256: Super SCARY! Serial Killer in Austin, TX?! What is REALLY Going on at Lady Bird Lake?

Transcript

Speaker 5 Get ready for Malice, a twisted new drama starring Jack Whitehall, David DeCovny, and Carice Van Houten.

Speaker 11 Jack Whitehall plays Adam, a charming manny, infiltrates the wealthy Tanner family with a hidden motive to destroy them.

Speaker 19 This edge-of-your-seat revenge thriller unravels a deliciously dark mystery in a world full of wealth, secrets, and betrayal.

Speaker 24 Malice will constantly keep you on your toes.

Speaker 27 Why is Adam after the Tanner family?

Speaker 29 What lengths will he go to?

Speaker 33 One thing's for sure, the past never stays buried, so keep your enemies close.

Speaker 38 Watch Malice, all episodes now streaming exclusively on Prime Video.

Speaker 41 Hey, True Crime Besties, welcome back to an all-new episode of Serial Asleep.

Speaker 41 Hey everybody, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialessly with me, Annie Elise.

Speaker 41 The case we're talking about today is one that has been in the works for quite some time because a lot of you guys have been requesting it for well over a year now, maybe even two years.

Speaker 41 It's taking us to Austin, Texas, and the title of this episode may have already given it away of what case we're talking about today, but it is one of the eeriest and I don't want to say complex, but almost like confusing maybe.

Speaker 41 One of the most confusing cases out there because it's one of those cases where there's so many unanswered questions, so many possibilities and like, I hate this word, but a lot of like spooky things surrounding this case to where it's hard to really make sense of it all.

Speaker 41 And Let me just kind of break it down. So for the past several years, there's been something that is just casting this like dark cloud over Austin, Texas.

Speaker 41 And it all started back in 2022 because bodies of mostly young men just started turning up in a lake that sits right there in the heart of the city, just one after another after another.

Speaker 41 And what is interesting too is that all of these victims have striking similarities, not just in age, but in what they were doing right before they died.

Speaker 41 Because they all went missing in the same popular, buzzing, nightlife type area, similar to, you know, you might recall Riley Strain in Nashville, but the, you know, the beat of downtown where everybody's hanging out, partying, drinking, it's popular nightlife, and then they just vanish.

Speaker 41 And then later, of course, turn up in this lake, and it's just happening one after another. So naturally, all of the locals have been freaking out, right?

Speaker 41 They think that there's a possible serial killer on the loose. I mean, what other conclusion could you really come to, right?

Speaker 41 However, the police continue to insist that there is absolutely no reason to panic.

Speaker 41 In fact, they say that there's no obvious signs of foul play and that all of these deaths simply they're chalking it up to accidental drownings. They basically are saying, you know what?

Speaker 41 All of these guys, all of these victims, they were out partying, they were drinking heavily, then they accidentally stumbled into the lake, they drowned, and that's really all it is.

Speaker 41 There's nothing bigger at play here. There's no reason to be scared.
But despite these reassurances from the police, the community is scared. They are fearful.
It's not adding up to them.

Speaker 41 I mean, maybe you could explain one, two, maybe call it even three accidental drownings, but the amount of bodies that they have been discovering,

Speaker 41 I don't know. It gives me a little bit of pause too.
So people can't help but wonder, is there something else going on that is darker and deeper here? Could there be a serial killer?

Speaker 41 Is it the rainy street ripper at Ladybird Lake? So guys, I'm going to break it all down for you, but hopefully you don't have nightmares because this case definitely might give you some nightmares.

Speaker 41 So let's jump right in, buckle up. It is a terrifying one.

Speaker 43 You can call me crazy. I know that what happened to me didn't make me passionate and like really double down on what I'm saying.

Speaker 44 And

Speaker 43 there's something evil going on in this city.

Speaker 45 There are renewed concerns after a woman was recently found dead in Lady Bird Lake.

Speaker 45 Austin police say her body was in the water near Brazos and Cesar Chavez and that her death is not suspicious, but it's one of several bodies found in or near the water this year.

Speaker 45 Fox 7 Austin's John Krinjak spoke to some people who hang out on the north side of the lake. They say they intentionally avoid Rainy Street because of the bodies that have been found in that area.

Speaker 46 Very scary, especially given that I live in this neighborhood.

Speaker 47 There was about six or seven of us on a flight down from Boston together on Thursday, and we had heard of the disappearances of people and we were kind of joking with one another.

Speaker 47 Oh, watch out for the serial killer in Austin.

Speaker 42 From the Austin homicide unit, that we look into every possible

Speaker 42 aspect that we can in all these cases, and nothing has led us to believe that there is any sort of killer or especially serial killer

Speaker 48 at play here. And all those other people that died too deserve better than that.
And the city didn't do.

Speaker 48 They didn't do anything. And they just said it was accidental.

Speaker 48 It's not fair. He's too good of a person.
All these people are too good to just be thrown to the side. And nothing's been done.
And the city needs to do something.

Speaker 48 And they need to do it faster because people will continue to go missing.

Speaker 41 Okay, so let me just start by describing Austin. And don't take offense if if you live in Austin.
This isn't casting shade to anybody. You might actually enjoy this and embrace this.

Speaker 41 But if Texas was a family, I feel like Austin would kind of be the black sheep in all of it.

Speaker 41 Almost like that weird cousin who wears, you know, the cowboy boots, the tie-dye shirt, maybe is vegan, who knows?

Speaker 41 Because despite being the capital city, Austin doesn't fit the traditional Texas mold.

Speaker 41 So much so that for years, Austin has proudly gone with the slogan, keep Austin weird, which for Austin is less of a slogan and more of a way of life. And Austin is a mashup of people.

Speaker 41 I mean, mean, you're talking football fanatics, foodies, live music lovers, night owls, people who like to party, all of those things.

Speaker 41 And because Austin originally was attracting artists, misfits, musicians, things of that nature, they've gained a huge popularity over the years.

Speaker 41 It's kind of become a magnet for tech companies, startups, entrepreneurs, and it's caused hundreds of new people to move there every single day. The population right now sits about a million people.

Speaker 41 It's also become a tourist hotspot, a place where people go to drink, to dance, to listen to music, to party, because they have a pretty good nightlife scene.

Speaker 41 I mean, two spots in particular that are very popular, 6th Street and Rainy Street. And 6th Street is legendary for its dive bars, its live music, its, you know, chaotic energy at times.

Speaker 41 And over time, it earned the nickname Dirty 6th, just due to how it had these rowdy crowds, a lot of college students, just people who were really determined to party and party hard and have a good time.

Speaker 41 And back in the day, Rainy Street was this cute, sleepy neighborhood that was filled with little charming bungalow houses.

Speaker 41 But then when zoning laws changed in 2005, people started turning those houses into these really cool, unique bars and these nightclubs, just very, very different from traditional bars.

Speaker 41 So now it's a popular strip of bars, clubs, lounges, and it attracts more of this older crowd compared to the college crowd that goes to 6th Street.

Speaker 41 So just a short walk from both of these streets that are both the major popular ones in Austin, there is another local legend you could say, and that is Ladybird Lake.

Speaker 41 Sometimes it's referred to as Town Lake, and it's this stretch of water that's in the heartbeat of downtown Austin, and it actually spans over 460 acres.

Speaker 41 Now, because this stretch of water goes for so long and it's so large, there are quite a few bridges throughout it, you know, that go over or pass it where pedestrians can go and walk.

Speaker 41 And some of them even go there every night to watch the sunset, to watch dusk fall, to just really take in the beautiful scenery.

Speaker 41 And during the day, people surround the lake and kind of flock to it because there's bike paths, there's hiking trails, people will go on the lake and paddleboard, they'll kayak, just really kind of making it this outdoor playground.

Speaker 41 So the lake is hugely popular in this city. And the whole area, the trails that go around it, the water itself, it's just constantly full of people.

Speaker 41 However, in more recent years, the lake has gained a lot of notoriety for darker reasons, scarier reasons, not the fun outdoor playground or where you would go to maybe kayak in the afternoon.

Speaker 41 Because since 2022, 14 bodies have been pulled out of the water. 14, 1-4.
That is a lot of bodies to pull out of a body of water.

Speaker 41 And if you go back even further before 2022, there's even more victims, which don't worry, I will get into that.

Speaker 41 So as I said, all of these victims that have been being pulled out of the lake all have similar enough resemblances or circumstances, such as partying at the nearby bars before going missing, the fact that a lot of them are young men, so many similarities that it really has convinced the locals that there is a serial killer out there, somebody who is targeting this particular type of victim.

Speaker 41 Locals have even dubbed this, you know, phantom, unknown serial killer as the Rainy Street Ripper.

Speaker 49 In the heart of Austin, Texas, lies a tranquil oasis in the form of a picturesque lake that has long been cherished by locals and visitors alike.

Speaker 49 But beneath the surface of its serene waters lies a mystery that has haunted the community for over a decade.

Speaker 49 Rather than being celebrated as a family-friendly water spot, the lake has come to to be feared for much more sinister reasons.

Speaker 49 Since the early 2000s, more than 18 victims have been pulled from Ladybird Lake after going missing in suspicious circumstances. And many of its other victims have yet to be identified.

Speaker 41 Now, this whole serial killer mentality first started back on Thursday, July 14th, 2022, because it was a super hot summer day. People were out paddleboarding, kayaking.
The lake was full of people.

Speaker 41 People were out walking their dogs, just enjoying the, you know, scenery scenery and the warm weather. And it was in the afternoon, around 3 p.m., and everything just felt normal.

Speaker 41 Austin was in full-on summer mode. People were enjoying the lake.
But then people who were walking around the lake noticed that there was something unusual near 9 East Avenue.

