Smiley Face Killer Links... no discussion

[Pauli]

The (smiley) face of a killer?

Retired detectives suspect young men targeted for death by drowning


http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Video/080429/tdy_cowan_serialkiller_080429.300w.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:vPlayer%28%2724366287%27,%274d9cc6c0-a092-4e98-bbfb-d1e3fbfe5f4c%27%29)


April 29: Two New York detectives and a professor have been investigating whether a nationwide string of murders of college-age men could have been committed by a single gang, linked by a smiley face. NBC's Lee Cowan reports.

Today show
By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 9:23 a.m. CT, Tues., April. 29, 2008

Could a national gang of killers that leaves smiley-face calling cards be getting away with murdering dozens of male college students by making all the deaths look like accidents?

That’s what two retired New York police detectives think, after spending their own money to link as many as 40 drowning deaths of otherwise healthy young men, many of them athletes.

“This is a nationwide organization that revels in killing young men," Prof. D. Lee Gilbertson of St. Cloud State University said in a report filed Tuesday for TODAY by NBC’s Lee Cowan.

“We are talking about specifically targeting a small, narrow group of individuals for murder," said Kevin Gannon, who is now asking the FBI to step into the investigation he and Anthony Duarte began when both were working for the N.Y. Police Department.

It began with the 1997 death of Patrick McNeill, a young man whose body was found in the Hudson River after he had gone missing after a night on the town. McNeill had been drinking and the death was ruled a suicide. His parents refused to believe that, and Gannon, then a detective sergeant, told McNeill’s parents he would never give up on the case.

Gannon’s been good to his word, mortgaging his own house to keep the investigation alive. Working with fellow retired detective Anthony Duarte and looking into nearly 90 separate cases, he’s concluded that McNeill’s death is linked to at least 40 others that have occurred in 11 different states.

Most of what the detectives are calling murders occurred in the Midwest during the winter months. Almost all involved popular athletes with good grades. Most had been drinking before they disappeared and their bodies subsequently found in near-frozen bodies of water.

The link they think they’ve found is a smiley-face symbol drawn near where many of the drowning victims’ bodies have been discovered.

“This is what we saw,” Gannon said. “They're happy, as most serial killers are, and very content with their work and what they're doing and the fact that they're thwarting police."

“Local police departments are skeptical,” Cowan reported, “saying the team didn't produce any new evidence, just a theory, pointing out smiley faces — as well as other graffiti the investigators are using to link the deaths — are all pretty common.”

But parents of victims are lining up behind Gannon and Duarte. Among them is Bill Kruziki, himself a policeman, whose son, Matthew, disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2005 after a night of drinking in East Dubuque, Ill. His body was found three months later in the Mississippi River. He had drowned, but the coroner never determined whether it was an accident, suicide or murder.

"There is an instance in every one of them that doesn't make sense, something unexplainable, they vanished from this earth,” Kruziki told NBC News.

Another death thought to fit the pattern is that of Adam Falcon, a student at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., who drowned in 2004.
"We do want to know truthfully what happened to our son," said his mother, Carla Falcon.

Families want answers
One of the deaths in the group Gannon and Duarte are investigating has been ruled a homicide. The victim was Chris Jenkins and the year was 2002. Like the others, Jenkins’ case was originally thought to be an accidental drowning, but police in Minneapolis, where the death occurred, later concluded that Jenkins had been abducted in a van and tortured before being drowned in the Mississippi River.

Despite the passage of six years, the pain never goes away, according to his mother, Jan Jenkins, who said, "Closure is a funny word; we cry every day."

Gannon and Duarte have exhausted their personal funds. They recently held a news conference in New York to appeal for money to continue the investigation and to get federal investigators involved. They’ve had a hard time convincing others in law enforcement that there is anything to investigate in what most see as unrelated accidental deaths.

As Cowan reported for NBC: “The idea of some sinister national gang out killing young college men is a hard theory to sell. But to the parents who have lost a son, a far-fetched reason is better than no reason at all.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24366804/

[Pauli]

DETECTIVES: Chris Jenkins murder connects dozens around country Could there be a calculated, cross-country plot to kill young college men, including some in Minnesota? It seems a little hard to believe, but two New York detectives say they can prove it.

Now, they are revealing years of their evidence for the first time to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS...

GO DEEPER INTO THE INVESTIGATION:

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/JENKINS_GRAPHIC.jpghttp://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif THE JENKINS FILE: Rarely-seen documents related to the Chris Jenkins murder case (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s421907.shtml?cat=63)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Interactive Map of victims possibly linked by the investigation (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s414698.shtml?cat=63)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Visual timeline of the Jenkins murder case in Minneapolis (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s417805.shtml?cat=10848)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Extended video clips of detectives discussing the case http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000video.gif (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s421883.shtml?cat=)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Kristi Piehl and John Mason talk about how the case has developed http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000video.gif (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s421879.shtml?cat=63)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif List of possible Minn. and Wisc. victims (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s421937.shtml?cat=63)
http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Credentials, biography of Kevin Gannon (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s433345.shtml?cat=10830)

University of Minnesota college student Chris Jenkins was found in the Mississippi River in February of 2003.

