The Case of the Drowning Men (36 page)

Arguing otherwise is no different than saying
young,
popular,
academically successful, athletic males
of medium build
have
suddenly developed
a genetic predisposition to walking into icy waters and perishing
.
Worded
in
that way, anybody could
recognize that
s
uch a contention
has
no merit
.
A
nd
yet this is, in effect, what authorities are
always
saying.

It
’s
bad science and police-work. A
mindset. Observational bias. Groupthink.

O
n th
e
subject
of police work and public safety
, it needs to be pointed out
again
and again
that
,
in spite of
security cameras
,
foot patrols
,
a stepped up police presence,
fences
,
safe buses,
and whatever other measures have been
employed
to prevent it, these mysterious
disappearances
ending
in
death
have
continue
d
in full force
to the present
.
Indeed, there are so many safeguards in place today that, should one want to deliberately drown himself, it would be practically impossible to achieve.

And still, somehow, dozens
each year
are managing it by accident?

Upon
closer
scrutiny
of
some
of th
e
s
e drownings
,
a few
ha
ve
recently
been
upgrad
ed as homicide
s
,
either by law enforcement and/or
medical examiners.
Soon, a
s more and more
parents
with lost sons
press for answers
,
and
the circumstances of
their
deaths
are
revisited,
more
cases
are sure to follow
suit
.
A storm is brewing, therefore, and it’s not proper nor prudent for public officials to continue hiding their heads in the sand.
They
must follow through
now
—intensely examine the files
,
and every new death that’s added to them
,
and then share that data with other agencies throughout the Corridor of Death.

M
any w
ell
-
respected criminologists and patho
lo
g
i
sts have already verified
the existence of
a victim class
in the
northland
. F
urther
,
they’ve
cited
a stati
s
tical deviation on height and weight as
a mere
0.40
which
also
appears to be
similar
regarding
the
victims’
age and race
.

But
there are other commonalities that
c
ould be
as easily
identified
in order
to establish
beyond a doubt
that this
grouping
is not
due to freak chance
or regional/climate-based
factors and
coincidence:
A
ll the victim
profiles should be
additionally an
alyzed to
provide statistic
al data
for
the following
:

1.
      
Are there any
drowning
anomalies in each victim’s recovery? (e.g. refloat date
was
not consistent with water temp
erature
and the initial date of
disappearance/
drowning
.
A
lternately
, if divers recovered the body
from the bottom before it resurfaced on its own
,
was
the corpse
in
the
proper location; was it found in the correct semi-fetal posture, etc.
)

2.
      
Does the description and/or the photo of each
recovered
corpse
resemble
what
it ought to for the number of days the victim was
missing
/drowned
and
factoring in the
effect
water and air temperatures
would have
had
on decomposition
within th
e
res
p
ective
timeframe?

3.
      
Are there any drowning anomalies in each victim’s autopsy? (e.g. no water in stomach;
the
eyes closed
tight
ly
or else cloudy if open;
presence of foam in an otherwise dry drowning
;
evidence of antemortem/postmortem injuries w
hen there shouldn’
t be or
else
no
ne
where there should, etc
.
)

4.
      
What is the ratio of dry drowning
s
to wet drownings
within the
victim class?
(
if normal
this figure
w
ould be
equal to
the
nationwide
drowning stat
istics
of
less than 20%)

5.
      
What is the ratio of agonal muscle
bruising or
ruptures
within th
e
victim
class? (
if normal
this figure should be equal to nationwide stats of
at least
10%
but
not greater than 15%)

6.
      
How many victim’s cellphones were actually recovered
, and in what condition
?

7.
      
How many victims reportedly attempted to call someone at or around the moment of their alleged disappearance?

8.
      
How many victims were originally headed in the opposite direction of where they drowned?

9.
      
How many victim’s BAC
(blood/alcohol)
tests were da
ngerously high
(e.g. blackout level)
– how many
were
at a level where it would
n’t have
seriously
impair
ed
motor skills
―
including walking, sitting, crouching or standing
―for a person of their weight and height?

10.
   
H
ow many
victim’s
BAC readings
could be deemed
within normal range for putrefaction?

11.
   
How many victim’s toxicology test
s
showed noticeably elevated GBH levels
, accounting for putrefaction
?

12.
   
How many victim’s toxicology tests showed
the presence or even trace amounts of
other drug
substances
—
either
lawful or contraband—in
their systems at the time of death?

If any
clear
patterns
can
be established
from the above inquiry
,
and I expect
that
they can, then
the
critical
who, what, where, when, why and how question drill needs next
to
be asked
.
Because of public fears about police involvement, this
inquiry should
include
interrogating officers who were on duty at the time of each disappearance, as well as those who may have been off duty but were near to each crime scene.

If a truly impartial investigation of this nature rules out police misconduct, then t
h
e
se
type of
questions should
be
posed by investigators
:

1.
      
Who d
id
the victims have in common
in their
day to day
lives
?

2.
      
What
favorite
pastim
e
s d
id
the victims
all
regularly
engage in?

3.
      
Where
might the victims
have
know
n
each other from
,
other than a bar or
a
party
?

4.
      
When was the last time any of them engaged in
an activit
y out of the norm for them?

5.
      
Why
would this particular
profile
be important
to victimize
?

6.
      
How are
the
victims being
pre-
selected and by whom?

Official denials are
not fixing anything
;
the
death
s
,
and
the
doubt
s
they generate
,
still linger.
C
omposing a
n
authoritative
and independent
database of these
fatalities
is the best step
forward
right
now in
getting to the bottom of
th
e
drowning
mystery
.
I
t’s
also
the first step taken whenever investigative agencies are
truly
trying to ascertain who a killer or killers may be.
At this point,
legitimately undertaking to do so
would also show
a
long
-
overdue
measure of
good faith.

For years m
any concerned citizens have been following these
neglected cases
on their own,
diligently tracking and
posting
area news
reports of missing young men
(
and where their bodies are recovered
from
)
on dedicated
websites
and
blogs
. They have been do
ing
this
with
the vain hope that authorities will one day take notice
of the staggering numbers
and begin to do the job themselves
.

Because
there have been
so
many
non-recreational drowning
deaths
to record
, t
he
se
public
lists are already fairly comprehensive
and updated constantly
, so it would
n’
t be that daunting a task for the FBI
and similar agencies
to begin constructing an official database for the purpose of launching a complete investigation this time.