Speaker 41 It was just around the corner from Rainy Street, that area with all the bars. And they noticed that there was something floating in the water.

Speaker 41 Now, at first, they thought that, okay, maybe it's debris, maybe it's something harmless, maybe it's even a kayak turned over or something like that.

Speaker 41 But then as they got closer, it became way more clear. This was something that definitely was not supposed to be there because this wasn't just something casual that happened to be in the water.

Speaker 41 It was a body. Multiple calls came flooding into 911 and within minutes, first responders arrived.
Soon after they pulled this body out of the water, it was later identified.

Speaker 41 It was a 59-year-old man named Ricky Parks. And there wasn't really much known about Ricky.
So the police pretty much quickly ruled this as an accidental drowning and then closed the case.

Speaker 41 You know, nothing to worry about. There was no foul play.
They ruled that out. It was just kind of case closed.
That's that.

Speaker 41 And for a few months, that really was what everybody thought happened, that it was an accidental drowning and everything stayed quiet. There were no headlines.

Speaker 41 There was no further explanation for Ricky's death, no new reports, just complete silence. You know, people had moved on and almost forgotten about it.

Speaker 41 It was almost like his death just faded into the background. But then December rolled around.
And now Austin was settling into winter.

Speaker 41 Not this bitter, harsh, unforgiving kind of winter, but a winter nonetheless. It wasn't these hot summer days.

Speaker 41 And because of that, the lively summer energy that once was was kind of faded off, you know, kind of gone. Now it was like nights were getting ending earlier.
It was getting darker earlier.

Speaker 41 People weren't packing the park because it was starting to get a little bit cooler. And it was now much emptier until all of this just came flooding back because it happened again.

Speaker 41 Another body was found floating in the water. But just like last time, there were no real headlines, no breaking case, no news.
The police just kind of said, you know, still, again, no foul play.

Speaker 41 It was an accidental drowning. This time, though, it was a 25-year-old man named Christopher Gutierrez.
But that was that. Case closed.

Speaker 41 But then, just nine days later, not months later like before, things took a big twist, because the body of Josue Moreno was found near a bridge on the South Lamer Boulevard area of the lake.

Speaker 41 And unlike the previous cases, his death was not written off as a simple drowning. Unlike the other bodies, he had a gunshot wound to his head.

Speaker 41 And the investigators also discovered that he had driven his truck off a bridge before then ending up in the water.

Speaker 41 So police investigated, and ultimately they found that Josue was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, that he was shot and killed by a 19-year-old kid named Santiago Perron.

Speaker 41 They said that he was shot in the early morning hours of December 19th, and when Santiago was found, he said that he shot Josué because he thought that he was somebody else. It was mistaken identity.

Speaker 41 Santiago and his friends were trying to meet up with another group at the park, and they had the intent to confront someone who he apparently had a problem with.

Speaker 41 But then things got a little crazy and both groups fled in their cars.

Speaker 41 Santiago was trying to shoot at somebody from that rival group, but Josui just happened to drive by right at that moment and got caught in that crossfire.

Speaker 41 So obviously a heartbreaking crime, but by all means, you know, not foul play in the sense that it was intentional. It was more accidental or mistaken identity.

Speaker 41 And at at least this body came with some answers. Now, initially, it was pretty alarming when Josui's body was found because that was the third body in that year.

Speaker 41 And despite having more answers than the other two bodies that were found, people did start to get a little bit worried.

Speaker 41 And their fears only intensified because just days after his body was found, another body turned up. This time, it was 56-year-old Kyle Thornton.

Speaker 41 His body was found near the Congress Avenue Bridge, which was less than a mile from Rainey Street.

Speaker 41 And like with Ricky Parks and Christopher Gutierrez, there was little information about what happened.

Speaker 41 The news barely even covered his death, so Austin police quickly just closed the investigation, not really looking into it.

Speaker 41 Once again, they said that his death was due to an accidental drowning and no foul play was involved.

Speaker 41 But by this point, the pattern was really getting difficult to ignore, especially by the locals, because bodies were turning up in the same body of water very often near Rainey Street.

Speaker 41 Investigations were just closed almost as soon as they began and it made people wonder, is this a coincidence or is there something more here?

Speaker 50 Police have taken great pains in recent years to try and put the rumors of a serial killer to rest.

Speaker 51 There's no serial killer at this time.

Speaker 52 Nothing has

Speaker 53 come to light that would indicate that there is a serial killer.

Speaker 50 But as the deaths continue, many just aren't convinced.

Speaker 46 I feel like they are connected. It's giving the serial killer vibes in the cities.

Speaker 41 And just when people thought that the circumstances could not get any more unsettling, another body turned up. This time it was on February 13th, 2023.

Speaker 41 And this body was 30-year-old Jason John, who he had been missing for eight days before his body was found.

Speaker 41 Jason had lived in Austin for two years, and despite the relatively short time he had lived in the city, he had grown to absolutely love it. He had a girlfriend, he had tons of friends.

Speaker 41 He had a dog named Ruffles, who was like his little adventurous sidekick. And Jason was the kind of guy who loved the outdoors.

Speaker 41 He spent his free time outside rock climbing, hiking, going through the many scenic trails around the city. But then one night on February 4th, Jason went out with his friends to Rainy Street.

Speaker 41 They were going to celebrate a recent promotion, just have fun, unwind, drink a little bit.

Speaker 41 The night was filled with laughs, with drinks, just all around good vibes, and so much so that it kind of carried through. into the early morning hours of February 5th.

Speaker 41 But then finally at around 2 a.m., Jason decided he was going to call it quits. He was done for the night.
And he lived just a 15 minute walk from Rainy Street.

Speaker 41 And he knew the area like the back of his hand too because he spent so much time in the outdoors. So he figured, you know, walking home was really no big deal.

Speaker 41 But as it turns out, That was the last time that anybody saw him.

Speaker 41 When Jason's friends and family didn't hear from him the next day, and his neighbors had realized that his dog Ruffles had been home alone for hours, they knew that something was wrong here because Jason wasn't the type to just vanish, especially not without checking in or making sure that his dog was okay.

Speaker 41 So by the afternoon of February 5th, he was officially reported as missing. And this time it was different because what followed in this report was a frantic citywide search.

Speaker 41 His friends and family flooded the streets with missing persons flyers. They appeared on local news stations.

Speaker 41 They were really spreading the news of his disappearance all over social media as well, hoping that somebody, anybody, had seen him.

Speaker 41 And eventually, they managed to uncover security camera footage of Jason walking home that night. And what's interesting is in this video, he appeared completely normal.

Speaker 41 No signs of distress, no signs of, you know, swaying here or there, being overly intoxicated, just a guy walking home after a night out, something that he had done countless times before.

Speaker 41 However, then the footage from the last few moments of his walk, the footage that really could have given answers and shed a new light on where he went or what happened to him, that footage was just non-existent.

Speaker 41 There unfortunately were no cameras in that area of his walk. And so his family was really left to wonder what could have happened.
It was the unknown, unaccounted for minutes.

Speaker 41 No footage, no witnesses, no information, and they really wanted to know what happened in those missing minutes. And as the days dragged on, his family really began losing hope.

Speaker 41 By February 13th, after eight long days of searching, they came to the realization that he probably wasn't going to be coming home. Something probably happened to him.

Speaker 41 Like I said, he wasn't the kind of guy who would just disappear without a trace. And deep down, they all knew that something terrible had happened.

Speaker 55 Our main thing is we want to find my brother.

Speaker 55 In good health would be great, but you know, if he has passed, we want to find him. We want to have a proper funeral.

Speaker 56 The John family is beyond frustrated as they move into day eight, wondering where 30-year-old Jason John is.

Speaker 55 It is the worst nightmare for a family.

Speaker 56 The family of Jason has flown in from New York to get answered. His oldest brother, Rinju, flew in from his home in Dubai to be with his family in Austin during this difficult time.

Speaker 55 It's tough, but

Speaker 55 it's the most important thing for family to be together in a tough situation like this.

Speaker 56 His family says they started to notice something was off when Jason didn't answer the family's weekly call on Sunday.

Speaker 55 So I spoke to my mom on Sunday and then she's like, oh, Jason didn't pick up his phone, which happens sometimes. We all get busy and the time difference.

Speaker 56 But alarm bells didn't really go off until Jason's family was told that he hadn't been back home at all on Sunday, leaving his dog Ruffles alone.

Speaker 55 The key thing is, okay, maybe maybe he went out, he stayed at a friend's place, his phone died. That's all possible.
But as soon as we knew that she was at home

Speaker 55 for hours on end and Jason wasn't back, then we knew something was wrong.

Speaker 41 So that day, their worst fears were realized because that's when his body was found in Lady Bird Lake. He was fully dressed.

Speaker 41 He was wearing the exact same clothing that he was wearing the night that he went missing. He had his wallet in his pockets, his phone in his pockets.

Speaker 41 It was literally like just either was placed in this lake or walked into the lake.

Speaker 41 Now, I will say that his death was connected to a 911 call that was made around the time that Jason decided to head home from the bar on February 5th, around 2 a.m., because a man called 911 around that time saying that he did witness somebody who was stumbling along the pathway along Lady Bird Lake.

Speaker 41 The caller also said that this person who was stumbling could see them vomiting into the lake before then slipping into the water.

Speaker 41 The witness rushed to help, but when their efforts failed, they ran to a nearby hotel so they could call 911.

Speaker 43 All I know is he was vomiting profusely

Speaker 43 and

Speaker 43 just struggling to wall and stand up.

Speaker 43 He came close to the bank, where he sloped down a little bit and he was stumbling pretty fast. He may have landed five or ten feet out into the water.

