Smiley Face Killer Mystery (Photos)
In the past ten years, the deaths of more than 40 men from twenty-five cities in eleven states have been ruled accidental, due to drowning. In most cases, the men were college students who had been bar-hopping and ended up in local lakes and rivers. One of those deaths has since been declared a homicide and two New York detectives are trying to prove that the other drowning deaths are related.
Former police detectives Anthony Duarte and Kevin Gannon have mounted their own investigation into the similarities between the death of University of Minnesota student Chris Jenkins, whose body was pulled from the Mississippi River in 2003, and the deaths of other men. The retired cops believe that a serial killer or gang, dubbed ‘Smiley Face’, has been responsible for attacking drunken men and dumping them into area bodies of water.
Smiley faces and other matching gang graffiti symbols have been found painted on sidewalks and trees near the sites of drownings in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa (see photos below).
The pair first looked into the death of Patrick McNeill, a college student who drowned in 1997 in NYC. They promised the teen’s parents that they would attempt to uncover evidence of foul play. As the suspicious cases have mounted, their resolve remains even stronger to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Check out photos and video below.
Video one
Video two
Filed under: Celebrities
In at least one case the student thought he was being chased and his footprints went down the bank and out onto the ice of the river until he ran into open water. He fell into the water and drowned.
There was only one set of running footprints, his.
This suggests he was having a psychotic episode. There is a simple problem that will cause a sudden mental break, Subliminal Distraction exposure.
SD is explained in college psychology under the physiology of sight. It caused mental breaks for office workers until the cubicle was introduced after 1968.
VisionAndPsychosis.Net is an investigation of Subliminal Distraction and there are other stories about strange events.
Kudos to those cops — they found a pattern in the randomness of it all. This could be a major case. Forty young men murdered.
in order to know how a killer thinks you must think like one
i got talking to a friend tonight about this “:smily face” killer, and just recently there was a very Sudden Disappearence of a Young male along the Old port here in Portland maine, he was last seen at a Pizza/Bar place along the waters edge, there are no leads, no clues nothing the dude just vanished, and now that im seeing and reading all the news and shit, im think they may have struck again
According to the book the killers are islamic terrorists and have some connection to Minneapolis.
http://www.amazon.com/Smiley-Face-Killers-Coincidence-Conspiracy/dp/1442146648/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1
It’s kinda scarey 2 think about
for the top comment as much as what you are saying is possible its also possible that the victim was carried or somehthing along the lines of that I do believe we have a serieal killer on our hands cause it seems like every year including this year we always have a male not ever a female but a male student who was coming from a party of some sort that seem to always end up in the river…. not 2 people but always one male student…. it just doesnt add up that it is all just a strange event although if there really is 40 victims that just goes to show how smart the person person(s) is. what I think we would caught on by now just doesnt make sense I guess but it needs to come to a end.
Someone maybe should look at ISU in Terre Haute Indiana, 1 student is missing and was around water at his disappearence and in 2002 a kid went missing and was found in the Wabash river??? Just makes ya wonder…………..
I was thinking the same thing as Wondering in Indiana…the missing student from ISU, Gerald Smith, was found 90 miles south of Terre Haute in the Wabash River-presumably accidentally drowned. My thoughts went straight to the smiley face killer…if the appropriate people see this, it could be another case to look into.
just a thought, the ISU student that went missing in 2002 was found in Fairbanks park just off the banks of the Wabash. and the most recent student to be found also vanished form the same area. Fairbanks park is a well know “hang out” for gays and there was a Gay prostution bust a few years back, you can drive through the park any day of the week and find kreepy old men comming and going from cars and stareing at those who pass by. I would be courious to know the sexual orentation of the men who have gone missing… P.s. i am a gay college student myself and i must say this has me thinking
What about Dan Zamlen in MN? Did police find any smiley faces there?
To Gay in Terre Haute, both of the men found in the Wabash were not gay. Smith had a girlfriend at the time. I do not know for how long. As my friend would say, “just because they have a girlfriend, doesn’t mean they aren’t gay”, but still i don’t think he purposely walked several blocks when he was drunk to go to the wabash river. As a drunk person, you are either thinking, “i’m hungry” or I’m tired”…. As for the other missing person who is no longer missing anymore, but dead, why would he purposely go down to fairbanks park when he was in north terre haute? too many questions and so many unanswered.
My old neighbor’s best friend is believed to be a victim of the smiley face killer. Josh Sztosak went missing from a downtown Albany bar, his cell phone was found next to a missing DOT truck in a parking lot and he was ultimately found miles south in the Hudson R- though he was most likely put in near the port of Albany. A Smiley face was found drawn on a tree there. Albany police ruled this an accident… He worked at my supermarket so this feels strangely personal. I really hope they find who ever did this to all these men.
I’m not sure why the authorities think drunk men in their early 20’s can’t swim. There was a lake near my college and after a night of frat parties, bars, and lots of drinking we’d get it into our minds that we needed to jump off the bridge and swim back to shore. We did this totally blitzed and had no problem swiming a few hundred yards. Most of the time we’re dunking each other along the way and still made it back easily.
My professor said something about his brother being murdered by the smiley face killer and that the police should look into the “drowning” of Gerald Smith at ISU… lol we are all saying this and I bet they are already on top of it… with our government who knows… we hope they are doing the right thing but their focus always seems to be in the wrong places… speaking of… did anyone hear about the gov’t owning 70(something)% of GM.. can you say dictator?
There’s a smiley face on the Ford Parkway bridge, just upstream from the Ford Dam power plant where Dan Zamlen was found. It even has devil horns.
I think that it is prob. some type of group or gang as the detectives have described. Too bad it is a widespread issue or undercover work could be done.
