Searchers return to chicken coop scene where body was found

HOUSTON – The sound of a jackhammer filled Mohawk Lane in northeast Harris County Wednesday as searchers used a jackhammer to break up concrete at the same location where a man's body was found earlier this month.

Texas EquuSearch volunteers then used a backhoe, shovels and ground penetrating radar to search underground.

Harris County Sheriff's deputies would only say that they were checking out a "tip."  But a source told Local 2 that the searchers were looking for possible human remains.

A sheriff's supervisor on scene told Local 2 that no human remains had been found by mid-afternoon Wednesday.

"This was a shock that it happened right here in my own neighborhood," said Adrian Gomez.

Earlier, he said he shared his home surveillance video with investigators.  It could show who drove down this one-way street.

Gomez told Local 2, "I never expected it to be here. You hear it all over town. Just shocking."

The property searched Wednesday was the same address in the 5200 block of Mohawk where the body of Jesus Leal Valdez was found earlier this month.  His body was wrapped in plastic and buried in a shallow grave beneath a chicken coop.

Valdez, 41, disappeared after he tried to sell a car on New Year's Eve.  Three people are accused of killing him.