Speaker 43 By the time I got to the bank, he was a good thirty feet out.

Speaker 43 Did you see him come back up, Chris?

Speaker 43 No, I got right on the top of where I believe he was. I slipped around in a circle with a stick

Speaker 43 trying to feel around and find him. I couldn't find him.

Speaker 43 What was he wearing? What was he wearing?

Speaker 43 I couldn't tell. It looked like a light-colored shirt, and maybe it's a soldier jeans.
I couldn't tell from a distance. It was dark down there.
How long did it look like?

Speaker 43 Probably three minutes ago.

Speaker 43 Five minutes ago, as soon as I made it back to shore and got up on land, I ran straight up to the holiday and

Speaker 43 they called you.

Speaker 41 Police arrived at the scene around 2.16 a.m., which was very shortly after that 911 call was placed and very soon after he started his walk home.

Speaker 41 But when they got there, this person who had supposedly fell into the water was nowhere to be found.

Speaker 41 There were also no signs of a struggle, no footprints, nothing to suggest that this person had even been there at all.

Speaker 41 Fast forward then to when Jason's body was found and the police started connecting the dots. I mean, they claimed, okay, this man that was referenced in this 911 call, that had to be Jason.

Speaker 41 That's what makes the most sense. Case closed, right? Just another terrible, unfortunate circumstance of accidental drowning.

Speaker 41 Or could the call have been made intentionally to explain away why a body may be found in the lake?

Speaker 41 So the official autopsy report ruled his death as drowning, and the medical examiner said that his body was typical of somebody who had been in the water for multiple days.

Speaker 41 There were no significant external or internal injuries. His brain, yes, was slightly swollen, but apparently that can happen in drowning cases.
So there were absolutely zero signs of foul play.

Speaker 41 But Jason's family and friends weren't ready to accept that official explanation because something about it just did not sit right.

Speaker 41 And when the autopsy report came back, it also revealed a detail that raised major red flags.

Speaker 41 There was partially undigested food in Jason's stomach, which, if Jason was the one seen vomiting near the water into the water, his stomach should have been mostly empty, right?

Speaker 41 It also said that the only substance that was found in his system was alcohol. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary, no drugs, no toxins, nothing suspicious.

Speaker 41 But still, his family wasn't convinced, so they decided to request a second autopsy. And this time, the second report came back with a new detail.
GHB was in Jason's system.

Speaker 41 And this is the same drug that is commonly referred to as the date rape drug because this drug, it causes confusion, drowsiness, even unconsciousness, especially if it's mixed with alcohol.

Speaker 41 And I will say there is this weird movement out there, not movement, but like this weird trend out there where younger kids are dosing themselves with GHB, like a small dose because they want, you know, it's like the new drug of choice or one of the drugs of choice, but they're doing it in a smaller dose than what a lot of predators will use for the date rape drug, which personally can't wrap my head around it.

Speaker 41 I don't know why anybody would ever want to dose themselves with GHB. I have been slipped the drug unknowingly before.
I was in it at a club in LA. I may have talked about it on here.

Speaker 41 And this guy who I thought was my friend gave me a shot and it had GHB in it. And it was the scariest night of my life, hands down.

Speaker 41 Luckily, pretty soon after I consumed it, I knew that something was wrong. And I had some friends there at the club as well.

Speaker 41 And they like rushed me out and took me home, but I was like on the floor of this shower as they were running the shower, vomiting all over myself. I couldn't stand up.

Speaker 41 I couldn't even like open my eyes. It was a nightmare, which thank God my friends were there because God only knows what could have happened if, you know.

Speaker 41 they hadn't been there and this guy was with me the whole night. But anyway, I do not understand why somebody would willingly dose themselves with that.
So anyway, they find GHB in his system.

Speaker 41 However, the medical examiner had an explanation for this. They said that GHB often occurs naturally in the body after death and that it's all a product of decomposition.

Speaker 41 However, as you can imagine, for Jason's family, this didn't feel like a good enough reason.

Speaker 41 They were sure that Jason had been drugged while he was at that bar and that likely he was being watched and then attacked while he was on his way home.

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Speaker 41 So the Austin locals just could not ignore this growing pattern any longer. There were too many deaths in such a short period of time, similar, you know, circumstances for a lot of them,

Speaker 41 too many similarities and too few answers. It just didn't seem like a coincidence anymore.

Speaker 49 Jason's death marked the first unusual death of 2023. Within three months, four men had been pulled from Lady Bird Lake.
These new deaths were a turning point for local residents.

Speaker 49 Where they had once merely whispered about a dark force running free in their community, they now began to demand that action be taken to keep them safe.

Speaker 41 And sure enough, exactly one month after Jason went missing, this time on March 5th, 2023, another body was pulled from the water of Lady Bird Lake.

Speaker 41 This time, it was the body of 40-year-old Clifton Axtel. He was a father of two, and he had been missing since February 25th.

Speaker 41 And sure enough, he was last seen at a place called Stubbs Barbecue, which was just a few blocks away from 6th Street.

Speaker 41 Like the others, details surrounding Clifton's death were pretty scarce, leaving a lot of people to just fill in the blanks on their own.

Speaker 41 And for a while, some people speculated that he might have even taken his own life, possibly jumping off a bridge and doing that. After all, he did, yes, have a history of depression.

Speaker 41 However, just two days before his disappearance, Clifton went to the doctor and explicitly said that he was not experiencing any sort of suicidal thoughts. So, was this really that?

Speaker 41 Did he really take his own life? Once again, his death was just ruled as accidental drowning, and the case was quickly closed. But like clockwork, almost one month later, it happened again.

Speaker 41 On April 1st, the body of a 30-year-old man named Jonathan Honey was pulled from the water near Rainy Street. Now, Jonathan wasn't an Austin local.
He was actually from Washington, D.C.

Speaker 41 He had flown into the city to party with his friends for a bachelor party. And on the night of March 31st, Jonathan and his friends hit Rainy Street.

Speaker 41 They were doing what hundreds of people do every single weekend there. bar hopping, dancing, drinking, having a great time.

Speaker 41 And at some point, Jonathan separated from his friends and then decided to go get something to eat at one of the, you know, many food trucks that line up and down that street.

Speaker 41 That was the last time that anybody saw him alive. When Jonathan didn't return from getting food, his friends became very worried.
But all of their calls, their text messages, they went unanswered.

Speaker 41 And by the next day, they reported him missing. The search didn't last long though, because on April 1st, his body was discovered floating in the lake.

Speaker 41 And get this, the lake, or the river that flows into the lake, is literally just a couple minutes walk from the last place that Jonathan was seen.

Speaker 41 Now the autopsy, predictably, ruled his death as an accidental drowning, the exact same conclusion that had been reached with all of the other victims.

Speaker 41 However, I will say that some of the details this time did not fit the usual pattern.

Speaker 41 His talks report showed that he had alcohol in his system, which really wasn't a surprise after a big night out drinking, right?

Speaker 41 It also showed that he had amphetamines in his system, which was quickly explained away because he also had a prescription for ADHD medication, which contained amphetamines.

Speaker 41 However, there was something unusual in the talks report: hydroxazine, and I'm hoping I'm saying that right.

Speaker 41 But this hydruxazine isn't this party drug or anything like that that somebody would take recreationally. It's actually found in medications for allergies, anxiety.
It's even used as a sleep aid.

Speaker 41 One of its main side effects causes drowsiness, which we know could impair somebody, especially if it's mixed with alcohol.

Speaker 41 Now, some reports did say that the reason this was found in his system was because he took Zyrtec, and he took that for allergies, and that that contains a small dose of this, but who really knows?

Speaker 41 And what really set Jonathan's case apart from the others were his injuries.

Speaker 41 Because unlike the other victims, Jonathan did have visible contusions, one on his left eyelid, another one on the side of his neck. He also had several cuts along his face.

Speaker 41 And these weren't the kind of injuries that you would expect from somebody who simply tripped and then fell into a body of water.

Speaker 41 It looked more like injuries that happened from the result of a struggle.

Speaker 41 So his friends were confused, to say the least, because when Jonathan left to go get food, he was acting completely normal, not overly drunk, not disoriented, nothing like that.

Speaker 41 So how did he end up in the lake? And more importantly, how did he go from standing in the middle of a street full of people to then drowning in shallow water just blocks away?

Speaker 41 In fact, his death was so unexplainable and caused so much uproar in the community that they decided to start actively investigating his death themselves.

Speaker 41 People started walking up and down the shorelines of the lake, trying to really understand how could somebody accidentally drown here.

Speaker 61 Yet another body has been found in Lady Bird Lake. It was 33-year-old Jonathan Honey, who was here for a bachelor party, and he was also in the rainy district.
He was out on Rainy Street.

Speaker 61 Family says he was last seen, I believe, at a taco truck. Rescue teams went out yesterday, which was Saturday, April 1st, and they recovered his body, I believe, after a five-hour search.

Speaker 61 There still aren't many answers, but it obviously leads to the question of what is happening here. In just a month, you've had two 30- to 33-year-old men from Rainy Street now in the lake.

Speaker 61 Some are blaming trail lighting. Some are thinking this could be targeted.

Speaker 41 During this call-it community investigation, many people found that the shoreline was surprisingly shallow in a lot of places, making it even more difficult for people to believe that this full-grown adult could accidentally drown without some other factor being at play here and being involved.

Speaker 41 And then, two more bodies surfaced in 2023. On April 15th, the body of 30-year-old Christopher Clark was discovered, and this time it was discovered about two miles away from Rainey Street.

Speaker 41 And then, on June 27th, the body of Moga Degala was found only one mile away from Rainy Street. In both cases, they followed the exact same pattern.

