The Smiley Face Murders is a theory revolving around the deaths of numerous young men found dead
in bodies of water, all located across 11 Midwestern American states beginning in 1997.
Retired New York City detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, along with Dr. Lee Gilbertson, a
criminal justice professor and gang expert at St. Cloud State University, believe the men's deaths
were not simply cases of accidental drownings as law enforcement agencies concluded, but that they
were victims of one or multiple serial killers based on the similarities between each case.
The theory, and subsequent naming of the theory, became connected to the cases after it
was made public that police had discovered graffiti of a smiley face located near where they think
the killer dumped the bodies in many of the cases.
In a vacuum, the individual cases may seem like a suicide or accidental drowning, but it's the
large frequency of such cases that all share uncanny similarities, eerie circumstances, and
unexplainable errors from their initial investigations that raise such suspicions.
On February 16, 1997, Patrick McNeil disappeared after a night of drinking with his friends in
Manhattan's Upper East Side, a case that detective Kevin Gannon was assigned to.
[1]
On April 7, McNeil's body was discovered floating near a pier in the East River. His death would
be concluded as an accidental drowning. Harbouring his suspicions that McNeil met with foul play,
Gannon promised McNeil's family that he would continue his investigation until he found their
son's murderer.
[1]
In 2006, Gannon and Anthony Duarte approached Dr. Lee Gilbertson at St. Cloud State College, who
also believed that a group of people were murdering college-age men and dumping them in bodies of
water.
[1]
In April 23, 2008, investigative reporter and journalist Kristi Piehl reported on The Smiley Face
Killer Theory. In it, she details how the case of Christopher Jenkins, whose body was found in the
Mississippi River in 2003, attracted the attention of both Gannon and Duarte, who discovered
evidence linking the case to several other similar cases across the United States, and concluded
that a large, organized group with a hierarchical structure is responsible for the killings. Kristi
Piehl was fired from KSTP-TV shortly after breaking the story.
[2]
On April 29, 2008, the FBI released a statement refuting the theory of the Smiley Face Murders:
[3]
Over the past several years, law enforcement and the FBI have received information about young, college-aged men who were found deceased in rivers in the Midwest. The FBI has reviewed the information about the victims provided by two retired police detectives, who have dubbed these incidents the “Smiley Face Murders,” and interviewed an individual who provided information to the detectives. To date, we have not developed any evidence to support links between these tragic deaths or any evidence substantiating the theory that these deaths are the work of a serial killer or killers. The vast majority of these instances appear to be alcohol-related drownings. The FBI will continue to work with the local police in the affected areas to provide support as requested,
- Richard J. Kolko, FBI 2008
In 2009, Gannon came under fire after being accused of sexual assault of a 19-year-old student at
the University of St. Thomas, said to take place while searching for Daniel Zamlen. The
investigation into Gannon was closed after the case was reviewed and charges were declined
citing insufficient evidence.
[4]
In 2010, the Center for Homicide Research released a research brief called "Drowning the Smiley
Face Murder Theory" that outlined 18 reasons they felt that Gannon and Duarte's theory was wrong.
[5]
In 2014, Gannon and Gilbertson released their book, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics that
outlined 14 separate drowning cases that the pair, along with Duarte, believed were Smiley Face
Murder victims. The book went into great detail on each case, and brought to light new evidence
based on the group's reinvestigation, showing large discrepencies with the initial investigation
and analyses from authorities and medical examiners.
[1]
In 2018, Gannon, Duarte and Gilbertson came together again for the documentary series Smiley
Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, in which they once again reinvestigated a number of
drowning cases they felt were related to the Smiley Face Murders.
[6]
In 2022, a string of disappearances leading to drownings in Chicago's Lake Michigan helped
reignite speculation of the Smily Face Murder theory.
[7]
In 2023, TikTok Content Creator Ken Waks brought reinvigorated attention to the Smiley Face Murder
theory after posting a video warning people not to accept a ride from creepy strangers and
recounted his experiences where he was offered a ride by a stranger where, upon declining, the car
sped away.
[8]
Austin, Texas' underwent its own cluster of drownings in Lady Bird Lake later in 2023, with the
majority of the alleged victims disappearing from Rainey Street, an area of the city known as a
bar and nightlife hotspots.
[7]
Former CIA and FBI federal agent, Tracy Walder, weighed in on the slew of bodies pulled from the
Chicago River and Lake Michigan, stating that "There's too many coincidences", attributing the
bodies to a potential serial killer.
[9]
In March, 2024, the body of Riley Strain was pulled from a river in Tennessee after going missing
for nearly two weeks. Online speculation and scrutiny into the case has fuelled some to believe
it may be the latest in the possibly connected drownings.
[10]
Kevin Gannon is an ex-Sergeant of the Detective Bureau in the New York Police Department, serving a
distinguished 20-year career. During his time as a detective, Gannon made over 1,000 felony
apprehensions and was awarded nearly 100 medals for bravery, retiring as the most
highly decorated officer in NYPD history.
An expert in gang crime, Gannon received the Frederic Milton Thrasher Award (2008) from the
National Gang Crime Research Center.
Anthony Duarte served as a detective in the New York Police Department and has a full 21-year
history with law enforcement. During that time, he investigated homicides, robberies, and would go
on to serve in two major federal task forces. Duarte went on to win numerous awards and
commendations before retiring from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
An expert in state-of-the-art computer technology for data research and electronic audio-video
recording devices for surveillance, Duarte also received the Frederic Milton Thrasher Award (2008)
from the National Gang Crime Research Center.
Lee Gilbertson holds a Ph.D in Sociology and is a Master of Science in Criminal Justice. He served
16 years in the military, receiving training as the Alcohol and Drug Coordination Officer, and as
the unit Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare Defense Officer. Gilbertson has an extensive
knowledge of forensic victimology, crime analysis, and gangs.
Gilbertson currently teaches at Saint Cloud State University, is an Executive Editor for
the Journal of Gang Research, and is a three-time recipient of
the Frederic Milton Thrasher Award (2002, 2005, and 2008).
Kevin Gannon first began to piece together his controversial theory regarding a spate of disappearances and subsequent deaths, beginning in 1997 with his investigation of Patrick McNeil's disappearance. After researching accidental drowning cases all across North America, Gannon, along with Anthony Duarte and Dr. Lee Gilbertson noticed a myriad of patterns that were shared between each of the victims and the circumstances surrounding their deaths. The deeper they researched, the more similarities came to light, until they felt there was too much evidence for the deaths to be considered a coincidence. Thus, the Smiley Face Murder theory was born. [1]
A host of similarities are shared between a majority of the smiley face victims: [1]
Most of the victims are young, white males
Victims are often intelligent students attending college
The victims are usually considered popular or athletic
Victims have almost always been out drinking at bars prior to disappearing
Many victims disappear around holidays
A vast majority of the deaths occur in major cities, spread from coast-to-coast all across the United States of America. The victims are often found in bodies of water, far from their last known location or sighting. [1]
Gannon and Duarte didn't believe that only one killer could be responsible for such a multitude of deaths across such a large expanse. Their theory was that the Smiley Face Murders were performed by a group or organisation of serial killers that had several cells spread across numerous states and jurisdictions. This would allow the murders to seem completely unrelated and make it easier to evade the authorities. [1]
During the course of our investigation, we have discovered that the cases are not the product of an individual or individuals who repeatedly commit murders (i.e. serial killers). Some individuals may have been present at most of the “drownings” in their city, which would make them serial killers. But, it is the group that repeated the offense of homicide. We found that these cases were the product of numerous small groups of 8 to 10 persons (i.e., cells).
As we have pointed out and asserted repeatedly, these deaths are not the work of a roaming individual or individuals spreadout across the United States. They are the work of an organization that has repeatedly killed.
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, 2014
Serial killers naturally tend to be loners, or duos at best, though it is not unheard of for groups of people to participate in crimes and murders. If it is to be believed that entire cartels can come together under a structure to sell contraband, and if sinister organisations can put aside their differences to traffic people, then perhaps it's not a far stretch to believe that a group of people can come together to murder, or provide the service of murdering to others.
Upon forensic investigation, around 30 of the victims were found to contain high levels of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), also known as a "date rape" drug, in their systems. Side effects of the drug cause drowsiness, euphoria and sedation. It is often mixed into the drinks of unsuspecting victims in order to make them more pliable. Both Gannon and Duarte believe the number of victims drugged with GHB could be higher, but as it is only tested for in cases where foul play is suspected, and most of the cases are deduced by officials to be accidental drownings, a true estimate remains inconclusive: [1]
Generally speaking, medical examiners do not look for date rape drugs among male victims, much less drowning victims.
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, 2014
GHB is also a naturally occuring chemical that is produced throughout the body. On death, the body's production of GHB can increase slightly, making the case for identifying victims being drugged all the more complicated: [11]
Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is an endogenous compound, but its presence in postmortem blood presents a challenge when interpreting elevated levels as GHB is misused as a recreational drug and is also produced postmortem.
- Ann-Sophie Korb, Journal of Analytical Toxicology (vol.38), 2014
A large number of the victims are found days, sometimes weeks and even months after their initial disappearance. Witnesses in many of the cases reported having seen a vehicle following the victim, such as the van in Patrick McNeil's case, and the SUV in Dakota James'. Based on the levels of decomposition and the near-pristine condition the bodies are found in, Gannon believes the victims are kept alive for a period of time before being killed and placed in a body of water post-mortem: [6]
We believe that these victims are abducted and held for a period of time before they are murdered and disposed of in bodies of water.
- Kevin Gannon, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Upon discovery, many of the victims' bodies are found in positions that can best be described as staged. [6]
Patrick McNeil's body was found floating on his back, a rare occurence for accidental drowning cases in calm waters
Thomas Booth's body was found face down in the water with his arms folded neatly beneath him, while sticks looked to have been set into the dirt to hold his body in place
Christopher Jenkins' body was found floating on his back with his arms crossed over his chest
Todd Geib's body was found near vertical with his head slumped on one arm.
Kevin Gannon was the first to piece together the coincidence that graffiti of a smiley face was often found near where the body of a victim is either discovered or where it likely entered the water. Gannon believes that the smiley face tag is a calling card of the Smiley Face Murders, either as a rite of initiation, or a way for the group to mark their crime scenes. Gannon and Gilbertson hold that the smiley tag seems to shift as it is found from region to region, adapting and changing to the theosophy of that region's cell. [1]
As any gang specialist can tell you, if you were to take 200 pictures of any specific gang-related graffito across the United States, then all of them will resemble each other and appear similar to the commonly portrayed icon of that “gang nation.”
Not all cells use the smiley face. Not all cells are of the same theosophy.
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, 2014
Gannon and Duarte strongly suspect that the group consist of people who are looking to murder in an act of envy: [12]
The type of person that would be the opposite [of the victims], not smart, someone not good in school, maybe doesn't have a job, not popular.
- Anthony Duarte, CNN, 2008
Other theories range from gang initiation or drunken students being easy targets, to some speculating that women are targeting vulnerable men. [13]
The following cases are centered on individuals that have been claimed at some point to be potential Smiley Face Murder victims.
Patrick McNeil (20) was a student at Fordham University. He is considered to be the victim that
sparked the theory of the Smiley Face Murders.
[14]
On February 16, 1997, McNeil joined his friends at the Dapper Dog bar in New York City's Upper
East Side. His friends noted that he had become heavily intoxicated, and had been sick in
the bathroom of the venue, prompting McNeil to leave. He had planned to catch a ride home with a
friend who was present in the bar, but after they didn't show up, McNeil departed down 2nd Avenue
toward 90th Street.
[14]
[1]
Witnesses reported seeing McNeill struggle to walk after leaving the bar, leveraging himself
against cars and vomiting on the pavement. A van, occupied by a man and woman, that was
double-parked outside the bar the night McNeil disappeared was noticed by several witnesses. It
followed McNeil as he slowly made his way towards the subway station, stopping whenever he stopped.
Authorities decided not to investigate the license plate number for the van, called a "lawman
search", due to the cost of such a search.
[1]
On April 6, McNeil's body was discovered floating near Owls Head Wastewater Treatment Plant in
the East River, over 12 miles downriver from his last known location. McNeil was found floating on
his back, an unusual position for that of an accidental drowning, particularly in calm waters.
He was partially clothed, found only wearing his jeans, underwear and socks. Ligature marks were
found on McNeil's neck, and his head, hands and torso showed signs of charring, which the autopsy
report stated was decomposition due to exposure. His blood alcohol concentration level upon
recovery was 0.16. McNeil's death was ruled an accidental drowning, but the manner of his death was
left undetermined.
