HOUSTON — The Houston Office of Emergency Management confirmed first responders found two people dead in separate locations on Wednesday.
The medical examiner’s office will ultimately determine if they died because of the freezing temperatures, but family members of one of the individuals said they believe they already know.
A Silver Alert was issued over the weekend for southeast Houston resident Gary Bishop, 70, who went missing on Saturday. Bishop was diagnosed with dementia about five years ago and later, several forms of cancer
His body was found Wednesday morning at a vacant Methodist church on Dixie Drive.
Bishop’s widow, Josephine Bishop, said she wished her husband had been found sooner.
“He loved his cheeseburgers,” Josephine Bishop said. “And pancakes.”
Josephine Bishop sifted through old photographs Wednesday night, remembering happier times with Gary.
“He was tired of going to the doctor,” she said. “There were times when he would give me a hard time and say, ‘No, I’m not going.’ So, I would have to bribe him. I’d say, ‘You want a hamburger?’
The last part of Gary and Josephine’s 50-year relationship had been tough.
During his illnesses, Gary Bishop’s weight had dropped to just over one hundred pounds.
“Every time the weather changed, his mood changed,” Josephine Bishop said. “Like when it would rain, he would get moody. Wouldn’t you say? Feisty. He would get agitated. So I guess with this weather coming he was fidgety, didn’t want to stay in.”
Josephine said her husband wanted to go outside on Saturday night. He rarely left the front yard and never walked more than a couple of blocks from their home.
“At midnight he didn’t come, so I thought I’d drive around trying to find him,” Josephine said. “Nothing.”
She started looking for him again at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, then ultimately called the police, who issued the alert.
“On Monday I drove around for 10 hours,” she said.
Josephine and her family looked everywhere for the husband and father of three as the winter snowstorm began to arrive.
“Because the officer said they were picking up homeless people and people on the street and taking them to warming centers,” she said.
Josephine finally had to stop once the snowstorm made driving impossible.
Not long after the sun came up Wednesday morning, she was heading to her car to resume the search for Gary. That’s when she got the call from a detective.
Gary Bishop’s body had been found inside a vacant Methodist church and was likely a victim of the freeze.
“It was a man who went in the church to get out of the cold who found him,” Josephine said. “He reported it. It was a homeless guy.”
Josephine said she regrets that she didn’t get a chance to tell Gary goodbye. But the reality, she said, is that she’s been saying goodbye to her husband for a long time.