Police are probing the apparent drowning of Luke Gabbert, one of a handful of young men found dead in outdoor bodies of water this weekend...
The 19-year-old Wesleyan University soccer player's immersed corpse was discovered in Ohio's Delaware Run Creek on Saturday morning.
Investigators still don't know how the 5-foot-9, 155-pound athlete ended up dead in the water and said that, at this time, a cause of death for Luke Gabbert also remains unknown.
Meanwhile, police in the UK confirmed that a body found floating near Spurn Point of Humberside late yesterday afternoon is that of 21-year-old Liam Pullen.
Pullen went missing Friday evening, following an argument with one of his mates at a Cleesthorpes address.
According to that individual, Pullen allegedly left his house during their disagreement wearing sweats and a navy coat with a hoodie underneath, and, perhaps, "no shoes."
Investigators have told reporters that the youth's subsequent drowning death "did not appear suspicious" to them.
That's roughly the same view held by authorities in Queens New York where a dead man washed ashore of the East River on Saturday afternoon.
That victim's identity and other particulars haven't been released, pending notification of family, but his death also doesn't seem suspicious, cops there are saying.
Boston has likewise been afflicted with yet another Charles River water fatality this winter, although the identity of the deceased young male retrieved on Thursday continues to remain a riddle today, due to extensive decomposition.
“The water can kind of obscure and bloat the face," a law professor at Boston University vaguely explained to the press yesterday; additionally noting that, if the hands and feet were degloved too, it would prevent IDing the victim via his prints.
She also suggested a police composite sketch was underway this week, in hopes that a member of the public might recognize John Doe and finally give him a name.
A jogger noticed the unidentified young man's corpse floating under the Longfellow Bridge, and a marine unit of the Massachusetts State Police came and recovered it soon after.
Foul play hasn't been ruled out at this stage in the inquiry because a cause and manner of death hasn't been determined.
Because the public was understandably alarmed by the latest discovery, Massachusetts police and the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office released a written statement about the incident.
In it they confirmed they're jointly "investigating this matter," but "no additional information is
available at this time,” they added.
Missing young men "accidentally" drowning in lakes, rivers, creeks and ponds -- fully clothed and in cold weather -- is a relatively recent crime trend.
However, only in the past few years have some of these dubious mishaps been fully investigated, and a few even reclassified as *possible* murders.
