Investigators probe possible link between severed heads found in Houston and Louisiana

Sketch artist Lois Gibson has released a sketch of the woman whose head was found March 24 at Lake Houston. Sketch artist Lois Gibson has released a sketch of the woman whose head was found March 24 at Lake Houston. Photo: Courtesy Of Houston Police Department Homicide Division Photo: Courtesy Of Houston Police Department Homicide Division Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Investigators probe possible link between severed heads found in Houston and Louisiana 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Investigators are probing possible links between two macabre discoveries 150 miles apart, one on Lake Houston and the other near Calcasieu Lake in Louisiana, where the severed heads of two women were found in plastic bags near lakes and RV parks.

The unidentified victims, both white women with reddish hair and good teeth, are thought to be within the same age range and were found in similar surroundings about three weeks apart, investigators said.

In the Lake Houston case, two clean-up volunteers found a severed head in a large black plastic bag on March 24. They were working along FM 1960 East in Huffman and found the human head on rocks in a portion of the lake patrolled by the Houston Police Department. The Lake Houston Marina, an open access recreational vehicle park with residents and visitors alike, is adjacent to where the woman’s head was recovered.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences released an anthropological profile on April 5 that showed the Lake Houston victim was a woman between young adulthood and middle age, who was either white or Hispanic. She had reddish brown or auburn shoulder-length hair with 3 to 4 inches of “very” dark brown roots, and her eyebrows and eyelashes had either been permanently or semi-permanently tattooed, according to the ME’s profile.

Cameron Parish Sheriff’s Office investigator Jake McCain and HPD homicide investigator Michael Perez have acknowledged the similarities in the cases and victims, and agreed to keep each other updated on their respective findings.

The description of the remains found near Calcasieu Lake in Cameron Parish “sounds real similar" to the Lake Houston case, Perez said earlier this month in a text message to the Houston Chronicle. But he added he "can’t say much without actually meeting with detectives and seeing their crime scene photos.”

Perez noted that dental records could potentially help identify the Lake Houston woman because she had “really good teeth,” a condition that likely ruled out drug abuse.

Perez and his partner, Andrew Barr, released information about a person of interest on April 6.

The officers are looking for a man in his early to mid-20s who was seen about 2:30 to 3 p.m. throwing a black plastic bag off the bridge near where the head was found, two weeks prior to the discovery.

The man, described as having short dark brown hair with long bangs, was seen getting out of the front passenger side of a teal or a bluish green Chevrolet Silverado extended cab truck. He is about 5-foot-4 to 5-foot-8 tall and has light skin. The truck was rusted and appeared to have been in several wrecks. The back left passenger window was missing and was covered by what looked like cardboard.

While HPD has already released a description of a person and vehicle of interest, a forensic artist’s sketch and an anthropological profile, Cameron Parish is waiting on forensics from Louisiana State University’s forensics lab to determine more about the victim whose decomposition was more advanced. The analysis could take up to six months to complete, McCain said.

In the Cameron Parish case, a prison inmate doing clean-up labor found the severed head on March 1 in a small grocery bag in a grassy marsh next to Louisiana Highway 27, a couple of miles north of the Sabine National Wildlife Park headquarters. The site is about a mile south of a community of recreational vehicle parks in Hackberry, La., and less than a mile from Calcasieu Lake, whose tributaries appear to reach out to the marshes where the head was found.

Based on Louisiana state highway maintenance records, McCain said the last date the lawn was mowed in that spot was Nov. 30. Had the bag been there at the time, mowers would have probably noticed, he said.

Different agencies in Texas have contacted the Cameron Parish Sheriff’s Office to determine if the head belongs to a missing person they are investigating, but the dates fail to fit the timeline of this person, according to McCain.

Preliminary forensic analysis determined the victim in Cameron Parish to be white, between 25 and 40, with auburn or brown hair 10 to 12 inches long. The advanced stage of decomposition bars visually determining any facial features, according to the Cameron Parish Sheriff’s Office. She had no apparent trauma to her skull.

The condition of the teeth of the woman found in Cameron Parish was good, but were beginning to be affected from deterioration. McCain said X-rays determined the woman had undergone “obvious dental work” which included a couple of cavity fillings. He said the condition of her teeth made it unlikely she was a transient, but a missing person’s dental records would have to first be submitted for cross referencing to be done.

Cameron Parish has no persons who have been reported missing.

McCain said the medical examiner in neighboring Calcasieu Parish has determined the woman’s remains were not consistent with the profiles of any of about a half dozen people reported missing there.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

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