What I don’t understand is the fact that I’ve seen video more than once with Chris Jenkin’s mother saying on camera that her son was driven around in a van for hours and tortured before he died. No one seems to ask any questions about this. HOW DID SHE GET THIS INFORMATION????
I pretty sure Chris Jenkins was a closet case. Look at his smile. But I did hear that the reason he got tossed off the bridge was that he was dressed as a Native American for halloween, and some of the local homeless people found that racist.
I currently do not live in MN – but was sadly following the Dan Zamlen case on the Internet News (WCCO and KSTP). I don’t believe that the smiley face on the Ford Parkway bridge was reported in the news, although I wondered if the circumstances of his drowning was somehow connected. It is possible that some of these drownings/possible murders could be copycats, in my opinion. Water washes away many sins. I don’t know why people or the police don’t acknowledge the evil out there? There are predators out there of the most evil kind – and they somehow continue to get away with their crimes. Maybe it causes too much work for the police to find the perpatrators rather than to say the victim suddenly and accidentally drowned in water. I may not be a police officer, but I think I see a pattern.
A young man’s body was just found in the Cedar River in Iowa. He was a student at the University of Iowa and went missing in September. His car was nearby with his wallet in it but they just now found him.
A 24 year old dude named William Hurley has gone missing in very unusual circumstances after leaving a Bruins hockey game in Boston. His g.f. was going to pick him up, and he said his phone was dying and he’d wait at the arranged location. He wasn’t there when she arrived. It’s been 4 days, he’s disappeared.
Friends say he wasn’t upset lately, but he was described as ‘confused’ after having a few beers at the game, and he took off alone. His girlfriend said some stranger was with him during their last phone conversation, giving him directions.
His last location is an isolated parking lot behind Boston’s TD Garden, bordering the Charles River Basin. Police are searching the river. His phone, ATM and C.cards haven’t been used. This is also a area with a lot of bars, clubs, and is popular with college students and locals alike.
Hurley’s physical and mental description is remarkably similar to the other alleged victims.
Now his body has been found, in the water of the Charles River. Has anyone looked around for the tell-tale “Smiley Face”? Wasn’t there something also about some nearby street names having some significance in the previous Smiley Face murders?
This is way too familiar to be coincidence.
They found Will this morning at 2am in the charles river near the nashua street location he was suppose to me his gf. his wallet was still on him. no signs of foul play. his phone was found smashed on the street.
Does Smiley Face refer to just the graffitti left in the area of the killing or, like the smiley face mail box vandalism in the mid-west recently, do the deaths create a huge smiley face pattern acorss the US?
Although I had just read a small bit about the Smiley Face Killer the moment I heard about the missing of William Hurley that is what came to mind…… And then found him in the river so thats even more erie….odd how someone could vanish in a matter of a couple of minutes like that…wonder if the authorities have even considered this a similar case?
Does the smiley face refer to just the grafitti that is left behind, or, as in the case of the smiley face mailbox explosions/vandalisms in the mid-west recently, refer to a great big smiley face pattern across the USA?
Today, in Boston (as noted above) that young man’s body was found, in the Charles River in Boston, and a lot of people on the Boston Herald Blog are mentioning the smiley face issue.
Just to follow up on John from Boston’s comment-
William Hurley was found dead floating in the Charles River just a few feet from shore. He still had his wallet on him but his cell phone was found smashed nearby.
Autopsy is underway-visually no trauma. Really odd.
He was also a former navy guy-so one would think he could swim if he did fall into river-but not neccesarily. And we had a really cold night and the water would have been very cold…so hypothermia could have set in.
Still really strange circumstances.
Just the fact that his phone was smashed makes me think it was suspicious. I def. believe this is some type of serial killer gang that is doing this to these men. Sure it sounds far fetched, but these days anything is possible.
There was a case( last year I believe) in Toronto of a university student that vanished after a party and his body was found in a river. I first thought of a copycat killer or something to that effect.
to Ted and sue. those r very good points. tho if he was a navy boy he could swim for hours after hypothermia has set in. its part of their survival training. they build up a tolerance to cold water because the ocean is very cold in places. and they could very well be working on a giant smiley face pattern in and area if not over the entire us. although its seems less likely that it’d be a copy cat thing cuz it seems that the news doesn’t usually report the smiley faces and also i haven’t heard about it until today. and i really try to watch serial killings. but really what we should be asking is why a smiley face? what is the significance of that? the smiley face generally represents an emotion, but why a happy face in the area where u killed someone? either they’re sick bastards that get pleasure from killing young, drunk college boys….. or it could be they feel they’re ridding the world of some great evil and that makes them happy. whatever the reason it’s sick, and it means that whoever is doing this is that much more dangerous. its defiantly not something to just play around with, these people or this person are/is serious about whatever they’re doing and they mean business.
actually the killing style and methods will tell you nearly everything u need to know about the perpetrator/s. for example: if i remember correctly (correct me if i’m wrong) they used to drown witches as a way of cleaning away the sins the witch brought upon the village. that style of punishment has been seen many times throughout history, such as the dunking stool, was one method of torture. so i guess my point is that maybe they drown the victims to cleanse the wolrd or whatever of a certain evil. i don’t know, really i’m just shooting in the dark here cuz i haven’t read hardly anything about these murders yet. but it sounds about right to me. of course they could just be a bunch of idiots that want to be smart***** and put smiles where they kill someone. i guess not everything has a reason behind it, but generally with murder there’s always a reason. anyway i’d love to help with the investigation if at all possible. i’m sure i have some unique uses that would aid in the capture of these freaks.
omg! this is just really a disturbing issue. think about the randomness of it all. i wonder if anyone saw the guy in boston. who was he with?