The Smiley Face Murders

[Catlady]

Anyone remember all the college students that have disappeared and were eventually found drowned? One such incident was that of Chris Jenkins, whose cause of death was changed from accidental to a homicide and is the catalyst for what is turning out to be an amazing story. It seems that, even though these other drownings were ruled accidental, they may in fact be the work of a group of serial killers that have been committing murders across the country:

http://kstp.com/article/stories/S421846.shtml?cat=1?

Make sure to click the link to the radio interview on KQRS and check it out. Very interesting.

[Catlady]

Here's another article:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4738621&page=1

"While most local investigations focus on where a body was recovered, Gannon and Duarte wanted to know where the body went into the water. If they could figure out that location, the detectives believed they'd be able to gather evidence from the actual crime scene.

In city after city, the detectives found a smiley face painted somewhere at the crime scene. The color of paint used and the size of the faces varies, but the detectives are convinced it is a sick signature claiming responsibility for the homicide.


The detectives found the smiley faces in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Gannon and Duarte also came to the surprising conclusion that more than one person is involved in the murders."

[Unamused Cat]

I remember some of these cases. I am not buying there is a 'smiley face' gang that goes around drowning these college boys.

[carol13]

That was interesting.....we tell college girls to watch out, maybe we should be telling the boys too. Especially at that age, they feel invincible, and that may make them even more vulnerable.

[carol13]

I remember some of these cases. I am not buying there is a 'smiley face' gang that goes around drowning these college boys.

That's a feeling I got as I read other sites comments on this story. It seems people don't seem to believe this is the way it happened. I was hoping you could tell me, UC, why you've formed that opinion. I don't agree or disagree with you, I was just curious why there's so much doubt. I feel like I missed something in the story, with all the conflicting opinions, some element of BS that maybe flew right by me.

[Unamused Cat]

i will tell you tomorrow cos im off to bed. have a good one too. nite nite

[Catlady]

I remember some of these cases. I am not buying there is a 'smiley face' gang that goes around drowning these college boys.

I believe the theory (which is what it is so far) is plausible and will be interested to see what develops. I have heard many of these reports over the years as they happened and have always felt there was more to the story and not just coincidence. I found a link to another radio show (coast to coast) that covers this in detail and has several parts:

Part 1: YouTube - Smiley Face Serial Killers (Smiley Face Gang)Part 1:

Part 2: YouTube - Smiley Face Serial Killers (Smiley Face Gang) Part 2:

Part 3: YouTube - Smiley Face Serial Killers (Smiley Face Gang) Part 3:

Part 4: YouTube - Smiley Face Serial Killers (Smiley Face Gang) Part 4:

Part 5: YouTube - Smiley Face Serial Killers (Smiley Face Gang) Part 5:

Part 6: YouTube - Smiley Face Serial Killers (Smiley Face Gang) Part 6:

Part 7: YouTube - Smiley Face Serial Killers (Smiley Face Gang) Part 7:

[Jaded]

I have always believed that these cases were somehow connected as well...just too many young, intelligent guys taking a dip. It will be interesting to see how the whole thing turns out anyway.

[Catlady]

A couple more interesting articles:
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2008/04/29/72166961

http://www.midiowanews.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=18453015&BRD=2700&PAG=461&dept_id=554432&rfi=6


I've been listening to the radio show I posted and they are saying they have names of perpetrators and what they believe is enough evidence to prosecute. I'm totally sucked in now... :-)

[Catlady]

That's a feeling I got as I read other sites comments on this story. It seems people don't seem to believe this is the way it happened. I was hoping you could tell me, UC, why you've formed that opinion. I don't agree or disagree with you, I was just curious why there's so much doubt. I feel like I missed something in the story, with all the conflicting opinions, some element of BS that maybe flew right by me.

I've been checking out a lot of discussions regarding this and I haven't seen any of the doubts you describe. The vast majority of posters I've read have been of the opinion that these aren't random accidents and are very open to the possibility that there is something very nefarious going on.

[skeptical]

Way to go Catlady. I think this is fascinating and will be looking forward to following it. If all this is true I hope they catch whoever is responsible soon.

