A man from Boston who was likely drugged and pushed off a bridge after a night of partying in downtown Austin for a bachelor party thinks that he might have lived through an assault by a serial killer that Austin police insist is not real.
Jeff Jones, 38, awakened two weeks after his night out last summer with metal rods in his back after he was discovered by Shoal Creek, off the 25-foot-high West 6th Street Bridge. He told British tabloid the Daily Mail.that he matches the description of a serial killer victim because nothing was taken. However, he stated that he has no clue about what occurred to him between leaving the last bar he was in and being found by the creek.
“I just got lucky … Not many people can say they possibly survived a serial killer, so that’s a story I can tell, I guess,” he expressed.
Doctors discovered the date rape drug GHB in his system.
Jones stated he believes he was supposed to fall into the creek, which flows into the Colorado River, forming Lady Bird Lake, and drown, but he landed five feet from the water.
“Whoever they may be just missed the target and I hit the ground, and luckily because of that I didn’t drown,” he said.
Jones informed The Daily Mail he “somehow” got separated from his group at around 1 a.m. on June 23.
“One minute I was at the bar and then everything’s changed,” he said.
He was hospitalized for 17 days before he was able to leave. His sister brought him back to her home in New Hampshire to continue his recovery, and he’s already back to running, skiing, and other activities.
Since the middle of 2022, 12 bodies have been discovered near or retrieved from the river or lake that runs through downtown Austin right by the city’s popular night spots, all but one of them men. The two most recent, found last month, are not being investigated as homicides, Austin police said. One of those was not found in the water, the Austin American Statesman reported, and was suspected to have been a “cardiac event.”
One was determined to be a murder after a man was shot while driving and his car plunged into the lake. The cause of death of one other was listed as undetermined.
Several have been determined to be accidental drownings. Swimming is not permitted in the lake because of strong currents, but that doesn’t stop people from trying it when they think they won’t be caught. The city has upped patrols and added lighting around the lake as media outlets pound on the idea of a serial killer.
Jones stated the bodies and rumors are bound to ruin Austin as party place.
“If people keep disappearing I feel like it’s not going to be a destination for much longer,” he said.
[Featured image: Lady Bird Lake and Austin skyline/Michael Barera/WikiCommons]