Found Deceased OH - Joey LaBute, 26, Columbus, 4 March 2016 #2

[Mayor Perk]

Matt is the friend he sent ""Jnhstioj" to in the early morning hours. Matt was not Joey's date. They happened to run into each other that night at Union.

The most interesting thing here is I distinctly remember local TV news reports interviewing Matt in the days following Joey's disappearance -- long before Joey was found in the river. The screenshots of the text conversation before ""Jnhstioj" suggested to me there was a disagreement of some kind between Matt and Joey that night. Impossible to say what it was or decipher context but definitely something that stuck with me.

 

[inmyhumbleopinion]

Matt is the friend he sent ""Jnhstioj" to in the early morning hours. Matt was not Joey's date. They happened to run into each other that night at Union.

The most interesting thing here is I distinctly remember local TV news reports interviewing Matt in the days following Joey's disappearance -- long before Joey was found in the river. The screenshots of the text conversation before ""Jnhstioj" suggested to me there was a disagreement of some kind between Matt and Joey that night. Impossible to say what it was or decipher context but definitely something that stuck with me.

Could this be the interview you are referencing?
Search for missing Columbus man continues into fifth day

And bringing this forward: Found Deceased - OH - Joey LaBute, 26, Columbus, 4 March 2016 #1

“Attached is a screenshot of the text messages I pulled off of abc6/Fox28. I thought this made it easier to understand.

It starts at about 1:54 on this video
Columbus detectives searching for missing 26-year-old man“

 

[mpnola]

Could this be the interview you are referencing?
Search for missing Columbus man continues into fifth day

And bringing this forward: Found Deceased - OH - Joey LaBute, 26, Columbus, 4 March 2016 #1

“Attached is a screenshot of the text messages I pulled off of abc6/Fox28. I thought this made it easier to understand.

It starts at about 1:54 on this video
Columbus detectives searching for missing 26-year-old man“

View attachment 181209 View attachment 181210

That hey you there? A full day later still bothers me. Not a where are you? Are you ok? We cant find you
Nor, tying to get in touch earlier in the day. I dont know. It just bothers me

 

[Mayor Perk]

Yes! That is it.

 

[Simply Caustic]

I never expected this case evolving into one of those having no signs of resolution.

I really hope that whomever was with Joey, (as he was dead upon entering the water, I’m assuming he wasn’t alone) comes forward one day

 

[mfmfan77]

Could this be the interview you are referencing?
Search for missing Columbus man continues into fifth day

And bringing this forward: Found Deceased - OH - Joey LaBute, 26, Columbus, 4 March 2016 #1

“Attached is a screenshot of the text messages I pulled off of abc6/Fox28. I thought this made it easier to understand.

It starts at about 1:54 on this video
Columbus detectives searching for missing 26-year-old man“

View attachment 181209 View attachment 181210

Sorry I'm a little late to this thread and am still catching up on previous posts, so I apologize if this has already been said. I followed this case really closely when it first broke, and the last text Joey sent always struck me as being the most important aspect of the case. To me, it looks like he was trying to type "Justin" and was struggling with the letters because of being intoxicated.

He was able to type the J--STI-- and the mistaken keys fit for the missing letters...

Was he simply trying to text his friend to say he had run into Justin earlier in the night? Was he trying to let his friend know that he was with Justin at 1:22? Who knows.

Hopefully LE has been alerted of this possibility?

JMO MOO

 

[bbsus]

So, I always come back to thinking about this case, because it is super upsetting to me. A lot of the disappearances do and I discovered this forum when looking for updates on Tyler Davis.

I knew Joey from college as we were in a big dorm together my second year. And it's been a long time now, but I actually was at Union that night and talked to Joey briefly. But I was also already drinking a lot so don't remember a ton. I do remember him introducing me to some friend who seemed a bit shy.

Forgive me if these have been mentioned before, but:

Has Grindr, Google, et. al. been subpoenaed or asked to provide info? It may be too late now, but at least Grindr should have plenty of location pings if he was opening it at all and could verify if he talked to anyone in the app that night. He had an Android so Google could possibly provide texts or more info too.

I'm assuming his parents at least got access to his Gmail account?

 

[psych-nurse]

I'm assuming his parents at least got access to his Gmail account?[/QUOTE]

Don't be so sure. If I remember correctly, Joey's story struck me in a particularly sad way because it seemed he had limited family reaching out to the media outlets and only for a short time. His story deserves to be in the media frequently and with as much interest as Tyler Davis' and Brian Shaffer's but isn't. His mother and brother and all grandparents had passed away before he did. I recall two of his aunts who were mentioned in articles early on but that's about it.

 

[bbsus]

It's so frustrating to think someone is getting away with it.

 

[dotr]

It's so frustrating to think someone is getting away with it.

Welcome to Ws bbsus!

 

[janewall]

I'm assuming his parents at least got access to his Gmail account?

