Wisconsin drownings attract FBI attention

updated 4:40 p.m. ET Oct. 31, 2006

MADISON, Wis. - The FBI said Tuesday it will review evidence in the drowning deaths of eight young men in La Crosse-area rivers over the past nine years.

All eight disappeared from taverns in the southwestern Wisconsin college town, and police have said for years that they believed all eight were drunk and simply fell in.

Autopsy reports have found no signs of foul play, but rumors have persisted of a possible serial killer.

The most recent victim was University of Wisconsin-La Crosse basketball player Luke Homan, whose body was found in the Mississippi River on Oct. 2.

Linda Krieg, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Milwaukee office, said La Crosse police contacted her office on Friday and asked for analysts to review their work. She said the police department plans to send everything it has on the deaths to the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in Quantico, Va.

“They still believe these are drownings and they’re accidental,” Krieg said. “They just asked if there’s anything else they could be looking at. ... We’ll look over whatever they have.”

La Crosse Police Capt. Mitch Brohmer did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday.

Krieg said the FBI has not mounted its own investigation into the drownings.

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