Posted at: 05/28/2008 10:26:47 AM
Updated at: 05/28/2008 10:42:46 AM
PIEHL: Body found in Vermont
Kristi Piehl - Investigative Reporter
The body of Nicholas Garza was recovered in Otter Creek on May 27th. Garza is the Middlebury College student who has been missing since February. I've talked with his mother before and she fears her son may be the victim of homicide.
Her friends contacted me about a week after the Smiley Face Investigation was featured on Good Morning America because searchers found graffiti with smiley faces near the water's edge. The Police Department does not think the spray paint is linked to Garza's case and told reporters it had been there for two years.
Garza went missing in February. He left a college dorm and was walking to his own building about 500 yards away, but never made it. His mother was living in New Mexico, but moved to Vermont to be close to her son's investigation. There is a $20,000 reward for information in the case.
Thank you to all the people around the country and in Canada who have emailed me about Garza's investigation. Since this Smiley Face Killer Investigation broke in late April, thousands of you have become amateur detectives. You've spent many hours on the internet searching for clues that could help retired NYPD Detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte. Their investigation is ongoing and they have been in contact with Garza's family. Some of your tips have been of assistance to them.
Now that his body has been recovered, the Medical Examiner's work will begin. I will keep you posted. Our thoughts are with the Garza family. Here is a link to the website they've created http://www.nicholasgarza.org/
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Possible Smiley Face Killers Victim Nicholas Garza's Body Found
Monday, May 26, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
New Photos In Smiley Face Killers Mystery
(The drainage tunnels near where Abel Bolanos died in March 2007 contain several distinct graffiti tags, including two "Smiley Faces," in a monkey's nose and in the letter "D," but nothing about the symbols was overtly referential to Bolanos or any of the other drownings.)
05/01/2008
'Smiley Face' detectives investigated Bolanos' death; Local officials and FBI dismiss the serial killer theory
By Luke Jennett , Staff Writer
The drainage tunnels near where Abel Bolanos died in March 2007 contain several distinct graffiti tags, including two “Smiley Faces,” in a monkey’s nose and in the letter “D,” but nothing about the symbols was overtly referential to Bolanos or any of the other drownings.
A group of retired detectives and academics who have suggested that 40 drowning deaths in 11 states are the work of a group of serial killers had previously been in Ames investigating the death of Abel Bolanos.
Bolanos drowned in March 2007 in Lake LaVerne on the Iowa State University campus. Reports say Bolanos was last seen at a party on North Hyland Avenue on March 31, which he left at 4 a.m. He was found April 3 by a dive team after a three-day search.
It's unknown whether Bolanos is one of the 40 names on the list of supposed drownings the group claims are "clearly homicides and linked to each other," according to a press release. However, according to ISU's Department of Public Safety Police Division, the same group was in town a few weeks ago to speak with a patrol supervisor about the case, which one of them last year told The Tribune fit the profile of the supposed serial killings.
Local police and county officials have rejected the idea Bolanos' death was anything but an accidental drowning and say the group has never spoken to the local investigator in charge of the case or seen any of the primary investigative materials collected by police.
On Monday, the group, "Nationwide Investigations," appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" and held a press conference in New York City with several of the victim's families, asking for help from the FBI to investigate the suspected murders.
The group's theory is that a gang of organized killers murder college-aged men and stage drownings to avoid capture. The group recently announced it believes the alleged gang leaves graffiti tags near the locations of the bodies, often a "Smiley Face" insignia.
The drainage tunnels near where Bolanos died contain several distinct graffiti tags, including two "Smiley Faces," but nothing about the symbols was overtly referential to Bolanos or any of the other drownings.
Following the Nationwide Investigations media appearances this week, the FBI issued a press release saying its investigators had reviewed the evidence presented by the group and not found anything connecting the deaths or indicating the involvement of a serial killer or killers.
Nationwide Investigations is made up of two former New York Police Department detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte; a professor from St. Cloud State University, Lee Gilbertson; and a graduate student from the same college, Adam Carlson. The group has claimed to have uncovered evidence connecting 40 alleged accidental drownings in 11 states. It reportedly has asked the FBI to investigate the matter.
Bolanos is thought to have drowned while highly intoxicated - a trait the group says is common among all the victims.
