By Robert Gutsche Jr., Special to the Washington Post
LA CROSSE – At night the Mississippi River here is black like pavement. Lights brighten the shoreline, where walkways end with a steep drop at the river’s edge. There is no railing. Even to a familiar eye, the river looks like an empty parking lot.
This is where eight young men have apparently drowned in the past nine years, just blocks from the busy downtown bar district where many victims had been reported seen last.
….Officials from the city and the three colleges and universities here – as well as a group of vocal college students – say the men became intoxicated and accidentally fell into the river. Yet as the number of fatalities grows, so does the idea that a serial killer could be loose.