[1]
In their 2014 book Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson
revealed that fly larvae was found on McNeil's body, an unlikely occurence in bodies that have
spent a lot of time in cold water:
[1]
First, if the blackened portion of Pat's face and upper torso had been due to normal decomposition in water, then it would have been moist and attractive to flies and they would have laid their eggs there. Instead, this area was burnt to the point of charring (hard and dry) which made it unsuitable to flies as a location to lay eggs. Subsequently, they laid their eggs in the most desirable and exposed location that they could find, his groin area.
Second, had Pat actually fallen into the East River where he then died, then his groin area would have been underneath his boxers and immersed in water. Simply put, the flies could not have gotten there once Pat was in the water.
Third, flies do not lay eggs on a deceased human body in temperatures under 50 °Fahrenheit, especially in the moving water of New York City's East River or the Upper New York Bay at night with temperatures in the 40s (like when Pat went missing). The suspicious location of the fly eggs (i.e., in Pat's groin area underneath his boxers and immersed in water) should have been a red flag.
- Lee Gilbertson and Nick Gannon, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics 2014
Additionally, the level of tightening of the skin in favour of bloating and skin slippage found on
McNeil suggest that he had not been in the water the entire time he had been missing.
[1]
Access to the East River was shown to be particularly difficult along the route McNeil was
believed to have headed down, and the New York Police Department's harbor patrol confirmed that it
would have been impossible for McNeil's body to have ended up in the East River from where he was
due to the river's currents.
[1]
Despite the new evidence, the NYPD have not furthered the investigation of Patrick McNeil's death.
Lawrence "Larry" Andrews (22) was a Brewster High School graduate who spent some time working as a
landscaper until an injury put his work on hold. Andrews suffered tragedy when in 1994, his
girlfriend, Jamie Scanlon, was killed in a car crash.
[15]
On December 31, 1997, Andrews and a group of his friends journeyed from Brewster, New York to Times
Square to celebrate the new year. The plan for the group was to board the commuter train to Grand
Central Terminal, and head back some time after the ball dropped in Times Square. The group arrived
at Grand Central Terminal around 10:30 PM, drinking en route to their destination. After arriving,
the group stopped off at a number of bars along 42nd Street, finishing off at Houlihan's before
stepping outside to usher in the new year at Times Square. Some time during the night, Andrews
became separated from his friends and disappeared.
[15]
The search for Andrews began with his family and friends searching midtown Manhattan. They
blanketed the area with fliers and set up a headquarters in Katonah, NY, as well as a toll-free
telephone number. Andrews' parents spent the night of February 11, 1998, attempting to retrace the
steps of their son.
[15]
According to Andrews' friends, he was last seen around 12:30 AM on January 1, 1998, while others
say they spoke to him at a bar inside Grand Central Terminal around 1:00 AM. The last reported
sighting of Andrews was by two Brewster residents who saw him running west on 42nd Street, away
from the train station, in his T-shirt, between 2:00 and 2:30 AM. Witnesses described Andrews as
drunk, but coherent.
[15]
On February 12, Andrews' body was discovered by a jogger, floating face-up in the Upper New York
Bay, a short distance from Owls Head Water Pollution Control Plant, over 9 miles from where he was
last seen.
[1]
[15]
The body was found with his wallet, some candy, and party favours in the pockets, and
despite witnesses reporting seeing him in his T-shirt, the body was found with many layers of
clothing on. Police theorised that Andrews fell into the Hudson River, with the tide carrying him
to Brooklyn, and that he had been in the river since his disappearance.
[15]
A toxicology report
revealed Andrews' blood alcohol concentration was at a level of 0.19, and he had diphenhydramine in
his system, a drug commonly used for cold symptoms. The coroner determined that the cause of death
was drowning, but the manner in which he died, be it suicide, accident, or homicide, was left
undetermined.
[1]
Gannon and Gilbertson took a closer look into Andrews' case, and having spoken to harbour
personnel, they found it near impossible for Andrews to have fallen into the water and floated 9
miles from the Hudson without sustaining any injuries.
[1]
Gannon and Gilbertson's analysis of the autopsy photos garnered a different conclusion from that of
the original medical examiner's. Bruising of the eyes, similar to that of having ones nose broken,
was left out of the original report; skin slippage, discoloration, and marbling were all
exaggerated in the original report; and details, such as a lack of Washerwoman's Hands and lack of
putrefaction and decay would all insinuate that Andrews' body was not submerged in water for as
long as the police suspected. Fluorescent orange flecks were discovered, along with hairs of those
resembling an Alaskan Husky were also identified in the autopsy photographs, both of which were not
mentioned or sampled by the medical examiner.
[1]
The pair concluded their further investigation by finding a number of coincidences between Andres
and Patrick McNeil's death a year prior:
[1]
Larry was recovered within yards of the location where Pat McNeil had been recovered less than a year earlier on April 7, 1997.
Larry Andrews, Jr., was placed in the same location as Pat McNeil as a taunt of local law enforcement.
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson Case Studies in Drowning Forensics 2014
Said by those closest to have had an infectious smile, Nathan Kapfer (19) was a student of Viterbo
College in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He was a well educated student, being a member of the National
Honor Society and a scholarship recipient, as well as keeping active by fishing, hunting and
playing football.
[1]
On February 21, 1998, Kapfer attended a house party of a friend, arriving around 6:00 PM. Kapfer
DJ'd the party until leaving sometime between 11:00 PM and 11:30 PM to head to The Library bar.
Arriving at 12:00 AM, February 22, Kapfer shared a number of drinks with friends while at the bar,
specifically Long Island Iced Teas. At around 1:30 AM, Kapfer and some friends left to head over to
Brother's Bar and Grill, a short distance from The Library. Not long after arriving, Kapfer was
escorted out of the bar for being overintoxicated, and proceeded to shout vulgarities and make lewd
gestures towards the bouncers. Police arrived on the scene at around 1:42 AM, and after discovering
he was underage and using a friend's ID, they gave him a breathalyzer test with the result
recording as a 0.077 blood alcohol concentration. Kapfer was considered sober enough to drive, so
after issuing him four citations, the police released him at an intersection, and watched him walk
east along Pearl Street. Kapfer was said to have then spoken to friends near Coconut Joe's on Pearl
Street before leaving north on 3rd Street South at 2:30 AM.
[1]
On February 23, Kapfer's wallet, hat, keys and the four citations he received were all found neatly
placed on the deck of the La Crosse Queen Gift Shop near the Chief Hiawatha statue in Riverside
Park. This led investigators to believe that Kapfer had taken a route through Riverside Park and
laid his personal effects to be discovered, insinuating that he may have been considering suicide.
On discovery of the items, the La Crosse Fire Department searched the area for Kapfer's body, but
were unsuccessful. On February 24, the water in the nearby area was searched, but again, the search
turned up empty. On February 25, police approached Brother's Bar to try to gain access to the CCTV
footage from the night Kapfer went missing, with the footage clearly showing Kapfer entering and
being escorted back out of the bar. On March 3, The Library was approached for their footage, but
it had already been recorded over by the time police got to it:
[1]
Since both parties (the police and the bar owners) knew that Nate was missing from those bars, then why were all tapes not recovered or voluntarily turned in immediately? Did Ed not tell his brother Matt, a co-owner of both bars, that police were interested in securing their CCTV tapes?
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, 2014
K9 searches highlighted a number of interesting locations where a scent was caught, with one search
leading to a beach at Pettibone Park and Swift Creek, and another leading from Brother's Bar to
Shooter's Bar, exiting out the back door and across a parking lot and all the way to the Chief
Hiawatha statue in Riverside Park.
[1]
According to bouncers working at Brother's Bar who were interviewed regarding the night of Kapfer's
disappearance, Kapfer was struggling to keep his balance and was drunk enough that he was unable to
tell the difference between his driver's license and university ID card. A bartender gave him a
drink of water, but Kapfer became irate, was dry heaving, and was then escorted out of the bar.
Other witnesses claimed to have seen Kapfer on the night in question, including someone who
reported seeing a young man standing on a bridge, staring into the waters of the La Crosse River at
around 1:00 AM, while another witness claimed he may have been the intoxicated young man who had
walked with him at 6:00 AM to Hardee's, though due to the timeline of events and inconsistencies in
Kapfer's situation, these were not likely to have been Kapfer. A friend of Kapfer's who was also
out on the same night reported an incident in which he described being stalked by someone driving a
dark-coloured truck as he headed home, shortly after Kapfer and his other friends left The Library
for Brother's Bar. The car followed Kapfer's friend slowly before crossing his path, cutting
through the nearby Wells Fargo Banks parking lot, then waiting for him at a stop sign nearby. The
friend fled the scene and didn't see the car again, and police didn't follow up an investigation
into it.
[1]
Kapfer's body was discovered on April 4 at 3:00 PM, though reports differ on the exact location of
his discovery. One report stated his body had been recovered at out of the main channel of the
Mississippi River in Running Slough, with another described as near a gravel pit in Running Slough,
and one final report stating near the 3200 block of East Avenue South in the town of Shelby. Kapfer
was found floating against a mass of debris, with everything but his head and upper torso submerged
in the water. According to the toxicology report, Kapfer's blood alcohol concentration level was
0.22. He also had small amounts of phenethylamine and n-propanol in his system, though the police
reported that no drugs had been found, later correcting to say no drugs that had contributed to
Kapfer's death were found. Kapfer's death was ruled as an accidental drowning, though the manner
remained undetermined.
[1]
While investigating the case, Gannon and Gilbertson were confused as to how Kapfer's BAC could have
gone from 0.077 when the police tested him to 0.22 on recovery of the body:
[1]
Nate was recovered with a 0.220 BAC; almost 3 times the legal limit. Since the bars were closed when Nate was given and passed the field breath test by the La Crosse police officers, where did he get the alcohol to drink to bring his BAC from 0.077 up to 0.220? There was no mention of Nate drinking with anyone or even being in the company of anyone after he was seen walking north on Pearl Street. No one mentioned another house party that they went to... Nate's behavior indicated that he had most likely been drugged.
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, 2014
On recovery of Kapfer's body, it was reported that insects covered portions of the body, though
there was no record or examination of the insects by the medical examiner. Since insects are often
attracted to warm corpses, it was an oddity that they would be attracted to Kapfer's frozen-solid
body, suggesting they nested on his body while he was on land. Similarly, sand and mud found on the
body were mostly ignored, while an analysis of both could help determine where Kapfer entered the
water.
[1]
The pair concluded that the presence of insects on the frozen body, the presence of n-propanol and
phenethylamine in the system, and the elevated levels of BAC suggested human intervention had
to have occured in order to have led to Kapfer ending up in the Mississippi River.
[1]
Having been raised in Sunday school and a devoted follower of Jesus, Jeffrey Geesey (21) became a
student at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse.
[1]
On April 10, 1999, Geesey had let the manager of a Taco Bell know he was heading to a girl's
apartment on Pine Street to attend a house party. Geesey walked to the party, and after leaving,
headed to Big Al's pizzeria with the girl, her father and two other friends that Geesey had not met
before. At around 10:30 PM, the girl and her father left to go home, with the remaining three
heading to the Bodega Brew Pub, where Geesey was introduced to another friend at 11:30 PM. A
bartender gave Geesey some free drinks as he had run out of money. The group were heavily
intoxicated by this point, and details of location and time get confusing.
[1]
Witness statements from the friends who were with Geesey were conflicting, as due to intoxication
and heavy rain, they couldn't recall which bar they were in at certain times, placing Geesey in
several locations at different times. According to their timeframe, the gang all stayed at the
Bodega Brew Pub until around midnight before heading to Club Millennium and sharing a pitcher of
beer. At around 1:00 AM, April 11, two of the friends left to head home, another left for The
Library, while Geesey was said to have stayed at Club Millennium, speaking with a woman he had met
there, until closing. However, witnesses from Millennium Bar had not noticed Geesey, despite the
bar's clientele being mostly black, and Geesey being white. The owner of Club Millennium mentioned
that the occupants of the apartments above the club often threw their keys down to people once the
bar closed, encouraging them to come and continue the party upstairs.
[1]
The body of Geesey was discovered at 8:15 AM on May 24, floating in an inlet of the Mississippi
River. His body was caught on river debris near a gravel pit. Authorities struggled to recover the
body due to the debris, so his body was pulled to an adjacent island before being recovered.
