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).
The parents of a Texas man with special needs have been arrested after authorities say they found the 26-year-old son’s body buried in a “shallow grave” in the family’s backyard. Jonathan James Mitchell and December Marie Mitchell were taken into custody last week and charged with one count each of tampering or fabricating physical evidence with the intent to impair a human corpse in the death of their son, Jonathan Kinman, authorities announced.
According to a Monday news release from the Burleson Police Department, officers on Tuesday, Oct. 14, responded to a request for a welfare check at a residence in the 400 block of White Oak Lane, which is about 40 miles southwest of Dallas. Police said the caller had asked police to check on Kinman, who lived in the home with his parents.
During the welfare check, police said “information was shared” that led them to believe Kinman “might be deceased” and could be “buried in the backyard of the residence.”
The following morning, Wednesday, Oct. 15, police were assisted by agents with the Texas Rangers in executing a search warrant on the Mitchells’ property. Authorities said they “located a shallow grave in the backyard.” They exhumed the human remains from the grave and were able to identify the body as Kinman.
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The body was transported to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, where an autopsy was conducted on Thursday, Oct. 16, police said.
“The autopsy results are still pending, and a cause of death has not yet been determined,” the release states.
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.”
