Port of Houston body belongs to man who disappeared in the Heights, medical examiner says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The search for 26-year-old Delano Burkes has come to an end after a body was found in the Port of Houston, nearly 15 miles from where he went missing.

On Monday, Houston police confirmed that a body was located in the Houston Ship Channel last Friday morning.

Burkes’ mother told ABC13 that she and other family members believe it belongs to their missing loved one, something the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office later confirmed.

The development puts an end to a nearly two-week search for Burkes, whom Texas EquuSearch said vanished while barhopping with friends in the Heights on Nov. 13.

Video shared by the family shows Burkes crossing the street shortly after leaving McIntyre’s bar near West 19th Street. He is stumbling. They said he looked in distress.

In a news conference on Nov. 22, Burkes’ mother, Karen Jeffley, said his friends that were out with him the night he disappeared, didn’t look for him and left with his car and headed home.

Other video captured him walking through the streets of the Heights after 1 a.m.

“We believe it’s something sinister that happened with him. He did not look like he had control of his legs. It did not look like he was going to make it very far,” Jeffley told Eyewitness News in a previous report.

HPD says homicide investigators have been assigned to the case as they await autopsy results on cause and manner of death.