Bodies Stack Up in Texas Bayou Death Investigations

Is there in fact [music] a Bayou Butcher. haunting the streets of Houston taking. lives of innocent people [music] and. leaving their bodies floating in. waterways around Texas' largest city or. is it merely a coincidence that dozens. of people have ended up in the water in. [music] non-nefarious ways in a metro. area of millions? That answer has now. been complicated a bit by brand new. information about the number [music] of. people found dead in Houston bayous over. the last decade. We are breaking those. stats down and what they may mean. Welcome [music] to Sidebar presented by. Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

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you'll have perfectly edited clips ready. to go for TikTok, Shorts, Reels. Opus is. your one-stop shop. And having a tool. like Opus Clip means our producers can. get you viral courtroom updates. instantly. At Sidebar, we want listeners. to share their ideas too. And this is. the most powerful tool there is to help. you edit like a pro. Go to. opus.pro/sidebar. to create your videos today. New. statistics that have been unearthed by. investigative news teams in Houston, Texas are shining a shocking spotlight. once again on the bayous in the area and. the number of bodies that have been.

pulled from the water in the last. several years. And it is only fueling. speculation that there may be a serial. killer, a Bayou Butcher, stalking parts. of Texas. And we've talked about this. before. We've talked about this strange. situation before here on Sidebar that. according to the Houston Police. Department between September 13th, 2024. and September 20th, 2025, officers. responded to 39 incidents where bodies. were found in different bayous around.

the area. Now, the causes of death were. still pending for more than a dozen of. those people. At least 11 had their. causes listed as undetermined. That's. according to police records that were. provided to Houston Public Media. But in. mid-September, there was a body that was. discovered in Brays Bayou. And after. several days, officials were able to. make an identification. 21-year-old Jade. McKissick, a University of Houston. student. She'd gone missing after. leaving a Midtown bar and police say she. was last seen at a gas station buying a.

drink. She's seen leaving alone. The. cameras lose her and she wasn't seen. again until her body was found. According to a news release from Houston. PD, quote, "An autopsy by the Harris. County Institute of Forensic Sciences. revealed no signs of trauma or foul play. and the cause of death is still under. investigation." But McKissick wasn't the. only person found in a bayou on. September 15th. No, hours later that. same day, the body of 43-year-old Rodney. Chapman was found in Greens Bayou. His.

sister told outlet KHOU that her. brother's body was shirtless. He was. apparently wearing a pair of shorts, one. sock when he was found. Next day, 24-year-old Seth Hansen's body was found. in White Oak Bayou. September 18th, HPD. says witnesses reported seeing someone. jump into Buffalo Bayou and never. resurface. That man was identified as. 63-year-old Arnulfo Alvarado. Michael. Rice, reported to be either 66 or 67, was found dead also in Buffalo Bayou on.

September 20th. A sixth person was found. dead in almost as many days on September. 25th. Michaela Miller's remains, they. were identified after police asked for. the public's help. They released a photo. of a tattoo on her wrist. It was three. eights. So in all, Houston police say 28. bodies, 28, have been recovered from. bayous in the area this year alone. And. that number has really gotten people's. attention. And this is why there have. been rumors and speculation of a killing.

spree. That has been in the headlines. ever since. In fact, authorities have. had to address this. Houston police, Mayor John Whitmire, they have. repeatedly tried to reassure the public. that there is no connection at all. between the deaths. In fact, listen to. what was said at a news conference back. in September. We do not have any evidence that there. is a serial. killer loose in. Houston, Texas. Let me say that again. There is no evidence. that there's a serial killer loose on.

the streets of Houston. If there was, you would hear it from me. first. There's no evidence, and I repeat, no. evidence. to suggest that any of these incidents. are connected. In all of the five incidents, the. medical examiner's office will determine. the cause of death. The investigation into these incidents. is pending the determination of the ME's. office. For us as an agency, rumors. uh stir fear and anxiety in our.

communities. It's important to rely on verified. information. and investigations. But now we got to. talk about these stats. These new stats. that were uncovered by KPRC 2. This is. an NBC affiliate in Texas. They are. shining new light on how many bodies. went into the Harris County Medical. Examiner's Office after being found in. Houston bayous. The news outlet. requested information from the ME's. office and received data. So what. happened was the news outlet requested. information from the Medical Examiner's.

