The search for a missing 19-year-old Arizona State University student appears to have tragically ended:
Officials say the body of a young man who was fished out of the Salt River two days ago was garbed in the same clothing Jack Culolias was last known to be wearing.
The corpse also had on a red Vans sneaker, the perfect match to one found on the riverbank in the beginning of December when family and friends first scoured the area.
Culolias mysteriously vanished after reportedly being roughed up by bouncers at the Cadillac Ranch in the Tempe Marketplace.
Security personnel there say they were forced to eject him twice from the bar-and-grill because he was so intoxicated he was urinating from the balcony. However they were unable to find any surveillance tape documenting the event.
It is not clear if those bouncers were ever brought in for questioning, but police are asserting today that there is "no foul play" involved in Culolias' death. They think the 19-year-old ASU frat-pledge probably went down to the water to relieve himself and "accidentally" fell in it and drowned.
Because the young man had just been caught in the act of urinating, some think that an unlikely theory.
Adding to the puzzle of Culolias' sudden disappearance is the fact that his body was found floating in a locale that had already been thoroughly combed by the community before. As well it had been searched by police tactical dive teams equipped with state-of-the-art sonar.
There has been no official word from the family yet.
I've been following Jack's story closely, he and my youngest son went to school together from elementary through high school. I don't buy that he would go to the water to relieve himself, why would he need to be by water to do that? I really hope the family gets some answers but I'm sure it'll be chalked up to just another drunk accidental drowning. A man in his early 20's was found drowned in that same lake last year, Willie Jigba I believe was his name but not sure.
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by today and I'll definitely look into that other case you're referring to. By the way, if you come back to this blog post again click on my name in this specific comment and it will take you to interviews with families of two more suspicious disaapearances and drownings that just happend this winter.
ReplyDeleteSee if any of the facts revealed in those are similar to Jack's case.
Also, if you know Culolias' loved ones, then direct their attention to that content as well. They may be interested in participating themselves. If so, tell them they can contact me here and I'll set up their interview questionnaire ASAP.
Kind regards and condolences--
E.R.
i knew him and was there that night. if ur still interested i can fill out an interview. how do i contact you
DeleteI just read the two interviews and wow, after all the reading I've been doing on this lately, I'd not even heard of Matt or Josh. It really is mind boggling how many of these cases there are and how little attention they're given in the media.
ReplyDeleteMy son surfs and mainly knew Jack through a mutual best friend they both surfed with. Jack was very adept in the water, tall and in excellent physical condition. I just can't make sense of how all these strong, athletic young men are "slipping" and drowning. My sister and I were wondering about the possibility of something being slipped in their drinks and this came to mind again when I read your interview with Matt's mom. Her account of her son being escorted out sounds similar to what happened to Jack.
My heart breaks for Jack's family, he has an identical twin brother and an older brother, they just lost their father over the summer to cancer so they've already had their share of pain this year. I'm sure, after the funeral, Jack's mom and step-mom will reach a place where they want answers. I have 3 son's myself and can't even begin to imagine how much pain they're in.
The interviews were very informative, I'm going to email that link to my sister.
Why would one shoe come off if you were urinating and "fell" in?
ReplyDelete@ "Why would one shoe come off if you were urinating and "fell" in?"
ReplyDeleteMost likely wouldn't. When one is struck by a car or beaten, however, a shoe (or both) commonly flies off. Same is true if a body is dragged, especially over a distance or along uneven ground as can usually be found near riverbanks.
E.R.
I'm curious about why he would bother going all the way to the river to urinate. He'd just been thrown out of a bar for urinating off the balcony. Seems he would have just peed wherever, if he had to go again.
ReplyDeleteI was just reading up on Nick Wilcox, some of these cases are carbon copies of each other. I think it's safe to say Nick's body will also be found in the water eventually and it's so sad that they're just being written off as "accidental" drownings.
ReplyDelete@ C-Haze: Correct. And males, unlike females, are able to fully empty their bladders...so, obviously Culolias wouldn't have had to urinate again so quickly.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous January 14th: I think so too, sadly. I also have a hunch that the area in the river where the ice was observed to be broken, and which police divers searched already, should be reexamined by an independent dive team now. Just to make certain Wilcox's body wasn't re-anchored to the bottom to hide it again, say in an old refrigerator.
(An enclosure like that, or even a sunken automobile, is probably the only thing that would prevent a decomposing corpse from ascending.)
By the way, and on the subject of refloat and its inevitability, I've learned that Culolias' decomposed body was not found on the water's surface itself, but rather it remained submerged a depth. If true, that's also suspicious.
Thank you for visiting Killing Killers and for taking the time to weigh in too--vey much appreciated.
E.R.
The found shoe situation in this case is very interesting. Here's a screen grab picture of it taken from a newscast. Oddly enough, it's still laced and looks totally clean.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/imgres?num=10&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=996&bih=520&tbm=isch&tbnid=Q5DbRCBkQyD6kM:&imgrefurl=http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/20271817/2012/12/05/lake-search-turns-up-no-sign-of-missing-asu-student%3Fclienttype%3Dprintable&docid=amWiRZaHF61ICM&imgurl=http://ksaz.images.worldnow.com/images/20271817_BG2.jpg&w=640&h=360&ei=oyf3UM-wF63U0gGHjYHQAw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=218&vpy=220&dur=152&hovh=168&hovw=300&tx=187.55557250976562&ty=115.55557250976562&sig=114580107689015694163&page=5&tbnh=126&tbnw=250&start=57&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:58,s:0,i:266
I just read the same thing about Jack's body not being on the surface.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.statepress.com/2013/01/09/what-happened-to-jack/