The Unsolved Drownings of Lady Bird Lake

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He was found with duct over his eyes and hands? Classic suicide. Two shots to the back of the head, I assume.

If they found that many bodies in one body of water but said it was all accidental I would say "Well then clearly this body of water is extremely dangerous, what are you going to do about it?" EDIT: Since a lot of people are saying it would not be feasible to accident-proof the lake, I just wanted to clarify that my point was more that someone should force the cops' hand on the issue by not letting the issue go. They are using the "accidents/suicides" angle as a way of brushing these clearly suspicious deaths under the rug and not fully investigate them. My idea is basically to confront them with treating their excuses as being serious issues and force them to either defend those excuses, or admit they aren't legitimate.

There are two potential reasons why bodies weren't being pulled out of the lake at this rate prior to 2008 1) If you were searching for bodies being pulled out of Ladybird Lake prior to 2008, you'd get very few matches because Ladybird Lake didn't exist until late 2007, prior to that it was called Town Lake. This is a bit of local history that might not have been factored into the research. 2) Rainey Street started to transition into a bar district around the same time, with the first bar opening in 2009. Prior to that, Rainey Street was a residential area, and Austin's bar district ended a bit further away from the lake than it does now, so fewer drunk patrons were walking close to the water on the walk back to their cars. The Rainey Street development fundamentally changed the parking situation in the area, and now that it's fully developed, more people than ever are walking across the river to get back to their cars after a night of drinking, which seems like a dangerous combination to me.

Sometimes cops say they've ruled out foul play so they can investigate quietly without the suspect(s) knowing there's an investigation. It's also possible that the cops are idiots or want the killer(s) to get away with their crime(s). In my hometown there was a very obvious murder that the cops said was an accident. A lifeguard had "drown" face-up in a part of the creek where the water didn't reach his face. Everyone in town rightfully assumed the cops were morons. Turns out the FBI was quietly investigating a mobster from Chicago and they told the police to lie to the public so the mobster wouldn't know they were on to him. The truth was only revealed after the mobster had been arrested.

As someone who lives near Austin, I can confidently say the APD is absolute garbage, so the utter lack of surprise to hear they don’t want to investigate foul play is truly sad and disgusting.

The older I get, the less inclined I am to swim in lakes. Thanks to the Lore Lodge, I know what's in them.

Honestly, the creepiest part is how similar a lot of these dudes look. The killer has a type for sure

I was thinking about Mr. Hamad not 3 days ago. He was one of my middle school computer teachers, specifically keyboarding. He loved the song “Zoot Suit Riot”, talked about his favorite llama, said long hair sucked the nutrients out of your brain, and would yell at kids in the hallway if they were late. Used a floppy disk for that class, made my first email address (yahoo), and then got my first USB for that class, played a lot of Pocket Tanks too. He was a really cool guy, I got a long with him well. I was really sad when I heard he was killed, I’ve always remembered the details of him being bound, absolutely terrible.

This many bodies in such a short timeframe... damn, even if there isn't a serial killer, the city of Austin still needs to do something. Guard rails and nets on the bridges, night patrols along the shoreline, something to cut down the risk. If it's not a serial killer, it's still a danger to the public that needs to be addressed cause clearly lives are being lost way too frequently. Why are people paying taxes in Austin if the city can't put guard rails on the bridges?

i showed my grandma ONE of your videos and she keeps bringing you this channel up at family dinners

I’m a native of the Austin area, my grandfather worked at the DPS training academy in the area and he’s not surprised there’s been body’s being found in lady bird. How he sums it up is that any major city that is near a lake or major body of water will have bodies thrown in it. Whether it’s from crime, accidents, or by other means.

"Dude got killed. Where was he last seen?" "Slaughter lane." You can't make this shit up.

Dude thank you! Im from Austin and I left a comment a few months ago asking you to cover this. You're awesome!

I am so glad you are covering this, I went to college with Julio at UNT. It was a devastating loss in our community. He was such a bright light, and had so many great things ahead of him. Funny, whip smart, creative, and so bold in being himself. Securing the Nordstrom internship was extremely coveted, and he was only a week or two out from leaving to go. I truly feel it in my gut that he was murdered, it just never made sense

"Serial killers are very rarely random" Well, the ones that are caught aren't random. We can only make wild assumptions about whether there are some that aren't caught because they don't follow patterns.

It's interesting that there was break between Pugh being discovered alive and the next body being found.

lol duct tape over eyes and mouth with all limbs tied - yup, defs an un-aliving here (facepalm, lol)

For what it's worth...all the instances a doctor has asked me if I'm having suicidal thoughts, I absolutely was, and most of the time I said, absolutely not. You admit to that, you open yourself up to being forcibly hospitalized. Just a thought, though, not saying you're wrong about anything here.

If I were a family member of one of these men, I'd give you a copy of the autopsy report. Great job, Aidens.