WEBVTT - CLASSIC: The Smiley Face Murder Conspiracy 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:05.440 Fellow conspiracy realist friends and neighbors. Tonight's classic episode may 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:09.639 not be appropriate for all listeners. The headline simply put, 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:13.880 could a group of serial murderers be kidnapping and drowning 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:17.040 young men across the entirety of the United States? 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.959 Yeah? I remembering like pools were involved in this one. 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:24.320 Bodies of water, for sure, went the pools. There weren't pools. 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:27.280 I think it's more lakes rivers. 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.479 Okay, I just remember I remember a graffiti situation, like 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.880 where they were tagging this smiley face and from my mind, 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:36.000 I'm picturing one in like a drained pool that I 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:38.280 could be maybe it was like a canal or something. 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:39.839 I think it was a canal. 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:46.199 Yeah, we kept talking about this specific episode while we 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:47.080 were making that one. 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:49.680 That's right, that's right. There are parallels. And this is 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:52.120 not to be confused with The Happy Face Killer, a 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:53.920 series that both Ben and I worked on, which is 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.040 also good and now a TV show weirdly on Lincoln 0:00:57.040 --> 0:00:57.880 Peacock or something. 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:02.200 Yeah, this is instead, and I appreciate that point because 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:05.120 it's easy to confuse the two. This is the Smiley 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:10.959 Face Murder conspiracy. The idea that these what appear to 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:17.119 be accidental drownings do perhaps to implement weather, simple bad luck, 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:23.080 or perhaps intoxication, or instead the result of an active 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:28.000 group of straight up maniacs. And for the people who 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:32.040 believe in this theory, retired detectives among them. The giveaway 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:36.759 is that there is always some kind of trademark graffiti 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:41.720 of a smiley face. And I don't know, man, this 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:43.080 is deep stuff. 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:45.800 And guys, I'm having a hard time remembering how this 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.880 one results. I feel like there was a twist we'll 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:51.120 find out shortly. Here we go. 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:56.560 From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.960 riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:02.760 learn this stuff they don't want. 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:03.000 You to know. 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:07.160 A production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:18.320 Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my. 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:20.160 Name is Noman. They call me Ben. 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:22.880 We are joined as always with our super producer Paul. 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:27.239 Mission control decands, most importantly, you are you. You are here, 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.640 and that makes this stuff they don't want you to know. 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:35.080 I'm going to start out with something very very honest, 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.960 and it's one of the great commonalities. 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.520 Of our species is this. 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:45.960 People die, whether due to accident, injury, disease, or crime. 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:48.680 The unexpected loss of a loved one is one of 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:53.280 the most harrowing events in human experience. It doesn't matter 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.960 who you are, prince, a popper. We love people, and 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:01.840 at some point they or we are gone. And when 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:05.480 people are struggling in the wake of these these terrible, 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:10.720 indescribable tragedies, we often find ourselves desperately searching for answers. 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:14.360 You know, questions haunt us. Was there something I could 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.040 have done differently? We might ask, Or out of all 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:19.360 of the billions of people in the world, why was 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:21.840 my child, my partner, my parent, or my friend the 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:28.160 one to pass away? And this intense pain worsens when 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:32.840 survivors are left with missing pieces to their stories. You know, 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:37.480 we always hear about We always hear about legal proceedings 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.920 maybe for a disappearance or a crime or murder, that 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.600 go on for years or decades after the event. And 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:49.520 in many ways it's driven by surviving family members or 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:54.320 loved ones, not because they believe this will somehow, you know, 0:03:54.400 --> 0:04:01.680 bring someone back. It's because the experience of closure is 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:05.760 so much better than the experience of wondering what happened 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:08.760 to a child, or a spouse or a loved one. 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:12.880 But then there's this other chilling situation, which is, what 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:16.359 do you do when authorities have ruled the death of 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:20.080 a loved one accidental, but you feel they got it wrong. 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.320 I mean, we've seen examples of that, and we know 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:25.839 at least we can't speak for every country, but we 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:29.120 know that here in the US there is a clear 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:35.240 and systemic problem with things being with causes of death 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:41.080 being misidentified right or with some kind of malfunction in 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:44.840 the justice system leading to the wrong person being convicted 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:48.120 of a crime. The real criminal walks away and they 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:52.320 get caught, you know, four assaults, five murders later. 