Dem. mayor accused of ‘gaslighting’ entire city after dismissing claims serial killer is behind dozens of bodies pulled from bayous

The family of a man found dead in the Houston bayous has accused the city’s mayor of ‘gaslighting’ after the Democrat dismissed almost 50 bodies pulled from the waters in 21 months as a symptom of ‘homelessness’.

Mayor John Whitmire rejected growing fears of a serial killer dumping bodies in the Texas waterways after dozens were found dead over the past two years.

One death that has baffled investigators is Kenneth Cutting Jr, 22, who disappeared after a night out in downtown Houston in June 2024.

Cousin Lauren Freedman said his body was found by police in the Buffalo Bayou a few days later, about a mile and a half upstream from where his roommates last saw him alive.

The cause and manner of the young man’s death were undetermined by the autopsy which found no traces of physical injury or drug use.

Cutting is just one of dozens of people that have been found dead in Houston’s waterways over the past few years.

So far in 2025, police have confirmed 16 were pulled from the city’s bayous, but records from the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences indicate that number is even higher, at 24.

Six of those bodies were found over the course of just two weeks in September.

Police have also confirmed that throughout 2024, there was a total of 24 bodies recovered from the waterways.

All of these deaths have caused Houston residents to speculate that there may be a serial killer on the loose, but mayor Whitmire has publicly disputed those fears.

Kenneth Cutting Jr, 22, disappeared after a night out in downtown Houston in June 2024 and his body was discovered in the Houston bayous

He said drownings in the bayous are ‘not a new phenomenon’ and blamed homelessness, drugs and alcohol for the frequency of waterway deaths.

‘We have homeless living underneath the bridges,’ Whitmire said at a news conference about the bodies in September.

‘What do you think happens when a homeless person dies from an illness, diabetes or cancer? What do you think his friends and associates do? They do not take him to a funeral home. Unfortunately, the homeless, when they pass, often end up in the bayou.’

But Cutting’s family is not buying that explanation. His cousin, Freeman, called the dismissal ‘gaslighting,’ and his father, Kenneth Cutting Sr, told Fox News Digital: ‘All them people didn’t commit suicide or fall into the bayou accidentally and drown. It’s ridiculous. There’s been so many of them in the last three years.’

The father also said, ‘something happened to my son,’ and he rejected the idea that Cutting Jr fell into the bayous and drowned.

Freeman has asserted that her cousin was not homeless or using drugs, and she pointed out similarities between his case and that of Jade McKissic, a 20-year-old University of Houston student who was also found dead in the bayous.

Both McKissic and Cutting had left a bar by themselves the last night they were seen alive, and both did not have their phones on them.

McKissic’s autopsy also showed no signs of physical trauma, and she was discovered about 2.5 miles from where she was last seen.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire has dismissed community fears that a serial killer may be responsible for many of the bodies being pulled from the city’s waterways

Since the start of 2024, at least 48 bodies have been pulled from Houston’s bayous (stock image)

Surveillance video showed Cutting leaving Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar in downtown Houston on June 28, 2024. He could be seen borrowing another person’s phone to try and call his own, which his family said he had lost.

A few minutes later he walked away angrily, yelling ‘f**k off!’ to one of his friends. He eventually rejoined the group, and they got in a car to drive down Interstate 10.

Cutting Sr said he received a text around 2am from one of his son’s friends saying that Jr had gotten too drunk and ‘gone berserk,’ picking verbal and physical fights and eventually demanding to get out of the car in a rough neighborhood.

The father said he did not see the text until 8am when he woke up. That morning, he went to see Cutting’s roommates and filed a missing persons report. The young man was found dead three days later.

Cutting Sr said his son was only wearing pants, underwear, a belt and a single earring when he was found. The 22 year old’s shoes, shirt, other earring and Apple Watch were all missing.

The father said Police told him the death was an accidental drowning, but he disagreed, saying: ‘First of all, he knew how to swim. Second of all, he shouldn’t have been nowhere near that bayou.’

Cutting Sr also pointed out that his son did not look black-out drunk in the surveillance video and highlighted the fact that the toxicology report came back negative.

Dr. Edward Kilbane, who performed the autopsy, said Cutting’s decomposing remains showed no signs of physical trauma, disease or ‘commonly abused’ drugs in his system.

Kenneth Cutting Sr has vehemently disagreed with the official narrative that his son’s death was accidental

The autopsy for Cutting Jr found no drugs in his system or signs of physical trauma, but he was discovered with missing articles of clothing and jewelry and ‘orthopedic hardware’ in his neck

The doctor did make a peculiar discovery of ‘orthopedic hardware’ in Cutting’s neck, which family members said they did not know why that would be there. Cutting also had ‘food particles’ in his esaphogus but an empty stomach.

Cutting Sr said: ‘This is on my mind every day, you know. What would help is some closure, finding out exactly what happened to my son.’

The family is imploring Houston officials to reopen the case and continue investigating.

Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and professor of criminal justic at Penn State, said police are responsible for investigating each case seperately, even if a serial killer is responsible.

He also said there is definitely something going on beyond homeless people falling into the bayous.

‘It may be a domestic issue, it also could be a suicide, but the homeless people have nothing to do with it,’ Giacalone said, adding that the mayor’s explanation, ‘was a reckless statement at best.’

Medical examiner records are available for 22 out of the 24 bodies pulled from the bayous this year, and the information shows a range of demographics.

The ages were mixed, with one in their teens, four in their 20s, seven in their 30s, two in their 40s, three in their 50s, four in their 60s and one listed with an age of zero. It is unclear if that number is a placeholder or an indication that the age was below one.

Cutting was found in the Buffalo Bayou (pictured), which is one of Houston’s many bayous which stretch for miles throughout the city (stock image)

Out of the 22 bodies, 13 were Black, five were white and three were Hispanic. One of the bodies does not have an ethnicity listed.

Only three of the dead were women and 19 were men.

Officials have identified the cause of death for seven of the bodies, all but two of which involve drowning, either as the sole cause or combined with other factors such as drug use and overdose.

One of the deaths was ruled a suicide and another was ruled as sudden cardiac arrest.

Nine cases have a pending cause of death, and eight have been officially labeled ‘undetermined,’ which means the causes of death were ‘impossible to establish, with reasonable medical certainty,’ according to the county’s forensic sciences institute.