An engaging if not especially convincing series
College students were drowning in the river long before most of these identified cases occurred, both here and in many countries around the globe. And they will continue if we don't take steps to control alcohol abuse within this college-aged group.
"Drowning the Smiley Face Murder Theory"; Center for Homicide Research (August, 2010)
This is one of the most dangerous domestic terrorist groups in the United States.
Sgt. Kevin Gannon, NYPD (ret.); "Did the Smiley Face Killers Murder 70?"; Killer Central (January 25, 2019)
It is beyond statistical variation that over 100 young men go out drinking with friends, disappear, and end up dead in a body of water nearby. The theory that people are going out, getting drunk, and falling into the river is absurd. If that were the case, on any weekend, in any city, there'd be two or three thousand people in the river.
Michael A. Fuoco (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette )
Executive produced by Rasha Drachkovitch, Jason Blum, Marci Wiseman, Jeremy Gold, and Leane Vandeman, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice aired on Oxygen in North America and Sky Crime in the UK and Ireland. And as the title suggests, the show's focus is the so-called Smiley Face Murder Theory as developed by retired NYPD detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, and Dr. Lee Gilbertson, criminal justice and sociology professor at St. Cloud State University. In essence, they believe that over 40 young men found dead in bodies of water across the American Midwest from the late 1990s to the present did not accidentally drown, as ruled by law enforcement, but were the victims of a highly organised group of serial killers operating in cells and co-ordinating their activities via the dark web. In every case, the victim is a male in his early 20s, always Caucasian, and often either an above-average athlete, a promising academic, or both. Aside from the similarity of victimology and the fact that in every case, the young man was out drinking with friends when he disappeared, the common element across 22 of the cases is the presence of graffiti depicting a smiley face near locations where Gannon and his team hypothesise the bodies were dumped into the water. Hunt for Justice examines six such cases, and although it does a very good job of arguing that these deaths were homicides, it's weak when it comes to connecting them all to the same killer(s), and even weaker in relation to the details of the group as a whole (in a practical and logistical sense). It's an entertaining enough show, and it's certainly intriguing, but in terms of proving its central thesis, it lacks anything even resembling solid evidence, relying instead on rhetoric and speculation, and seemingly unaware of Gannon's confirmation bias.
As presented in the show, the team's main goal is to convince police to take a second look at the six cases, providing them with evidence that the deaths were not accidental drownings but homicides. Each episode focuses on one victim: 1) Dakota James (23); from Pittsburgh, PA; graduate student at Duquesne University; disappeared in Pittsburgh on January 25, 2017; found 40 days later and 10 miles away in the Ohio River; no evidence of physical trauma; moderate decomposition. 2) Luke Homan (21); from Brookfield, WI; basketball player at Marquette University; disappeared in La Crosse, WI on September 29, 2006; found three days later and a half-mile away in the Mississippi River; medical examiner ruled that acute alcohol intoxication was major contributory factor in his death; all toxicology tests were negative. 3) Will Hurley (24); from Nashville, NC; US Navy veteran; graduate student at University of Massachusetts Boston; disappeared in Boston, MA on October 8, 2009; found six days later in the Charles River, only 100 yards from where police had searched eight hours prior; evidence of blunt force trauma; high levels of gamma -Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB; best known as a date-rape drug) in his system. 4) Brian Welzien (21); from Elgin, IL; finance major at Northern Illinois University; disappeared in Chicago, IL on January 1, 2000; found 77 days later and 30 miles away washed up on a Lake Michigan beach in Gary, IN; no fluid in lungs; slight decomposition. 5) Tommy Booth (24); from Wilmington, DE; disappeared in Woodlyn, PA on January 18, 2008; found 14 days later in a creek behind the bar from which he disappeared; drag mark and possible footprints found nearby; body was still in rigor mortis, which would be impossible if he'd been dead for 14 days. 6) Todd Geib (22); from Ravenna, MI; disappeared from Muskegon, MI on June 11, 2005; found 21 days later in nearby Lake Ovidhall, a privately owned lake; found floating upright in the water; several days after his funeral, a smiley face sticker was placed on his headstone.
