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| Smiley Face Killers | |
|---|---|
 One of the symbols allegedly left by the Smiley Face killers. | |
| Born | Unidentified |
| Details | |
| Victims | unknown |
| Span of crimes | 1997 (possibly earlier) – |
| Country | U.S. |
| State(s) | unknown |
| Date apprehended | Unapprehended |
The Smiley Face Killers are, allegedly, a multi-state network of serial killers active primarily in the Midwestern United States. The controversial theory of a national organization of ritual or recreational murderers was first publicly proposed in its current iteration by retired New York City Police detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte in April 2008 but had been discussed as early as 2003 by Wisconsin residents, notably St. Cloud State University criminology professor Douglas L. Gilbertson.
The name "Smiley Face Killers" was, apparently, coined by KSTP-TV reporter Kristi Piehl, a reference to the symbol supposedly left by the alleged murderers at crime scenes.
The Victims
Victim Profile
The alleged victims of the Smiley Face Killers, according to Detectives Duarte and Gannon, are all athletic, college-aged males of roughly similar height.
Modi Operandorum
According to Detectives Duarte and Gannon, the victims are abducted while walking alone, at night, and in an intoxicated state. The victim is then drowned in a river within close proximity to the location of abduction, the body abandoned in the water and allowed to float downstream. The killer or killers leave a graffiti marking of a smiley face at the location at which the body is abandoned along with other graffiti markings. Duarte and Gannon have thus far refused to describe the other markings, stating that they are withholding the information in hope of an eventual prosecution.
In an interview aired April 25, 2008 on KSTP-TV, Jan Jenkins - the mother of alleged victim Chris Jenkins - stated:
Chris was abducted in a cargo van. He was driven around Minneapolis for hours and tortured. He was taken down to the Mississippi River and he was murdered.
In a subsequent interview with KSTP-TV reporter Kristi Piehl on Coast to Coast AM, Piehl noted that detectives Gannon and Duarte were upset that Jenkins had been so specific in her description of her son's method of death. According to Piehl, the detectives had been trying to withhold certain details of the crimes for use in an eventual prosecution. Subsequent media reports and interviews with the NYPD detectives did not mention the use of a van or torture.
Victim Identities
In a news report aired on KSTP-TV on April 25, 2008, Detectives Gannon and Duarte suggested that over 40 victims, killed between the years 1997 and 2008, could be attributed to the alleged gang. Among the names mentioned were Chris Jenkins, Michael Noll, Craig Burrows and Patrick McNeill (see below).
Timeline
Patrick McNeill
On February 16, 1997, 21-year old Fordham University student Patrick McNeill departed the Dapper Dog, a bar in New York City's Upper East Side, to return to the college's Bronx campus. McNeill, who never made it back to the campus, was subsequently reported missing. The following April his body was discovered floating near a Brooklyn Pier in the Hudson River. The New York Medical Examiner reported that McNeill had a "moderate amount of alcohol in his blood but was not overly inebriated when he died".
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Then-active New York Police Department detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte were involved in investigating McNeill's death. McNeill's shoes, which were loose-fitting clogs, were still on his feet when his body was recovered. Had McNeill accidentally stumbled into the water, the detectives reasoned, his shoes would have come off during the fall. The fact that they remained on McNeill's body indicated he had been "slid" into the water, according to Gannon and Duarte. Further, clumps of McNeill's own hair were found in his hands, possibly indicating a violent altercation as the victim tried to struggle to free himself from another person or persons drowning him.
Chris Jenkins
In 2002, University of Minnesota student Chris Jenkins disappeared after a drunken Halloween party at a Minneapolis bar. Several months later Jenkins' body was discovered in the Mississippi River. Though police initially classified Jenkins death as an accidental drowning, in November 2006 officials changed the cause of death to "homicide".
Lacrosse Drownings
According to the LaCrosse Tribune (9/3/2007):
The spate of drownings began in July 1997, when searchers discovered 19-year-old Richard Hlavaty dead in the Mississippi. Over the next nine years, seven more college-aged men disappeared from area bars only to turn up dead in the rivers.
The serial killer rumors became a near hysteria in 2004 when UW-La Crosse wrestler Jared Dion, 21, was found in the Mississippi off Riverside Park.
Police held a community meeting to assure the public the drownings were accidents. But people heckled them, accusing them of ignoring obvious connections between the deaths — all men, all white, all disappeared downtown.
The rumors erupted again last September, when UW-
La Crosse basketball player Luke Homan was found dead in the Mississippi after a night of drinking.
Other Suspected Victims
Duarte-Gannon Investigation
Detectives Duarte and Gannon's investigation of Patrick McNeill's death eventually led them to the Lacrosee, WI drownings and the Chris Jenkins murder. According to media reports, the two consulted water current experts to determine the location at which the bodies of the victims entered the water. Previous police investigations had only examined the places where the bodies were discovered. At the location of at least 15 of these places, the detectives reported, they discovered identical graffiti markings, most notably a "smiley face". While investigating a drowning in Michigan, the detectives noted a nearby marking "Sinsinawa", an unusual Native American name that corresponded to the address at which another drowning victim was located (Matt Kuzinski was found in a reservoir near the intersection of 6th Street and Sinsinawa Avenue in Dubuque, IA).
Theories
Duarte and Gannon report having a list of suspects, and additional information on the group behind the murders, which they are withholding. They have, however, stated that the group exists in "pods" in multiple cities and has a "hierarchy".
Observers have suggested possible motives for the killings or identities of the group involved:
- Several callers to Coast to Coast AM have posited the theory that the group is linked to a Satanic Cult in which "Son of Sam" killer David Berkowitz claims membership. Though Berkowitz was the only person convicted in the Son of Sam killings, in 1996 the case was reportedly reopened to investigate a possible cult connection.
Publicity
In November 2006 Mark Suppelsea of Chicago FOX affiliate WFLD-TV interviewed St. Cloud State University criminology professor D. Lee Gilbertson about connections he had drawn between the drowning deaths of a number of college-aged men in the midwest. The report followed several years of rumors about the activities of a serial killer or killer in the region. In fact, a post on University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire student Trae Dom's personal website as early as 2003 floated the idea of a serial killer.
In a series of investigative reports aired on April 24 and April 25, 2008 on Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP-TV, Kristi Piehl first reported on Gannon and Duarte's investigation, noting that the series was the result of a one-year investigation by the station into the work of the two NYPD detectives and Prof. Gilbertson. Radio talk show Coast to Coast AM was the first national media outlet to break the story when host Ian Punnett interviewed Piehl on the Friday, April 25, 2008 edition of the program.
On Monday, April 28, 2008, Good Morning America became the first national television program to report on the Smiley Face Killers when Piehl, Duarte and Gannon appeared on the show. In the days following the Good Morning America segment, the New York Daily News and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel both carried articles on the alleged killings. Several online news sites subsequently reported the story.
Current Status
Police in Minneapolis, MN and Eau Claire and La Crosse, WI have publicly stated that they do not believe in the existence of a serial killer network. According to news reports, no law enforcement agency appears to have expressed interest in pursuing a possible link between the various drownings.
In 2006 St. Cloud State University professor Douglas Gilbertson joined Gannon and Duarte's private investigations firm. Detectives Gannon and Duarte have since stated that their self-financed investigation into the "Smiley Face Killers" has run-out of funds and is concluded.