Re: Serial killers - There can be many types of them. No need to even talk about the rise in true crime genre or whether they are likely to be as meticulous as Dexter or Hannibal Lector. That said, I think in every single notable American serial killer case there have been near misses and people who escaped. In some cases that led to the capture of the perp, but in others they were able to continue on, sometimes for years.
I've been to Rainey Street hundreds of times over the years, last went back in 2014 or 2015. Never once did I find myself wandering down to the water and I can't imagine why anyone else would especially someone not from Austin and with friends. A good friend's nephew was pulled from the lake in 2015, the medical examiner declared it a drowning, despite him being a strong competitive swimmer and there being no water in his lungs. Hmmm...his name was Zach in case anyone is interested in looking into it.
In any case, I'm not 100% on board with the *typical* serial killer explanation. That said, I'm seeing a lot of talk on various boards about being drugged at bars on Rainey and West 6th street, dating back several years. There is also much pooh pooing that theory for this spate of drownings by asking "well, how many of them have been robbed?" To which I usually answer: "Who knows, but if it takes the police 5 days or more to ID a body, doesn't it stand to reason that they didn't have their wallet/identification on them?"
Guess we'll just have to wait and see, but the numbers sure are piling up.
The escalation of drunk drowning deaths of young men in their 20’s and 30’s seems to trend according to geography. There will be a 2-3 year spate in the mid-west, then a spate a few years later on the East Coast, now in Austin. Always young men, always coming home from the bar, always alone. There’s never evidence- no texting while walking near the lake, no gps locator on their phone, no witnesses, no cries for help, no clear point of entry, no history of getting black out drunk. I attended college in Minnesota - land of 10,000 lakes and the mighty Mississippi. By design, it’s not easy to fall into a lake walking home from a bar in the city center. It’s even harder to be so drunk that you find your way to a lake, fall in and are unable to flip flop your way back out.
Not near Rainey, but another dead young man pulled from the lake today.
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/1-person-pronounced-dead-after-afd-crews-pull-person-from-lady-bird-lake/
Re: Serial killers - There can be many types of them. No need to even talk about the rise in true crime genre or whether they are likely to be as meticulous as Dexter or Hannibal Lector. That said, I think in every single notable American serial killer case there have been near misses and people who escaped. In some cases that led to the capture of the perp, but in others they were able to continue on, sometimes for years.
I've been to Rainey Street hundreds of times over the years, last went back in 2014 or 2015. Never once did I find myself wandering down to the water and I can't imagine why anyone else would especially someone not from Austin and with friends. A good friend's nephew was pulled from the lake in 2015, the medical examiner declared it a drowning, despite him being a strong competitive swimmer and there being no water in his lungs. Hmmm...his name was Zach in case anyone is interested in looking into it.
In any case, I'm not 100% on board with the *typical* serial killer explanation. That said, I'm seeing a lot of talk on various boards about being drugged at bars on Rainey and West 6th street, dating back several years. There is also much pooh pooing that theory for this spate of drownings by asking "well, how many of them have been robbed?" To which I usually answer: "Who knows, but if it takes the police 5 days or more to ID a body, doesn't it stand to reason that they didn't have their wallet/identification on them?"
Guess we'll just have to wait and see, but the numbers sure are piling up.
The escalation of drunk drowning deaths of young men in their 20’s and 30’s seems to trend according to geography. There will be a 2-3 year spate in the mid-west, then a spate a few years later on the East Coast, now in Austin. Always young men, always coming home from the bar, always alone. There’s never evidence- no texting while walking near the lake, no gps locator on their phone, no witnesses, no cries for help, no clear point of entry, no history of getting black out drunk. I attended college in Minnesota - land of 10,000 lakes and the mighty Mississippi. By design, it’s not easy to fall into a lake walking home from a bar in the city center. It’s even harder to be so drunk that you find your way to a lake, fall in and are unable to flip flop your way back out.
https://www.newsweek.com/who-smiley-face-killer-chicago-deaths-spark-serial-killer-questions-1780257?amp=1