Posted on 09/02/2007 3:01:14 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) -- One more time: There is no serial killer.
For nearly a decade, this river city has lived with fears that a mysterious boogeyman was lurking in bars, waiting to drown young, good-looking white men. Since 1997, eight college-aged men have disappeared after drinking heavily at area taverns, only to turn up dead in a nearby river. Each death has rekindled the killer talk.
But police here announced Aug. 21, FBI profilers have found no signs of foul play in the deaths. The FBI is the third law enforcement agency to investigate the drownings, and all have reached the same conclusion: They're accidents.
"It's going to be a relief to everybody that, once again, this is confirmed. Anything that has to do with alcohol and somebody in this water, bang, it comes up," said Jeff Woodruff, owner of the Mirage Sports Bar in La Crosse.
Community leaders hope the report will close the book on an urban legend that has made La Crosse infamous. That remains to be seen, but for now it's left them with an old, tough problem - how to curb binge drinking.
With no serial killer to blame, people will have to take responsibility for what happens when they get drunk, said Paula Knutson, dean of students at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
"The report will help students," she said. "There was doubt in their mind, which removed a sense of accountability. ... This helps say, 'OK, we've got a problem here when it comes to excessive drinking.'"
La Crosse, a city of 50,000, lies on the Mississippi River about two hours southeast of the Twin Cities. About 15,000 students attend its three colleges - UW-La Crosse, Western Technical College and Viterbo University.
Wisconsin's love affair with beer and breweries is on full display here. The city boasts a set of vats at City Brewery as the world's largest six-pack, thousands attend an annual Oktoberfest and students jam the downtown bars every weekend.
But the taverns border Riverside Park, where the Black and La Crosse rivers join the Mississippi.
The spate of drownings began in July 1997, when searchers discovered 19-year-old Richard Hlavaty dead in the Mississippi. Over the next nine years, seven more college-aged men disappeared from area bars only to turn up dead in the rivers.
The serial killer rumors became a near hysteria in 2004 when UW-La Crosse wrestler Jared Dion, 21, was found in the Mississippi off Riverside Park.
Police held a community meeting to assure the public the drownings were accidents. But people heckled them, accusing them of ignoring obvious connections between the deaths - all men, all white, all disappeared downtown.
The rumors erupted again last September, when UW-La Crosse basketball player Luke Homan was found dead in the Mississippi after a night of drinking.
A month and a half later, Minneapolis police reclassified University of Minnesota student Chris Jenkins' drowning as a murder after initially ruling it suicide. In December, a St. Cloud State criminologist said he had counted more than 20 college-aged men from Minnesota to Ohio who drowned after disappearing from a bar or party since 1997.
Tired of the rumors, La Crosse police asked the FBI's National Center for Analysis of Violent Crime to review their investigations.
Police Chief Ed Kondracki held a press conference Aug. 21 to say the FBI found no evidence to support the serial killer theory. He didn't release the report, saying it's FBI property.
The Associated Press has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain a copy. The FBI hasn't responded yet.
But Kondracki said the report found no connections between the victims' deaths. Eight other people who survived falls into area waters reported no contact with anyone else, it noted, and there have been no reports of a suspicious person approaching men in the areas where the victims were last seen.
The FBI also reported that student volunteers who began patrolling Riverside Park after Homan's death have encountered about 40 drunk people along the water, Kondracki said.
Eric Olson, a 21-year-old UW-La Crosse junior from Menasha, said he always believed the real killer was alcohol.
"Just one more person backing up the truth," Olson said of the report.
Now the city is left to grapple with binge drinking.
Since Homan's death, city leaders have enacted a public intoxication ordinance and spent about $60,000 to set up more fencing in Riverside Park. A consortium of area medical centers are studying ways to reduce alcohol-related injuries.
Student volunteers were prepared to resume patrols along the river this weekend, and three colleges have launched a safe drinking campaign that includes late-night alternatives such as bingo.
But while posters proclaiming "You Wouldn't Leave Your Cellphone, Why Would You Leave Your Friends?" hang on Viterbo's walls, signs at Coconut Joe's downtown invite students to "Get Goosed Up" on $2.50 back-to-school mixers.
