HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – Officials said a person’s body was found inside a vehicle that was submerged under water in east Harris County on Tuesday.
According to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, a deputy was flagged down around 4 p.m. about a vehicle submerged in a waterway underneath the East Freeway in the Channelview area.
@HCSOTexas unit was flagged down at Brookshire/East Freeway, regarding a vehicle submerged in water. The body of a deceased person was found inside the vehicle. The vehicle is possibly linked to a missing person’s case. #HouNews pic.twitter.com/JyHlgmRZUP
— Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) January 10, 2024
Gonzalez said the vehicle was almost completely submerged and appeared to have been there for some time. He said deputies worked to retrieve the vehicle from the water and when they did, they found a body inside.
“Many times it’s not uncommon to locate vehicles, it basically ends up being a recovery, stolen or something like that, but in this case once they were able to retrieve the vehicle, they noticed that there was a deceased body inside the vehicle,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said the body appeared to be that of an adult, but because of its condition, it is impossible to tell if it is a man or woman at this time. Authorities will be working to try and make a positive identification.
Gonzalez said the vehicle the body was in is also linked to a possible missing person case from the Houston Police Department. He said he can’t share more details on that because it is not the sheriff’s office’s case and because family members have not yet been contacted.
“We don’t know if the person inside the vehicle is the person that may have been reported missing, that will be part of the follow-up investigation,” Gonzalez said. ““It’s my understanding that it is not a recent missing person case, so it could be that it has been there for a while.”