Body found in Buffalo Bayou identified
One of the bodies found in the bayous over the summer has since been identified as a 34-year-old man from South Houston. FOX 26’s Angie Rodriguez spoke with the victim’s mother.
HOUSTON – One of the bodies found in the bayous over the summer has since been identified as a 34-year-old man from South Houston.Â
Body found in Houston bayou identified
What we know:
On June 11, Houston police were called to the 1300 block of Baker Street for a body in the water.
HPD confirms they sent a dive team to retrieve the body from Buffalo Bayou.Â
The body was later confirmed by the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office to be 34-year-old Salome Garza Jr.
What they’re saying:
Garza’s mother, Annisa Villareal, says Houston police never gave her a call to report her son’s death.Â
She says the Medical Examiner’s office called her to confirm her son was the body that was pulled out of the bayou in June.
“It’s hard. A lot of days are hard,” Villareal said.
She says she’s been calling the office to see if there’s been an update on the cause of death, but was told the toxicology report could take up to a year to complete.
“On the way home, I told my daughter like he was found in a bayou, but he knows how to swim,” Villareal said.
Villareal says that when she attempted to claim her son, the mortician didn’t allow her to see the body since it had been in the bayou for over a day, causing the ‘smell’ to be overpowering.
“He was very loving, very caring, giving what he had, we all had,” Villareal said. “He was, had some mental disability. He was full-blown schizophrenic and bipolar. But he did try to manage that every day.”
The only belongings of Garza that were returned to Villareal was over $100 in cash.
“I mean, he wasn’t robbed,” Villareal said. “We can’t say that he was robbed, because he had, you know, quite a bit of cash on him.”
Villareal says she just wants to know what happened to her son.
“As a parent, I hope it wasn’t suicide. You know, as a parent, I hope it wasn’t murder,” Villareal said. “Could it have been his mental illness? I don’t know. I mean, I won’t know until, you know, it’s looked into. I mean, I think there’s a way that they can eliminate this by expediting the toxicology reports for these families. Because you cannot be told that your son has passed away. It’s unknown. And you won’t know for a year because the medical examiner’s office is backlogged for a year.”
The other side:
Mayor Whitmire spoke with Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz at a prior press conference regarding the over a dozen bodies that have been found in Houston’s bayous so far this year.
The Source: Houston Police, Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office and Garza’s mother.