[1]
The toxicology report indicated that Geesey's blood alcohol concentration level was 0.420, as well
as revealing that GHB was in his system, though no signs of trauma were noted. The medical examiner
had concluded that the cause of death was likely drowning. Four shallow, self-inflicted scars on
Geesey's arms gave authorities the impression that it may have been suicide, however, friends and
family insisted that the scars were not from a genuine suicide attempt and was a call for help.
[1]
K9 units were brought in on May 27 to try and trace Geesey's movements to him ending in the river.
A heavy scent was picked up in The Library bar, but not at Club Millennium. From The Library, the
scent led to the interior of a pickup truck parked in the front of the bar, a blue Ford Ranger
pickup belonging to one of the occupiers of the apartments above Club Millennium who often
frequented The Library. Similarly, a scent was picked up in a Plymouth minivan that was parked in
the alley between Big Al's and Club Millennium, belonging to a female that also frequented The
Library. A scent was traced leading up to the 2nd floor apartments above Club Millennium, down a
set of stairs, through an alley, across to Shooter's Bar and out of the back door, on to the
Radisson Hotel and ended in Riverside Park near the Mississippi River.
[1]
After reinvestigating the case, Gannon and Anthony Duarte mentioned that graffiti was found inside
a pavilion in Riverside Park, near the Chief Hiawatha statue, that intrinsically linked Geesey's
death with others, though not outright stating it was of a smiley face:
[1]
The specific nature of the graffiti demonstrated its relationship to those who were responsible for these deaths. These graffiti were also recovered at numerous other locations where victims had gone missing and drowned.
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, 2014
It was summarised by Gannon and Gilbertson that Geesey had not been to Club Millennium on the night of his disappearance, but had most likely been to The Library. Due to the high levels of alcohol and GHB, Geesey could not have walked anywhere in such a state, and was likely taken via car. Added with the fact that the condition of the body was not that of one that had been in a river for over 30 days, foul play was the clear conclusion: [1]
The obvious answer was that he had been abducted and held before being murdered. If Jeff was not in the water for 30+ days, then obviously he was abducted and held somewhere either alive or dead before his entry into the water
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, 2014
Known as an athletic and intelligent student, Brian Welzien (21) was a finance major who played
soccer during his time at Northern Illinois University.
[16]
On the night of December 31, 1999, Welzien and two of his friends, Nick Young and Mike Wittrup,
travelled into Chicago, Illinois to celebrate at a private Y2K party that a friend, Reid Cain, was
DJing at. Welzien and his friends checked in to the Ambassador East Hotel before heading to Irish
Eyes, a pub in North Lincoln. Welzien was noted to have only had a couple of Long Island Iced Teas,
but was visibly intoxicated:
[16]
As far as what I saw, no, I didn't see him ordering multiple drinks or more and more drinks at the bar.
It just never really made sense, because there was nobody else in our group falling down or getting sick or anything like that.
- Nick Young, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
At around 2:00 AM, Cain drove Welzien, who wanted to leave, back to the hotel. Young and Wittrup
decided to go on to another bar and caught a taxi. At the hotel entrance, Welzien proceeded to
vomit twice before managing to climb out of the car. Cain parked two blocks away, and upon
returning, noted that there was no sign of Welzien, but assuming he had entered the hotel, Cain
shrugged it off and went to his own room. When Young and Wittrup returned to the hotel at 4:00 AM,
they noticed that Welzien was nowhere to be found, and after searching the area around the hotel
for a bit, they learned that the doorman wouldn't let Welzien inside the hotel in the state he was
in. Waking at around 1:00 PM the following day, they saw that Welzien still hadn't returned, and
reported him missing to the police.
[16]
The doorman reported seeing Welzien being sick opposite the hotel entrance, even leaning on
someone's car for support.
[16]
On March 17, a man walking on Lake Street Beach in Gary, Indiana discovered Welzien's body, 25
miles from downtown Chicago. The body had hair missing from the scalp, and sand on his face.
According to the coroner's report, the body had undergone slight to moderate decomposition, was
well preserved, and showed signs of lividity on his back. Welzien had no fluid in his lungs, and
there was some sand in his larynx, but not his stomach. His blood alcohol concentration was at a
level of 0.084.
[16]
According to police reports, he threw up. Threw up in the vehicle, threw up next to the curb. The BAC tells us that this sickness is not brought on by alcohol.
- Lee Gilbertson, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
The cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation due to drowning. Police speculated that
Welzien had fallen into Lake Michigan, drowned, and his body drifted 30 miles over the time he'd
been missing.
[16]
In 2019, Gannon and Duarte took another look into the case for the TV show, Smiley Face
Killers: The Hunt for Justice, during which they spoke with Sergeant William Fazekas, a
detective who worked on Welzien's case. He stated that this was the only time in his 29-year career
working for the Gary Police Department that a body disappeared in Chicago and washed up in Gary.
Additionally, he felt that the condition of the body was suspicious:
[16]
It looked like he was missing within a week. It was that fresh.
From my experience, someone that's dead, even in the cold and with the climate that changes here from hot to warm being in the Chicagoland area, the decomp was nothing.
- William Fazekas, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Following the route that the police suspected Welzien took to get to Lake Michigan, it was found that Welzien would've had to have crossed Lake Shore Drive, a highly busy thoroughfare with no crosswalk. The only way through would have been a tunnel located 2 blocks away. [16]
Walking through the tunnel there is no way Brian made it here. Even down the steps going through it, then coming back up the others steps. It's just too hard to navigate.
- Mike Donovan, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Retired FBI Agent, Bobby Chacon, put his opinion forward, stating that it is highly unlikely that Welzien's body would have travelled the distance it was speculated, and if it did, the likeliness of it not getting caught up in one of the many obstacles en route from Lake Michigan to Lake Street Beach. [16]
The overwhelming odds are that a body is going to be found in very close proximity, in a case like this, in fifty feet of where he went in the water. Bodies don't move in the water as much as people think.
You have so many things that could hang a body up, it would be almost an underwater obstacle course along this coastline.
- Bobby Chacon, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
U.S. Coast Guards, Jeffrey Catanzarite and Steven Youde, used a dummy and a search and rescue
optimal planning system to create a travel pattern to affirm that Welzien's body could have
travelled the distance from Lake Michigan to Lake Street Beach.
[16]
Dr. Frank Paloucek reviewed the case and took a closer look at the toxicology report. He was able
to discount alcohol as the cause of Welzien's intoxication, due to the low levels of alcohol in his
blood. He posited the theory that Welzien could have been drugged, but as he was not tested for GHB
on discovery, it couldn't be confirmed.
[16]
There's the possibility that someone gave him something, maliciously. That Bryan was the target of someone seeking to do harm to him.
- Frank Paloucek, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Meeting with Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Cyril Wecht, it was affirmed that the lividity that Welzien showed on his back, as well as the level of preservation of his organs, was not conducive with drifting on the water for 77 days. In his opinion, Welzien was deceased before entering the water. [16]
It can't be after seventy-seven days that you're able to see that kind of anatomic detail.
There's no way that this person could have been dead, unless you have a body that had been frozen for seventy-seven days.
- Cyril Wecht, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Having seen the newly presented evidence, Sergeant Fazekas reopened the case and is pursuing new leads. [16]
Thought of as outgoing and popular by both friends and family, Christopher Jenkins (21) was a
senior at the University of Minnesota, where he majored in business, and saw success as the goalie
on the school's lacrosse team.
[17]
On October 31, 2002, Jenkins was out celebrating Halloween with friends, dressed in a costume as
a Native American. After leaving a keg party, Jenkins and his friends set out to a bar in downtown
Minneapolis, arriving at the Lone Tree Bar & Grill around 10:30 PM. Sometime around 12:30 AM,
Jenkins was ejected from the bar. Wearing only his costume and without his keys, phone or wallet,
Jenkins was forced into the cold night, with the bouncer noting that Jenkins had turned left down
Hennepin Avenue.
[17]
On November 1, Jenkins' family reported him missing to the Minneapolis Police Department, but due
to Jenkins being over the age of 18, he could not be considered missing for three days, so his
family took matters into their own hands. His mother organised a search party with many showing up
to assist in the search. The downtown area, as well as the bridges over the Mississippi River, were
plastered with missing posters. According to Jenkin's family, the police and FBI didn't take the
case seriously, only joining the search five days after Jenkins had gone missing.
[17]
On November 2, Private Detective, Chuck Loesch, was hired by the family to help find Jenkins.
He approached a bouncer from the Lone Tree Bar & Grill who mentioned that he had been one of the
last people to see Jenkins, having observed him being kicked out onto the street:
[17]
He was the last person to see Chirs alive that was employed at the bar, he stated that Chris was escorted out of the bar by one of the security managers. He also informed us that he was told 'don't let the white guy dressed like an Indian back in the bar.'
- Chuck Loesch, The Disappearance and Suspicious Water Death of Chris Jenkins, 2016
It was revealed that during the
night, Jenkins had broken up an altercation that started during the night between two other men
before accidentally spilling his drink over himself. An off-duty police officer working security,
assuming the spill mark was a sign that Jenkins had urinated himself, ejected him from the bar.
Police evidence would later show that the head bouncer of the Lone Tree Bar & Grill vehemently
denied removing Jenkins from the property, with the remaining bouncers subsequently becoming
defensive and providing no further information. Surveillance footage from the Hennepin Avenue
Bridge was reviewed with no evidence showing Jenkins crossing the bridge. The Jenkins family went
on to hire K9 units, which discovered Jenkins' scent leading to a parking facility next door to the
Lone Tree Bar & Grill, as well as near the Mississippi River at Nicollet Island. On November 8,
police searched Nicollet Island, the Horseshoe Dam area, and the Mississippi River area, with a
follow up search conducted on November 11, but to no avail. According to Jenkins' mother, police
were convinced that he had jumped from a bridge into the Mississippi River due to an argument with
his girlfriend.
[17]
Four months later, on February 27, 2003, Jenkins' lifeless body was found by Lynn Dietrich floating
in the Mississippi River. The area in which the body was found, beneath the 3rd Avenue Bridge,
was one that had been checked numerous times. Jenkins' body would later float to the lip of the
Horseshoe Dam where it would be caught on a tree. His body was encased in ice, found floating on
his back, with his arms crossed over his upper torso, and his hands clenched, something Loesch
found to be particularly strange:
[17]
There's a block of ice on his upper body, his legs were devoid of ice, dangling below the surface of the water which indicates that he was probably placed some place exterior to the river, perhaps on the side of the river.
- Chuck Loesch, The Disappearance and Suspicious Water Death of Chris Jenkins, 2016
A toxicology report showed that Jenkins' blood alcohol concentration was at 0.12. The Minneapolis
Police went on to declare the death to be an accidental drowning.
[17]
Despite the case being officially closed, the Jenkins family continued their own investigation.
According to Jenkins' mother, a neighbour of the Jenkins family that taught forensics reviewed the
autopsy photographs and discovered a clump of hair in Jenkins' hand. A test on the hair showed that
it belonged to Jenkins himself. Oddly, Jenkins' body presented no bruising despite being a lacrosse
goalie and often being covered in bruises, suggesting he had been out of the water long enough to
heal, perhaps days or weeks. Forensic Pathologist, Michael Baden, pointed out that drowning victims
often have dishevelled clothes, while Jenkins was found with his shirt tucked into his trousers,
and his oversized moccasins still on his feet.
[17]
In 2006, then Police Chief, Tim Dolan, believed Jenkins' death to not have been investigated
properly, with no supporting evidence of a suicide, and a possible confession by a prison inmate,
and subsequently reopened the case. The medical examiner ultimately altered the cause of death from
an accidental drowning to a homicide, with the police determining that Jenkins had been thrown from
the Hennepin Avenue Bridge into the Mississippi River, a theory Investigative Reporter, Kristi
Piehl refutes:
[17]
I've been to the bridge. There's a pretty wide gap that you would have to weasel your way off and then throw someone over, it would be virtually impossible to do it with just one person.
We looked at some of the other bridges. Would it be possible to throw him off of this bridge, or that bridge, or off the shore? And it still didn't make sense that Chris could have been thrown off of anything because of the way he presented himself, in the water, when he was found.
- Kristi Piehl, The Disappearance and Suspicious Water Death of Chris Jenkins, 2016
In their 2014 book, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, Gannon and Gilbertson stated that,
based on the evidence, they believed that Jenkins was murdered before entering the water, was
posed, and then placed on his back in the water to be found.
