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, Anthony Duarte, and Mike Donovan, and Dr. Lee Gilbertson, criminal justice and sociology professor at St. Cloud State University. In essence, they believe that over 40 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 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).
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.
The show is at its strongest when examining why these six cases were not accidental. Dakota James (23) disappeared from Pittsburgh in 2017 and was found 40 days later in the Ohio River. Forensic pathologist Dr.
Cyril H. 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 the river, 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.
Luke Homan (21) disappeared from La Crosse, WI in 2006 and was found three days later in the Mississippi River. The show points out that the 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.
Will Hurley (24), a US Navy veteran, disappeared from Boston in 2009 and was found six days later in the Charles River, only 100 yards from where police had searched eight hours prior. 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. Forensic pathologist Dr. Elizabeth 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.
Brian Welzien (21) disappeared from Chicago in 2000 and was found 77 days later and 30 miles away washed up on a Lake Michigan beach in Gary, IN. He too was shown to have very little alcohol in his system, but was seen on security footage throwing up multiple times. 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.
Tommy Booth (24) disappeared from Woodlyn, PA in 2008 and was found 14 days later in a creek behind the bar from which he disappeared despite it being searched just 24 hours prior. When he was found he was still in rigor mortis (impossible if he was dead 14 days) and there was little to no decomposition.
Todd Geib (22) disappeared from Muskegon, MI in 2005 and was found 21 days later in nearby Lake Ovidhall, a privately owned lake. 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. Several days after his funeral, a smiley face sticker was placed on his headstone.
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. It fails to address the three biggest problems with the theory - 1) smiley face graffiti is some of the most common, 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.
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. It also leaves out any information on what the motivation for the murders may be. Gannon and Gilbertson have speculated 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.
All things considered, although Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice 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, with the show seeming 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.