Minneapolis Police began investigating the case, which also caught the attention of two retired NYPD detectives.

Turns out, Jenkins' death was the missing part of the puzzle for Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte.

They think Jenkins connects dozens of other deaths around the country over the last decade. The stories are the same all over the country--an athletic, intelligent, well-liked college student goes missing.

Family and friends launch a massive search. Weeks or months later, the young man is discovered drowned. In more than 40 cases, the deaths are blamed on a drunken accident--except for one.

The death of Chris Jenkins in Minneapolis is the only one http://kstp.com/kstpImages/Jenkins_Jan.jpg
"The level of evil we are dealing with here is rampant, it's deep and it's widespread," Chris' mother Jan Jenkins told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS
where the cause of death was changed from 'undetermined' or 'drowning' to 'homicide.'

"I can honestly tell you that I've walked every step of the way and it is hard for me to believe," Chris' mother Jan Jenkins told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. "The level of evil we are dealing with here is rampant, it's deep and it's widespread."

Because of extensive investigation by Duarte and Gannon, Jan Jenkins now says she knows exactly what happened to her son on the night he disappeared, Oct. 31, 2002.

"Chris was abducted in a cargo van," she said. "He was driven around Minneapolis for hours and tortured. He was taken down to the Mississippi River and he was murdered. And after that, his body was positioned and taken to a different spot and then to a different point in the Mississippi River," she said.

Gannon and Duarte say they've discovered a link between Jenkins' death and the drownings of at least 40 other men in 25 cities in 11 different states.

It began in New York

The investigation started 11 years ago in New York when then-Sgt. Gannon made a promise to the parents of Patrick McNeill.

Patrick McNeill was last seen at a New York City bar in 1997. His body was found 50 days later, 11 miles downriver.

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/McNeil.jpg
"We knew it wasn't suicide," said Patrick McNeil's mother Jackie McNeill
"We knew it wasn't suicide," said Patrick McNeill's mother Jackie McNeill. "It was one of those things where he walked out and was never seen again."

One of the only things comforting the McNeills is Gannon, a decorated officer with a long history in the New York City Police Department.

"I told them I would never give up on the case," Gannon told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. When Gannon retired, he devoted his life to keeping his promise to the McNeill family.

"We've been doing this on our own, our own finances," Gannon explained. "We've never taken a penny from any of the families. I personally have mortgaged my own home to investigate this."

According to Gannon's ally, Duarte, this is almost 'a perfect crime' because the water washes away any physical evidence and there are never any witnesses. Almost all of the men are last seen by friends leaving a bar or college party.

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/Duarte.jpg
"I think it is a serial killer, but not one individual," Anthony Duarte said
Local police have investigated the deaths and the FBI has even taken a look at the cases.

In every case except for the Jenkins case, local law enforcement has ruled the death an accident.

"I think it is a serial killer, but not one individual. I would just say, a group of individuals, probably located in more than one state," Duarte said, adding that he thinks they may kill again.

'Sick Signature'

Gannon and Duarte have done something that no other law enforcement agency has ever done in this case -- they looked at the big picture and visited each site where the young men disappeared.

While most local investigations focused on where a body was recovered, Gannon and Duarte tried to figure out where the body went into the river.

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/smileyface.jpg
City after city, when they'd find the spot where the body went into the water, they would find something else: The symbol of a smiley face
City after city, when they'd find the spot where the body went in, they would find something else: The symbol of a smiley face.

"It's very disturbing," Duarte said.

The paint color and size of the face varies, but the detectives are convinced that it's a sick signature the killers leave behind.

They found one eight years ago in Wisconsin and then others in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. Then most recently, they believe they've found one in Iowa.

In Michigan, they found something strange among the group's graffiti: the word 'Sinsiniwa.' They couldn't figure out what it meant until a few months later when they arrived in Dubuque, Iowa to investigate the death of Matt Kruziki.

His body was found on Sinsiniwa Avenue. Plus, they've discovered the nicknames of people in the group at more than one location.

Two years ago, already entrenched in their investigation, Gannon and Duarte came to Minnesota. They connected with St. Cloud State College Professor Lee Gilbertson.

Gilbertson had challenged his criminology students to search for patterns in the 11 disappearances of Minnesota and Wisconsin college students.

Why go public?

Gannon and Duarte are now confident they've discovered a nationwide criminal enterprise.

The detectives say they have to go public to 'protect the innocent and prosecute the guilty.'

"If nothing else, we have to warn the families and the young individuals so that no one else becomes a victim," Gannon said.

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/Gannon.jpg
"If nothing else, we have to warn the families and the young individuals so that no one else becomes a victim," Kevin Gannon told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS
Duarte added, "Other kids are at risk, yes, it's very frustrating."

