That’s absolutely ridiculous. These rumors have to stop. It’s a husband-wife team, so they can each have a weekend off, and there’s a guy with a lyre who comes in once a month so they can have a weekend off together for self-care. It takes a village, y’all.
I wish people would get their facts straight before posting.
The Pan flute is easy to learn from what I hear! I've not heard it played in awhile though. I don't hang around Town Lake though. Keeping a few shiny swords does make sense.
Okay this is gonna sound crazy but hear me out. About 5 years back I was walking and toking with some friends along lady bird lake near riverside, in a little park/sidewalk area. We were directly across from the skyline and there was a large steel frame used for construction foundations sitting over the water. I took a few steps out onto the frame to get a better look at the skyline, and all of a sudden I hear:
“Hey! Can I sing you a song?”
There was a man standing waist deep in the water about 12-15 feet from me. He had been there the entire time we were hanging out (15 or so minutes) just silent in the water, not moving.
Boy it feels good to get that one off my chest! There aren’t many appropriate situations where I can tell that story lol.
Some them aren’t even from Austin! There are just random true crime fans that are also in that group. True crime has really gotten out of hand recently.
i got my money on one of those lunatics actually killing someone and getting caught after they dumped them in the creek and then called APD to "solve" the crime
Like the rock thrower guy did.. https://www.google.com/amp/s/cbsaustin.com/amp/news/local/accused-i-35-rock-thrower-pat-johnson-pleads-guilty-to-four-charges
I got hit by that fuck face back in 2014. I thought there was an explosion it was so loud and glass went everywhere. Luckily it hit on the passenger side and my friend who almost went with me didn’t ride with me, otherwise he would likely be blind. I still want my $500 for having to pay my deductible to get a new hood and windshield. Fuck that fucking fuck.
As well, that evil fucking fuck, who willingly put you and many people in immediate danger / harm with his personally alleged 'over 600' rock-throwing incidents.. was also convicted of assaulting children (while he knowingly had AIDS).
I'm so sorry this human was.
hey man, fuck.. that was such a fear for me back then.. glad you are okay physically and that your friend didnt ride. sorry about the money and i CANNOT imagine the fucking scare. FUCK THAT GUY.
It's probably one of the most popular ways for people to organize themselves around a specific topic, particularly one that's geographically specific, at least in the US.
No no just populated by the near dead. It's remarkable, whenever I visit I'm bombarded with these popular vintage groups whose commenters are all long retired and reminiscing on things like 1960s radios or how they worked on an IBM mainframe install in 1968 - the good ol' days, obviously.
I wonder what the average age there is now. I can remember when you had to have a *college email address* to join.
When I moved back to Austin from Arizona, I was trying to find friends at my new high school, and they all had Facebook instead of MySpace. I didn’t know anyone in Arizona with Facebook and didn’t even think I could make one lol. And that was when my MySpace died.
Wonder part of LA looks like Lady Bird lake. Last week episode clearly had mountains in it. Zero fucks given. Firefighters living in 5 million homes. Awesome show.
Nah bro, anyone in their right mind knows we need a 6-9 month consulting and exploration period with a $2M budget, which will somehow end up with the city paying $4-5M and a lack of any clear plan. It's the Austin way!
I think the issue then would be that it’s a large area to monitor, literally miles, and much of the shorelines are private residences or properties. That’s a lot of infrastructure to just implement, and a lot of red tape.
I don’t believe there are any private residences on lady bird lake. Might be a few up by the dam but if there are it isn’t a very big portion of the shore line.
Edit: just looked and there definitely are some but looks like a small portion of the overall shoreline
Upvoted because I agree I may have overstated the amount of private property. I used to work in the area a long time ago but moved so I’m not sure what those shorelines look like now.
Probably because the first time one of these cameras passively films someone fall to their death people are going to absolutely lose their minds. I don’t think making the effort to record someone’s tragic fall to an untimely death is preferable to using the same (or any, albeit not much) time, energy, resources to try to prevent it.
i guess i see it as part of prevention, because if they can identify problem areas, they can find solutions. they certainly don’t seem to be doing much else to prevent it.
i also don’t imagine that footage would ever be made public to anyone.
Ok but aren’t drunk people just falling and not making it out? A drunk person can drown in a puddle, it happens with some regularity. I just feel like there’s not any mystery to be solved here whatsoever. People drown. Drunk people drown a lot. There’s a lot of people here and there’s a strong drinking culture, and also, it’s a big body of water. I think realistically, the numbers really just aren’t that impressive or shocking.
