photo courtesy of ABC13
According to Fox 26, the body of a missing Houston man, 26-year-old Delano Burkes, was found floating in the water early Friday morning.
On November 25, tugboat employees discovered Burkes in the Houston Ship Channel. Medical examiners confirmed the identity of the decomposed body.
After the discovery, Texas representative Sheila Jackson Lee told the outlet,
“I want to thank the layers of police, with HPD as a lead, that began this investigation as a missing person’s investigation. They’re still pursuing it, but as this individual has not been determined to have died of natural causes, then it is likely a homicide. That means the person did not die by natural causes.”She affirmed that the finding of Burkes’ body didn’t mean the end of the investigation.
“There may be a lot of information that could help this family have closure and comfort during this difficult time.”
Lee asked for the community’s help in the next steps, “We want to ask people to continue to help us find out what happened to Delano Burkes.”
Burkes was last seen alive, stumbling out of a bar on surveillance footage in the nearby area two weeks ago, not too far from where his body was found. As of now, foul play is suspected, but no new information about the medical examiner’s discoveries has been made public.