Barely a week has passed since the drowned corpse of missing grad student Jonathan Dailey was found in Boston's chilly Charles River, tethered to a chain and a cinderblock. Yet his roommate and longtime pal, Miles Smith, has already crossed off his deceased friend's name from the mailbox they both shared, and is packing up his own things, he said, with the aim of leaving town.
And the suspicious death itself still remains shrouded in mystery; the police as mum as ever about the latest fatality in this 15-year string of weird and chronic drownings.
Was young Dailey's demise a homicide? A suicide? Or a bungled 'Smiley Face' killing?
INTERESTING TIDBIT: The late Jon Dailey and his (ex)roommate Miles Smith met years ago as undergraduates at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. Why is that information so intriguing? Because ASU was recently the scene of a strange drowning event too, and only a few days before Dailey first went missing.
Police and university officals in North Carolina confirm that 19-year-old Tyler Blalock was discovered drowned in a campus creek September 29th 2012, with apparent head injuries. His death has nevertheless been ruled 'accidental'.
However, Blalock was an expert swimmer and a lifeguard, so his family is not entirely convinced he isn't the victim of foul play, and they also question why someone so savvy about water safety would have been at the creek at all, especially by himself.
“I know he wasn’t there alone,” his mother insisted. “I know he wouldn't have been there alone.”
Mrs. Blalock is asking the public to assist in finding the answers to what could have happened to her son the night he allegedly drowned.
“Anybody that knows anything [or] somebody that was with him last
night...just come forward and talk to the police,” she pleaded through tears. “Just
so I can know what happened to my baby. That's all I ask … I beg for
that.”
Anyone with information regarding this tragic incident is encouraged to call the ASU Police Department at 828-262-2150.
Anyone with information regarding this tragic incident is encouraged to call the ASU Police Department at 828-262-2150.
At the time of his death, Tyler Blalock was a sophmore at Appalachian State University, Dailey's and Smith's alma mater.
Weird coincidence, eh?
Maybe a sober water savvy lifeguard wouldn't venture near a creek alone but let's face it, this kid was drunk. His friends and other witnesses all report Tyler was very intoxicated.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. Agreed, the young man was probably drinking, judging from the fake ID he was alleged to have in his wallet. However, most everyone drinks while at college, expert swimmers and nonswimmers alike, males AND females. Partying is a *rite of passage* of sorts for the young. Still, drowning, especially nonrecreationally, is a VERY uncommon event, whether drunk or sober. So I tend to be swayed by the family's assertions in Tyler's case, particularly because they knew him better than anyone else: His being at that creek--and alone there--seems quite uncharacteristic.
ReplyDelete(Interested in what you thought of the uncanny coincidence between Boston drown victim Jon Dailey, his ties to Appalachian State University, and this recent drown event at ASU...?)
E.R.
I appreciate your perspective on underage/college drinking and understand it likely represents one of the masses, however, I would submit underage drinking is not just a "rite of passage"... It's a dangerous ritual that is causing serious consequences among our youth. Our culture has become so desensitized to underage drinking that we would like to look past this and ignore that this young man's life could perhaps have been saved if he weren't under the influence of a substance that was illegal for him to consume. Being severely intoxicated causes most people to do things that are "uncharacteristic"
ReplyDeleteI went to Appalachian State, I have been to those bars, and I know exactly where Tyler Blalock stepped into the creek, slipped and fell, and took his last breath. Considering those factors, it's not hard to see that under the circumstances this "accident" occurred. In my opinion, there is no mystery here. There are very specific contributors that are to blame: 1.) an individual who gave Tyler an ID to use (rumored to be his brother). 2.) Bars that continued to serve an individual who was clearly intoxicated. (and could be held liable under Dram Shop Liability) 3.)Excessive quantities of Alcohol .. It's unfortunate and saddening.
I see that the coincidence could spark interest in drawing parallels between Tyler's death and Jonathan's death but as far as I know, no cause of death (i.e. drowning) has been determined in the case of Jonathan Dailey. With that said it seems like there is nothing more here than speculation.
I do find your blog interesting and understand you give much thought and research to your opinions.. Just giving an alternative perspective.
Thank you for the compliment. And I do continue to study these disappearances and deaths even after publishing THE CASE OF THE DROWNING MEN investigation. Here's the thing of note about them:
ReplyDeleteFrom late September to May, I now do routine online searches for new missing-persons cases. That timeframe is what is known as the killing season in the Smiley Face murders, as established over the past 15 years when these suspicious *drownings* first began...
When I see that a man of a certain age, height, weight, and locale has inexplicably vanished during these cool-weather months, I can predict with (thus far) 99.99% accuracy that he will show up dead in a nearby body of water.
Moreover, in a large percent of these cases I've also noticed that the more comprehensive the search for a missing young man, the longer it takes to find his corpse. Sometimes, if that rescue mission was a massive one (and/or massively publicized), he'll never be found again.
Counterintuitive, isn't it? I mean, why should dutifully trying to locate a guy produce the opposite results from searching for him?
Now, fresh water drowning fatalities are statistically rare enough during the recreational summer months--most people in the northland prefer swimming pools because they *feel* safer. But outdoor drownings are virtually nonexistent offseason because almost no one ventures near water in the cooler months. Intoxicated or sober.
Finally, the vast majority of legitimate drownings occur in residential swimming pools (for the reason given above). And the victims are almost always small children. This is primarily because they are inexperienced swimmers and often not properly supervised.
(Just some more data to contemplate before jumping to the conclusion that these young men were just falling down drunk. Which, by the way, is rarely true.)
Thank you for posting again; I hadn't seen your newest one here or I would've replied much sooner!
E.R.
There is no correlation between the two. Sadly Jon Dailey's death was confirmed as suicide.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI would like to know what "evidence" the authorities drummed up to point to suicide, other than their complete ineptitude. I knew Jon, he was not the suicidal type. He was also not the type to try a Houdini escape trick... by himself... on a cool Boston evening, as I have heard some say. I find it interesting that nobody is drawing any comparisons to Franco Garcia who went missing on the cold night of February 22, 2012 and turned up in April in the Chestnut Hill reservoir. There is a serial killer in Boston, but because of where the bodies are being disposed of, they have no clues and just want to sweep it under the rug to avoid the public requiring them to do their jobs and find the killer.
DeleteBostons mysterious drownings are being swept under the rug.
ReplyDeletethe FBI in boston have reported on human trafficking gangs who follow people with tracking equipment and pose as police officers.
also: if you are human, you have thought about suicide, and if you are going to do it. you would either shoot yourself, jump off high building, overdose, ect.
who ties them selves to cinderblocks with chains and jumps off of a bridge?
the BU bridge is highly populated and also there are no places for anyone especially a student to acquire a cinder block.
this was some sort of murder NOT a suicide,
also, drowning statistics in new england are an interesting thing to research due to the fact that most of them occur in the warmer months when people actually seek out bodies of water to cool off and go swimming.
these drownings almost always occur in the colder months.
when police were searching for John, they found 2 bodies in the exact same spot they had searched a week before actually finding johns body.
so, was he held captive a week before being plunged into the river?
there ARE cameras on the bridge and at either entrance, this needs a real investigation and sadly the police will not do so.