Smiley face murders

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Please improve this article if you can. (May 2008)

Possible symbol used by the "Smiley Face Killers".

The Smiley face murders are a series of approximately 40 deaths throughout the United States from 1997 to the present, alleged by two retired NYPD detectives to be murders and claimed by authorities to be accidental drownings. The alleged victims are, apparently, college-aged men who disappear at night and are later found drowned and washed up in rivers or other waterways. While all of the deaths were initially ruled accidents, at least one has now been ruled a homicide and the retired NYPD investigators have alleged that many more are related. The detectives claim to have found spray-painted smiley faces near the locations that the alleged victims were dumped into the water. The detectives announced they have suspects on KSTP-TV in St. Paul, Minnesota^[1]. Retired detectives Anthony Duarte and Kevin Gannon also made the announcement on the popular late night radio show, Coast to Coast AM and appeared on Good Morning America along with KSTP investigative reporter Kristi Piehl, who first broke the story. The detectives went national with the story in hopes to raise money for their private investigation of the case^[2].

On April 29, 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a statement regarding the alleged 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 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.

”