![smiley face killer victims smiley face killer victims](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_juJ9nZ7oYxU/SDY5rKW-ZdI/AAAAAAAAACU/yBei_6YZqSM/s400/Abel+Belanos.jpg)
They are convinced that the Smiley Face killers are still at large, and remain vigilant about tracking them down. A simple search online shows that there are many others who believe the Smiley Face Murders theory and have tried to pick up where the two detectives left off. While Gannon and Duarte stopped pursuing the Smiley Face Theory, other people did not. Almost half of these rare cases involve children under the age of eight, an age that does not match the age of the supposed Smiley Face victims.īy 2012, Gannon and Duarte did not have the financial ability to continue their investigation, and they began to pursue other unrelated cases. In fact, homicidal drowning accounts for only 0.2 percent of all killings in the United States. They also pointed out that homicide by drowning is extremely rare. The CHR wondered how could they have been tortured and not have any signs of torture? Even if the water washed away evidence, any marks made on the body would still be present upon discovery (unless there were only skeletal remains, which there wasn’t). Two other issues they shared were that each smiley face didn’t exactly match, and the distance of the smiley faces from the scene of the crime varied.Ī fourth issue they pointed out was that there was no physical trauma to the bodies, aside from the two deaths that were ruled homicides. Additionally, the chronological order of the smiley faces could not be determined some may have been spray-painted years prior to the body being discovered. There were only 22 smiley faces found to accompany over three dozen bodies. One significant inconsistency the CHR found with the theory is that the number of smiley faces located close to where the bodies were found did not match the number of deaths. In the report, “Drowning the Smiley Face Murder Theory,” the authors provided 18 reasons as to why the theory was invalid. In 2010, the Center for Homicide Research (CHR) published a report that highly criticized Gannon and Duarte’s theory. The police departments that originally handled each investigation have refused to believe the theory, and the FBI said that the “vast majority” of the deaths were “alcohol-related drownings”.
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The Smiley Face Murder theory has faced growing skepticism over the years due to lack of leads and multiple inconsistencies. Despite the public’s awareness of the theory, they could not find any culprits or any concrete proof that the victims were actually murdered. They questioned family and friends of the deceased, but did not get any leads. While only two of the cases were ruled homicides, the two detectives were determined to prove that all of them were. Victims were then deposited into a body of water in order to wash away evidence. Shortly after they left, each victim was abducted, driven around for hours, and tortured. Gannon and Duarte hypothesized that the victims were drugged with GHB or a similar drug at the bar or party before they were killed.
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Other victims were found near the spray-painted word sinsinawa, which is a Native American word that means “Rattlesnake,” or “Home of the Young Eagle.” Gannon and Duarte suspected smiley faces were used to taunt the police. Many of them were found in water that was in proximity of graffiti depicting a smiley face.
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All of the victims were white males, and were considered athletic and popular at the time they died. For example, prior to their disappearances each victim was at a party or bar with friends, and drank heavily. The Smiley Face Murder theory focused on the similarities of each case. Accordingly, they named their theory the "Smiley Face Murders", based on this supposed calling card.
#SMILEY FACE KILLER VICTIMS SERIAL#
They believed that the victims were tortured and murdered by a gang of serial killers who left a chilling calling card-a smiley face-at several of the murder scenes. Retired New York City detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte began researching various potential patterns in each case, and went public with a theory in 2008. Their disappearances spanned 11 states, from New York to Minnesota. Between 19, over 40 young men mysteriously vanished, only to be found weeks or months later drowned in a body of water.