Houston – A victim whose sex crime case was suspended by Houston police has died by suicide.
That admission came from HPD Chief Troy Finner after being questioned about the death by KPRC 2 Investigates reporter Mario Diaz.
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Diaz asked Finner if he knew if any victims of sexual assault cases or domestic violence cases were now deceased.
“I was made aware of, of one victim. And, we’re looking into that. That’s part of it. And it’s unfortunate,” Finner said, adding that the person died by suicide and his department is investigating to find out more.
Finner said he just found this out in the last few days as his department worked to find and interview victims. About 100 officers went knocking on doors, looking for people who didn’t answer phone calls or texts. That’s when they discovered one of the victims had taken their own life. Finner said he doesn’t know at this point if the suicide was “because we properly or improperly didn’t do something.” The Chief didn’t give any more information about the case or the victim.
More than 200,000 criminal cases were essentially abandoned when officers coded those cases as suspended due to a lack of personnel. Finner said he ordered his department to stop coding cases like that back in November of 2021 and now he’s investigating why that directive wasn’t followed. Two high-ranking officers have since been demoted.
Finner also said the department is giving sex crime and violent crime cases high priority and his officers so far have reviewed 3,010 of the 4,017 suspended adult sex crime reports. They’ve also set up more than 130 interviews with people they’ve contacted.
Finner asked the community for help locating victims of sex crime cases whose contact information may have changed since they filed a report. If you are a victim who filed a report after 2016 and you’ve moved or changed phone numbers, you can email HPD at specialvictimsreport@houstonpolice.org or call them at 713-308-1180.