[1]
In April, 2016, Jenkin's mother spoke on The Opperman Report' podcast where she revealed that a
prison inmate confessed to having witnessed the murder of Jenkins, but that she had not tried to
contact him. She went on to state that she believed her son may be a victim of the smiley face
killers:
[18]
You cannot have hundreds of young men disappearing, showing up in water, the profile: about the same age, a lot of them look about the same size, they're athletes, they're honor students... It's not just Halloween night, a lot of these happen around holidays, including Christian holidays.
Just by the looks on faces when we've asked and they wouldn't tell us. We just picked up on the nonverbals, we think it probably was. There was probably a smiley face.
- Jan Jenkins, The Opperman Report, 2016
In 2018, the TV show Breaking Homicide covered Jenkins' death, hosted by former police sergeant, Derrick Levasseur and forensic psychologist, Kris Mohandie. During the show, Levasseur met with a source that requested to remain anonymous. The source revealed that he had previously been to the Lone Tree Bar & Grill with friends around the same time Jenkins had gone missing, and after buying drinks, noticed that they had a funny, metallic taste to them. Shortly after, he started to feel the effects of what he believes to have been drugs: [19]
And it was at that point where I started losing all my senses. My sight was starting to fail me. I didn't have any balance. I had to hang on to the handrails to get up the steps.
And the bouncers then tried to escort me out of the area. Not sure what the reason was, but they tried to put me into a car.
- Anonymous, Breaking Homicide, 2018
Having taken a look at the evidence in the case, Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Cyril Wecht, felt that the position Jenkins' body was found in was the most telling piece of evidence: [19]
That position of the two arms, held across the chest, is not something that I would expect to find in a body that has been floating in the water. That strongly suggests that he was dead, that the arms were placed in that position, and then he was put into the water.
- Cyril Wecht, Breaking Homicide, 2018
Criminologist, Dallas Drake, refuted the idea that Jenkins was a victim of the Smiley Face Murders, reasoning that the correlation between all the murders was simply down to young men drinking alcohol and ending up in a nearby body of water. [19]
They're oftentimes college-aged students. Secondly, they tend to come out of a bar late at night, when most people are intoxicated and not keeping track of their friends around them, so they can become lost.
It's not uncommon for someone, especially for males, to go down along the river, and urinate.
- Dallas Drake, Breaking Homicide, 2018
Levasseur and Mohandie went on to question Tony Norris, a former bouncer at the Lone Tree Bar & Grill, who recalled that Jenkins had not been kicked out of the bar, but left of his own accord: [19]
He didn't seem intoxicated.
He was pissed off that I would even think that he pissed on himself, he was annoyed.
- Tony Norris, Breaking Homicide, 2018
Former Police Chief, Tim Dolan went on to confirm to Levasseur and Mohandie that the prison inmate that confessed to witnessing Jenkins' death was named Jaramy Lynn Alford, and that the information he confessed had not been revealed to the public, lending credence to the claims. According to Alford, he and some of his crew had picked up someone dressed in an Indian costume that night. [19]
That was a confession by somebody that's in prison for murder.
They all picked up a guy wearing Indian Clothing.
- Tim Dolan, Breaking Homicide, 2018
Mohandie himself cast doubt on the likelihood of Alford and his crew committing the murder of Jenkins, concluding that he felt Jenkins accidentally drowned: [19]
The one suspect that they think may have admitted to it, his modus operandi, his M.O. for killing that landed him in prison, was extremely violent. This is not the guy that's going to slip him into the river, and none of his associates are of that ilk either.
- Kris Mohandie, Breaking Homicide, 2018
The case of Christopher Jenkins remains open.
An accomplished wrestler who liked to keep fit, Jared Dion (21) was a sophomore at the University
of Wisconsin, La Crosse.
[1]
On April 9, 2004, Dion planned on going out with friends in the evening, arriving in downtown La
Crosse at around 11:30 PM. Around 2:20 AM on April 10, Dion and a friend stood outside of John's
bar, attempting to catch a ride back to campus on the Safe Ride bus, which was provided by the
University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. Dion suggested getting another drink, which his friend objected
to and boarded the bus. Dion did not get on the Safe Travel bus, and instead headed back inside
John's bar just before closing. This was the last time Dion was seen alive.
[1]
On April 14, an individual found Dion's baseball cap while jogging in Riverside Park. The cap was
hanging neatly on a pole near the statue of Chief Hiawatha. The jogger stated that he often ran
that route, and had only seen the cap on the pole on April 14. Despite this, police claimed that
the jogger had found the cap and hung it on the pole himself.
[1]
According to a member of the band that played at John's bar that night, Dion was seen talking to a
person with blonde hair. Dion had also mentioned to a band member that he was planning on attending
an after-hours party.
[1]
Dion's body was found by the La Crosse Dive and Rescue Team as well as the La Crosse Fire
Department on April 15, floating in the Mississippi River, 30 feet from shore. The body was found
by tracking Dion's phone. The location where the body was found varied between sources, with some
stating it was recovered by Riverside Park, 99 State Street, or 322 Front Street South. Dion's
blood alcohol concentration was initially reported at a level of 0.40, but was later changed to
0.27. He also had GHB in his system. The report concluded that Dion had died of drowning, with
alcohol as a determining factor, while the manner of death was left undetermined.
[1]
On April 22, the police addressed the issue of river drownings in the area at a meeting for local
students. During the meeting, they emphasised the need for responsibility when drinking, and
assured locals that a serial killer or killers were not responsible for the deaths.
[1]
On February 23, 2008, the Dion family received an anonymous letter from someone claiming to have
seen Dion on the night he disappeared:
[1]
Dear Bryan and Kim Dion,
This has taken me a lot of guts to write this letter. What has happened to your son has haunted me for years. I even told some of the La Crosse police officers on the street, but because I was a collage [sic] student at the time, my word meant nothing. I said something to my friends, and they told me I did all I could and that is all I can do.
The night that your son disappeared, I was walking home from work going home. By the Dell's Bar on third [sic] and Vine Street walking east home. By the courthouse on the bench was your son all passed out from drinking. There were a few people 7 or ten people that looked in there [sic] young 20's. They picked your son up and I watched them for a block as they carried him towards Riverside Park. I did not think about it at the time that this was going to happen. I thought they all knew one another and for the fact that there was one of me and more of them. I also did not say one word to them. After the one block, I turned around and continued walking home in the opposite direction they were heading. It did not dawn in my head until I heard the news and has haunted me quite bad since. I now there is nothing I can do. This is the only way I think I can get this off my conscious and bring peace that the truth be told.
Sincerely,
Someone who cares and hope the world one day has peace
An excellent soccer player for saint Lawrence University in Canton, New York, Adam Falcon (20) was
a philosophy major who coached kids' summer camps.
On the night of November 12, 2004, Falcon and his friends headed out to attend a number of
locations that evening. At around 9:15 PM, Falcon arrived at a themed "Around the World" party
taking place across three Dean Eaton dormitories. At around 10:00 PM, the group moved on to the
next stop of the night, the Coffee House, before Falcon and two of his friends departed for the
Hoot Owl Bar at 11:00 PM. Falcon was denied access by a bouncer at the bar, who realised he was
using a fake ID card, so the friends all decided to go back to the Dean Eaton dormitory party,
likely around 11:30 PM. Adam, and one of his friends, James Merrill, left the party at 12:30 AM on
November 13, to head downtown to the Tick Tock Inn. Falcon was granted access to the "Over 21"
section using his fake ID, while his friend, Merrill gained access via the "Underage" door of the
bar, with both being served alcohol once inside. At 1:45 AM, the bar's clientele had mostly cleared
out, and by 2:15 AM, the bar locked up for the night.
It wasn't until Falcon had failed to show up to a soccer championship game on the afternoon of
November 13 that his coach and team suspected he was missing and began looking for him. Friends and
family all helped to search for Falcon, joined by local emergency service personnel, the St.
Lawrence County Underwater Recovery team and forest rangers. Falcon's cell phone and cap were
recovered several blocks from the Tick Tock Inn, with the cap being discovered behind a wire fence
across a parking lot, and the phone on the porch of a church rectory. K9 dogs caught Falcon's
scent trailing through the back door of the Tick Tock Inn and to the rear parking lot where the
scent ended.
According to witnesses, Falcon was last seen leaving the Tick Tock Inn at around 1:30 AM, just
before the rest of the clientele had all left. A Canton couple also mentioned seeing a
light-coloured vehicle approaching someone fitting Falcon's description on Chapel Street before
approaching him again on Court Street, the corner of which houses the church rectory that Falcon's
phone was discovered at. Falcon was said to have gotten into the back seat of the vehicle.
On November 18, Falcon's body was discovered with the help of K9 units that led searchers to an
area of the Grasse River in Canton. Divers found an underwater footprint, and shortly after, found
Falcon's body in a 7-feet deep sink hole. The body was found lying on its side, and retained all
clothing but the trousers. The autopsy report revealed Falcon died from drowning and hypothermia,
though the manner of death was left undetermined. The toxicology report showed that Falcon's blood
alcohol concentration was at a level of 0.21. Ultimately, Falcon's death was ruled an accident with
no signs of foul play. A theory posited by the New York Federation of Search and Rescue Teams, was
that Falcon passed out after consuming copious amounts of alcohol, and upon wakening, was under the
effects of hypothermia (due to the cold weather) causing him to feel hot, he then tried to cool off
in the river and drowned.
Falcon was one of several cases referenced in the 2014 book Case Studies in Drowning
Forensics, where Gannon and Gilbertson analysed his case for themselves. During their
investigation, they discovered a number of inconsistencies, particularly with evidence being
found, scents being picked up, and the body being recovered, all in areas that had already been
thoroughly searched:
Physical evidence associated with Adam (i.e., his baseball cap and cell phone) was found in the opposite direction of his body recovery site (by about 135 degrees), without leaving any scent for a tracking dog to follow.
Personal property associated with Adam kept turning up within areas that had been previously searched by law enforcement, trained search specialists with tracking dogs, numerous volunteers, and family members.
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics 2014
The hat appeared to have been found in a distant location from any of Falcon's destinations the night he disappeared, and the church rectory porch had been searched thoroughly by Falcon's uncle to no success, only for Falcon's phone to turn up in the corner of the porch days later.
It appeared as though someone was watching the search process and reintroducing evidence into the scene
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics 2014
Strangely, the K9 dogs used in the search caught no scent of Falcon leading to his personal items,
and though authorities claimed to have used the K9 units near the water, they stated that there
were no traces of a scent. A Massasauga Search and Rescue tracking dog apparently did pick up a
scent near the island in the middle of the river on the bank opposite of where Adam was eventually
found, but Forest Rangers were said to have disregarded this lead.
The underwater footprints that were found by the regional rescue diver team led directly to the
sink hole to where Falcon's body was eventually discovered. Witnesses stated that the tracks did
not resemble those created by sneakers akin to the ones Falcon had been wearing, but by regular
shoes. Witnesses on the scene used a stick to measure the shoe size and sketch out a drawing of the
shoe print which was then handed off to a forest ranger, but the drawing was never seen again.
According to the police, anybody could have made the tracks, and they could have been made at any
time, so they were ignored.
The tracks had obviously not been there as long as Adam had been missing. If they had been there the whole time, then the flowing water would have erased them.
Preservation measures should have been taken. As is standard operating procedure in a suspicious missing person case, the police usually make some effort to preserve prints and impressions made by feet or footwear (photographs, artist's rendering, or casts/molds) even if they eventually turn out to be the victim's.
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics 2014
In regards to the trousers that were missing from Falcon's body, they were discovered around 50-80 feet away from the body the day after Falcon was discovered. Gannon and Gilbertson point out the unlikeliness of investigators missing the trousers in such a thorough sweep the previous day:
How is it that these jeans were missed by all investigators and search personnel the previous day, only to be discovered nearby the subsequent day?
Much like the baseball cap and cell phone, were the jeans re-entered into the scene after the area had already been searched?
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics 2014
With everything laid bare, Gannon and Gilbertson were convinced that Falcon could not have died from hypothermia, and despite inconsistencies in the case, authorities conducted the investigation with a predetermined conclusion in mind: That Falcon's death was an accident.
An avid fan of the outdoors, Todd Geib (22) worked at Hager Distribution, Inc, in Wyoming. He was
fun-loving and generally quite popular.
On June 11, 2005, Geib set out to meet his friends at the Half Moon Bar & Grill. At around 9:30 PM,
they all left the bar, and drove to an all-night bonfire party in an apple orchard near White Road
in Casnovia, Michigan. Witnesses claim that as the night drew on, the party started to get out of
hand, with fights threatening to break out. At around 12:45 AM, Geib informed his friends that he
had had enough and was going to walk the 1.5 miles home. At 12:47 AM, Geib spoke on the phone to
his friend who had driven them all to the party to let him know he was on his way home, was
alright, but he had just had enough. At 12:51 AM, Geib made a series of phone calls to a friend.