Speaker 41 The bodies were found floating in the water, which had very little information released to the public soon after.

Speaker 41 The cause of death was ultimately ruled accidental drowning and no foul play being involved.

Speaker 41 But by this point, these were the fifth and sixth bodies that were pulled from this lake in just six months. So was it accidental drowning or was it a dumping ground for a serial killer?

Speaker 41 And not to mention all these victims, they were all men, all around roughly the same age and just vanishing under very similar circumstances and ultimately all meeting the same fate, dead inside the water.

Speaker 41 So it's not hard to believe that the city was buzzing with rumors and theories, right? Everybody was trying to sleuth out the details, figure out the truth here, figure out what was going on.

Speaker 41 There were theories that were flooding social media, Reddit, Facebook groups, I mean, you name it, saying there was this predator who's out there on the loose.

Speaker 41 He's lurking around, targeting men who are alone, leaving the bars, possibly under the influence, and then a predator who's basically picking that as their perfect target.

Speaker 41 So as the city's in uproar, the police decided they needed to release a statement.

Speaker 41 They wanted to calm everybody down, bring it all down a notch, try to relax everybody, hoping to, you know, shut down the rumors, ease people's fears. And the statement was interesting.

Speaker 41 Because it read, the Austin Police Department is aware of speculations regarding recent drownings in Lady Bird Lake.

Speaker 41 Although these cases are still under investigation and evidence is being analyzed, at this time, there is no evidence in any of these cases to support allegations of foul play.

Speaker 41 While each incident has occurred at the lake, the circumstances, exact locations, and demographics surrounding these cases, they vary.

Speaker 41 Our investigators approach every case with an open mind and objectively examine all available evidence.

Speaker 41 We work closely with the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office, which conducts a parallel investigation into all deaths.

Speaker 41 The medical examiner performs autopsies in each of these types of death investigations. The results of these autopsies have not revealed any trauma to the bodies nor indication of foul play.

Speaker 41 One common theme of drownings in Austin this year is the combination of alcohol and easy access to Ladybird Lake, which has numerous access points.

Speaker 41 Many of these access points can be challenging to see at night. The parks in which most of these drownings have occurred are park areas that close at 10 p.m., p.m.

Speaker 41 and these occur after the park closes. We advise the public to follow the rules on park closures.

Speaker 42 Can't explain why it seems to be mostly men, but I can say that from the Austin Homicide unit that we look into every possible

Speaker 42 aspect that we can in all these cases, and nothing has led us to believe that there is any sort of killer, especially serial killer, at play here.

Speaker 42 Whenever people are out, especially in the bar districts,

Speaker 42 hopefully people keep an eye on their friends. I think a lot of people end up becoming incredibly intoxicated, which often leads to some people ending up in the water.

Speaker 42 And I can't speak to exactly how folks end up in the water, right? Every case is completely different.

Speaker 42 Some of the folks who are homeless sleep by the water and may use that as a bathroom. So there's all different circumstances in all of these different cases.
But

Speaker 42 I hope it helps make people feel a little bit better that through our homicide unit, we look at every possible thing that we can in trying to rule out any sort of foul play.

Speaker 42 And there's just no signs that or any evidence leading to

Speaker 42 any kind of conclusion that anyone is being killed other than the ones that we've already classified as homicides.

Speaker 41 So the statement did put some people at ease. Not everybody.
There was definitely still speculation going wild, but it did start to put some people at ease.

Speaker 41 And for a while, it kind of felt like the nightmare had finally ended because months went by without a single body being found in the lake. So the city began to breathe a little bit again.

Speaker 41 The rumors started to fade away. The fear started to dull, but there were still a couple people who were questioning it.
And you know who I'm talking about, right?

Speaker 41 Maybe you're one of them being like, okay, the police put out this big statement.

Speaker 41 So if there is a serial killer on the loose, of course he's going to go dormant for a little bit, or he's going to try to lay low because there is so much speculation and the heat is on him, you know, things like that.

Speaker 41 It doesn't mean that it's because all of these were, in fact, accidental drownings. Everybody was trying to explain away both parts of it, both ways you could look at it.

Speaker 41 And even though there was generally a feeling of peace in the community and calm, the peace was quickly shattered because on February 5th, 2024, another body was found.

Speaker 41 Now what's different is this time it was a woman's body that was found. She was the very first female victim that was connected to these mysterious deaths.

Speaker 41 And at first, the police claimed that they were investigating her death as a homicide. So this, of course, caused immediate panic.

Speaker 41 But then, after the panic was already beginning to ensue and everybody was freaked out, they insisted, no, no, no, it's not a homicide. This is just another mysterious death.

Speaker 41 No details were released, but they were saying, you know, there's no cause of death. There's no explanation.
It's just another mystery.

Speaker 41 And then, sure enough, in April, another body was found near the lake. This time, the body wasn't inside the water, though, it was just near it.

Speaker 41 And the medical examiner ruled the cause of death as heart-related, saying, okay, this person unfortunately had a heart attack and then died right near the lake.

Speaker 41 But the city barely even had enough time to process this death because just days later, yet another body was pulled from the water. Once again, no names, no details, just another accidental drowning.

Speaker 41 So after months of silence, when people's fears were finally starting to subside, there were three new sudden deaths.

Speaker 41 Then a few months later, on August 6th, 2024, calls flooded into 911 claiming once again a body was floating in Lady Bird Lake.

Speaker 41 When the authorities arrived, they found a man in his 60s and he was clearly dead and likely had been dead for quite some time. Can you take a guess what the police's conclusion was?

Speaker 41 No foul play, just another accidental drowning. And just over a month later, on September 29th, another 911 call.
This time, the call was a bit different though, and very, very disturbing.

Speaker 41 because a man was spotted near the lake behaving very erratically, waving his arms, punching the air, just clearly in distress.

Speaker 41 And while the caller was still on the phone with 911 dispatch, this man entered the water and never came back up.

Speaker 41 First responders rushed to the scene, obviously, and they managed to pull him out of the lake, trying to save him. But unfortunately, it was too late.
He was pronounced dead on the spot.

Speaker 41 Which maybe this one is easier to explain away. It sounds like he was acting erratically.
So maybe he was on drugs. Maybe there was something else going on.
Maybe somebody drugged him. He got away.

Speaker 41 Ended up by the lake. I don't really know.
But when you add it all together, with how many bodies are being found in this one, you know, radius, this small area, that's kind of wild.

Speaker 41 And I think it definitely does warrant a closer look.

Speaker 41 And also, another detail to consider is these are the only bodies that have been officially pulled out of Lady Bird Lake, because there are a lot of unsettling reports from people out there who believe that they were under the Rainy Street Rippers attack or pathway of attack, and that they were able to escape being the next victim, which these stories are wild.

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Speaker 41 In February of 2024, Connor Dresserly had just made a fresh start.

Speaker 41 He moved to Austin for a new job in sales for a local pest control company, and he was really eager to begin the next chapter of his life.

Speaker 41 And then just two days after his move, he decided to celebrate with some friends on 6th Street.

Speaker 41 So they hit up a bar where the night started off like any other, but at some point during the night, Connor told his friend that he was going to go to the bathroom.

Speaker 41 And when he left, he never came back. Now his friends didn't panic at first, but then they spotted him across the street at another bar.

Speaker 41 So they went and tried to catch up to him, but by the time they crossed the street and got over to that bar, he was gone again. And this time, he was really gone.
They couldn't find Connor anywhere.

Speaker 41 He also wasn't answering any of their phone calls. So panic really started to set in, and all of the friends kind of just like sprang into action.

Speaker 41 They called the police, local hospitals, they even started plastering missing persons flyers all around the city just hours after his disappearance. I mean, they truly wasted no time at all.

Speaker 41 But days passed with no sign of Connor. Until finally, somebody found him crumpled up behind a dumpster in an alley, completely unresponsive.

Speaker 41 A passerbyer just happened to spot him and then called 911 for help. Now thankfully, Connor was still alive.
And when he finally woke up, he found himself in a hospital bed, confused, disoriented.

Speaker 41 He had no idea how he had gotten there. His memories of that night were completely blank.
It was almost like his mind had been wiped clean after leaving the bar.

Speaker 41 And the talks report revealed something even more disturbing. Connor had a cocktail of drugs in his system.
Fentanyl, methamphetamine, and even ketamine.

Speaker 41 A truly deadly combination that Connor did not remember taking any of.

Speaker 41 And in an interview with a publication called The Daily Dot, he recounted the very few fragmented memories that he did have of that night.

Speaker 41 He says, One thing I remember from the night is that we met a group of people. It was me and Jaden.

Speaker 41 We were at this one bar, and then there was like this group of people, and they had like a weird vibe. What was weird is I only drank like one or two drinks, and I felt crazy, fucked up, you know?

Speaker 41 And then I remember we talked to this one group, and they were weird, and that's it.

Speaker 41 Now, the hospital just kind of brushed everything off as an overdose, treating him like your average party goer who just maybe, you know, partied a little too hard and maybe took some drugs that they didn't know what they truly were or drank some drinks that weren't covered or something like that.

Speaker 41 They didn't really believe him when he insisted that he never took any of those drugs, especially intentionally.

Speaker 41 And despite that his wallet and his phone were also missing, the incident was really just chalked up to a wild night gone wrong and there was no thorough investigation conducted.

Speaker 41 Which I gotta say, that's really weird because obviously that has foul play written all over it, right?

Speaker 41 Whether or not he intentionally took the drugs, I would come to the conclusion that he probably didn't take those willingly because his phone and his wallet was also missing, which to me indicates that there was a robbery that took place.