Abel Bolanos' sister, Marivelle Bolanos, said she has never spoken to any of the investigators but has heard about the story on television. However, the family does believe there are unanswered questions related to Abel Bolanos' death and has offered a reward for information about the case.
Marivelle Bolanos said she plans to contact the investigators in the future and would like to donate money to their investigation. News reports mentioned that the group had "run out of money," after financing the investigation itself.
"I was just making notes yesterday of the things we still have questions on," she said. "We are not 100 percent sure of what happened."
From a police perspective, however, the case has been closed on Bolanos' death. Gene Deisinger, the ISU police captain who acted as the case agent in charge of investigating the incident, said the evidence in the case points firmly to an accidental drowning, a conclusion based upon the results of the state medical examiner's investigation.
"You always have to be driven by the evidence in a case like this, and it was the observation of those of us in investigations that worked the case that there was nothing about the situation or Abel's body that indicated that he died as a result of an intentional attack," Deisinger said. "I cannot say that he was not assaulted. I can only say that there was no evidence to indicate that he was assaulted."
Moreover, Deisinger said, if the group had investigated Bolanos' death, it had done so without speaking to him or reviewing any of the primary investigation materials. And if it had uncovered any gang signs or tags connecting Bolanos' death to the others, it hadn't shared them with police.
Story County Attorney Stephen Holmes said he also was aware of the group's theory and had heard it as connected to Bolanos' death, but had dismissed it as nothing more than a stretch for sensationalism's sake.
"I think it's terrible to tout this kind of thing," he said. "To me, this is junk science or sensationalism. It's not real police work."
A Tribune reporter accompanied the group around Ames last summer was it knocked on doors, walked the path around Lake LaVerne and even entered a drainage pipe to look for strange tags or symbols. At the time, Gilbertson was quoted as saying Bolanos was a perfect fit for the profile of a victim of the alleged serial killer group.
According to Tribune reports, the two detectives spent more than an hour in the drainage tunnels near Lake LaVerne searching for tags.
Phone calls and e-mail messages to the group this week have not been returned.
Luke Jennett can be reached at 232-2161, Ext. 343, or ljennett@amestrib.com.
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(this picture was also taken, by one of the investigators, at the same scene in the same tunnel)
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Are Smiley Face Killers Related to Joshua Szostak Death? FIND OUT
By DAVID FILKINS and CATHY WOODRUFF, Staff writers
Click byline for more stories by writer.
Last updated: 9:03 p.m., Thursday, May 22, 2008
ALBANY - An autopsy report on the body of Joshua Szostak, who was found in the Hudson River on April 22, shows he had a blood alcohol content of 0.126 percent.
The report was provided Thursday to the Times Union by Szostak's father, William, who sent the report to call attention to some of its caveats about the intoxication.
It mentions the BAC translates into an absorption of five to six drinks for an adult of 155 pounds. Szostak said his son weighed 225 pounds, and noted the report said alcohol levels may be raised slightly by decomposition. The report says decomposition was slowed because of the cold river.
Joshua Szostak, 21, of Latham, had been missing for almost four months when his body was found.
Szostak said he still believes his son was the victim of foul play, a possibility being pursued by two retired New York City detectives.
"He was murdered," William Szostak said. "I not only believe, I know. This should be handled as a homicide."
Joshua Szostak went missing Dec. 23 after celebrating a friend's birthday at an Albany bar. His body was discovered by a fisherman near the Coxsackie boat launch a month ago.
The autopsy said Szostak died of accidental drowning. A second autopsy, requested by the family, concluded the same thing.
Albany County pathologist Dr. Jeffrey Hubbard performed the initial autopsy and ordered the toxicology tests. Hubbard's office declined comment and referred questions to the doctor, but he was unavailable. Albany police have concluded a graffiti image spray-painted on a tree at the Port of Albany isn't linked to Szostak's death and is not an indicator the man was slain.
A theory is circulating that Szostak could have fallen prey to a roving crew of killers who are said to be targeting male college students around the country and leaving smiley-face graffiti at the scene.
Detective James Miller, spokesman for the Albany Police Department, said interviews with two independent witnesses have ruled out the possibility that the local graffiti was drawn by anyone connected with Szostak's death.
"We don't believe it's related to his drowning death at all," Miller said. "More than likely, it was just a cruel hoax on someone's part."
