Looters stole from Houston home with dead woman inside

Thieves looted a flooded Houston home last week while the 89-year-old homeowner’s dead body was still floating inside.   

Agnes Stanley drowned on Sunday when floodwaters rose inside her home in the Houston neighborhood of Meyerland.

The elderly woman was found by a neighbor floating in about four feet of water after she insisted on riding out the hurricane in her home.

The Houston Police Department say Stanley’s home was one of three on her street targeted by looters before the coroner could arrive and get into the property to retrieve her body.

Her neighbor Michele Poche was the one to find Stanley floating in the floodwaters, KTRK-TV reports.

She said she called Stanley’s son the morning of August 27 to get permission to break into her home to check on her. 

‘We saw that she was under the water and we backed out and called 911,’ Poche said. 

Police say Stanley’s home was one of many in the Meyerland neighborhood (above) targeted by looters before the coroner could arrive and get into the property to retrieve her body

Miguel Moncado, of Oxford Contractors, guts a flood-damaged home in the Meyerland neighborhood in Houston

‘We think that the water got too high and she may have drowned.’ 

Poche also confirmed Stanley’s home had been broken into. 

‘She was still in there,’ Poche said. ‘The coroner was not able to get in until Thursday to pick her body up. Yeah, they broke into her house and stole stuff, too.’ 

Officials now blame at least 60 deaths on Harvey after it dumped several feet of rain on southeast Texas in a matter of days.

Many of those deaths confirmed in 11 Texas counties happened when people were caught in quickly rising floodwaters or lost control on water-logged roads, emergency management officials said.  

Some Houston homeowners have put up signs warning they will shoot looters. Above, one such sign in Humble, Texas on Friday