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.479 Yeah, Well, we also know there are real problems within 0:04:55.560 --> 0:05:01.279 institutions where sometimes in This is certainly not true of 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:03.960 all cases, and this is certainly not speaking ill of 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:06.840 any individual out there who may be listening or who 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.760 is working in any of these fields. But sometimes it 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:14.240 is more beneficial to have a let's say, a case 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.760 be classified one way rather than the other. That will 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.600 prevent a major investigation from occurring, because. 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.640 As far as the authorities are concerned, that closes the 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:27.719 book on it. They can devote resources elsewhere and we 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.239 all know that law enforcement agencies are often quite strapped 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:33.320 for resources, and every agency is every agent. 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:35.920 We all human beings out here are trying to do 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.320 the best we can with what we have, right, I mean, 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:41.760 I think that speaks to most of us, especially you listening, 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:46.440 because you're awesome, who are Yeah? Well, I mean, it's 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.279 just the nature of large systems like that. Sometimes you 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.240 have to you have to at least attempt to make 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.840 it function at its highest level. And to do that, 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.920 you have to pick and choose, basically what priorities. 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:02.960 And by its very nature, I'm not saying it's inherently callous, 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:04.479 but it has to take a little bit more of 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:08.279 a clinical approach to these things then would be taken 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:10.520 on the family side, which is obviously a much more 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.960 personal and emotional approach to this idea of closure. So 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:16.240 while the book might be closed on a case as 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.000 far as law enforcement is concerned, that would be far 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.560 from the case if a family member thinks they got 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:22.760 something a little off. 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:25.919 Yeah, And all of this doesn't change the way those 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.320 family members or those loved ones feel in what they believe. 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.720 None of this, none of the realities change the way 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:34.520 that experience at that level. 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:34.960 Right. 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:40.320 We can all think of specific cases where the where 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:44.200 in law enforcement, municipal, maybe even on federal level, said Okay, 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:46.400 we've figured out what happened is what happened, and the 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:50.840 family says, no, this is not a satisfactory explanation. As 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.080 a matter of fact, in the past, we've covered many 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:58.880 examples of this, often with journalists who found something they 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:02.640 don't want you to know and then later somehow died 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.080 and before we go on. You know, this reminds me. 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.440 I recently rewatched some clips of one of your favorite shows, Matt, 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:09.960 The Wire. 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:13.800 I believe it is. That is everybody's favorite show, right. 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:18.840 One of the best shows. Then right, backstory, Matt introduced 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:19.440 me to The Wire. 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.920 So we would not have Luther if we didn't have 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.040 The Wire. Okay, that's also true, that's all. 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:29.960 That's all. We also wouldn't have Macavity in the latest 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:35.680 iteration of Cats, which is a thing of monstrosity and beauty, 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.160 and then everyone should experience it for themselves, just putting 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:38.400 that out. 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:40.600 Yeah, I saw it too, it and I think it 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.520 is the true spiritual successor to the Wire. 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.720 It's basically the last season of The Wire. Stringer Bell 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:53.040 pirouetting around in a weird anthropomorphic CGI cat suit with 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:55.640 ripped abs yep, yep. 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:59.120 In the before the Cat season of The Wire, you 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:03.760 guys will recall there was a there was an ongoing 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.320 plot and I think maybe season four. 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.000 Slight spoiler alert, you mean with the vacance where there 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:12.000 were bodies that were just kind of disappearing, and I 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:16.360 think they're the newspaper essentially created a narrative of their 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:17.320 own to explain this. 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.120 Yes, yes, full spoiler alert. Now McNulty is. 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:28.600 Involved using bodies, yeah, yeah, yeah, and is creating essentially 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.560 or or working with this narrative, right, the idea of 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.280 creating a sort of false narrative to get some more 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.520 resources put into solving some of these murders right right. 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:39.960 Right now that I think about it, I believe was 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:44.360 season five, McNulty, one of the main characters full spoiler alert, 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:49.360 creates a serial killer essentially and does this by working 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:53.200 with the press, and he's they're getting there, They're essentially 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.960 getting more funding through doing this. And one thing that 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.280 I think struck a lot of people about that about 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.920 that move was that The Wire had always been praised 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.520 for its realism and so for something like that to 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:10.200 occur in a very grounded show. The implication is that 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.439 this happens, you know what I mean. Now, of course 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:19.760 critics didn't universally love that plot line, but it shows 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:24.600 us how common this debate is, this idea that there 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:29.559 might be some greater pattern to the tragedy that surrounds us. 