Serial Killer In Bristol?

[Super]

Really does seem to be so many recently. Another found today.

http://metro.co.uk/2017/03/19/deaths-of-three-men-in-bristol-sparks-serial-killer-fears-6519220/

[WhistleHappy]

Thoughts with the families and friends of all the deceased ... very sad.  (& the elderly couple who died last week when their car plunged into the Feeder Canal near their home in Barton Hill)

Today's body presumed to be that of missing Jason Gurgul 33year old father of two children, planned search for this afternoon called off after news of body found at Welsh Back.

(re linked Metro story... photo River Avon ... doesn't look familiar to me, anyone recognise it as being local? ...  chilling 'pusher' theory pray there's no substance to that) 

[SARJ]

Is it a serial killer or another case of a drunken night too near the river gone wrong? Thoughts with the families in either case, must be horrible.

[winterbournered]

1 hour ago, SARJ said:

Is it a serial killer or another case of a drunken night too near the river gone wrong? Thoughts with the families in either case, must be horrible.

Yeah maybe, although 4 in as many months?? 

I can't remember more than that in the 15 years I used to go in the centre regularly. Maybe it's highlighted more because of social media. 

Thoughts go out to the family. RIP. 

[Super]

47 minutes ago, winterbournered said:

Yeah maybe, although 4 in as many months?? 

I can't remember more than that in the 15 years I used to go in the centre regularly. Maybe it's highlighted more because of social media. 

Thoughts go out to the family. RIP. 

Does seem incredibly high. Wasnt there a series of deaths in bath as well?

[winterbournered]

4 minutes ago, Super said:

Does seem incredibly high. Wasnt there a series of deaths in bath as well?

Just looked that up funnily enough! 

11 on the same stretch of river but that was over a number of years, 6 I think. Although I did read that it stopped as soon as some work started on the river or nearby. Probably down site security and fencing rather than anything sinister though. 

[GodEmperor Palpatine]

5 minutes ago, Super said:

Does seem incredibly high. Wasnt there a series of deaths in bath as well?

Seems to be a copycat of the Manchester 'Pusher'... 29 deaths from last I read.

Thoughts are with the families RIP.

[View from the Dolman]

3 hours ago, WhistleHappy said:

(re linked Metro story... photo River Avon ... doesn't look familiar to me, anyone recognise it as being local? ...  chilling 'pusher' theory pray there's no substance to that) 

It's in Tewkesbury: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/picturesque-gloucestershire-tewkesbury-royalty-free-image/168591325

[Dollymarie]

As soon as the bloke went missing, I said to a friend that it was sadly only a matter of time before they were pulling another body from the river.  

[cidercity1987]

Bristol Pusher for sure and if the deaths have stopped in Manchester then it is clearly the same person.

[Maesknoll Red]

2 hours ago, View from the Dolman said:

It's in Tewkesbury: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/picturesque-gloucestershire-tewkesbury-royalty-free-image/168591325

Journalists pah, using the wrong river Avon to illustrate an article, typical shoddy work.

[LondonBristolian]

According to the expertise I've suddenly acquired via Google, if there is a Manchester Pusher, they could have killed up to 85 people.

At the same time, I just read an article on the Manchester Pusher that makes a really good point about the most telling indication to suggest that - whilst not impossible - it is unlikely there is a 'Pusher' at large in Manchester or Bristol (or indeed Manchester and then Bristol) which is that, if there was someone who had pushed 4 people in 4 months into the river and killed them, it is likely there would also be people the had tried to push into the river and failed (or people they pushed in and survived). The absence of anyone reporting an attack which they survived does suggest it's more likely to be a surprisingly high number of accidental deaths.

Thing is stats never run in a neat pattern - if say, on average, one person a year died from falling into a river then that would not mean there was  one death each year but rather some years with no deaths and some years with more than one death. The fact that four have happened in such a short space of time is shocking and upsetting but certainly could plausibly coincidence. The police should review the possibility though. 

[nebristolred]

Of course it's not a serial killer. Without meaning to sound rude, and I have every sympathy with the victims and their families, but it's just drunk people on a night out inevitably falling in.

It might sound like a lot of cases in a short space of time, but a serial killer isn't really feasible. What are the chances of a serial killer pushing 4 men in in a row all of whom are a) unable to swim or b) too drunk to swim, with a 100% success rate? Chances are if there was a guy out there, there would have been failed attempts from people fighting back, people being pushed but surviving, or similar.

It's just bad luck imo, though additional presence of CCTV along the river could only help.

[Erithacus]

Have you had a good look around the Floating Harbour recently? There are plenty of open spaces near the water and not so many fences. Even some of the railings are quite gappy. Imagine how easy it would be to not see much at night, even if sober. I'm quite surprised there haven't been more problems concerning people with sight loss. Either that or mad cyclists.

[phantom]

The only thing that puzzles me about all this is why suddenly now?

The bars and river have been there for decades!

[Barrs Court Red]

46 minutes ago, phantom said:

The only thing that puzzles me about all this is why suddenly now?

The bars and river have been there for decades!

Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

15 hours ago, winterbournered said:

Just looked that up funnily enough! 

