A car belonging to a former astronaut was pulled from Town Lake with the bodies of two men in the trunk, and police said one of the victims was the astronaut's son.
No evidence emerged to show that Brandon Shaw, 20, and the other victim, a 25-year-old city employee, knew each other and police said they were likely the victims of separate carjackings.Calls Thursday to the home of NASA space shuttle chief Brewster Shaw Jr. in Huntington Beach, Calif., were not returned.
The 1982 Volvo was pulled Wednesday from Town Lake, a part of the Colorado River that runs through Austin just south of downtown. Travis County Medical Examiner Roberto Bayardo said the men drowned late Monday.
Neither victim had physical injuries such as blows to the head or broken bones, he said, and neither body showed signs that the men tried to escape the trunk.
One of two 17-year-old boys charged in two other carjackings and suspected in a recent string of violent car thefts led police to the submerged Volvo.
The other victim, Juan Javier Cotera, had been missing since late Monday when he and a female friend were forced into her car at gunpoint and robbed. The woman, who police said was sexually assaulted, escaped after she was tied to a tree.
The younger Shaw was a University of Texas junior studying architectural engineering.
His father resigned as director of NASA's space shuttle operations two years ago. He flew three space shuttle flights, then left the astronaut corps in 1989 and has since held several NASA management jobs.