Hunting the 'Lady Bird Lake Ripper': The 4 men whose tragic deaths may signal the unspeakable
AUSTIN, TEXAS: Austin residents have been haunted by fears of a possible serial killer on the loose after a fourth body was pulled from Lady Bird Lake in a span of three months. Jason John, 30, Clifton Axtell, 40, Jonathan Honey, 33, and John Christopher Hays-Clark, 30, were all found dead in or close to the lake since mid-February. The chilling discoveries prompted online sleuths to connect the deaths of the four men to a serial killer dubbed the 'Lady Bird Serial Killer' or 'Rainey Street Ripper.'
Fearful residents even set up a private Facebook group called the ‘Lady Bird Lake Serial Killer’ to share theories about the recent deaths and garnered nearly 70,000 followers. Some even linked the current events to other bodies discovered in the lake several years ago. While law enforcement authorities said there was no foul play involved in the tragic deaths of the four men, experts said the cases signal a "striking coincidence," the Daily Mail reports.
READ MORE
The Stockton Serial Killer? Fears grow after police find pattern in murders of five men
John Christopher Hays-Clark: The last man found dead in lake
John Christopher Hays-Clark, a 30-year-old man, was the latest person to be pulled from Lady Bird Lake. His body was found by Austin Police Department officials on Saturday, April 15, around 1.20 pm, after they patrolled the waters by boat following several reports of an unresponsive person spotted in the lake. “Multiple people called 911 and said that a suspect appeared to be deceased and was in the water on this end of the lake,” Officer Michael Bullock told Fox 7. Hays-Clark’s identity was confirmed on Monday, April 17, but his cause of death remained unavailable.
However, Officer Bullock said authorities did not find anything “suspicious” related to his death. “Our homicide unit did respond to the scene and are investigating this incident. As of right now, it is a very unfortunate incident but up to this point, we have not discovered anything suspicious tied directly to this incident,” he stated as per the New York Post. Bullock added that the medical examiner will make the final determination regarding his death but initial investigation “doesn’t show anything suspicious.”
Jonathan Honey was seen on Rainey Street before he disappeared
Another man found dead on Lady Bird Lake earlier this month was identified as 33-year-old Jonathan Honey. He was found dead on April 1, just one day after he was reported missing. According to a missing poster, Honey was last seen near a taco food truck on Rainey Street around 2.00 am on March 31. He was reportedly wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans on the day of his disappearance. No other personal information about the man has been made available to the public.
Jason John’s family says all 4 deaths are linked
Similar to Honey, 30-year-old Jason John was also last seen on Rainey Street before his disappearance. He was the first of the four men whose body was discovered on the lake. John was reportedly last seen walking home nearly a week before his discovery. His body was found on February 13. John’s parents believe there is more to their son’s tragic story and that the deaths of the four men are connected.
“Jason was 30. Jonathan Honey was 33. Two in the morning. Rainey Street. So there were some similarities in the case,” Jason John’s mother, Elsie John, told Fox7. She said that her family does not agree with the ruling that there was no foul play involved in his death and shared that she fears more men might be dead in the coming days. “We definitely don't agree with that. We don't know how many Jasons, how many Martins, and how many Jonathans are going to be losing their lives again. And this is not acceptable,” Elsie stated. “Every time I hear about a body, I feel like it's more painful. You know, when I think about another, it is heartbreaking,” the grieving mother added.
Clifton Axtell was a dad-of-two
Clifton Axtell was a 40-year-old man whose body was discovered in Lady Bird Lake on March 5. He reportedly went missing near Stubb’s downtown on February 25, nearly a week before he was found dead by officials. He was identified by his sister on Facebook and left behind his wife and two children.
Residents link more deaths to 'Lady Bird Lake Ripper’
Austin residents have linked to several other deaths near Lady Bird Lake to the supposed serial killer. In 2015, 22-year-old Julio Santos was found dead in the lake. The body of 25-year-old Martin Gutierrez was also found in the same venue in 2018 after a night out at Rainey Street. He reportedly had several injuries on his body, his brother Mitchell told Fox 7.
Christian Pugh, a 21-year-old man, was also found in the lake in 2019. However, he was alive and in a “rough” condition with a hit to his head and bruised hands. Another four unidentified bodies were also recovered from the lake in the past 10 months, Crime Online reports. A spreadsheet created by a member of the Lady Bird Lake Serial Killer/ Rainey St Killer Facebook group even linked the 2008 death of the alleged killer.
The man, a public schoolteacher named Riad Hamad, was found dead on the south side of the lake his hands and feet bound. Officials later ruled that he took his own life. A popular theory in the Facebook group suggests that the killer is a bartender who has been slipping date rape drugs into his victims’ drinks. Members also shared their own theories about being drugged or assaulted while drinking on Rainey Street. Some even said that the circumstances around the men found in Lady Bird Lake resembled the killing pattern of the infamous Smiley Face Killers, the Daily Mail reports.
'It's a horrible circumstance'
While the cause of Hays-Clark’s death is yet to be determined, officials said Honey, John, and Axtell died from a “combination of alcohol and easy access to Lady Bird Lake” and did not show any signs of trauma. “I realize that there is a rampant rumor about a potential serial killer here in Austin. We've found no evidence of that,” Austin Police Department spokesman Chief Joseph Chacon told FOX 7.
“It's a horrible circumstance that we have these, and we look at each one to determine the circumstances in which they occurred. Some of them are accidental, unfortunately, some of them are also suicides,” he added. Officials said that while each incident occurred at the lake, “the circumstances, exact locations, and demographics surrounding these cases vary,” the Daily Mail reported.
‘I don’t believe that it’s accidental’
Former NYPD detective Kevin Gannon told Fox News that he does not believe all deaths near the lake are accidental. “Just from the sheer number and the fact that there's so many in a short period of time, I don't believe that it's accidental,” he said. Meanwhile, Dr Carsten Andresen of St Edward's University told KXAN that social media holds the power to spread conspiracy theories like wildfire. “Human nature has always looked at things and sort of looked for patterns that may or may not exist. But also, social media and the ability to just sort of put these rumors online and sort of have them go out like wildfire,” says Dr Andersen.