Candle Face Victims #33 and #34: Drowned Dreams

June 7, 2024

Main Subjects: Candle Face

• Victim #33
• Victim #34

I went to bed early last night. As soon as I hit the pillow, the shadows in the living room corner began to flicker, along with the kitchen lights I’d left on to keep that corner in shadow. I sat up and saw two figures step out of the portal and walk toward me. As they neared, I could make out a white man around 60. He was rather short, around 5’8”. The other Lost Soul was a much younger woman, maybe 25 or younger. She appeared Black or light-skinned Hispanic, but I couldn’t tell for sure.

The male spirit spoke first.

“Hello, Ray. Moana and I need your help.”

Moana looked puzzled. “What did you say?”

Standing to her left, the male spirit switched sides with Moana and nearly yelled in her right ear, “I told Ray we need his help.”

“Oh yes, Ray, we need your help,” she repeated.

We just looked at each other, waiting for the other to respond. I wanted to ask them how to help, but I knew better.

Moana looked around, confused, then spoke. “Ray, we drowned in Lake Travis around 20 years ago. We both had dreams of Candle Face the night before. Even though we weren’t together that night, we had the same dream from our own perspectives.”

The male spirit nodded. “I always believed in Candle Face, but I didn’t want to follow her directions, like bringing non-believers to her. I drew the line at taking part in killings.”

“Me too, I didn’t want any part of that,” Moana added.

“In my dream, Candle Face said if I didn’t listen to her, I’d be her next victim,” the male spirit continued. “Moana had the same dream.”

The male spirit paused, then added, “Candle Face chooses her followers carefully. She targets those who already believe in her but are weak enough to manipulate. She preys on our fears and desires, making promises and threats in our dreams. We were chosen because we both had a history of dabbling in the paranormal. She used our curiosity against us.”

Moana nodded in agreement. “She promised us power and knowledge beyond the grave if we brought non-believers to her. It was harmless enough at first, just convincing people to believe. Then she demanded more. She wanted us to lead people to their deaths, to feed her.”

“We couldn’t do it,” the male spirit said, his voice shaking. “We refused to become murderers. Defying her came with a price.”

“Soon after we got to the middle of the lake that day, the boat nearly tipped over, and we both fell overboard. Moana didn’t know how to swim, so she went underwater. I dived down after her. Once I was underwater, I could see about a dozen skeletal figures grabbing her legs and pulling her down toward the bottom. I tried to pull her back up.”

Moana continued, “But the monsters were just too strong. They kept pulling me down. I was almost out of air by then, but I saw a few more monsters below, holding up a large rock. They put me on the bottom and set the rock on top of me, finishing the job.”

The male spirit said, “I was almost out of air, too, but I kept swimming down after her. When the rock was in place, the group came after me. They, too, put me under a large rock. Our bodies are still under those rocks, near the marina where we launched the boat.”

“Ray, help free us from the rocks,” Moana pleaded. “If you can find our bodies, our souls will also be free from Candle Face. Please help us.”

The two spirits thanked me and walked back toward the portal. The male whispered something in Moana’s right ear, but I couldn’t hear it. They both stepped in and disappeared.

Personal Note to My Readers

During high school, I visited this area often. I would jump off the cliffs at Pale Face and relax in the water at The Flats. I enjoyed my time there with my friends. Many people have drowned in those waters, and many of their bodies were never recovered. Some of those who never resurfaced could be the “monsters” pulling Moana and her male companion down.

In December 2023, a Candle Face victim visited me to tell me his testimony. I kept putting off writing his story in my online journal. On February 13, 2024, he revisited me, hit me twice, and even vomited in my mouth. He warned me not to ignore any more spirits. This spirit also drowned in Lake Travis while he was on an overnight boat trip with his two young sons. If the commenter who contacted me in April was right, his name was William Crumpacker.

The names keep coming, too. This time it was Moana.

Their visit pulls an old pattern back to the surface. With the father from Lake Travis and the man who went in after a drowning child at Lady Bird Lake, the drownings now span three visits, all tied to Candle Face. That pushes me to dig deeper and understand what connects these testimonies.

I think there have been four drowning victims so far, and there are likely many more. Many bodies have turned up in Town Lake, or what the new generation of Austinites calls Lady Bird Lake. Many believe there’s a serial killer on the loose.

A few months ago, I began my investigation. The stories of these Lost Souls, each ending in water, point to a horrifying possibility. Candle Face is the serial killer responsible for the drowning deaths in Austin and nearby Lake Travis.

Despite the police’s best efforts, the cases remain unsolved. The only link is the victims’ supposed interactions with Candle Face. One of my visiting spirits thought he was helping a drowning child, only to be pulled under the surface by her.

Water keeps showing up in Candle Face’s killings. Several of her victims died in it, and she turns up near lakes, rivers, and the creek by my childhood home. I can think of a few reasons it might matter to her. She may draw some kind of power from water, which would make it easier for her to reach people there. Some cultures, the Maya among them, treated bodies of water as doors to the underworld, and that could let her pull her victims straight into her Lair. Or it may be simpler than that. Most people already carry a fear of drowning, and she uses fear to control people. I don’t know which of these is right. It may be more than one.

To understand Candle Face, I interviewed an 82-year-old gentleman on October 30, 2023, who claimed to have seen her. Around 1990, while walking his dog near the creek at the intersection of Wilson and El Paso Streets in Austin, he saw a young girl with long dark hair who was bathing in the water. They locked eyes, and he thought he heard a voice asking, “Do you believe?” He whispered, “Yes.” He never saw her again, but he knew it was Candle Face.

Mr. Doe’s story, along with the spirits’ testimonies and the serial killer rumors, suggests Candle Face may be a vengeful ghost or a manifestation of the city’s fears. As their confidant, I’m trying to solve the case behind the rumors haunting Austin.

The task is difficult. It has to be done. By piecing together the personal tragedies of the spirits with the fear hanging over Austin, I hope to better understand what’s happening in the waters of Town Lake, Lake Travis, and everywhere else Candle Face’s presence remains.

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.