Szostak questions the reliability of one or both of the witnesses. He said he continues to collect evidence and collaborate on the case with the two New York City detectives who developed the "smiley-face killer" theory.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Smiley Face Killers Update
Kristi Piehl - Investigative Reporter
(from Kristi's blog)
Smiley Face Updates (May 21)
Another Congressman has asked the FBI to take another look at the drownings. Rep. Michael McNulty represents the 21st District in New York. It's the area where JoshSzostak disappeared and was discovered drowned. His father, Bill, is now working with retired Detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte. I've been told, they've found evidence that points to Szostak's drowning being a homicide and potentially connected to the other cases around the country.
The Albany Police Department stands by its conclusion that Josh's death was an accidental drowning.
I'll keep you updated....
With each day, comes more emails. Each fits into one of three categories....
1. TIPS
People from across the world are interested in the Smiley Face Killers and have done online research. These Sherlock Holmes' tips I forward to former NY Detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte.
2. KUDOS
This story continues to be talked about on blogs and websites and many people write to say "Thanks" for doing the story or offer support to continue working on the story.
3. GRIEF
This is the category that surprises me. Almost everyday, I get an email from a family who feels their loved one's unexplained drowning fits the profile Gannon and Duarte are investigating. There are so many families suffering and searching for answers. These stories I also forward to Gannon and Duarte.
Thank you for your interest... we'll keep following this story.
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A second congressman has called on the FBI to take another look at the case of the so-called ‘Smiley-Face’ killers after a 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS investigation revealed new details about the case late last month.
"It has come to my attention that recent press reports indicate new evidence linking the drowning deaths of a large number of college-aged men across the country," Rep. Michael R. McNulty, D-NY, wrote in a letter to the FBI earlier this month.
"I am aware that the FBI investigated this matter previously, but it appears that some of these cases may be linked. In light of this new evidence, I respectfully request that the FBI re-open its investigation."
McNulty is the second member of congress to contact the FBI regarding the case. At the beginning of May, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., R-Wisconsin, made a similar request of the FBI after seeing our investigation on the national news.
The investigation at the end of April presented information from retired New York City detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte regarding the mysterious river deaths of young men around the country.
The detectives believe the deaths of as many as forty young men around the country may be connected, including the death of Chris Jenkins in Minneapolis in 2002. Jenkins' death is the only case to be classified as homicide.
At many of the scenes, Gannon and Duarte discovered graffiti of what appeared to be a smiley face.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
KRISTI PIEHL: 'Smiley Face Killers' Update
Kristi Piehl - Investigative Reporter
Since our investigation into the Smiley Face Killers aired, I've gotten hundreds of emails.
First of all, thanks for your interest and all the gratitude and support you've offered. I've forwarded dozens of emails to parents of the young men who drowned and to the retired NY detectives.
Many of you are wondering what is happening in the case now?
The detectives are following up on the leads they've received since this story broke. They got new evidence and new contacts. All the information they've received from the public is energizing their investigation.
They're working with Pennsylvania detectives on the drowning of Tommy Booth. I've reported on this case and talked with his mother several times. The detectives in Pennsylvania are interested in working with Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte. After our story aired on Good Morning America, the detectives in PA found a smiley face on the building where Booth was last seen. Gannon will meet with them soon. Booth's mom is hopeful this will bring her answers.
According to Rep. Sensenbrenner's office, the FBI has not responded to the request to reopen all the drowning cases.
Gannon and Duarte have much more evidence that they aren't reporting. They say that the smiley faces are just one kind of graffiti they've found. People often ask why they aren't releasing everything they've got. They think it could tarnish any possible criminal case. Their goal is to get people arrested. Kevin Gannon promised the parents of the victims that will happen and he's working 6 days a week to make sure that happens.
Check back here for more updates.
(Kristi's latest update from Coast to Coast AM. Her interview starts at 01:18)
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Abel Bolanos Ames, IA - Smiley Face Killers
06/08/2007
Danielle Duggan: Investigating a mystery in Campustown
By: Danielle Duggan/The Tribune
As the police and courts reporter for The Tribune, I have come to accept the fact that there is no such thing as a "typical" day at work. I never know what will happen when I walk through those doors or who will be on the other end of the phone when I pick it up. So, I didn't bat an eye when I got a message last week from a man with a thick New York accent.
