“Enough is enough of wild speculation.”
Houston Mayor John Whitmire was frustrated as he stood in front of the cameras alongside the police chief last month, trying to dispel the rumors that have cast a veil of anxiety over the vast network of bayous that crisscross his city.
“There is no evidence that there is a serial killer loose on the streets of Houston,” Whitmire said at the news conference.
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But the Houston Police Department and Mayor Whitmire have vehemently refuted the serial killer conspiracy theories and insist the deaths aren’t connected. None of the fatalities have been ruled homicides.
“Unfortunately, drowning in our bayous is not a new phenomenon,” the mayor said at the news conference. “There are 2,500 miles of bayous, and people are exposed to them, sometimes foul play – often not.”
Adding to the anxiety is the fact that reported bayou deaths in the Houston area have more than doubled compared to 2023, with at least 25 deaths being confirmed so far this year by Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, the medical examiner. By comparison, at least 14 bayou deaths were confirmed by this time in 2024 and a total of 20 the whole year.
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Authorities and experts say there are no connections between the victims that would lead them to believe a serial killer was involved.
“We weren’t able to find any kind of typical pattern,” said Houston Police Captain Salam Zia at the September news conference. “It runs the gamut – genders, ethnicities, age range.”
Demographic data provided to CNN by the medical examiner’s office shows 15 of the people found dead in the bayous were Black, three were Hispanic and six were White. They ranged in age from 14 to 69 years old, and the vast majority were men.
“There’s not one specific type of person. It’s really sort of a bunch of different people that are unfortunately losing their life related to these bodies of water,” said Krista Gehring, a criminal justice professor at the University of Houston.
All but one of the deaths happened within the city of Houston. At least five of the deaths were confirmed in Brays Bayou, where McKissic was found. Three others were in Buffalo Bayou and one was in White Oak Bayou.