Texas Wine and True Crime
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Texas Wine and True Crime
Lady Bird Lake and the Rainey Street Ripper
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Thirty-eight bodies recovered from Lady Bird Lake. A bar district full of late-night energy just blocks away. And a story that keeps resurfacing every time Austin tries to move on. We’re Brandy and Chris, and we’re back on Rainey Street to sort out what’s real, what’s rumor, and what the evidence can actually say when fear is doing the loudest talking.
We walk through how the “Rainey Street Ripper” theory caught fire, why social media sleuthing and clustering maps felt convincing, and what we know about the victim patterns people keep pointing to. We also talk about the questions that make this case stick: the walk from the nightlife strip to the water, the darkness and brush near the lake, reports of people vanishing after stepping away for a minute, and why families may struggle to accept “accident” as an answer.
Then we lay out what the Austin Police Department has stated repeatedly: no consistent trauma, no common suspect, and drowning listed as the primary cause of death in the majority of cases. We also cover the one confirmed homicide tied to the lake, plus the 2025 collaboration between Texas State University and APD that reviewed nearly 200 drowning cases to see whether the Lady Bird Lake numbers are unusual or tragically normal. If you care about Austin true crime, Lady Bird Lake drownings, and how serial killer rumors spread, this conversation gives you the clearest framework we’ve found.
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Welcome Back To Austin
SPEAKER_01Welcome, all of you wine and true crime lovers. I'm Brandy. And I'm Chris. And this is Texas Wine and True Crime. Thank you for being here, friends, for this week's episode, The Rainy Street River. Hi, Chris.
SPEAKER_02Hey, Brandy.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so we are going back to Austin in this episode. Um, we've actually covered Lady Bird Lake. Bodies started, you know, to be found in Ladybird Lake. Over the over the past few years, I would say Facebook groups have started to come up, people really talking about this case.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Or is it a case? So we covered this episode before, talked about the findings at the time. There were a lot of people who were saying that the police were withholding information um about the victims. Maybe maybe victims, right? Founded.
SPEAKER_02Well, there was there was quite a fervor over um, like you mentioned, Facebook groups starting and trying to um form their own theories about what was going on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and we always say police never want to um instill fear in the community unless there's some fear to instill. And Rainy Street is very busy for Austin. So having people not come to that area.
SPEAKER_02That's a financial impact.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a huge financial financial impact. And so there were just some questions over the past few years. Um, but the reason we're revisiting this today in this episode is because in 2025 there was actually um almost like a separate investigation that um was taking place within a university.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and um I think I had come to you too because I was shocked at because the last time we covered this, there was at the time 10 or 12 bodies, and then it you know wasn't really following it, but then I think I had heard that there had been a total of 38 now since the time had passed. And so significant uptick, and I think that's kind of what got us even looking into this, and so a couple of different angles, of course.
Why Rainey Street Raised Alarms
SPEAKER_01Yep, a couple different angles. Yeah, and so the independent analysis of the in of the evidence that it was looked at in 2025 is something we're gonna kind of put in um into this episode, but I think it's really important for you know people to know that this was a really big, big thing in Austin, and I think it still is. I think people still think that police might be withholding some information. How is it that these people are just ending up in Lady Bird Lake? So um just lots of um lots of talk over the last few years. So we're gonna we're gonna kind of recap some of that and then you know kind of get into that analysis of evidence that they're looking at. So the year was 2022 in Austin, Texas. Um, a city, as we know, being from Texas, they are big on their live music, tech startups, some late night energy, which also is Rainy Street. Um, but something deeply unsettling began unfolding in the community.
SPEAKER_02Yes, bodies. Bodies pulled from the water. Not once, not twice, but again, again, and again.
SPEAKER_01So the bodies that um you mentioned are being pulled are being pulled from Ladybird Lake. So we've seen pictures of this. We've had listeners send us pictures of this. It is very scenic. It's a scenic reservoir that stretches through downtown Austin along the Colorado River. Um, paddle boards are on there during the day, people jogging around um the lake, but by night, something else is kind of going on.
SPEAKER_02Well, and there's some consistency with this because most of these bodies that are found in the lake are younger men, you know, many seen by people that have been hanging out down there, you know, uh just blocks away from Rain Street, which, you know, is like you said, that's a big hot spot in Dallas. And, you know, before long, with all these things happening, a theory took hold.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, you said hot spot in Dallas, but hotspot in Austin. Oh my gosh, yes. You're fine.
SPEAKER_02It's because I'm driving there. That's why. Sorry, guys.
