Abduction and Murder of Joey LaBute 'Not a Hate Crime'

Weeks after the abduction and murder of Joey LaBute -- and his staged river drowning -- Ohio police are still processing "a huge amount of information," but haven't IDd a single suspect.

And they're still convinced that 26-year-old Joseph 'Joey' Labute, rumored now to have been homosexual, wasn't the victim of a hate crime.

As the trail to his killer steadily grows cold, investigators announced this week they've "come across" new video from inside the restaurant where LaBute was last seen alive by family and friends before abruptly disappearing.

The footage shows him "on the dance floor" of the Union Cafe in Columbus center around midnight of March 5, 2016, and then, just "seven minutes" prior to vanishing from the establishment forever, exiting one of the restrooms.

It's not clear where that vital evidence has been all this time or how police finally obtained it. However, it doesn't seem to provide any clues as to why, and with whom, Joey LaBute went outdoors and subsequently died.

A coroner found no evidence whatsoever he had truly drowned and, in fact, ruled there was "a high probability" LaBute was "already dead" when he went into the Scioto River sometime last month.

A group of lawmen checking the riverbank for his body on March 31st coincidentally spotted it semi-submerged in a shallow section not far offshore.

Divers retrieved the corpse in "pretty good condition," suggesting that, whoever slew LaBute, and whatever their motive in doing so, they didn't dump him until well after an active search had all but ended.

Investigators hope the latest images from LaBute's last known location, once enlarged and forensically analyzed, will shed more light on who he was interacting with when he suddenly vanished without a trace.

Obviously the still unknown perpetrator/s themselves likewise had to be captured on security cameras that night, since America is by now a a full-fledged police state and the city of Columbus is no exception to such widespread privacy invasions.

Yet, despite all its traffic cams, license-plate readers, aerial drones, and numerous other clandestine methods of tracking the minute-to-minute movements of innocent citizens without probable cause or court-issued warrants, no images of LaBute's kidnapper and killer have ever surfaced...

Those following these so called Smiley Face Murders of course know that Joey Labute isn't the only young male to suspiciously go missing from a public place and later be found dead in a river, lake, pond, stream or reservoir. And he probably won't be the last. 

But his bogus cold-water death this season stands out as one of only a few in the decades-long Case of the Drowning Men which wasn't whitewashed by officials as a drunken "accident."

Anybody who can help solve the LaBute abduction, homicide and attempted cover-up during March of 2016 is urged to contact the Columbus Police Department at (614) 645-4545.

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Brian Shaffer Missing Persons Reward Now $100,000

The missing persons case of Brian Shaffer resembles all the other Smiley Face Killer disappearances -- before and after his -- with two notable exceptions...

Shaffer vanished upon reentering a bar. And his remains have yet to be recovered.

Ten years later, both of Brian Shaffer's parents are also now deceased, and the reward for info that will help solve their son's puzzling cold case has risen to a $100,000.

The 27-year-old Ohio State University med-student was celebrating Spring Break in downtown Columbus on the evening of April 1, 2006.

He went missing that night at the Ugly Tuna Saloon, a popular bar-and-grille located not far from the one where 26-year-old Joey LaBute similarly disappeared last month.

The LaBute and Shaffer disappearances in Ohio, though spaced a full decade apart, are almost identical in that both magically vanished without a trace inside a pub where they'd been socializing with friends and relatives.

True to The Case of the Drowning Men, however, LaBute's body was found weeks later dumped in an outdoor body of water; but this young man's death is one of the few to subsequently be ruled a homicide.

A medical examiner determined that LaBute hadn't been in the Scioto River the entire time he was gone without a trace. And it was clear by other autopsy results that he didn't really "drown."

Naturally, these two strikingly-similar missing-persons cases in Ohio has generated a lot of speculation as well: For Joey, over what role his "sexuality" might have played. For Brian, whether he "deliberately" fell off the radar or even "killed" himself.