Speaker 41 So I would imagine it's that same weird group who probably drugged him and then robbed him and maybe even had something more sinister planned. I don't know.

Speaker 41 But how you just come to the conclusion of that of like, oh, they're missing all their stuff, and he had a mixture of three drugs in his system when he doesn't have a history of doing drugs recreationally.

Speaker 41 How does that math equate? It doesn't make any sense, right?

Speaker 41 And another one of these stories, which was one of the most disturbing stories, is from 38-year-old Jeff Jones, a guy from Boston who traveled over to Austin in June 2023 for a friend's bachelor party.

Speaker 41 Jeff and his group arrived in the city on June 22nd, just really excited, ready to party, ready to experience Austin's nightlife that is, you know, so iconic.

Speaker 41 So that night, they decided to kick off their trip with a really nice dinner and then head to the bars along 6th Street. The group was having a great time.
They were laughing. They were drinking.

Speaker 41 They were dancing. It was a normal night.
Until it wasn't. At around 1 a.m.

Speaker 41 on June 23rd, Jeff got separated from his group, and it wasn't anything alarming at first, because that happens all the time around crowded bars, right?

Speaker 41 Sometimes it's like jam-packed, shoulder-to-shoulder. You miss each other in a crowd.
You end up reuniting at some point. But his friends tried finding him.
texting him, calling him.

Speaker 41 But Jeff just didn't answer. They last heard from him around 1.30 a.m., but after that, it was just radio silence.
But then, three hours later, an anonymous call came in to 911 Anonymous, okay?

Speaker 41 And this caller was cool, calm, collected, almost detached. And they reported seeing a body that was lying underneath one of the street bridges which crosses over Ladybird Lake.

Speaker 41 And it was later discovered that that body was Jeff.

Speaker 47 And I was found at about 4.30 in the morning at the bottom of a ravine.

Speaker 47 Actually, it was right next to a river that would lead to Ladybird Lake. On twist to it as well, I was found right next to the creek where another individual a few years back also was found there.

Speaker 47 Unfortunately, he had passed away. But yeah, that lake, that leads right to Ladybird Lake.
And

Speaker 47 I was found at about 4:30 in the morning after disappearing from the group at around 1.

Speaker 47 So it is a strange amount of time that I had, and it was just kind of an innocent bystander who had found me and reported it anonymously.

Speaker 47 So it would be interesting to find out a little bit more about that person.

Speaker 47 I always thought it was kind of odd that I, why did they see me at the bottom of a creek and bed, you know, in the middle of the night randomly?

Speaker 41 When the emergency responders had found Jeff, he was severely injured. He was broken, battered, literally clinging to life.
That is not an exaggeration.

Speaker 41 So he was rushed to the hospital, and he actually, when he got there, had to go under several emergency surgeries.

Speaker 41 He had to repair damage to his kidneys, liver, his lungs, his spleen even had to be removed entirely. I mean, this guy was beaten to a pulp, and his injuries didn't stop there.

Speaker 41 He had several broken vertebrae, a shattered shoulder, a fractured elbow, and several broken ribs.

Speaker 41 He was in such critical condition, in fact, that the doctors had to place him in a medically induced coma.

Speaker 41 They were trying to help his body recover, and that was the only way to allow his body to recover. He didn't wake up for almost two weeks.

Speaker 41 And when he finally did wake up and open his eyes, I mean, Jeff was confused. He was scared.

Speaker 41 He also said that while he was in this coma, he had very vivid dreams, so real that these dreams felt like he was just living his ordinary life back in Boston.

Speaker 41 So then, waking up, being hooked up to all of these machines, this hospital bed, all these things, surrounded by people who were explaining to him what happened, it just didn't even feel real to him at all.

Speaker 41 It ended up taking days for Jeff to accept what had happened to him. But the most unsettling thing was that Jeff had no memory of what happened the night that he was injured.

Speaker 41 None at all, except for the fact that he felt relatively normal before he got separated from his friends.

Speaker 47 I had no idea what had happened because

Speaker 47 my recollection faded away while we were still at dinner. So to me, I woke up about a week and a half into it.
They took me out of it, they had me in an induced coma.

Speaker 47 And yeah, I had no idea where I was or what had happened. And I had, you know, a bunch of staples all over my body.
And it was

Speaker 47 quite, quite a harrowing experience, I would say, at that point.

Speaker 47 It took me a few days to really even understand what was going on.

Speaker 41 He hadn't been super drunk. He was 6'3.
He was a big guy who could handle his alcohol.

Speaker 41 On top of that, he had been pacing himself on purpose that night because he knew that it was going to be a long bachelor party weekend.

Speaker 41 So he didn't want to overdo it on day one and then be out of commission for days and have the worst hangover of all time. So it was definitely confusing.

Speaker 41 And like I said, just to go back to the GHB conversation and when I was drugged firsthand, it wipes your memory. It truly does.
For me, I only remember, it's just like what they had reported.

Speaker 41 It's fragments. I remember being handed the shot and we were actually, he was like a promoter for the club, which is so embarrassing.

Speaker 41 So we were like, he had like access to all the different areas of the club and we were like in the kitchen part. And maybe it was the office.
I honestly can't even remember.

Speaker 41 It was something like, you know, in the back of the club. And he hands me the clear shot glass with the tequila and now what I know was drugs.

Speaker 41 And the next thing I remember is being out by one of the like velvet booth type areas. I think the club was called Wonderland.
I'm almost positive it was. And it was like Alice in Wonderland theme.

Speaker 41 I remember being out by one of those booths and kind of like looking at my friend AJ and like being like, something's wrong. I don't feel right.

Speaker 41 And then the next memory I have was being back at my friend's apartment on the floor of the shower with the water on, vomiting.

Speaker 41 And then the next thing I remember was waking up and not really having a memory of what happened. It was like just three little memories from that night.

Speaker 41 And so for all of these people who are reporting, I don't do drugs. I, drugs are in my system, but I've never done drugs.
I don't remember anything. How did I get here?

Speaker 41 That is definitely a result of being drugged. That's what it does.
It wipes your memory. But here, now you have this guy, this 6'3 guy who's intentionally pacing himself, handling his alcohol.

Speaker 41 He's now been in a coma for weeks. He was beat to a pulp.
And the official story was that he just was drunk, super drunk, and accidentally fell off the bridge.

Speaker 41 But Jeff was not going to buy this story. He knew that this wasn't like him.
He wouldn't just get so wasted and so drugged drugged up that he would fall off a fucking bridge.

Speaker 41 Also, the bridge that they say he fell off of, it wasn't some open ledge. It had high walls, high barriers.
It wasn't something that you would just trip over and then fall overboard.

Speaker 41 And also, remember that 911 call that was made?

Speaker 41 The person who was cool, calm, collected knew exactly what was going on and identified somebody being found, just like that earlier 911 call when somebody said, oh, I think I see somebody in Lady Bird Lake and quickly gets off, just too coincidental, right?

Speaker 41 And where there's smoke, there's fire. And Jeff too thought that this was super suspicious.
He said that the spot that he was found at, it wasn't even easy to see from the bridge.

Speaker 41 So it was almost like this person who called 911 was specifically looking for him or they knew specifically where he was because a regular pedestrian walking that bridge would not have had the visibility to see where he was.

Speaker 41 So how'd they know he was there?

Speaker 41 And also, if you're calling 911, let me just ask you personally, if you're calling 911 saying you see a body lying under a bridge or somebody in a lake or somebody not moving, are you cool, calm, and collected?

Speaker 41 Are you out also asking to be anonymous? Probably not. I mean, if you are, I would really like to know your reasoning.
If it's me, I'm calling 911 and I'm saying, oh my God, there's a body here.

Speaker 41 I don't know what to do. Do you want me to go near it? Do you want me to try to help them? Do you want me to see if they're alive? My name's Annie.
What can I help you with?

Speaker 41 Like, that seems to me at least like the normal course of action and how you would respond. Something just was not equating here.
So Jeff, he theorized and tried to make sense of it.

Speaker 41 And he's like, what if the person who called 911 was the same person who pushed him off that bridge? What if that same person drugged him? He was convinced by this point that he was targeted.

Speaker 41 He was a predator's clear-cut target and possibly even the predator who was the rumored serial killer roaming the streets of Austin.

Speaker 47 And then they also had done a toxicology screen and they did find rufil in my system. So, and there was no other substances outside of that.

Speaker 47 There's no way to really know because I don't have, unfortunately, any memory of the actual event.

Speaker 47 But yeah, somebody had drugged me and either tried to rob me or, you know, maybe it was part of whatever this murdering situation is. We're not really sure, but obviously something had happened.

Speaker 47 And it seemed odd, too, that a few of the other guys in our group also had gone home with, you know, abnormally

Speaker 47 high levels of confusion and more than just typical intoxication. It was definitely quite a...
quite a revelation. I mean, I had never really contemplated my own mortality at all.

Speaker 47 I'm in my mid-30s, so it's not even something you think about, really. We had actually heard about it when we were going down.

Speaker 47 There was about six or seven of us on a flight down from Boston together on Thursday, and we had heard of the disappearances of people, and we were kind of joking with one another.

Speaker 47 Oh, watch out for the serial killer in Austin.

Speaker 47 And, you know, to wake up and then realize that it could have actually been a target of somebody in that exact situation we were laughing about was definitely a shock.

Speaker 47 Yeah, I mean, I hadn't, I had heard about it, but I hadn't really, I obviously did a lot more research afterwards, started realizing that I fit the profile of a 20 or 30-something male who've been disappearing at an increasing rate over the past few years in Austin.

Speaker 47 So

Speaker 47 it's really unfortunate. And I don't know that I believe that it's really a serial killer, but I do think that the drug is that these drugs that can knock you out are very prevalent.

