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.

Smiley Face Killers - Cincinnati and St. Cloud police to review cases

The Cincinnati and St. Cloud Police Departments want to re-examine cases to see if they're linked to the Smiley Face Killers. Kristi Piehl (Investigative Reporter KSTP-TV) broke the story on the Smiley Face Serial Killers' investigation being conducted by retired NYPD detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte who are now confident they've discovered a nationwide criminal network, concluding that a large, organized group with a hierarchical structure is responsible for the killings. 29 April 2008.

Mysterious Deaths Piling Up

Mysterious deaths piling up
June 19, 2008


It’s almost like the opening of a Hollywood thriller. Except that unlike in the movies, the disappearances of young men around the Lower Mainland is very real. This year alone has seen at least four men vanish without a trace.

Chilliwack resident Michael Scullion, 30, was last seen in Agassiz on April 10. Burnaby resident Kellen McElwee, 25, went missing in Langley March 19. On Jan. 17, White Rock resident Wade Mackenzie, 23, disappeared. Langley resident Derek Kelly, 32, was last seen at Bridge Lake on New Year’s Day.

But these are just some of the latest cases. Earlier this month a Vancouver Courier feature story showed some staggering numbers. Going back to 2003, as many as 22 men aged 18-52 have vanished with no real leads whatsoever. The similarities are there, however hazy. Most are young, athletic, work construction or labour jobs and have tattoos, and go missing after a night of drinking or partying with friends at crowded places. Some have vanished during the day and a ton of false sightings have occurred.

These apparent victims of foul play weren’t grouped together for some male version of the Downtown East Side women story. The newspaper’s investigation started with a list of 60 missing men from around B.C. whose cases dated to the 1990s. The list was whittled down to 22 relatively young, healthy men who vanished with virtually no leads.

All the families talk similarly about how their boys were “happy” and how each disappearance was “completely out of character.”

After delving into the research, I noticed the similarities myself and over time I couldn’t tell one from another; they all seemed to blend into one similar story.

Rewards offer $2,000, $5,000, up to $50,000 for any type of lead. But in general the tips aren’t coming.

The mothers of these victims, obviously going through incomprehensible suffering, offer up similar quotes for news organization. Janice Braumberger whose son, Burnaby resident Brian Braumberger, 18, was last seen on June 1, 2007 — his deserted car was the first sign of his disappearance — gave a heartfelt accounting of her anguish:

“It’s as if the earth opened up and swallowed him,” she told the Courier. “It’s hard to believe none of these men have been found. Why aren’t there any bodies?”

The no-bodies aspect is particularly puzzling. With the so-called Smiley Face murders in the U.S. Midwest, young men were reported missing, but their bodies washed up on riverbanks days later. The remains gave some form of closure, such as in the case of convicted killer Robert ‘Willy’ Pickton, when DNA samples from decomposed remains found on his Port Coquitlam pig farm were matched to missing Vancouver prostitutes.

Studies have shown that serial killers usually target vulnerable individuals such as homeless people, female prostitutes or small children. The fact all these men who’ve disappeared are big, brooding guys who played sports or worked labour jobs is even more frightening.

It’s as if they were abducted; snapped up so quickly they didn’t know what hit them. After all, most of the photos show young, hulking men with thick biceps. You don’t take one of them down without at least some kind of a struggle or path of evidence, unless they’ve been subdued.

Police have yet to sound an alarm linking the disappearances. But with the count standing at 22 in a relatively few years, within a relatively small distance, similar victims, similar circumstances, how many more does it take to have this scenario fall into the suspicious category?

The latest was 20-year-old White Rock resident Daniel Bouchard, who went missing on June 9 after walking home from a pub where he’d been drinking with friends.

Young, fit, happy, working construction, Bouchard fits the profile. False sightings have already occurred, but at press time he was still missing, still another question mark in a growing number of eerily similar disappearances.

Patrick Blennerhassett writes for the Victoria News.

patrickb@vicnews.com.

Criminal Profiler Debunks "Smiley Face Killers"
Filed under: Crime

Are a team of serial killers preying on college men across the country, abducting and then drowning them in rivers and lakes, and taunting police with with cryptic calling cards at the scenes of the crime?

The creepy theory of the Smiley Face Killers first aired locally on KSTP's 5 Eyewitness News a few weeks ago and later made national headlines when it was picked up by CNN and ABC's Good Morning America.

According to the reports, two retired detectives from New York have spent 11 years investigating 40 cases of college-age men who died under similar circumstances: They disappeared after a night of heavy drinking, and their bodies were later recovered from nearby bodies of water. The drownings occurred in 25 cities in 11 states, stretching from New York to the Midwest, including nearly 20 cases in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The detectives believe the young men were murdered, even though there was no evidence of foul play. All the deaths were officially ruled drownings, although one case--that of University of Minnesota senior Christopher Jenkins, who died on Halloween in 2002--was reclassified as a homicide after a jailhouse tip.

The detectives base their theory on clues that include one hauntingly lurid detail: In 12 of the 40 cases, the ex-cops say they found painted smiley faces near where they suspect the bodies first entered the water. Because some of the deaths occurred on the same day in different states, the detectives surmise that more than one person is committing the crimes.

Pat Brown

It's a bizarre theory, but because we don't have a degree in criminology, we decided to solicit the opinion of one of the nation's best-known criminal profilers. Pat Brown is a former Minnesotan now living in the Washington, D.C., area. She has appeared frequently as a media commentator, including appearances on CNN, FOX, and MSNBC, and she is a regular guest on CNN's Nancy Grace. When we asked her opinion of the so-called Smiley Face Killers, she didn't mince words.

"They don't exist," she said flatly. "It's ludicrous." Serial killers, Brown said, "just don't work that way."

For one thing, she says, sociopaths probably wouldn't work that hard, traveling to several states to find victims.

Second, a serial killer's motive is generally pretty clear. "It's usually a sexual assault," Brown says, which isn't the case in these drownings.

Third, serial killers prefer to work alone. "Sometimes you'll get a pair of them," she says, but not working in separate locations.

Fourth, their choice of victims doesn't match the serial killer profile. "They don't pick on big college boys. They pick on little girls, or teenage girls, or young teenage boys like 14 years old who can't fight back."

Fifth, the idea that they could abduct 40 male college students and drown them all without leaving a suspicious mark on their bodies strains all credibility.

And what about the most suggestive clue--the smiley faces? "It's not an unusual symbol. There could be millions of them around town," she says. If there were ones on the bodies of the boys, on their chests, then I'd say you've got something." The detectives can't know where the bodies first entered the water, so the entry point is only educated guesswork. "If you look in an area five miles square, I bet you could find a smiley face."

So, college students still have to worry about getting drunk and drowning, but Brown doesn't believe they have to worry about an "Internet gang" of killers. "It's just absolutely insane," she says.

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Posted by Matt Smith at June 13, 2008 3:46 PM

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.

Nicholas Garza

2/22/08: Eva Sollberger travels to Middlebury College in Middlebury Vermont to talk to students about the disappearance of freshman Nicholas Garza.