Teen's Body Found in Beloved Lake as Deaths Pile Up

Authorities announced that a body has been found on a popular lake in Austin, TX, after a teenage boy went missing over the weekend.

According to multiple reports, an Austin Police Department spokesperson said the teenager went missing Sunday when he and his family hopped on paddleboards and kayaks for a stroll on Lady Bird Lake, a popular summer destination for both locals and tourists.

It's unclear when, but the teenage boy went missing. Authorities immediately launched a search and rescue effort, to no avail. Then, on Tuesday at around 7:45 a.m., a paddleboarder made the grim they saw the body floating in the water near the intersection of West Riverside Drive and South Lamar Boulevard.

Police have since said that the body discovered Tuesday morning was a teenage boy who investigators say was "unknowingly standing near an underwater shelf." Authorities believe the teenage boy slipped or fell off the underwater shelf, which authorities say is a sudden drop-off in the lake. Lady Bird Lake is a dammed section of the Colorado River. The artificial lake stretches more than five miles. 

While police have not yet positively identified the body recovered on Tuesday, they say the clothing matches the missing teenager's outfit. Police also said that the teenage boy's lifejacket and belongings were still on his kayak.

According to data obtained by Fox 7, at least 38 bodies have been found in or around Lady Bird Lake since 2022. The outlet reports that, of those bodies found, 30 were male, and just over 60 percent were between 30 and 49 years old. Only two were teenagers, including the body discovered on Tuesday.

In just the last three years, the cause of deaths for most of the bodies discovered on Lady Bird Lake have been attributed to accidental drownings, Fox 7 reports. Suicide, drug overdoses and natural causes are second on the list.

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Fox 7 also reports that only one case has been ruled a murder and some half a dozen cases remain unknown.

Police emphasized that no foul play is suspected in Tuesday's discovery.

With a picturesque backdrop of Austin's ever changing skyline, Lady Bird Lake offers a number of summer activities for locals and tourists, including watching the nightly emergence of nearly 2 million Mexican bats taking refuge under the South Congress Avenue bridge.

Boats, kayakers and paddleboarders -- along with a throng of bystanders on the bridge and on a number of hotel balconies across the lake -- wait for the emergence of these bats before sunset.