The family of a man found dead in the Houston bayous has accused the city’s mayor of ‘gaslighting’ after the Democrat dismissed almost 50 bodies pulled from the waters in 21 months as a symptom of ‘homelessness‘.
John Whitmire rejected growing fears of a serial killer dumping bodies in the Texas waterways after dozens were found dead over the past two years.
One death that has baffled investigators is Kenneth Cutting Jr, 22, who disappeared after a night out in downtown Houston in June last year.
Cousin Lauren Freedman said his body was found by police in the Buffalo Bayou a few days later, about a mile and a half upstream from where his roommates last saw him alive.
The cause and manner of the young man’s death were undetermined by the autopsy which found no traces of physical injury or drug use.
Cutting is just one of dozens of people that have been found dead in the waterways over the past few years.
So far in 2025, police have confirmed 16 were pulled from Houston’s bayous, but records from the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences indicate that number is even higher, at 24.
Six of those were found over the course of just two weeks in September.
Police have also confirmed that throughout 2024, there was a total of 24 bodies recovered from the waterways.
All of these deaths have caused Houston residents to speculate that there may be a serial killer on the loose, but mayor Whitmire has publicly disputed those fears.
Hellbound and Down 