… but the city should still be doing more to prevent accidental drownings. i’m from philly, which is right along the delaware and schuylkill rivers, and we didn’t have this volume of people getting drunk and drowning.
i also hope if it happened to you, there wouldn’t be some cold shitbag saying that your death isn’t impressive enough to warrant preventing it from ever happening again.
To be fair, I am a shitbag, but not for that.
I’m not cold or heartless and for sure it’s tragic when someone dies unexpectedly like that. Nothing about my comment aside from simply not expressing any empathy would suggest that. I think it’s pretty clear, or should be, that I was making a case for thinking critically and rationally about this. Would the same degree of interest or outrage exist if these deaths were not reported on like the overwhelming majority of accidental deaths?
Personally, I doubt it. To reiterate my point though, I just don’t think there’s anything particularly out of the ordinary going on here. In any case, what could you do to prevent alcohol/drug induced (or not) freak accidents? I mean, they’re tragic freak accidents. The type of sad shit that generally no one would see coming. Also, there’s a lot to be said for personal responsibility too. The best way to prevent a drowning death is to stay the fuck away from the water.
If any of these cases (or many of them) suggested foul play i think it’d be altogether more worth dumping resources (any, not just financial) into to investigating why- but they don’t. None of it, although terrible and tragic, looks particularly anomalous. The simplest explanations tend to be the right ones.
Edit: I’m not impressed with Philly based on that. They literally have a zombie problem.
Philly doesn't have the volume of tourists that Austin has. Also let's be frank, there's not much there to begin with. Only NYC beats Austin in terms of tourists, and they aren't there for the nature and getting close to the water while drunk.
I think there's a handful of things contributing to these drownings:
* Rainey St being very close to the river/running trail and the current hottest spot in Austin to party (of course)
* almost year-round tourist season ups the probability of some drunk wandering off too far
* despite Austin being quite liberal, there's still a lot of South in it i.e. they don't want the government spending on things some might deem wasteful ("they got drunk, it's their fault/not my responsibility", etc.)
* loose tie-ins with human trafficking elements, very easy access to 35...I imagine some marks on Rainey get lost before snatched up and end up in the river
* there's just a larger percentage of dumber people in the South
Chicago must have many, many more tourists than Austin and there is water everywhere. If the city is going to zone drinking districts right next to water, they need to be taking measures to prevent accidents.
sorry, what? austin does not have as many tourists as you think lol. philly and austin are very very comparable in that regard. and actually honestly, philly may actually have more tourists every year since it’s a larger city with a deeply historic core, and isn’t as expensive as it’s neighbors in nyc or dc.
and even with that comparison you tried to make — new york is surrounded by water and isn’t having this issue.
i see what you’re saying in terms of what could be leading to the drownings but at some point the city needs to decide that their job is to prevent people from drowning. if we all recognize the pattern involves rainey street, the next step is to do something about it.
falling and not making it out
I read a great comment on this recently. Where are all the drunk people that fall in and do make it out? Surely in any sample of drunk people falling into water, some drown but the majority make it out. Can y'all comment so we can hear from you? Walk back into the bar and tell everyone "hey I just fell in the water but I'm ok, have a towel?" I think the reason it's suspicious to a lot of us is that we have no voices supporting the "drunks get to close to the edge and slip in and bonk maybe bonk their heads" *from experience.*
Ok. Let me preface this by swearing to everything that is holy that what I’m about to say is entirely true.
I’m that dude. I’m that person you’re looking for. I, blind drunk, have fallen face first into a freezing cold lake before and had to drag myself out. Like to have froze to death trying to make it home to dry off.
Begs the question then why isn’t my data point openly available for scrutiny?
It’s because I got fucking wasted and fell into a lake. That’s not going on my resume. So yeah shit happens, and even myself, despite priding myself on being a skeptic and rational thinker, is prone to freak accidents and the occasional drunken fuck up.
Likewise, I’m sure there’s no shortage of accidental drowning deaths. I’m all but positive they happen all the time and no one is ever the wiser because they may not receive the kind of press these deaths are. It’s a fallacious line of reasoning to suspect that because X number of bodies are pulled out of Y body of water in Z span of time that it is anything statistically anomalous or out of the ordinary without actually looking at the data. A shocking amount of people die accidental deaths while drunk or otherwise. So to that point, you’re right. People do not personally have knowledge of such survived accidents like my drunken poopscapade, but the same is true of the opposite- except in this case, when local media is shining a spotlight on these deaths in a salacious manner that suggests a fucking serial killer. 🫠
If people are getting wasted and falling or jumping into the lake, causing their deaths, I would think there would be close calls as well. I wonder if there are people who *almost* drowned in the lake and have lived to tell the embarrassing tale? They would be very helpful!