The main contributors to the series are Gannon, Duarte, Gilbertson, and Mike Donovan, another retired NYPD detective. Other interviewees include 1) Pam James and Jeff James (Dakota's parents), Dr. Cyril Wecht (forensic pathologist), Dr. Raymond J. Hsieh (digital forensic expert), Michael A. Fuoco (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ), Larry Forletta (PI hired by the James family), Werner Loehlein (former US Army Corp of Engineers); 2) Jerry Homan and Patti Homan (Luke's parents), Bobby Chacon (former FBI agent), Brian Wierzbicki (former sergeant with La Crosse County Sheriff's Department), Dr. Jason Kolowski (forensic scientist); 3) Claire Lebeau, née Mahoney (Will Hurley's girlfriend), Lynn Martin (Hurley's mother), Amanda Hurley (Hurley's sister), Derek Ellington (digital forensic analyst), Prof. Sabra Botch-Jones (toxicologist), Joe Fisher (former Boston PD), Dr. Elizabeth Laposata (forensic pathologist), Rhonda Moniz (underwater forensic investigator); 4) Stephany Welzien (Brian's mother), Det. Sgt. William Fazekas (first responder when Brian's body was found), Prof. Frank P. Paloucek (toxicologist); 5) Barbara MacKay-Bush (Tommy Booth's mother), Tim Bush (Tommy's stepfather), Capt. Scott Willoughby (Ridley Township's Chief of Police), Scott G. Roder (crime scene reconstruction expert); 6) Kathy Geib (Todd's mother), Jim Wilde (owns Lake Ovidhall property), Dr. M. Eric Benbow (forensic pathologist), and David J. McDiarmid (pharmacist).
Each episode adheres to roughly the same structure – an introduction to the case, interviews with the victim's family and friends, an explanation of discrepancies that may tie the case to the smiley face murder theory, and an attempt to convince local law enforcement to reclassify the death as a homicide. This structure works pretty well for the most part, as each of the six cases is so similar in nature – a young man disappears whilst out with friends and is later found drowned. At this point, the medical examiner rules the death either accidental or undetermined and the police close the missing person case, never kicking it up to homicide. This is uniform across all six cases.
The show is at its strongest when examining why these six cases were not accidental, uncovering a litany of hints which suggest foul play. In relation to James, Dr. Wecht says cold temperatures could account for the lack of decomposition, but the body should have been more damaged having travelled for 30 miles in a river that has never been dredged, including passing through the Emsworth Back Channel Dam. Additionally, police maintain that James must have crossed the Roberto Clemente Bridge, yet none of the many cameras on the bridge picked up a single image of him. Wecht also finds possible evidence of a ligature mark on James's neck and discolouration on his fingers which suggest he may have been trying to free himself from something that was chocking him.
Looking at Homan, the show points out that the Mississippi River is in the opposite direction of the bars and most of the houses in La Crosse, and is half a mile away from the centre of town – why would he have been heading in that direction in the first place? Furthermore, the lead singer in the band playing at the bar where Homan was last seen was said to have gotten into an altercation with him. Police checked his van and a cadaver dog gave a positive ID for blood, but police let the van go, and never followed up. It's also found that marks on Homan's forehead are from a right foot toe area, meaning he was being held down at some point.
The case of Will Hurley is especially bizarre. Attending a hockey game at TD Garden with his friends, less than halfway through the game, Hurley asked his girlfriend to come pick him up. Surveillance footage shows him staggering around outside the arena, having difficulty staying on his feet, despite having drunk very little. By the time his girlfriend arrived where they'd agreed to meet, Hurley was nowhere to be seen despite talking to her in the phone less than two minutes prior. He later tested positive for high dosages of GHB, a drug often used in date rape cases, and which would explain the surveillance footage. But where did the GHB come from? The body is also shown to have evidence of blunt impact to the head and lower extremities, a contusion on the nose, and a periorbital contusion around the eye. Dr. Laposata argues that these injuries could not have come from a fall and that the heart must have been still pumping when Hurley received them. Additionally, eight hours prior to finding the body in the Charles River, a dive team searched that location, finding nothing. Hurley was also found downriver, meaning his body would have had to travel against the current (police explain this by saying the wind could have pushed him in this direction - something Gannon and his team show to be impossible).