[Catlady]

I remember some of these cases. I am not buying there is a 'smiley face' gang that goes around drowning these college boys.

I should also add that this wouldn't be the first time a group of people has committed multiple random murders. Check out these pages on the Zebra Killings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_murders

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/zebra_murders/

[Catlady]

Report from MSNBC:
msnbc.com Video Player

[Catlady]

Here's another article that includes a GMA video piece with an interview with the detectives investigating this case:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4738621&page=1

[Catlady]

Here's an interesting article about the drowning deaths in Lacrosse and a possible suspect:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/unsolved/la_crosse_wisconsin/index.html

[Catlady]

Yet another very interesting page:
http://www.vanceholmes.com/court/trial_missing.html

[Unamused Cat]

Another student has been found drowned.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/NEWS01/80430031/1002/NEWS

[DarkPrincess]

Detectives Chase 'Smiley Face' Murder Mystery


Retired NYC Detectives Spend 11 Years Connecting the Drowning Deaths of 40 Young Men Across the Country


By KRISTI PIEHL
April 28, 2008

Chris Jenkins was a popular student at the University of Minnesota who disappeared one night in 2003.


Reporter and detectives connect "smiley face" tag to deaths of young men.


Four months later, he was found dead in the Mississippi River. At first police thought Jenkins was just a drunk college kid who accidentally fell into the river and drowned after a night on the town.
But for two retired New York City Police detectives, Jenkins' death became the link that connected the drowning deaths of 40 young men — usually high-achieving college students — in 25 cities in 11 different states.

Chilling Discovery


Detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte have been tracking the suspicious drowning deaths of young men across the country ever since they investigated the death of college student Patrick McNeill, who drowned in New York City in 1997. Gannon made a promise to McNeill's parents that he would never give up on his case.
When the detectives took a look at Jenkins' death, they discovered that the position of his body and other physical evidence proved that the college student didn't drown accidentally. The cause of death on Jenkins' death certificate was changed to "homicide."


http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4738621&page=1

[Owd Scrat]

I grew up in Wisconsin and my hometown is La Crosse. There have been around 6 or 8 (can't recall) murders just like this.....it's part of the 3 or more states around there with these exact same murders with the same MO.

I still lived there when the murders AKA "accidents" started happening. All college boys, atheltic, great students....all "drowned" after being downtown bar hopping on 3rd St. (3rd St. in La Crosse has about 80 bars!) and the Mississippi River is about 2 blocks from downtown. Supposedly they just stumbled down there and fell in :rolleyes7:

This doesn't make ANY sense for several reasons, espeically for people who've lived all their lives there!

The waterfront was a dangerous and dimly lit place until very recently.....we'ed go drinking down there as teenagers and it was very easy to trip and fall in or get hurt. Very dark. They completely renovated the whole Riverside Park and the whole Mississippi River area. Now, the murders ONLY started happening AFTER it got the major overhaul treatment.....made 100x safer. But there were no drownings or these accidents in all the years before.

AND La Crosse has always been a very hard drinking town....tons of bars and drinkers....so then were there NO drownings and accidents until just starting a few years ago?? Hmmmmm.

Also there is a huge variety of ages and types who go drinking downtown. Why are all these victims just college boys, athletic and good students? All of them. Hmmmm.

The police in La Crosse (who suck a hoover, they're stoopid) always deny any serial killer idea. These EXACT same types of accidents with the exact same type of MO has occured all over this certain midwest area. I guess they all follow a certain highway...I forget which one now....

Anyways, just wanted to comment as La Crosse where so many very suspicious "accidents" have occured is my hometown! :biggrin:

[DarkPrincess]

Here's something I found in a forum. Lots of interesting theories in this one.


In Duluth, Minnesota, at the site of two drownings of University of Minnesota Duluth students, is a smiley face and cryptic symbols and quotations painted on a bridge that matches other scenes in Minneapolis and La Crosse, Wisconsin and Columbus Ohio and others.

The last known drowning in Duluth occurred in 2004. The smiley face and writings were painted on the bridge that was re-done in 2002. So the smiley face can't be any older than that.