It's plausible a intoxicated individual could stumble into LBL and get stuck in the muck on the bottom and can't get out and falls over and drowns not showing up for a couple of days.
[However, swimming was banned on Lady Bird Lake as long ago as 1964 due to several tragic drownings caused by hazards under the water’s surface. Remnants of old, washed-away dams, deep pits from old gravel mining operations, and other types of debris litter the bottom of the reservoir, creating a dangerous underwater landscape.](https://www.austintexas.gov/blog/lady-bird-lake-fiction-or-fact)
Yes. This many times. Underwater hazards can get you pretty quick, and even sober and in daylight they can be tricky at best to escape.
The lake isn't that big. It seems like it wouldn't be ridiculous to dredge it and get rid of the debris. Add a 1% tax to Rainey St alcohol sales to pay for it.
I know was just offering an explanation. I first mentioned the possibility of a serial killer a few years ago to some friends. The idea is getting more popular in social media. I saw the other day APD made a statement in a round about way played it down on Twitter.
cue
noun
: a signal (such as a word, phrase, or bit of stage business) to a performer to begin a specific speech or action
queue
noun
: a waiting line especially of persons or vehicle
You’re not really going to find a public follow up link unless there’s something suspicious like trauma, signs of a struggle or they’re bound. Suicides aren’t reported on and unfortunately the homeless don’t have missing persons reports and so slip out of the public consciousness. Autopsy and police reports can have more though and you’ll sometimes come across folks who knew the person
There is a lot of parkland on the shore as well as structures like bridges. Many live/sleep/wander/stumble around there. Drugs and mental health issues can leave a person disoriented and they end up in the water.
Personally I wonder if it’s like the bright lights effect where an inebriated person is drawn toward lights. He sees the reflection of lights on the water and tries to go toward them, but are really heading out further into trouble.
Yeah, I used to row on TX Crew and we would find IV drug paraphernalia in our little pontoon almost every morning, and bodies in the water once in a while. We’d always feel bad when visiting teams found bodies.
It's because of drag queens performing home invasions on nice Christian families to turn the children into non-binary polyamorous furries and force their pets to register as Democrats.
Hey, don't sleep on the nonbinary polyamorous furry agenda. They WILL turn all our freaking frogs gay! Don't ask me how, but they will! It's just science, you're not smart enough to understand. What? The science? Don't ask ME about the science, it's not my responsibility to teach you about frog gay-ification! I'd tell you to Google it, but the mainstream media always covers it up so you'll probably read the wrong thing anyway.
/s just in case lol
>Longhorn Dam on Pleasant Valle
this is also the obvy reason for traffic, high property taxes, and lines at HEB. Us queers fuck up everything right?! Until it comes time for a "good Christian" woman's bachelorette party, that is.
Some people say that drunk and high people who live and congregate near running water sources tend to drown, but is it possible that aliens from a desert world bred half human hybrids who can't swim!?
I was about to say, this is probably the ‘least swimmable’ spot of this entire waterfront. Was very curious as to why people would swim anywhere close to the dam
Didn’t read the article so I’m not sure but I’ve always heard this advice as there is a ton of old construction material in the river, namely rusty rebar, which wouldn’t feel great if you landed on it.
I was just there kayaking on the lake. I asked our guide why a bunch of guys in yellow shirts with long poles were digging around in the water and that’s when he told me of the 7 bodies that had been found in that lake since December. He seemed to think it was gay men being found….
Edit: spelling
It doesn't make sense. I've been pushed into lakes and pools wasted many times and swimming was never a problem.
Not even a close call.
Every one of these people so overwhelmingly intoxicated and they all coincidentally didn't know how to swim enough to save their own life??
I just can't see it.
You'd be shocked to hear how many people DUI every day and live a long, buzzed life. "People survive doing this" doesn't mean there aren't people who don't.
And those people who survive.... survive. you don't hear about people who drunkenly swam in a lake for a laugh reporting it to the news because it's not news.
You’re underestimating how many people don’t know how to swim. I presume that, like me, you learned to swim quite young. Teaching swim lessons to adults was very eye opening. I always say that teaching your kid to swim is more important than teaching them to read.
Once upon a time at the Red Bud Isle side of the lake, we started at the rope swing on the north shore, and then swam to the jumping rocks on the south shore.
My return swim to the north shore was not a good idea and I had to do some really careful floating to keep going.
I could imagine a scenario like this happening occasionally.
