Major city gripped by serial killer rumors as cops reveal 38 BODIES have been pulled from lake

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

More than three dozens bodies have been pulled from a waterway running through the center of Austin in the last three years, it has been revealed.
The grim discoveries in Lady Bird Lake and fueled wild speculation and sparked claims of a serial killer.
Cops have denied a mass murderer is on the loose, quashing a theory a suspect known as the 'Rainy Street Ripper' was roaming the streets.
However, in half a dozen of the cases, the cause of death is unknown.
Since 2022, 38 bodies have been recovered from Lady Bird Lake, according to TV station Fox 7.
The latest remains were found Tuesday and police believe they belong to a teenage boy who was reported missing Sunday.
A 17-year-old black male who was paddle boarding with his family went missing around 7 p.m.
Tuesday, a body with clothes matching the description of the unidentified youngster was pulled from the water, however, local cops are still awaiting a positive identification from the medical examiner's office.
There are no signs of foul play in this case, which has been classified as a drowning, investigators shared.
'The teenager got off his kayak to stand in shallow water. He was not wearing a life jacket at the time. Investigators have determined that he was unknowingly standing near an underwater shelf, which is a sudden drop-off in the lake, when he stepped or slipped off and did not resurface', the Austin Police Department explained.
The teen's backpack and life jacket have also been recovered alongside the kayak.
Of the 38 bodies found in the body of water, only one has been ruled a homicide, the local TV station reported.
Drowning has been the #1 cause of death, followed by suicide, drug overdoses and natural causes.
However, there are half a dozen cases where the cause of death remains unknown.
That has lead to wild speculation, which the Austin Police Department has shot down multiple times, that a serial killer is behind at least some of the deaths.
One debunked theory was that gay men were being targeted.
As Daily Mail exclusively reported, a Boston man who traveled to the Texas capital for a bachelor party in 2023 believes he survived being murdered.
Jeff Jones, 39, woke up in the hospital after falling 25 feet off a bridge, narrowly missing certain drowning.
Doctors found the date-rape drug, Rohypnol, in his system.
Jones believes he was drugged before the would-be killer pushed him off the bridge over a stream where it would have appeared as though he drown.
Like Jones, most of people who have been found dead in the water are men- 30 out of 38.
The majority, 60% were between the ages of 30 and 49.
Two were teenagers, including the person found Tuesday.
'The things that lead to it being a serial killer is that it's a very specific type of victim, which I fit, they don't have anything stolen from them, they drown in the water, and they disappear in the middle of the night,' Jones told Daily Mail last year.
'I match all of this, I just luckily didn't end up dead.'
However, police have chalked up the growing number of fatalities to a growing party scene near the water.
Many of those who have ended up in Lady Bird Lake had been partying hard at Rainey Street, a popular bar scene, just feet away from the river.
Officials have increased safety measures, including lighting and fencing around the lake.
Ambulances are also parked at the end of Rainey Street, to treat those who have either had too much fun, or turn those walking towards the water away.
Former Austin Police Department forensic director Mark Gillespie previously stressed in an interview with KVUE that the public should believe the police when they say that there is no foul play.
'They're looking for foul play, and so when APD comes out with the statement that at the current time, they don't suspect foul play, I promise you they were looking for it, and they were looking very hard for it, so I respect that,' he said.