Deaths of Male College Students-General Discussion #6

Ang50

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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/articles/2006/01/12/news/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...

[font=tahoma,sans-serif][font=tahoma,sans-serif]I just got this from R, he knows these guys and they guy that this kid was with. PLEASE BE CAREFUL IN LACROSSE!!!!![/font][/font]

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[font=tahoma,sans-serif][font=tahoma,sans-serif]Check this out...i know these guys and was down at John's earlier this past Saturday but left with Jake and Nick.[/font][/font]

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[font=tahoma,sans-serif][font=tahoma,sans-serif]R, J sent this to me from J, its totally scary. Do you know these guys? Be VERY careful …[/font][/font]

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[font=tahoma,sans-serif][font=tahoma,sans-serif]----- Forwarded by *advertiser censored* on 01/10/2006 04:06 PM
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I RECEIVED THIS FROM *advertiser censored* AS YOU NOTICE AND THOUGHT THIS SHOULD GET OUT. ALWAYS FIGURED THERE IS SOMETHING FISHY ABOUT THE ORDEALS
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[font=tahoma,sans-serif][font=tahoma,sans-serif]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
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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/articles/article_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.php?storyid=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/articles/article_3640.shtml
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.....
 
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.
 
Alice253 said:
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.
 
Ang50 said:
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.
 
Please continue general discussions here.


There is a ton of information in this forum! Excellent work sleuthers!

FORUM HERE
[ame="http://www.websleuths.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=146"]Deaths of Male College Students/The River Killers [/ame]
 
First, a response to the article about the murder of Derrick Heidt. Why are all these LE agencies so eager to write off obvious murders as drownings? In this case, the young man called his parents and told them he was being chased; his apartment was searched; and his body had bruised consistent with a beating.

Second, have there been any reports on the investigation of the two original detectives who started to put the Smiley Killer theory together?
 
To Pittsburghgirl--I have no info on your second question, but I really think that local PDs just don't have the money to investigate a situation like this with all the budget cutting and tax decreases. Therefore, IMO, they are ignoring many of these cases. If they did dig in deeply, there could be travel--and getting sucked into possible out of state cases--and possibly testifying in trials.
I hate my cynicism sometimes.
 
I was on footprintsattheriversedge.blogspot.com and noticed that during the month of September, it appears boys went missing at the end of the month. I am still hopeful that the investigators have some sort of announcement to make.I keep watching for something positive, but now that the school year is underway ..... nothing has me believing that the criminals will be caught.
 
http://kstp.com/news/stories/s1127668.shtml

Body Found in St. Croix River is Missing Man


STILLWATER, Minn. (AP) - Authorities say the body of a 21-year-old man who's been missing since last week was pulled from the St. Croix River near Stillwater.
The Washington County sheriff's office says Christopher Long's body was found Saturday about 500 yards south of the Arcola High Bridge on the Minnesota side of the river.
Long's wallet and keys were found on the railway bridge last week, and several agencies searched the river and shoreline after receiving a report that someone was thinking of jumping off the bridge.
 
I find it odd that there are so many men that die in the water who supposedly end up there because they were 'attacked', yet there has never (that I know of) been a person to come forward and say they were attacked by a river but managed to escape.
 
I find it odd that there are so many men that die in the water who supposedly end up there because they were 'attacked', yet there has never (that I know of) been a person to come forward and say they were attacked by a river but managed to escape.

Yes there have been people who were attacked by a river and lived to tell. There was one case where a guy remembers waking up in a river, had no idea how he got there (drugged?) and walked a an ER where he was treated and police were called. His last memory was being at a bar and then he could not remember anything until he woke up floating down a river!
 
Fox just reported that a possible break in the smiley face killers has been made.

Kevin Gannon, one of the detectives who developed this theory was on and said that names will soon be released naming persons of interest.

He went on to talk about verification of an organization and possible reasons why men are being killed. He mentioned a Pat McNeal victim that was initially not ruled a homicide is clearly a homicide since he was tied to something and burned....

sounds promising....
 
OK............detective Gannon stated that Pat McNeil was abducted, held for a time, tied to a chair and ??burned to death.

The medical examiner reported lig. marks from the beginning but for so reason it was missed!

He was dead before being placed in the water.

McNeil's death was eventually ruled a suicide. This is where the two detectives get involved. The parents claimed that they knew it was a homicide from the very beginning.
 
http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO126896/

I occasionally search the web and found the above article.
This is a news article about a young man(24) from Boston, who ended up in the Charles river after a hockey game. He'd been missing since October 8th.

I was hoping I wouldn't find anymore mysterious drownings after I read about the detectives stating they have information.
If the detectives have the names of people involved..... have arrests been made? This must be a huge undertaking.
 

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