During these calls, he mentioned twice that he was in a field, he said he was lost, and that he
couldn't breathe, followed by the sound of heavy breathing before the call got abruptly cut off.
By the afternoon of June 12, Geib's family were out looking for him, with a more organised effort
taking place on June 13, though no trace of Geib was found. Michigan State Police quickly took over
investigation of the case, with Muskegon County only assisting, despite it being in their
jurisdiction. As the search continued, police dogs caught Geib's scent, tracing it from the
location of the party on June 11 to White Road, where it turned east to M37 and suddenly ended.
The search for Geib was temporarily suspended, but continued on June 18, where a volunteering force
of 1,500 people including helicopters set out to find him, to no avail. Further searches were
called off, as Michigan State Police began to suspect foul play, believing that Geib may have been
hit by a car as he was walking home on the night of the party. Police informed Geib's family of
their suspicions that Todd had been the victim of a hit-and-run and may have been buried sometime
around June 22. Police began their investigations into witnesses, and still leaning on the theory
of being hit by a car, they even began investigating cars that had been brought in for repairs
around that time.
A break in the case occured on July 2, when the Wilde's headed out on their boat across Ovidhall
Lake, a lake in the opposite direction of Geib's home and where the tracker dogs traced Geib's
scent to. The couple discovered Geib's body around 60 feet from shore, where he was found nearly
vertical, with his head slumped over on one arm.
The gases in a body rise and the body floats horizontally, face down, in the water. Todd's body didn't do that, he was floating vertically, straight up and down in the water... totally contrary to any other drowning victim that I've ever seen.
- Anthony Duarte, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
The autopsy report stated that Geib's body was only moderately decomposed, he had no external
injuries, and he had a blood alcohol concentraion level of 0.12, as well as large quantities of
amitriptyline and desipramine in his system, both of which Todd was not prescribed. The manner of
his death was ruled as undetermined, while the cause of death was concluded as an accidental
drowning, despite there being no water found in Geib's lungs. Police considered the case closed,
concluding that on the night of June 11, Geib had become intoxicated at the party and left,
stumbling drunkenly into the lake and drowning.
In 2009, Over 200 medical examiners at a medical conference took a look into the case and gave
their opinions, stating that they did not believe the cause of death was accidental drowning, and
believed that, based on body decomposition, Todd was alive 2 to 5 days before being found in the
lake. Following this, a letter was composed and sent to the Michigan State Police imploring that
the case be reopened and investigated as a homicide based on overwhelming evidence, but this was
quickly rejected and discounted as evidence. In 2012, Geib's mother rallied to have the case
reopened, but this was once again rejected. She heard about the investigations Gannon and Duarte
were heading and, noticing the similarities, contacted them regarding her son. Shortly after, a
smiley face sticker was found on Geib's grave, with another smiley face spray painted on a tree
close to where Geib's body being found.
Further investigation by Gannon and Duarte during the 2019 TV Series, Smiley Face Killers: The
Hunt for Justice, revealed a number of new factors to the case.
Jim Wilde, the man who found Geib's body, stated that he had tied his canoe up, but found it
floating out on the lake filled with beer cans before they discovered Todd's body. Additionally,
his brother had been out fishing the previous night, and despite being in the same part of the
lake, Todd's body was not seen.
My brother actually was on [the lake] the night before with his son fishing. And when you fish this lake, you fish all the way around the edges. They had seen nothing.
- Jim Wilde, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Wilde was never officially interviewed for a statement by the authorities.
Pharmacist, David McDiarmid confirmed that both amitriptyline and desipramine are anti-depressants
that, when taken together, could cause increased side effects such as hallucinations, agitation and
confusion, and are not party drugs.
You could only get them written through either psychiatrist or primary care physician, so they have to have a written prescription in order to obtain them.
I don't normally see those medications or two drugs in the same class, usually you will have one or the other.
It's not something that somebody's going to take on a recreational basis, they're not going to take it to have a euphoric feeling in order to get high, that's not how that drug works.
- David McDiarmid, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
I would imagine you should have more biofilm, more slime buildup.
The other thing, it looks like part of his head was exposed. There should be insects in the clothing, even in the mouth, in and on the ears, in the folds of the skin. That's where these flies will typically lay their eggs.
- M Eric Benbow, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
After visiting the lake, Benbow suggested recreating the conditions on the lake Geib would have undergone using pig carcasses in similar clothing to his own at the time. The evidence showed that by day 21 the body had collapsed from insect colonization, and thick green biofilm covered the clothing.
Given our experiment, I find it very surprising that Todd's body had no reported insect activity, and the clothing had no algal development.
- M Eric Benbow, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Despite the newly presented evidence, Michigan State Police refused to reopen the case as a homicide, adamant that Geib's death was an accidental drowning caused by alcohol consumption.
Considered one of the only survivors of a supposed Smiley Face Killer encounter. Cullen Fortney
(21) was a student at the University of Wisconsin.
On the evening of January 7, 2006, Fortney was driving to downtown La Crosse, Wisconsin after
picking up some friends for a night out. The trio arrived at John's Bar, with Fortney last seen
dancing at 1:45 AM January 8.
Fortney later stated that he didn't remember anything after leaving the bar, leading up to the
moment he found himself in the cold Mississippi River. Fortney swam with the current and finally
managed to pull himself ashore before collapsing with exhaustion. Eventually, Fortney regained
consciousness and, following the sounds of the morning traffic, found his way to the Gundersen
Lutheran Medical Center at around 7:00 AM where he reported that someone had tried
to kill him.
The police requested a blood analysis for Fortney, with the results showing he had a blood alcohol
concentration of 0.043. Police summised that a drunken Fortney entered the water after John's Bar
closed, at around 2:00 AM, though based on the cold temperatures of the water, this does seem
unlikely:
If the police say that Cullen entered the water sometime after bar closing at 02:00 hours, then he would have been dead by 03:00 hours as a result of 32 °Fahrenheit water and hypothermia. He would not have been alive to walk into the hospital some 4 hours later.
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics 2014
Whether by coincidence or not, a friend of Fortney's who was also at John's Bar that same evening
had trouble recollecting the events that took place that night. His only recollection was going to
John's Bar and waking up later in the lobby of the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center with no idea
how he got there.
With Fortney having survived, police closed the case, simply believing it to be an accident,
despite Fortney's insistance that he had met with foul play.
Lucas "Luke" Homan (21) was a successful sports athlete, specialising in both basketball and
football. His prowess in the latter earned him a spot on the team at the University of Wisconsin,
La Crosse, leading them to numerous wins.
On September 29, 2006, Homan was out celebrating Oktoberfest with friends in downtown La Crosse,
Wisconsin at a bar called The Vibe. Before 10:00 PM, his friends left the bar, having not
seen Homan since 9:00 or 9:30 PM and assuming he had already left. The following morning, Homan
didn't show up to a planned golf outing, and with the eventual discovery of his mobile phone
beneath his bed, his friends reported Homan as missing.
Of the interviewed witnesses, Austin Scott, a freshman at UW-La Crosse, stated that at around 12:30
AM, Homan had gotten into a verbal altercation with three men at the bar, causing him to leave. On
further inspection, the statement was proven to be false, with story alterations and conflicting
witness reports nullifying the validity of his claims. In reality, Scott had been cited at
Riverside Park and had been detained for underage drinking, proving his story had been completely
fabricated. He was also discovered with a head wound.
After bringing in police dogs, Homan's scent led them to Riverside Park, where his body was
found nearby at the bottom of the Mississippi River. An orange smiley face was discovered spray
painted on the asphalt of a nearby road.
According to the autopsy reports, Homan had bruises and abrasions on his biceps, knuckles, and
torso, as well as epidurmal blisters on his wrists, and scratches and a pressure wound on his
forehead. Detective Mike Donovan noted that these particular wounds were comparative to those of
someone having been in a fight.
He's got defensive wounds and offense wounds from blocking and striking.
- Mike Donovan, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
The toxicology report came back negative, though it was revealed he had acute alcohol intoxication,
with his blood alcohol concentration at a level of 0.32. Authorities deemed Homan's death as an
accidental cold water drowning, with police deducing that Homan drunkenly stumbled into the river,
with his injuries caused by tripping on a rock and travel abrasions while in the water.
During the 2019 TV Series, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, further investigations
were made by Gannon and Duarte. They discovered that Homan's sweatshirt contained flecks of
fluorescent orange material that experts identified as a type of nail polish:
Those orange flecks match a smiley face that was very close to the scene, a couple of 100 yards from where Luke Homan's body was recovered.
- Kevin Gannon, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Former FBI Dive Team Leader, Bobby Chacon, reviewed the autopsy report and made several statements that contradict the original report. Chacon stated that Homan's injuries resembled self-defense wounds, and that due to the red colouration of them, they are likely to have been made before death.
I've seen bodies that have been beat up after, it's usually white or it's no colour at all, because a body doesn't send any blood there post-mortem.
- Bobby Chacon, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Additionally, Chacon pointed out that Homan's body showed no signs of decomposition, and his clothes were relatively clean despite the official report that Homan had been in the river for over 50 hours.
The traditional things that I used to see on bodies that were in the water that long, I don't see it on this body.
I would expect him to be much more covered with debris, and dirt and mud...The dirt around this body would have been built up. If he was on the bottom for fifty plus hours in the Mississippi you would expect this whole area to be caked and embedded with mud.
- Bobby Chacon, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
After evaluating photographs from the case, Forensic Toolmark Annalyst, William Moore, remarked that the abrasions on Homan's forehead may have been caused by a boot applying pressure, suggesting foul play.
What I did see was this general outline. I also took particular interest in the set of scratches in the center of what appears to be a pattern.
I have a tendency to believe this looks somewhat like an outsole. Suggesting that the scratching was from a stone stuck between the treads of a boot.
- William Moore, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Despite the new evidence, the case of Lucas Homan remains closed.
Described by his family as a kind, respectful young man, Thomas "Tommy" Booth (24) was from
Wilmington, Delaware where he worked as a master drywaller. He suffered from epilepsy, and was
prescribed a myriad of medications, including alprazolam (a benzodiazepine), to help him cope with
his disorder.
On January 19, 2008, Booth and a group of friends set out in three separate vehicles to celebrate a
friend's 21st birthday at Bootlegger's Bar in Woodlyn, Pennsylvania. Arriving just before 11:00 PM,
all nine friends were captured on surveillance camera entering the bar. At around 12:45 AM, two
members of the group were ejected from the bar for smoking marijuana, and at 12:52 AM, most of the
friends left, leaving only Booth and the friend who drove him at the bar. Between 1:00 and 2:00 AM,
Booth disappeared, despite not having been seen leaving the bar on the surveillance camera.
On January 20, Booth's family filed a missing persons report before investigating the area around
Bootlegger's Bar themselves. A winter storm had hit the area shortly after Booth's disappearance,
so two days later, on January 22, the family walked along Ridley Creek, located directly behind
Bootlegger's Bar, concerned that Booth may have fallen through and been trapped underneath. The
authorities brought in police dogs, but caught no scent of Booth. By February 2, the temperature
had increased, and a friend of the Booth's, William Derr, decided to walk along the creek now that
the ice had all thawed, but still found no sign of him.
I worked my way all the way down the creek, past the baseball field.
I didn't see anything at all.
I was standing right above that spot [where the body was found].
- William Derr, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Witness reports and interviews conducted offered a mixture of contradictory statements. Much of the
information given to police by Booth's friends was either inconsistent with one another, was
changed several times, or was proven false by other witnesses. Despite this, the police did not
bring anybody in for further questioning, and avoided questioning some witnesses altogether.
On February 3, search teams discovered the body of Booth in Ridley Creek, face down on the opposite
bank from Bootlegger's Bar. The body was in a state of rigor mortis, suggesting that Booth had not
been in the river the entire time he had been missing.
Rigor mortis is the stiffening of the body after death, which subsides within 24 hours.
According to the autopsy report, Tommy was recovered in full rigor, completely stiff, which means that Tommy was dead for less than 24 hours.
- Kevin Gannon, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
His body was positioned with his arms flexed inwards across his chest, with broken branches that
looked to have been placed protruding from the mud bank, holding his body in place by the armpit
and groin. A set of bootprints were found in the mud nearby, which were not analysed or catalogued
as evidence by the police. Drag marks were noted leading to the body's head, with mud caked on
Booth's face and upper body, but not on his legs, suggesting Booth had been dragged by his legs.