Though Joey LaBute was found dead relatively soon after he disappeared and his suspicious death remains unsolved, the LaBute family has partial closure that the Shaffer family has not.

Thus, the rumors surrounding the Shaffer's missing young man still abound, even ten years after the fact.

“There is a possibility he is alive," conceded one of the detectives who first worked the Brian Shaffer case back in 2006. "But, if you look at the probabilities that he isn’t, those are just as great.”

“Everybody has a theory,” he added,“but the ultimate mystery remains -- where is Brian?”

What do you think, was Shaffer also killed the night he went missing in Ohio? Did he, instead, commit suicide someplace where he'll never be found? Or is he alive and well today, living under a false identity?

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Missing Ohio Man Joey Labute Found Drowned in Scioto River

A coroner has confirmed that Joey Labute (below) -- missing from Columbus Ohio since early March -- was the victim found drowned in the Scioto River on Tuesday.

Evidently, some degloving of the 26-year-old's hands and feet, and other stages of decomposition, hampered immediate attempts to identify LaBute's remains this week through fingerprinting.

Dental charts and a forensic dentist had to be consulted instead, although detectives previously indicated that, otherwise, the body they retrieved a few feet offshore this week was "in pretty good condition."

The circumstances of how Joseph 'Joey' Labute suddenly vanished from a downtown Columbus restaurant where he was socializing with family and friends on March 4th still remains a mystery, however.

Police have again said that foul play hasn't been ruled out, and, because of the nature of Labute's death and where his fully-clad corpse was discovered, his missing persons case and alleged drowning are both now being treated as "suspicious."

Joey LaBute worked for Morgan Stanley and was a 2011 graduate of Ohio State University. It's not clear yet if he actually died in the water or was placed there already dead.

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Young Man Found Drowned in Ohio River Yesterday (ID Pending)

An autopsy is due today on the body of a young man found drowned in the Scioto River of Columbus Ohio on Tuesday.

The Columbus Division Police Dive Team extricated the corpse from floating debris yesterday afternoon in the vicinity of the Scioto Audubon Metro Park near Interstate-71 and Greenlawn Ave.

It was then delivered to the Franklin County Coroner's Office for medical examination.

At present the victim's identity is still unknown, but homicide detectives said they're poring over several outstanding missing persons reports for a possible connection.

A department spokesman said the unidentified young male was found fully-clothed and that his body was in "pretty good condition," suggesting that it hadn't been in the river for very long.

“We have a male in his twenties and we don’t know why he died,” he also stated. The death is therefore being treated as "suspicious" pending further investigation.

Joey LaBute mysteriously went missing from a downtown Columbus restaurant earlier this month.

The 26-year-old has not been seen or heard from ever since that night.

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ALERT for Joey LaBute, 26 and still missing in Ohio

Shown in the poster below, 26yo Joey LaBute mysteriously vanished from a Columbus Ohio restaurant on March 4, 2016.

"The assumption was he'd be right back," said a companion of Joseph 'Joe' LaBute Jr. that evening, after he rose from their table in the Union Cafe on High Street and "went to get a drink at the bar."

But LaBute was never seen or heard from again, and almost two weeks later police and family are no closer to solving his baffling missing persons case.

All that's known today is that there's been no activity whatsoever on LaBute's cellphone or personal accounts, and -- after his abandoned car was located -- his parents are now "frantic" to find him, hopefully alive and safe.

"We love you and we’re trying to get you back,” they said in a published appeal issued to their still-missing son this week.

Joey LaBute of Gahanna Ohio is an athletic Caucasian male standing about 6-feet tall, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone who knows what happened to him earlier this month, or his present whereabouts, is urged to alert a 911 dispatcher or to contact detectives of the Columbus Division of Police at 614-645-4545.

The Gahanna Police Department is also involved in this investigation. Tips can be submitted to the GPD at 614-342-4240.

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