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:34.680 Here are the facts. Unfortunately, there are no shortages of 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.439 real life cases, not on the wire, real life cases 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:42.000 where in parents or partners of a deceased individual are 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:46.960 certain that authorities, through either incompetence, indifference, or even corruption, 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.920 have misidentified a cause of death, essentially that they've ruled 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:55.280 a homicide and accident. And over recent decades in the US, 0:09:55.320 --> 0:10:00.480 we've seen hundreds of these stories. One that's still with 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:03.160 me that I've been doing some outside research on is 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:09.200 the Kendrick Johnson case in Valdosta, Georgia. That's the basketball player, 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.959 the high school kid who was who was found dead, 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.040 rolled up in the rolled up in a Jim Matt 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:20.720 Yeah yeah, and his parents say that, you know, bullies 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:25.880 killed or accidentally killed him, and the authorities argue otherwise, 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:28.280 They say he accidentally killed himself. 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:28.680 Yeah. 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:32.360 Story for another day, maybe maybe we'll do a whole 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:37.760 podcast series on it one day. But this might surprise 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:41.400 some of us in the audience. Also, over the recent decades, 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:47.040 we've seen one surprising source of controversy for these debates 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.400 over accident versus homicide, and it comes in the case 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:54.959 of drowning, which is an unpleasant way to. 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:56.800 Go, of course, it really is. 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:00.760 But I do think it's surprising that, you know, when 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.080 you would think of accidental death versus homicide, you would 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:08.600 think of things like maybe firearm related deaths. 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:15.880 Yeah, exactly, Well that's not the case. In this country. 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.920 There are a lot of fairly large bodies of water 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:20.800 and smaller ones too. 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:25.520 They're everywhere water, it's everywhere, raging rivers, you know. 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:33.000 They they are, and people every year die, whether accidentally 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.440 or not accidentally, in these bodies of water, and to 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.199 a lot of people. According to the CDC, from two 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.840 thousand and five to twenty fourteen, there were an average 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:47.920 of three thousand, five hundred and thirty six fatal unintentional drownings. 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:50.960 And those were not related to boating. 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.400 No, no, so not like drinking and boating and that 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.280 kind of thing, and that that occurs annually within the 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:01.280 United States. So every year. That is that's pretty crazy. 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:03.720 It translates to about ten deaths a day. 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:04.760 You know. 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:06.800 I just have to say, I grew up near Lake Lanier, 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:10.120 which is a fairly large man made lake here in Georgia, 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:15.560 and it is it would be surprising, maybe it would 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:17.880 be surprising to you, certainly surprising to me the number 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:19.880 of people who would accidentally drown in. 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:21.640 That lake every year, for sure. 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:24.400 And I was unaware of it as a kid, but 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.760 now when I see statistics about it, it's just it 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.080 blows my mind. And to be fair, a lot of 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:33.880 those do they end up having to do with drinking 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.240 and swimming, or drinking and boating, something like that. And 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:39.080 today's case that we're going to get into a little 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:45.400 later also involves perhaps drinking, perhaps drug use, and being 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:46.840 in a body of water. 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:52.480 I have a very tangentially related, perhaps fun fact. 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:54.840 For okay, I'll take some fun right now, which. 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:56.880 You probably already know and you probably already know. No, 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:01.559 it's this Georgia has no natural lakes. They're all man made. 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:05.520 Oh so that's that's a little palate cleanser we do. 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:10.160 I'm okay with that. Yeah, yeah. The ingenuity of mankind 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.640 you know, on full display here in Georgia. Yeah, but 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:15.280 we do have some swamps, that's right, we do have 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:16.559 some some swamps. 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:20.200 Not the best for swimming though, no, no, just for shwimmers. 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:25.400 Ross David Swimmer, is that the one he notoriously loves 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:26.000 a good swamp. 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.800 Okay, yes, swamp Ross used to was his name in 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:34.320 the pilot. They changed his character a little bit, but okay, 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.360 so that palate cleanser just helps us get further into 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.800 the rabbit hole here. Because of those drowning deaths. When 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.600 we look at drowning deaths, an additional three hundred and 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.719 thirty two people died each year in deaths that were 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:51.079 the linear esque ones voting related. Of the people who 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:55.440 die about one from drowning, about one in five are 0:13:55.640 --> 0:14:00.000 children fourteen or younger. And that sadly makes brutal sense, 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:00.480 which is. 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:03.360 Why life fests are the law, you know, I mean, 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.000 kids under a certain age are required to wear life. 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:08.679 Fests and lifeguards, even in kiddie pools. 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:09.120 For sure. 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:13.600 And here's something that was surprising to me. Eighty percent 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.880 of drowning victims, according to the CDC, are male. That 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:21.160 doesn't make sense to me, but let's continue on down here. 