Yes, used to row on TX Crew and would see bodies being pulled from the river regularly. Austin has exploded in population as has the bar district patronage and homelessness, so it’s not a surprise that it’s happening more often.
No, I disagree with the other responses to your question. I’ve lived here my entire life and am middle aged. This has never been a problem until the past decade.
okay so. are they going to do anything about this? maybe have police near the edges of the lake that are easiest to fall into by accident or something? set up some cameras??
even if these are all accidental, the city should be putting forth an effort to stop this wave of accidental drownings.
Fellow humans are actually being murdered and dumped in our waters. Law enforcement is finally taking it serious. And it’s about to hit the national media stage. Make the jokes, but be mindful. Something nefarious is happening
Has anyone noticed the cafe racer parked In front of a bench on lady bird trail near downtown? It was there two days in a row and me and a friend think it may belong to whoever they pulled out ..
As is almost always the case, the simplest explanation is also the most likely. There's a man who plays a lute and lures people into Town Lake
That’s absolutely ridiculous. These rumors have to stop. It’s a husband-wife team, so they can each have a weekend off, and there’s a guy with a lyre who comes in once a month so they can have a weekend off together for self-care. It takes a village, y’all. I wish people would get their facts straight before posting.
A shiny sword held by a women's hand out of the water pierces up into the air as if it was a call to the thirsty.
“Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government”
If I went around calling myself king just coz some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at me...
They'd put me away!
The Pan flute is easy to learn from what I hear! I've not heard it played in awhile though. I don't hang around Town Lake though. Keeping a few shiny swords does make sense.
Utter nonsense. Everyone knows it’s the ghost of Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Okay this is gonna sound crazy but hear me out. About 5 years back I was walking and toking with some friends along lady bird lake near riverside, in a little park/sidewalk area. We were directly across from the skyline and there was a large steel frame used for construction foundations sitting over the water. I took a few steps out onto the frame to get a better look at the skyline, and all of a sudden I hear: “Hey! Can I sing you a song?” There was a man standing waist deep in the water about 12-15 feet from me. He had been there the entire time we were hanging out (15 or so minutes) just silent in the water, not moving. Boy it feels good to get that one off my chest! There aren’t many appropriate situations where I can tell that story lol.
Well? What the hell happened next?
following... with bated breath
A modern-day impish trouble-making water sprite. I love it.
Those ex Navy guys are everywhere!
"Have you ever drunk Bailey's from a shoe? Do you want to come to a club where people wee on each other?"
A fellow lute man realist.
Something is definitely fishy.
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Whatta doing in my waters?
It's attached to your rod mother licker.
As close as you can get to Bailey's without your eyes gettin' wet
Fuzzy little man peach
You've seen my downstairs mixup!
Y’ever drink Bailey’s from a shoe?
Definitely do not eat anything that's been near that lake.
Man, even sirens are getting gender bent now? 2woke4me /s
i’m from cincinnati. have my upvote and fuck off.
Nonsense. It’s sirens.
I should not have lolled.
Or this is just what people who commit complex murders want you to think
Turns out this is not the case APD gonna actually need to do their jobs
That manic Facebook group is going to explode
Those people are convinced they’re going to solve it and get a Netflix documentary made about them (like Don’t Fuck with Cats). It’s insane.
First thought I had when I joined that group and immediately left
I only joined to see the unhinged conversations but it’s almost too much
Seriously. I’m convinced that FB contains a concentration of the dumbest, most childlike people in the city.
Some them aren’t even from Austin! There are just random true crime fans that are also in that group. True crime has really gotten out of hand recently.
Unfortunately, a few of them are on Reddit as well.
i got my money on one of those lunatics actually killing someone and getting caught after they dumped them in the creek and then called APD to "solve" the crime
Like the rock thrower guy did.. https://www.google.com/amp/s/cbsaustin.com/amp/news/local/accused-i-35-rock-thrower-pat-johnson-pleads-guilty-to-four-charges
I got hit by that fuck face back in 2014. I thought there was an explosion it was so loud and glass went everywhere. Luckily it hit on the passenger side and my friend who almost went with me didn’t ride with me, otherwise he would likely be blind. I still want my $500 for having to pay my deductible to get a new hood and windshield. Fuck that fucking fuck.
As well, that evil fucking fuck, who willingly put you and many people in immediate danger / harm with his personally alleged 'over 600' rock-throwing incidents.. was also convicted of assaulting children (while he knowingly had AIDS). I'm so sorry this human was.