11 on the same stretch of river but that was over a number of years, 6 I think. Although I did read that it stopped as soon as some work started on the river or nearby. Probably down site security and fencing rather than anything sinister though. 

I'm involved professionally with the situation in Bath and the pattern there has been about one death a year, pretty much for a decade.  The common theme in virtually all these deaths is that the victims have been young males who have had too much alcohol.  The river in Bath has very steep sides and is very fast-flowing, so if you do fall in while inebriated your have only a small chance of being able to get out.  All sorts of safety measure have been put in place, but short of putting a wall up either side of the river, you are never going to be able to legislate for the person who gets drunk and wanders off from their peer group.  My organisation has tried to focus away from treating the river as the cause of these deaths and more to do with getting people to think responsibly about alcohol; encouraging groups of people out for night to look out for all their members and make sure no one goes missing; and to work with pub and club owners, and with taxi drivers (and police and fire services), to put measure in place which will lower the risk.

Actually Bath is not unusual.  There are other cities (Durham is one) which has had a consistent number of river deaths.  The situation in Bristol is a little unusual though, as the deaths seem to have happened in water that was not subject to a current.

Sorry to say it, but the message is that if you consume a lot of alcohol while near water, you are taking a significant risk. 

 

[CyderInACan]

7 hours ago, phantom said:

The only thing that puzzles me about all this is why suddenly now?

The bars and river have been there for decades!

I'm pretty sure that at least 2 of the recent deaths have found no alcohol in the system of the deceased (one I believe was a Muslim) so I'm not sure that being pissed is a factor in all of them. 

[Lanterne Rouge]

For a bit of comparison I was working in Ipswich in 2006 when the first three of Steve Wright`s victims were discovered and it was only after three that the police started to say that they had a potential serial killer on their hands.

[cidercity1987]

7 hours ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

I'm involved professionally with the situation in Bath and the pattern there has been about one death a year, pretty much for a decade.  The common theme in virtually all these deaths is that the victims have been young males who have had too much alcohol.  The river in Bath has very steep sides and is very fast-flowing, so if you do fall in while inebriated your have only a small chance of being able to get out.  All sorts of safety measure have been put in place, but short of putting a wall up either side of the river, you are never going to be able to legislate for the person who gets drunk and wanders off from their peer group.  My organisation has tried to focus away from treating the river as the cause of these deaths and more to do with getting people to think responsibly about alcohol; encouraging groups of people out for night to look out for all their members and make sure no one goes missing; and to work with pub and club owners, and with taxi drivers (and police and fire services), to put measure in place which will lower the risk.

Actually Bath is not unusual.  There are other cities (Durham is one) which has had a consistent number of river deaths.  The situation in Bristol is a little unusual though, as the deaths seem to have happened in water that was not subject to a current.

Sorry to say it, but the message is that if you consume a lot of alcohol while near water, you are taking a significant risk. 

 

How indeed does a grown man drown in placid water, no matter how drunk?

Whether a 'pusher' as such, or a bloke dumping bodies to make it look like a drowning but 4 deaths so close seems too much of a coincidence to me.

[Slippin cider]

Very sad news ,the person found yesterday has been formally identified as Jason Gurgul ...

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

On 05/05/2017 at 18:03, cidercity1987 said:

How indeed does a grown man drown in placid water, no matter how drunk?

Whether a 'pusher' as such, or a bloke dumping bodies to make it look like a drowning but 4 deaths so close seems too much of a coincidence to me.

You have to remember that the shock of hitting cold water is such that you are likely to be completely disorientated, and your responses will be slowed as a result.  Also being fully clothed makes it even more difficult to get out. Frankly in Bath if you fall into the river while drunk and no one sees you fall in, you have almost no chance of getting out.  I suspect your chances are a little better in Bristol docks area, but what are we talking about?  30 seconds to a minute longer to get out? It probably increases your chances from 1,000 to 1 against, to 500 to 1 against, but when the chips are down you're probably not going to get out without help.

A common factor with the men who have drowned in Bath in recent years is that they were all very drunk, and no one saw them fall in, because all had wandered off alone.

[Super]

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/live-updates-water-rescue-teams-57205

[joe jordans teeth]

On 05/05/2017 at 09:38, phantom said:

The only thing that puzzles me about all this is why suddenly now?

The bars and river have been there for decades!

Jack the dipper blatantly 

[Guest]

On 05/05/2017 at 18:03, cidercity1987 said:

How indeed does a grown man drown in placid water, no matter how drunk?

Whether a 'pusher' as such, or a bloke dumping bodies to make it look like a drowning but 4 deaths so close seems too much of a coincidence to me.

I think the advent of the internet perhaps brings them more commonly to the public eye.  I worked with someone at Dave & Busters at Cribbs who was found under Bristol Bridge some two weeks after he went missing on a night out.  The media coverage back then was pretty minimal (talking page 5 of the evening post)

Dare I say there is an element of whipping this story into more than it is for click bait purposes? The whole Manchester Pusher thing came from people slightly morbidly joking there was such a thing. Next thing C4 are doing a documentary on it.