{"id":14950,"date":"2025-10-22T02:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T02:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/14950\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T02:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T02:00:09","slug":"texas-couple-charged-after-body-of-special-needs-son-found-buried-in-backyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/14950\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas couple charged after body of special needs son found buried in backyard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/southwest\/texas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Texas couple<\/a> was arrested after investigators found the body of their adult special needs son buried in their backyard, according to investigators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The remains of Jonathan Kinman, 26, were found when police conducted a welfare check at 433 White Oak Lane in Burleson, according to a social media post from Burleson Police.<\/p>\n<p>Kinman&#8217;s mother, December Mitchell, and stepfather, Jonathan Mitchell, were charged with tampering with and fabricating physical evidence to impair a human corpse, which is a second-degree felony. The pair could face additional charges pending an autopsy report and the outcome of the investigation. The two are each being held on a $250,000 bond.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/texas-mom-40-under-40-list-arrested-leaving-baby-florida-beach\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TEXAS MOM ON &#8217;40 UNDER 40&#8242; LIST ARRESTED FOR LEAVING BABY ON FLORIDA BEACH<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/texas-couple-charged-adult-special-needs-son-buried-backyard.png\" alt=\"December Mitchell and Jonathan Mitchell\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>December Mitchell and Jonathan Mitchell were charged with tampering with and fabricating physical evidence to impair a human corpse. (Johnson County Jail)<\/p>\n<p>On Oct. 14, police responded to the home for a welfare check for Kinman, who lived with his mother and stepfather.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Police Chief Doug Sandifer said an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/crime\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">investigation was launched<\/a> after a friend of the family reported seeing a confusing Facebook post from the couple mourning the death of Kinman, according to Fox 4.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators became suspicious after the couple acknowledged Kinman&#8217;s death but would only give vague information about how he passed, Sandifer said, the outlet noted.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/texas-teens-arrested-killing-marine-veteran-working-rideshare-driver\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TEXAS TEENS ARRESTED IN KILLING OF MARINE VETERAN WORKING AS RIDESHARE DRIVER<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/texas-couple-arrested-special-needs-son-discovered-buried-backyard.png\" alt=\"Burleson Police car\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Investigators became suspicious after the couple acknowledged Jonathan Kinman&#8217;s death but would only give vague information about how he passed. (Burleson Police)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The first information was she said he was taken to Hugeley Hospital and pronounced there. We followed up with that and that was not correct,&#8221; Sandifer said. &#8220;The conflicting information definitely led us to believe that something was not as it should be.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On Oct. 15, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/crime\/police-and-law-enforcement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">police officers<\/a> returned along with the Texas Rangers and discovered a shallow grave in the backyard.<\/p>\n<p>Kinman\u2019s body was exhumed and transported to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office, where an autopsy was performed. The autopsy results are still pending, and a cause of death has not yet been determined.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/texas-couple-charged-special-needs-son-discovered-buried-backyard.png\" alt=\"Burleson Police sign\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>The autopsy results are still pending, and a cause of death has not yet been determined. (Burleson Police)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/apps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It also remains unclear when Kinman died.<\/p>\n<p>Police said at no point during the investigation did they believe there was any threat to the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A Texas couple was arrested after investigators found the body&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6435,32,27,29,28,393],"class_list":["post-14950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-crime-world","tag-police-and-law-enforcement","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}