01/08/06: Cullen Fortney, 21, LaCrosse, WI
Around 7 a.m., 21-year-old Cullen Fortney "walked into Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center sodden and caked with mud, wearing no coat and no shoes." He told hospital staff that he had fallen in to the river "but didn’t know where or how it happened."
Fortney, a student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, had been visiting friends in downtown La Crosse. He and his buddies took a cab that evening from a home in the 400 block of South 20th Street to the downtown bars where he spent the evening drinking beer and mixed drinks. (There is some speculation this may have been John's Bar where Jared Dion also disappeared.)
According to police reports, Fortney said he left the downtown bars about 1:45 a.m. when he became separated from his friends Jay Larson and Jay Hoffland. He remembers very little after that until he found himself in the river, fighting a strong current that was rapidly carrying him downstream. After an estimated 15 minutes, he was able to grab onto a tall concrete structure and pull himself out. Later, he awoke on a rocky bank near Gundersen Lutheran, with the sound of traffic over his left shoulder. He told police he had likely passed out. He still had his wallet, but he had lost his hat, coat, shoes, cell phone and $20 in cash. The man’s blood-alcohol concentration was 0.043 about 9 a.m. Sunday, which means it would have been 0.163 about 1:30 a.m.
The Investigation
According to Roger Putnam, Fortney’s uncle and family spokesman, a full toxicology report revealed no suspicious substances in Fortney’s system. This supports La Crosse police’s earlier conclusion that foul play was not involved, Putnam said.“(The family) continues to believe the La Crosse Police Department did an outstanding job on the investigation,” he said.
On January 13, investigators concluded that Fortney had fallen into the river, thought to be about 32 degrees that night, but did not go under water. After Fortney narrowed down where he might have gone in, police found some of his personal items near the river’s edge.
An Odd Twist
La Crosse police Capt. Rob Abraham said the investigation has been suspended, though it is not considered closed. The case of a truck reported stolen that same night by a companion of Fortney’s has been cleared, police said. Nick Thompson, 25, also of Viroqua, turned up the same morning as Fortney at the same hospital, passed out in the lobby, police said. He told police he didn’t know how he got there, and his pickup truck, which he had parked in the Wettstein’s lot, was missing. The vehicle was found in the 900 block of King Street. Video footage from the Wettstein’s lot showed a man with keys entering the truck about 3 a.m. and driving away, Abraham said. While the footage isn’t sharp, the man is thought to be Thompson, Abraham said. Police do not believe the truck was stolen, Abraham said, and the investigation has ended.
Sources
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2006/02/08/news/01river.txt
Fortney, a student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, had been visiting friends in downtown La Crosse. He and his buddies took a cab that evening from a home in the 400 block of South 20th Street to the downtown bars where he spent the evening drinking beer and mixed drinks. (There is some speculation this may have been John's Bar where Jared Dion also disappeared.)
According to police reports, Fortney said he left the downtown bars about 1:45 a.m. when he became separated from his friends Jay Larson and Jay Hoffland. He remembers very little after that until he found himself in the river, fighting a strong current that was rapidly carrying him downstream. After an estimated 15 minutes, he was able to grab onto a tall concrete structure and pull himself out. Later, he awoke on a rocky bank near Gundersen Lutheran, with the sound of traffic over his left shoulder. He told police he had likely passed out. He still had his wallet, but he had lost his hat, coat, shoes, cell phone and $20 in cash. The man’s blood-alcohol concentration was 0.043 about 9 a.m. Sunday, which means it would have been 0.163 about 1:30 a.m.
The Investigation
According to Roger Putnam, Fortney’s uncle and family spokesman, a full toxicology report revealed no suspicious substances in Fortney’s system. This supports La Crosse police’s earlier conclusion that foul play was not involved, Putnam said.“(The family) continues to believe the La Crosse Police Department did an outstanding job on the investigation,” he said.
On January 13, investigators concluded that Fortney had fallen into the river, thought to be about 32 degrees that night, but did not go under water. After Fortney narrowed down where he might have gone in, police found some of his personal items near the river’s edge.
An Odd Twist
La Crosse police Capt. Rob Abraham said the investigation has been suspended, though it is not considered closed. The case of a truck reported stolen that same night by a companion of Fortney’s has been cleared, police said. Nick Thompson, 25, also of Viroqua, turned up the same morning as Fortney at the same hospital, passed out in the lobby, police said. He told police he didn’t know how he got there, and his pickup truck, which he had parked in the Wettstein’s lot, was missing. The vehicle was found in the 900 block of King Street. Video footage from the Wettstein’s lot showed a man with keys entering the truck about 3 a.m. and driving away, Abraham said. While the footage isn’t sharp, the man is thought to be Thompson, Abraham said. Police do not believe the truck was stolen, Abraham said, and the investigation has ended.
Sources
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2006/02/08/news/01river.txt
Facts of Interest in This Case
Name/age: Cullen Fortney, 21, LaCrosse, WI
Hometown: Viroqua, Wis.,
College: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Last Seen: 1/8/06 1:45 a.m.