Graffiti of a smiley face was found behind Bootlegger's Bar, where Booth was last seen, with
another found later replacing the previous one after it was painted over.
The autopsy report revealed that Booth's body was in good condition, with the only area showing any
form of decomposition being the lower right portion of his abdomen. Police determined the lack of
decomposition was due to Booth being submerged in frozen water, slowing the process of
decomposition, something Dr. Lee Gilbertson refuted:
If you freeze something, the water expands, it breaks the cell wall. So when you thaw it out, it decomposes very, very rapidly and becomes mush, and you don't see that here.
- Lee Gilbertson, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Superficial injuries were found on the front side of the body, with knee wounds and his chest
showing a red colouration, suggesting they were caused pre-mortem, while the head and face wounds
were colourless, suggesting they were caused post-mortem. The only other wound was found on the
back of his hand, which resembled that of a cigarette burn. The toxicology report revealed that
Booth had a blood alcohol concentration at a level of 0.22, as well as 0.01mg of alprazolam per ml
of blood in his system. Booth's cause of death was concluded as an accidental drowning despite
there being no water being found in his lungs, and the manner of death was left undetermined,
though the doctor in charge would later go on to state that the circumstances around Booth's death
and recovery were suspicious. Captain Scott Willoughby, a detective at the time, informed the Booth
family that their investigation had ruled out foul play, and it was likely that Booth had
accidentally drowned in Ridley Creek while intoxicated.
In 2019, Gannon and Duarte reinvestigated the case for the TV Series, Smiley Face Killers: The
Hunt for Justice. During their investigation, additional details about his background and
events leading up to Booth's death
came from his family. According to his mother, Booth had received a troubling phone call from
someone where it sounded like he was trying to resolve a heated issue. He had also made it clear to
his uncle, Brad Booth, that he was thinking of moving to Florida, and on one occassion had
mentioned to his mother that he wasn't going to be around much longer.
Whatever Tommy was afraid of was something of a serious nature, so much so that he was ready to move to Florida.
- Kevin Gannon, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Speaking to Harry Porter, Booth's boss, the friends Booth associated with friends were involved in criminal activities:
He mentioned that some of these guys were getting into basically underworld stuff, a little deeper than he was comfortable with.
I think he had some involvement that he wanted out of.
Tommy had conversations with me about them getting deeper and deeper into doing things like guns and drugs.
- Harry Porter, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Crime Scene Reconstruction Expert, Scott Roder, built a CGI model from the physical and forensic evidence to deduce the most probable sequence of events leading to Booth's demise. Roder pointed out that the lack of bloating and skin slippage suggested Booth had not been in the creek for long. Additionally, fixed lividity on Booth's back suggested he died on his back rather than his front, despite being found face down. Fluid was not found in Booth's lungs. Rigor mortis was affecting Booth's body on discovery, which should have dissipated within 24-36 hours from the time of death. Finally, the drag marks found near Booth's body, and the position his feet were found in suggested that the body had been dragged:
I believe there is more evidence to suggest that it's more probable than not that he was not a drowning victim.
- Scott Roder, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
According to Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Cyril Wecht, the death of Booth was highly suspicious. Having taken a look at the medical examiner's report, West noted that the external findings were complicating factors, specifically the body being found in a state of rigor mortis:
There's no way in the world that rigor mortis remains fixed for fourteen and a half days. It's not even a close call.
It would be my opinion, based upon a reasonable degree of forensic scientific medical certainty, that this case is highly suspicious of foul play.
- Cyril Wecht, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Having been presented with the new evidence, Captain Scott Willoughby refuted the idea that drag marks were present, suggesting they instead were caused by the creek's tide:
The creek obviously works off of the Delaware River. His body would've floated down directly into this sandbar and got lodged.
I don't think that this is a drag mark at all. I think this is just the tidal water flowing around his body.
- Scott Willoughby, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Despite the new evidence being passed along to the medical examiner, Booth's case remains closed.
Described by his mother as having a "good head on his shoulders", Dan Zamlen (18) was a freshman at
the University of St. Thomas. He was a Catholic altar boy and an Eagle Scout who kept himself in
good physical condition by running, despite his Type I diabetes.
On April 5, 2009, Zamlen was attending a party hosted by classmates near the St. Thomas campus. At
around 2:00 AM, he left the party, purportedly annoyed about something. He walked along a trail on
Mississippi River Boulevard, and at around 2:30 AM, Zamlen spoke to his friend, Anna Chappuis, on
his mobile phone. He let her know that he was heading to meet friends at the university of
Minnesota. Chappuis responded that she would pick him up, so she got in her car and set out to find
him, telling him look for her headlights. Suddenly, Zamlen said "Oh, my gosh, Anna, where are you?
Help!" before the call cut out abruptly. Repeated calls to Zamlen's phone were left unanswered
until around 8:30 AM when his battery died.
Police, family and friends took to searching for Zamlin, scouring the banks of the Mississippi
River and its surroundings. The University of Minnesota organised a thorough door-to-door search,
while helicopters looked from the sky, and water patrols hunted along the shoreline. The only piece
of supposed evidence found was a footprint leading away from the river, but whether it belonged to
Zamlin could not be determined. Around April 7, blood hounds were brought in to search the area,
with them stopping around the same spot several times, which was nowhere near the river.
Witness reports were said to be varied, with several testimonies taken from people at the party on
the night Zamlen's disappearance occured yielding conflicting information, including what was said
on the phone call between Zamlen and Chappuis.
On May 1, Zamlen's body was discovered in the Mississippi River by a worker of the Ford Motor Co.
power plant in St. Paul, who found the body whilst cleaning a water intake grate that catches
debris in the river. The area the body was found in had been searched previously.
Due to the Minnesota Data Practices Act, detailed information on the condition of Zamlen's body and
what the coroner found have never been made public. Police determined that the death was a case of
an accidental drowning, with Zamlen having gotten too close to the river, slipping and subsequently
drowning.
I have always known Dan to be a very careful person. He had a good head on his shoulders and I just find it startling that the autopsy came back as an accident. It just doesn't seem to me that the puzzle pieces are really fitting correctly.
- Courtney Anderson, Duluth News Tribune, 2009
Police Spokesman, Paul Schnell, went on to make a troubling statement considering the conclusion of the case:
[Police don't know] exactly when or where [Zamlen fell in].
Those are things we may never know.
- Paul Schnell, Pioneer Press, 2009
On February 8, 2010, it was reported that police had released new information regarding the case to
the media. Amongst the information, was the revelation that Zamlen had supposedly been conflicted
over his sexual orientation, and had confessed to friends on the night of his disappearance that he
was thinking of killing himself.
Dissatisfied with the conclusion of the case, and believing the police were trying to assassinate
their son's character through unreliable witness statements, Zamlen's family requested St. Louis
County Medical Examiner, Dr. Thomas Uncini, to perform a second autopsy of the body. He concluded
that Zamlen showed no physical signs of having fallen down the slopes and into the river:
It is likely he drowned, but I feel the manner of death cannot be determined and requires more police investigation and/or access to existing police records
- Thomas Uncini, Duluth News Tribune, 2010
A second toxicology report revealed the presence of GHB in Zamlen's system, though the body
produces GHB naturally, so it can't be determined whether Zamlen was drugged or not.
A final discovery, noted in the released new information, was the discovery of a baseball
marked with a smiley face on it, as well as a smiley face painted in graffiti on a sign, both found
near the bluffs.
Speaking to Derrick Levasseur and Kris Mohandie on the 2018 TV show Breaking Homicide,
Zamlen's mother stated that she didn't believe the drowning to be related to the smiley face
killers theory:
In Dan's case, I believe he was picked up by somebody and went into a coma. And whoever had him, didn't know what to do with him.
- Sally Zamlen, Breaking Homicide, 2018
Dan Zamlen's case remains officially closed to this day.
A graduate of the Fourth Baptist Christian School in North Minneapolis, Jelani Brinson (24) was a
devoted Christian, planning to become a minister. He was a loving father, and was said to have
spoke of his intentions to marry often to his girlfriend, Dena Anderson.
On April 17, 2009, Brinson would arrive at Mad Jack's Sports Cafe in Brooklyn Park to meet with
friends at around 7:30 PM. He met with a colleague from the Sprint store that he worked at, and
both of them set out for another Sprint store on Colorado Lane at 8:00 PM, where they talked with
two more work colleagues. At 8:30 PM, Brinson visited his younger brother at his home in Brooklyn
Park before returning home to play with his daughter. At around 9:00 PM, headed in the direction of
Victory Grill, to meet with his friends that had moved on from Mad Jack's Cafe, however, Brinson
was said to have never made it to Victory Grill, and instead wound up at a house party in Anoka,
arriving close to 10:00 PM. After answering a phone call, Brinson suddenly left the party, and when
friends went outside to look for him at 10:05 PM, he was nowhere to be seen.
The search for Brinson began immediately, with friends from the party searching the area on foot
before getting in a car and continued their search, but only finding Brinson's car which was in a
parking lot near the Victory Grill. The following day at 2:00 PM, Brinson's family reported him as
missing to the authorities. Family and friends did a door-to-door search, asking neighbours if they
had seen Brinson, while the friends who had searched the previous night retraced their path,
finally discovering Brinson's hat and shoe behind a wooden fence to the south of the neighbours'
homes. On April 19th, The search continued, with search and rescue teams bringing in K9 units.
Brinson's girlfriend searched from the train tracks where his hat and shoe had been found, down to
the Mississippi River nearby. Brinson's second shoe was recovered not too far from his other
personal effects, on the property of the Bolduc Company. On April 20, authorities began searching
along the Mississippi River.
It wasn't until April 25, the body of Brinson was discovered by an employee of Green Haven Golf
Course, who spotted something floating in a pond on the west side of the clubhouse. Brinson's body
was found floating on his back in 2 to 3 feet of water, with his right hand sticking up out of the
pond. Brinson still had his wallet on his person which ruled out a mugging. Strangely, Brinson's
socks were clean, suggesting he was placed in the pond, as he was missing his shoes, and would've
had at least some grass or mud on them if he walked into the pond. The body was found in a state of
rigor, suggesting that Brinson had only been dead a short time.
According to the medical examiner, Brinson's death took place before he was placed in the pond. The
body was absent any physical injuries or marks, no alcohol or drugs were found in his system, and
anatomical issues, as well as drowning were all ruled out. The toxicology report showed that
Brinson had not consumed any alcohol, but he had a high enough level of GHB in his system to be
considered not to have complete control of has faculties:
He would have been euphoric, confused, sleepy, demonstrating poor judgment, and compliant to the wishes of others. He would have been slightly clumsy, but could have moved under his own power and easily directed to where others wanted him to go.
- Lee Gilbertson and Kevin Gannin, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, 2014
The cause of death was ultimately deemed inconclusive.
The coroner couldn't say why he died. That's what makes this investigation so difficult. It is particularly frustrating because normally in a situation like this we expect certain things to be apparent. If he's found in a pond, you'd think he drowned. He did not. Or if he was dumped there, you'd think you'd find an anatomical cause of death or a drug overdose. But there was none.
- Paul Sommer, Medium, 2023
Investigating the case further, Gannon and Gilbertson pointed out in their 2014 book Case Studies in Drowning Forensics that it was suspicious that Brinson's shoes and hat found during the search created a path leading from the house party to the golf course pond, yet K9 units couldn't pick up a single scent of Brinson from them. Additionally, the fact Brinson had clean socks proved that it was unlikely that Brinson walked into the pond himself, and even less likely that he spent the entire time he was missing walking around in his socks.
No matter what scenario we considered, we kept coming back to the socks. The only way for Jelani to get to the middle of the pond without soiling the bottoms of his socks was for him to be carried there.
- Lee Gilbertson and Kevin Gannin, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, 2014
The pair theorised that the summation of evidence suggested that something violent happened to Brinson at the party, or he fled and was pursued. He was then kept somewhere for a period of time before being killed and dumped in the pond, with his shoes and hat being placed later to suggest that Brinson had walked to the golf course of his own volition before drowning in the pond.
The person(s) who placed the shoes and hat in the search area knew on April 17th that Jelani would ultimately be found deceased in the golf course pond sometime later. This is also why there was no scenting of Jelani anywhere near where the items were discovered.
- Lee Gilbertson and Kevin Gannin, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, 2014
The case of Jelani Brinson is still open and authorities are accepting any further information regarding the investigation.
