put the on-edge locals at ease.
“There is nothing, nothing, and I want to be crystal clear, to indicate that there is someone operating here as a serial killer. There are many reasons for these deaths. None of them are a serial killer,” Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told KPRC.
The autopsy reports for the bodies found in the Buffalo Bayou Dec. 22 and Dec. 24 are still pending.
The Buffalo Bayou stretches for about 53 miles through Houston and connects to many of the city’s waterways, including the Brays Bayou, Carpenters Bayou, Greens Bayou, Sims Bayou, and White Oak Bayou. Houston has an estimated 2,500 miles of bayous and waterways in total.
Teare attributed many of the deaths to Houston’s “massive homeless problem,” mental health and substance abuse issues.
“It’s kind of a little-known fact, but when you get into the bayous, it is very difficult to get out. When you combine that with someone that is high on some substance, someone that is intoxicated somehow, it makes it even more difficult,” Teare said.
“Yes, there are times where we recover bodies that were placed in the bayou criminally, no question, but that is not something that is a regular occurrence,” he added.
Nearly 200 bodies have been recovered from the city’s vast network of bayous since 2017, according to medical examiner records obtained by KPRC.
Roughly 40% of the deaths were listed as “undetermined,” meaning investigators couldn’t determine if the people were killed in accidents, suicides, or homicides.
The mysteries spurred by the bayous aren’t the first serial killer claims Houstonians have dealt with.
A pocket of land near the I-45 corridor in League City, roughly 25 miles southeast of Houston, was nicknamed the Texas Killing Fields after 34 bodies of young women and girls were found there between 1971 and 2006.
The victims of the Calder Road Killings were all locals between 12 and 34 years old, save for an outlying 57-year-old tourist.
By the 1990s, authorities surmised that the isolated field was a preferred hunting ground for multiple killers.
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