Serial killer hysteria returns to Austin after another body pulled from Lady Bird Lake

Austin social media accounts, including a once-dormant “true crime” Facebook group, lit up Tuesday after authorities pulled a body from Lady Bird Lake, reigniting unfounded speculation that a serial killer stalks the city.

On Monday afternoon, the Austin Police Department held a press conference confirming the body’s recovery. It’s unclear how long the corpse, which has no identifiers, was in the water and whether it has any wounds, Public Information Officer Ariel Crumes told reporters.

“Homicide is actively investigating this as a death investigation,” Crumes added.

Although details remain sparse, the discovery was enough to stir conspiracy theorists and would-be internet sleuths back into action on the Lady Bird Lake Serial Killer – True Crime Facebook group. Last spring, members of the group speculated that a serial killer dubbed the “Rainey Street Ripper” was active in the city.

“I was 100% sure Austin had a serial killer last time they found a body,” one of the page’s 86,000 members posted Tuesday morning. “I’m about 125% sure now.”

Rumors of a serial killer hunting young men and dumping their bodies in Lady Bird Lake, a reservoir southeast of downtown Austin, ran rampant last April, drawing international media attention. Police recovered the bodies of Jason John, Clifton Axtell, Jonathon Honey and Christopher Hays-Clark — all between the ages of 20 and 40 — in the reservoir between February and April of 2023.

When the Texas Monthly ran a story largely debunking the idea that a serial killer was responsible, rabid members of the Facebook group scolded the publication and the journalist who wrote the story. Some even suggested Austin police paid off the award-winning magazine.

At the time, Gerald Reamey, a now-retired St. Mary’s University Law professor and former legal advisor to the Irvine Police Department, told the Current the accusations against the Austin Police Department and Texas Monthly were laughable.

“Large-scale conspiracies are extremely difficult to organize and extremely difficult to keep confidential,” Reamey said. “Almost always, information can be gathered about the existence of any kind of conspiracy. It’s just difficult. If you want to commit a crime, do it yourself. Don’t ever do it with somebody else.”

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This article appears in Jan 24 – Feb 6, 2024.