Hitchcock police are investigating what they're calling suspicious circumstances after a woman's body was discovered inside a home on North Railroad Avenue that had burned down over the weekend. Officers were called to the house near Highway 6 just after midnight Wednesday to check on an unresponsive woman, and what they found has launched a death investigation that now includes help from county investigators.
Body Found Days After the Fire, Not During It
According to ABC13 Houston, officers went to the home on North Railroad Avenue, near Highway 6, just after midnight Wednesday regarding a call about an unresponsive woman. The outlet reports that the home at that location had burned down over the weekend, days before the woman's body turned up there.
Perhaps the most unsettling detail to emerge so far: investigators say a search conducted after the fire found no indication the woman's body was present when the blaze occurred. That leaves the question of how and when her body ended up there afterward. The report does not offer an answer to that question, and no cause or manner of death has been disclosed.
Galveston County Sheriff's Office Called In to Assist
Hitchcock police said the circumstances surrounding the woman's death are suspicious, and the same report notes that a thorough investigation is being conducted with help from the Galveston County Sheriff's Office. No further details have been released about her identity, the cause of the fire, or whether anyone is considered a suspect.
Cases where a body is discovered in connection with a house fire — but under circumstances that don't line up with the blaze itself — aren't unheard of in the Houston area. ABC13 Houston previously reported on a case in which an 88-year-old's body was found away from home days after a house fire in Richmond, and another in which a woman's death was investigated after a house fire on Dulcrest Street on Houston's south side. Those are separate incidents involving house fires.
For now, Hitchcock police have not released additional information about the woman or the circumstances that led investigators to label her death suspicious. Hoodline will update this story as more details become available from police or the Galveston County Sheriff's Office.