SPEAKER_01Um, no, still in Texas. But something else I want to mention what you just said, which I think is important. There are some bodies that were found in Ladybird Lake, and they were hanging out on Rainy Street. Their friends were with him. We had one person say that their friend had walked off to go get a taco from a food truck and just never came back, and then his body ends up in Lady Bird Lake.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and uh, and clarification it's it's assumed that all these people were hanging down there, but there was quite a few whenever they were the names were coming out that people had um had seen them hanging out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So because of all of this, and because you know, hey, our friend was here and now they're not, they were supposed to be coming right back, a s a theory started to take hold in Austin, and that is is there a serial killer roaming the streets of Austin?
SPEAKER_02So from mid-2022 through 2025, um, a total of 38 bodies were recovered from the lake. And as we mentioned mentioned before when we initially were talking about this, um, at the time, it was 10 or 12. Yeah, and so that's that was kind of what got us going. Like, man, that is a significant increase. And both from the water and also from the trails as well, too, kind of around there. So they weren't all all floating around in there, but I mean, it was just kind of all of a sudden, all these bodies were showing up around this area.
SPEAKER_01And I I don't blame the people of Austin. I mean, now that we're looking at this type kind of number, uh, it is very significant. And I and I know we're gonna end up talking about this. In fact, we talked about this in the first episode, really was like geographic um evidence, right? Where are these bodies popping up? Are they popping up on one side of the lake? Are they all over the lake? Where do we know they were last seen? You know, we know that, you know, you float downstream, right? So it doesn't mean they went in when, you know, where they were found, but still very high number of bodies. So I have uh I can completely understand how the community could be a little bit on edge and have some questions about what is happening to these people. So early reporting, you know, again, Chris, like you said, roughly 10 bodies um within a 12 to 20 month window beginning in July of 2022. So I just talked about the geographic location of these bodies, which goes back to clustering. And the cluster that clustering is what caught the attention of people in the community.
SPEAKER_02Well, a lot of these were found during summer evenings, so people are out hanging out, you know. It's um Texas, yep, Austin, Texas, you know, in the summer. Big, you know, people are down there. It's um that's a party town, you know. And so most of these places, most of these were like where the bodies are located, were within walk a distance of Randy Street, Citra Chavez, as well as kind of like downtown entertainment zones. Now I don't believe we we the last time we did this too, you know, we initially did this at a live show. And so there were some people from Austin and kind of giving us a little bit of um we were wondering if this was close to Sixth Street.
SPEAKER_01I don't believe it was quite close to another question we had was like, do you just like walk off of Rainy Street and there's the water? Or do you have to like walk a little bit of distance? And we were actually told that you have to kind of walk a little bit of distance. This isn't something that you just come off of Rainy Street and you're gonna fall into the water. It takes a little bit of a walk, a little bit of like knowing you're going that direction from Rainy Street.
SPEAKER_02A um, you know, a suspicion of luring as well, because it's not just right there. How are the how is how it's dark out there, right?
The Serial Killer Theory Grows
SPEAKER_01They started putting new lighting after these bodies started to come up. Um, there were more police, Austin police that were surveying the area. And the proximity definitely matters um because even though Rainy Street is very close to the lake, I think, you know, if I'm going to get a taco in a food truck, I'm not needing to walk down to the water. I'm gonna go to the food truck. But we know that was at least one incident of a victim being found, is that his friend said he had walked away. So, you know, who are these victims? Um, is important, clustering is important, where they're found. So um, I think police really started to look into this, and um, they started to think that maybe these were just accidents.
SPEAKER_02Well, and that was the one thing uh they do a lot of these um deaths uh fit a same kind of demo.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02So 30 out of 38 were male. Um we have 60 percent, according to the data, that were between 30 and 48. And one of the more controversial uh aspects as well, too, that I had read is that um there was some suspicion that most of these men were were gay.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02As though there was some sort of link to that too.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Well, Rainy Street, I think in general, is a I would compare it to, I don't know if it's like a completely full Cedar Springs like Dallas is, but I do know that the listeners we spoke to did did tell us this is um this is you know where that community would get together and have fun, but we just know that most of the victims were males.
SPEAKER_02They could describe it as kind of the gay part of town. Yes, like in Dallas.
SPEAKER_01And drugs, right? They started to saying, oh, you know, we're were these men lured with drugs and alcohol. Um, you know, and so it's it's hard to say, you know, were was was there sexual intercourse involved? Did they want to come off the beaten path of Rainy Street, be together by the lake, and then go back? I mean, there were just a lot of questions in the air about it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I mean I I didn't see anything about any sort of um rape, sexual rape.