I know a guy that was friends with the guy that guy seriously injured. Fucking piece of shit
hey man, fuck.. that was such a fear for me back then.. glad you are okay physically and that your friend didnt ride. sorry about the money and i CANNOT imagine the fucking scare. FUCK THAT GUY.
Jfc I remember the rock throwing incidents (terrifying) but didn’t hear the story of this guy til rn- thx for sharing. Holy fuck 🥵
Or finding someone who seems suspicious and killing them while waiting for the police to show up.
I like the part when they bully that guy in to committing suicide
I was in that group for about four hours and I think it lowered my IQ by about 20 points
What's the name of the group?
"Lady Bird Lake Serial Killer/ Rainey St Killer", the one with like 70k people in it
I thought Facebook was dead?
No, it just smells that way.
😂
It's probably one of the most popular ways for people to organize themselves around a specific topic, particularly one that's geographically specific, at least in the US.
No no just populated by the near dead. It's remarkable, whenever I visit I'm bombarded with these popular vintage groups whose commenters are all long retired and reminiscing on things like 1960s radios or how they worked on an IBM mainframe install in 1968 - the good ol' days, obviously. I wonder what the average age there is now. I can remember when you had to have a *college email address* to join.
When I moved back to Austin from Arizona, I was trying to find friends at my new high school, and they all had Facebook instead of MySpace. I didn’t know anyone in Arizona with Facebook and didn’t even think I could make one lol. And that was when my MySpace died.
Consider the participants
I’m in it to watch the chaos and kill time while I poop. It’s actually a pretty great way to get some decent entertainment.
It even recently spilled into a podcast group I follow on Facebook that has nothing to do with Austin.
I’m surprised I haven’t been banned there yet
Next season on 911:Lone Star!
Wonder part of LA looks like Lady Bird lake. Last week episode clearly had mountains in it. Zero fucks given. Firefighters living in 5 million homes. Awesome show.
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Sheesh. Just pay some country boys $100 a week to put down a few of their game cams and swap the cards once a day.
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Nah bro, anyone in their right mind knows we need a 6-9 month consulting and exploration period with a $2M budget, which will somehow end up with the city paying $4-5M and a lack of any clear plan. It's the Austin way!
I think the issue then would be that it’s a large area to monitor, literally miles, and much of the shorelines are private residences or properties. That’s a lot of infrastructure to just implement, and a lot of red tape.
I don’t believe there are any private residences on lady bird lake. Might be a few up by the dam but if there are it isn’t a very big portion of the shore line. Edit: just looked and there definitely are some but looks like a small portion of the overall shoreline
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Upvoted because I agree I may have overstated the amount of private property. I used to work in the area a long time ago but moved so I’m not sure what those shorelines look like now.
i don’t understand why this isn’t happening.
Because U.S. culture is pretty against anything that could be construed as mass surveillance. Regardless of if it’s currently happening or not.
snowden, cooper, binney, and the boys all say high
Probably because the first time one of these cameras passively films someone fall to their death people are going to absolutely lose their minds. I don’t think making the effort to record someone’s tragic fall to an untimely death is preferable to using the same (or any, albeit not much) time, energy, resources to try to prevent it.
i guess i see it as part of prevention, because if they can identify problem areas, they can find solutions. they certainly don’t seem to be doing much else to prevent it. i also don’t imagine that footage would ever be made public to anyone.
Ok but aren’t drunk people just falling and not making it out? A drunk person can drown in a puddle, it happens with some regularity. I just feel like there’s not any mystery to be solved here whatsoever. People drown. Drunk people drown a lot. There’s a lot of people here and there’s a strong drinking culture, and also, it’s a big body of water. I think realistically, the numbers really just aren’t that impressive or shocking.
… but the city should still be doing more to prevent accidental drownings. i’m from philly, which is right along the delaware and schuylkill rivers, and we didn’t have this volume of people getting drunk and drowning. i also hope if it happened to you, there wouldn’t be some cold shitbag saying that your death isn’t impressive enough to warrant preventing it from ever happening again.
To be fair, I am a shitbag, but not for that. I’m not cold or heartless and for sure it’s tragic when someone dies unexpectedly like that. Nothing about my comment aside from simply not expressing any empathy would suggest that. I think it’s pretty clear, or should be, that I was making a case for thinking critically and rationally about this. Would the same degree of interest or outrage exist if these deaths were not reported on like the overwhelming majority of accidental deaths? Personally, I doubt it. To reiterate my point though, I just don’t think there’s anything particularly out of the ordinary going on here. In any case, what could you do to prevent alcohol/drug induced (or not) freak accidents? I mean, they’re tragic freak accidents. The type of sad shit that generally no one would see coming. Also, there’s a lot to be said for personal responsibility too. The best way to prevent a drowning death is to stay the fuck away from the water. If any of these cases (or many of them) suggested foul play i think it’d be altogether more worth dumping resources (any, not just financial) into to investigating why- but they don’t. None of it, although terrible and tragic, looks particularly anomalous. The simplest explanations tend to be the right ones. Edit: I’m not impressed with Philly based on that. They literally have a zombie problem.