Speaker 47 and easily available for people down there. And if

Speaker 47 they want to take advantage of someone, it's a great way to do it. You completely incapacitate someone within an hour or so.

Speaker 47 So I think that may be the real issue, is just that that drug is kind of running rampant around major cities. I think it's something that really needs to be addressed at this point.

Speaker 47 I mean, with the fact that you have this many people disappearing in your city, whether it's a serial killer or not, I feel like that's not good for tourism.

Speaker 47 And you would think that they would want to eradicate that issue.

Speaker 47 sooner than later.

Speaker 47 It's crazy. But

Speaker 47 yeah, hopefully, you know, me having having these conversations can get some awareness and at least

Speaker 47 help people be a little more safe when they're down there. And in a few other cities around the country, which seem to have kind of similar issues going on.

Speaker 41 Do you guys have any reason to believe there was anything suspicious surrounding the incident involving Jeff Jones?

Speaker 42 No. And

Speaker 42 from what I had heard, he just had no recollection of the events of that night. But the officers that had responded out there found him at the bottom of the

Speaker 42 to find him on the ground. So again, without like video or anything

Speaker 42 definitive to show

Speaker 42 that there was any foul play, everything pointed to the fact that he had just fallen.

Speaker 41 And another man thinks that he may have been a target as well. 21-year-old Christian Pugh vanished after a night out in November of 2019.

Speaker 41 On the night of November 17th, Christian had been out bar hopping with his friends all along Rainey Street, and everything was going normal, everything was fine.

Speaker 41 But Christian was last seen seen around 1:30 a.m. Similar to Jeff, similar to Connor, similar to so many of these people, right around that 1.30, 2 o'clock hour.

Speaker 41 Christian had gotten separated from his group of friends after that night out on Rainy Street. And just like Jeff and Connor, when his friends tried to text him or call him, there was no response.

Speaker 41 Now, what ensued for the next couple of days was an ultimate frantic search. Multiple law enforcement agencies combed the area.
They were desperately searching for Christian.

Speaker 41 And even more weird, when the police checked surveillance footage from the bar where he was last seen, there was absolutely no sign of him leaving.

Speaker 41 It was almost like he walked into this bar and then just vanished, just ceased to exist at all. But 60 hours, 6-0, 60 hours after he disappeared, Christian was finally found.

Speaker 41 He was found unconscious and barely clinging to life. His body was found deep in the brush along this trail right alongside surrounding Lady Bird Lake.

Speaker 41 It was hidden under the shadow of one of these bridges, just in the brush, deep in there, hidden away, tucked away.

Speaker 41 And in fact, he was so well concealed that it's likely that somebody would have ever found him by accident.

Speaker 41 His body wasn't found near a busy path where a casual jogger or biker would maybe stumble across it.

Speaker 41 It was almost like somebody hid him there on purpose, in a place where they thought that nobody would ever look.

Speaker 41 His body was also a mile away, on the opposite side of the lake from where he was last seen. And that kind of just begs the question of, how do you even get there?

Speaker 41 When first responders reached his body, Christian was in critical condition, and he had had injuries that were so severe that, like the others, he was rushed to the hospital and he was immediately placed in a coma.

Speaker 41 And this coma lasted an entire month. Now let me just say, somebody's body has to be really badly injured to be placed in a medically induced coma.

Speaker 41 So now here you have two people, very similar circumstances, who just vanished from their friends and beaten or injured so badly to where they needed to be placed in a medically induced coma at the same area, by the same lake, after partying on the same strip of bars.

Speaker 41 Again, at what point can you not chalk this up to a coincidence? That is too many similarities. And all of these are men, all of these are men who were out partying.

Speaker 41 Like, there's too many similarities. But once again, the official report from the Austin Police Department said it's nothing more than a tragic accident.

Speaker 41 Christian had fallen from this bridge by accident, probably was drunk, case closed. But his injuries, they told a very different story because his body was battered.

Speaker 41 He had multiple traumatic injuries, the kind that don't line up with this simple fall off of a bridge.

Speaker 41 And even if he had fallen off of a bridge, how did he end up then so hidden, so deep in the brush, so far away from where gravity would have naturally taken him if he fell off a bridge? No way.

Speaker 41 Like, they're saying he fell from a bridge, he was so injured because of the impact of that fall, but then he somehow managed to move himself all the way into this deep, hidden brush.

Speaker 41 Make that make sense. So Christian's family never accepted that this was just an accident.

Speaker 41 They believed that Christian had been drugged, attacked, and then intentionally thrown from the bridge, then left for dead in this secluded spot where nobody was supposed to find him.

Speaker 41 And guys, it just gets weirder.

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Speaker 41 Now, while many people believe that these men just happened to escape the clutches of a serial killer, others believe that this serial killer has been active for much longer than originally believed.

Speaker 41 After the string of deaths since 2022, police have also started to re-examine re-examine older cases and start to look at them with fresh eyes.

Speaker 41 Cases that once did seem like accidents or isolated incidents, but now they seem very eerily familiar. For example, the death of Riyadh Hammond in 2008.

Speaker 41 Riyadh was a 55-year-old school teacher who was reported missing by his family on April 14th, 2008. This was after he didn't return home after going to a nearby pharmacy.

Speaker 41 Then, two days later, he was found on the south side of Lady Bird Lake and he had duct tape over his eyes and mouth. He also had injuries to his face, his body, and his hands and his feet were bound.

Speaker 41 Despite these concerning circumstances, police ruled this death as a suicide.

Speaker 41 Which tell me what person is taking their own life and putting duct tape over their eyes, their mouth, and binding their feet and hands. How does that work? Like, how do you even justify that, right?

Speaker 41 To me, and I'm not trying to like be critical of the police department, but to me, it almost seems like the police are more concerned with marketing Austin as this safe, beautiful community where people can go and tourists can come and everybody can have a great time and feel safe.

Speaker 41 So they're trying to explain away all these deaths rather than look at the writing on the wall and say, uh, something doesn't feel right here. Maybe they need to put somebody in undercover.

Speaker 41 Maybe they need to put more surveillance out there. I don't know, but how do you come to these conclusions?

Speaker 41 How do you say that that was self-inflicted and somebody's duct taping their eyes and their mouth and binding their hands and feet and also have injuries to their face and body? Like, what?

Speaker 41 Are you out of your mind? And in May 2008, just weeks after Riyadh's mysterious death, another teacher vanished. And of course, this teacher also vanished under eerily similar circumstances.

Speaker 41 Now, this teacher was a woman, and she had left her house late at night to make a quick run to the grocery store. But when she went to the grocery store, she never returned.

Speaker 41 Days passed and her family grew, obviously, increasingly desperate. They filed missing persons reports, they were putting flyers out, they were pleading for help, they just wanted answers.

Speaker 41 But then a few days later, her body was discovered by a group of fishermen. And can you take a guess where it was discovered? Right there in Ladybird Lake.

Speaker 41 But what really stood out wasn't just where she was found, but more so the condition of her body when she was found.

Speaker 41 Because despite having been missing for only a few days at that point, her body was severely decomposed, far more than what would be expected in such a short amount of time. It just didn't make sense.

Speaker 41 Then, fast forward to 2012, and the police found a 21-year-old named Cole Christensen dead right there in a creek near Lady Bird Lake. His body was found by somebody passing by.

Speaker 41 Like so many of these cases, the police didn't really conduct much of an investigation. They just said his death wasn't suspicious, and his official cause of death has never even been released.

Speaker 41 Then, between February of 2014 and 2016, just a two-year period, five more bodies were found, and these bodies were all belonging to people between 20 years old and 35 years old.

Speaker 41 And like all the other cases we've talked about, they were out drinking, out with friends, vanished, and then turned up in Ladybird Lake or near Ladybird Lake.

Speaker 41 Later that same year, 25-year-old Christian White was in Austin attending the Austin City Limits Music Festival. And one night he got separated from his friends and then, like the others, disappeared.

Speaker 41 They reported him missing and his body was found in a river that connected to Ladybird Lake. His talks report showed a slew of drugs in his system.

Speaker 41 However, an official cause of death was never revealed. And despite the tragic nature of all of these deaths, at the time, there wasn't a clear pattern or link between them.

Speaker 41 I mean, Austin is a pretty big city with over 40 to 50 homicides a year, so the sheer size of the city really made it difficult to connect these individual deaths to one another.

Speaker 41 It was hard to say whether they were anything more than just random occurrences.

Speaker 41 But one of the most concerning deaths happened just weeks later, because 25-year-old Martin Gutierrez had recently moved to Austin after graduating from Texas Tech University.

Speaker 48 Martin, such a good kid. He was a little bit younger than me.
He's like six years younger than me.

Speaker 48 Such a happy, happy individual, very optimistic, painfully optimistic. He's such a great person.

Speaker 48 You know, he went to Texas Tech, graduated, and he always used to come here to Austin all the time. And then when he graduated, he came and moved in with me.

Speaker 48 And so that's what ultimately brought him here to Austin. He was the baby of that.

Speaker 41 You were really close. Sounds like you were really close.

Speaker 48 Very, very much so. We went to the gym every day.
Like we did everything the same. We watched the same stupid movies all the time on repeat.
You know, just, you know, those kinds of things.

Speaker 41 He moved in with his brother Mitchell and with his sister-in-law Whitney. And all three of them supposedly got along great.
They loved going out together.

Speaker 41 So one night, along with a few of their friends, all three of them went out to dinner. And then after dinner, Martin decided to go out with some friends out on Rainy Street.

Speaker 41 So they started out at one bar, which I want to say, and make it clear, Martin did not have a drink at this bar.