Office and they received all this data. that goes back to January 2017. This is. what we want to talk about. All right. So to help me break down these numbers, parse out what they really mean, and. what I want to welcome back friend of. the show, former CIA special operations. officer and FBI special agent, author of. The Unexpected Spy, national security. contributor for NewsNation. So many. titles. Tracy Walder joins us right now. Tracy, so good to see you. Thanks for. taking the time. You know, you've been. on to talk about these kinds of.

potential. uh serial killer cases before. Just to. be clear with the fascination going into. this with so much attention being. brought to this, we're about to talk. about the stats, too. What is your. general [snorts] theory of what's going. on here? I think the hard part, to be. completely honest with you, is that. about two-thirds of these don't have a. manner of death, right? Uh that that you. know, they have not declared how these. people ultimately died and how they. ended up in the bayou. And I think as a.

result of that, then public speculation. comes out. And I also think when you. have the police or HP Houston PD saying. I would say so emphatically, right, that. these this is not the work of a serial. killer without a manner of death. It. really starts to bring in people. questioning um a lot of this. And when. you sort of have these clusters in just. one bayou alone, right? You have 16. And. so I think that's where this sort of. starts to go into is this really a work. of a serial killer? Yeah. And And by the.

way, the difficulty of one or two people. or three people. committing all of these, you know, just for argument's sake, a speculation. point of view. If they were responsible. for multiple, multiple, multiple deaths, is that unusual in today's day and age. for one or two or three people to be. able to do that? So I mean, are you referring to almost. like a group of serial killers. essentially? >> Let's say one or let's say, yeah, a. small group. But I mean, even one. person. Let's say there was one person.

who's able to kill all of these people. In your experience, today's day and age, would that be possible that somebody. would be able to do that and not get. caught? I don't want to say impossible, obviously, because nothing's impossible, right, Jesse? But I think in in one of. these, you've got what, five people ends. up in a bayou within a span of, gosh, just 6 days. So obviously that's pretty. quick. I do think also with in this day. and age, as you mentioned, with security. cameras, all those kinds of things, to. not spot [snorts].

someone is unusual. But again, I don't. want to say that this is an a non-issue. I do think because these bodies are. ultimately found in water, forensic. evidence on them is going to be very few. and far between. So police officers, in. terms of identifying, you know, a. perpetrator, would really be relying on. evidence outside of the body in a case. like this. No, that's a really good. point. And look, there's a number of. factors to consider here. When they were. when they died, where they were found,

the circumstances, they're different. But obviously there's a pattern here. So. I want to take a look at some of these. records that KPRC 2 uncovered. So since. the beginning of 2017, there have been. 189. bodies found in the bayous. Think about. that number, okay? So you can see from. the numbers on your screen, 2024, 2025, those were the years when the most. bodies were pulled from the water. 34. last year, 28 so far this year. This is. according to records from the Harris. County Medical Examiner's Office that.

KPRC 2 reviewed. And when it comes to. the causes of death, the office says. that with the largest cause being listed. as undetermined at 39% or 75 deaths, 24%. are listed as accidental drownings, 13%. are situations where people had ended. their own lives, 9% or 17 cases were. homicides. So Tracy, what what are your. initial thoughts on those numbers? It's. hard. Um obviously I live in Texas,

right? You've got a body of water, you've got humidity, and you have heat. And so. >> [clears throat]. >> I don't mean to be graphic, but I think. it's going to be difficult in some of. these cases to ultimately. determine. a cause of death. In terms of the cases. that are homicide or individuals ending. their own lives, that's information that. they probably received from the family, right? Indicating that that individual. was going to take this line of action. And so, I think that's what's going to.

be to be difficult is is because of the. way that these bodies were found and. however long, you know, they were. ultimately submerged in water, um the. remains at the in and of themselves, as. I mentioned before, are just going to. have almost no forensic evidence on. them. And then, that's going to be. really hard um to determine. And when. you have that kind of ambiguous. information out there, that can lead to. a lot of speculation, and I totally. understand why. 189 deaths, does that feel like a lot to.

you? Over that period of time, maybe not. But, as you mentioned before, the 2004-5. time frame, that to me seems like a lot. in the same. >> Yeah, 2024-2025, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um. I know that different jurisdictions and. offices may have different parameters or. guidelines when they say something is. undetermined. In general, though, if you're looking at. that number of a number of undetermined, does that automatically mean.

investigation's closed, we're not. actively pursuing it anymore, we're. going to look to other cases, if. something should pop up, yeah, we'll. listen to it, but what does that mean? I. mean, does that mean case closed for. those? It doesn't mean case closed. It just. makes it sometimes harder to. investigate, right? So, if it's not been. declared a homicide, then that's not. going to. immediately levy uh the full force of. the police and their investigatory. um skills [clears throat]. at a case like that. If you can't.

initially determine that something is a. homicide, right? I don't want to say. they're going to close it and put it to. the back burner and never think about it. again, um but they might try another way. to try to investigate that cause of. death. But, because they can't at this. point in time label it a homicide, um. they do not have sort of the full power. of the police investigating that. And undetermined could mean could. potentially mean there was foul play, it's just not determined point. Um could. mean something else, but if you're. bringing attention to this, do they have.

