Gail Delaughter/Houston Public Media
I-69 crosses Buffalo Bayou
When the body of University of Houston student Jade McKissic was found in the Brays Bayou on Sept. 16, police weren’t immediately sure who she was. She had been reported missing five days earlier.
Days after they identified her, Houston police said they did not suspect foul play in her death. They said McKissic, 20, “had spent the evening with friends at local bars.”
New details obtained by Houston Public Media indicate that surveillance video showed McKissic was “in an intoxicated state” when she walked out of a nearby gas station and “towards the bayou.”
“She appears to be alone and no one appears to be following her before she goes out of view,” police records state.
Houston Public Media obtained a year’s worth of police documentation regarding dead bodies found in bayous across the city, between Sept. 13, 2024, and Sept. 20, 2025. At the time of the open records request, five bodies had been discovered in bayous over a span a six days, with a sixth body recovered by police a few days later.
The records provide a snapshot of how law enforcement investigates these incidents —and the uncertainties surrounding them.
“A water environment and a high-temperature, high-humidity environment — I mean, we’re basically a swamp, for lack of a better term — those are terribly destructive to tissue,” said Dr. Jay Coons, an assistant professor at Sam Houston State University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. “So, it is not too long that a body can be in water, in this environment, before fairly routine analysis becomes very difficult.”
According to the data provided by the Houston Police Department (HPD) via public records request, Houston police responded to 39 incidents in which bodies were found in several different bayous between Sept. 13, 2024 and Sept. 20, 2025. Causes of death were still pending for 15 of those people, and 11 were still listed as having an “undetermined” cause of death, according to the HPD records.
McKissic’s cause of death is undetermined, according to the Harris County medical examiner’s office.
Two out of every three bayou-related deaths in that yearlong span don’t have a conclusive cause of death.
Of those incidents, one was a result of homicide, according to HPD. That victim was found on Nov. 19, 2024. He had a gunshot wound in his back — and was found accidentally.
“While Houston police dive team officers were searching for a missing person in Buffalo Bayou, they found a different body of an unknown person,” the police report reads.
Four of the deaths were ruled as suicides. One involved a man who was found hanging from a tree that was in the bayou, and his wife had just “caught him cheating,” according to police records.
Sixteen of the bodies were found in Buffalo Bayou, and nine were found in Brays Bayou. Five were found in White Oak Bayou, four in Hunting Bayou, two each in the Halls and Sims bayous, and one in Horse Pen Bayou. Of the 39 bodies, three were women, including McKissic.
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In nearly every case listed, police documented they did not observe signs of foul play or trauma. The ones that did not explicitly say so included more detailed incidents described by police.
For example, one incident on Nov. 17, 2024, involved a man who allegedly stole a bike from the University of Houston campus, fled from police, jumped into the Brays Bayou and “was not seen again,” until his body was found two days later.
The records offer glimpses into what led up to the discoveries of the bodies. In some instances, like on Sept. 14, 2024, passersby were visiting the bayous when they came upon bodies. Others were family tragedies, like on May 2, 2025, when an 81-year-old man with dementia was found in Buffalo Bayou with a gunshot wound to the head after the death of his wife days earlier.
In March, a construction worker was under a Loop 610 overpass “placing wooden planks over a gap by the freeway when he is believed to have fallen through the gap and into the water.” His death was ruled as an accidental drowning, with blunt force trauma.
A Harris County Sheriff’s Office employee saw a body floating in Buffalo Bayou “while working out in parking lot” in July. The victim in that case, a 40-year-old man, was still awaiting a cause of death.
If you or someone in your life is feeling distressed or experiencing mental health challenges, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Free and confidential emotional support is available 24/7. Call 988 or text HOME to 741-741.
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