The waters of a Texas lake stay shrouded in thriller as dozens of younger males’s our bodies proceed to be pulled from the depths, placing a group on edge as rumors of a serial killer proceed to swirl.
Final month, authorities found yet one more man’s physique in Austin’s Girl Hen Lake, bringing the overall depend to a whopping 38 people recovered from the waters since 2022.
Officers responded to an early-morning 911 name reporting a physique within the water and subsequently positioned the deceased man, the Austin Police Division (APD) stated in a press release to Fox Information Digital.
There was no trauma to the physique, and police don’t suspect foul play was concerned, the APD stated. The division is presently working to find out whether or not the physique recovered is a 17-year-old male reported lacking two days earlier.
The teenager’s household known as police after he bought out of his kayak with out carrying a life jacket and subsequently disappeared whereas having fun with a day on the lake, authorities stated. Investigators consider he had unknowingly stepped on an underwater shelf and did not resurface after his kayak was later recovered together with his backpack and life jacket nonetheless inside.
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Police revealed that the person discovered within the lake was carrying the identical clothes because the lacking teenager, however identification is pending.
APD didn’t instantly reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark relating to the group’s fears surrounding a serial killer.
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The invention comes as fears of a serial killer lurking locally’s midst proceed to loom over the realm, with native authorities persevering with to downplay the chance.
“The denials by regulation enforcement and different authorities that these circumstances are murders or the work of a serial killer are untimely,” Dr. Carole Lieberman, a forensic psychiatrist and knowledgeable trial witness, informed Fox Information Digital. “They don’t need the general public to panic a few attainable serial killer, so they’re making mild of all of the deaths.”
Since 2022, a minimum of 38 our bodies have been recovered in or round Girl Hen Lake, in line with information obtained by Fox 7. Of the practically three dozen our bodies discovered, 30 have reportedly been males, with roughly 60 p.c between 30 and 49 years previous.
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Police patrol downtown Rainey Road after a number of our bodies have been found in close by Girl Hen Lake in Austin, Texas.
Regardless of native authorities’ insistence that there is no such thing as a ongoing threat to the general public, Lieberman factors to the sheer quantity of consistencies among the many victims’ ages and gender.
“The truth that 30 of the 38 our bodies present in and round Girl Hen Lake since 2022 are male does counsel that this might be the work of a serial killer whose most popular goal is males,” Lieberman stated. “If the deaths had been merely because of unintentional drowning or suicide, there wouldn’t be a preponderance of 1 gender over the opposite.”
One widespread idea circulating all through the group suggests the deaths are a results of date-rape medicine slipped into the drinks of victims visiting bars on close by Rainey Road – a well-liked hotspot for partying close to the water.
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In February 2023, the physique of Jason John, 30, was pulled from the lake one week after he was final seen on Rainey Road. Two months later, Jonathan Honey, 33, was discovered at some point after he was final seen visiting a meals truck parked on the favored avenue.
“[Date-rape drugs] may render them straightforward prey for a thief and killer,” Lieberman stated. “Older males may equally be straightforward prey.”
All through the previous three years, the first reason for demise of the our bodies pulled from Girl Hen Lake has been attributed to unintentional drownings, Fox 7 reported. Suicide reportedly stays the second main trigger, in addition to pure causes and drug overdoses.
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Of the 38 deaths, just one has been dominated a homicide – with roughly half a dozen circumstances remaining unknown.
“One can’t rule out {that a} so-called ‘unintentional’ drowning isn’t the results of a assassin except there have been witnesses,” Lieberman informed Fox Information Digital. “Murderers can use drowning as their [modus operandi]. Equally, suicides should be confirmed, not simply assumed if somebody has been depressed.”
Moreover, Lieberman pointed to the attractiveness of disposing human stays in our bodies of water.
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“Water may cause decomposition of the physique and might wash away proof, from fingerprints to DNA,” Lieberman stated. “If the water has motion, comparable to a river or stream, it will possibly propel the physique removed from the precise scene of the crime, making it extra sophisticated to search out the killer. Some killers select water-based crime scenes with the hopes that their homicide can be misconstrued as drowning, which might make it more durable, as a result of it may be troublesome to distinguish drowning from homicide.”
In a 2023 assertion, APD seemed to quell the general public’s fears surrounding the opportunity of a serial killer concentrating on males within the space, citing the lake’s harmful situations when blended with alcohol.
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“One widespread theme of the drownings in Austin [in 2023] is the mix of alcohol and easy accessibility to Girl Hen Lake, which has quite a few entry factors,” the division stated.
Police identified that the overwhelming majority of deaths on the time occurred after the park’s closing time and inspired group members to be aware of native guidelines.
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Nonetheless, as increasingly victims proceed to fall to the waters of Girl Hen Lake, Lieberman calls on authorities to not flip a blind eye to the morbid coincidences surrounding the deaths.
“Except regulation enforcement finds another clarification for the big variety of deaths in and round Girl Hen Lake lately,” Lieberman stated. “Then I feel that the chance of a serial killer can’t be ignored.”
Fox Information Digital’s Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
Unique article supply: Serial killer fears grip Texas group after dozens of our bodies pulled from lake: ‘Can’t be ignored’