In the case of Brian Welzien, he too was shown to have very little alcohol in his system, but was seen on security footage throwing up multiple times. Sgt. Fazekas, who was first on the scene when Welzien's body was found, says that the level of decomposition on the body could have been no more than a week (Welzien was supposedly in the water for 77 days). For the police theory that Welzien wandered into Lake Michigan to be correct, he would have had to cross Lake Shore Drive – ten lanes of traffic – and scale three fences, despite barely being able to stand up.
In relation to Tommy Booth, when he was found in a creek at the back of the bar at which he was last seen, he was still in rigor mortis (impossible if he was dead 14 days) and there was little to no decomposition. Police explain this by arguing that the creek froze over after he fell in, preserving the body, and when it thawed out, the body was released (they also believe this explains why his body wasn't seen just 24 hours prior to being found). However, Scott Roder argues that even if he were frozen, there should have been more decomposition than was evident, and the colouration of Booth's skin was wrong – had he been frozen, it should have been much darker than it was.
Finally, in the case of Todd Geib, two drugs were found in his system that are used to treat depression – desipramine and amitriptyline, but he had been prescribed neither. The upright position in which the body was floating is also atypical for drowning victims. The rate of decomposition and relative absence of insects and algae on the body also suggest he hadn't been in the water anywhere near three weeks. And later, a smiley face sticker was left on his gravestone.
It's all very well presented, both fascinating and intriguing, and for the most part, pretty convincing. But if that's where the show is at its strongest, however, it's at its weakest when attempting to prove that a group of serial killers are behind these six deaths. For example, it fails to address the three biggest problems with the murder theory – 1) smiley face graffiti is some of the most common you'll see, and can be found almost anywhere where there's significant graffiti, 2) none of the smiley faces look anything like any of the others; they're painted in different styles, different sizes, using different paints and different colours, and 3) the lack of specificity in terms of the smiley faces being found "near" where the body may have entered the water is compounded by the fact that the identification of these locations in the first place is based on nothing other than speculation. The show also fails to provide a single piece of evidence that links the deaths; they may all have been homicides, but the theory that they were all killed by the same group is not even remotely convincing.
Disappointingly, there is nothing whatsoever on the origins of theory, which is more than a little strange, especially when one considers how focused the show is on trying to convince us of its validity. To find out how Gannon first came up with the idea, I had to listen to a Supernatural Girlz interview with him and Gilbertson on YouTube. As it turns out, it was related to the 1997 death of Patrick McNeill (21), who disappeared from Manhattan, NY and was found 50 days later and 12 miles away in the East River, with evidence of a possible ligature mark on his neck and burning in several spots on his torso, suggesting possible torture. The show also leaves out any and all information on what the motivation for the murders may be; in the same interview, Gannon and Gilbertson speculate that the men may have been taken for their sperm, which would explain why most are white, athletic, and academic achievers. Providing some info on the possible reasons behind the murders should definitely have been a component of the show.
Another problem is investigative dead ends. For example, Dr. Hsieh finds a transaction on Dakota James's PayPal account on January 27, two days after he disappeared. No time is given to the possibility that it could have been a recurring payment or for something that was pre-ordered, and then, as soon as it's introduced, it's dropped, never to be referenced again. An irritating aesthetic issue is that the show has a habit of introducing people more than once. The four central investigators, for example, are identified via on-screen text multiple times in every episode, which gets somewhat annoying.
All things considered, Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice is a show of two halves; although it makes a very strong case that these six men were murdered, that they were all murdered by the same killers is a theory for which it provides zero evidence. Leaving out strange bits of information, such as the origins of the theory or anything whatsoever on motive, the show seems to share in the confirmation bias of its four protagonists. It's provocative, and as a call to reopen cases that should never have been closed, it's compelling. But as evidence of an international group of serial killers, it lacks anything substantial.
