Tag: mysterious deaths

Austin, Texas: Over Three Dozen Bodies Found in Lake Since 2022, Prompting Fears of Serial Killer

Suicides, simple accidents, a deadly combination of alcohol and deep water — or a clever serial killer on the loose in the Texas state capitol?

That’s the question haunting Austin, Texas locals after the dead body count in a reservoir named Lady Bird Lake climbed to 38 recovered corpses since 2022 when another man’s body was pulled from its waters last month.

The Austin Police Department (APD) told Fox News Digital that detectives don’t suspect foul play, and the department is working to determine whether the body recovered is a 17-year-old kayaker reported missing.

But the discovery of yet another dead body has reignited fears that a serial killer is hunting male victims in Austin and disposing their bodies in or around the lake. The reservoir was first created in the 1960s as a cooling pond for a power plant but is now used primarily for recreation and flood control.

Local authorities downplay the possibility of foul play.

However, Dr. Carole Lieberman, a forensic psychiatrist and expert trial witness, told Fox News Digital that the theory can’t be so easily dismissed.

“The denials by law enforcement and other authorities that these cases are murders or the work of a serial killer are premature,” she said. “They don’t want the public to panic about a possible serial killer, so they are making light of all the deaths.”

According to data obtained by Fox 7, of the nearly three dozen bodies found, 30 have reportedly been men, with approximately 60 percent between 30 and 49 years old. Fox 7 reported:

“In the past three years, the causes of death have been mainly attributed to accidental drownings. Second is suicide, as well as drug overdoses, and natural causes. Only one case has been ruled a murder; about half a dozen of these cases remain unknown.”

Lieberman said such statistics often don’t tell the whole story:

One cannot rule out that a so-called ‘accidental’ drowning isn’t the result of a murderer unless there were witnesses. Murderers can use drowning as their [modus operandi]. Similarly, suicides must be proven, not just assumed if someone has been depressed.

The psychiatrist added that date rape drugs can render even a man easy prey for a thief or a killer, citing water as an attractive way to dispose of a body:

Water can cause decomposition of the body and can wash away evidence, from fingerprints to DNA. If the water has movement, such as a river or stream, it can propel the body far from the actual scene of the crime, making it more complicated to find the killer. Some killers choose water-based crime scenes with the hopes that their murder will be misconstrued as drowning, which can make it harder, because it can be difficult to differentiate drowning from murder.

In a 2023 statement, Fox Digital reported, APD tried to dispense of public fears that a serial killer was targeting men in the area. The department cited alcohol mixed with a large body of water as the culprit, with the majority of deaths occurring after the surrounding park’s closing time.

Keep reading

Oil tycoon falls to his death from elite Moscow apartment block in latest mystery death to hit Russia

A top Russian oil tycoon has died after mysteriously plunging 180ft from a window at his luxury Moscow home.

The body of Andrey Badalov, 62, was discovered this morning at the bottom of an exclusive high-rise apartment building in Moscow’s affluent Rublevskoye neighbourhood.

Badalov was the vice-president of state-owned oil pipeline monopoly Transneft. 

He reportedly lived on the building’s 10th floor but fell from the 17th storey, according to local media. 

A source said the ‘preliminary cause’ of death is ‘suicide’, as investigators reportedly discovered a note Badalov had left to his wife. 

Badalov had been appointed vice-president for the oil giant in 2021 during a ‘complex and tense period’ and had been credited with helping the company ‘overcome the challenges’ posed by Western sanctions. 

He previously worked at the state-owned Voskhod Scientific Research Institute.

He had also studied at the General Staff Academy of the Armed Forces, which trains high-level officers and state managers.

The tycoon leaves behind a wife and two daughters.

His sudden death is the latest in a spate of unexplained deaths of leading Russian figures under mysterious circumstances. 

In these cases, individuals have died falling from windows, apparent suicides and in accidents. Some have been known to be critics of Vladimir Putin.  

Top Russian oligarch Mikhail Rogachev, 64, was found dead back in October after mysteriously falling from a 110ft window in Moscow.

Rogachev was the vice-president of Russian oil giant Yukos, which was forced out of business for turning against Putin. 

TV channels reported that he lived on the tenth floor and that it was a suicide, claiming he had cancer and left a note.

But these reports were vehemently denied by his close friends and relatives.

His family insisted there were no signs that he was suicidal and he was in a ‘good mood’ shortly before his death.

Keep reading

Alleged co-conspirator in Palm Springs fertility clinic explosion dies in federal custody

A Washington state man accused of providing large amounts of chemicals to make explosives for last month’s bombing of a fertility clinic in Palm Springs has died in federal custody, the U. S. Department of Justice confirmed.

Daniel Park, 32, was taken into custody earlier this month at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport after being deported from Poland, where he’d traveled four days after the bombing, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced. He was facing charges of conspiracy.

