HOUSTON – A car with two bodies inside sat in a strip mall parking lot for four days before anyone noticed it.

Relatives say the victims were two cousins, Joseph Bivins, Jr., 19, and DeAndrea Goodson, 23, reported missing early this week.

The family told 11 News the car belongs to Bivins.  

HPD said a passerby reported the suspicious car, which was parked at a shopping center along I-45 and Fuqua in far southeast Houston.           

When officers arrived at the scene, they found a young African-American man dead in the back seat. 

Then homicide investigators arrived and searched the car, finding a second young African-American man dead in the trunk.  

11 News

Police found two bodies in this car Friday. The car belongs to a man who was reported missing on Tuesday.

What happened to the young men remains a mystery.

Both bodies were decomposed, a spokesman from the medical examiner’s said.  He would not say if there were obvious wounds on the bodies.

Family members began passing out missing persons fliers on Tuesday.

They said Bivins and Goodson never returned home after leaving Missouri City around 7 p.m. Monday to go to Houston.

Relatives believe the young men may have gone to the Yale Village Apartments. They found evidence that indicates they were also at a nearby Shell gas station on Yale. Witnesses said they also saw them at a car wash in the 4400 block of Yale in the Heights.

11 News

Joseph Bivins, Jr., 19, and Deandre Goodson, 23.

Bivins was an engineering technology student who had a paid internship at Williams Energy. 

"Bivens was a very bright student and well-liked by other employees," the company said in a statement. "Known as a very hard worker, Joseph was a respectful young man with a tremendous amount of potential."

Bivens' sister said she had lunch with him Monday, which was the last day the family had contact with either of the young men.

Police hope to find some clues from surveillance cameras mounted all over the southeast Houston strip mall.