The writings explain why the killers are drowning drunk white male college students, and also explains why some of the smiley faces have devil horns.

Clues left at Duluth drownings

Ken Christiansen, 19, died in Duluth's Chester Creek on Friday, April 13, 2001. Christiansen died on Good Friday, the day of rememberance of Jesus dying on the cross. There is a blue cross and the phrase, "Jesus saves" next to the smiley face.

The phrase "You cant's see what you're not looking for" is painted at scene of the drowning. There is a smiley face inside the letter "o" in the phrase, "You can't see what you're not looking for."

The name Christiansen has "chrisitian" in it. "The Chrisitan has long been dead," quote from a Gary Snyder poem had been written under the Chester Creek bridge. [Gary Snyder poems]

Gary Snyder is a buddhist and embraces other religions that are similar such as Native American and Witchcraft.


http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message641347/pg1

[DarkPrincess]

If there is a "smiley face gang" we may never find out. The FBI doesn't back the theory and neither does any other agency. It's just 2 retired detectives who are spending their own money looking into these crimes. They're both pretty much bankrupt at this point. If someone doesn't fund their investigation, it's done. On the other hand it could be people taking advantage of the story. This has become an urban legend. It wouldn't be too hard to copy things that were left at the scenes. The info is all over the net.

[DarkPrincess]

http://www.pronetworks.org/v21/images/uploads/blog_images/smiley.jpgMay 07, 2008

New details have emerged in the search for missing 19-year-old Middlebury College freshman Nicholas Garza that could link him to the so-called "Smiley Face Gang," which a group of retired detectives believes is responsible for the apparent drowning deaths of dozens of young men across the country.

Searchers have found smiley-face graffiti near Garza's campus like that painted near some of the locations where about 40 bodies have been discovered across 11 states, FOX 44 News reported. Garza’s mother thinks that discovery could link her son's disappearance to the deaths of the other mostly college-age victims. Volunteer searchers have come forward with pictures of the smiley face, found on a utility shed door a short distance from downtown Middlebury, Vt.

The photos were taken a week-and-a-half ago, when the group was scouring a river bank for clues. When the volunteers saw New York detectives describing the alleged gang of serial killers on national TV and saw pictures of the graffiti discovered in some of the other cases, they realized the striking similarity to the drawings they had photographed, FOX 44 reported.

The graffiti on the shed was almost identical to that painted near some of the spots where the young men's bodies have been found, typically in rivers. "When you're walking around, you notice there's graffiti but you're not paying attention to what's out there," Nicholas' mother, Natalie Garza, told FOX 44. Garza was last seen walking out of a dormitory Feb. 5.

http://www.pronetworks.org/index.php/content/post/possible_smiley_face_gang_link_emerges/

[Owd Scrat]

I don't care what anyone says....

There is something evil afoot! :evil:

I also now live a few miles away from Middlebury VT now, I remember reading that article and thinking..."damn their following me!". :hahaha:

[DarkPrincess]

I don't care what anyone says....

There is something evil afoot! :evil:

I also now live a few miles away from Middlebury VT now, I remember reading that article and thinking..."damn their following me!". :hahaha:


I think something's going on too.

[DarkPrincess]

YouTube - The Trane Theory

[DarkPrincess]

YouTube - "All roads lead to La Crosse Wisconsin" - Tom Lyden

[Jaded]

We discussed this one before the Cold Case section existed....
Catlady provided some extra info. Interesting stuff.

http://www.dreamindemon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3447&highlight=smiley+face+murders

[Owd Scrat]

Thanks for those videos!

All roads lead to La Crosse. Interesting indeed.

[DarkPrincess]

This is interesting:
http://undeadmolly.blogspot.com/2008/05/trane-theory-part-iii.html

[Morticia]

The first thing I wanted to say is that I am so grateful that there are people out there like these two NYPD retired detectives. Their persistence in this case is inspiring.

The only thing that kept coming up in my head was gang activity. These are athletic young men able to defend themselves if confronted with one person, therefore I have to agree with the officers that there are multiple parties involved.

I wonder if anyone else has thought of Fraternity Pledging, or something related to such.

