Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice

In short, this show is based on on a handful of retired detectives with nothing to do. The show continually cherry picks "evidence". The detectives question experts and argue with them when their opinions aren't supported. In one scene you will see somebody give an opinion like "I would expect the body to have been in worse condition". In the next scene you see one of the hosts shouting to the camera "they said its IMPOSSIBLE for the body to look that good". They tell you a victim's PayPal had been used 2 days after he disappeared and they never mention that again. Clearly an investigation showed no relevant information regarding that fact... one expert stomps on a detectives dreams when he tells him that in the days before a body was found, a gate was opened by 7 feet which meant the body could have easily passed through. He suggested that the body would have been caught on something which delayed the discovery of the body and the detective actually says "nope. It wasnt caught on anything. Nope."

The best part is how they say that upstream from every body at the first bridge there is the trademark. A smiley face!... but none of the smiley faces look the same. In fact, they vary dramatically and all the sites are covered in graffiti. Where DONT you find a smiley face of some description in amongst piles of graffiti.

Considering the lack professionalism, the stretched theories and the disingenuous claims made so clearly in this show, I feel you cant trust any of the more compelling evidence they claim to provide.

I felt that if the victims were not in the water for as long as law enforcement claimed. That they were possibly being kept alive for a period of time. Then are the assailants using GHB to control them? That would be the only reason to find drugs in the system unless they are using the drugs to kill the victims. Otherwise it can not be said what condition all the victims were in when abducted. Yes maybe they were drugged in order to control the abduction but if they are being held for an extended period of time then the original dose of drugs wouldn't show up on a toxicology report. More drugs would have to have been administered. I would also like to know what if anything was in the stomach content. Was there food fed to these victims or were they starved? Is some group out in our communities conducting experiments on these poor boys? What kind of world do we live in. One more question; what significance do the stars in the smiley faces have? Is that a way to convey to others of the "cult" how many they have killed by how many stars are attributed to the smiley face? Compelling series and I hope these detectives don't stop until they get some answers. I am just terrified that the answers that they get will only stir up more unthinkable questions. I pray for the answers and the closure of these cases. All of them.

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.

This "Smiley Face Murder's idea is being misrepresented here. As of January 2019 there is not official police investigation in any jurisdiction in the U.S. This is a theory and nothing more at this time. The only place this is being pursued is by the production company responsible for the show and the Oxygen Network. In the first episode it mentioned a few times that there was a transaction after Dakota James was known to be dead. While they liked to mention that it occurred they never mentioned looking into it. Something like that is easily explained, it could have been a pre-order of soon to released item. Or a repeating order that repeats monthly, such as can be done on Amazon. For some reason they didn't bother to go any further then that with that detail. Possibly because it would remove tension they want to have associated with this story. The journalist associated with story seemed to want to pick apart the remarks made by the retired Corps of Engineers employee. The journalist was actively arguing a story line when all he should have been doing was fact finding. The Corps had the flood gates open, but he wanted to imply some sinister goings on. Granted the autopsy could have been handled better. But there no knowing for sure how long that body was in the water, not every single case will be like the next in every detail. And there's not way to know for sure if that body snagged on some underwater obstacle causing some of those findings in the autopsy. This show is built on grieving people that are clinging to the hope they can find out something to explain the unexplained death of a loved one. With the facts shown in this show. It would be a waste of taxpayers money to do a major investigation of this case without more compelling facts. The investigators seemed to be glossing over details that didn't support the story line of a series of so-called smiley face murders. There are smiley faces drawn, carved and painted all over the United States. Just because some bodies have turned up next to them does not mean they are connected. The smiley face my be one of the most ubiquitous symbols seen in the United States. I gave it a 3 because many times during the telling of the story I was angry with the way the investigators seemed to be steering this story, instead of letting the chips fall where they may.

The first season's episodes are compelling stories of young men who have gone missing and were murdered. I caught a brief explanation of the Smiley Face Killer theory when a few of the detectives went on Dr. Phil. The theory sounds a bit "conspiracy theory-ish", but I always give the benefit of the doubt. It's hard to deny the similarities in the stories. So, if you are like me and like the "Dateline" type murder mysteries, you will find this series interesting. My one warning to viewers, and it's not any fault of the creators, but these stories do not have resolutions like many Dateline-type episodes. These are a retelling of the crime with new investigations and evidence. The purpose of these investigations is too solve the crimes or to get the police to reopen the cases. They are not stories where you get to know the final ending of "who done it".