Why police investigate deaths on Lady Bird Lake even if they're not suspicious

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- "Pretty much any time there's a death in Austin outside, the homicide unit will respond to that," Sgt. Nathan Sexton with the Austin Police Department's (APD) homicide unit said.

This year, crews pulled two bodies from Lady Bird Lake - one near City Hall, and another near the Longhorn Dam. Authorities said the person found near City Hall was a woman. Police, at this point, are not ruling either of them a homicide. Another body was found near the lake.

When a 911 call comes in reporting a body found in the lake, an APD patrol officer responds first and speaks with witnesses, Sexton said, adding that these calls typically come from joggers or someone walking along the trail. The patrol officer then relays the information to the homicide unit, and homicide detectives come to the scene.

Investigators will examine the body to see if there any signs to indicate an attack or any other injuries, and a medical examiner will also respond to the scene.

"Even if we can't see something initial, like a defect or potentially a gunshot wound, or a stabbing or something, a medical examiner will go out there and do a hands-on body exam," Sexton said.

If these exams determine there's no signs of physical injuries, Sexton said that is when police will tell the public the death is currently not being investigated as a homicide.

He said it often takes months to release any follow-up information because toxicology reports take a long time.

"They may not rule something an accidental drowning until that comes back months later, and in the meantime, we can't release anything because it's an open investigation," he said. "So unfortunately for those months, we don't know what's in their system, and the official ruling isn't out so we can't make a public statement."

But if there is a sign of a physical attack, police treat the release of information differently.

"If there was trauma, if somebody had been stabbed or shot, we would definitely release that early on, especially if we believed there was a threat to the public," he said.

Sexton said the department is also limited when to releasing information related to cases that involve medical issues or suicides.

"We're trying to respect the family's privacy. In a homicide, we're trying to get information from the public to find whoever did this," he said. "Whereas a suicide, typically it's kind of known what happened, and we want to be respectful to the family. And releasing too many details may cause undo hurt on top of what they're already having to deal with."

Sexton said one of the cases from this year appeared to be a suicide.

"One recently appears to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound, so it's not even a drowning, but if it's close to the water, people will assume they've been drug out of the water, that there's a drowning," he said.

The sergeant is aware of part of the public's thoughts about the notion of a serial killer being responsible for these deaths.

"We get a lot of tips from the public that do truly believe there's someone out there committing a bunch of murders," he said. "None of these deaths that we've investigated that we have not called a homicide, like the ones from this year, the past couple for example, there's nothing to lead us to believe, no evidence to show there's any foul play in those."

According to police data and previous KXAN coverage, there have been 11 deaths in Lady Bird Lake since the beginning of 2022.

Police say foul play was only involved in one case - a December 2022 incident where police say a man shot another man - who was in a truck - in the head, causing the victim and his vehicle to go crashing into the lake. Police arrested the suspect.

The week that incident happened, APD released information that there was "significant trauma" to the victim's body.