SPEAKER_01No, yeah, I haven't heard anything.
SPEAKER_02Or just was, but I mean, the was that it did you lure somebody away with the um with the intent of doing something. Well, yeah, like hey, you know, let's go hook up over here and then you know, lo and behold. You know, and so you know, that was um with the demo and the clustering happening very close to one another, that was the suggestion. Is this some sort of a pattern?
SPEAKER_01Right. So we started to talk about how Facebook started to create these groups, so social media, you know, people on there trying to connect the dots. Are there similarities to what has happened to these men? Um, and some people have found that yes, there was some clustering. We actually saw a picture of where some of these bodies were found, and that was one of the big things that really stuck out to us was where some of these bodies were actually located.
SPEAKER_02Well, yes, the online sleuths, you know, and I think that's where the nickname uh the Ranny Street Ripper emerged from was from um these different Facebook groups that were um, you know, citizens that were trying to get to the bottom of this because they were not getting there, was not much coming out from the police, like you said. And so that was like, does the public need to be worried about something?
SPEAKER_01Well, and I think online speculation, right? You have an area that, and first of all, is it one person doing this? Is it a group of people doing this? Now we do know that there were there was a woman and a man identified on Rainy Street trying to basically distract an individual while the other person either robbed them of their cash, um, maybe the woman was approaching in need of something. So we do know, was this people were speculating that maybe one person more than one person is involved in this kind of thing? Um, and were they and the men are are they leaving the bars intoxicated, they're being incapacitated, and then disposing them and the like?
SPEAKER_02Well, and to make matters worse, as this is going on out of Houston, which has the bayous, bodies started getting pulled up from there. And so are dots being connected more, you know, is this like a group of people? Is it one individual going back and forth? It's not like Austin and Houston are super close to one another, you know, or is this strictly coincidence?
Police Findings And Victim Patterns
SPEAKER_01Well, I can tell you that uh we're gonna be doing that episode of some of those bodies that were found in Houston. Believe it or not, I have we have a lot of listeners that have been messaging about this, about what's going on in Houston. And I would say that it is a very similar feeling of uh, I believe it's Houstonians, right? Um, Houstonians and Houstonites, no, Houstonians, Dallas is Dallasites, um, of whether or not there there is someone killing people and dumping them in Houston. So the Austin Police Department has repeatedly stated there is no evidence pointing to a serial killer, no forensics, no common suspects, no consistency with trauma and how they're dying. I I do believe, Chris, um they said drowning was mainly the cause of what happened to these um men that were found, but they have gone in the opposite direction of a perpetrator.
SPEAKER_02Well, yes, and so as these things are reported um to the police, the homicide unit uh responds, medical exam medical examiner looks at the body, you know, hands-on, they're doing their full uh detailed running the labs and tests. Investigators look for any sort of trauma.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_02And of course, um, you mentioned the toxicology, and I think that was one of the more telling things for me is that none of these people had any drugs in their system.
SPEAKER_00I know.
SPEAKER_02And, you know, I don't it really wasn't much about alcohol, but then again, alcohol Well, they're also in the water, which is going to wash away evidence. Well, it'll wash away evidence, but not toxicology, not toxicology and external trauma. They had they're not gonna have fingerprints, but they weren't seeing that. Then that was the um that was the big thing. It was from you mentioned like I said, even drowning.
SPEAKER_01Now the ones that they found like Well, uh here here's what they were saying. Some of them couldn't swim. So here's but here's they said that really early on, and that bothered me. Because at the time, Chris, they had 12 male victims. Okay. So you say they couldn't swim, but based on family or most of them, most so that was what they had said that they had drowned because their inability to swim. So my first thought is if you can't swim, why are you that close to the water? That's my first thought. And you have 12 men with the inability to swim. Now, were they incapacitated because of their own alcohol or drug abuse? Alcohol can do that. I mean, you can just, and it's dark. I mean, we know most of this happened at night.
SPEAKER_02Well, so you know, there, believe it or not, it does sound weird where we grew up and grew up around swimming pools and learning to swim at an early age. And um, in contrast to where we are at now, uh, I there is a surprisingly large number of adults that don't know how to swim that will sink like a freaking rock. Doesn't mean they don't go near water, they'll go on boats, but yes, it's legit. There's adults because that would terrify me.
SPEAKER_00It just wasn't a I don't know if I would get on the water if I couldn't swim.
