For you west TN guys, any news on this one? Google doesn't show anything more recent than early February when they recovered the shooters body and sent it to Nashville for the autopsy.

Anything recent?

I remember they found the killers body. Don't know if it was suicide or someone killed him... I never heard.

Glad he's gone though.

Seems like I read he died of exposure? Or perhaps it was implied?

He did fall or was pushed into the lake, IIRC. He also disappeared for 2-3 days before they found his body, so I would speculate he froze to death at night.

I agree, good riddance.

There’s potentially a lot more to this story than what has been relayed by the one survivor. This is what the autopsy results will or will not confirm with forensic evidence. I was just seeing if any results have been released and I just haven’t been successful in finding them.

Hunh, interesting.

Are you implying there was a physical altercation prior to the shooting? I would think there was a bit of decomposing to the old man after 2-3 days (or how ever long it was) was out in the swamp.

Depending on who the old man was with local connections (or not), it could be his family is pressing to keep the lid on further info?

But I'm intrigued with your premise. Be kind enough to expand, please?

Me and my family go pretty far back with regards to hunting Reelfoot and over the years we have heard and/or witnessed some of the goings on there at times. To say those folks take hunting seriously is an understatement and it has evolved into big money for a lot of the guides over there.

Now having said that, the story kind of changed over the course of the several days after the initial shooting. Now was that the lone survivor or the public gossip, who knows but my money would tend to go to the gossip.

Initially, word was this was an altercation between the older man and the younger 3 hunters and this altercation had been going on for most of the season. Shooting birds on the swing that were working the older mans blind, etc. This is somewhat common over there and has happened for decades, it sucks but it happens. Then the story changed to that the 3 guys were in the blind and the older guy was in his boat and asked to join them. That is somewhat common especially in some of the larger blinds. There was no altercation, cussing, etc. he just asked to join them and they said yes. As he was getting his gear out of the boat and getting into the blind, he shot two of the guys pretty much point blank. It was the third younger man that then stormed at the guy and hit him with his shotgun in the face or upper chest area where he went down in the water. The younger guy then placed the 2 shooting victims in his own boat and left for the dock/ramp in order to try and save them. The last he saw of the older man was him in the water.

Later after all the cops were called, etc. they came out looking for the shooter and could not find him and it had begun raining very hard to the point they called off the search. It was not until a few days later they found his body in the same approximate area. All of this area is roughly waist deep.

The body was sent to Nashville for an autopsy to see how he died, drowning self inflicted wound, etc. Veing the water was cold and he wasn’t in there for more than just a few days, extensive deterioration probably was not set in. But that’s a guess on my part.

The initial findings I did find online supposedly don’t remark about any wounds or bruises on the shooters body, yet the lone surviving guy basically said he buttstroked the shooter. The official final report will confirm or not this finding and the survivors story.

I also found some local hunting sites that talked about the two shooting victims but not much was known about the lone survivor at least initially.

Now having said all of that, it very well may be that it is as simple as the older guy went ballistic and shot the two others and then offed himself. But several people that knew the older man said this reaction of him in shooting the two was out of character for him. He had no previous criminal history or confrontational character.

But some of the details seem to be pointing at possibly another scenario and when there is only one survivor in a situation like this, theirs is the only story told, at least until the forensic evidence is studied and that is what I was looking for, the autopsy findings.

It’s just a very interesting story and it happened in an area I have hunted before.

The story went pretty much the way you told it. I’m from, and live in Lake County. My brother in law is a game warden that was on the lake until they found him. I didn’t personally know any of the four individuals involved, but I know dozens of people that do. David, the shooter, was well known in the Martin area and by all accounts, a great guy. He had Alzheimer’s and/or dementia though. There was no on going feud. He simply asked if he could hunt with them, then killed two of the boys. LE says that he succumbed to the injuries that he sustained while the third guy was protecting himself and trying to save the boys’ lives. He did not die by suicide by self inflicted gunshot. That came directly from a guy that was there when he was found. There are 3 people dead for absolutely no reason. Terribly tragic event no matter how you look at it

There has been mention, rumor, etc.  of David Vowell (shooter) having dementia and/or Alzheimer's. But no confirmation of that has been documented at this time And this is what I was wondering if in fact that was confirmed by the autopsy. The preliminary autopsy has been done with word due any day now on the official findings.  

It is also my belief that the lone survivors story will be confirmed, or not,  for the large part by the official autopsy as well, but we shall see.

That’s different than what he said on a podcast like 2 days after the shooting. A statement was made on there about trying to help the old man after he went in water, that he was seen wading away.

Weird that dude would  do a podcast days after incident and  change his story multiple times. A small detail change is one thing after you get time to process, but that isn’t a minor detail change.