Recovered alive: 1/8/06 7:00 a.m.
River temperature: 32 degrees
Posts
15 comments:
Cullen Fortney was at John's Bar in Lacrosse, WI with friends. At 1:30 a.m. he was no where to be seen. His friends searched for him for hours with no luck. When he checked himself into the ER, he stated that all he could remember was being at the bar around 1:30 a.m., and then finding himself in the middle of the river, fighting the strong current. He remembers nothing between 1:30 a.m. and coming to in the middle of the river.
This is more proof that these people are being drugged with date rape drug, which causes amnesia. They should look for links and patterns amongst drink servers. One of the mp's was reported to have been disoriented after only being at the bar for a half hour.
Att: 'lee said...' and 'anonymous'
The Cullen Fortney case is interesting but there isn't any proof one way or the other.
It could very well be that this is a simple case of an accident.
Now, if they found bruises or other trauma on his body that might indicate he was in a fight or struggling against someone, then it could be an indication that he was thrown into the water, but otherwise...I'm not so sure it's connected.
At least he survived and he's a very lucky man for that.
All of these cases could really be interpreted either as an accident or as homicide. We don't really know anything for sure. I have posted Cullen Fortney's story because he was yet another young male intoxicated in La Crosse who ended up in the water somehow.
Has anyone thought about these acts are possibly being committed by some of Bin Ladin's boys?
Sort of like tit for tat for their loss of soldiers and confederates?
whomever is behind this appears to be quite organized.
Has anyone thought of Rohypnol, it is commonly called the date rape drug. Women are always aware of their drinks at a club, but guys could care less. To me it is a chance they would take by trying one. In other words the circumstances are always the same, has anyone else been drugged maybe several days before and the killer had no opportunity to take them because their friends were really watching over them?
Question - I'm pretty new to looking into these cases and I'm intrigued to say the least. But these men were all college students, right? There are plenty of other young guys that go out to the bars, why is it specifically academically intelligent, athletic college men that are going missing?
Does anyone know if these men all had Facebook/MySpace and if their profiles were opened or closed?
Luke's fb account was closed shortly after his death.
A good many of these young men did have Facebook/My Space accounts. However, it is really hard to determine whether these pages were created before the student went missing...or afterward by family and friends to help get the word out about his disappearance.
Guys need to start being more vigilent about what they drink. My husband was drugged when he was a student at Ohio State, where a number of men have also disappeared. A girl handed him a full open beer, saying she couldn't drink anymore, and didn't want to waste the beer. He has a good tolerance and hadn't had much to drink before that beer. The next thing he remembers is waking up the following morning, disoriented, and on the streets far across town (luckily not in any water). He still had his keys and wallet, but none of his friends recalls how he got separated. They all say he "suddenly just vanished." A passerby had to help him call a cab the next morning as he was entirely disoriented and had no clue where he was or how to get home.
the lack of bruises indicates someone else is involved
Was Anonymous 1
A friend of mine was out celebrating her Birthday. She suddenly started acting spacey, disoriented and because the night was still young her friends noticed and brought her to the hospital. They took care of her, ran a tox. screen but didn't find anything. Her father demanded further testing for the date rape drug because of his daughter's condition. Sure enough, it came back positive for Rohypnol. The next day my friend could not remember anything and wondered why she was in the hospital.
This killer uses a drug that isn't detected in a basic tox. screen. No doubt.
Rohtpnol=GHB "the date rape drug"
Once ingested, very fast acting. Leaves body in 72 hours. Person who is drugged looses some or all memory.
" They are not found in any routine toxicology screen or blood test-doctors and police have to be looking specifically for them"
Seems Cullen Fortney was given GHB and is very lucky to be alive!
Http://teenadvice.about.com/library/weekly/aa062502a.htm
Whoops: Correction, It's Rohypnol=GHB
Reviewing this case and similar, seemingly related cases do bring similarities to light, mostly that they are white, athletic, college-aged males. That group tends to be the ones going out to bars so naturally this similarity occurs.
It is very possible that any one of these men wake up with a number of unexplained bruises and soreness, usually from drunkenly wandering around. I've had a few in my day myself. Its also not uncommon to black out on as few as 10 beer and not remember much of anything. It all depends on how much you've been drinking lately, what you ate that day, hydration levels in the body, etc. The presence of a date rape drug would only worsen the effects but my concern is that he actually fought the current and saved himself. If you've never been "roofied" as its often called, motor skills are practically non-existent. In some cases, moving your body would be entirely impossible.
In many of these cases, the river is a prominent downtown feature, often with bridges and walkways along them. Its not surprising to me at all for anyone to end up near the water. The simplest explanation is often the correct one. I'm not saying that any of these young men did not encounter a person or persons in the entirety of their evening who didn't have bad intentions, but that its more likely that they simply wandered towards the water.
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