Gannon and Duarte want their investigation to prompt changes in the way drownings are investigated.

They say medical examiners frequently don't even consider murder when looking at the body of a drowning victim.

The detectives requested that 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS hold back some key details of the murders such as motive and the identities of the informants. They hope that information will someday be used to file criminal charges.

They have already taken all of this evidence in the Jenkins case to Minneapolis Police and Hennepin County prosecutors--so why haven't they taken action? We will ask them.

http://kstp.com/article/stories/s421846.shtml?v=1

[Pauli]

The latest on the 'Smiley-Face' killers investigation http://kstp.com/kstpImages/JENKINS_GRAPHIC.jpgA 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS investigation into the mysterious river deaths of young men around the country has now gone national.

Investigative reporter Kristi Piehl appeared on ABC NEWS’ ‘Good Morning America’ to discuss the case with detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte.

Watch Monday morning’s interview in the viewer on the right….

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Watch Part 1 of our of investigation (Thursday) http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000video.gif (http://kstp.com/article/stories/S421846.shtml?cat=5&v=1)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Watch Part 2 of our investigation (Friday) http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000video.gif (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s424705.shtml?cat=1v=1)


GO DEEPER INTO THE INVESTIGATION:

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gifTHE JENKINS FILE: Rarely-seen documents related to the Chris Jenkins murder case (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s421907.shtml?cat=63)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Interactive Map of victims possibly linked by the investigation (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s414698.shtml?cat=63)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Visual timeline of the Jenkins murder case in Minneapolis (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s417805.shtml?cat=10848)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Extended video clips of detectives discussing the case http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000video.gif (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s421883.shtml?cat=)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Kristi Piehl and John Mason talk about how the case has developed http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000video.gif (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s421879.shtml?cat=63)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif List of possible Minnesota and Wisconsin victims (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s421937.shtml?cat=63)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Kristi Piehl: How the story came about
(http://kstp.com/article/stories/s421849.shtml?cat=63)
http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Listen to Kristi Piehl talk about the story on the KQRS Morning Show (http://kstp.com/article/stories/s424554.shtml?cat=63v=1)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Gannon and Duarte's Web site (http://nationwideinvestigations.us/)

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/000arrow.gif Remember Chris Jenkins (http://www.rememberchrisjenkins.com/)

http://kstp.com/article/stories/s426475.shtml?v=1

[Pauli]

Smiley Face Killer Photos: Provides Clues, Link: Is it a Hoax?

By Jon Shanks
May 1, 2008
Is the Smiley Face Killer real or an urban legend? The 'Smiley Face Gang' as dubbed by a group of policemen may be a group of serial killers responsible (http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272620330.shtml#) for the deaths of at least 40 young men, mostly students and athletes, over the last 10 years. The group of private investigators say they're able to link up dozens of seemingly unrelated deaths of college men through a common clue: Smiley faces found near where the drowned bodies were found.
http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/uploads/smiley_face_killer.jpg Smiley Face Killer Photos: Provides Clues, Link: Is it a Hoax?
The deaths (are they murders?) all share common traits. The men are well-liked, athletic college guys who drowned mysteriously, usually disappearing after a night of drinking. Are they accidents are something far more sinister?

***


The drownings are usually chalked up as accidents, but two former New York (http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272620330.shtml#) cops say they’ve found links that make them look more like murders, and they hypothesize that a sinister group of killers is behind them all.

Is it a hoax? The FBI has stated that there is no evidence to support the retired detectives theory, and that "the vast majority of these instances appear to be alcohol-related drownings."

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272620330.shtml

[Pauli]

Family Of Missing Student Considers 'Smiley Face Killer' Connection

Police: Incident Still A Missing Person Case

POSTED: 11:34 pm EDT April 30, 2008
UPDATED: 12:04 am EDT May 1, 2008
http://www.wptz.com/2008/0501/16097148_240X180.jpg (http://www.wptz.com/news/16096623/detail.html#)
Video: Family Of Missing Student Considers 'Smiley Face Killer' Connection (http://www.wptz.com/news/16096623/detail.html#)MIDDLEBURY, Vt. -- With all the current publicity nationwide on the "smiley face killings," the family of a missing Middlebury College student is wondering if his case could be connected.

Two former NYPD detectives are investigating a series of deaths around the nation, apparently all connected by a smiley face symbol found at the scene of the crime.

The detectives said the victims are all male college students whose bodies are eventually found in bodies in water.

Nicholas Garza disappeared in January.There have been dozens of searches since then, none of which have turned up any clues.

Garza's mother and aunt have been looking for smiley faces around Middlebury ever since they first heard about the detectives' theory.

"These are all boys that are well adjusted well liked very athletic getting good grades completely adjusted in their lives happy in their lives and they just seem to be plucked out of nowhere," said Garza's aunt Tanya Sierra.