Meateater article

Sounds like you are on board with what I have been thinking as to the story changing. And yes, it is a terrible tragedy and a big mystery as to the why no matter which way it goes.

From what I can find online, there have been no updates since late January or early February. The final autopsy has been done, but the report has not been released as of yet. I can't help but think with that, the lone survivors story will be looked at side by side with the forensic evidence and gone over with a fine tooth comb before anything is publicly released.

When you change your story that drastically and are doing a 15 minute of fame tour on podcasts a few days after 2 of your best friends are killed by shotgun blast in front of your eyes it can’t help but look fishy.

He could have said “yea I had to drown that old man with my bare hands after he killed my 2 friends, I had to defend myself” and walked away with pats on the back.

When you lie and apparently didn’t have to and can even talk let, alone give long ass podcast talks instead of needing to be sedated from trauma and grief.  Makes you go  hmmmm.

Some people handle grief differently but podcasting would  be a stretch for even the most battle hardened person.

I saw this a week ago and started looking around for updates, would think the coroner and Sheriff would have wrapped this quick.

I Dont know think it matters much but one of the victims dad is a Chief Deputy if I remember correctly from an article, would think there would be more info or updates just as a courtesy to the vics families.

Families can receive updates, without a press release being mixed in.

I had not heard of him doing podcasts, that is just out and out weird. What all you have just described sounds fishy to me as well.

*Update*

Autopsy results released. Results back up survivors story.

https://www.wate.com/news/autopsy-results-released-for-men-involved-in-reelfoot-lake-shooting-da-finds-no-basis-for-criminal-charges/

https://www.outdoorlife.com/story/deep-dives/duck-hunters-killed-reelfoot-lake-tennessee/

That is a very good article that gives the best scenario of how this whole thing went down.

Thanks for posting it.

Damn.  Old man needed killing after the first shot. Didn’t know he killed the second guy while in the boat with a different gun , which autopsy would obviously verify. Crazy/f’d up situation. Glad the truth finally came out. Survivor would have done himself a favor and prevented rumors if he would have STFU until everything came out.

Great article. I read the whole thing and a single word stood out: antidepressants.

Vowell was on some sort of antidepressant. Wouldn't be the first time a mind-altering drug expanded the boundaries of the 'normal behavior' box in someone's mind to encompass something they'd otherwise never do.

I read that as well and that very thought crossed my mind as well.

It is also interesting is that the medical examiner found no indication of dementia either.

Not sure how detailed the autopsy was but IIRC they can see scarring or lesions on the brain in advanced cases but in milder cases there might not be any evidence to find, after death.

True.

I took from the article that he was thinking that as far as his mother had it, which is not too much of a stretch being it has such a strong genetic predisposition.

Then again, antidepressants can do all kinds of shit to your thinking, possibly thinking you might have dementia. I have heard of many having really bad side effects from taking them.

Yeah. The correlation between antidepressants and 'inexplicable' behavior is terrifying.

Correlation does not necessarily equal causation.  It wouldn't be shocking to discover that the antidepressants were prescribed to someone that had issues other than depression (misdiagnosis, treating multiple problems at the same time, etc).

All of that is true. But the question of the link between antidepressants and doing crazy things, like mass shootings, has been thrown out for years, and I strongly suspect there's fire behind all the smoke.

The undeniable conclusion, is that the antidepressant is an indication they were being treated for mental issues.  

Whether or not they were accurately diagnosed, or diagnosed with multiple issues (with depression being just one of them), is another question.

For some time, it has seemed that ADD and ADHD diagnosis were being handed out like candy, so I wouldn't be too surprised if something similar was happening with depression diagnosis.  Something of a "these symptoms match the checklist, so let's get them on antidepressants and get these symptoms taken care of, then we can see what happens with the other symptoms" process, perhaps.

Some time ago, I heard that my ex-wife was telling people that she had been diagnosed with depression.  I laughed when I heard that, because some years earlier she had an episode where she was telling me that "the voices" were telling her that if she didn't do as they were instructing, she would not only die, but die in a very painful manner (fire).  It's somewhat interesting to see the differences when I have talked to doctors (medical) about the things she said, and talked to people in the mental health field about it.  Doctors seem to jump to schizophrenia (with the possibility of additional problems) and the need for a psych hold for evaluation (if they were dealing with such a patient), while people in the mental health field seem more cautious to slap a label on someone, and bring up the possibility of drug induced psychosis or other causes.  ...which could explain the ex-wife telling people she had depression, when she's clearly got more severe issues.

Agreed with the first paragraph, for sure. I think there are legitimate ADD/ADHD cases but also a ton of overprescribing by people who just want an 'easy button' to get kids to chill in school. Second paragraph - that's fascinating. And terrifying, too.