The waters of a Texas lake stay shrouded in thriller as dozens of younger males’s our bodies proceed to be pulled from the depths, placing a neighborhood on edge as rumors of a serial killer proceed to swirl.
Last month, authorities found yet another man’s physique in Austin’s Lady Bird Lake, bringing the whole rely to a whopping 38 people recovered from the waters since 2022.
Officials responded to an early-morning 911 call reporting a physique in the water and subsequently situated the deceased man, the Austin Police Department (APD) said in a assertion to Fox News Digital.
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There was no trauma to the physique, and police do not suspect foul play was concerned, the APD said. The division is presently working to decide whether the physique recovered is a 17-year-old male reported lacking two days earlier.
The teen’s household called police after he got out of his kayak without sporting a life jacket and subsequently disappeared while having fun with a day on the lake, authorities said. Investigators believe he had unknowingly stepped on an underwater shelf and failed to resurface after his kayak was later recovered with his backpack and life jacket still inside.
Police revealed that the particular person discovered in the lake was sporting the same clothes as the lacking teenager, but identification is pending.
APD did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital’s request for remark regarding the neighborhood’s fears surrounding a serial killer.
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The discovery comes as fears of a serial killer lurking in the neighborhood’s midst proceed to loom over the space, with native authorities persevering with to downplay the risk.
“The denials by law enforcement and other authorities that these cases are murders or the work of a serial killer are premature,” Dr. Carole Lieberman, a forensic psychiatrist and skilled trial witness, instructed Fox News Digital. “They don’t want the public to panic about a possible serial killer, so they are making light of all the deaths.”
Since 2022, at least 38 our bodies have been recovered in or around Lady Bird Lake, according to knowledge obtained by Fox 7. Of the practically three dozen our bodies discovered, 30 have reportedly been males, with roughly 60 p.c between 30 and 49 years outdated.
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Police patrol downtown Rainey Street after several our bodies have been found in close by Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas.
Despite native authorities’ insistence that there is no ongoing risk to the public, Lieberman factors to the sheer quantity of consistencies among the victims’ ages and gender.
“The fact that 30 of the 38 bodies found in and around Lady Bird Lake since 2022 are male does suggest that this could be the work of a serial killer whose preferred target is men,” Lieberman said. “If the deaths were simply due to accidental drowning or suicide, there would not be a preponderance of one gender over the other.”
One common idea circulating all through the neighborhood suggests the deaths are a end result of date-rape medicine slipped into the drinks of victims visiting bars on close by Rainey Street – a standard hotspot for partying close to the water.
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In February 2023, the physique of Jason John, 30, was pulled from the lake one week after he was last seen on Rainey Street. Two months later, Jonathan Honey, 33, was discovered one day after he was last seen visiting a food truck parked on the standard avenue.
“[Date-rape drugs] could render them easy prey for a thief and killer,” Lieberman said. “Older men could similarly be easy prey.”
Throughout the previous three years, the main cause of death of the our bodies pulled from Lady Bird Lake has been attributed to unintentional drownings, Fox 7 reported. Suicide reportedly stays the second main cause, as nicely as natural causes and drug overdoses.
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Of the 38 deaths, only one has been ruled a homicide – with roughly half a dozen circumstances remaining unknown.
“One cannot rule out that a so-called ‘accidental’ drowning isn’t the result of a murderer unless there were witnesses,” Lieberman instructed Fox News Digital. “Murderers can use drowning as their [modus operandi]. Similarly, suicides must be proven, not just assumed if someone has been depressed.”
Additionally, Lieberman pointed to the attractiveness of disposing human stays in our bodies of water.
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“Water can cause decomposition of the body and can wash away evidence, from fingerprints to DNA,” Lieberman said. “If the water has movement, such as a river or stream, it can propel the body far from the actual scene of the crime, making it more complicated to find the killer. Some killers choose water-based crime scenes with the hopes that their murder will be misconstrued as drowning, which can make it harder, because it can be difficult to differentiate drowning from murder.”
In a 2023 assertion, APD seemed to quell the public’s fears surrounding the chance of a serial killer focusing on males in the space, citing the lake’s harmful situations when blended with alcohol.
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“One common theme of the drownings in Austin [in 2023] is the combination of alcohol and easy access to Lady Bird Lake, which has numerous access points,” the division said.
Police pointed out that the overwhelming majority of deaths at the time occurred after the park’s closing time and inspired neighborhood members to be mindful of native guidelines.
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However, as more and more victims proceed to fall to the waters of Lady Bird Lake, Lieberman calls on authorities to not flip a blind eye to the morbid coincidences surrounding the deaths.
“Unless law enforcement finds some other explanation for the large number of deaths in and around Lady Bird Lake in recent years,” Lieberman said. “Then I think that the likelihood of a serial killer cannot be ignored.”
Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
Original article source: Serial killer fears grip Texas neighborhood after dozens of our bodies pulled from lake: ‘Cannot be ignored’
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