The Middlebury Police Department said there's a big difference in this case: Garza is still considered a missing person.

But his family just wants to get in touch with the detectives because they feel it's worth a look.

"There might be something in this case that they could see that could be a commonality or even if they could say 'no absolutely not I've looked at this case and it's not' that would give us answers too," said Sierra

http://www.wptz.com/news/16096623/detail.html

[Pauli]

'Smiley Face Killers' linked to 40 deaths in US

By Philip Sherwell in New York
Last Updated: 5:15AM BST 04/05/2008
They were all young men of college age who disappeared, usually after a night in the bars, and were later found dead in rivers and lakes.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00667/smiley_667754c.jpg
'Smiley Face Killers' linked to deaths in four states

In 40 cases over the last decade, police in several states in America's mid-west and north-east concluded that the victims had drowned, often after student drinking binges.

But two retired New York police detectives last week went public with a startling and macabre alternative explanation for the series of apparent drownings. They say that they have evidence that a gang of serial killers is responsible for the deaths.

And in 22 cases across five states, they have found what they believe to be the sickening trademark signature of the psychopaths – either smiley face graffiti or distinctive sets of symbols daubed near the spot where the dead men's bodies entered the water. Nine of the smiley faces had a particularly sinister twist – they were drawn with horns.

That shocking claim has earned the alleged gang a chilling nickname: the "Smiley Face Killers". It is causing particular alarm in the neighbouring states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, where 19 of the deaths occurred.

James Sensenbrenner, a prominent Republican congressman from Wisconsin, has now called for the Federal Bureau of Investigations to re-open its files on the sequence of drowning deaths.

The FBI has so far insisted that it has found no evidence of any connection between the deaths or that serial killers are on the loose. In one case, however, Minnesota police have changed the cause of death from accidental to murder.

As a serving New York detective, Kevin Gannon had investigated the death of Patrick McNeill, a 20-year-old student, whose body was found in the Hudson River after he left a Manhattan bar in 1997.

Mr Gannon was convinced that the currents could not have carried the body to its final resting place and he promised the McNeill family that he would not let the case drop. After his retirement, he heard about a number of similar deaths in Minnesota in 2002, and drafted in his old colleague Anthony Duarte to help him investigate his suspicions.

"It's just preposterous to think that all these young men came out of the bars and walked into the water," said Mr Gannon.

The two men have used their own savings to visit the sites of all 40 deaths. They say that while police investigations have focused on the last known location of the dead men, they have instead tried to work out where the bodies entered the water.

Following that line of inquiry, they found the symbols, often the smiley face which they believe is a cynical taunting calling card, at more than half the sites. And at one location, there was the mysterious word "sinsiniwa" – which later turned out to be the name of a street where another one of the dead men was last seen.

But they say that the graffiti is not their only evidence. By concentrating on other details known about the corpses they say they have uncovered an informant linked to the gang as well as a motive – although they have declined to reveal this.

Most of the victims were popular, athletic and good-looking white students aged 19-23, prompting media speculation that if the "Smiley Face Killers" exist, they are preying on particular "preppy" types. The detectives believe the victims were knocked out, possibly with the date rape drug GHB, and that their bodies were then slipped into the water. As the corpses have often not been found for weeks or months, and the cases were put down as accidental drownings, toxicology tests and postmortems have not been carried out. The waters would in any case have washed away most evidence, they say.

In his letter to the FBI last week, Mr Sensenbrenner wrote: "The gruesome mockery of these alleged deaths, as denoted by the 'smiley-face' clue retrieved at the various sites around the country, demonstrates the cold-blooded nature of the killers."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1924504/'Smiley-Face-Killers'-linked-to-40-deaths-in-US.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1924504/%27Smiley-Face-Killers%27-linked-to-40-deaths-in-US.html)

[Pauli]

Interactive Map of deaths that detectives believe may be related Below is an interactive map featuring some of the young men that two New York detectives believe are linked to their murder investigation. Click a name on the right to see where the young man disappeared from and to read more information on his death...

You will need to go to the link for the map to work.....

http://kstp.com/article/stories/s414698.shtml?cat=63

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h169/avataralley/missing/smileyface.jpg

[Pauli]

Ex-cops question dozens of drownings

By RYAN HAGGERTY
rhaggerty@journalsentinel.com

Posted: April 29, 2008

Two retired New York police detectives said on national television Monday that multiple people working across state lines could be responsible for the drowning deaths of at least 40 male college students in 11 states, possibly leaving painted smiley faces at some of the locations where the victims' bodies entered rivers.

But police who have investigated the cases say they see no new evidence in the detectives' account.

The results of the private investigation led by Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte - first reported last week by a St. Paul, Minn., TV station and expanded upon Monday during an interview on "Good Morning America" and an afternoon news conference with the national media in New York City - reinforced beliefs held by family members of many of the victims, who have said they doubted their sons committed suicide or died accidentally.