Speaker 41 Then they went to another bar called Luster Pearl, and at this bar, Martin had exactly one drink.

Speaker 41 He and his friends then wandered over to another bar called Alibi, and apparently once they got there, Martin was eventually thrown out. The bouncers at Alibi said that he was behaving very strangely.

Speaker 41 That was the reason he was thrown out. So because of that, Martin separated from his friends and then he started heading down South Rainy Street, all by himself, alone.
Sounds familiar, right?

Speaker 41 And sure enough, Martin didn't make it home that night and never came home the next day either. This caused his brother and his sister-in-law to, of course, you know, panic and really start to worry.

Speaker 48 Him and I were a victim of routine. You know, we went to the gym, you know, like six days a week.

Speaker 48 Uh, so whenever I got off of work at 2:30, I'd come home, clean the house or whatever, and then he'd get off of work at five and then we'd go to the gym.

Speaker 48 Like we had a set routine that we did all the time. And I texted him like, hey man, where are you at? You know, and he was very dependable.
He never missed a day at work.

Speaker 48 He was, was you know always always there very predictable and he didn't answer and then we called his work and he didn't go to work which was unheard of um so we called around called the the buddies he was with the previous night and they said that he had just left and

Speaker 48 they didn't know where he was and then so we called around and i was like well maybe he's you know at his girlfriend's house and uh and he wasn't there so we knew something was immediately off within like an hour of not making it to the gym i knew something was off and then uh the next day i went to like local hospitals like saton facilities st david's asking around if there were any john does that were found or brought to their facilities or anything like that um and there was nothing mitch gutierrez filed a police report and started searching for martin as any family member would do he remembers what martin's friends told him about the night that he vanished so it was a sunday night um he went out to go meet up with uh some buddies that were just watching Sunday night football out there on Rainy Street.

Speaker 48 They went to one bar, they weren't there very long, then went to another bar called Luster Pearl.

Speaker 48 From Luster Pearl, my brother was perfectly fine. And then he went to the bar next door called Alibi.
By the time he made it to Alibi, he could barely even stand. He was slurring his speech.

Speaker 48 According to my friends, they were like, what's wrong with Martin? Like, you know, it's not him. And I know my brother through and through.
You know, we'd go out all the time, we'd drink.

Speaker 48 And And what I saw in that footage that the bar owner let us see, that wasn't him. I don't know what was going on.
But from one moment, he was okay. And then he wasn't.

Speaker 48 And so unfortunately with the bar, there's an inside area. And then you go to the back area where the bathrooms are.
And then you can actually exit on the outside, which is what he did.

Speaker 48 So the buddies that he was with. didn't even realize that he was gone.
They figured, oh, he went to the bathroom or whatever.

Speaker 48 And then they texted him after, you know, like maybe 10, 15 minutes, like, hey, where you at?

Speaker 41 No response. Martin's family reported him as missing, and a large search ensued.
Martin's disappearance was all over the news. Flyers were everywhere.

Speaker 57 It's been almost three days, and Martin Guterres is still missing. His friends and family searched for him all day today, but nothing turned up.
They are not giving up, though.

Speaker 57 Kayview's Patrick Perez is live on Rainy Street near downtown Austin, where they've put up posters.

Speaker 43 Patrick?

Speaker 60 Well, Mike, this is a poster. Martin's friends and family have placed throughout Rainy Street and the surrounding area.

Speaker 60 They're hoping that someone will recognize him from that picture and know where he is. Now, throughout the day, search crews have been in the air, on the water, and on the ground looking for Martin.

Speaker 60 His friends and family were out there too, checking places he may have wandered off to in the dark. Many of them drove at least five hours just to help search for him.

Speaker 60 Martin's friends last saw him early Monday morning at the alibi on Rainy Street. He tried to find a ride home, but he never made it.
Nearly 72 hours later, his family hopes he'll turn up soon.

Speaker 52 I'm hoping he's not in the water that had drowned.

Speaker 53 I'm hoping someone didn't hurt him and he's down somewhere and he can't do anything or someone took him. I just don't want to think that he's behind a dumpster somewhere.

Speaker 60 At a press conference earlier today, a detective said they don't suspect foul play, but an APD spokesperson later told me they haven't ruled it out just yet.

Speaker 60 Morton's family is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who has any information about where he may be. They'll also be here tomorrow morning bright and early working on Thanksgiving to find him.

Speaker 60 We're live in downtown Austin tonight.

Speaker 57 I'm Patrick Perez, KB News.

Speaker 41 Finally, after a week of searching, a body was found near the area where Martin was last seen on surveillance footage.

Speaker 41 His body was in the lake, and he was also wearing the same clothing as the night that he went missing.

Speaker 41 And like almost all of the other deaths, the medical examiner in this case determined that his cause of death was drowning.

Speaker 41 But Martin's family just was not convinced because he had this very large contusion on the back of his head.

Speaker 41 And the medical examiner never gave an answer as to what that could have been from, what could have caused it. But in any event, the police closed the case almost as soon as they opened it.

Speaker 48 He had water in his lungs, but on the autopsy report, he had a large contusion on the back of his head, in the occipital region of his head.

Speaker 48 And I just find it hard to believe that, you know, this kid was like the best swimmer in the world, but swimming aside, like it was like 20 degrees.

Speaker 48 There was no way he would ever hop in that water or whatever. They said it was an accidental drowning.
There was no way. Like there's no logical sense for him to be anywhere near that water.

Speaker 41 Mitch Gutierrez fears that someone harmed his brother and he's not satisfied with the answers he was given about his brother's cause of death.

Speaker 48 I'm in the medical field, you know, not to say I'm an expert in autopsies and whatnot, but I'm an ICU nurse practitioner and dead people don't bleed.

Speaker 48 So if you have a large contusion on the back of your head, that means you were bruising. That means you had to have time to bruise.
Dead people don't bleed.

Speaker 48 And he had a contusion on the back of his head. They said, well, maybe he hit his head when he fell in the water.

Speaker 48 Well, if he fell, hit his head in the water, drowned, he would have never had a contusion on the back of his head.

Speaker 41 His family has been insanely vocal about Martin's death, and they are sure that somebody did something intentionally to hurt him.

Speaker 41 His sister-in-law Whitney told that same publication, The Daily Dot: Something I feel very deeply happened to him that night. There was no indication of him trying to hurt himself or commit suicide.

Speaker 41 He wasn't in any secretive groups trying to meet up with secretive people. Something happened to him.

Speaker 57 His brother says he is just numb. He looked every day for Martin Guterres, who disappeared after a night of drinks on Rainey Street.

Speaker 57 And a week later, just Monday, authorities pulled his body out of Ladybird Lake.

Speaker 63 Tonight, Guterres' family still don't know why he ended up in the water, but they hope something changes so this doesn't happen to anyone else. KVU's Patrick Perez spoke with Martin's brother tonight.

Speaker 63 Patrick?

Speaker 64 Mike and Quito, these last few days have been really rough for Martin's family.

Speaker 64 On Monday, they had a strong feeling it was his body Cruz had pulled out of the water, but they had to wait until the next morning to know for sure.

Speaker 60 But what they still want to know is, why didn't Martin make it home?

Speaker 47 Oh, he lived right up here.

Speaker 44 And

Speaker 65 I come home and the house is empty.

Speaker 65 He's gone.

Speaker 66 Mitchell Guterres still doesn't know what to think about the circumstances surrounding his brother's death.

Speaker 65 It's absolutely gut-wrenching, and I just feel numb at this point.

Speaker 66 Cruz pulled 25-year-old Martin Guterres' body out of Ladybird Lake Monday, a week after he disappeared from Rainy Street in downtown Austin.

Speaker 65 You know, you get some kind of closure with finding him, but it's just not full yet.

Speaker 65 We just wanted to know what happened to him.

Speaker 67 What happened after Martin left the alibi bar and why he didn't get a ride home?

Speaker 65 We take Ubers everywhere. Everywhere.
He took an Uber to get there.

Speaker 52 I don't know.

Speaker 65 It just, something's not right. And it just, I just don't have that closure because something just doesn't connect.

Speaker 41 Needless to say, there is an obvious sense of unease that is just sweeping through the city, still to this day.

Speaker 45 There are renewed concerns after a woman was recently found dead in Lady Bird Lake.

Speaker 45 Austin police say her body was in the water near Brazos and Cesar Chavez and that her death is not suspicious, but it's one of several bodies found in or near the water this year.

Speaker 45 Fox 7 Austin's John Krinjak spoke to some people who hang out on the north side of the lake. They say they intentionally avoid Rainy Street because of the bodies that have been found in that area.

Speaker 45 But to hear about deaths like this, this far west, that's sparking renewed concerns about safety.

Speaker 46 Very scary, especially given that I live in this neighborhood.

Speaker 50 Concern among people who hang out near Ladybird Lake Monday after the body of a woman was found Sunday morning in the water near Brazos and Cesar Chavez.

Speaker 68 A 9-1 call was received from a kayaker who is paddling upstream and observed some type of object in the water.

Speaker 50 Police say it appears the woman was homeless in her 60s and may have been trying to keep warm when she somehow ended up in the water. Detectives do not suspect foul play.

Speaker 68 There's nothing that appears to be suspicious.

Speaker 68 There's no type of connection that they believe.

Speaker 50 No connection to the at least five other deaths in or near Ladybird Lake just this year.

Speaker 46 Now that you mentioned the body was found in this area, maybe I will double think about like just walking late at night here.

Speaker 50 Three other deaths around the lake this year were also ruled not suspicious. In April, a fisherman spotted a person floating in the water at the east end of the lake near Craig Field.

Speaker 50 In July, a man was suffering from blunt force trauma on the trail near Rainey Street. The man was pronounced dead a short time later.