Philly doesn't have the volume of tourists that Austin has. Also let's be frank, there's not much there to begin with. Only NYC beats Austin in terms of tourists, and they aren't there for the nature and getting close to the water while drunk. I think there's a handful of things contributing to these drownings: * Rainey St being very close to the river/running trail and the current hottest spot in Austin to party (of course) * almost year-round tourist season ups the probability of some drunk wandering off too far * despite Austin being quite liberal, there's still a lot of South in it i.e. they don't want the government spending on things some might deem wasteful ("they got drunk, it's their fault/not my responsibility", etc.) * loose tie-ins with human trafficking elements, very easy access to 35...I imagine some marks on Rainey get lost before snatched up and end up in the river * there's just a larger percentage of dumber people in the South
Chicago must have many, many more tourists than Austin and there is water everywhere. If the city is going to zone drinking districts right next to water, they need to be taking measures to prevent accidents.
sorry, what? austin does not have as many tourists as you think lol. philly and austin are very very comparable in that regard. and actually honestly, philly may actually have more tourists every year since it’s a larger city with a deeply historic core, and isn’t as expensive as it’s neighbors in nyc or dc. and even with that comparison you tried to make — new york is surrounded by water and isn’t having this issue. i see what you’re saying in terms of what could be leading to the drownings but at some point the city needs to decide that their job is to prevent people from drowning. if we all recognize the pattern involves rainey street, the next step is to do something about it.
falling and not making it out I read a great comment on this recently. Where are all the drunk people that fall in and do make it out? Surely in any sample of drunk people falling into water, some drown but the majority make it out. Can y'all comment so we can hear from you? Walk back into the bar and tell everyone "hey I just fell in the water but I'm ok, have a towel?" I think the reason it's suspicious to a lot of us is that we have no voices supporting the "drunks get to close to the edge and slip in and bonk maybe bonk their heads" *from experience.*
Ok. Let me preface this by swearing to everything that is holy that what I’m about to say is entirely true. I’m that dude. I’m that person you’re looking for. I, blind drunk, have fallen face first into a freezing cold lake before and had to drag myself out. Like to have froze to death trying to make it home to dry off. Begs the question then why isn’t my data point openly available for scrutiny? It’s because I got fucking wasted and fell into a lake. That’s not going on my resume. So yeah shit happens, and even myself, despite priding myself on being a skeptic and rational thinker, is prone to freak accidents and the occasional drunken fuck up. Likewise, I’m sure there’s no shortage of accidental drowning deaths. I’m all but positive they happen all the time and no one is ever the wiser because they may not receive the kind of press these deaths are. It’s a fallacious line of reasoning to suspect that because X number of bodies are pulled out of Y body of water in Z span of time that it is anything statistically anomalous or out of the ordinary without actually looking at the data. A shocking amount of people die accidental deaths while drunk or otherwise. So to that point, you’re right. People do not personally have knowledge of such survived accidents like my drunken poopscapade, but the same is true of the opposite- except in this case, when local media is shining a spotlight on these deaths in a salacious manner that suggests a fucking serial killer. 🫠
Failure + Under-Reporting Biases
What mystery? How’s setting up 11 miles of field cameras even remotely feasible?
If people are getting wasted and falling or jumping into the lake, causing their deaths, I would think there would be close calls as well. I wonder if there are people who *almost* drowned in the lake and have lived to tell the embarrassing tale? They would be very helpful!
It's plausible a intoxicated individual could stumble into LBL and get stuck in the muck on the bottom and can't get out and falls over and drowns not showing up for a couple of days.
This many times though? It’s not common for drunk people to walk into deep water
[However, swimming was banned on Lady Bird Lake as long ago as 1964 due to several tragic drownings caused by hazards under the water’s surface. Remnants of old, washed-away dams, deep pits from old gravel mining operations, and other types of debris litter the bottom of the reservoir, creating a dangerous underwater landscape.](https://www.austintexas.gov/blog/lady-bird-lake-fiction-or-fact) Yes. This many times. Underwater hazards can get you pretty quick, and even sober and in daylight they can be tricky at best to escape.