Most of the victims were intoxicated at the time of their deaths.

Despite the detective's accounts, police in Minneapolis and La Crosse said Monday the retired detectives' statements have not affected investigations into drowning deaths in their cities.

"They haven't provided us with any new evidence that we didn't already have," said Sgt. Jesse Garcia, spokesman for the Minneapolis Police Department. "They've just provided a new theory."

In November 2006, Minneapolis police classified the death of Chris Jenkins, 21, as a homicide after initially ruling that it was an undetermined drowning. Police reclassified the death after receiving information from an incarcerated informant.

The University of Minnesota student's death in Minneapolis is the only one police consider a homicide. He disappeared in October 2002, and his body was found in February 2003.

The eight river drownings that occurred in La Crosse between 1997 and 2006 "have been thoroughly investigated" by La Crosse police, the state Division of Criminal Investigation and the FBI, but "no link between the drownings was discovered," according to a news release from the La Crosse Police Department.

No smiley faces were found in connection with any of the La Crosse drownings, and the blood-alcohol levels of the victims ranged from 0.20 to 0.44, according to the release.

Gannon and Duarte told KSTP-TV (Channel 5) in St. Paul that they found painted smiley faces at the point where victims entered the water in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Gannon and Duarte did not say how they discovered where the victims entered the water. It also was not clear when the smiley faces had been painted, or how many smiley faces had been found.

Gannon and Duarte could not be reached for comment Monday.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=744637

[Pauli]

College student deaths: Not accidental?


Former NYPD detectives track down clues, find similarities in dozens of murders.

By Tim Fleischer NEW YORK (WABC) -- There's a new theory about the deaths of at least 40 college students from across the country. Their deaths may not be accidental. In fact, two former NYPD detectives believe they are now linked, including the death of a Fordham student more than 10 years ago.

In all of the cases the students were drowned.

Investigators say they found links between the cases while investigating the deaths of a number of young men in 11 different states, including the death of a 24-year-old Fordham student whose body was found floating in the waters near lower Manhattan.

"We knew it wasn't suicide," said Jackie McNeill, the victim's mother. "It was just one of those things where he walked out and was never seen again."

Patrick McNeill's disappearance eleven years ago after he left a New York City bar made headlines. Police discovered his body 50 days later. That's when former NYPD detective Kevin Gannon promised McNeill's parents he would not give up on the case.

He worked alongside former detective Anthony Duarte. The two claim to have now found links between the deaths of 40 young men like McNeill. All were thought to be accidental drownings.

Appearing on Good Morning America the two men reveal that once they found the places where the young mens'' bodies went into the water, they discovered "smiley face" symbols.

"We looked at the totality of the cases," says former NYPD Detective Anthony Duarte, "we started with the big number and worked down, whereas the law enforcement looked at each case individually in whatever jurisdiction it was."

The pair believe this is the perfect crime, the water washing away critical evidence. And the detectives believe there is possibly more than one killer targeting young men.

"We have multiple victims on the same night," Kevin Gannon says.
"It is something you learn to live with," Jackie Mcneill says, "You learn to live with a broken heart."

The detectives won't reveal what they think is the possible motive. They do want to keep some information quiet in hopes that federal prosecutors will pick up these cases.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6108809

[Pauli]

Cross Country, 11 State Serial Killer Network investigated (http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=17485)

Published on April 26th, 2008
Posted by McCullough (http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?author=1287) in General (http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?cat=1)
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/jenkins_graphic_2.jpg http://www.dvorak.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/smileyface.jpg I first heard about this story last night on a late night talk show. Why it hasn’t been reported nationally is a mystery to me. Please take a few minutes to read it. Its quite involved and there are many links to what may be one of the worst cases of serial murder this country has seen. The website is slow due to heavy traffic, but well worth the wait.

Smiley Face Murder Club?
(http://kstp.com/article/stories/s421846.shtml?v=1)Could there be a calculated, cross-country plot to kill young college men, including some in Minnesota? It seems a little hard to believe, but two New York detectives say they can prove it. “Chris was abducted in a cargo van,” she said. “He was driven around Minneapolis for hours and tortured. He was taken down to the Mississippi River and he was murdered. And after that, his body was positioned and taken to a different spot and then to a different point in the Mississippi River,” she said. Gannon and Duarte say they’ve discovered a link between Jenkins’ death and the drownings of at least 40 other men in 25 cities in 11 different states.

It began in New York
The investigation started 11 years ago in New York when then-Sgt. Gannon made a promise to the parents of Patrick McNeill. Patrick McNeill was last seen at a New York City bar in 1997. His body was found 50 days later, 11 miles downriver. “We knew it wasn’t suicide,” said Patrick McNeill’s mother Jackie McNeill. “It was one of those things where he walked out and was never seen again.” One of the only things comforting the McNeills is Gannon, a decorated officer with a long history in the New York City Police Department. “I told them I would never give up on the case,” Gannon told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. When Gannon retired, he devoted his life to keeping his promise to the McNeill family.

