BAYOU DEATHS NOT THE RESULT OF A SERIAL KILLER AS FEARED BY SOME HOUSTONIANS

Data shows 189 bodies recovered from Houston bayous since 2017

 

By Jaewon Jung, 

 

Click2Houston

Oct 28, 2025

 

Harris County – We’re taking a closer look at the bodies found in Houston bayous from the last decade.

KPRC 2 requested data from Jan. 2015 until now, but the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office was only able to provide data from Jan. 2017.

Here’s what we found.

Since the beginning of 2017, there have been a total of 189 bodies found in the bayou. We excluded the bodies that were found in a vehicle along the bayou.

Here is the breakdown by year:

2017	18
2018	17
2019	12
2020	26
2021	15
2022	19
2023	22
2024	34
2025	27

Here is the breakdown by manner of death:

Undetermined	75	39%
Accident – Drowning	45	24%
Suicide	25	13%
Homicide	17	9%
Accident (Other)	11	6%
Pending	9	5%
Natural	7	4%

Here is the breakdown by sex:

Male	161	85%
Female	27	14%
Unknown	1	<1%

The most recent body was found on October 8 of a man. The medical examiner’s office has not identified the person yet.

City leaders previously said there is no evidence of a serial killer connected to these bodies and that many of the victims may be from the homeless population.

KPRC 2 previously interviewed the sister of Anthony Curry, whose body was found in May. She told us her brother was not homeless and she is still seeking answers to the circumstances of her brother’s death.