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William Morgan
Authorities are attempting to quell speculation that a serial killer is operating in Texas after 34 bodies were dragged out of the same bodies of water in the last 12 months.
These rumours were further stoked over the Christmas period, after police pulled three more bodies from bayous around Houston in just one week.
On December 22, a body was discovered in the Buffalo Bayou, while another was discovered in the Brays Bayou elsewhere in the city. Then a third body was discovered in the Buffalo Bayou on Christmas Eve (December 24).
With fears mounting among the city's communities that a killer walks among them, both the mayor and police have stressed there is no evidence for this theory.
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"We do not have any evidence that there is a serial killer loose," Mayor John Whitmire said in September as the body count broke two dozen. But with each new discovery from waterways surrounding the city, the speculation increases.
That is what unfolded in the wake of the discovery of a third body last week, which was recovered after a nearby pedestrian had spotted it floating in the water.
While autopsy results are pending, local police kept their statement brief, saying: "The HPD Dive Team responded to the scene and recovered the body from the water."
Similarly to the other two, this individual could not be readily identified by Houston PD.
An officer told a Houston Public Media reporter at one of the discoveries, where a decomposed body was found on a bank near the water, that they didn't know 'much about it at all, at this point.'
"Right now, face value, there’s not a lot that we can see or determine from the body," the officer said.
Following these grim discoveries, one visitor to the city told a local ABC affiliate that the number of deaths this year were too high to be explained away, saying: "The math isn't mathing, I think there's a serial killer."
Resident Erick Cortez added: "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."
But authorities have pointed out that there has long been a large number of bodies found in the bayous, with there actually being one more death in 2024 than seen this year.
Overall, according to analysis by the Houston Chronicle, there have been 200 bodies found in the bayous over the past nine years - with the past two years seeing the highest recorded totals.
Around 40 percent are recorded as drownings, a similar proportion are categorized as suicides, homicides, and deaths by blunt force injury. Many of those later identified came from the city's homeless community.
Mayor Whitmire tried to explain the phenomenon in September, stating: "What do you think happens when a homeless person dies from an illness, diabetes or cancer? What do you think his friends and associates do? They do not take him to a funeral home.
"Unfortunately, the homeless, when they pass, often end up in the bayou."
Retired Houston PD captain Greg Fremin told ABC readers to keep their wits about them, but not to worry about a rumoured serial killer.
He said: "I tell the citizens of Houston, we have a relatively safe city for the most part, but it's just like any other big city, there is crime, you have to be vigilant, have situational awareness of what's going on but this is not anything to be concerned about."