SMILEY FACE KILLERS UPDATE WITH KRISTI PIEHL

PART 1





PART 2





PART 3

Families circulate 'Smiley Face Killers' petition around country

From Investigative Reporter Kristi Piehl


Two months after a 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS investigation into the mysterious river deaths of as many as 40 young male college students around the country, the families of possible victims have begun circulating a nationwide petition urging the FBI to take a closer look into the case.

"We request that Robert Mueller, Director of the FBI, order his agency to conduct a full and thorough investigation into the deaths of these young men," the petition states. "We believe that insufficient resources have been applied to these cases thus far to bring them to conclusion."

Since our investigation first aired in April, two congressmen have called on the FBI to take a broader look at the cases.

Dubbed the 'Smiley-Faced Killers' case, two retired New York City detectives believe that the deaths of dozens of young men around the country may be connected.

The detectives believe that the killers leave smiley-face graffiti behind at the scene of their crimes.

The case that brought the story together for the detectives was when the 2002 death of Chris Jenkins in Minneapolis in was ruled a homicide in 2005. Jenkins' father Steve is one of the family members helping to distribute the petition.

Read the petition

Families ask that signed petitions be sent to:
Steve Jenkins
8124 Foxberry Bay
Savage MN 55378

Follow our investigation from the beginning.

Officials Question Time Conflict

Officials question time conflict
Evidence indicates Bolanos arrived home earlier than first thought
Marjorie Smith/Daily Staff Writer
Issue date: 4/6/07 Section: News


An illustrated map of the events, as reconstructed so far. Click for a larger version.
Media Credit: Katy Summerlot/Iowa State Daily
An illustrated map of the events, as reconstructed so far. Click for a larger version.

A change in the time sequence has officials questioning the events between the time Abel Bolanos, whose body was found in Lake LaVerne on Tuesday, left a party where he was last seen early Saturday morning, and the time he attempted access at a residence hall near his.

"People are in error about what time he left the Hyland address," said Gene Deisinger, commander for ISU Police.

Friends from the party initially told officials Bolanos left the 208 S. Hyland apartment between 4 and 4:30 a.m. Saturday. However, Bolanos' access card was used to attempt access twice before 4 a.m. into the unoccupied Wilson Hall, which is located west of his dorm building, Wallace Hall.

The two attempts to access Wilson Hall occurred at 3:22:57 a.m. and 3:23:12 a.m. Saturday.

"[Bolanos] had access to Wallace, but not Wilson," said Mona Wilson, clerk in facilities planning and management. "He used it on Wilson Hall those two times, but he didn't try it at all at Wallace."

A card belonging to a different student, whose name was not released, was also used at Wilson Hall shortly after Bolanos. This attempt was made at 3:26:34 a.m. Saturday.

According to activity records on the access pad outside the door of Wilson Hall, this was the only other attempt beside Bolanos' that was made after 3 a.m., Wilson said.

None of the attempts resulted in successful entry.

Records of activity on the access pad outside Wallace Hall indicated plenty of activity after 3 a.m. Saturday, which suggests people were around.

"There were several [entries] around that time," Wilson said.

Deisinger also confirmed that Bolanos' access card was found with the body.

Police are investigating the time discrepancies and have ruled out any confusion of delayed time stamps because of the change in daylight-saving time that occurred March 12.

"[We are] pretty confident that the time stamp is 3:23 [and] that is the correct time," Deisinger said.

Bolanos' room showed no signs of entry; however, everything is still being held in place until the investigation ends.

"Right now we've asked for the family's cooperation holding his vehicle [and] his room largely as it is right now as we await further information from the medical examiner's office for an investigative follow up," Deisinger said.

"It is a precautionary measure."

Bolanos' room was searched Sunday after Bolanos was reported missing.

"We found nothing that caused us any concern," Deisinger said.

The last time Bolanos was sighted in Campustown early Saturday morning has not changed to accommodate the shifts in time sequence.

"There is at least one [person] that has a very good description of Abel at about 4:30 a.m. [in Campustown]," Deisinger said.

Friday, March 30

* 11 p.m. Bolanos got off work at Red Lobster

Saturday, March 31

* 12:30 a.m. Bolanos drove and parked on Lincoln Way, and walked to the party on Hyland
* 3:23 a.m. Bolanos used access card to attempt entry into Wilson Hall
* About 4:30 a.m. Bolanos was spotted in Campustown
* 4:30 a.m. It is believed Bolanos accidentally drown shortly after
* 5:15 p.m. The annual Polar Bear Plunge took place in Lake LaVerne.

Sunday, April 1

* 11:53 a.m. Officials were notified that Bolanos was missing
* 12:12 p.m. Bolanos' car was found on Lincoln Way
* The Ames Police and the Story County Sheriff became involved.
* 11 p.m. The Iowa State Patrol put up an aircraft with heat-seeking capabilities and searched farmlands near Towers

Monday, April 2

* 10:30 a.m. Bolanos' credit cards were turned into Ames bank
* A formal request was put out during the afternoon for an organized search group
* Volunteers started a door-to-door canvas in Ames

Tuesday, April 3

* Search of Lake LaVerne began
* 3:39 p.m. An unidentified body matching the description of Abel Bolanos was removed from Lake LaVerne
* 4:45 p.m. Officials blocked off area around Lincoln Way
* 6:05 p.m. The body was positively identified as Abel M. Bolanos

Wednesday, April 4

* 8 p.m. A candlelight vigil was held on Central Campus in memory of Abel M. Bolanos.

Smiley Face Killers News Video Coverage #3

From Anderson Cooper 360 Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Preview

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.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________


(this picture was also taken, by one of the investigators, at the same scene in the same tunnel)

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.