HOUSTON — When Houston officials pulled the remains of a 67-year-old Black man from the brown waters of Buffalo Bayou on Sept. 20, it marked the fifth body found in a Houston bayou in as many days. The discovery, made beneath the low-hanging morning sun less than a mile downstream from downtown, might have gone unnoticed earlier in the year. Or even the year before.
But not now. Not as rumors of a serial killer swirled around the nation’s fourth-largest city, warping a complex series of events into viral speculation, fueled by social media’s insatiable thirst for true crime. Not as city officials tried in vain to reclaim the narrative, and dispel the rumors.
How many bodies have been found in Houston’s bayous?
Mayor John Whitmire looked frustrated. Exasperated. It was Tuesday, Sept. 23, three days after the most recent discovery. He stood behind a press-conference microphone, facing rolling cameras and notebook-wielding reporters.
“Enough is enough,” he said, “of misinformation, 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…