Speaker 50 And in September, a body was found along a trail near the lake off Pleasant Valley.

Speaker 51 It's shocking, obviously. Like, I don't know.
It's, it's like, I don't know.

Speaker 51 Do I feel safe to come and walk?

Speaker 41 With all the inconsistencies and seemingly incomplete talks reports and medical reports, also pair that with the unexplained injuries, the rushed investigations.

Speaker 41 I mean, people aren't convinced that these deaths are not connected.

Speaker 41 And in a statement to a local newspaper, the police said, the Austin Police Department homicide unit investigates each death in the city to determine if it is suspicious.

Speaker 41 Following the initial investigations, a medical examiner does a hands-on body exam to determine if there are any signs of physical injuries.

Speaker 41 The investigation then goes to the talks unit to determine if there is any internal damage. Through this process, one death near Ladybird Lake in December of 2022 was ruled a homicide.

Speaker 41 The other deaths in and around Ladybird Lake are not considered suspicious due to the results of these investigations. But despite this official stance, residents are not convinced.
convinced.

Speaker 41 Some are even convinced that the police might be intentionally withholding information so that they could avoid sparking panic among the tourists.

Speaker 41 Because remember, Austin's nightlife is a huge tourist destination.

Speaker 41 Many also point to the striking similarities between all the victims, mostly young men in their 20s and 30s, who are just conventionally attractive, have dark features, most of them are out and about on 6th or Rainy Street with friends, and then just disappear.

Speaker 41 And despite the reassurances from the police, the locals are not backing down.

Speaker 41 People are banding together, encouraging one another to really start taking extra precautions using the buddy system, not going out alone, staying alert, keeping close to friends.

Speaker 41 More and more bars are also providing drug testing strips to their customers so that if you get a drink or leave your drink to go to the bathroom or somebody buys you a drink, you can test it and actually see if you are being drugged.

Speaker 41 I gotta say, if the bars are rolling that out and offering that to their customers, first of all, amazing work. I mean, good on you.

Speaker 41 But also, that tells me that they even suspect that there is probably somebody intentionally drugging people in these bars.

Speaker 41 In July of 2024, a petition was launched that is called Austin Police Department, acknowledge that the Austin drownings may not be accidents.

Speaker 41 And this petition has already collected thousands of signatures. But despite the growing public concern, the police have yet to announce any further investigation into these deaths.

Speaker 41 But the victims' families are also not just taking this lightly. They're demanding action as well.
Many of them are convinced that somebody is responsible for the deaths of their loved ones.

Speaker 41 And they're even saying, you know what, even if these deaths were accidents, which we don't believe that they are, the police need to step up and fix things, you know, step up their efforts.

Speaker 41 So, with that, and what I mean by that is they're calling for major improvements to the all-around area.

Speaker 41 They're asking for a fence around the lake, more lighting, increased police patrol at night, additional cameras on those trails that surround the lakes.

Speaker 41 I mean, things to where there's more monitoring and more safety precautions put in place.

Speaker 67 It is pitch black.

Speaker 52 You can't see anything.

Speaker 56 This is what the Ladybird Lake Trail looks like at night.

Speaker 52 I mean, it is, it gets dark. I mean, there is no lighting.

Speaker 56 That's what Mitchell Gutierrez has been fighting to change since 2018. He wants lights and cameras installed on this trail.

Speaker 56 Something he's wanted since his younger brother Martin went missing here four years ago. His body found one week later in the lake.

Speaker 52 People are dying around. Families are just being crushed and devastated through all of this, and something needs to be done.

Speaker 54 This to be something that changes Austin.

Speaker 54 We want that trail to be lit up. It's hard to believe in 2023 that entire trail has no cameras on it.
There's no

Speaker 54 very little lighting. It's incredibly dark over there.

Speaker 54 That has to be fixed.

Speaker 56 The families recently sat down with state leaders to discuss the idea of lights and cameras on the trail.

Speaker 56 Mitchell says he hasn't heard much pushback, only from environmentalists claiming it's not safe.

Speaker 52 As much as I love, you know, the environment, trees, birds, and everything, it's not worth a human life. I don't give a

Speaker 52 about that. When in comparison, if it could have prevented Jason from going through all this.

Speaker 56 Now both families feel their plea for change might actually become a reality. If and when it happens, Mitchell says it'll be the ultimate testimony to both Jason's and Martin's life.

Speaker 52 Surveillance and lighting will mean that we actually made a change.

Speaker 52 That something happened, that my brother's death won't go in vain.

Speaker 41 And while some of these changes have been implemented, a lot of locals feel like it still just isn't enough.

Speaker 41 They still feel that there's this sense of danger out there and it just continues to linger. A lot of the people believe that Austin is the perfect praying ground.

Speaker 41 You have people who are going out late night, heavy drinking, visitors who are unfamiliar with the area, area. So it almost seems like a perfect playground for a predator.

Speaker 41 Easy targets, easy people, easy way to slip things in their drink. And look, I will be honest, I would say that everybody's pretty split.

Speaker 41 While a lot of people do suspect there is a serial killer out on the loose, there are a lot of people, even in the Austin area, who are saying it probably is just accidental drownings.

Speaker 41 I don't think there's a serial killer out there. You know, I think everybody's overreacting.
So people are very divided.

Speaker 41 But then in April of 2024, a bartender posted a very disturbing account on Reddit. Now, I'll just say this.
We don't know what's reliable information on Reddit, right?

Speaker 41 People can post anything and everything over there.

Speaker 41 Despite this, the story quickly gained a lot of attention because according to this post, a customer came into this bar, approached this bartender, and just claimed to be the Rainy Street Ripper.

Speaker 41 And the poster on Reddit described him as a white man in his 40s. He had light brown hair, a muscular build, and he stood at around 5 feet 10 inches.

Speaker 41 But what was most chilling was the comment that this person allegedly said to this bartender.

Speaker 41 You know, not just the one of him being the Rainy Street Ripper, but that he claimed he was, quote, killing homos.

Speaker 41 Now, I don't know if a serial killer would randomly just announce that to a bartender, although I have to say, most of the bodies and victims being men, not that they've ever been confirmed to be gay or not.

Speaker 41 Maybe there's something to that if he thinks that they're gay. I don't really know.

Speaker 41 But I also don't know if a serial killer is just just going to up and like out themselves to a bartender or if like they said it in more of a not joking kind of way, but like, you know, unassuming kind of way.

Speaker 41 We know that sometimes in these cases, serial killers do get proud and they want to brag. So I don't know.
Take it how you want. Do your own research.

Speaker 41 And I am interested to hear your thoughts because I don't really know what to think. My guess is that it's probably not real.
But like I said, the post did get a lot of traction.

Speaker 41 And one thing I think we can all agree on, I would at least hope, is that we do need more information to truly see if these deaths are connected. I mean, did they all go to the same bars?

Speaker 41 Did they have any other injuries? Were they all drugged with the same kind of drug? Did the men have anything else in common? Like, are there any connecting factors?

Speaker 41 Now, weirdly, in all of these circumstances, the police never said why they immediately ruled out foul play in all of these deaths.

Speaker 41 People also bring up that certain drugs, like GHB, for example, can quickly metabolize and not even show up in autopsies. So how many were drugged that we don't even know about?

Speaker 41 But again, I want to know what you guys think. Are people people making something out of nothing? Are they just seeing what they want to see? Or is there really something deeper going on here?

Speaker 41 And if you're from Austin, let me know what the community is saying right now too. Let me know either on Spotify comments or in the review section on Apple, since that's the best way we can connect.

Speaker 41 And on Spotify, it's actually cool because I can comment back to you or I can't do that in the review section. But still, it's a way for us to engage.

Speaker 41 But I'm curious to know what you guys think. Like I said, this has been one that has been in the works for a while now because so many people have been asking for coverage of this.

Speaker 41 And I felt like it was finally time. There, to me, there's just, I always say, where there's smoke, there's fire, and something just doesn't really sit right with me.

Speaker 41 I could understand people being drunk and accidentally falling into the water and drowning, very similar to Riley Strain, although I know a lot of people believe that there was foul play involved in that.

Speaker 41 So I like, I could definitely see that. But then you layer in the drugs in their system.

Speaker 41 You add in the injuries. Some that had such severe injuries, they were put into a medically induced coma.
You add in the weird vanishing act from all of them. Something just doesn't feel right here.

Speaker 41 Not at all.

Speaker 41 I mean, at best, at best, I would argue that somebody's at least drugging these people and then it's an accident, whether it's falling off the bridge or drowning, but that somebody still is behind it because they're the ones drugging them without their knowledge.

Speaker 41 But that's like best case scenario. Worst case scenario is that they're drugged, then targeted, and then killed, right? So let me know what you guys think.

Speaker 41 Thank you so much for tuning in to another deep dive over here on Serialously. My usual sign-off is something like don't do this that's related to the case.

Speaker 41 And I don't want to say don't go to Austin because I love Austin, but I will say don't ever leave your drink unattended. Stay safe, watch your back, be nice, don't kill people.

Speaker 41 Don't leave your drink unattended and don't ever accept a drink from a stranger unless it is like a, not even a bottle of beer that has the capstone on. Just don't, don't.

Speaker 41 All right, guys, I'll be back with you on Thursday for Headline Highlights where we break down everything happening this week in the true crime world. And so I will talk with you then.
All right.

Speaker 41 Thanks for tuning in. And until the next one, like I said, stay safe, be nice, don't kill people, and don't accept any drinks from Rando's.
All right, bye, guys.

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256: Super SCARY! Serial Killer in Austin, TX?! What is REALLY Going on at Lady Bird Lake?

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