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean, you know, if you're on a boat, you're wearing a live fest or something like that. I mean, those things, but yeah, I mean, there are um because it just um like I said, we're fortunate where I don't know, my house had a pool. What else are you gonna do? Or even yeah, people you knew where we lived geographically up in New York, you think about how many people learn how to swim, you know. So I mean, yeah, there is a large number. It's it sounds odd because I mean I remember the first time an adult told me, I'm like, how the hell do you know how to swim? If you hold your breath, you'll float, you know, and so but people just don't know how to do it.
SPEAKER_01Um, okay, so besides the natural causes, the alcohol, uh, we know that there was uh suicide, as mentioned as one of the causes of some of the victims, or one or more, um, and inability to swim, underlying mental health factors, you know, and we do know that there was one homicide, right?
SPEAKER_02There was one. The only confirmed homicide that was connected, potentially, they say, is the death of uh Josué Moreno in December of 2022.
SPEAKER_01So investigators actually determined that he was shot during an argument, Chris, between two groups while he was driving. So he shot, he's driving the vehicle, the vehicle then enters the lake. And that case, they know it involved foul play. I believe somebody even called the police immediately, like when this happened. So the police have stated it is unrelated to the other drowning. So what happened in that car and that vehicle is not related to the other bodies that are found in the lake.
Accidents Suicide And One Homicide
SPEAKER_02And so the latest known body that we know about is in March 2025 was a woman found face down in the lake near downtown. Uh, once again, no suspicion of foul play. The rumors still persist.
SPEAKER_01So when to address more of like the public fear of this, the questions around it, researchers, um, peep people who can maybe studying evidence or um analytic analytics about evidence. So they started really wanting to do their own analysis of the evidence. Um, so they put together a collaboration uh between Texas State University and the Austin Police Department, and they examined nearly 200 drowning cases. So there was what did they what did they find, Chris?
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean the meat of it is people drown. Right. And people drown a lot, and you know, you don't hear. I think they looked from 30 years back, and that was kind of the especially given the fact that there is no foul play, no toxicology.
SPEAKER_01They really can't find any correlation, right?
SPEAKER_02Yes, but if that to actually indicate these are murders, right? Um but the numbers and the average are like this is kind of an average number of people that in theory, because you mentioned why do you go people? They have 12, the first 12, nobody knew how to swim. It happens all the time. People get in there. You know, are they drinking? Because you know, I mean, you think about you're drunk, you're already inhibited. If you're in there with your clothes, it's going to add extra weight. It's completely dark, you can be completely disoriented. Even if you were to go underwater, you wouldn't know which way was up or which way was down. That's the big part of it, too. I mean, that's why even you know, divers, you have um oh sonars. Um, no, that'd be um dolphins, have internal sonars. Uh so do uh people who are looking underwater from no, you have a on your w like a watch, it's something that tells you which way is up and which way is down, just like a airplane has a horizontal um or a um horizontal horizon, I guess, gauge to tell you because I mean if you're in the clouds, you don't you all you see is clouds above you, clouds below you. It's difficult to determine other than if all the blood's rushing to your head whether or not you're upside down. But that was the main, yeah. I mean, they did, they pulled all together and put the um, you know, used did the numbers, and that was the main gist of it was really They're drowning from alcohol, consuming alcohol and walking into the water. Not so much just the it really wasn't just the um alcohol, it was more about like this 38 people to drown between 2022 and 2025 is an average number. And they look back 30 years from lakes and lake drownings. It's just you don't people drown all the time. I mean, we watch as soon as summer comes, people get on the boats, and it's just um you know, annual average is three or four to year. That number has remained steady for 15 years. Uh, you'll see a little uptick, see a little downtick, but really, you know, uh number one common thread that emerges, as you said before, is alcohol. People are on the lakes, you know, uh Ladybird Lake. I think I want to say it's not you don't have motorized vehicles there. Like this could be people just getting in the water, but every lake across America, um, those two go hand in hand. Drinking on the lake.
SPEAKER_00Sure.
The University Drowning Analysis
SPEAKER_02And people. I mean, I knew a girl in high school who was um water skiing, and um think there was some drinking on the boat, and you know, she fell down, circling back around to get her and ended up getting run over by the driver. Fuck jeez. Um lived, but probably like I said, one of these things she lived, but it happens all the time. People, you know, it just um what was the big one too? The girl on the jet ski.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That wasn't a drowning, but I mean, just like leg. It does happen a lot.
SPEAKER_00It does.
