When social media cries serial killer: The case of Houston’s bayou bodies

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00:00that man's body was found in white oak bayou this is the seventh such discovery in just the past

00:07month in 2023 it examined nine bodies in houston bayous 20 bodies in 2024 and so far this year 24

00:16bodies if trends hold houston is on track to log more than 30 bayou related deaths before the year

00:21is out and some houstonians and true crime aficionados are putting on their detective

00:26hats and speculating about the worst case scenario you can't possibly keep saying that they're not

00:37connected when they just keep showing up and showing up i can't believe you houston another

00:42body was found at buffalo bayou park so we're just going to pretend that there's not a cereal on a

00:48liver in houston texas dumping bodies in the bayou it's very frustrating to me to be at home

00:54and watch the news or social media and see people spread what i know to be false

01:04mayor john whitmyer's frustration is ringing out across the nation's fourth largest city

01:09as of his september press conference 24 bodies had been found in houston bayous this year

01:14if that rate holds there will be 32 bayou related deaths in 2025

01:19a 60 percent increase from last year enough is enough of misinformation wild speculation by

01:28either social media

01:33elected officials candidates the media we do not have any evidence that there is a serial

01:42killer loose in houston texas the reason internet sleuths are leaning toward the idea of a serial killer

01:48loose in houston the rise in popularity of the true crime genre of podcasts books and tv shows in

01:552024 19.1 million americans said they listened to true crime podcasts at least once a week that's a

02:03nearly three-fold increase since 2019 meanwhile 41 of americans between 18 and 29 say they regularly

02:11listen to true crime shows that age group also happens to be big time social media users there's no

02:17shortage of so-called experts and i'm putting experts in quotation marks who pipe in on this my name

02:23is kim rosmo i'm a professor in the school of criminal justice and criminology at texas state

02:29university rosmo is a former police detective who has spent decades researching serial killers

02:35earlier this year he published research on the rainy street ripper a similar conspiracy theory linking

02:41the 200 drowning deaths in an austin texas lake over the last two decades his analysis of the situation

02:47directly relates to concerns in houston rosmo's research notes homicidal drownings account for only

02:530.2 percent of all murders in the united states most involving children killed by their parents

02:59rosmo added that serial killers account for just a small portion of all murders

03:03and they almost never drown their victims drowning is really difficult if you walk yourself through the

03:09stages of how you would drown somebody it just doesn't make much sense at all to do it that way

03:15it's and even if someone was trying to do this you would have a lot of failed attempts and you would

03:21have reports of those failed attempts with descriptions of the offender and it's just really really rare

03:28and it's not even it doesn't even fit the motivation of serial killers these are often crimes of sex and

03:34power so that doesn't make sense either texas is a massive state streaked with rivers bayous and gulf

03:40coastline as a result the state's drowning rate is eight percent higher than the national average

03:47in a city of 2.4 million people with more than 2500 miles of bayou not every drowning death makes the news

03:54but once two dozen are reported it's hard to stop the rumor mill true crime fans are drawing connections

04:00among the incidents and research shows they're also 4.4 times more likely to call in a tip or

04:06offer other information to law enforcement to solve a case but there are downsides so there's four

04:11harms one resources that could be used to solving a drowning problem are spent on chasing you know a phantom

04:19serial killer two those police resources that just could be used to solve other real murders third is

04:27you're re-victimizing the family members oh you know your son drowned but now we think it's a murder

04:33and then they're all going oh my god all these people are saying you know our son was a victim of

04:36a murder what's going on here um and then finally you're unnecessarily increasing fear levels our

04:44fear levels should be consistent with real risk not with social media you know hype rosmo pointed to

04:49onlookers who draw the serial killer connection because the majority of bodies recovered in houston

04:5588 percent have been men but that's not the thread you might think it is in the lone star state

05:0178 percent of drowning victims are men rosmo chalks this perceived connection up to social media apophenia

05:09the tendency to find meaningful connections and patterns that don't exist mayor whitmire has been adamant

05:16let me say that again there is no evidence that there's a serial killer loose on the streets of

05:23houston if there was you would hear it from me first but his last public comment on the issue was more

05:30than a month ago we don't have enough information to know whether there is a serial killer or not

05:36i'm lisa olson and i'm a journalist and i'm author of this scientist and the serial killer olson's latest

05:42book is about the candy man killings when dean coral murdered at least 29 teenage boys in houston

05:48and pasadena texas in the early 70s the book follows forensic anthropologist sharon derrick's

05:54quest to identify the unidentified victims in america we have like 40 000 people in our country

05:59who are unidentified it seems like an unacceptably high number for a nation with so much forensic

06:05science and so much tech and a lot of those cases represent unsolved crimes but there are still some

06:13holes in the houston bayou serial killer story for olson there are different ways that serial killers

06:18are identified i mean sometimes they actually want to be identified as a serial killer you know they

06:23have signatures they write notes to the press some serial killers in our history have done that some

06:29serial killers in texas dumped all of the bodies in the same place like the so-called killing

06:35fields texas killing fields killer who put three bodies in the same spot on calder road the same

06:41exact place not just any bayou anywhere serial killer or not olson says it is important to

06:47figure out why so many bodies are washing up in the city's bayous the mayor saying that homeless people

06:52might be pushing their friends into the river because they don't want to bury them it's really

06:55alarming to me because it's when people are not counted by society and their deaths are not investigated

07:02or you know when even their friends think it's okay to follow in the river that crimes get covered

07:07up and crimes don't get discovered in the first place the sentiment is shared by city council member

07:12letitia plummer who has been vocal about solving the mystery and ensuring safety around the waterways

07:17i'm seeing um you know five so just five or six of braised by you if we can kind of put these

07:26addresses in a google sheet and kind of see how close they are if we're seeing more bodies found

07:31maybe in one specific area you know would you put signage up we have to remember these are people

07:38these are daughters sons grandparents cousins aunties these are people and the fact that we make

07:49assumptions about how they passed is just not acceptable for straight arrow news i'm maggie gordon

07:57for more in-depth reporting download the straight arrow news app or head to san.com

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