Gail Delaughter/Houston Public Media
When a 20-year-old College of Houston pupil was discovered lifeless within the Brays Bayou early final week, it shook lots of the college students who knew her. It additionally sparked a span of Houston police recovering 5 our bodies from native bayous in six days.
Authorities have recognized solely Jade McKissic, who was discovered the morning of Sept. 15 after final being seen 4 days earlier. Investigators with the Houston Police Division stated they don’t suspect foul play.
Later Sept. 15, HPD recovered a physique in Greens Bayou close to the 13400 block of the East Freeway, east of downtown alongside Interstate 10. A spokesperson for the police division stated the preliminary name for police was listed as somebody who was presumably lifeless on arrival.
The subsequent afternoon, Sept. 16, HPD recovered a physique alongside the White Oak Bayou simply north of downtown and I-10.
On Sept. 18, Houston police responded to a name alongside the Buffalo Bayou, close to 400 South Jensen Dr. A spokesperson for HPD stated the preliminary name concerned responding to “a person on the location that threw himself into the bayou” however famous that that is solely preliminary info and a explanation for demise has not been decided.
Then, on Saturday, Sept. 20, Houston police responded to a different name alongside the Buffalo Bayou, round 901 N. York St. simply east of downtown. A person referred to as the police after coming throughout a physique whereas paddling down the bayou.
Authorities have been nonetheless investigating every of those circumstances as of Monday, and the Harris County medical expert has not but decided a explanation for demise in any of the 5 circumstances, together with McKissic’s. The medical expert’s workplace didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
Social media conspiracy
A spokesperson for HPD instructed Houston Public Media there isn’t any indication that deaths of any of the folks present in Houston-area bayous are linked and stated they’re awaiting the outcomes of the autopsies from the medical expert’s workplace.
That has not stopped some social media customers from speculating on the circumstances, together with some who cite misinformation and went so far as to invest a serial killer in Houston.
An Instagram publish from “Every day Rumble” falsely said that Houston police indicated McKissic’s demise was a results of foul play and attributed the killings to a serial killer. The video has greater than 4,000 likes because it was shared on Sunday.
After Houston Public Media reported on Friday that police don’t suspect foul play in McKissic’s demise, a number of Instagram customers questioned the veracity of HPD’s assertion.
“BS!!!” one person wrote. “One thing ain’t including up,” one other stated. One person in contrast McKissic’s demise to the demise of a Black college pupil in Mississippi who was discovered hanging from a tree, which officers dominated a suicide.
One other Instagram remark referred to as to consideration the deaths of a number of people pulled from Woman Fowl Lake in Austin, close to Rainey Avenue. The same social media following labeled the Austin deaths as the results of a serial killer. Earlier this month, a research from Texas State College evaluating such drownings over the course of twenty years discovered no proof of a serial killer.
Elevated requires security
Following McKissic’s demise, some advocates are calling for elevated security and safety protocols from the town in addition to the College of Houston, the place McKissic was a pupil.
“Clearly, you hear a pupil — similar to you — who died minutes away from campus, actually simply down the road, and persons are going to be outraged,” stated Mina Vuong, a UH senior and the president of Deeds Not Phrases, an advocacy group on the college. “Particularly due to the spree of crime from final semester that type of provoked the scholar security issues within the first place.”
On Thursday, following information affirmation of McKissic’s demise, Deeds Not Phrases shared an announcement on Instagram, criticizing college management and the college’s police division, alleging the college didn’t help McKissic’s family and friends within the wake of her disappearance. The group additionally alleged the college declined to make an announcement when she was first reported lacking.
When the college’s vice chairman for pupil affairs, Paul Kittle, shared an announcement with the campus group, he famous that McKissic’s demise occurred off-campus. Houston police stated she was final seen simply south of the college, across the 3700 block of North MacGregor Method. She was later discovered within the Brays Bayou, close to Texas Spur 5, which is subsequent to the UH Faculty of Drugs.
“Even when they do not have jurisdiction, it nonetheless issues that they are saying one thing a few pupil that has helped their college a lot, whether or not it was simply resharing her ‘lacking’ flier or bringing consciousness to it with their very own publish, or simply speaking about it typically,” Vuong stated.
As for bigger issues of security and safety across the bayous, these wouldn’t fall to the college. The Harris County Flood Management District has jurisdiction of the bayous themselves, whereas the paths that run alongside the bayous are managed by the Houston Parks Board.
Neither the flood management district nor parks board instantly responded to requests for remark Monday.