“We’ve been doing this on our own, our own finances,” Gannon explained. “We’ve never taken a penny from any of the families. I personally have mortgaged my own home to investigate this.”According to Gannon’s ally, Duarte, this is almost ‘a perfect crime’ because the water washes away any physical evidence and there are never any witnesses. Almost all of the men are last seen by friends leaving a bar or college party. Local police have investigated the deaths and the FBI has even taken a look at the cases.

In every case except for the Jenkins case, local law enforcement has ruled the death an accident.

“I think it is a serial killer, but not one individual. I would just say, a group of individuals, probably located in more than one state,” Duarte said, adding that he thinks they may kill again. While most local investigations focused on where a body was recovered, Gannon and Duarte tried to figure out where the body went into the river. City after city, when they’d find the spot where the body went in, they would find something else: The symbol of a smiley face. “It’s very disturbing,” Duarte said. The paint color and size of the face varies, but the detectives are convinced that it’s a sick signature the killers leave behind.

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=17485

[Pauli]

FBI: 'No Evidence' to Support 'Smiley Face Gang' Serial Murder Theory; Victims' Families Say There Is

Thursday, May 01, 2008
By Catherine Donaldson-Evans
http://www.foxnews.com/images/foxnews_story.gif

The FBI said there is no proof that dozens of young men who died in mysterious drownings were actually murdered by a nefarious network dubbed the "Smiley Face Gang" — despite theories held by a group of retired detectives and victims' family members.

Former NYPD detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte revealed their belief this week that the deaths of at least 40 different male victims — most of them white and college-aged — in about 10 states appear to be linked.

Among the commonalities, they say: The men's bodies typically were found in rivers and some of the scenes were marked with smiley-face graffiti. Gannon indicated that he and other investigators who have banded together in their own probe have substantial information connecting the deaths and pointing to homicide.

The FBI, however, doesn't believe the cases look like murders at the hands of the same serial-killing organization, nor does the bureau think the deaths are related or are even killings at all.

"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," said Supervisory Special Agent Richard J. Kolko in a statement.
"To date, we have not developed any evidence to support links between those 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 bureau generally gets involved only when asked by local police — who also don't seem to be buying the idea that the young men didn't drown but were instead killed by smiley-face-painting gang members.

"We have no evidence to suggest otherwise, and no one has come forward with any evidence to suggest otherwise," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne in an e-mail to FOXNews.com.

Police departments usually record information about cases involving missing persons or unexplained deaths on an FBI-run database called ViCAP, which stands for the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, according to the FBI. The reason: If similar cases crop up around the country, law enforcement will be flagged and can take a closer look to see whether they're related.

Among the victims the retired New York City detectives are attempting to link are University of Minnesota student Chris Jenkins — whose cause of death recently was changed to homicide — and Fordham University student Patrick McNeill.

Gannon and Duarte told reporters that the drownings seem to have been staged, especially since many victims were missing for months before their bodies turned up and some corpses looked like they had been tampered with.

Further, a smiley-face symbol was found painted at some of the drowning locations — in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Jenkins' body was discovered in the Mississippi River about four months after he disappeared in 2003. Police concluded he accidentally fell into the water and died after a night of drinking, but the retired detectives believe his death is suspicious in part because of how his body looked when it was found: encased in ice with his hands folded across his chest.

McNeill apparently drowned in New York City in 1997, also after bar-hopping. His body turned up in the East River. But his family refutes the notion that his death was an accident or a suicide.

Jenkins' family never believed similar theories about his death, either.

"We knew immediately that he would not be gone of his own volition," Jenkins' sister, Sara Lightner, told FOX News on Wednesday. "The minute he was missing, we knew something was desperately wrong."

Lightner said she has seen most of the data collected by Gannon and Duarte, but couldn't discuss specifics so as not to compromise the investigation.

"Kevin and Anthony have really strong facts to back everything they’re saying up," she said. "What they’re trying to do right now is to get the FBI to take a very close look at this and start making some arrests."

The FBI's Kolko said only that the bureau "will continue to work with local police in the affected areas to provide support as requested." There were no arrests afoot, however.

Gannon and Duarte did not respond to requests for further comment.

University of Baltimore criminologist Jeffrey Ian Ross warned against jumping to conclusions.

The idea that these were serial killings "may be a little bit premature based on the information released to the public," he said. "I don't understand how these kinds of deaths can be going on for at least a decade with nobody piecing them together."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353624,00.html

[Claycat]

http://www.milwaukeemagazine.com/currentIssue/full_feature_story.asp?newMessageID=23450

Excerpt:

Now the story has gotten even more complicated. After three months of research into the case, Milwaukee Magazine has learned a gang called the “Dealers of Death” claims involvement in the deaths of some of these men. Convicted murderer Jeramy Alford, who is also a suspect in a river death that police now believe is a homicide, told the FBI last year that the gang had murdered 40 of the men. One admitted gang member: a man nicknamed “Zmiley.”

