Posted on 02/15/2010 8:14:06 AM PST by AtlasStalled
Over the last decade approximately 80 young men attending college in relatively rural communities along I-94 -- the northernmost east-west interstate highway -- have mysteriously disappeared after leaving a party or bar alone, and many of them subsequently have been discovered as drowning victims in nearby rivers, ponds and lakes. Their deaths routinely have been classified as accidental drownings but former Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter Kristi Piehl, with the help of a team of experts including a forensic pathologist, a former federal agent, and a former New York District Attorney, believes that at least some of the deaths are homicide.
The cases are individually detailed at a website set up by Piehl in the hopes that federal authorities will open an investigation to re-examine the boys' deaths which she believes possibly could be attributable to a serial killer on the loose.
It's too early to determine conclusively whether a serial killer is responsible for some of the eighty deaths. However, Piehl and her team have marshalled compelling evidence that at least some of the boys -- all similar victims who died under similar circumstances -- may have been murdered. For example, in the case of Todd Geib, the Michigan young man was last seen leaving a remote outdoor party alone on June 12, 2005, and his body was discovered on July 2, 2005 in a pond near the party. Although Michigan investigators determined that he accidentally drowned, an independent forensic pathologist and other experts concluded that Geib had been dead at most for only three to five days. There has been no investigation to explain the mysterious disappearance of Geib during the intervening several days between his departure from the party and the time of his death,and law enforcement authorities refuse to re-open the case.
(Excerpt) Read more at bitterqueen.typepad.com ...
Speaking the unspoken, is it a gay thing?
If so, it will never see the light, as gays are peaceful, lovely people who do no wrong. I know this because Matt Lauer told me.
I got the same gut feeling. Did anyone check to see if they'd been raped?
This is becoming a cottage industry. Wasn’t there some retired cop who was putting out a book about this. Gay serial killers is certainly a possibility.
But couldn’t this be another Bermuda Triangle? Upon closer examination these eighty deaths might not all be drownings or have that much in common or be tied to the highway.
It’s so damn easy to drown when you’re drunk. Alcoholic Iwo Jima hero Ira Hayes drowned in a mud puddle. These guys might just have gone to piss in a pond or river and fallen in.
They are called the smiley face murders by the conspiracy buffs. This is a very topical subject because in todays JSOnline we have a possible new case of a Lacrosse Wi college student missing with footprints in the snow leading to the Mississippi River...
http://www.jsonline.com/newswatch/84375417.html
Another college student has gone missing after a night of drinking in La Crosse, the La Crosse Tribune reports this morning.
Craig J. Meyers, 21, a student at Western Technical College, has been missing since 2 a.m. Sunday, the paper reports.
He went to a wedding reception Saturday night and visited two taverns before leaving about 1:50 a.m.
The Tribune says police found a set of footprints leading from a snowbank to the Mississippi River and will determine today if they will attempt to search the icy waters.
As the Tribune notes, this sounds all too familiar: “Eight college-age men drowned in area rivers between July 12, 1997, and Sept. 30, 2006, each with blood-alcohol content levels ranging from 0.20 percent to 0.42 percent. An FBI review of the drownings found no foul play or link between the victims.”
Hell I could be totally wrong, but its easier for parents of these kids to believe they were murdered than have to accept for the fact that even with the MN college men that there was heavy drinking involved...
” . . . is it a gay thing?”
We will probably never know until they find the whomever(s) doing this. Journalist and investigator Kristi Piehl can only find a hearing on this matter through the Coast To Coast AM radio show, and that may cause a problem in solving this because of the show’s credibility, though there are apparently many who do not believe it unless Coast to Coast AM says. She is attempting to bring this to the attention of law enforcement authorities, but they are generally unresponsive. She has a website regarding this entire matter.
Ian Punnett last night, was covering this story. In fact he’s been pretty much the only one doing so.
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2010/02/14
The only question this poster has, is whether perhaps these are a case of young guys who’ve had a couple brews, not making the mental connection that lakes and other bodies of water in the upper midwest, remain cold far after the weather itself is starting to seem warm.
A jump in the lake - and the “gasp” from the cold...