Described by friends as a good student and social individual, Gerald Smith (22) was a senior at
Indiana State University, who was known to have a love for both computer software and hardware.
On April 30, 2009, Smith, along with a group of classmates and faculty, were out celebrating the
completion of a business project at the Ballyhoo Tavern in Terre Haute, Indiana. At around 12:20 AM
on May 1, Smith was said to have been escorted out of the front entrance by two men, supposedly for
having vomited in the bar. Once outside, Smith began to walk before being stopped by a student and
teacher at around 12:40 AM. They encouraged him to get a taxi back to his dorm, to which he
refused, stating that he was able to walk back. Smith was reported as missing later that evening.
Once he was reported as missing, a number of volunteers and university officials scoured the area
of campus near where Smith was last seen. The following day, a larger swath of the university
grounds is searched in the evening. On May 3, the search area was increased, with the shores of the
Wabash River now included. Horseback officers from the Vigo County Sheriff's Department searched
the banks of the Wabash River unsuccessfully. K9 units were said to have picked up several scents
linked to Smith, including a scent leading from Ballyhoo Tavern all the way to 1st Street before
disappearing, as well as one leading to an apartment on Spruce Street. On May 4, the search
continued, with volunteers and university staff searching at around 3:00 PM. The search for Smith
was considered to have been incredibly thorough:
Search efforts were perhaps some of the best we have seen. They were exhaustive and conducted on all shifts, day and night, on foot, horseback, ATV, boat, and vehicle.
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics 2014
Witnesses at the Ballyhoo Tavern stated that Smith had been drinking heavily, something he wasn't
known to do often. Detective Denzil Lewis confirmed that he had been present and off-duty that
night, and had asked Smith to leave the bar, to which he politely cooperated. A number of further
witnesses came forward, including a Circle K clerk who mentioned having seen Smith between 1:00 and
1:30 AM when he tried to make a purchase, while her colleague had seen him the following day out by
the dumpsters, though CCTV footage revealed nothing. One witness claimed to see Smith staggering
around the intersection of Canal Street and North 2nd Street between 1:30 AM to 1:45 AM, where a
golden Toyota Camry, occupied by a woman and a man, stopped to speak to Smith for a few minutes
before leaving. Another witness, a bus driver, claimed that a man resembling Jerry, who was
accompanied by a similar aged man, had attempted to board her bus at around 2:30 AM but was
refused as she was off-duty. A final witness, a security officer, claimed to have seen a man
resembling Jerry walk into Union Hospital's Emergency Room lobby at 3:30 AM. The man had mentioned
that he had walked from Ballyhoo Tavern and was expecting his girlfriend to arrive via ambulance to
the emergency room, but left once a receptionist informed him that no ambulances were en route, and
the security officer had let him know that she may have been transported to Regional Hospital.
On May 8, at around 7:00 PM, Smith's body was discovered by four local residents, floating in the
Wabash River. The body was found face down, and was 50 miles away from where Smith had been last
seen. Smith's body still had his phone on his person. A toxicology report showed that Smith's blood
alcohol concentration was at 0.149, and GHB was found in his system. The autopsy report stated that
there was no signs of foul play, and the cause of death was accidental drowning.
In their 2014 book, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics, Gannon and Gilbertson reveal more
details about the case while doing their own further investigations.
The apartment that the K9 traced Smith's scent to belonged to a man who was in a relationship with
a woman that Smith had interacted with at the Ballyhoo Tavern on the night of his disappearance.
During the night, Smith had reportedly put his arm around the woman's shoulders, prompting her
boyfriend to become jealous and verbally confront Smith. The man then left Ballyhoo Tavern with
three friends. Despite the woman claiming her boyfriend wouldn't hurt Smith physically, she also
reported to police that he had mentioned committing suicide shortly after Smith's disappearance.
Upon investigating Ballyhoo Tavern to obtain CCTV footage, authorities found that the footage on
the night Smith went missing had a recording gap lasting from 12:00 AM to 1:00 AM, the exact time
Smith would have been escorted out of the tavern.
Cell phone records recovered from Smith's phone revealed some puzzling facts, showing that between
the hours of 9:00 PM and 10:00 PM on April 30, Smith's phone was not with him in Ballyhoo Tavern. A
photograph was found to have been taken on the phone at 9:51 PM, with the coordinates showing it
was taken over a mile away by foot. There was no mention of Smith leaving the bar and returning, so
whether he took the photo or someone else did and returned the phone to him is unknown.
Did Jerry leave the Ballyhoo, travel across town to take the picture, and then return to the bar? Or, did someone borrow his phone, leave the bar, come back, and return Jerry's phone to him?
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics 2014
A number of errors made in the autopsy report were highlighted by Gannon and Gilbertson, such as it stating that Smith's ears were not pierced, when they clearly were. Smith was also reported as wearing loafer shoes, when he was in fact wearing ankle-high boots. No ocular changes were described in the report, an odd omission in an autopsy. Smith's body was found with a ballpoint pen on his person, though his parents received a pencil in his personal effects instead. And finally, a witness reported giving Smith a cigarette on the night of his disappearance at around 11:45 PM, but no nicotine or cotinine was reported in the toxicology report. Following up with his own test, Gilbertson found that Smith had a higher nicotine level than cotinine, heavily suggesting that unless he died shortly after smoking, Smith had to have been alive for some time for the nicotine and cotinine to have left his system:The only way for him to have the nicotine and cotinine values that he did was to have died before the nicotine peaked in his blood and any cotinine appeared. In other words, Jerry would have had to have died within 1/2 hour of beginning to smoke the cigarette. But, nearly an hour had already passed between when he smoked the cigarette (23:45 hours) and when he left the bar (00:40 hours). Since residual cotinine would have remained in his blood from the cigarette he had smoked in the Ballyhoo Tavern, this meant that the cotinine in Jerry's bloodstream from the night he disappeared had to entirely clear his system and then the process restarted.
- Kevin Gannon and Lee Gilbertson, Case Studies in Drowning Forensics 2014
Gannon and Gilbertson concluded that Smith was likely kidnapped, plied with alcohol and GBL while being held for some time, and given a final cigarette before being killed by asphyxia or hypoxia before being placed in the river.
Described as funny, spontaneous and genuine, William Hurley (24) was a Navy veteran who liked to
draw and had aspirations to be a landscape architect.
On October 8, 2009, Hurley and some friends attended a Bruins hockey game at the TD Garden in
Boston, Massachusetts. During the game, Hurley had texted his girlfriend, Claire LeBeau, several
times, frustrated about someone who was sitting with them. Midway through the game, Hurley
announced to his friends that he wanted to leave, and asked his LeBeau to come pick him up.
Hurley was caught on security camera footage leaving the arena. LeBeau left Dorchester to pick him
up, calling him as she approached the front of the arena to coordinate with one another. While on
the phone, Hurley seemed lost and told LeBeau that his cell phone battery was about to die, she
told him to ask someone where he was and overheard a voice inform Hurley that he was at "99 Nashua
Street" before the phone abruptly cut out. Upon her arrival to Nashua Street, LeBeau was unable
to find Hurley, and after unsuccessfully trying to get his attention by yelling his name, she
reluctantly returned home.
The following morning, LeBeau attempted to report Hurley as missing with the police after she
still had not heard from him, but she had to wait 24 hours before she could file an official
report. LeBeau contacted Hurley's family who all set out to Boston to look for him themselves,
putting up missing posters around the waterfront. Eventually, the police got involved, and on
October 11, his cell phone was found, broken, near 99 Nashua Street. Police were stated to have
done a thorough search of the Charles River on October 13, but found no signs of Hurley. Police
were so confident that Hurley was not in the river that they contacted LeBeau, confirming that
Hurley is not in the river and they will continue to search for him.
On October 14, a police officer on a routine walk discovered Hurley's body floating around 30
feet offshore of the Charles River.
The autopsy report revealed that Hurley had suffered blunt force trauma to the eye, while the
toxicology report came back as positive, showing he had abnormally high levels of GHB in his
system, with only traces of alcohol. Hurley's cause of death was concluded as an accidental
drowning, though the manner of death was left undetermined. The police determined that Hurley had
been intoxicated, stumbled and fell into the river (causing his eye wound), and drowned.
In 2015, retired Boston Police Officer, Joe Fisher, did some research in the area due to the
influx of drowning cases. He went on to discover the graffiti of a smiley face with three stars,
found near the Boston Harbor, as well as another smiley face found in a park near 99 Nashua:
I see the smiley face and there's three stars above it, and it occurs to me at that point three of the victims had gone missing into the Boston Harbor.
Smiley face, three stars, three victims recovered by Boston police.
- Joe Fisher, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Gannon and Duarte took another look into the case for the 2019 TV series Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice. During their investigation, Derek Ellington, a digital forensic analyst took a close look into Hurley's broken cell phone, who claimed that the damage looked more like human intervention than an accident caused by a car, as the police reported:
When a phone is run over, you don't see that much damage, maybe a cracked screen.
It might squish, it might deform a little bit.
There's an awful lot of damage to the hinge...when somebody wants to destroy a phone, it's always take the battery out, discard it and then they do what we call a 'twist and separate'.
- Derek Ellington, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Professional Toxicologist, Sabra Botch-Jones, was shown the surveillance footage of Hurley the night he went missing to deduce if he was under the influence when he disappeared.
He has definitely had some lack of balance going on. Little bit of sway.
He is under the influence of an impairing substance.
- Sabra Botch-Jones, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
According to Forensic Pathologist, Elizabeth Laposata, the injury sustained to Hurley's eye did not correlate to an injury caused by falling due to the soft-tissue, not the bone, being the point of impact:
The way we can tell someone has head injuries from a fall, when they fall, they hit the bony prominences... They don't hit the recessed area.
- Elizabeth Laposata, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Underwater Forensics Investigator, Rhonda Moniz, determined that it was impossible for Hurley's body to have entered the river where police deduced. His body would have had to have entered the water much further upstream, or it was placed just prior to being found by the police:
The Charles current flows northeasterly, and [Hurley] was found in the opposite direction of the Charles, before 99 Nashua, which would have been against the current.
We don't have him getting pushed by the wind against the current.
- Rhonda Moniz, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
On sharing the new information with Boston Police Department, who passed it on to Massachusetts State Police. The evidence was being reviewed, but there have been no updates since.
A charismatic and popular student, Jay Polhill (20) was a photography major at Columbia College in
Chicago. Popular on campus, Polhill made many friends turing his time in college, and excelled in
his studies.
On February 28, 2010, Polhill was supposed to show up at a party but never made it. Earlier that
day at 10:00 AM, he had responded to a message from his mother, letting her know that he had a busy
night and that he'd be in touch later. Polhill's girlfriend had also communicated with him, telling
him that she would see him in his dorm after he was done with the party.
On March 2, Polhill's body was discovered in the Calumet River by someone collecting water samples.
His location was near an industrial area close to 126th Street and South Stony Island in South
Chicago, 20 miles away from the Columbia College campus. The body was found naked from the waist
down, with the only item of clothing on him being a t-shirt.
The coroner's report revealed that there was no sign of sexual assault, though the head had
sustained fractures on both sides of the skull, as well as a broken kneck. Both of his legs had
identical laceration marks on them. A toxicology report showed that Polhill had no alcohol or drugs
in his system. The coroner's report came back as inconclusive.
Polhill's family hired a private investigator, who assisted them in getting Medical Examiner, Dr.
Mitra Kalelkar, to take another look at their son's case. On October 10, after consulting
colleagues, the findings were amended, with the method of death due to injuries to the head, and
cause of death as drowning, though police still did not rule the death as a homicide.
Investigators retrieved video surveillance of Polhill leaving his dorm on February 28, heading to
the 500 block of South State Street. He was noted as wearing winter clothes, and carrying a laptop
bag as well as his camera. These items, as well as any other personal effects and clothes have
never been recovered. His friends believed that the missing items point to a robbery turned
violent, as noted by Taylor Streiff, a friend of Polhill's:
He didn't have his camera. He didn't have his laptop. He didn't have his wallet. I believe he was murdered.
- Taylor Streiff, Chicago CBS, 2011
Speaking to his friends, investigators found out that Polhill was working on a photography project
based on bridges, with the Calumet River being a prime location for such a project. This was
affirmed by Polhill's Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) card, which showed that he had taken the Red
Line to the river.
In May 2011, an article written by Pam Zekman for CBS Chicago queried whether the case was not
ruled as a homicide in an effort to keep the homicide rate down in Chicago. Chief of Detectives for
the Chicago Police Department, Thomas Byrne struck back at the suggestion, and confirmed that their
cold case unit was looking into it:
It could turn into a homicide.