to create their own kind of task force? Do they bring in outside resources? Does. the FBI get involved and say, "Listen, we're going to dedicate 6 months to. looking into all these cases and trying. to see if there's connective tissue." Do. they have to? They don't have to. That's the thing. >> Could they? I mean, Yeah. If you want me to be honest, I think. it's a in the public's best interest to, especially when you have that many. undetermined. If you just had one or. two, um unfortunately, you know, that. had remained undetermined, I can maybe. understand not bringing all of that and.

creating a task force. But, when you. have this many that are undetermined, I. feel it could potentially create an. issue where the public may or may not be. safe, depending on what those causes of. deaths are. And so, I would think that. you would want to create a task force to. really try to pinpoint that to determine. ultimately what's at play here. And. according to the mayor, there are 2,500. miles of bayous in the Houston area. So, it's not like there's just one small. body of water where all these bodies.

keep being found. When you look at that. and you talk about 189 bodies being. found since 2017, I guess it makes a. little bit more sense. You're talking. about. bodies of water. I'm not from Texas, but. I guess that is something to consider. here when we talk about it. I mean, listen, Houston is essentially. one big group of bayous. Um and I. thought about that because, you know, you're right, 189, I'm not minimizing. the death of any of these individuals. But, when you have that many miles of. bayou, yes, it's it's somewhat of a drop.

in the bucket. But, when you start to. look that 16 were found in one of them, um to me, that's a high cluster um of of. numbers being found in just one of the. bayous. And some of them you've got. maybe one or two, but in in one you've. got 16 and in another one you have nine. And so, in some of these, I think it. would be in their best interest to look. at where the clusters of these are and. determine if there is something or not. going on in these areas. And I have a. few more stats about the. the deceased in a minute. But, just to. generally speak, if I'm if you're seeing.

one death and two deaths and three. deaths, I don't. law enforcement doesn't set up a. perimeter around these bayous to see. what's going on? I mean, that part struck me as strange, right? Shouldn't there be some level of. surveillance to see what's going on in. these areas? Yes and no. They're doing that in. Austin, obviously. They've got in the waterways there, they've set up more cameras, more. lights, those kinds of things. But, to. the issue of bayous, first of all, HPD.

is only so big, right? That they can be. monitoring that. But, in terms of the bayous themselves, they are so vast and there are so many. of them. It probably would be in their best. interest to put up more cameras. All of. that costs money. So, I don't know what. their budgeting. is. They can't necessarily just set up. perimeters and sit on them because, again, we don't know. when some of these clusters occurred. When was the first person who was found. in it. found and then when was the last person.

pulled out? If that's over the span of. the year and there's only four people, then you're going to be sitting on that. bayou for 12 months. And that isn't. necessarily feasible. Let me go back to some of these stats. So, a majority of the people that were. found were men, 85%. This is according. to the ME's office. 14% were female, and. one set of remains was apparently too. degraded to identify. Um Tracy, what do. you make of that number? Does that. surprise you? Yeah, it does. Um and the.

reason it surprises me, too, is because. you and I have talked about this um, you. know, in other waterways in Austin. um and then also in Chicago as well. Those have primarily also been men, very. high percentages. So, over 85%, sort of. what you were mentioning here. And so, yeah, I think that that's interesting. that we are dealing with primarily, overwhelmingly, um one gender of of. individual. Is there a difference in. terms of death or an investigation. um. when you're dealing with gender? I mean,

if you're thinking about how did a. majority of men die versus, let's say, there was a majority of of women die, does that change how investigators look. at that? Does that change how these. cases are approached in any way? Does it. tell you something? I personally have never approached a. case differently, you know, but based on. on gender really ever. But, um I do. think when you have a high. concentration, right? If you're looking. at the work of a serial killer for. patterns, those kinds of things when you. have multiple deaths, obviously there's.

a huge red flag in terms of a pattern. when you have overwhelmingly a majority. of them being male. And you're also talking all different. races, genders, ages. Going back to the. idea of a serial killer, would it be. atypical for a serial killer to do that? Uh to be specific, I'm sorry, Jesse, do. you mean to be specific in terms of a. gender or. >> Yeah, like if if you're talking about a. potential serial killer, would they. focus on one race, one gender, one age?

