Police say there may be a serial killer on the loose in Austin, Texas, but it’s not the one you’re expecting

Since 2022, at least a dozen bodies have been found in Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas, and some suspect a serial killer might be responsible. For this reason, when Austin police said a possible serial killer was loose in the city, many assumed there had been a break in the Lady Bird Lake investigation.

But according to the San Antonio Current, that’s not the case. While there’s evidence to suggest there is a serial killer in Austin, police say it’s not the so-called “Rainey Street Ripper,” the hypothetical serial killer responsible for the bodies found in the Austin reservoir. Rainey Street is a popular nightlife destination in the city not far from the body of water where some theorize the killer targets his victims.

Austin police now say DNA evidence links a man to two unrelated women’s murders in the city: 28-year-old Alba Jenisse Aviles, killed in 2018, and Alyssa Anne Rivera, 34, whose body was recovered just a few months before Austin authorities announced a potential serial killer could be responsible for both crimes. Police also released surveillance footage of their suspect, a Hispanic male, walking near Rivera the night she died.

What about the Lady Bird Lake bodies?

Word that a potential serial killer could be in Austin, Texas came as more bodies were found in Lady Bird Lake. Austin police have long denied any connection between the victims recovered, and the causes of death in most have been ruled accidental drownings or undetermined with no foul play involved, the Beaumont Enterprise reported. One body found in Lady Bird Lake had been shot, and his cause of death was declared a homicide, but Austin authorities say it was an isolated incident.

More than a year before the serial killer announcement, Austin news outlet KXAN reported that city officials planned to make safety improvements in public spaces, including officers patrolling the area on Friday nights, better lighting, and fencing at Lady Bird Lake, as most of the drownings there involved alcohol. “These autopsies have revealed any trauma or other indication of foul play,” the city said in a statement about Lady Bird Lake drowning victims recently found in the reservoir.

A similar “modus operandi”

At the press conference cautioning the public about a potential serial killer unrelated to Lady Bird Lake, Austin authorities said DNA evidence and a similar “modus operandi” linked the two crimes, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Both women were sexually assaulted and strangled. The DNA evidence did not have a match in the Combined DNA Index System, meaning the man responsible had not been arrested before. “There is no known link between either victim,” Sargeant Nathan Sexton added. “There could be more, these are the only two that we’ve actually linked through DNA,” Sexton said.