Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Lady Bird Lake: Serial Killer Fears and Mysterious Dead Bodies in Austin

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

Since 2022, the bodies of 11 men and a woman have been found in Austin’s Lady Bird Lake. The number of bodies found has led to fears that someone may be targeting men in the city’s Rainey St. entertainment district. Families of some of the victims do not believe that their loved ones accidentally drowned as the medical examiner has claimed. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy digs into the mystery with one victim’s brother, a man who believes he was drugged at a bar and spent weeks in the hospital and an Austin Police homicide sergeant in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Use the code LAW15 for 15% off at https://www.citybeauty.com/LCCrimeFix. That’s promo code LAW15 for 15% off your order!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5GuestS:Mitchell GutierrezJeff JonesSgt. Nathan Sexton  https://www.facebook.com/AustinPolice CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law & Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. All of these are purposeful. Something is going on in Austin, Texas, and nobody's talking about it. There's a mystery in Austin involving the deaths of at least 11 men and a lake, leading some to fear there's a serial killer walking among them luckily for me i think if i had hit the water at my i may not have ended up surviving that man lived to tell his story and wants answers along with countless families missing their loved ones an austin police homicide sergeant is here to answer my questions just over the years uh there's deaths that happen in and around the

water sometimes they're shooting sometimes they're drownings thanks for joining me for crime fix i'm anjanette levy since 2022 the bodies of 11 men and a woman have been found in austin's ladybird lake the lake named for former first lady ladybird johnson is beautiful it's a crown jewel of the lone star state's capital city but the loved ones of many of the men whose bodies have been pulled from the lake feel the lake may be holding a secret even more bodies have been found in the lake over the years including the body of martin gutierrez in 2018. Here's his brother, Mitch. Martin, such a good kid. He was a little bit younger than me.

He's like six years younger than me. Such a happy, happy individual. Very optimistic, painfully optimistic. He's such a great person. You know, he went to Texas Tech, graduated, and he always used to come here to Austin all the time. And then when he graduated, he came and moved in with me. And so that's what ultimately to come here to Austin all the time and then uh when he graduated he came and moved in with me and so that's what ultimately brought him here to Austin he was the baby really close sounds like you were really close very very much so we went to the gym every

day like we did everything the same we watched the same stupid movies all the time on repeat you know just you know those kinds of things. I miss him a lot. Wow. Wow. And this is why I'm dating Kelsey. That's a moment that Mitch loves of his brother getting a little grossed out by seafood. Neither one of them liked it. Mitch and Martin lived together. He remembers vividly that day in 2018 when he realized that Martin was missing. gym like we had a set routine that we did all the time and I texted him was like hey man where you at you know and he was very dependable he never missed a day of work he was you know always always there very predictable and he didn't answer and then we called his work and he didn't go to work which was

unheard of so we called around called the the buddies he was with the previous night and they said that he had just left and, um, they didn't know where he was. And then, so we called around and I was like, well, maybe he's, you know, at his girlfriend's house and, uh, and he wasn't there. So we knew something was immediately off within like an hour of not making it to the gym. I knew something was off. And then, uh, the next day I went to like local hospitals, like seeing facilities, St. David's asking around if there were any John does that were found or brought to their facilities or anything like that. And that was nothing.

Mitch Gutierrez filed a police report and started searching for Martin as any family member would do. He remembers what Martin's friends told him about the night that he vanished. So it was a Sunday night. He went out to go meet up with some buddies that were just watching Sunday night football out there on Rainey Street. They went to one bar. They weren't there very long. Then went to another bar called Luster Pearl. From Luster Pearl, my brother was perfectly fine. And then he went to the bar next door called Alibi. By the time he made it to Alibi, he could barely even stand. He was slurring his speech.

According to my friends, they were like, what's wrong with Martin? Like, you know, it's not him. And I know my brother through and through. You know, we'd go out all the time. We'd drink. And what I saw in that footage that the bar owner let us see, that wasn't him. I don't know what was going on, but from one moment he was okay and then he wasn't. And so unfortunately with the bar, there's an inside area and then you go to the back area where the bathrooms are and then you

can actually exit on the outside, which is what he did. So the buddies that he was with didn't even realize that he was gone. They figured, oh, he went to the bathroom or whatever. And then they texted him after, you know, like maybe 10, 15 minutes. Like, hey, where are you at? No response. Mitch Gutierrez went to bars looking for surveillance video as he tried to find his brother. He doesn't have video from inside the bar, but he recorded video on his phone that showed Martin walking outside of the bar.

There he is. Looking at his phone. The video is the last time that Mitch would ever see Martin alive. So do you think somebody spiked his drink or something like that? I do. The behavior I saw from a kid that I've known my entire life and seeing that, that wasn't him. I don't know what it was. Now, I know they did a very generic talk screen. You know, they don't look for like the date rape drug and all that, Rufalin and all this other stuff.