[sarahhod]

The return of the Smiley Face Killer

By David Brauer | Published Sun, Mar 22 2009 9:00 pm


Since Kristi Piehl broke the "Smiley- Face Killers" story last May, she lost her job at KSTP-TV's investigative reporter. But ABC's "Good Morning America" doesn't know how to quit her.
Piehl will be on GMA Monday at 7 a.m., the Hutchinson Leader reports (http://www.hutchinsonleader.com/news/entertainment-activities/piehl-appear-abc-s-gma-103), touting a "new direction" for the lurid and dubious tale of serial killers roaming the Midwest, dispatching up to 70 young men whose bodies have never been found.

http://www.minnpost.com/client_files/Graphics/dbrauer/smiley_horns.jpg
The smiley face refers to the ubiquitous '70s icon found in the general vicinity of each alleged murder, even though the icon is found in the general vicinity of everywhere.
Authorities have repeatedly checked out the theory, spun by two retired ex-New York cops, and found it wanting. In Minneapolis, police rejected (http://www.startribune.com/local/18375754.html) links to the well-publicized Chris Jenkins (http://www.rememberchrisjenkins.com/) disappearance. The FBI says there is no proof (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353624,00.html) a killer or killers are at work: "The vast majority of these instances appear to be alcohol-related drownings."
In a memorable takedown, then-Minnesota Monitor staffer Steve Perry flayed (http://www.minnesotamonitor.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=2CDEF4B8991AF833A5BD6F2480 9BE309?diaryId=3898) the story, writing, "Let the record show that Kristi Piehl of KSTP has done her part to bring the yarn to the huddled masses yearning to breathe the vapors of another massive conspiracy." Over at Mpls.St.Paul, Brian Lambert wrote (http://blogs.mspmag.com/brianlambert/2008/04/) that the theory, "Boggles ... every rational instinct."
Then again, Piehl's story won a regional Emmy Award, which Lambert pronounced (http://blogs.mspmag.com/brianlambert/2008/12/mprs-current-gets-a-new-boss.html) "ludicrous."
Nevertheless, this is the sort of "unsolved" situation that grieving parents can't quit, and TV news can't either. In fact, Piehl has officially joined the two: since leaving Channel 5, she and the father of a possible victim have started a website, sfkillers.com (http://www.sfkillers.com/). According to the site (http://sfkillers.com/?page_id=2), working the smiley face cases is now Piehl's full-time job.
Tune in Monday, if you dare, to see whether Piehl's new cottage industry remains a house of cards.
By the way, it will be fun to see how KSTP's local newscasts play a network story from someone they just let go.


http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/200...ey_face_killer (http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2009/03/22/7543/the_return_of_the_smiley_face_killer)

[sarahhod]

http://www.sfkillers.com/

[Faith]

Professor probes murders
A series of deaths along Interstates 94 and 90 have led an SCSU professor to investigate the cases.
Marli Stewart
Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: News

http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper231/stills/9l0i20e9.jpg
Media Credit: Marli Stewart
SCSU professor Lee Gilbertson displays his research.

http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper231/stills/k6jj37f2.jpg
Media Credit: Marli Stewart
Smiley-faced graffiti was found by the crime scene of each incident.

If you are a white male between the ages of 17 and 27, attending a major college or university, have a GPA above 3.0, are athletic, clean cut and good looking, some people think you may be a target.

There are hundreds of college-age men who have mysteriously disappeared since 1997.

They vanish from a bar, their friends lose track of them and they end up in a river nearby a few days, weeks or months later.

These accidents all happen close to Interstate 94 and Interstate 90, with Minnesota and Wisconsin having the most victims.

Most of these cases have been ruled by police as accidental drowning - case closed.

But when Chris Jenkins went missing and his body was found in the Mississippi river in Minneapolis, the investigation took a new turn. Jenkins' death was ruled as a homicide.

He was abducted, driven around in a cargo van and tortured, then placed in the Mississippi river.

Retired New York detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, have been investigating the cases and believe they are connected.

They have teamed up with SCSU professor Lee Gilbertson to find answers to the many questions that the families of the victims are left with.

Gilbertson did an exhaustive examination of the cases after SCSU student Scot Radel went missing in 2005. He looks at time and space, as well as crime mapping to find connections between the victims and patterns in the data.

Two of Gilbertson's students, Amanda Pressenger and Jessica Claeys, found many mysterious similarities between the victims and the cases themselves, leading

Gilbertson to believe that these were coordinated attacks on precise, set and prescribed dates -- attacks on victims that fit a distinct profile.

"Because of the way the dates fall out, we believe that these cases are involved with a group of 200 or so individuals who have the same ideology and are planning these 'murders,'" said Gilberston.

Currently, Gannon, Duarte, Gilbertson and Carlson (a former SCSU graduate student) are working on this investigation.

