Police in Texas are trying to quell fears that the “Rainey Street Ripper” has struck again after insisting the latest suspected victim must have committed suicide.
The bodies of 11 men and two women have been recovered from a short stretch of the Colorado River in Austin over the past two years, and police insist only one of them raised suspicions of foul play.
But skepticism towards the official version has reached new heights after police announced the latest victim had died from “blunt force trauma” after being found on Friday.
Hours later they issued a hasty correction saying new evidence suggested he had shot himself in the head.
“The deceased suffered an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” they tweeted. “This is NOT being investigated as a homicide.”
Hours after the latest body was found Friday, Austin Police Department spokesman Austin Zarling revealed the cause of death was “blunt force trauma” to the head.
Two days later, the police department said the man had, in fact, shot himself in the head.
The latest body was found despite more than a year of safety improvement work on the mile-long stretch of river from the Lamar Boulevard Bridge to Lady Bird Lake, along which the 13 victims were found.
Police responded at 5:30 p.m. Friday to reports of a man with life-threatening injuries found on a riverside path in Waller Beach, right in the middle of the mile-long stretch.
The man was declared dead 15 minutes after being found by emergency services and large pools of blood were left between the road and the water’s edge.
“All of the investigative steps being taken are routine measures,” the department’s Austin Zarling said at a news conference.
‘At this time this is considered an isolated incident and there is no known threat to the general public.
‘I spoke to homicide detectives and there is no serial killer at this time.
“At least we don’t think there is one.”
Police have concluded that most of the deaths were likely accidental drownings because of the lake’s proximity to popular nightlife spots.
Among them is that of Ricky Parks, 59, whose body was the first to be found in July 2022.
Jeff Jones (pictured in hospital with his sister Amy) after falling 25ft from a bridge in Austin, and believes he may have been pushed by the ‘Rainey Street Ripper’
Jones was unable to leave the hospital for 17 days, while his older sister, Amy, dropped everything to fly and stay by his side, then took him home to New Hampshire to recover.
The deaths of Christopher Gutierrez, Kyle Thornton, 56, and Christopher Hays-Clark, 30, were also not considered suspicious.
Two of the deceased, Jason John, 30, and Jonathan Honey, 33, are believed to have drowned accidentally. Both men were last seen on Rainey Street.
A man, Joshua Moreno, was shot while driving and his vehicle plunged into the impound lot, police said.
The death of 46-year-old Clifton Axtell, who was found in March 2023, was ruled “undetermined.” The other bodies were not being investigated as homicides.
But investigators have been dogged by persistent claims that a homophobic killer is targeting gay men who frequent the nightspots in the nearby Rainey Street area.
In April, a barman at the leisure area claimed a customer had told him he was the alleged Rainey Street Ripper who was attacking men in the nearby canal while two more bodies were pulled from the water.
Posting on Reddit, she recalled that the man “suddenly started talking about ‘killing gays’ from (Lady Bird Lake) that he found on (Rainey Street).”
“He was clearly angry and he said it in a low voice. But I know what I heard… Do people lie about these things?” the waiter added.
He described his client as a white male in his 40s, approximately 5’10” tall, with a muscular build, light brown hair and a stubble beard.
That same month, a drugged man who fell 25 feet from a nearby bridge, narrowly avoiding drowning, told Dailymail.com that he believed he had been attacked by the Ripper.
Cliff Axtell, 40, was found in Lady Bird Lake on March 5 after going missing near Stubb’s in downtown on February 25. His death has been ruled “undetermined.”
Four bodies were found in Austin’s Lady Bird Lake in 2023, including 33-year-old Jonathan Honey (pictured), who was found dead on April 1.
Jason John, 30, was found on February 13, 2023 after last being seen on Rainey Street a week earlier. His parents believe there is more to the story behind his disappearance
The death of 30-year-old father Christopher Hays-Clark (pictured with his son) was not being treated as suspicious.
Jeff Jones, 38, was on a bachelor party trip to Austin with a dozen friends from his home in Boston on June 23 of last year.
She woke up in hospital more than two weeks later with metal rods holding her back together and doctors found Rohypnol, a date rape drug, in her system.
‘Whoever it was missed the target and I fell to the ground, and luckily thanks to that I didn’t drown,’ he explained.
“I was lucky… Not many people can say they potentially survived a serial killer, so I guess that’s a story I can tell.”
One Facebook group alone has attracted 90,000 followers to its updates on the deaths, but police have continued to insist the deaths are unrelated.
Former Austin Police Department coroner Mark Gillespie previously stressed in an interview with KVUE that the public should believe police when they say there is no crime.
“They’re looking for something illegal, and so when APD comes out with the statement that they don’t suspect anything illegal at this point, I promise you they were looking for it, and they were looking for it very hard, so I respect that,” Gillespie said.
In an interview with KXAN, Dr. Carsten Andresen of St. Edward’s University said rumors about the Lady Bird Lake deaths are similar to conspiracy theories spreading in cities across the country.
Rainey Street (above) is a vibrant area of Austin known for its nightlife and bars, food stalls, and restaurants. Lady Bird Lake is about 1.8 miles or a 35-minute walk from the street. There are no cameras around the lake.
“Human nature has always been to analyze things and look for patterns that may or may not exist. But so has social media and the ability to put these rumors online and have them spread like wildfire,” he said.
Andresen noted that Austin has a reputation as a city where people go to drink and relax.
“I don’t think we’ve seen anything that would lead us to conclude there’s a serial killer out there, but we do know that people in Austin drink excessively and that men tend to engage in risky behavior,” she added.