A man's body was discovered Tuesday morning just south of downtown San Antonio, near the intersection of I-10 and Probandt Street, and investigators say it may have washed down from the severe storms that battered the city over the weekend. Police were called to the scene around 10:45 a.m. after officers found the man obviously deceased, with signs indicating he had been there for some time.
According to WOAI News 4 San Antonio, police have not released the man's identity, and homicide detectives are still investigating the circumstances of his death. Officers have not said they suspect foul play. Police believe the body may have been carried by weekend storm runoff, though that determination has not been finalized.
A Storm That Already Claimed Lives Downtown
The discovery comes just days after a severe thunderstorm system tore through San Antonio on the night of Friday, August 28, unleashing downburst winds of 60 to 77 mph and more than 2 inches of rain in a short span. The storm knocked out power to over 100,000 customers and toppled roughly 500 power lines, according to MySA. The same weather event triggered flash flooding across the city's urban drainage basins.
That storm already produced confirmed fatalities. The San Antonio Express-News reported that 46-year-old Jenifer Leigh Hillard accidentally drowned after being swept into high water alongside her husband in the 500 block of Quincy Street near I-35 during the August 28 storm. A second storm-related victim, a man in his 50s, was recovered from Woodlawn Lake on August 30, per the same account.
Why San Antonio's Creeks Turn Deadly So Fast
Bexar County sits within what the San Antonio River Authority calls “Flash Flood Alley,” one of the most flash-flood-prone regions in North America. The area's combination of the Balcones Escarpment, shallow soils, and dense urban concrete cover can multiply stormwater runoff by as much as six times over natural terrain, the river authority notes. That geography channels floodwater rapidly into low-lying creeks and drainage corridors, including the stretch near I-10 and Probandt Street, which sits within the San Antonio River basin.
This isn't the first time San Antonio has grappled with a body surfacing after a storm. Hoodline previously reported on a similar case from May 1, 2026, when firefighters and police pulled a man's body from San Pedro Creek near Furnish Avenue and South San Marcos after heavy thunderstorms caused flash flooding downtown, with first responders launching a high-water rescue after bystanders spotted the victim in raging water, according to KSAT. A January 2024 case near flooded San Pedro Creek followed a similar pattern.
Legal Process Now in Motion
Under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 49.25, the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office is required to conduct a formal inquest into any unattended, sudden, or unnatural death, as well as any case involving an unidentified body or a body found in water. That mandate means an autopsy and toxicology analysis will be conducted to establish the man's legal cause and manner of death, regardless of whether investigators ultimately tie his death to the storm.
It remains an open question whether the medical examiner's office will formally link this case to the confirmed storm drownings from August 28 and 29 once identification and toxicology results come back. The area has seen unattended body discoveries before: in November 2024, San Antonio police investigated after a heavily decomposed body was found in a grassy area near the San Antonio River in the 1900 block of Probandt Street near Concepción Park, a case that led the medical examiner's office to later issue a public appeal seeking help identifying the decedent, according to KENS 5.
A Corridor Already in the News
The stretch of Probandt Street has drawn other headlines this year. Earlier in August, San Antonio police investigated an ambush shooting in the 800 block of Probandt Street that left a 25-year-old female passenger critically injured, a case Hoodline covered at the time. Separately, developer Southstar announced plans this same month to fund infrastructure improvements along nearby Lone Star Boulevard from Probandt Street to Roosevelt Park, part of the ongoing redevelopment of the 32-acre former Lone Star Brewery site that had sat abandoned since 1996, as detailed in Hoodline's prior coverage.
For now, the man's identity remains unknown, and homicide detectives continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death. No further details have been released about the timeline of his death or how long his body may have been at the site before officers arrived Tuesday morning.