Bars have to offer drink specials to compete, said Dave Parisey, owner of the Popcorn Tavern downtown and president of the La Crosse City and County Tavern League. The solution, he said, is teaching kids about alcohol abuse in high school and at home.
"(Parents) can't just send their kids up here and expect us to baby-sit them," Parisey said.
La Crosse Mayor Mark Johnsrud said he considered widespread drinking at house parties a greater problem than bars' drink specials. Many students are drunk before they ever get downtown, he said.
"You're always going to see cheap drinks in a college town," he said.
And not everyone believes the FBI.
Viterbo junior Tina Kothbauer, 20, of Durand, said she still thinks a serial killer is at large and police are keeping it quiet to avoid publicity. She shook her head at the safe drinking campaign.
"I don't think it will do anything," she said. "College students aren't going to stop binge drinking."
--that'll get a real reception--wanna bet??
Wow, I was there a few years back and didn't realize what a target I made.
Maybe if they have larger than normal Bingo cards and use shot glasses as markers? ;)
ROFL
All men, all white, all in the same area?
Coincidence, I’m sure......
Now if that had been all women, it wouldn’t be laid to rest.
They track those cases forever.
ROTFLMAO!
Yep, take the person out of the crime and at the same time, chastise the people who drink beer.
It's BEER that is the problem we need to cope with I tell ya'!!!
Of course a want for a demise leads one to appear idiotic with their statements.
Mark, you are doing a fine job in showing my statement to be one holding water.
Those who strive to achieve a winning card in bingo need to reevaluate their directives.
Maybe local bars should hand out complimentary life preservers to white males who appear to be intoxicated?
Better start looking for Jeffery Dahmer’s twin
This helps say, ‘OK, we’ve got a problem here when it comes to excessive drinking.’”
Could the problem be that you live in a boring state where there is nothing to do but drink or drink and watch football? Or maybe people realize .... What the hell did I do with my life by going to a school in a state that is freezing 8 to 9 months out of the year? So they drink with other people that made that same decision....
That could be the cause of the problem right there.
Jeez Louise, they might want to take into account just how goddam easy it is to drown when you’re stinking drunk. Are the bars downtown right on the riverside promenade? Is there some college tradition of jumping in or shoving each other into the drink when partying?
When you’re sloshed you can drown in a damn mud puddle (Re: Ira Hays).
It’s just college kids doing what they do best in ANY college town, anywhere. Most of us grow out of it, unless we end up drowned in the river.
But thanks so much for your critique of our state. I’m sure you’re just a little ray of sunshine wherever you wander, LOL!
I read somewhere that 75% of all male drownings show alcohol intoxication and an unzipped fly on the trousers.
Makes sense to me.
Just sayin...:)
Haven’t young men in other regional states (Minnesota, North dakota?) have also disappeared from bars and turned up dead in rivers?
Shouldn’t be tough to put together a trend to see what was “normal” before 1997 and since. The FBI is no longer so infallible in my view, after all the incompetence shown before and after 9-11.
Co-ed strip bingo might.
LOL! I love Ann Rule. Heck, she’s probably going around, pushing good-looking, white men into the water at night.
There’s a couple of guys who’d be happy to investigate white males with flies open.
One man’s home is another man’s hell hole.
or the gay lobby is putting pressure on the authorities to deny the existence of a homosexual serial killer.
Midnight basketball worked wonders for inner city crime. Maybe midnight bingo will work for binge drinking and the concurrent problem of unwanted pregnancy.
The article says that the rumor was debunked by the FBI. How can that be if the FBI report hasn’t been released?
I am surprised that the FBI didn’t also say that there was no evidence of terrorism. It seems that’s usually the first thing that they say after an investigation these days.
“Better start looking for Jeffery Dahmer’s twin.”
Nah, Dahmer kept the bodies until he could eat them.
Midnight bowling would probably work much better there.
And White males are the only victims? Let me guess, the area is 99.9% White. Did I miss by much?
“The FBI is no longer so infallible in my view, after all the incompetence shown before and after 9-11.”
I am hardly a Conspiracy theorist, but yes...many young men, all fitting the same MO have been found this way all up and down the Mississippi River area.
An Interstate system runs along the very same route. It would be super-easy for a madman (or woman) to kill and escape quickly.