Don't be so sure. If I remember correctly, Joey's story struck me in a particularly sad way because it seemed he had limited family reaching out to the media outlets and only for a short time. His story deserves to be in the media frequently and with as much interest as Tyler Davis' and Brian Shaffer's but isn't. His mother and brother and all grandparents had passed away before he did. I recall two of his aunts who were mentioned in articles early on but that's about it.[/QUOTE]

Joey has a living father, stepmother and siblings who have worked for justice and answers for him. There was not a lot of media attention after his body was found however. Apparently missing persons are a more interesting storyline than a located deceased person in murky circumstances that point to misadventure but no conclusive foul play. MOO

 

[bbsus]

Bringing this back up - does anyone actually know if his family/officials got access to any of his accounts or contacted Grindr?

 

[dotr]

Wondering if Joey may have had contact with the dating site Adam to Adam? speculation.
Posting this thread on this man's thread, found murdered after meeting on A&A dating site..
PA - PA - Dino Dizdarevic, 25, Chester, Pennsylvania, May 1, 2014

 

[bbsus]

Wondering if Joey may have had contact with the dating site Adam to Adam? speculation.
Posting this thread on this man's thread, found murdered after meeting on A&A dating site..
PA - PA - Dino Dizdarevic, 25, Chester, Pennsylvania, May 1, 2014

I suppose it's possible, but that site was more popular with older gays since the smartphone apps kind of stole its thunder. It's much more likely it was one of the other apps others confirmed him using (Scruff, Grindr, possibly Tindr).

 

[inmyhumbleopinion]

Bringing this back up - does anyone actually know if his family/officials got access to any of his accounts or contacted Grindr?

Unfortunately, I don’t, but did find this:

Posted Feb 22, 2017 at 5:45 PM
Updated Feb 23, 2017 at 10:26 AM
“[SBM]

Based on interviews with LaBute's friends, Sgt. [Dave] Sicilian said LaBute may have been using a dating app at the bar, and Detective [Eric] Wooten said he has looked into that possibility. [Eric] Renner [, who met Joey through a dating app, which led to a nine-month relationship in 2013 and 2014] also said it wouldn't be entirely unusual for someone to casually use a dating app like Grindr or Tinder throughout the night, and then duck out to meet up with somebody.

[SBM]“ (BBM)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.columbusalive.com/entertainment/20170222/what-happened-to-joey-labute?template=ampart

But, of course, that does not necessarily mean that they were able to obtain information from Grindr, Tinder or any other company.

I also found an article about another case out of Columbus, OH from March 2018:
Thursday, March 8th 2018
“COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX/WTTE) -- The man who was at the receiving end of threats directed towards him and Columbus's LGBTQ community has shared his story.

On March 1st, the Columbus man, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was messaging with a stranger on the Grindr app when the messages turned disturbing.

[SBM]

He told ABC 6/FOX 28 that he reported the threat to police and contacted local LGBTQ bars like Union Cafe.

[SBM]

During this time, police were hunting down the person who sent disturbing messages, even contacting the suspect using a fake Grindr profile.

‘Through subpoenas and search warrants they were able to figure out who this person was,’ said Sgt. Dean Worthington with Columbus Police.

He said crews eventually did surveillance on the suspect's home and arrested him Tuesday night.

Me'Shach Israel-Miller has been charged with Inducing Panic and Aggravated Menacing.

[SBM]” (BBM)
Columbus man who received threatening messages about gay club shooting speaks out

So again, it doesn’t necessarily say that they subpoenaed Grindr per se, but it does sound like the company cooperated with the investigation, and so it is possible, IMO, that they did in Joey’s case also.

 

[bbsus]

I read an article about Netflix's revived Unsolved Mysteries is helping solve some cold cases. The site actually has a form to submit cases. Could we all team up and submit tips to solve this case and give Joey's case the respect it deserves?

SUBMIT A STORY

 

[tarabull]

I didn't see this posted....

Family and friends haunted by mystery of Joey LaBute's suspicious death
from March 29, 2019

FWIW, I was just looking back at Joey's case since another male has been pulled from the Scioto River.

Body pulled from Scioto River near Riverside Drive | NBC4 WCMH-TV

ETA: Here's a thread for the UID

OH - Columbus, Male pulled from Scioto River near Riverside Dr July 26 2020

 

[Talitha]

The "Jnhstioj" text message looks like it could have been intended to spell Justin.

 

[dotr]

The "Jnhstioj" text message looks like it could have been intended to spell Justin.

Welcome to Ws Talitha, you might very well be right about that!

 

[Nova Scotia]

I am curious as to whether any information was gathered from Joey's phone service provider and/or from apps on his phone about his movements and location after he left Union Cafe. I know some dating apps have geographical data recorded for users when logged in and Google also records location, very precisely. In other missing person and homicide cases very detailed location/ movement data about the victim's phone has been generated even when the phone was not recovered. From the later texts we know Joey's phone was active for a significant time after he was last seen at Union and it has been reported his phone remained active for c 2 hours after. Perhaps law enforcement do have this data and it wasn't released, or maybe this data was not retrieved?