WI-Another drowning in La Crosse - almost

[Ang50]

Almost another drowning in La Crosse, WI - where 7 college age men in 7 years have drowned under suspicious circumstances. Jared Dion was the last.

Here is the news article - An intoxicated college-age man reported he fell into the Mississippi River early Sunday but managed to climb out, authorities said.

The Viroqua, Wis., native, who attends the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was spending a night in downtown La Crosse with a couple of friends when they got separated, according to La Crosse police.

He showed up at an area hospital more than five hours later, wet and muddy, police said. Details still were sketchy, and an investigation is continuing.

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/artic...ews/00lead.txt

I received the email mentioned in the article - it has been circulating through the community. I omitted any names besides those identified in the article, but though you might be interested in the forward chain comments.

Believe whatever you want, but my parents are alums, and before this all started, when my brother decided to go to school there, told him to stay awa from the river...

I just got this from R, he knows these guys and they guy that this kid was with. PLEASE BE CAREFUL IN LACROSSE!!!!!

T




Check this out...i know these guys and was down at John's earlier this past Saturday but left with Jake and Nick.






R, J sent this to me from J, its totally scary. Do you know these guys? Be VERY careful …

----- Forwarded by XXX on 01/10/2006 04:06 PM
-----
I RECEIVED THIS FROM XXX AS YOU NOTICE AND THOUGHT THIS SHOULD GET OUT. ALWAYS FIGURED THERE IS SOMETHING FISHY ABOUT THE ORDEALS



Subject: Cullen
I am still a little numb. We almost lost Cullen early Sunday morning. It
all started Saturday night. He and Ryan Larson went off to LaCrosse to hit
the bars with Jay Hoffland. Cullen drove and they planned to spend the
night with Jay. At 1:30 they were all at John's Bar. And at bar time
Cullen was no where to be seen. Ryan and Jay were up until 5:30 trying to
find him. Cullen resurfaced at 7:00 AM at the emergency room of Gundersen
Lutheran. He remembers being in John's Bar. And the next thing he
remembers is being in the water. We are talking the Mississippi River!!
He fought his way out of the river and collapsed on the rocks. He probably
laid there for several hours. No jacket or shoes, which he probably lost
in the river. He awoke to the sounds of cars. He ran towards the noise.
Then he saw a sign for Gundersen Lutheran and ran in his socks to the
emergency room. They took very good care of Cullen. He volunteered to
give a blood and urine sample. He felt he had nothing to hide. So on
Sunday I am thinking he had had way too much to drink and I was upset for
several reasons. Well, the blood alcohol came back Monday. Cullen was not
drunk. His blood alcohol was .04. Yet Cullen can not recall anything from
1:30 AM until waking up in the river. What did someone put in Cullen's
drink? The urinalysis has not come back yet. Cullen has scrapes and
bruises and he is very sore. I don't think he realizes that he almost
died. And I don't think he realizes that someone almost killed him!
Cullen and Tom will be meeting with the LaCrosse police this PM. Cullen
some how managed to get out of the river. And I think the fact that he was
not drunk was a factor. Suddenly I am asking myself "What was the last bar
that some of the other young man were in before they drowned in the river?"
I am taking Cullen to the doctor today. He may have become infected with
some kind of bacteria. At night I just lay in bed and see him laying on
the rocks. Wet. I guess we are very lucky that he is alive. And yet I am
so angry that there is a person out there who almost killed my son. Do you
think they will ever find this person? I do know that John's Bar is under
surveillance. Just what that means I am not sure. Maybe they do a drive
by every other hour! Hopefully Cullen will feel better tomorrow. I think
I am still in shock. How could this have happened? Again, we are very,
very LUCKY!!

MK

[mysteriew]

La Crosse police continue to look into how a 21-year-old Viroqua man ended up in the Mississippi River.

Cullen Fortney, who is a UW-Madison student, says he found himself in the river early Sunday morning after a night of drinking in downtown La Crosse with friends. Fortney has no recollection on how he got there.

Fortney's friends last saw him around 1:30 Sunday morning. The next time he appeared was on security footage from a parking lot at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center. That was five-and-a-half hours later.

He told hospital staff he pulled himself out of the river nearby, after being in for 15-minutes or so. But, he said he didn't remember how or when he got into the water.

