Volunteers find human head while cleaning up Lake Houston

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Along the banks of Lake Houston, volunteers with Texas Adaptive Aquatics, a charitable organization that helps children who are disabled to learn water sports, were out cleaning up. It was all part of the annual River, Lakes, Bays 'N Bayous Trash Bash.

"Had 300 volunteers come out to volunteer and one of them found a gun this morning and then about 20 minutes later, someone found a head, a human head," says Roger Randall with Texas Adaptive Aquatics.

A woman and her daughter found the head while cleaning up and say they believe it was that of a young female with red hair. A Houston Police Department detective has since identified the head as that of a woman between the ages of 20 and 40 who was white or Hispanic.The head had decomposed for at least one week.

"It was a young lady, her and her mom were out helping cleanup and she was picking the trash and found a bag, a plastic bag and it was pretty heavy and she picked it up and found that it was a human head with hair," adds Randall.

Homicide detectives were unable to confirm the age, sex or ethnicity of the head but did canvas the lake by ground and by boat to find any other evidence. They also say whether or not the gun is related to the case is under investigation.

"I'm here, we'll work with medical examiner's office to identify the remains and who they belong to and then we will go with our missing persons database and go that route of missing persons in the area," says Andrew Barr, detective with the Houston Police Department homicide division.