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.760 Because almost fifty percent of drownings can be attributed in 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.840 some way or to some extent, to intoxication of some 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:29.600 kind or another. 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:34.200 How do you differentiate between a purposeful drowning and an 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:35.480 accidental drowning? 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:40.360 Ah, there there's the rub. It turns out that proving 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:45.600 a drowning was purposeful intentional a homicide. Proving that is 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:49.640 very very difficult. A lot of evidence can be washed away. 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:57.200 And because drowning is tragically common, and because fifty percent 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.880 of drownings in this country can be attributed to some 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:06.480 sort of inebriation, law enforcement is often it's easy to 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:09.320 assume it was an accident because the odds against it 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.800 being a homicide statistically or very high. 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.040 Yeah, short of there being like a cinder block tied 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.000 to someone's leg or the like, or maybe you know, 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:19.920 choking marks around a neck or something like that, or 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:23.680 some sign of trauma that someone was thrown or held 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.960 down or whatever, it could very easily be ruled an 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:29.800 accidental death. And again that benefits. Again, we're not saying 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:31.440 they're doing it on purpose of being lazy, but that 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:35.360 absolutely is probably a desired outcome for law enforcement to 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.560 say Okay, close the book on that. Let's move on 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:39.160 to the million other cases that we have. 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:41.480 I'm just jumping through here, and I know we're going 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:44.000 to hit on this, but the concept of your thinking 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.960 in your mind of, Okay, we found a drowning victim, 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.160 but there is blunt force trauma, Like there's evidence of 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:51.120 blunt force trauma to. 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:51.920 The head or something. 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:57.680 Sure, how how can you fully rule out that that 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:00.520 didn't occur or when a fall happened or you know 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:05.080 there it just becomes it becomes a labyrinth of you 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:09.280 have to basically work to say this was a homicide. 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:13.200 Rather you yeah, the order of conclusions or operations, the 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:18.720 sort of the decision tree yeah does have when it 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:22.400 comes to drowning. Uh, the best way to say it 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:26.480 is that medical examiners have to rule out every other 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:31.560 possible explanation as to why someone ended up dead in 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:33.640 the water. And they have to think of, you know, 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:38.600 drug overdoses, right, maybe maybe a heart attack, maybe a 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.960 slip and fall and that caused blunt injury to their 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:44.360 head and they were unconscious and couldn't get out of 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.600 the water, And only after saying it was definitely none 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:49.880 of those things, are they able to say maybe it 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:50.640 was murder. 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:52.880 Not to mention the fact that unless a body is 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:56.000 weighted down, which would be clear indication of foul play, 0:16:56.320 --> 0:17:00.440 it's gonna drift some distance, so it's harder to tie 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:04.040 it to the location where the fall maybe actually happen, 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:06.600 or say, oh, this is definitely where they hit their head, etc. 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:09.359 So it really is kind of a perfect storm of 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:10.880 being able to declare it an. 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:14.040 Accident, yeah, depending in which body of water they are recovered. 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.200 And then it gets more complicated because all of that 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:21.200 if all of those things somehow happen and a medical 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:26.640 examiner is able to say this indicates that it could 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:29.600 only be a murder if that very rare set of 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:35.040 circumstances occurs, then the next step is to prosecute or find, 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.800 you know, someone who would have done this, And like 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:41.119 a lot of violent crime, in homicide murders that we 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:46.320 know of and that are proven, the criminal is usually 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:48.679 someone familiar with the victim. 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:50.520 It's not just a random right. 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.640 But prosecutors have to prove that. They have to prove 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.200 a drowning was intentional, which means they have to build 0:17:56.240 --> 0:18:00.440 a case on circumstantial evidence. They have to be able 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:02.600 not just to say, okay, the flow of the river 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.960 is this, or we know that the lake works this way. 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:10.720 They have to also say, you know these people were fighting, 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:15.600 Tammy and Tamara or whatever were angry at each other outive. Yeah, 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.520 they have to do motive exactly where there was money, 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:21.960 There were money issues, there was an insurance policy that 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:26.439 just got taken out forty eight hours before, there was 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:30.520 trouble with the law. And because of all of these factors, 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:34.280 it's very difficult to know how many homicides involving drowning 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:37.879 actually exist, and there's not much research on it. Local 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:42.240 police statistics, of course, are not always as well documented 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.920 as people would hope. Like consider this, Matt, you give 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:52.000 us the statistics of drowning. Overall proving cases of drowning. 