Like they only looked for like alcohol and, you know, THC, cocaine, all those other ones, which everything was unremarkable because we don't do drugs. The only thing he had in the system was alcohol. And but what I saw in his behavior, my brother was a very stocky guy. You know, like I said, we went to the gym all the time. And when he exited that bar, he was like frolicking. You know, it was weird to see his behavior that way. It wasn't him at all. Martin's body was found seven days later in Lady Bird Lake. An autopsy revealed that Martin had drowned. The medical examiner labeled it an accident. He had water in his lungs, but on the autopsy report, he had a large contusion on the back of his head,

in the occipital region of his head. And I just find it hard to believe that, you know, this kid was like the best swimmer in the world, but swimming aside, like, it was like 20 degrees. There was no way he would ever hop in that water or whatever. They said it was an accidental drowning. There was no way. Like, there's no logical sense for him to be anywhere near that water. Mitch Gutierrez fears that someone harmed his brother, and he's not satisfied with the answers he was given about his brother's cause of death. I'm in the medical field, you know, not to say I'm an expert in autopsies and

whatnot, but I'm an ICU nurse practitioner, and dead people don't bleed. So if you have a large contusion on the back of your head, that means you are bruising. That means you had to have time to bruise. Dead people don't bleed. And he had a contusion on the back of his head. They said, well, maybe he hit his head when he fell in the water. Well, if he fell, hit his head in the water, drowned, he would have never had a contusion on the back of his head. I want to take just a moment to tell you about an amazing lip plumper and proud sponsor of Crime Fix called City Lips. It honestly has made my lips look 10 years younger. As someone who's always on camera, City Lips has been a game changer.

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dramatic results. to get this game changing all-in-one lip solution click the link in the description scan the qr code on your screen or go to citybeauty.com lc crime fix use the code law 15 for 15 off that's promo code law 15 for 15 off of your order since 2022 12 bodies have been found in and along ladybird lake all were men with the exception of one the lake is near the rainy street entertainment district and sixth street which is lined with bars many of the families of the people who lost their lives don't feel like they have all of the answers about how their loved ones died and why most were ruled accidental drownings the men who drowned had

alcohol in their systems the bodies found in Lady Bird Lake have sparked fears that a serial killer is on the loose targeting men Facebook groups have cropped up where people discuss theories and fears the feared serial killer has been dubbed the rainy Street R. Do you understand the fear there or the concern? Sure. I think it's gripped the community just anytime that someone passes in or near a body of water and it seems like it could potentially be from a suspicious source. I can understand why people might be a little concerned, but hopefully it helps assure people that, like I said, we make sure that detectives look at every single part of this case that we possibly can. We want to make sure that this person wasn't hit over the head or wasn't, you know, drugged at a bar and followed down to the water where they ended up falling in or were attacked or assaulted or anything like that. So we try to rule out as much as we possibly can. Obviously, we all would wish that there was video all over the place to see exactly what happened as things unfolded.

But we're left with the evidence at the end of the day, and we have to piece together all the actual physical evidence that we have. And that is, were there any signs of trauma? Were there any signs of foul play? Like, do we believe a weapon was used? Did the body have any defects like stab wounds or bullet holes or anything like that? And then just reviewing that toxicology as well to see if there's any commonalities between any of the cases. Austin Police Sergeant Nathan Sexton says he's certain the deaths are not the work of a serial killer. How can. Austin Police Sergeant Nathan Sexton says he's certain the deaths are not the work of a serial killer. How can the Austin Police Department

be so certain that there's nothing suspicious surrounding the deaths of the people who've ended up in Lady Bird Lake? So just over the years, there's deaths that happen in and around the water. Sometimes they're shootings,

sometimes they're drownings. Sometimes there's other deaths. And they all kind of get lumped in together a lot of the time. But I think the concern for most people are the folks pulled from the water that appear to have drowned. So in all these cases, we'll send an actual homicide detective to the scene to assess the situation, to assess the scene, to follow up later on with the medical examiner and to check on toxicology, which can take three months to come back. So all of that is looked at in its totality to make sure, was there any trauma to this person's body? Do we think that they were drugged?

Was there any signs of foul play? And have there been signs of foul play with any of these victims? I read a story that said that one victim may have been shot while driving and then ended up in the water. That was an actual murder. Yes. So there was a victim that was driving along a road and was just happened to be hit by gunfire and crashed off of a little cement barrier and ended up in the water. So that that's what I say. Some of these kind of get lumped in as all kind of being the same MO when that gentleman just happened to be driving along and was hit by gunfire that was involved by other other parties that were arguing with each other.