Look at how many The Green River Killer killed in the course of a few years.
There are freaks-a-plenty out there.
I’m still unconvinced that these are simply random deaths.
You need to be a Nature Lover, and somewhat of an independent spirit to understand it. And I agree...I don’t understand wanting to live in the wilds of Alaska; that would be too far removed for me.
But it’s so BEAUTIFUL here, I can hardly stand it! The area where I live looks just like Germany; hence the reason so many of we Germans, Swedes and Norwegians settled here a few hundred years ago. :)
I LIVE for that show. I’m married to a Geek myself, LOL!
Glad you can see beauty under 12 feet of accumulated snow for 9 months of the year. How much time do you get to enjoy “nature and beauty” when you have to shovel out your car for the 50th time that winter?
I mean if you don’t wear the right clothes to work, you can die. Seriously who wants to live like that?
How much time do you get to spend outside enjoying ( not just looking at) but interacting with the nature there? It is only alive a few months out of the year?
That is what I do not understand. You only have so much time on this earth, why be forced to spend it indoors?
I ain’t buying the official line.
A college kid disappeared in California PA and was found in a river- a young college prof disappeared (cannot remember state) and was also found in a river-I have shared sympathy with family whose son was missing for a year- disappeared in Montana and was found in river ... all young handsome, college types. Now there’s been one in Colorado
seems to me many of these crimes (not accidents, way too many concidences) occur near Halloween, late fall and in winter when victim would be incapacitated by hypothermia shortly after being forced into water, assuming not slipped date rape drug before leaving bar
the geographic dispersion suggests a gang or cult
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04292008/news/regionalnews/killer_gang_drowns_40__sleuths_108571.htm
KILLER GANG DROWNS 40: SLEUTHS SAY NYER A VICTIM
By MURRAY WEISS and ANDY GELLER
April 29, 2008 — Two ex-NYPD detectives doggedly probing the drowning of two New Yorkers believe they were murdered by a nationwide gang of psychopathic serial killers who have drowned 39 other young men.
Retired Detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte say Patrick McNeill, 20, a Fordham accounting major, was killed by what they are calling the Smiley Face Gang, which they say has struck in 25 cities in 11 states since 1997.
Smiley faces - some with horns - were drawn on walls at 22 of the crime scenes in five states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa.
The paint, size and shape of the faces varied. There were other unspecified symbols at some other crimes sites, but none at all in New York. The victims in all the cases shared roughly the same profile: young men of college age who disappeared after a night of drinking, and drowned.
McNeill, who lived in Port Chester, disappeared Feb. 16, 1997, after drinking at a bar on East 92nd Street. His body was found April 7, 1997, near the 69th Street pier in Brooklyn.
Gannon, then working in missing persons, caught the case and promised McNeill’s parents he would never give up. When he retired, he enlisted Duarte, his old partner, and devoted his life to keeping that promise, mortgaging his house and spending tens of thousands of his own money.
He told The Post yesterday, “They’re psychopaths. They have no remorse. Some of the victims were held for a while until they were put in the water.”
Gannon said McNeill’s death was similar to that of Lawrence Andrews, 22, who vanished on New Year’s Eve in 2006 after drinking near Grand Central Terminal. His body was found Feb. 12, 2007, also off the 69th Street pier. Gannon said that after studying the water flow and land contour, he concluded the similarities weren’t coincidental.
In both cases, he believes the victims were drugged with GHB, a date-rape drug, and then placed in the water.
Gannon and Duarte began working in high gear in 2003, when they learned four young men had vanished in Minnesota and Wisconsin over a 40-day period. Instead of looking at where the bodies were found, the detectives looked at the point of entry into the water, finding smiley faces nearby. Nine of the 22 faces were drawn with horns, Gannon said - like an “evil, happy, smiley man.”
“To revisit the situation . . .is painful,” said Andrews’ mother, Susan.
murray.weiss@nypost.com
ping to you- see the above from today’s NY Post
The smiley faces discovered at more than 1/2 of the locations is an interesting twist. It would seem to indicate the killer(s) desire some recognition. That’s what convinces me that the victims are not just drunk guys accidentally falling into the water.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.