"Hello, Ms. Duggan, this is Kevin Gannon with the NYPD, could you give me a call back at ..."
No problem, I thought, but at the time I was on deadline, so the phone call was going to have to wait. I'd call him back after our 11:30 a.m. meeting.
It was shortly before 11 a.m. when I got a call from Dr. Lee Gilbertson, of Saint Cloud State University, telling me he was in town and wondering if it would be OK to meet at his hotel in Ames, even though he wasn't quite sure which one it was.
Sure, I'd love to meet him, and I left right after we figured out he was staying at the Grandstay Hotel by the Old Chicago Restaurant.
Gilbertson is an expert in the field of spatial analysis applications in criminal justice. I had contacted him about some research he was doing with two of his graduate students regarding the mysterious drowning deaths of college men throughout the Midwest and a possible connection to a serial killer.
I was working on an article about Abel Bolanos, an Iowa State University student who drowned March 31 in Lake LaVerne. His death was ruled an accidental drowning and foul play wasn't suspected, but I was wondering if he fit the profile of the other victims Gilbertson had researched.
Since May of 2006, along with his graduate students, Gilbertson had collected and analyzed data from more than 60 drowning deaths from Wisconsin to New York.
According to him, the victims have been characteristically light-skinned men in their early 20s, 5-feet, 8-inches tall with an athletic or good build, weighing an average of 165 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. No victims were women.
This fit the description of Bolanos, and Gilbertson came to town with his "crew," including Adam Carlson, an undergraduate academic adviser and graduate student they called "Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius," and two retired New York Police Department detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony "Tony" Duarte.
There in the parking lot was the "ah ha" moment and the awkward "I was just about to call you back..." conversation I had when I met Gannon.
"No problem," he insisted.
The crew just wanted to know if I would show them around Ames, particularly everywhere Bolanos had been the night he went missing in March.
"Of course," I said.
Even though I am nine-months pregnant and it was a warm Iowa day at the end of May, I volunteered to walk them around starting from the site of the party he was at on North Hyland Avenue to his dorm room a mile away to where he was found in Lake LaVerne.
Gilbertson rode with me as we headed toward the campus to start our journey. The others rode in a rented minivan they had brought from Minnesota the day before to collect and analyze data at the scene of another Iowa drowning - that of Grinnell College student Paul Schuman Moore.
After we illegally parked in a nearby apartment complex, Neutron got out a duffle bag with a video camera, digital camera, GPS navigation equipment and a notebook from the van. Gilbertson told me he had gotten the video camera when he was in graduate school and wanted to know if I would mind getting taped while we walked around, which was no problem to me.
Gilbertson, Gannon, Neutron and I were going to walk the route while Duarte followed in the van. A couple of weeks prior, Duarte was injured in a head-on collision in New York and had to use a cane, which would make the more than 3-mile walk difficult.
We went to the first stop and stood across the street from 208 North Hyland Ave. where a highly intoxicated Bolanos was reportedly last seen leaving a party at 4 a.m.
Neutron taped while Gilbertson and I watched Gannon start knocking on doors to see if anyone knew anything about what had happened that night. With ISU letting out a couple of weeks ago, there wasn't much going on, and I didn't know if he would run into anyone at all.
So we waited outside chit-chatting about Monty's Barber Shop and Gilbertson's time in the military while Duarte waited in the van. Ten minutes later, Gannon resurfaced and wrote down the name of a boy he met inside who wasn't there the night Bolanos went missing and didn't know anything about what had happened but was listening to some "great music."
We moved south on Hyland Avenue, and I gave them little tidbits of knowledge I had learned from an 83-year-old woman I interviewed the week before who had lived on Hyland her entire life. Duarte slowly followed in the van.
Even though we could only speculate the specific route Bolanos took, we headed toward Bolanos' dorm room at the Wallace-Wilson complex area and stopped at the intersection of Knapp Street and Hayward Avenue.
It was at an undisclosed location on Hayward Avenue where university police reported an anonymous man found Bolanos' credit and debit cards and then turned them into a local Ames bank on Monday, April 2. Neutron taped me standing at the intersection explaining this. Gilbertson took photos and GPS coordinates while Gannon went back to the van to see how Duarte was doing.