Why are the police not getting involved? The cases spread across 10 of the northern United States. Local police departments do not have the jurisdiction to investigate murders outside their local area.

"With a local police perspective, there's really nothing within our jurisdiction that has our level of suspicion, there's different facts online and some people believe that this wasn't just an accident.

I think that any story like this is going to get some media attention, and people are going to wonder," said Sergeant Martin Fayre, public information officer.

Gannon, Duarte and Gilbertson are the only investigators who have gone to all the crime scenes and looked at the big picture.

There are two rational explanations for what is happening to these college students. The first is that these men are drinking too much and end up, accidently, in the river. The second is that they drink too much and someone abducts them.

"We want to get the word out and warn people," said Gilbertson.

The chilling evidence that leads Gilbertson to believe that these were murders is a map of where the evidence is found compared to the path the victim actually took and the destination the victim was headed for. In many cases, the victim was going home or to another party or bar.

"The evidence is not leading in the same direction that the body was found and often times, the path of where the victim was supposed to be heading hardly matches up with the path the body was found in," said Gilbertson.

The professor can also predict when the next victim will go missing with pretty good accuracy and he can generally get the region that it's going to happen in, but he can't predict the city.

Most the cases happen during the school year, in-between the months of August and May, during peak drinking hours on weekends between Thursday night and Sunday night.

He also has made a chronological map of the cities that these accidents happen in, which shows a pattern that repeats itself twice along I-94.

"It's frustrating because I know someone is going to die and there's nothing I can do about it," Gilbertson said.

After a body is found in the river, investigators try to find out where the body entered the river. In most cases, where the body entered the river is where Gannon and Duarte have found graffiti, the most common symbol -- smiley faces.

"The ideology is coming from the graffiti, which are symbols that most people wouldn't recognize; it's that unique and that bizarre. It's not gang graffiti," Gilbertson said

For now, the investigators are working to prove the cases were homicide, then look at the murders and look at patterns in the data.

So far they have 12 solid cases with all the evidence and autopsies but the murders are still in clusters, and they have to go back and investigate those clusters to find out what it is about the victims that this group is going after.

There are still many gaps in their investigation that the detectives and professor Gilbertson are trying to work through, but they lack the man power and funds to be able to work diligently on this case.

They have requested the help from the FBI but were told that there was not enough evidence to prove foul play.

"Scot's case was ruled as an accident because there was nothing to lead the police to believe that it was nothing more than a tragic accident," Fayre said.

"We deal with quite a few incidents where people end up in the river. We rewarded cops a few months ago for someone that wandered into the river, they went in there with a life vest and a rope and that person would have died also. In that case we knew the circumstances, because the person survived. And it involved alcohol; the person was having suicidal thoughts."

When a body ends up in the river there is always an autopsy done.

The problem is that the body is found in the water, the current and water temperature determines where the body is going to end up and erases most of the evidence. With ice it's even more difficult.

The police department did not have any comment on the national investigation that Gannon, Gilbertson and Duarte are working on.

There are many websites that offer information about these cases.

Gannon, Duarte and Gilbertson's website is: www.nationwideinvestigations.us, where you can blog or contact the investigators and see videos of the detectives and Gilbertson in the media.

Other websites: http://footprintsattheriversedge.blogspot.com/ and http://www.vanceholmes.com/court/trial_missing_2.html.

http://media.www.universitychronicle.com/media/storage/paper231/news/2009/04/16/News/Professor.Probes.Murders-3713461.shtml

[packy]

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2010/02/14

Smiley Face Killers
Show Audio

MP3 Downloads:
Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3 Hour 4
Date:
02-14-10

Host:
Ian Punnett

Guests:
Kristi Piehl, Dr. Michael Sikirica

In the first half of the show, journalist and investigator Kristi Piehl discussed the latest evidence in the string of nationwide deaths that may have been caused by the "Smiley Face Killers." Over the past 12 years, more than 80 young men, predominantly from the Midwest, have drowned or disappeared under similar circumstances. In at least a dozen cases, the smiley face symbol was located near where bodies were found in the water. Yet now, Piehl has come to believe the smiley face graffiti may have been a red herring, and not directly related to the cases. Interestingly though, the word 'Sinsiniwa' was written at a crime scene in Michigan, and it was later learned that a victim in Iowa had been found in a river that ran alongside Sinsiniwa Avenue.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Sikirica joined Piehl to talk about the Todd Geib case. Geib was last seen walking away from a party on June 12, 2005 near his home in Muskegon County, Michigan. His body was found in a remote pond on July 2, 2005, and authorities determined he drowned the night of the party. Yet when Sikirica examined the autopsy files, he concluded that Geib had only been dead 2-5 days. This suggests that someone could have been holding the young man captive. "Whoever had Todd...is a sick individual...A lot of people have asked, who is doing this?...I think we're going to find a dark human being, of a kind we haven't met yet," said Piehl.

(More at link)