Officials Snub Talk of a ‘Bayou Killer’ Stalking Houston, Where 22 Bodies Have Been Pulled From the Water This Year
Similar fears, also dismissed by authorities, persist in the city of Austin, where dozens of bodies have been found at Lady Bird Lake.
Authorities at Houston are seeking to tamp down fears that a serial killer is at large after more than 20 people have been found dead in the Texas city’s bayous since the start of this year.
Six of the 22 bodies found across Harris County turned up within a span of less than two weeks, according to medical examiner records reviewed by the Houston Chronicle. The grisly finds have led to public speculation that the city is plagued by an unknown marauder dubbed the “Bayou Killer.”
“Five people ‘drowning’ in a week? No foul play? Really,” one Instagram user wrote in response to a September post by the Chronicle about the drownings.
“[There’s] been a serial killer in Houston for at least 3 years now like yall PLEASE be safe,” one area resident recently wrote on X. The user urged neighbors to “be aware of your surroundings, dont go out by yourself without making someone aware of your whereabouts. I don’t wanna see no more loved ones being found in Buffalo Bayou!”
City leaders have stressed in public comments that investigators do not believe there is a serial killer at Houston.
“There is no proof that there is a serial killer involved in these killings,” a city council member, Letitia Plummer, recently said at a community meeting, echoing comments made a week earlier by the mayor, John Whitmire.
But an unimpressed commenter on the Houston subreddit wrote: “The more they yap and try to thought police that there’s no serial killer, the more people will think there’s a serial killer.”
The rash of mysterious deaths at Houston mirrors the situation at Texas’s capital city, Austin, where nearly 40 bodies have been discovered near Lady Bird Lake since 2022. Residents there have speculated that a “Rainey Street Killer” may be at work.
City authorities have long insisted there is no evidence of a serial killer and commissioned a recent study of nearly 200 drownings at Lady Bird Lake since 2004 to try to debunk the theory.
“Let’s not spend money and time chasing phantom serial killers because social media is propagating something that’s sensational to get a few more clicks,” a Texas State University professor who has worked on the study, Kim Rossmo, said to Fox7 Austin.
“We found that there were no indications of a serial killer.”