The common thread is Male, Athletes, College. I'm no FBI Profiler, but it would be interesting to get these points connected.

[Echo]

This is interesting and I have never heard of it. I stumbled onto it while reading about William Hurley (they found him dead in the charles river today by the way) People seem to think that William's death fits in with the smiley face killers and I have read on other blogs that there was a smiley face grafitti close to the scene.

What do you think? Are the smiley face killers real or imagined?

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=4738621&page=2

[Echo]

http://sfkillers.com/


Smiley Face Killers
September 20th, 20091,414 comments
In the past 12 years, more than 70 young men with bright futures and vibrant personalities have either drowned or disappeared under similar circumstances. Despite what you’ve heard, not all the men were intoxicated when they were last seen.

Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter Kristi Piehl first exposed the possible connection between the mysterious drowning deaths in 2008 on Good Morning America. Piehl is now working closely with several families of the victims including, Bill Szostak, the father of Josh Szostak.

Click here to watch Bill and Kristi’s 3/23/09 interview on Good Morning America. Click here to see their 4/4/09 CNN interview.

It is time to give the victims justice and to deliver answers to their grieving families and friends. We must also warn our sons and brothers so the murders and mourning can stop.

If you haven’t visited this website before, there are some earlier posts that contain video, research and articles that you’ll only find on this site.

What happened to Josh Szostak after he walked out of a bar? His bizarre behavior is caught on tape.

Are college-aged men really at a higher risk for drowning? Read Piehl’s research.

Read the facts and decide if the similarities between the victims and their deaths are connections or coincidences.

Click here to read about the tragic connection two families share.

If you have information that could help solve these cases or you are a family member looking to connect with other families, please email us - kristi@sfkillers.com or bill@sfkillers.com.

Kristi PiehlUncategorized
Investigation Update
September 30th, 200943 comments
It isn’t in word clues. It isn’t in graffiti. It isn’t in poems. The keys to solving these cases is simple: it’s reopening each case one at a time and proving the victims did not accidentally drown, but were murdered. If these young men were killed, then there should be evidence to prove it and I’m talking about the kind of evidence that could be used in a court of law.

Several months ago, Trish DeAngelis, a lawyer and former District Attorney in New York, agreed to review case files from around the country. She has an extensive background with homicide cases and a track record of convicting killers. DeAngelis frequently relied on the expertise of forensic pathologists to crack unsolved homicides and violent crimes. DeAngelis asked a respected and experienced forensic pathologist and medical examiner to look at autopsy photographs and reports related to these drownings.

Through their analysis, research and fresh interviews with witnesses and family members, we continue to find significant evidence overlooked by the original investigators. When there is conclusive evidence in a case, a report will be presented to local officials. We are in the process of doing that now.

Our goal is to uncover evidence in cases that will convince local officials to reopen cases and reclassify them as homicides.

[drkeegee]

I heard quite a bit about this theory in the spring or thereabouts - seems to have enough 'evidence' to alert law enforcement to this possibility.

- very macabre if true

[Echo]

I heard quite a bit about this theory in the spring or thereabouts - seems to have enough 'evidence' to alert law enforcement to this possibility.

- very macabre if true

I am reading about it now....its very interesting and VERY macabre. Poor William Hurley fits it to a tee.

He had -had 4 beers and left a Bruins game early. He called his girlfriend for a ride, they talked until his phone died and she heard a male in the background respond to williams question about the address.

She rounds the corner 1 to 2 minutes later and he was nowhere to be found...and now they find him dead in The Charles. Keys and wallet on him. Not robbed. Other blogs have said that there was a smiley face close to the scene.

I wonder if this gang really does exist and preys on young college men.

[skeptik]

All I know is I hope Mister Smiley Face Killer hits my town soon. I am imagining targets on the backs of all the emo boys that cluster on the porch of my favorite bar.

[Echo]

lol! I don't think they go for emo......sounds like they go for the striped shirt, white hat, abrocrombie and fitch type. Whatever it is. Its scary.

Your favorite bar has a porch? I want one.

[Echo]

CNN Coverage of Smiley Face Killings

YouTube - Smiley Face Killer Part One