The college town where a 22-year-old graduate student died after falling into the Mississippi River following a night of drinking has a dark history of eerily similar deaths stretching back nearly three decades.
Eliotte Heinz vanished early Sunday while walking home from a night out in downtown La Crosse, Wisconsin. She was last captured on surveillance camera walking alone at 3:22am near the Mississippi River waterfront.
A four-day search for Heinz ended in tragedy on Wednesday morning when her body was found floating downstream near Brownsville, Minnesota – more than 10 miles from where she was last seen.
It’s unclear how Heinz ended up in the river. La Crosse PD said their investigation will remain active as they await autopsy results for an official cause of death.
In a heartbreaking statement issued Thursday, Heinz’s family remembered her as a ‘beautiful person’ who was smart, funny, caring, and loved by all who knew her.
‘We don’t know why we were so blessed to have her as a daughter or why we are unable to keep her. She is amazing and would have continued to amaze us. We are devastated that she is no longer with us. Our family will forever have a missing piece,’ her family wrote.
‘Eliotte’s walk home is finished. Unfortunately, our family’s walk down this new hard path is just beginning.’
Eliotte Heinz, 22, was found dead in the Mississippi River on Wednesday – three days after she was last seen walking home alone after a night of drinking in La Crosse, Wisconsin
In a still taken from a security video, Heinz is seen dressed in a white t-shirt and denim shorts. She appears to be holding something in her hand, possibly a cellphone
Concerns about the lack of safeguards around the Mississippi in downtown La Crosse have been prevalent for some time.
La Crosse is a college town with nearly 20,000 students across its three major institutions: University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, Western Technical College, and Viterbo University, where Heinz was enrolled in the mental health counseling program.
Between 1997 and 2006, La Crosse was plagued by a spate of alcohol-related accidental drownings that claimed the lives of at least eight college-age students. By 2017, some reports placed the number of deaths at more than a dozen.
For a time, speculation was rife that the deaths were being caused by a serial killer dubbed ‘Smiley Face,’ but those baseless claims were refuted by law enforcement, who determined each of the deaths was the result of excessive drinking, combined with close physical proximity to the river – and not homicide.
In 2006, the New York Times reported that local officials had debated for years how to better prevent drunken students from falling into the Mississippi, but ‘solutions have so far eluded this community’.
La Crosse is renowned for its rich nightlife culture – and even at one point held a Guinness World Record for the most bars and nightclubs on a single street.
Numerous bars line the riverfront near Riverside Park, but there are few safeguards in place to prevent intoxicated revelers from falling in.
Taking matters into their own hands, students from La Crosse’s three largest universities launched Operation: River Watch in 2006, a volunteer program in which students patrol the riverbank on Friday and Saturday nights to steer revelers classmates from the water’s edge.
In a heartbreaking statement issued Thursday, Heinz’s family remembered her as a ‘beautiful person’ who was smart, funny, caring, and loved by all who knew her
Her parents and siblings tearfully appealed for information on Monday
The following year, the city placed gates, rails and chains at three entrances to a levee at the city’s Riverside Park, close to where one student died in 2006 – but some locals wanted more comprehensive measures.
Following Heinz’s death, the La Crosse City Vision Foundation is proposing that more safety cameras be installed along the riverfront and on key travel routes between downtown and the river to more quickly alert law enforcement to an unfolding emergency.
Heinz’s body was found by a fisherman just before 10:30am local time in Brownsville, Minnesota, on Wednesday.
Her body was floating face down and wrapped in duckweed, a local business owner told Fox News.
Heinz spent her final hours with friends at Bronco’s Bar in the city’s downtown area, leaving at 2:30am Sunday, when the bar closed.
She was then spotted walking alone near the Courtyard Marriott Hotel by a surveillance camera at 3:22am.
Where she spent the 50 minutes between leaving the bar and being captured on the hotel’s security feed is not clear. The bar and the hotel are just 0.4 miles apart.
In a still taken from the security video, Heinz is seen dressed in a white t-shirt and denim shorts. She appears to be holding something in her hand, possibly a cellphone.
According to her mom, Heinz was walking back to her apartment at the time the image was captured.
The journey should’ve taken 30 minutes, but she never made it back.
Following Heinz’s death, the La Crosse City Vision Foundation is proposing that more safety cameras be installed along the riverfront and on key travel routes between downtown and the river
A map shows Heinz’s last known whereabouts before she was reported missing on Sunday
Viterbo University will hold a memorial service in Eliotte’s honor this fall, a spokesperson said
Heinz’s cellphone was later found near the hotel by friends who went out looking for her after numerous calls went unanswered, the Daily Mail previously revealed.
Her family said they were trying to ‘stay positive’ as the search for her stretched into a fourth day on Wednesday.
However, within hours, a tragic discovery was made in Minnesota.
‘This was not the outcome we had hoped for throughout this search,’ said La Crosse Police Chief Shawn Kudron, announcing Heinz’s death.
‘Our thoughts are with Eliotte’s family, friends and all those who knew Eliotte.’
Heinz’s alma mater also released a statement, mourning her passing.
‘There are no words that can ease the pain of losing someone so young, with so much life ahead of her,’ said Viterbo University President Dr. Rick Trietley.
‘Our hearts go out to Eliotte’s family. We hold them in our prayers and stand with them in their grief.’
Viterbo will hold a memorial service in Eliotte’s honor this fall, in coordination with her family, once students return to campus, the school said.
The investigation into Heinz’s death remains ongoing.
