AUSTIN (KXAN) — More than a year after KXAN filed a public records request for a 911 call tied to the death of Jason John, one of the men found dead in Lady Bird Lake after being last seen near Rainey Street, we finally have that recording.
Amid a swirl of online misinformation and conspiracy theories tied to John’s death, and several others in the area, we feel — even a year and a half later — that it’s important to share the contents.
KXAN has previously reported that John’s death was ruled an accidental drowning by the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office. The autopsy and toxicology report found that John had alcohol in his system, but no illegal drugs. There were no signs of injury, internal or external, the report said.
But one line in the autopsy caught our eye, as it revealed some of what may have happened to John in the moments leading to his death:
“According to reports, this 30-year-old man was witnessed by a transient bystander to be vomiting by the bank of Lady Bird Lake and then subsequently fall and submerge into the water in the early morning of February 5, 2023. After attempting to aid the decedent, the bystander went to a nearby hotel and contacted 911,” the medical examiner’s report from May 2023 said.
The same month, more than a year ago, KXAN requested that 911 call from the Austin Police Department through a public records request. It was released to us Friday.
Breaking down the call
It was an employee at the front desk of a Holiday Inn that made the only 911 call, according to a recording received by KXAN. She was with a man who claimed he had just seen someone fall into the water at Lady Bird Lake near Rainey Street and not come back up.
“He’s drenched. He’s drenched. I guess he tried to save the person,” the hotel employee can be heard saying. The dispatcher asks to speak with the man standing, drenched, in the hotel lobby — a man who identified himself in the recording as Chris.
“I was on the lake trail on the north side of Town Lake walking on the trail. There was a young man about 100 yards in front of me puking and stumbling around,” Chris says. A few minutes later in the call he again described: “All I know is he was vomiting profusely. And struggling to walk, stand up.”
He told dispatch that as he approached the man, later believed to be John, that he watched the man go into the water, and heard splashing. He told dispatch he called to the man in the water, asking him to swim toward his voice.
“He was heading towards the bank where it slopes down a little bit and he was stumbling pretty bad and then he landed five or ten feet out into the water,” Chris told dispatch. He later said: “I got right over the top of where I believed he was and I poked around in a circle with a stick…I was trying to feel around and find him…I couldn’t find him.”
Chris said after unsuccessfully trying to find the man he had seen fall into the water, he ran to the hotel to call for help.
In all, the 911 call lasts roughly 10 minutes. At the end of it, Chris can be heard acknowledging that the fire department was on scene. Ultimately, the crews who responded were unable to find anything.
John was reported missing later that morning, Feb. 5, 2023. His body wouldn’t be found in Lady Bird Lake until several days later, KXAN previously reported.