Candle Face and Austin's Serial Killer Rumors

February 23, 2024

Main Subject: Candle Face

I’ve become an unwilling recorder of the dead. Lately, a troubling pattern has stood out. The last three spirits who came to me all drowned. Each one said Candle Face was responsible. That has pushed me to look more closely at the thread connecting their stories.

At night, I sit at my desk and go back through what they told me. Each account ends in water. That raises a hard possibility: Candle Face may be tied to the series of drowning deaths in Austin.

As I looked into the history of the lake where two of them died, I found a generational divide in what people call it. Older Austinites still say Town Lake, a name tied to an earlier version of the city. I prefer this name as well. Newer residents say Lady Bird Lake, after Lady Bird Johnson and her environmental work. Even that split in naming says something about Austin’s shift from a college town into a much larger city.

Then there are the serial killer rumors. Despite police efforts, these drownings remain unsolved, with no clear link except what the spirits themselves have described. One spirit told me he jumped in to save what he thought was a drowning child, only to be pulled under by Candle Face.

As I compare these accounts, the pattern tightens. She keeps showing up at the same water, whatever she really is. Every victim had dismissed her legend. Then each of them died. If that holds, Candle Face is more than local folklore, and she may be hunting skeptics.

Skeptics see it differently. One University of Texas professor I spoke with, who asked not to be named, offered another explanation. “The human mind seeks patterns, attributing unexplained tragedies to folklore. It may be a coping mechanism rather than evidence of the supernatural,” he said. Even so, the overlap between the legend, the real deaths, and the warnings from the spirits gives me enough reason to keep looking.

Through my writing, I’m trying to understand their world, even when the spirits themselves are hostile. These visitors chose me, and I want to know what role Candle Face plays in the rumored serial killings that have hung over Austin.

My job is to record these stories and examine this part of Austin’s history as carefully as I can. If I can bring even a little clarity to something clouded by fear and rumor, and if that helps prevent more deaths in Town Lake, then the project is worth it.

The investigation continues in the three most recent entries below. Each adds to the record on Candle Face (Isabel), the Lost Souls, and the Fugitives. You’ll find every entry to date in The Journal.