{"id":15142,"date":"2025-10-22T04:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T04:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/15142\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T04:12:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T04:12:13","slug":"texas-couple-arrested-after-body-of-special-needs-son-26-discovered-buried-in-backyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/15142\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas couple arrested after body of special needs son, 26, discovered buried in backyard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/southwest\/texas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Texas couple;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">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=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/texas-mom-40-under-40-list-arrested-leaving-baby-florida-beach\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Texas Mom On &#039;40 Under 40&#039; List Arrested For Leaving Baby On Florida Beach;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Texas Mom On &#8217;40 Under 40&#8242; List Arrested For Leaving Baby On Florida Beach<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"December Mitchell and Jonathan Mitchell\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"598\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/e939c2458a36ceb99cae2b748d76561a.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>December Mitchell and Jonathan Mitchell were charged with tampering with and fabricating physical evidence to impair a human corpse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Oct. 14, police responded to the home for a welfare check for Kinman, who lived with his mother and stepfather.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Deputy Police Chief Doug Sandifer said an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/crime\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:investigation was launched;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS\/mvaj7wvj\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Read On The Fox News App;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Read On The Fox News App<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/texas-teens-arrested-killing-marine-veteran-working-rideshare-driver\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Texas Teens Arrested In Killing Of Marine Veteran Working As Rideshare Driver;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Texas Teens Arrested In Killing Of Marine Veteran Working As Rideshare Driver<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Burleson Police car\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/e6785a027b99ecfe9f99c1ce8a4bfee0.jpeg\"\/><\/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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#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 class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Oct. 15, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/crime\/police-and-law-enforcement\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:police officers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">police officers<\/a> returned along with the Texas Rangers and discovered a shallow grave in the backyard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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 alt=\"Burleson Police sign\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"598\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/085459804e6336740c14a68d1099be2c.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The autopsy results are still pending, and a cause of death has not yet been determined.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It also remains unclear when Kinman died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police said at no point during the investigation did they believe there was any threat to the community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Original article source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/texas-couple-arrested-after-body-special-needs-son-26-discovered-buried-backyard\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Texas couple arrested after body of special needs son, 26, discovered buried in backyard;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Texas couple arrested after body of special needs son, 26, discovered buried in backyard<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Texas couple was arrested after investigators found the body of their adult special needs son buried in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12206,12209,12207,12208,100,12204,12203,8696,27,12210,29,28,12205],"class_list":["post-15142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-burleson-police","tag-chief-doug-sandifer","tag-december-mitchell","tag-human-corpse","tag-investigation","tag-jonathan-kinman","tag-jonathan-mitchell","tag-special-needs","tag-texas","tag-texas-couple","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-welfare-check"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15142","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=15142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}