Houston Family Challenges Mayor’s Dismissal of Bayou Deaths as ‘Gaslighting’ Amid Serial Killer Rumors

The family of 22-year-old Kenneth Cutting Jr. is demanding answers from Houston city leaders after his body was found in Buffalo Bayou in June, one of several recovered from the city’s waterways this year, as reported by Fox News.

Officials have downplayed talk of a possible serial killer, but relatives say Mayor John Whitmire’s explanations don’t add up.

Cutting vanished after a night out in downtown Houston on June 28, 2024. Surveillance footage showed him leaving Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar around 11:45 p.m., borrowing a stranger’s phone to call his own lost one, and then walking away while shouting at one of his companions.

His father said Cutting later rejoined the group, which was driving east on Interstate 10 — the opposite direction from their home in Katy.

According to the family, his roommates told them he became agitated and demanded to get out of the car in a rough part of Houston. Days later, on July 1, police recovered his body about a mile and a half upstream from where he was last seen. He was identified through fingerprints.

The autopsy, performed by Dr. Edward Kilbane, listed both the cause and manner of death as undetermined. The report found no external injuries and no drugs or alcohol in Cutting’s system.

“This 22-year-old male, whose decomposing remains were recovered from a bayou, showed no apparent traumatic injuries, no serious natural disease and no commonly abused drugs in his tissues,” Kilbane wrote.

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Cutting’s father, Kenneth Cutting Sr., said his son “didn’t fall into the bayou and drown,” adding that he was a capable swimmer. “Something happened to my son,” he told Fox News Digital.

The case has drawn attention amid a growing number of similar incidents. At least 16 bodies have been pulled from Houston’s bayous in 2025, according to police data.

⚠️ WARNING: This post contains graphic descriptions of the discovery of human remains.

Fears of a serial killer are growing in Houston after 16 bodies have been pulled from the city’s bayous since January, but the mayor is insisting there is no evidence the deaths are connected.… pic.twitter.com/bAumhaZsaW

— True Crime Updates (@TrueCrimeUpdat) October 11, 2025

Mayor Whitmire dismissed speculation of a serial killer during a news briefing last month, describing the deaths as “not a new phenomenon” and attributing many to “drugs, alcohol and homelessness.”

“Unfortunately the homeless, when they pass, often end up in the bayou,” Whitmire said.

Cutting’s cousin, Lauren Freeman, called the mayor’s remarks “gaslighting” and said they fail to explain the consistent pattern of young, otherwise healthy individuals found dead in similar conditions.

“All them people didn’t commit suicide or fall into the bayou accidentally and drown,” said Cutting Sr. “It’s ridiculous. There’s been so many of ’em in the last three years.”

Freeman also cited the case of 20-year-old University of Houston student Jade McKissic, who disappeared after leaving a bar on September 11 and was later found dead in Brays Bayou. Like Cutting, McKissic’s autopsy revealed no external injuries and no drugs.

Retired NYPD sergeant and Penn State professor Joseph Giacalone, who has followed the Houston cases, said each incident requires independent investigation.

“It may be a domestic issue, it also could be a suicide, but the homeless people have nothing to do with it,” he said. “So it was a reckless statement at best.”

The Cutting family continues to press for answers. “Maybe somebody from that bar that night heard or saw something that they would like to come forward with now,” Giacalone added. “You treat it like a homicide until proven otherwise.”

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