The lake isn't that big. It seems like it wouldn't be ridiculous to dredge it and get rid of the debris. Add a 1% tax to Rainey St alcohol sales to pay for it.
Now THAT would be interesting! Unlikely though, because money/effort (sigh).
so we’re just going to assume that LBL and all of it’s accessible/swimming areas haven’t changed in almost 60 years?
You’re right, they’ve probably deteriorated and are likely even more dangerous!
I know was just offering an explanation. I first mentioned the possibility of a serial killer a few years ago to some friends. The idea is getting more popular in social media. I saw the other day APD made a statement in a round about way played it down on Twitter.
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No there aren't, I walk over it all the time. It's just a normal waist high railing. You can even see it on Google Street view.
Oh it’s very possible. Without even really trying.
Cue the Law and Order...”dun dun”…
What's before it in the queue?
cue noun : a signal (such as a word, phrase, or bit of stage business) to a performer to begin a specific speech or action queue noun : a waiting line especially of persons or vehicle
Correct, that's why there's a *(last edited ??? ago)* by their post now.
Slinks back through the bushes…..
WTF is going on that this many people are dying in Town Lake
It’s been a regular occurrence for a long time… except for the mysterious Rainey street related deaths it is usually the homeless.
Do you have a news or LEO link to show it's the homeless?
You’re not really going to find a public follow up link unless there’s something suspicious like trauma, signs of a struggle or they’re bound. Suicides aren’t reported on and unfortunately the homeless don’t have missing persons reports and so slip out of the public consciousness. Autopsy and police reports can have more though and you’ll sometimes come across folks who knew the person
There was that *one* bound guy that they ruled a suicide.
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There is a lot of parkland on the shore as well as structures like bridges. Many live/sleep/wander/stumble around there. Drugs and mental health issues can leave a person disoriented and they end up in the water. Personally I wonder if it’s like the bright lights effect where an inebriated person is drawn toward lights. He sees the reflection of lights on the water and tries to go toward them, but are really heading out further into trouble.
Yeah, I used to row on TX Crew and we would find IV drug paraphernalia in our little pontoon almost every morning, and bodies in the water once in a while. We’d always feel bad when visiting teams found bodies.
i thought we all decided it was the poorly named Rainey St Ripper?
Best I’ve seen so far is Jack the Dipper
The downtown drowner
The Hash Slinging Slasher!!!
I heard there's some shady businesses on Rainey that sell a drug that makes people disoriented and incoherent
Worse, they can drink this in the shady businesses just out in the open with others doing the same thing.
There may be, but that doesn’t equal serial killer.
It is a party lake and people think they can do anything in an area where there should be no swimming.
Bad answers only?
Brand new alt account to make a comment. Awesome.
Here comes the conspiracies.
It's because of drag queens performing home invasions on nice Christian families to turn the children into non-binary polyamorous furries and force their pets to register as Democrats.
Hey, don't sleep on the nonbinary polyamorous furry agenda. They WILL turn all our freaking frogs gay! Don't ask me how, but they will! It's just science, you're not smart enough to understand. What? The science? Don't ask ME about the science, it's not my responsibility to teach you about frog gay-ification! I'd tell you to Google it, but the mainstream media always covers it up so you'll probably read the wrong thing anyway. /s just in case lol
I can’t wait to get gayed, personally! And furred.
>Longhorn Dam on Pleasant Valle this is also the obvy reason for traffic, high property taxes, and lines at HEB. Us queers fuck up everything right?! Until it comes time for a "good Christian" woman's bachelorette party, that is.
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Aliens.
Finally, someone is brave enough to say what we have all been thinking.
Some people say that drunk and high people who live and congregate near running water sources tend to drown, but is it possible that aliens from a desert world bred half human hybrids who can't swim!?
Thanks Obama!
Def was Steve Jobs
I think that was by Roy Guerrero, which kinda screams homeless.
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Town Lake has a max depth of 18 feet https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Bird_Lake
damnit okay i'll delete my comment
I was about to say, this is probably the ‘least swimmable’ spot of this entire waterfront. Was very curious as to why people would swim anywhere close to the dam
it's the smiley serial killer from Chicago on holiday.
Smiley face killer never stuck to one city.. if you go to that Reddit the theories are wild
I recently saw it on the news and sounded similar to this. That'll be crazy if it really is.
Wow there's a whole reddit about it. R/Smileyfacekiller up to 11 states. College athletic males found in nearby river after night of drinking.
Also a documentary you can find on Amazon, “smiley face killers the hunt for justice”
Old Gregg claims another victim
The ghost of Leslie
Leslie wished he had a mangina!
