Grave mystery: Officials seek answers after casket found buried on woman’s property in Crosby

CROSBY, Texas – It was a defining moment Tuesday morning when, using ground penetration radar, Texas EquuSearch uncovered the first hard evidence of something buried below the surface of the ground on a piece of land in Crosby that one woman purchased for her family.

Miriam Soza said what looked like a freshly dug grave in the 500 block of Barrett Road just appeared on her property last November.

She has always feared it was an unmarked grave that was dug by someone to hide someone else who either died naturally or was murdered.

“It looked like a grave, but it also looked like it was leftover dirt, like a pile of dirt, fresh mud, dirt,” Soza said.

Now, proof has been found that something big is buried there.

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“The size is right, the shape is right, the depth is right,” said Angelina Farris with Texas EquuSearch.

Not only does radar show something is buried below, but through the use of steel probes and two divining rods, investigators were able to determine the exact shape of what is buried. Investigators sprayed the mystery area with paint, and it turns out to look just like a coffin.

“They’re getting contact with some hard, hollow surface at about three feet deep,” said Sgt. Ben Beall with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office Homicide Unit. “That would be about right for a burial vault or perhaps a coffin in the ground, so we’re pretty confident we actually have a grave here.”

For Soza, at least there are finally some answers.

“It’s scary because right now, no one wants to be accountable for it,” she said.

Sheriff’s investigators are asking for whoever is responsible for burying someone or something on the land to come forward. If not, they will be forced to dig up the grave to try and determine if there is a deceased person in the casket, his or her identity, and what actually happened.

Sgt. Beall said in his nearly 45 years of police work, he has never had a mystery like this.

On Wednesday, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said while there is a cemetery adjacent to the site, a cemetery representative advised all plots in their cemetery were accounted for and the mound was not a misplaced grave.

“One possibility is that someone placed the item without authorization and without knowledge of loved ones,” Gonzalez said.

Anyone with information about this mystery is asked to call the HCSO Homicide Unit at 713-247-9100.