Inset, left to right: December M. Mitchell and Jonathan J. Mitchell (Johnson County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The home where authorities say the Mitchell’s buried the body of 26-year-old Jonathan Kinman (Google Maps).
Authorities have arrested the parents of a 26-year-old man with special needs in Texas after discovering his body buried in a shallow backyard grave. Jonathan James Mitchell and December Marie Mitchell face charges of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence to impair a human corpse, according to officials, in connection with the death of their son, Jonathan Kinman.
The Burleson Police Department issued a statement on Monday detailing the case. Officers were called to a home on the 400 block of White Oak Lane, situated roughly 40 miles southwest of Dallas, on October 14. The police were responding to a welfare check request concerning Kinman, who resided with his parents.
During the welfare check, authorities received information suggesting that Kinman might have died and was potentially buried in the property’s backyard.
On October 15, with assistance from the Texas Rangers, police executed a search warrant at the Mitchells’ residence. During the search, they uncovered a shallow grave and subsequently exhumed human remains, later confirmed to be Kinman.
The body was sent to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, where an autopsy was performed on October 16.
As of now, the autopsy results are still pending, and the official cause of death has yet to be determined, according to the police release.
December and Jonathan Mitchell were taken to the Johnson County Jail for processing. They are currently being held in detention on bonds of $250,000 each, records show. It was not immediately clear when they were scheduled to appear in court.
Police declined to provide Law&Crime with any additional details about the case, stating that the city had determined that such information dealt with “the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime,” and the release of such records “would interfere with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of an open or pending criminal matter.”