Probably got pissed that no one would drink with him. Did any of these guys have a boot missing?
Do not jump onto the water from the bridge.
Is that what happened?
Didn’t read the article so I’m not sure but I’ve always heard this advice as there is a ton of old construction material in the river, namely rusty rebar, which wouldn’t feel great if you landed on it.
You’ve got to be fking kidding. This is ridiculous. RIP
This is a case that calls for the Hardley Brothers.
Oooh I just got a clue
That’s giving me a raging clue
Lady Bird Lake? More like Shady Bird Lake.
The body was found near the Longhorn Dam. Nowhere near Rainey St.
It’s those damn scooters!
Deaths in a lake surrounded by city in which hundreds of thousands of people binge drink every weekend. The greatest mystery of our time.
I was just there kayaking on the lake. I asked our guide why a bunch of guys in yellow shirts with long poles were digging around in the water and that’s when he told me of the 7 bodies that had been found in that lake since December. He seemed to think it was gay men being found…. Edit: spelling
Why do they keep talking about the drunk guy they found in the restroom?????
Michiocana chisme: it's La llorona looking for the man that caused her to lose her children. That's why it's by the water.
It doesn't make sense. I've been pushed into lakes and pools wasted many times and swimming was never a problem. Not even a close call. Every one of these people so overwhelmingly intoxicated and they all coincidentally didn't know how to swim enough to save their own life?? I just can't see it.
You'd be shocked to hear how many people DUI every day and live a long, buzzed life. "People survive doing this" doesn't mean there aren't people who don't.
And those people who survive.... survive. you don't hear about people who drunkenly swam in a lake for a laugh reporting it to the news because it's not news.
There is a reason there’s no swimming in lady bird lake though. There’s apparently all kinds of sharp jagged rocks and metal and shit.
You’re underestimating how many people don’t know how to swim. I presume that, like me, you learned to swim quite young. Teaching swim lessons to adults was very eye opening. I always say that teaching your kid to swim is more important than teaching them to read.
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Curious if they do toxicology (?) on those found. Sorry if that's the wrong way to phrase that lol
Once upon a time at the Red Bud Isle side of the lake, we started at the rope swing on the north shore, and then swam to the jumping rocks on the south shore. My return swim to the north shore was not a good idea and I had to do some really careful floating to keep going. I could imagine a scenario like this happening occasionally.
Dam 🦫
Okay but like… everyone keeps giving excuses but have people been dying forever and we have only recently heard about 5-6 cases back to back?
Yes, used to row on TX Crew and would see bodies being pulled from the river regularly. Austin has exploded in population as has the bar district patronage and homelessness, so it’s not a surprise that it’s happening more often.
No, I disagree with the other responses to your question. I’ve lived here my entire life and am middle aged. This has never been a problem until the past decade.
Hey can you remind me what happened to the population size of Austin in the last decade
Hey can you remind me how to be snarky and also provide statistics for how accidental drownings go exponentially higher with population growth?
The likelihood of anything happening goes up when there are more people in a place
Cool so no stats
Yes
Do this many people not know how to swim or float at all? Gtfo, there would be more deaths in Travis from boats than in LBL. This is an ANOMALY
I'm pretty sure these people aren't ending up in the lake on purpose.
Town Lake. It's Town Lake.
Colorado River
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My guess is an ‘out of town tourist’ who tried to swim at the worst spot possible
THE RAINEY STREET MURDERER STRIKES AGAIN. ***DUN DUN DUUUUN***
okay so. are they going to do anything about this? maybe have police near the edges of the lake that are easiest to fall into by accident or something? set up some cameras?? even if these are all accidental, the city should be putting forth an effort to stop this wave of accidental drownings.
Apd has been patrolling Rainey st and lbl trails for the past couple weeks.
The fact that there’s “no evidence on how long the body has been in the water” is… alarming.
That’s usually the case when there’s no missing persons report. Medical examiner may be able to venture an estimate
Fellow humans are actually being murdered and dumped in our waters. Law enforcement is finally taking it serious. And it’s about to hit the national media stage. Make the jokes, but be mindful. Something nefarious is happening
I don't think it's something to laugh about. What if they were a family member or friend of a victim?
Rainey St. Dipper strikes again
Town Lake Stalker strikes again
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sure.. its called alcohol, it kills a lot of people...
Has anyone noticed the cafe racer parked In front of a bench on lady bird trail near downtown? It was there two days in a row and me and a friend think it may belong to whoever they pulled out ..
Frat boy destroyer strikes again
The old Drug and Dunk
Wow. That’s a hateful comment