SPEAKER_02But for just the unexplained, you know, just the straight up drownings, it's kind of an average thing.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So because they found, you know, again, being impaired, late nights, being close to the water, uh, limited railings, we know that. We know there's a lot of bushes in that area. They said somebody did tell us in our in the audience that there was some trees and bushes that kind of separate the walking path into like to the lake. Um, so based on this, the serial killer theory sort of um went out the window a little bit, I would say, um, until more of um, I would say more bodies have were found. I think just people in general, Chris. I think it's it's kind of reminds me of, you know, um the beach killer, the beach serial killer that the trial just finished up. And you have all these bodies that are found in one particular area, and they had felt very early on that there was a serial killer based on how these bodies are found. So I think that is the differing factor here. I think the differing factor is not the clustering, it's not the geographic piece of it. It's not even that they're most of them are male and 60% are between the ages. I think it really is just comes down to the fact that they couldn't find any correlated evidence for any of them. And they don't none of them look like they had been murdered, right? Blood, puncture wounds, what gunshot wounds, stabbings, nothing like that is found. And I think really because of that piece the police just were not ready to even say that there was a possible murder out there. So I think I think that is the biggest piece to this is that there was no consistent evidence with any of the bodies that anyone else would have been involved. So we did the story before, Chris. We've done this at our live show, like we mentioned in the beginning. We're doing it now, but this story just never seems to die. And my theory around that is social media spreads like wildfire, people's opinions, thoughts, um local, local uh Austin folks who want to. I'm I can't even imagine how many people have gone to Rainy Street and looked at the distance from where some of these victims were last seen to the water. But I think that um, you know, you have these young men, same location, similar timing. I think that people want to believe that there might be something else to this. But right now, what Austin police have determined is that there is no serial killer roaming the streets of Austin.
SPEAKER_02Well, and one thing too, I think that really uh keeps this going is that listen, I love a good conspiracy theory cover-up. That's one of my favorite things in the world. Um, that's kind of the thing, too. People feel like they have been covering this up from the public to keep the public from having this negative perspective towards this area to make everybody, you know, it's like you don't want to create the panic. Obviously, the financial implications if there's circular people don't go out, they don't uh patronize the bars. Isn't that the correct word? Patronize. Um it's not what is it?
SPEAKER_01Well, when you patronize something, that's usually not a good thing. Uh I don't know, go to the bars.
SPEAKER_02Well, if I'm a if I'm a patron if I'm a patron and I go to a bar and patronizing it.
SPEAKER_01That's a good one. I think so.
SPEAKER_02But the people going out, so I mean, do they want their businesses to get you know is already tough enough for these things? So yeah, I think that's a lot of things too.
SPEAKER_01And families. Oh, of course. The families don't want to believe that necessarily these were all accidents. I mean, especially if they could swim, right? Or if they usually uh consumed consumed alcohol, or maybe I mean, we have 38 of them, Chris. I mean, some of them I can imagine said that they maybe don't like to be even be around water. My my loved one would have never walked over there. I mean, come on.
SPEAKER_02Why does your family not want to believe that you died from an accident, though?
SPEAKER_01Um, I think grief really no, um no, I think some do.
Why The Rumors Won’t Die
SPEAKER_02I think I'd much rather know that my my loved one drowned than got murdered.
SPEAKER_01Sure. But I mean Oh no, totally. I'm not talking about cause of time.
SPEAKER_02I think there is a, you know, not that you can have peace of mind with anybody dying, but there has to be some sort of peace of mind knowing that the if the police have done their due diligence and realize that there's nothing that would indicate that this is any sort of foul play that's occurred. Um, you know, I think yeah, I think you could be satisfied with that.
SPEAKER_01You could. I can tell you though, I have read and seen some of the reports of some of the family members, and they did not accept the fact that this was an accident.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I understand.
SPEAKER_01I mean, so I 100% believe that, like you said, the theories, the conspiracy theories, the fact that these bodies, it kind of it almost felt like it came out of nowhere. Like all of a sudden you have these bodies, and well, well, yeah, we know that the first body, Chris, was found, I think like 20 years before that, but somebody actually saw him jump in to his death in Lady Bird League from the bridge. So that was a complete, and they said his hands were tied. So there was a lot of investigation of that. What guy ties his hands and then jumps into the water? But they said they had video of him actually driving and approaching the bridge. So it's just, I think, since that very first body and victim so many years ago, then you have all of these. I think that between social media running like wildfire with conspiracy theorists, you have families who may believe these are accidents, but some of them may not believe, and just the people of the community wanting to make sure that there's not a serial killer rolling roaming around the streets of Austin.