A Boston man who was apparently drugged and shoved off a bridge after a night out partying in downtown Austin for a bachelor party believes that he may have survived an attack by a serial killer Austin police say doesn’t exist.
Jeff Jones, 38, woke up two weeks after his night out last summer with metal rods in his back after he was found by Shoal Creek, off the 25 foot high West 6th Street Bridge. He told British tabloid the Daily Mail that he fits the profile of a serial killer because nothing was taken. But, he said, he has no idea what happened 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 potentially survived a serial killer, so that’s a story I can tell, I guess,” he said.
Doctors found the date rape drug GHB in his system.
Jones said he believes he was supposed to fall into the creek, which empties into the Colorado River, which forms 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 told 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 found near or fished 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 said 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.
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[Featured image: Lady Bird Lake and Austin skyline/Michael Barera/WikiCommons]