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:57.400 According to the FBI in twenty seventeen, we just pull 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:00.800 one year from their uniform crime report, there were only 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:04.400 eight homicides by drowning. And that's out of what more 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:08.160 than three and a half thousand, thirty five hundred per year, 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:10.520 So they were out of those that were only able 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:14.919 to prove that eight were homicides. And this bothers people 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:18.359 in multiple aspects of law enforcement. 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.639 There's a diver that's less than an average number of 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:23.760 drownings that occur per day. 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:26.919 Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. That's a great way to 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:31.600 look at it. So according to people like a diver 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:38.440 named Andrea Zaferis, who began assisting homicide investigators with cases 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:42.119 involving drowning way back in nineteen ninety eight, this diver says, 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:46.320 we're absolutely missing more than we're catching in homicide drowning cases. 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.640 A vast majority of drownings are accidental, but many which 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.720 can be the result of foul foul play, are overlooked. 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:54.840 So they're saying they're not They're saying, look, I'm not 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:57.960 saying that everybody who drowned was murdered, but I'm saying 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:03.359 we are missing stuff, and behind the scenes, everybody knows it. 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:08.600 Because also a lot of a lot of professionals like 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:11.359 that it's their career to investigate this stuff don't receive 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:12.399 the training they need. 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:17.720 But what if a killer knew that too, Like knew 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.879 those stats and knew how easily these things can go 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.840 under the radar and be ruled an accident. Because if 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.840 you ask me, drowning someone wouldn't necessarily be the first 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:32.359 way you might choose to kill somebody. It's a little tenuous, right, Like, 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:34.959 unless certain things are in place, how are you going 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:39.000 to know if the person actually died or not. It's 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:42.240 an interesting question. But what if someone did know and 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:46.320 was able to kind of fit this into their plan? Right? 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.920 What if some of these accidental drownings are in fact murders, 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:55.280 And furthermore, what if these murders are related. 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:58.480 We'll talk about that right after a word from our sponsor. 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:09.560 Here's where it gets crazy. We are entering the realm 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:13.600 of what is commonly called the smiley face murder theory, 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:18.280 the smiley face murders, the smiley face killer, or slight 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:20.879 spoiler alert here killers. 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:22.960 Yeah. 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:27.720 This theory argues that more than forty cases I think 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:32.200 forty five or so of fatal drownings between nineteen ninety 0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:35.480 seven and at least two thousand and eight were mistakenly 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:39.160 labeled accidental when they were in fact homicides. 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:42.320 And that number, by the way, as we go through 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:48.280 this has the number of suspected cases of fatal drowning 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:53.359 related to this case hasn't necessarily grown, but the possible 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:56.639 cases identified by some of these guys has risen up 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:58.600 into the three hundred something range. 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:03.440 Right in this that number comes often from people who 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:06.880 later came to the theory and started finding what they 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:09.360 felt were commonalities. 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:11.359 And some of the original investigators. 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:15.480 And some of the original investigators, So here's the gist. 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:22.520 These cases of fatal drownings involved young men, college age 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:26.359 dudes who were found dead in bodies of water across 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:30.680 several different Midwestern states in the US over the last decade, 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:37.439 and the investigators eventually started using the term serial killer, 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:40.359 which a lot of professionals hate because it feels a 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:45.800 little alarmist and hyperbolic. But why smiley face? Did they 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:48.240 just pick that one? We all know what as smiley faces. 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:49.879 We don't have to overthink that. It's like, we all 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:53.160 know what drowning is. Smiley face, two dots, bottom half 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:53.760 of a circle. 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:56.399 Oh, it looks like a face. Well, in this case, 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:01.159 the idea of the smiley face because and connected to 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:07.240 this alleged string of murders cluster of murders. When it 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:14.080 was announced publicly that police had discovered graffiti depicting that 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:18.760 ubiquitous two dots and half a circle smiley face near 0:23:18.800 --> 0:23:24.120 the locations where they believe the killer or potentially killers 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:30.240 dumped bodies in at least a dozen of these cases. Also, 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:35.920 a phrase sinsinewa was also cited as being found near 0:23:36.119 --> 0:23:39.240 some of these areas that were being investigated in connection 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:43.080 with bodies found floating in water. 0:23:43.400 --> 0:23:46.800 I would like to point out here that the smiley faces, again, 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:50.120 it's only in thirteen of these identified forty something cases, 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:54.959 but it changes a lot. You can go online and 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:58.240 see pictures of several of the alleged smiley face connected 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:01.720 graffiti's and they really like one of them looks like 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:05.520