Shutterstock / Kelly Jobe
Rumors and hypothesis a few “Rainey Avenue Ripper” proceed to circle in Austin.
Austin social media accounts, together with a once-dormant “true crime” Fb group, lit up Tuesday after authorities pulled a physique from Woman Chicken Lake, reigniting unfounded hypothesis {that a} serial killer stalks the town.
On Monday afternoon, the Austin Police Division held a press convention confirming the physique’s restoration. It is unclear how lengthy the corpse, which has no identifiers, was within the water and whether or not it has any wounds, Public Info Officer Ariel Crumes advised reporters.
“Murder is actively investigating this as a dying investigation,” Crumes added.
Though particulars stay sparse, the invention was sufficient to stir conspiracy theorists and would-be web sleuths again into motion on the Woman Chicken Lake Serial Killer – True Crime Fb group. Final spring, members of the group speculated {that a} serial killer dubbed the “Rainey Avenue Ripper” was energetic within the metropolis.
“I used to be 100% certain Austin had a serial killer final time they discovered a physique,” one of many web page’s 86,000 members posted Tuesday morning. “I am about 125% certain now.”
Rumors of a serial killer searching younger males and dumping their our bodies in Woman Chicken Lake, a reservoir southeast of downtown Austin, ran rampant final April, drawing worldwide media consideration. Police recovered the our bodies of Jason John, Clifton Axtell, Jonathon Honey and Christopher Hays-Clark — all between the ages of 20 and 40 — within the reservoir between February and April of 2023.
When the Texas Month-to-month ran a narrative largely debunking the concept that a serial killer was accountable, rabid members of the Fb group scolded the publication and the journalist who wrote the story. Some even advised Austin police paid off the award-winning journal.
On the time, Gerald Reamey, a now-retired St. Mary’s College Legislation professor and former authorized advisor to the Irvine Police Division, advised the Present the accusations towards the Austin Police Division and Texas Month-to-month have been laughable.
“Giant-scale conspiracies are extraordinarily troublesome to prepare and very troublesome to maintain confidential,” Reamey stated. “Virtually at all times, data will be gathered concerning the existence of any form of conspiracy. It is simply troublesome. If you wish to commit against the law, do it your self. Do not ever do it with someone else.”
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