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AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - Austin police need your help to figure out what happened to a California man found dead in Shoal Creek Friday morning. Police said 48-year-old Randy Lexvold’s family has no idea how or why he ended up in the water under the West 6th Street bridge.
Hours after Lexvold's death, police said they could not determine sex, race, or age because of the condition of the body. Now they said he had only been in the creek for, at most, seven hours.
Lexvold had traveled across several states to cheer on his daughter at the USA Jr. Nationals Swimming Championships on the UT campus. “He did travel to Austin by himself to see his daughter's meet. I believe he was possibly, maybe, going to meet some acquaintances that he had,” said Sgt. Eric De Los Santos of the Austin Police Department Homicide Unit.
Lexvold never made it back to where he was staying Friday morning.
His body was discovered in Shoal Creek, which was running higher from overnight rain. Investigators mapped the scene under the West 6th Street bridge, noting the soggy earth and nearby brush, possible clues to what could've happened.
“Did he step over the edge into where's there's some foliage there at that area? Maybe to go to the bathroom? Who knows? Any number of reasons. And then slip and fell down into the creek? Or was he walking along the actual bridge, somehow lost his balance, and went over?” De Los Santos said.
Randy's injuries lead police to believe his death was an accident but they can't be sure.
One thing detectives have ruled out is robbery.
Lexvold still had all of his belongings with him as far as officers could tell.
His last known location, thanks to his wife's online search of his credit card records, was The Rooftop on Sixth around 10:30 Thursday night. That's just under one mile from where he was discovered.
What happened in between the two locations has detectives puzzled. “We're very interested to see if anyone had any contact with him, maybe had some video of him. That could include rideshare, some of the bars in the area, to see if we can find out if he was by himself. Did he appear intoxicated? Was he walking with anyone?” said De Los Santos.
Austin police have released photos of Randy with hopes someone remembers having seen him between 1:30 and 8 Friday morning. They said he was wearing a black jacket, black Pink Floyd tee shirt, Gap jeans and blue Merrill tennis shoes. “No one in the family knows what happened. They're curious to know, as we are, trying to figure out what exactly happened up until that time and that's what we're trying to reconstruct,” De Los Santos said.
Nearby HALO surveillance cameras provided no help, as police said they were facing the wrong way Friday morning. Neither has Lexvold's locked cellphone.
“Apple's gone to great lengths to keep people from being able to access the phon,e and they've been very successful, and, in this case, when it would help the family and such, and help us figure out what happened, we're not able to get in,” said De Los Santos.
Police said the medical examiner has not made a cause of death determination yet and will likely not do so until the investigation is complete. Toxicology results could take up to 90 days.
De Los Santos said Randy’s death is not linked to any other cases in the area.