Austin police pulled a vehicle out of the water in Lady Bird Lake Monday, from the downtown stretch of water where the bodies of at least four men have been discovered this year.
There was no one inside the car found Monday, according to authorities – but it was photographed riddled with bullet holes after they hauled it onto dry land.
Police initially responded around 2:30 a.m for reports of a shooting near the Festival Beach boat ramp, FOX 7 Austin reported.
That’s less than three-quarters of a mile from the southern end of Rainey Street, home to the popular strip of bars where several men found dead in the lake had last been seen.
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A dive team returned after sunrise and police pulled the vehicle out of the water – but there was no one inside.
Police recently increased their presence on Rainey Street, and Austin officials have also begun discussing ways to make the waterfront safer, including adding lights to the trails there and increasing Park Ranger patrols. They have also installed temporary fencing following several public meetings where residents voiced concerns about safety along the edge of the water.
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Austin police have said they do not have evidence of a potential serial killer on the loose.
For weeks they have said publicly that they have not uncovered evidence of foul play in any of the deaths, but the investigations remain active. But many Austin residents, as well as independent investigators and web sleuths alike, have argued that the number of bodies found so close to one another is more than a coincidence, especially due to the distance between the strip of bars on Rainey Street and the waterfront itself.
The edge of Lady Bird Lake is about a block and a half from the strip and would require climbing over a fence and going down a trail to reach it.
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Austin police identified the latest victim as John Christopher Hays-Clark, 30. He was pronounced dead at the scene near a dam about two miles downriver from where the others were found, closer to Rainey Street.
Police found Jason John, 30, dead in Lady Bird Lake in February, a week after he was last seen on Rainey Street.
Clifton Axtell, 40, was identified as the man found dead on March 5. Jonathan Honey, 33, was found on April 1, a day after he was last seen at a food truck on Rainey Street.
Stretching back through 2022, local reports indicate as many as eight men may have been found dead under similar circumstances.
Meanwhile, concerns of roofie attacks have swirled around the bar scene.
Such drugs, which incapacitate victims, have been used to commit robberies for years. But a new high-tech twist was recently discovered in New York City.
Police there announced multiple indictments and arrests in connection with a series of robberies that involved drugging victims at bars and then using facial recognition technology to unlock their phones and drain their accounts.
Several victims died as a result of overdosing on the drugs used to incapacitate them, according to police.
Separately, the Austin deaths share eerie similarities to claims of a potential group of “Smiley Face Killers” who some investigators believe may have been responsible for dozens of drownings of young men in the Midwest beginning in the late 1990s.
Residents were also monitoring the case of another missing man, Joel Derusha. Police told Fox News Digital Monday his remains were located on the 500 block of Thompson Lane Thursday morning.
He was located around nine miles away from Rainey Street, not in or near the water, and police said they found no evidence of foul play based on evidence uncovered so far.
