Rumors of a Rainey street serial killer are starting to ramp up after the 5 death in 6 months of someone finding their way into town lake and drowning.

I think there has been 8 or so deaths over the last year.

Seems like too common an event for them to be coincidental. It's hard for me to imagine being drunk, falling in a lake, and not being able to get out.

https://www.chron.com/news/local/article/austin-rainey-street-serial-killer-17897462.php

What say yall?

I saw there is a similar string going on in Chicago as well.

Is there any common profile in the drownings? Gender? Age? Ethnicity? Homeless? Drugs in system?

The video I saw tiring it together with Chicago I believe said white late twenties early thirties intoxicated walking home alone.

Is the related to the 4 bodies they've recovered at Lady Bird Lake since Feb?

Edit: Indeed sir.

This is 8 people in the last 10 months, according to San Antonio Currenthttps://t.co/rOYSAggP0x

— Dr. Diocletian Blobb 📯 (@DrBlobb) April 15, 2023

MouthBQ98 said:

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Is there any common profile in the drownings? Gender? Age? Ethnicity? Homeless? Drugs in system?

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It's from the daily mail, but most recents look to be 20- early 30s males.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11986015/Fears-serial-killer-Austin-EIGHTH-body-pulled-Lady-Bird-Lake.html

Christian Pugh, 21, was found alive in the lake back in 2019 but in 'rough' condition. He sustained a hit to the head and bruised hands.

Any smiley faces on trees, stones, etc, found in the area?
Smiley face killings seem to still be going on in the midwest

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/afd-body-recovered-from-lady-bird-lake-tuesday/

Agthatbuilds said:

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https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/afd-body-recovered-from-lady-bird-lake-tuesday/

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Holy crap! Punctuation, people. I see AFD-body-recovered and I think a firefighter died, not that AFD found a floater.

Drunks can't swim very well.

MouthBQ98 said:

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Drunks can't swim very well.

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That location isn't near Rainey Street.

There are bars all along that general area. Or within a few blocks at most. It's part of my work territory so I am somewhat familiar.

Someone that isn't into the idiot hype about this? It is getting a little strange there are an unusual number of drownings but there are a few every year since getting wasted in the south part of downtown austin became a thing and even moreso now that there are bar scenes on both sides of the river/lake.

There are a lot of places where bodies of water are near places where there are bars and such, and they don't seem to have as high of a body count as this place.

I bet there is some commonality among all of the victims.

A guy I went to high school with was one of the first hipsters to buy and gentrify on Rainey Street. That was about 30 years ago. He is an Aggie. AFAIK, he still runs his little architect studio out of that house.

It really makes you think

Very strange to say the least .. possibly bums High as a kite on some type of drug falling in the lake? Hell who knows, they have a bum problem in that town.. I'm sure a lot of those bums are not mentally right either ? Just my 2 cents …:

APD needs to do some background work on the victims. They're all men, sure, but what else? Stop looking at age, ethnicity and crap - look at lifestyle. Were these family men? Homeless? Gays? Reported Lost? Out-of-towners?

What's the scoop?

dexter

Could just be McNulty making up a serial killer to get more police funding.

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What say yall?

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I say "Rainey Street Ripper" is a terrible name for a perp who is supposedly drowning people.

It's college aged men near a strip of bars. Probably as simple of a target criteria as that. Seem to be drunk men walking alone, my guess is homeless attacker or some hot chick offering the guys rides.

Really disappointed to open this thread and find out it's not about a stripper.

Drowning someone is not exactly the easiest way to kill someone. That would seem to be a strange MO for an outdoor serial killer.

Doesn't sound like they are "drowning" them, sounds like alcohol plus drugs are being used. Dump the unconscious body in the lake and suffocates/drowns in the water.

MouthBQ98 said:

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There are bars all along that general area. Or within a few blocks at most. It's part of my work territory so I am somewhat familiar.

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If I'm reading it correctly, it was found basically right next to Zilker. The closest district would be W. 6th Street. There are restaurants along Barton Springs Road, but they aren't bars where people go out for the most part.

BaileyAg said:

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Any smiley faces on trees, stones, etc, found in the area?
Smiley face killings seem to still be going on in the midwest

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The first thing that popped into my head.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiley_face_murder_theory

This one is weird. Doesn't seem likely that there would be so many drownings in that general area without foul play. When they find out what exactly is causing this, it probably increases the body count due to linked cases.

I get the feeling that Austin PD knows that a homeless person is responsible here and they are doing everything they can to link this to drowning.

I could be way off base here, but I don't trust the city govt. for anything.

It's possible someone is drugging and dumping them but it would show on toxicology in autopsy. It is a little suspicious but there would need to be some sort of pattern outside of drunks falling into a big lake that cuts all the way through the center of a city. Are they being robbed? Are they having their phones stolen? Are they drugged, drunk? Do they match a certain profile? Is there a particular location in the lake? Are they parked nearby or did they arrive on foot or by public transportation to the area? Were they observed to enter any particular bars or restaurants?

I'm sure APD is checking all this stuff out looking for any patterns but just using the simplest explanation, there's a lot of drunk and high people in central Austin at night and sometimes they wander down to the water front and fall in to the giant lake in the middle of town that has no rails or anything pretty much anywhere along any of the shorelines.