According to Gilbertson, personal items like wallets, cell phones and keys, were often not found on the bodies of the drowning victims but in other areas of the community.
As a side note, Neutron continued to tape me while I told the crew about Jacob Hobson, an ISU student who university police said died sometime after 1:45 a.m. July 21, 2005, as a result of blunt-force trauma to the head and drowning in College Creek, which runs under Hayward Avenue. Hobson's death has been ruled an accidental drowning, and no foul play was suspected at the time.
Gilbertson and Gannon were intrigued by this and walked down to College Creek while Neutron and I stood on the sidewalk watching some city of Ames employees eat their lunch and Duarte waited in the van.
"Keep in mind that this process is a lot like rounding up a bunch of cats," Neutron said. "This may take a while."
By the time they resurfaced 20 minutes later, the city employees had finished their lunch and were back at work while Neutron and I were sweating and talking about the lighter aspects of the police and courts beat, like an entry in a recent blotter ending up on the David Letterman Show and the llama that was reported in the middle of Ontario Street the week before.
I didn't think to ask Gilbertson or Gannon what had taken so long and was just happy to be moving onto the dorms when Duarte started yelling from the van.
Frantically, Duarte said the National Weather Service had just reported a storm was headed northeast of Nevada with large hail and the possibility of tornados.
No need to worry, I told them, Nevada was east of Ames. They were still worried, though, because apparently New York doesn't get as many tornados as the Midwest does. But I kept reassuring them because at this point we had only walked approximately a mile in an hour and a half and I was still nine-months pregnant and sweating.
When we finally made it to Bolanos' dorm, they asked if I knew which window was Bolanos', and I said I hadn't thought to ask. So we just stood in the lawn while Neutron taped the building and Gilbertson took more photos and GPS coordinates.
A half an hour later, it was on to Lake LaVerne. Because Duarte is Catholic, he decided to park in the St. Thomas Aquinas Church parking lot, and we all walked over to the south section of the lake where university police and divers recovered Bolanos' body.
We walked around the lake while I told the crew about the number of reports the Ames Police Department received the morning Bolanos went missing about geese in the middle of the road. This time, Duarte walked with us while Neutron taped me, and Gilbertson took more photos and GPS coordinates.
Gannon then saw a tunnel in the spillway next to the lake and asked me where it went. I said I didn't know. I didn't even know it was there until he pointed it out. Before I knew it, he was sitting on the ground taking off his shoes and socks then heading into the tunnel with Neutron and his video camera right behind him.
Gilbertson, Duarte and I sat there to Gannon and Neutron mumble to each other in the tunnel.
Ten minutes later, they came out and were happy to report they didn't find any hypodermic needles but asked if someone wouldn't mind walking back to the van to get Neutron's red backpack. They needed headlamps and another battery for the camera.
So while Gilbertson and Duarte slowly walked back to the van, Neutron, Gannon and I sat in the grass watching potential ISU students with their parents walk around the lake pointing at the Memorial Union and feeding the geese.
When Gilbertson returned with their supplies, Neutron and Gannon headed back into the tunnel.
Throughout the entire process, I didn't ask the crew very many questions because, as I said, I have come to accept the fact that nothing at work will ever be "typical." But after they had been in the tunnel for another half an hour, I had to ask Gilbertson what they were doing.
According to Gilbertson, who also is an expert in gang activity, two unusual marks or "tags" have been found near the scene where a number of the drowning victims were found.
"Do you think they found it in the tunnel?" I asked.
"I don't think they would be in there this long if they didn't," Gilbertson said.
(this famous picture was taken by one of the investigators in the tunnel)
Gilbertson doesn't claim there is a serial killer drowning college students around the country. Along with his graduate students, he attempts to remain as scientifically objective as possible by not letting his judgment be influenced by empathy for victims and sympathy for their families. He tries not to get caught up in the mass hysteria of an urban legend. He does point out, however, that several cases exist wherein sufficient evidence suggests beyond a preponderance of the evidence that something was not right and that they could possibly be linked.
No one knows for sure whether Abel Bolanos was the victim of a serial killer. More answers may come in September when Gilbertson said he hopes to hold a press conference releasing all the information from his research.
Danielle Duggan can be reached at 232-2161, Ext. 342 or dduggan@amestrib.com.
