Authorities launched a death investigation Monday after another body was pulled out of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas.
A 911 call reported seeing a body in the lake around 1:30 p.m. local time, Austin-Travis County EMS told Fox7. The caller was on the north side of the lake in about 20 feet of water, an area frequented by locals and at least one group of residents who’ve been searching for a missing friend since Saturday.
“Our initial thoughts were hopefully it was not our friend, you know we just don’t want it to be our friend,” Jaydon Wolf, one of the missing persons friends, told the outlet. “He went missing on Saturday night around 11:30 p.m. on 6th Street. We were all at the bars. We thought he had gone home with someone else, and he didn’t end up coming home, so that is what drew us out here.”
The water around the park of the lake where the body was recovered is relatively shallow, leading some to believe the most recent death was no accident. “It would be hard to see how this could be an accident. There is pretty shallow water here. You have signs everywhere, so I don’t know, it would be hard to see. An accident, I think if that was the reason given, it would be hard to believe. It has to be something going on with all the previous bodies found,” another local, Abdul Tabbakha, noted.
REPORT: Multiple Bodies Found In Chicago Have People Scared Of A Serial Killer | @DailyCaller https://t.co/3qqhCHGXfv
— KAY SMYTHE (@KaySmythe) February 7, 2023
At least five bodies were recovered from the lake in the last year, according to the New York Post. Most victims are men in their 30s and early 40s who’d been drinking on the nearby Rainey Street. Austin police department apparently played down the potential risk of the deaths being related to a serial killer. But in late January, a woman was being sought in connection to a series of men being drugged and robbed throughout the downtown area. (RELATED: Portland Police Dismiss Serial Killer Theory Despite Six Women’s Eerily Similar Deaths)
In June 2023, U.S. officials stated they believed multiple serial killers were rampaging around parts of the country, including the alleged murderer Rex Heuermann. But officials failed to mention the 13 men pulled from the Chicago River and Lake Michigan in the 16 months before their statement. All men died under eerily similar circumstances, as seen by those in Austin. Could this all be a coincidence, the same killer moving south, or are we dealing with more than one person targeting young American men?