So he was unfortunately kind of collateral damage in a shooting that was happening around him. Sergeant Sexton says the deaths that have been labeled drownings were sad, unfortunate accidents. But that doesn't mean that people believe that. There are fears that someone may be spiking drinks for nefarious purposes. But why? I was found at about 4.30 in the morning at the bottom of a ravine. I actually was right next to a river that would lead to Lady Bird Lake. Jeff Jones was in Austin for a bachelor party in June of 2023 when someone found him in a creek under a bridge. Did you physically end up in the water

and somebody found you? I mean, do you know what happened to you from what you've been told? Yes, it's mainly from what I've been told through the reports. My sister came down and was there the whole time, as well as a few other of my relatives. And they were taking notes and kind of trying to explain to me what was going on. But, you know, that is an odd twist to it as well i i was found right next to the creek where an another individual a few years back also was found there unfortunately he had passed away but um yeah that lake that leads right to ladybird lake and um i was found at about 4 30 in the morning after disappearing from the group around one so it is a strange amount of time that i had and then it was just kind of an innocent bystander who had found me and reported

it anonymously so i would it would be interesting to find out a little bit more about that person i always thought it was kind of odd that i why did they see me at the bottom of the creek and bed you know in the middle of the night randomly i I had no idea what had happened because my recollection faded away while we were still at dinner. So to me, I woke up about a week and a half into it. They took me out of, they had me in an induced coma. And yeah, I had no idea where I was or what had happened. And I had a bunch of staples all over my body.

And it was quite a harrowing experience, I would say, at that point. It took me a few days to really even understand what was going on. And then they also had done a toxicology screen and they did find Rufol in my system. And there was no other substances outside of that. Jones shared the drug screen results with me. It shows a presumptive positive result for benzodiazepines, a drug the DEA says can produce sedation and hypnosis. These drugs are used to treat seizures, anxiety, and muscle spasms. There's no way to really know because I don't have, unfortunately, any memory of the actual event. But yeah, somebody had drugged me and either tried to rob me or, you know, maybe it was part of whatever this murdering

situation is. We're not really sure, but obviously something had happened. And it seemed odd, too, that a few of the other guys in our group also had gone home with, you know, abnormally high levels of confusion and more than just typical intoxication. Jeff Jones never filed a police report. But interestingly enough, after Jones spoke with me and we put in a records request for the run related to his fall from the bridge on 6th Street, Austin police wrote a report on May 16th of this year.

The officer documented what he saw when he responded to the 911 call. The report says, "'The complainant stated he was suddenly awoken "'by a loud crash and observed that a male had fallen off the south side of the bridge. It goes on to say the incident appeared accidental in nature. Therefore, we titled the incident Assist EMS. The rest of the report is heavily redacted with portions blacked out. It categorized the incident as a, quote, fall. An

Austin police detective told me they had the report It categorized the incident as a, quote, fall. An Austin police detective told me they had the report written to document the incident since Jones started speaking about it publicly. So they felt it should be documented. I've requested an unredacted copy of the report along with the 911 call at the time of this recording. That second request has not yet been fulfilled. But stay tuned. Do you guys have any reason to believe there was anything suspicious surrounding the incident involving Jeff Jones? No. And I from what I had heard, he just had no recollection of the events of that night. But the officers that had responded out there found him at the bottom of the uh to find him on the ground so again without like video or anything uh definitive to to show um that there was any foul play everything pointed to the fact that

he had just fallen the fact that jeff jones ended up in the hospital still shocks him a year later he still has a lot of questions and doesn't know who may have placed something in his drink it was definitely quite a quite a revelation. I mean, I had never really contemplated my own mortality at all in my mid 30s. So it's not even something you think about, really. We had actually heard about it when we were going down. There was about six or seven of us on a flight down from Boston together on Thursday. And we had heard of the disappearances of people.

And we were kind of joking with one another. Oh, watch out for the serial killer in Austin and you know to wake up and then realize that you know it could have actually been a target of somebody in that exact situation we were laughing about was definitely a shock um yeah I mean I hadn't I had heard about it but I hadn't really I obviously did a lot more research afterwards and started realizing that I fit the profile of, you know, a 20 or 30 something male who've been disappearing at an increasing rate over the past few years in Austin. So it it's yeah, it's really unfortunate.

And I, and I don't know that I believe that it's really a serial killer, but I do think that the drug is that, you know, these drugs that are, that can knock you out are very prevalent and easily available for people down there. And if, if you want to take advantage of someone, it's a great way to do it. That you completely incapacitate someone within an hour or so. So I think that that may be the real issue is just that, that, that drug is kind of running rampant around, around major cities. Drugging of drinks has been a problem in major cities for years.

