Bastrop, Tx (Nov. 13, 2008)–City police were busy much of the day with recovering and identifying a body found in the Colorado River near the Bastrop wastewater treatment plant. As I write this the dead person has not been formally identified nor the cause of death determined. We’ll get back to this as more information is available.
The incident, whatever the facts turn out to be, recalls a long string of other events which suggest the Bastrop area and its scenic river remain a dumping ground for the residue of unpleasantness from areas upstream, chiefly Austin and environs. Perhaps the most recent example was the discovery a few weeks ago of another body in the river, this one found near the river bridge at FM 969. In that case, criminal investigators had some reason to believe that the victim had been murdered in north east Austin and the carcass somehow found its way to the river and to the area between Webberville and Bastrop.
If police have made any significant headway in solving this homicide, no one’s given any public hint of it, even though Crimestoppers has offered a $1,000 reward for useful tips.
And those recent incidents remind me as well of the April 1989 shooting death of Texas historian, book dealer, publisher and notable gambler Johnny Jenkins, whose body was also found floating in the Colorado near the FM 969 bridge west of town. That homicide also remains unsolved, though some veteran police officials suspect Jenkins may have been the victim of a mob hit related to unpaid gambling debts. If it was a suicide, as a former sheriff argued, it must one of the most astonishingly successful hoaxes on record.
Jenkins was shot in the head, found floating in the river. But no gun could be found anywhere in the area, even after divers searched the river bed. If the victim shot himself, how did he dispose of the weapon? Only fantastic theories suggest themselves.
Even if bodies floating in the river have become more common in recent times, I have to recall that other unpleasantness in the water has become less common. In the mid 1980s, Austin neglected to build sufficient wastewater treatment capacity to serve its growing population. The result was foul matter floating downstream through Bastrop to such a degree that Bastrop officials filed suit, charging Austin with violations of water quality and other common sense laws. Bastrop won and over time Austin cleaned up its act, vastly to the benefit of the river at Bastrop, our residents and visitors who often seek recreation on the Colorado’s generally tranquil and scenic waters.
This is all just a reminder that we don’t like it when some folks act like they can treat our area as a dumping ground for their refuse, whether murder victims or–what shoud we call it without resort to crude language?