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'I promise you they were looking for it' | Former forensic director explains how Austin police rule out foul play

Following two bodies being found in Lady Bird Lake this year, people have been pondering a connection between each case, but police say that's not the case.

AUSTIN, Texas — After a second body was pulled from Lady Bird Lake near Rainey Street, people have been speculating on social media that the cases may have been connected.

But on Monday, the Austin Police Department (APD) said they have no evidence in any of these cases to support allegations of foul play at this time.

“Law enforcement agencies, when they investigate something, they're looking for bad things there,” said Mark Gillespie, a former forensic director for Austin Police, who has firsthand knowledge about how police rule out foul play in an investigation.

“They're looking for foul play, and so when APD comes out with the statement that at the current time, they don't suspect foul play, I promise you they were looking for it, and they were looking very hard for it, so I respect that.”

In Monday’s statement, police said they didn't see any trauma in the autopsies.

"That leads me to believe that they've already conducted possibly some interviews, they've obviously been to the crime scene, they've got some type of toxicology reports back,” said Kimber Bustos, former police officer and Austin private investigator.

Bustos says that if someone was drugged, investigators might not find the substance in their toxicology results, so without physical evidence of marks on their bodies, and after conducting witness interviews, police can rule out foul play.

“Those types of things would show up- maybe not in the toxicology reports, but they would show up on the body as abrasions or signs of sexual assault," Bustos said.

When investigating possible connections between deaths, Bustos says police look for commonalities.

"Generally, serial killers follow a pattern and those patterns start to become apparent rather quickly,” Bustos said.

And while the bodies were found in the same area, and both were men spending time on Rainey Street, experts say it's not enough to make a connection.

"That doesn't necessarily mean that it's a serial killer just because there's been two incidents,” Bustos said.

Despite this, APD’s statement does not dispel conspiracy theories appearing on social media.

"I think a lot of it is that there's a distrust in law enforcement,” Gillespie said. “There is a distrust in our investigative or justice system."

And he says some of these theories swirling on the internet can be harmful to families.

“These people are suffering, and for them to have to deal with a lot of these crazy theories, you know, it just becomes a tremendous distraction, and an irritant for them to grieve and to heal,” Gillespie said.

For now, Austin police say the cases are still under investigation and they are analyzing all available evidence.

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