Could be there’s something to the story, but could just be dumb college guys, doing dumb college stuff. Sure a lot of them though.
Something like 80 now, was the number mentioned on CtoC.
ONE set of footprints in the snow? So much for murder.
Eight drunk college boys drowning in WI over the course of nine years? I don’t have CompStat at my fingertips but that seems more like a good argument against college binge drinking rather than a job for “Unsolved Mysteries” or “City Confidential”.
Well, yeah, but ... if there's any group that gets rip-roarin' drunk around water, it's boat pullers, deck hands, on commercial fishing boats. They get absolutely blind drunk frequently. Yet in 30-plus years of being connected to commercial fishing circles and literally hundreds of such boat hands, I can only think of one time where a guy did indeed drown because he was so drunk.
I'm inclined to think there's something to this serial killer thing; I have a hard time believing that all these guys just simply drowned because they were drunk.
I wonder how many of these guys, were students attending universities in northern states (along the upper midwest, where these have been observed), who grew up in southern states?
Could be they grew up where jumping in a lake is one thing - and after a beer or three walking home by a lake going back to their home-away-from-home at their northern college, forget they’re not in Alabama anymore.
Lakes up there can be COLD.
Lakes up there freeze. Pretty much the same as glacial runoff, if you can put an ice fishing shanty on a lake, the entire lake is ice water.
Water can’t get any colder than that.
Any competent medical examiner will check for signs of sexual activity. If the reports say there wasn’t than there probably wasn’t. That doesn’t mean that sexual activity didn’t occur. Many times crime scenes contain “DNA evidence. The perp gets so excited that he masturbates.
As to why the police won’t open the case, I can think of a few reasons. Possibly the evidence isn’t compelling enough. Why would they open a case they can’t solve? That would ruin the case closure statistics. Everything today is run by metrics. Cases solved divided by cases opened times 100 has to be one of them. Nobody wants to look bad on a review. But, I’m going with the lack of compelling evidence theory. Statistical aberrations happen all the time.
My guess is that most if not all the criminal investigators did a thorough, competent job. They’d like nothing better than to bring a serial killer to justice. Give the locals some credit and come back when you have more to go on. Until then, trust me, these investigators are PLENTY busy.
Yeah, but those guys know about the dangers and are rarely alone while working or boozing.
In your fishing years, how many such types would go stumbling off alone to the water’s edge after a night of knocking ‘em back?
There is a Myspace page dedicated to it. Creepy.
http://cyberpaths.crimsonshadows.net/riverkiller/
This story has been growing for more than three years.
Many of these young men have drown in lakes, ponds or streams a mile or so OPPOSITE from the location of the bar/party where they were at. Additionally, the alleged victims were all seen exiting towards their home.
One man in Michigan disappeared on June 12th, 2005. His body was found one mile from the party he had attended on July 2nd, 2005 in a lake - one and one half miles from his home and totally opposite from the direction MANY witnesses saw him depart. The police ruled it a accidental drowning/suicide but a forensic specialist from NY state analyzed the autopsy report and determined that the body could not have been in the water more than three to five days. The police refuse to reopen the case.
A fascinating tale...
I’ve read that at least as many young men go missing as women. But women get the media attention. I wouldn’t be surprised that these are mostly murders. And the perp is probably gay.
Puh-LEEZE!
Nope. Not the case. They may or may not know about the dangers, a lot of fishermen work alone (and a lot of them die because of that choice ... lost one just a few months ago who was the husband of a relative by marriage), and MOST OF THEM after a night of partying wander back to the boats all by themselves, don't quite make it, and wake up in all kinds of strange places. :^) Like rosebushes and vacant lots!
The points made by drjimmy in post #15 are very good and make sense (thanks, Dr. J ... I need to check out the website). But as for the fishermen ... nope. My point was that if it was that easy to drown just because you were drunk, there would be a lot more fisherman lost that way. There aren't, so I'm inclined to think drowning because of being drunk makes you more prone to it isn't as easy as some folks think. God knows a lot of these guys must have fallen in the drink and managed to haul themselves out just fine and sleep it off.
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