Jeff Jones flew into Austin last year for what he assumed would be a wild bachelor party.
The Boston native went to dinner with his friends before moving onto bars on the notoriously rowdy West 6th Street.
At 1am, the 38-year-old somehow got separated from his friends.
Two weeks later he woke up in hospital with metal rods supporting his back and he didn’t remember a thing.
Doctors found the date-rape drug Rohypnol in his system and told him he had been found in water after falling 25ft off a bridge.
A terrified Jones thought he had been drugged and pushed by a potential serial killer that many believed was roaming the streets of the Texas city.
Authorities have insisted there is no mass murderer at large, yet unsettling findings in a waterway passing through the heart of Austin have kept these rumors alive.
More than three dozens bodies have been found in or in the area near Lady Bird Lake in the last three years, it was revealed on Wednesday.
Nineteen have been pulled from the water, the rest have been discovered on land.
While police confirm only one instance was a homicide—and dismiss the notion of pursuing a suspect dubbed the ‘Rainy Street Ripper’—the causes of death in several other cases remain undetermined.
Even though many of the fatalities are shrouded in mystery, cops do have a theory.
At least 38 bodies have been pulled from Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas since 2022, according to local station Fox 7
They believe the party scene in downtown Austin – a favorite destination for bachelorette and bachelor parties – as exacerbated the problem.
Many of those who have ended up in Lady Bird Lake had been partying hard at Rainey Street, a popular bar scene, just feet away from the river.
Officials have increased safety measures, including lighting and fencing around the lake.
Additionally, ambulances are stationed at the end of Rainey Street to assist those who might have overindulged or to redirect individuals heading towards the water.
The latest remains were found on Tuesday. Law enforcement believe they belong to a teen who went missing on Sunday.
A 17-year-old black male who was paddle boarding with his family went missing around 7pm.
Tuesday, a body with clothes matching the description of the unidentified youngster was pulled from the water, however, local cops are still awaiting a positive identification from the medical examiner’s office.
There are no signs of foul play in this case, which has been classified as a drowning, investigators shared.
‘The teenager got off his kayak to stand in shallow water. He was not wearing a life jacket at the time. Investigators have determined that he was unknowingly standing near an underwater shelf, which is a sudden drop-off in the lake, when he stepped or slipped off and did not resurface’, the Austin Police Department explained.
Jeff Jones (pictured in hospital with his sister Amy) after he plummeted 25 feet off a bridge in Austin, and believes he could have been pushed by the ‘Rainey Street ripper’
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
The death of dad Christopher Hays-Clark, 30, (pictured with son) was not deemed to be suspicious. He was found dead on April 15, 2023
The teen’s backpack and life jacket have also been recovered alongside the kayak.
Since 2022, 38 bodies have been recovered from Lady Bird Lake, according to Fox 7.
Drowning has been the top cause of death, followed by suicide, drug overdoses and natural causes.
But the case still unresolved have lead to the wild serial killer speculation, which the Austin Police Department has shot down multiple times.
One debunked theory was that gay men were being targeted.
Like Jeff Jones, most of people who have been found dead in the water are men- 30 out of 38.
The majority, 60 percent, were between the ages of 30 and 49.
Two were teenagers, including the person found Tuesday.
‘The things that lead to it being a serial killer is that it’s a very specific type of victim, which I fit, they don’t have anything stolen from them, they drown in the water, and they disappear in the middle of the night,’ Jones told Daily Mail last year.
The popular bar district, Rainey Street, is located just next to Lady Bird Lake, where dozens have drown since 2022
‘I match all of this, I just luckily didn’t end up dead.’
However, police have chalked up the growing number of fatalities to a growing party scene near the water.
Former Austin Police Department forensic director Mark Gillespie previously stressed in an interview with KVUE that the public should believe the police when they say that there is no foul play.
‘They’re looking for foul play, and so when APD comes out with the statement that at the current time, they don’t suspect foul play, I promise you they were looking for it, and they were looking very hard for it, so I respect that,’ he said.