According to a statement from the U. S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons, Park was found unresponsive at approximately 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.

“Responding employees initiated life-saving measures. Emergency medical services (EMS) were requested while life-saving efforts continued,” the statement said. “Mr. Park was transported by EMS to a local hospital and subsequently pronounced deceased by hospital personnel.”

Further details about the manner in which Park died were not immediately shared.

Keep reading

Mohamed Al Fayed Paid Millions To Egyptian Spies Trying To Uncover the Truth About the Death of His Son Dodi and Princess Diana in Paris Car Crash

Lately, a lot has been published about the alleged sex crimes of late Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, accused of having raped, sexually abused or harassed hundreds of female employees.

But there’s another side to the billionaire Egyptian-born businessman: the bereaved father, desperately engaged in a quest for information about the death of his eldest son Dodi Al-Fayed and the ‘People’s Princess’ Diana in a Paris car crash in August 1997.

Now, a report shows that Al-Fayed paid Egyptian secret service agents millions for information about the death of Dodi and Diana.

He spent his last decade sending cash to Egyptian agents in London, expecting to obtain secret intelligence about the controversial crash.

The Telegraph reported:

“Sources say he hoped to receive confirmation from Egyptian secret service operatives of his belief that the British intelligence services had a hand in the fatal crash in the Alma tunnel.

Fayed had grown convinced that the British establishment feared the idea of Dodi, an Egyptian, as a possible stepfather to the future king.

At one stage, he told an Egyptian secret service agent that he knew the British intelligence services had killed the pair because they feared the possibility of the couple having a child who would be ‘a Muslim brother to the future king’.”

Keep reading

Nearly 800 infant remains found in septic tank at nun-run Irish unwed mother and baby home

Crews in Ireland began work this week to excavate the site of a former church-run home for unmarried women and their babies to identify the remains of around 800 infants and young children who died there.

Many of the remains were found in a septic tank, according to authorities. 

The backstory:

The long-awaited excavation at the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway in western Ireland, is part of a reckoning in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country with a history of abuses in church-run institutions.

The home, which was run by an order of Catholic nuns and closed in 1961, was one of many such institutions that housed tens of thousands of orphans and unmarried pregnant women who were forced to give up their children throughout much of the 20th century.

In 2014, historian Catherine Corless tracked down death certificates for nearly 800 children who died at the home in Tuam between the 1920s and 1961 — but could only find a burial record for one child.

Finding a mass grave

Dig deeper:

Investigators later found a mass grave containing the remains of babies and young children in an underground sewage structure on the grounds of the home. DNA analysis found that the ages of the dead ranged from 35 weeks gestation to 3 years.

A major inquiry into the mother-and-baby homes found that in total, about 9,000 children died in 18 different mother-and-baby homes, with major causes including respiratory infections and gastroenteritis, otherwise known as the stomach flu.

Keep reading

Rangers working to ID two campers found dead at Isle Royale National Park

The National Park Service is working to identify two campers who were found dead within Isle Royale National Park early Monday morning.

Responding to multiple reports of bodies found in the park on Sunday afternoon, park rangers hiked more than ten miles throughout the night to a remote location and made the discovery.

An NPS spokesperson said the deceased were found at a backcountry campground within the park. It’s still unclear exactly where the bodies were located and the identities and causes of death of both people are unknown at this point.

As a part of their investigation, officials are using both ground and air resources.

Isle Royale National Park is located within Lake Superior, and is made up of hundreds of different islands, including Isle Royale, which is technically part of Michigan but is closer to Minnesota’s North Shore.

It is known for its rugged terrain and isolated location, popular with adventure-loving hikers and paddlers. 

Keep reading

Dead Body Found in L.A. Riot Zone

Those “mostly peaceful” leftist protests in Los Angeles are not only violent, but they also have reportedly turned deadly.

Close to businesses looted in downtown L.A. by the radical leftist protesters whom Democrat California officials and media are defending, a dead body was found. Details have yet to be released, but the corpse was found in the midst of an area that was trashed by the anti-ICE, anti-Trump rioters.

The shocking story about the dead body comes after Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom sued Trump and the Department of Defense for taking over and sending in the California National Guard to deal with the increasingly violent and dangerous riots in the Los Angeles area. Newsom, who has broken multiple federal laws, arrogantly challenged the administration to arrest him.

Now it appears the riots might have cost at least one person‘s life. KTLA5 L.A. reported on the few details released and explained that the investigation into the cause of death is ongoing:

Police were called to the area of West 3rd Street and Broadway shortly after 1:30 a.m., where they found the unresponsive man, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to KTLA.

Video showed investigators at the scene standing next to the man, who was lying on his back wearing a red sweatshirt.

The intersection where the body was found included a T-Mobile store that the insane rioters looted. 