In response to concerns over drugging drinks in Austin, the city has launched the Sip Safely program. They did that in April. The city's website includes advice like never leave your drink unattended. Watch your drink being poured. Be cautious about taking a drink from someone you don't know and use a drink cover and watch for others in your party. be cautious about taking a drink from someone you don't know and use a drink cover and watch for others in your party one austin city council member pushed for the program citing what's been going on at the bars in austin for years we have seen instances where there was a kxan article in

2019 where physicians have noted an increase of ER patients coming in from downtown bars who display unusual non-alcoholic related symptoms. When asked if the cause was from druggings, the physicians have often said, yes, I think it's definitely possible. The city also stationed EMTs along Rainy Street as part of a pilot program. An Austin-Travis County spokesperson told me that EMTs had actually stopped several people leaving bars from wandering toward the water. Now the city is looking at whether that program should be implemented full time, but it all comes down to money and the city budget. Despite the pilot programs designed to keep people safe, so many questions remain about how and why these men have ended up in the water. We can't explain why it seems to be mostly men, but I can say that from the Austin Homicide Unit that we look into every possible aspect that we can in all these cases,

and nothing has led us to believe that there is any sort of killer, especially serial killer at play here. Meanwhile, Jeff Jones still has questions about what's going on in the bar district in Austin and what happened to him. I think it's something that really needs to be addressed at this point. I mean, with the fact that you have this many people disappearing in your city, whether it's a serial killer or not, I feel like that's not good for tourism. And you would think that they would want to eradicate that issue sooner than later. It's crazy. But yeah, hopefully, you know, me having these conversations can get some awareness and at least help people be a little more safe when they're when they're down there and in a few other cities around the country, which seem to have kind of similar

issues going on. Thankfully, Jones lived to tell his story, although he has some lingering effects from falling 24 feet off that bridge. I'm still on some pain meds. I luckily have gotten off of most of them. It was pretty intense at first, but I do have two very large rods in my back connecting, well actually four rods in two places in my back connecting um well actually four rods uh in two places in my back connecting um the the spinal cord the areas that were that were damaged and those are actually

supposed to come out this summer shockingly enough they they aren't permanent um but i i still can function fairly normally with it it is a little painful sometimes certain activities but really i'm pretty lucky and i also did have a puncture wound a branch went through my elbow my left elbow and i i've lost some range of motion there uh as well which i'm in physical therapy for but um yeah overall you know hasn't negatively affected my life which is really lucky but no one has more questions than the loved ones of the families whose brothers and sons are never coming home. Mitch Gutierrez feels like he still doesn't know what happened to

his brother Martin. That kid was the salt of the earth and he deserved better. He is not a person that should have been pushed aside. He's a better person than that. He deserved better. And all those other people that died too deserve better than that. And the city didn't do sh**. They didn't do anything. And they just said it was accidental. It's not fair. He's too good of a person. All these people were too good to just be thrown to the side and nothing's been done. And the city needs to do something and they need to do it faster because people will continue to go missing. Will these families ever find out what happened to their loved ones? Were they all drugged

or were some intoxicated and sadly just ended up walking into the lake? They may never get the answers they need or want, but they say they'll continue to push for answers. So what do you say to the public out there who's got this legitimate concern about people ending up in the water? I think whenever people are out, especially in the bar districts, hopefully people keep an eye on their friends. I think a lot of people end up becoming incredibly intoxicated, which often leads to some people ending up in the water. And I can't speak to exactly how folks end up in the water, right? Every case is

completely different. Some of the folks are homeless, sleep by the water, and may use that as a bathroom. So there's all different circumstances in all of these different cases. But I hope it helps make people feel a little bit better that through our homicide unit, we look at every possible thing that we can in trying to rule out any sort of foul play. And there's just no signs that or any evidence leading to any kind of conclusion that anyone is being killed other than the ones that we've already classified as homicides. Sergeant Sexton says there have been cases investigated by the robbery division where people have actually drugged bar patrons to rob them. This woman was named a suspect in incidents going back to 2022, but Sexton says these are separate cases from the drownings.

On July 5th, a man's body was found on a trail off of Lady Bird Lake, raising fears about a possible killer on the loose. This call for service was responded to in a timely manner. Call attacks advised the complainant located a white male with apparent life-threatening injuries to his body. The Austin Fire Department, Austin-Travis County EMS, and the Austin Police Department arrived on scene, and unfortunately, the victim was pronounced deceased at approximately 5.45 p.m. This is not being investigated as a homicide at this time, and all investigative steps being taken

are routine measures. At this time, this is being considered an isolated incident, and there's no known threat to the general public. Sadly, Austin police say that man died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was not the victim of a homicide. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. We'll continue to follow this story and keep you updated on any new information we get. I'm Anjanette Levy, and I'll see you back here next time.