Or, in your experience when looking at. these uh these people, um. they may not be they may not. discriminate in terms of victims. Most serial killers, I want to say all, but most. um. do discriminate in that they do have a a. target, right? A type of individual um. that they're looking for. Now, that. discrimination can come in all different. forms. It could be gender, it could be. race, it could be religion, it could be. so many different age, it could be so. many different things. Um so, yes, in a. case like this where you do, again, see.

the overwhelming majority being male, um. then yes, I don't want to say every. serial killer focuses on a a type, but I. would say. 95% of serial killers does narrow it. down to a type. By the way, age, um. almost well, the most most are between. the ages of 30 and 39 years of age. So, you're talking about 47 deaths between. that age group, 30 and 39. Anything we. should be thinking about there? Again, to what you had mentioned. earlier,

I also think that that raises the. possibility um of a serial killer, you. know, typically when you have accidental. deaths, those kinds of things, accidents don't discriminate. And you. are going to have across the board men, women, ages, all those kinds of things. And so, that in a way, I guess, concerns. me that they're mostly male, over 85%, and then in between that age group, um. does, I think, raise some alarms in. terms of the types of of individuals.

being who are deceased. Unsurprisingly, the lack of information. is very frustrating for people. It's. frustrating particularly for the family. members. And when you look at the family member, for example, of 22-year-old Kenneth. Cutting, who was found dead in Buffalo. Bayou last year, his family spoke with. KHOU last month. His father saying, "I've been waiting for a year and a half. now. He did not fall in that bayou. Somebody put him in that bayou." And. according to Cutting Sr., his son's. cause of death is still listed as.

undetermined, with WHAS11 reporting that. Houston police say the case has been. closed, that they haven't found any. evidence of a homicide. Cutting went on. to say, "I don't know if there's a. serial killer, but the way they're. dealing with these bodies is. ridiculous." Tracy, what's your thought. on that? What's your response to that? Yeah, I think I understand where the. family is is coming from, and I think, um you know, they still don't have that. cause of death, right, for their loved. one. And so, then for the police to very. quickly say, "No, this is not the work.

of a serial killer." leads the family to. believe that this is not fully being. investigated. Um and I do think that the. families deserve that. I do think that. the deceased um deserve that. And I. think that's what's so surprising, as. you mentioned, this lack of information, right, that's out there. And you're. right, it is a lack of information. However, This lack of information, this very. quick reaction and statement by HPD that. these are not the work of a serial. killer. Not even not even the work of a. serial killer, they say it's not a.

homicide. They haven't found any. evidence of a homicide. How do they. determine that? And how do they. determine that potentially so quickly? I. don't know what the time frame was in. terms of when they determined there was. no evidence of a homicide, but how how. does some how do you rule that out? That's what I So, I don't know how. quickly they made that determination. I. don't have access to that information. yet. >> speaking. Generally speaking. >> Yeah. Um so, it it all [clears throat]. I don't want to get too graphic, but a. lot of it's going to depend on the. condition of the body, right? Um and how.

they found that and how long that's. going to take and how long they're going. to have um. you know, any types of of forensic. analysis come back. You don't know too. if they've done toxicology reports, how. long that's going to take. Uh if my. guess is they found no DNA on any of. these bodies if they were submerged in. water again. I'm just assuming. I don't. know. Um and so, all of that is going to. take some time unfortunately to get. back, which is why I am so surprised.

Um they can take months to be completely. honest with you, Jesse, to get all of. that information back depending on how. backlogged they are. I don't know how. backlogged HPD is. Um and so, that's why. again I'm so surprised that they've just. very quickly made that statement. And I. just want to get your opinion on this. There I'm sure is a theory out there. that law enforcement is saying one. thing, but they're believing another, right? They might be saying there's no. there's nothing to see here. There's no. serial killer. There's no cause of alarm.

for the public. When in reality, law. enforcement is thinking, uh-oh, there. might be someone out there. There might. be several people out there. I I don't. believe that's true, right? And I And. I'm curious your perspective on that. because it seems to me if there really. was a danger to the public, law. enforcement would have a responsibility. to share that information. And. particularly because who's. the they would need the public. They. would need the public for in more. information. There's a there's someone. on the loose. There's something. happening. Be vigilant.

Those who may believe that law. enforcement is not 100% being. transparent about what they're seeing, that they maybe they're secretly. investigating this. Just what would be. your response to that? Yeah, I'm with you, Jesse. I do not. believe The bottom line is law. enforcement's job is public safety. It. is to keep the public safe. And so, if. there is a threat out there and they do. believe there's a threat out there, I. understand not giving all of the. information regarding that threat. If. you need to catch them and all of that,

you don't want to put all of that out. there. But you do have a responsibility. to let the public know to be aware and. to be vigilant. And so, I don't believe. that They may know a little bit more, but I don't believe that they are. secretly kind of holding back um that. this is a serial killer because it is. their job to protect the public. That is. their number one job. Tracey Walder, thanks so much for coming. on. Appreciate it as always. Thanks for having me, Jesse. And that's all we have for you right now. here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so.

much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple. Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your. podcast. You can follow me on X or. Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak. to you next time.