Fortney still had his wallet and keys, but was missing his shoes and cell phone.

Police may now be investigating a missing vehicle along with the case. One of Fortney's friends told police he parked his pickup truck downtown before going to the bars Saturday night.

That friend turned up at Gundersen Lutheran on Sunday morning, as well. He was passed out in the lobby. He told police he doesn't know how he got there and his truck has disappeared.

In the past seven years, seven college-aged students have drowned in the Mississippi River after drinking in downtown La Crosse.
http://www.wxow.com/news/publish/art...cle_3657.shtml

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=4353782

The man had an estimated BAC of 0.163 at 1:30 a.m., the approximate time he last remembers being at a downtown La Crosse bar. The 21 year old reportedly remembers little of the events from 1:45 a.m. to 7 a.m., when he walked into Gunderson Lutheran Medical Center.
http://www.dailycardinal.com/article...toryid=1028215

Fortney did agree to a blood test while at the hospital. He had a blood alcohol level of point-oh-four, well below the level limit. But, that was at 9am.
http://www.wxow.com/news/publish/art...cle_3640.shtml

[CrimeHater]

This may sound crazy- but I wonder if they could hypnotize him so they can get a recap of what happened. It would help so many others. Like I said it sounds crazy but if it will help answer alot of unanswered questions it may be worth it.

[Ang50]

Before w/ Jared Dion, his family was from across the state, and I think had a harder time pressing police. This time, there are more guys involved, and they are from a town about 30 mins away. And the whole community seems to be interested, in that the email circulated so fast.

I will be very interested to see what the college and the chief of police has to say about this all. If Chief comes out and tries to use the drunk argument, I don't think it will fly - .16 is unlikely to be a complete blackout drunkeness. If he tries to say this kid is lying, he better really have his facts together, or else I'm sure the family will flip out. Of course, if Chief doesn't discredit this kid, then he may have to admit that Dion's death and others were not accidental, as he has claimed.

[Alice253]

Ang, this statement from the police chief from article above: "Kondracki said he was “relieved and pleased” to know the man survived, but disappointed to hear another intoxicated young man had fallen into the river."

Sounds like he's still going with the "drunk and fell in the river" theory.....

[mysteriew]

There seems to be a problem with young men attending college, or associated with a college in some way, who go out to bars.
I am not talking just in this town, but in several states.
They go out and drink, then disappear. Later they may surface in a nearby river.
It could be a challenge for someone to start searching out those cases and trying to put them together, looking at similiarities and differences. Checking to see what was happening at the colleges at that time.

[Ang50]

Originally Posted by Alice253

Ang, this statement from the police chief from article above: "Kondracki said he was “relieved and pleased” to know the man survived, but disappointed to hear another intoxicated young man had fallen into the river."

Sounds like he's still going with the "drunk and fell in the river" theory.....

You're absolutely right. In fact, the family email said .04 BAC, and then the police made sure that the progression back to 1:30am would have been .163 BAC. But if you can legally operate a car at .08 BAC (used to be .1 in WI) then how much more drunk are you at .163? It depends on the person of course, but drunk enough to black out and fall in the river?

From my college experience, I've definitely been over .1 to drive. A long time ago, I definitely blacked out from being drunk. I have no idea what my BAC would have been at that point.

I used this calculator - http://www.intox.com/wheel/drinkwheelresults.asp

If the guy that fell in the river started drinking at 8pm - drank 13 beers over 6 hours (I assumed he weighed 170 pounds - seems average) - his BAC at 1:30am would have been .166. For a college guy - 2 beers an hour through the night just doesn't seem to be enough to make you black out. Not even close.

Also - in La Crosse, to get from the main bar street to the river requires a couple block walk, in the opposite direction of student residences. It definitely has to be an intentional thing.

[mysteriew]

Originally Posted by Ang50

For a college guy - 2 beers an hour through the night just doesn't seem to be enough to make you black out. Not even close.

Depends on the guy, how much drinking he usually does, what he had to eat that day, and how long he had been drinking. Many times college kids will be drinking even before they hit the bar. That could make the BAC even higher than the estimates.
Not to say that someone couldn't have slipped him something, only that that is another possibility.