Over the past 20 years, hundreds of college-aged men across the US have died as the result of undetermined or accidental drownings. While many believe their deaths are just that — accidental — former NYPD detectives Kevin Gannon, Michael Donovan, Anthony Duarte and professor of criminal justice Dr. Lee Gilbertson are convinced that most of these drownings are homicides. 

Posed as missing Duquesne University student Dakota James

A former Shaler man who pretended to be missing Duquesne University student Dakota James in harassing a former neighbor whom he hated was sentenced to 30 months in prison Tuesday after an all-day hearing Monday that exposed his history of harassment of blacks, Jews and homosexuals.

PITTSBURGH - A year ago this month, Dakota James vanished from downtown Pittsburgh.

Surveillance video showed him walking in Katz Plaza the night of Jan. 25, 2017, but what happened next remains a mystery.

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For the first time, his mother, Pamela James, sat down for a television interview. She talked to Channel 11’s Katherine Amenta about her pain, her mission and her belief that someone killed her son that night.

When Post-Gazette staff writer Michael A. Fuoco and producer Ashley Murray raised the families’ concerns with Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., the prosecutor promptly took action to bring more compassion to the process. From now on, at the outset of a missing person case, families will be offered the services of a victims’ advocate. This is a small change likely to make a big difference.

Paul Kochu and Dakota James didn’t know each other but there was symmetry in their lives...and, tragically, in their mysterious disappearances and deaths in Pittsburgh’s trademark rivers. How did young men with bright futures come to share such similar fates? The troubling enigmas continue to haunt their families, friends and the Pittsburgh community.

The parents of the late Dakota James used the occasion of his first birthday since he went missing and his body was found in the Ohio River to announce the formation of a foundation in his name to promote more camera surveillance in the city, better police procedures and improved support for the families of missing people.

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Dakota “Koty” James, the Duquesne University graduate student who went missing Jan. 25 from Downtown and whose body was recovered March 6 in the Ohio River in Robinson, accidentally drowned, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office announced Thursday.

A nearly six-week search for a missing Duquesne University graduate student ended Monday with the discovery of his body in the Ohio River in Robinson.

More than 70 people — family and friends of Dakota Leo James, as well as a number of concerned Pittsburghers — held a candlelight vigil for the missing man Monday evening in Katz Plaza in the Cultural District.

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — On Thursday, an image began circulating on social media that caused many to call police.

The photo was a screenshot of a food order placed through Yelp from someone claiming to be Dakota James, saying he had been kidnapped on the North Side and was being held in the basement of a home in Shaler.

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A national organization that helps families find their missing loved ones is now working with the family of Dakota James, the 23-year-old Duquesne University grad student who has been missing for several weeks.