- Thomas Byrne, Chicago CBS, 2011
A four-year varsity letterman in wrestling during his years in Chartiers Valley High School, James
"Jimmy" Slack (25) was said to love travelling and spending time outdoors, and was taking time off
working on a barge.
On December 6, 2011, Slack along with a friend, Paulette Beadling, attended a String Cheese
Incident concert at Stage AE in the North Side of Pittsburgh. The pair were dropped off at the
concert by a mutual friend. At around 9:30 PM, Beadling went to the concession stand to get a
drink, and upon returning, Slack was gone. Sometime close to 10:00 PM, Slack took a picture with an
unidentified woman. At 1:00 AM, December 7, Beadling called Slack's cell phone, and the two spoke
briefly and for the next hour, swapped text messages. Beadling mentioned that she had found someone
to take her home from the concert, so she gave Slack her address, as well as a phone number for a
taxi service. At 3:00 AM, Slack told Beadling that he was planning on walking home, that he was out
partying, but he didn't know where he was.
Later that day, Slack's family contacted the authorities after he had failed to answer any phone
calls and failed to show up at his niece's birthday party. The investigation included a thorough
search, with flyers being plastered around Pittsburgh. Local hospitals, jails and medical examiners
were searched by police but to no avail. The family posted a $5,000 reward for any information on
Slack. On December 22, a candlelight vigil was held at Bethan Presbyterian Church in support of
Slack. On December 31, Slack's family contacted the Psychic Vincent Sisters to take a look into the
case and see if they could retrace Slack's footsteps. The sisters believed that Slack would be
found in the Ohio River.
Upon being questioned, the woman that Slack had taken a picture with reported that she had seen
Slack in the smoking section outside of Stage AE, but had not seen him again. Beadling stated that
she believed, based on her conversations with Slack via telephone, that he was quite intoxicated.
On January 23, 2012, Slack's body was found by the crew of a River Quest tour boat on the shore of
the Ohio River, a short distance from the Carnegie Science Center. Slack's wallet, phone and cash
were all found on his body. Authorities concluded that the cause of death was accidental drowning,
but the manner of death was undetermined.
An adventurous man with a kind heart, Nick Wilcox (24) was a political-science major at the
University of Wisconsin.
On December 31, 2013, Wilcox was out celebrating New Year's Eve at the Irish Rec Room: an infamous
bar on North Old World Third Street in downtown Milwaukee.
Some time between 1:00 AM and 2:00 AM on January 1, Wilcox was physically removed from the bar,
with security hauling him out onto the street after stepping in between a physical altercation
involving two other patrons. He would last be seen walking down an alley not far from the club.
According to his girlfriend, Kelly McGonagil, Wilcox's phone would go dead shortly after he was
ejected from the bar, and after an hour had passed, she asked the bouncers where her boyfriend had
gone. According to security, Wilcox had "left with a guy wearing a red shirt".
Wilcox's parents were soon told of his disappearance, and they spent the rest of New Year's Day
searching for him. By January 6, a large number of people were assisting in the search for Wilcox,
with the east side of Milwaukee being combed by several parties, including Alterra on the Lake,
the Oak Leaf Trail, and North Avenue.
On March 28, Wilcox's body was discovered floating in the Milwaukee River by two police officers.
The body was near the 1000 block of N. Old World 3rd Street, some 350-500 feet (less than a block)
from where he was supposedly last seen.
An autopsy report stated that Wilcox's body showed no signs of physical trauma, though it was
heavily decomposed. A toxicology report revealed that Wilcox had a blood alcohol concentration of
0.22. Wilcox's death was ultimately ruled as an accidental drowning.
Wilcox's family refuse to believe his death was caused by accident:
The scenario that has been played out is not like Nick.
- Nick Wilcox Sr., WISN 12, 2013
Nick Wilcox's case remains closed.
A graduate from Pittsburgh's Duquesne University, Paul Kochu (22) worked as an ICU nurse at
Allegheny General Hospital.
On December 15, 2014, Kochu and his two roommates left for the evening to Smoking Joe's on the
south Side of Pittsburgh to drink and watch a game of Monday Night Football. Kochu was the first to
leave the bar, and later that evening, Kochu had gone missing from their apartment. When Kochu
didn't come home on December 16, the roommates got in touch with Kochu's family, who then went to
Pittsburgh to look for him.
Authorities suggested that Kochu may have been staying with a friend, and told his family to wait
to see if he would show up later. A number of volunteers searched the area surrounding Kochu's
apartment. Police investigated Kochu's bank statements and call history, but found that he had not
made any transactions or calls. A CCTV camera caught Kochu walking down a street towards the 10th
Street Bridge at 2:45 AM, with the footage showing that he was walking strangely, as if intoxicated
or hurt. K9 units were brought in, but they were unable trace any scent of Kochu.
According to Kochu's roommates, Kochu had left Smoking Joe's first. At around 1:30 AM, Kochu called
one of his roommates to tell them that he had cut himself and was bleeding, asking them for
assistance. The roommates left to help Kochu back at their apartment to stop the bleeding. When
they got to the apartment, a confrontation flared up between Kochu and the roommates, with Kochu
falling into the wall and hurting himself. On trying to help Kochu, he became emotional, shifting
from being combative to upset. The roommates left to go get food, leaving Kochu alone. CCTV footage
caught the roommates at a McDonalds Drive-Thru around 2:20 AM, with another camera catching them
arriving back at the apartment at 2:30 AM. On their arrival at the apartment, Kochu was gone, along
with his keys, phone and wallet.
On March 20, 2015, Kochu's body was found, naked and floating face-down in the Ohio River, near
Wheeling, West Virginia. The coroner found that Kochu had a minor cut on his hand, three broken
ribs, and a wound on his scalp. The toxicology report stated that Kochu's blood alchohol
concentration level was 0.15. Authorities deemed Kochu's death an accidental drowning, but the
manner of his death remained undetermined.
Kochu's roommates went on to take polygraph tests, with one passing and the other being found as
inconclusive.
In 2016, Kochu's father stated to the Daily Local News in Pennsylvania that Kochu's family did not
agree with the police's conclusion, and believed he had fallen victim to foul play:
The information that we have gotten, we can't agree with.
- Paul Kochu, Daily Local News, 2016
Despite many coincidences linking Kochu's death with other alleged Smiley Face Killer victims, Kevin Gannon was unsure if this was a Smiley Face Killer case:
The Kochu case may be a homicide but may not be related to us.
- Kevin Gannon, Post-Gazette, 2017
Described as a "smart" and "outgoing" man, Dakota James (23) was a carrier sales coordinator
at J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. who had graduated from Duquesne University.
On the night of December 15th, 2016, James had gone out drinking with coworkers, but remembered
nothing from that point on. Disoriented and wandering the streets of downtown Pittsburgh, James
resorted to calling his friend Shelley for help, stating that he was cold, lost and needed
help. Shelley got into her car and left to help James, who told her he was in Pittsburgh's
North Side. Shelley used her GPS to track James' location, which was pinpointing him on the
opposite end of town, at the Springhill Suites on Water Street in Pittsburgh's South Side. On
asking James if he was there, he sent her a photo of a jean-covered leg and responded with
confusion, stating that he was cold, he needed help, and the police wouldn't help him. 10 minutes
later, Shelley pulled up to the Springhill Suites, where she noticed a dark SUV facing the wrong
direction outside of the hotel. James emerged from the hotel and started walking towards the SUV.
After Shelley yelled his name, James turned in her direction, walked to her car, and got in.
Shivering and crying, James was reluctant to speak about what happened that night, only mentioning
that he recalled leaving his work Christmas party to go to some bars with work colleagues. The only
thing he remembered after that is finding himself walking on the street with no memory of how he
got there. He mentioned that he had approached a police officer who wouldn't help, leading to him
calling Shelley. Though his clothes were wet and disheveled, Shelley noticed that James wasn't
slurring his words, and he had walked to her car in a straight line, indicating that he wasn't
drunk. She offered to take him to the hospital, but at his insistence, she took him home. James
thanked Shelley the next day, only mentioning that he had a hangover and telling Shelley to forget
the incident.
On January 25, 2017, James disappeared after a similar night of drinking with friends. He was
caught on surveillance camera at 11:49 PM in Downtown Pittsburgh, walking through Katz Plaza and
down an alley toward Fort Duquesne Boulevard.
James was discovered on April 6, when his lifeless body was found floating face up in the Ohio
River, 10 miles from where he was last seen. Graffiti of an upside-down smiley face was found
beneath the I-79 Bridge, upstream from where James' body was found.
The autopsy report stated that James' body had undergone moderate decomposition, and that there was
no evidence of recent physical violence or trauma. The police did not release any photo evidence of
the scene, and deduced that James had fallen into the river near the Roberto Clemente Bridge in the
city center on the night he went missing.
From the autopsy report that the family sent me, there's very little injuries to the body, and he supposedly travelled ten miles over a dam, which he should have incurred, even post-mortem.
The autopsy report states, only moderate decomposition. After fourty days in the water, Dakota's body should have had extensive decomposition.
- Kevin Gannon, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
As part of Gannon and Duarte's reinvestigation during the 2019 Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice TV show, they spoke to Computer Forensic Expert, Raymond Hsieh, who was able to pinpoint a suspicious transaction that was made on James' credit card two days after his disappearance.
Friday, 27, in the very late night at 11:05... they have some kind've purchase, and it comes from PayPal.
- Raymond Hsieh, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Private Investigator, Larry Forletta, retraced James' footsteps from the night of his disappearance. In doing so, it was noted that despite the police's insistence that James fell into the river at the Roberto Clemente Bridge, the cameras located on the bridge did not capture any footage of James that night, suggesting that it wasn't where James entered the water.
Those cameras, they cover this traffic on this 10th Street bypass.
...as I understand it, he would have been picked up on those cameras on the other side of the bridge.
- Larry Forletta, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
Speaking to members of Robinson Township Swift Water Rescue, who recovered James' body, and the Army Corps of Engineers that operate the dam, it was very unlikely that James' body would be as pristine as it was, if it had passed through the dam. Lock records released regarding the dam showed that on the day James would have passed through, the gates were not open wide enough for a body to pass without getting damaged, though if James' body passed through earlier, it would have been possible to pass through unharmed:
The total opening of all fourteen gates was twenty-five and a half feet.
If [James] were to have gone through the dam, it's quite plausible that he would've been beat up like crazy, because the openings would have been small.
I know on March first, for example, they had number one gate open seven and a half feet...
You have an opening that's seven and a half foot wide... Could he float through that dam and not touch any of the sides? I say yes.
- Werner Loehlein, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
The James' family were finally able to acquire the official police and autopsy reports, as well as recovery photographs. The findings showed marks on James' neck and fingers that had been left out of the autopsy report. Taking a look at the photos, Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Cyril Wecht, highlighted evidence that insinuated human intervention was a likely cause of death:
[The wounds] are strongly suggestive of, and entirely consistent with ligature having been applied around the neck. This death may have been due to ligature strangulation.
I notice a distinct difference in the colouration of the fingernail beds, of the fourth and fifth fingers on both the right and left hands, and they certainly would be consistent with someone reaching up and trying to release the pressure from a ligature that is being applied around their neck.
- Cyril Wecht, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice, 2019
A representative of the District Attorney investigated the claims, but concluded that the ligature marks were simply dried blood that had been washed off during the autopsy. The case remains closed.
The Smiley Face Murder theory has drawn many detractors, with a number of people pointing out inconsistencies and flaws throughout the theory.
A large amount of scrutiny is placed on the smiley face graffiti tag itself:There is a time order problem where we don't know when the smiley face was painted. It could have been painted years prior to when the body entered the water. In addition, the smiley faces are all different. No two smiley faces ever matched.
- Dallas Drake, Breaking Homicide, 2018
A similar notion is held by criminal profiler, Pat Brown who believes that the smiley face graffiti is much more likely to be a coincidence:
It's not an unusual symbol.
If you look in any area five miles square, I bet you could find a smiley face.
- Pat Brown, City Pages, 2009
The 2010 "Drowning the Smiley Face Murder Theory" research brief released by the Center for
Homicide Research detailed eighteen points debunking the Smiley Face Murder theory.
On March 6, Ruban Rosario wrote a scathing article for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, in which
he claimed that Gannon and Duarte had given false hope to families of drowning victims. He also
highlighted how Kristi Piehl and several parents of drowning victims who were supportive of the
theory are now skeptical.
