Body found less than 2 miles away from search for missing Houston tattoo artist
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A body was reportedly found less than two miles away from the scene of a search for a missing Houston tattoo artist, according to detectives with the Houston Police Department.
Around 1 p.m. on Saturday, a neighbor called police to report a strong odor in the 11700 block of Teaneck Drive, around the same area crews were searching for 29-year-old Julian Issac.
The neighbor told authorities that they originally thought the smell was from a dead animal, but later told police they saw a person's body.
Officials with Houston Homicide Division and Missing Persons Division were called to the scene where they confirmed finding the body.
Det. Kyle Heaverlo said a kidnapping was reported in that same neighborhood this past Tuesday.
Heaverlo said officers found several items belonging to the person who was reportedly kidnapped in that area.
After three days of search efforts for the missing person, Heaverlo said he and other officials determined that the person was indeed missing. However, evidence and surveillance video suggested he was not taken against his will or "forcefully removed."
The body's identity wasn't immediately confirmed and police did not immediately say foul play was involved. They added they will treat the case as suspicious.
Heaverlo, though, said they're "pretty certain" the body belongs to Issac based on clothing he was wearing when he was last seen.
On Saturday, Texas EquuSearch joined the effort to find Issac who was last seen on June 15.
The group began an active search for Issac who disappeared after visiting his girlfriend in southeast Houston.
He took an Uber to visit his girlfriend in the Sagemont area around I-45 S and the Beltway, said his brother, William. He was last spotted in the 11700 block of Teaneck Drive.
Texas EquuSearch volunteers fanned out in the area of Teaneck after staging at Burnett Elementary School. Searchers on foot and on ATVs were part of the initiative.
Before he disappeared, Issac reportedly called his mother and William saying that he was being chased and that he was going to get killed.
Police told family members that a neighbor's surveillance video shows Issac's hat and phone in a yard, his brother said.
Issac is a tattoo artist at Red Eye Gallery Tattoo Studio near downtown Houston.
He was wearing a black T-shirt, black jeans and combat boots.
