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Concerns of a serial killer grip Houston after 23 bodies were found in the city’s bayous this year—an unsettling mystery that a retired detective has now weighed in on.
The speculation in America’s fourth-largest city began in late September when officials reported that five bodies had been discovered over a span of five days.
Houston police claimed that took the city’s total for 2025 to 14 deaths.
However, the actual number of deaths for the year was 22, as KPRC revealed using medical examiner records, and the discovery of a new body on Wednesday raised the count to 23.
Houston authorities, including mayor John Whitmire, have forcefully denied the possibility of a serial killer.
Whitmire said on September 23: ‘Enough of misinformation [and] wild speculation by either social media, elected officials, candidates, the media.
‘We do not have any evidence that there is a serial killer loose in Houston, Texas.’
However Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and criminal justice professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley, is not buying it.
Serial killer rumors continue swirling around Houston after the discovery of 23 bodies, including 20-year-old Jade McKissic (pictured), in the city’s bayous this year
Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and criminal justice professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley, believes that the deaths being a ‘coincidence’ is ‘unlikely’
At least 22 bodies have been recovered from Houston’s bayous in 2025 – and a new body found on Wednesday would bring that number to 23, just one less than 2024’s total
‘Something is afoot,’ he told Fox News.
‘A coincidence? Unlikely.’
The former detective said there was still more work to be done to resolve the 23 deaths.
Giacalone said: ‘A careful inspection of each case is warranted, including the 48 hours prior to the discovery of their disappearance.’
Police said that 24 bodies had been discovered last year, meaning only one less has been found in 2025 until now.
The most recent individual was found Wednesday in White Oak Bayou at 100 Marie Street around 9.10am, the Houston Police Department said.
There were no ‘obvious signs of foul play’ on the body, which was recovered by a dive team, and autopsy results and cause of death by the medical examiner were pending.
The Daily Mail reached out to Houston Police and the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, which serves as the medical examiner, for further comment about when their respective investigations and autopsies might be concluded. Houston Police said there were no new updates to provide.
Giacalone is not the only one who does not believe Houston authorities about the bayou deaths.
Kevin Gannon, a retired NYPD sergeant, told Fox News that he believed the bayou deaths could be connected to the smiley face killings.
The smiley face killings is a theory that claims young, college-aged men found dead across the US were murdered by one or more serial killers.
Gannon said: ‘We’ve never seen drowning numbers like this before, especially with a drowning occurring every other day in the same location.’
He did not provide any evidence to back up his claims, and the FBI has previously rejected the smiley face killings theory.
Gannon added: ‘This is an aberration and not the normal age of our 700-plus ‘potential victims’ but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be involved in killing these older individuals also, as they feel like they are pretty invincible right now and can act with impunity due to the police response.’
Around the city, Houston residents have launched their own Scooby Doo-style hunts for the supposed mystery murderer.
The far-fetched efforts to track down the serial killer have been documented across social media.
Giacalone, the ex-detective, said still more work needed to be done to resolve the 23 deaths. A body was recovered from White Oak Bayou on October 8
The most recent individual was found Wednesday in White Oak Bayou at 100 Marie Street around 9.10am
TikTok user Darius Stcyr said: ‘Let’s set up a trap. As you know, we have a serial killer on the loose.’
He added: ‘Just the thought that could possibly be my baby girl one day [who] gets snatched up and found in a bayou. That really bothers me, you know?
‘The police is clearly having a problem doing their job. I’m not understanding after the first body. Why aren’t there people staking out and watching?’
The first individual found last month was Jade Elise McKissic, 20, who studied at the University of Houston.
McKissic had been seen leaving a local bar four days earlier, leaving her cellphone behind and going to a gas station next door to buy a drink, the Houston Police homicide division said.
She then walked towards Brays Bayou, where her body was discovered on September 15 around 10am.
Police said there were no signs of trauma or foul play.
Houston Police said there were no ‘obvious signs of foul play’ on the newly-found body
Lauren Johnson, who sang with McKissic in her youth church’s praise team, previously told the Daily Mail: ‘Jade was such a light in our room. She was talented and always had a smile on her face.
‘Jade was also a great friend to me, whom I looked up to for her ambition and her “go-get-it” attitude. I miss her so much, and I hope her family finds closure on everything regarding her loss.’
The latest three bodies to be identified were Seth Hansen, 34; Arnulfo Alvarado, 63; and Michaela Miller, age unavailable, per the Houston Chronicle citing the medical examiner’s office.
Hansen’s body was discovered on September 16 – one day after McKissic – in White Oak Bayou around 1.25pm.
Two days later, Alvarado was found in Buffalo Bayou at 400 Jensen Drive around 2pm.
Police captain Salam Zia said authorities had not found ‘any kind of typical pattern’ in the five bodies discovered between September 15-20.
Houston mayor John Whitmire previously said: ‘We do not have any evidence that there is a serial killer loose in Houston, Texas’
Krista Gehring told the Daily Mail that serial killers tend to have a ‘cooling off period’ and ‘signatures’ with how they kill
Zia said: ‘It runs the gamut [of] genders, ethnicities, age range.’
Other bodies and dates of death identified by the Houston Chronicle were: Douglas Swearingen, 44, found on January 11; Carl Newton, 24, on February 14; Rodolfo Salas Sosa, 56, on March 22; Anthony Azua, 33, on March 30; Juan Garcia Loredo, 69, on March 31; Kenneth Jones, 34, on May 7; George Grays, 54, on May 9; Culcois Racius, 39, on May 9; Anthony Curry, 35, on May 17; Shannon Davis, 14, on May 30; Ernest Armstrong, 62, on June 9; Brent Brown, 28, on June 12; Raymond Hatten, 30, on July 7; Latrecia Amos, 57, on August 21; Jamal Alexander, 31, on August 27; Rodney Chatman, 43, on September 15; and Michael Rice, 67, on September 20.
Krista Gehring, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Houston-Downtown, previously explained to the Daily Mail whether fears about a serial killer on the loose added up.
She said: ‘When serial killers kill an individual, there’s a cooling off period – so to find multiple bodies all at once or one day after the next is not characteristic.’
Serial killers also have ‘signatures’ with how they kill and tend to prey on vulnerable people, Professor Gehring added.
In Houston, she told the Daily Mail, the only pattern seemed to be that ‘these bodies show up in a bayou.’
The Daily Mail reached out to Giacalone for further comment.
