Houston authorities say another body has been found in a local bayou — the third in area waters this week and the 34th this year.
In an X post shared on the afternoon of Wednesday, Dec. 24, the Houston Police Department said that authorities, including a dive team, responded to reports of a body in Buffalo Bayou.
The City of Houston issued a news release that same day stating that a pedestrian first noticed the body in the bayou.
“The HPD Dive Team responded to the scene and recovered the body from the water,” the news release states.
Authorities said police are awaiting autopsy results on the male victim. His identity and cause of death are being determined by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
The latest death follows the discovery of two bodies on the morning of Monday, Dec. 22, in two separate bayous, Houston Public Media, CBS affiliate KHOU and NBC affiliate KPRC reported. One body was in Buffalo Bayou, while another was discovered near Brays Bayou.
The Harris County medical examiner’s office is also reportedly handling the autopsies of those two victims to determine their identities, per Houston Public Media.
In total, there have been 34 bodies discovered in Houston-area bayous this year, local media outlets reported.
“It’s incredibly sad,” Jesse Bellow, a nearby resident, told KPRC in response to Wednesday’s discovery in Buffalo Bayou. “There’s the sensationalized side of a serial killer which people purport as a possibility, but it could also be the incompetence of our leaders in taking care of the lowest members of our society who are still human and deserve respect.”
Per a Dec. 10 investigative report by the Houston Chronicle, more than 200 bodies have been found along the city’s bayous since 2017. The report adds that 2024 and 2025 have been the deadliest years on record. Additionally, the Chronicle found that drownings account for almost 40% of the fatalities, while suicides, homicides and blunt force injuries appeared in more than 40% of the death cases.
This past fall, Houston authorities denied rumors that the deaths have been the work of a serial killer.
“We do not have any evidence that there is a serial killer loose in Houston, Texas,” the city’s mayor, John Whitmire, said in September.
The Houston Police Department and the mayor’s office were contacted on Thursday, Dec. 25, for additional information.