Keep reading

Mysterious Cattle Deaths Baffle Colorado Rancher & Authorities

A macabre mystery involving the death of over a dozen cattle in a single day has stumped a Colorado rancher and state authorities investigating the case. The eerie incident reportedly occurred on May 8th at a property near the community of Coal Creek. That now-unforgettable day began when rancher Kerri Higgs and her husband discovered that a trio of cattle had inexplicably perished overnight. Concerned about the rest of their herd, they moved the remaining animals closer to an area near their home for observation. It was then that things took a weird and rather gruesome turn. “They started flopping over and dying,” Higgs recalled, “it was pretty bad.”

All told, the couple lost 15 cattle that fateful day, which prompted an exhaustive investigation by authorities that has come up short so far. To that end, tests of rainwater ingested by the animals, the soil where they roamed, and even the air around and above the property all produced no clues as to what could have killed so many creatures in such a short time. Blood tests from one of the downed cattle also only furthered the mystery. “We’re not getting any conclusive results,” Mykel Kroll of the county’s Office of Emergency Management explained, “we’re running out of boxes to check,” which has left authorities “scratching our heads.”

The futility of the investigation has understandably dismayed Higgs, who lamented that “it’s beyond frustrating.” Beyond the baffling nature of the incident, the cost of losing so many animals at once has devastated the ranch as each perished heifer was valued at around $5,000 or a staggering $60,000 total. While authorities pledged to continue investigating the case, samples from the downed cattle are beginning to dwindle, which raises the possibility that the mystery may never be solved. “Maybe we don’t find out the cause” of the curious event, Kroll conceded, musing “are there always answers? No.” For her part, Higgs acknowledged this dispiriting scenario, indicating that she “won’t be surprised” if the matter remains punctuated by a maddening question mark.

Keep reading

Third Teen Death in National Forest Alarms: Two High Schoolers Found Shot on Camping Trip

The tragic deaths of high school students Pandora Kjolsrud and Evan Clark have gripped the community, with their lives cut short in Tonto National Forest, Arizona. Both teenagers were found shot near Mount Ord, north of Mesa, and authorities have confirmed the investigation as a homicide. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office remains tight-lipped on the specifics, yet the gravity of the situation has left an indelible mark.

Arcadia High School students Kjolsrud and Clark were simply on a camping trip when their lives were tragically ended. This incident marks the second and third teenager deaths in the area since February. Earlier, the remains of 14-year-old Emily Pike were discovered, adding another layer of mystery and concern to the sequence of events.

Emily Pike’s disappearance from a group home in January ended with the grim discovery of her dismembered body. The distance of over 70 miles from her last known location to where she was found is chilling. Her case, still under investigation by the FBI and local law enforcement, has yet to see any arrests.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has not linked Pike’s case with the recent deaths of Kjolsrud and Clark. However, the community is on edge, yearning for answers and justice. Families are left to grapple with loss and the haunting questions that accompany such tragedies.

A GoFundMe campaign for Kjolsrud’s family highlights her vibrant spirit and the joy she spread. Her infectious smile left a lasting impact on those who knew her. The fundraiser paints a picture of a young woman who made everyone feel special, a testament to her remarkable character.

Evan Clark, remembered fondly by his mother, wasn’t your typical teenager. His entrepreneurial spirit and sensitivity set him apart. The touching letter he wrote to his mother on Mother’s Day is a poignant reminder of the depth of his love and the promise of a future now lost.

The community’s call for answers is echoed in the voices of those who knew and loved the teenagers. The proximity of this tragedy has left many feeling vulnerable and yearning for closure. The question of what happened that fateful day looms large in the hearts of those affected.

Keep reading

Two Teenagers Found Shot Dead in Arizona National Forest

Sheriff’s officials in Arizona are investigating the deaths of two high school students found in a national forest outside Phoenix after they failed to return from a Memorial Day camping trip.

Both had died from gunshot wounds, according to KNXV-TV, which cited the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

And both were being mourned by their families and their school community.

Pandora Kjolsrud, 18, was described by her mother in a message to KNXV-TV as “a bright light in this world who loved every single person she met and had an unusual ability to make every person she met feel special and loved. She was a friend to many and a beloved daughter. She lived life in a big way and was always up for an adventure.”

The other teen has been identified by family and friends as 17-year-old Evan Clark.

In an interview with KSAZ-TV, a co-worker of Clark’s called the deaths a “tragedy.”

“You just cherish all the memories and the laughs,” the co-worker said.  “His life was cut very short, and so was Pandora’s. They were very young, and it was just so sudden and a tragedy that you wouldn’t even imagine.”

A classmate of Clark’s told the station “it doesn’t really feel real.”

“I was just in class with him, not even a week ago,” the classmate said.

Keep reading