Investigating the Smiley Face Murders

An expanded and revised paperback edition of The Case of the Drowning Men (above) has been issued this spring to address significant developments and breakthroughs in the ‘Smiley Face Murders’ and includes more photos, forensics and victim profiles. It now also provides survival tips on how to avoid becoming a Smiley statistic, as well as a guide for what to do if your own young man goes missing and is later “found drowned.” 

Much has been happening in the decades-long drowning spree since the author’s original investigation was first published, and this enhanced volume will bring both newcomers and longtime case followers up to date.

This expanded and revised print edition also contains additional images, such as autopsy and water recovery photos, which some sensitive readers may find gory and disturbing. These are included out of scientific necessity, not for shock value.

As with the first edition, you’ll still find the only in-depth overview and analysis available of an unsolved serial case that has confounded waterfront communities, coroners and cops ever since 1997, and which in recent years has spread from the original killing fields of North America internationally.

With hundreds of victims documented in the United States, Canada and abroad now, no other serial murderers in the history of serial murdering have come anywhere near the body count of the ‘Smiley Face Killers.’ And that death toll continues to climb.

Learn everything there is to know about this elusive criminal gang, their widening victimology, and what progress is being made in the ongoing effort to capture them in The Case of the Drowning Men, by true crime writer Eponymous Rox.

Yes, there is a full-color limited edition of this new release here.

Brian Shaffer Missing Persons Reward Now $100,000

The missing persons case of Brian Shaffer resembles all the other Smiley Face Killer disappearances -- before and after his -- with two notable exceptions...

Shaffer vanished upon reentering a bar. And his remains have yet to be recovered.

Ten years later, both of Brian Shaffer's parents are also now deceased, and the reward for info that will help solve their son's puzzling cold case has risen to a $100,000.

The 27-year-old Ohio State University med-student was celebrating Spring Break in downtown Columbus on the evening of April 1, 2006.

He went missing that night at the Ugly Tuna Saloon, a popular bar-and-grille located not far from the one where 26-year-old Joey LaBute similarly disappeared last month.

The LaBute and Shaffer disappearances in Ohio, though spaced a full decade apart, are almost identical in that both magically vanished without a trace inside a pub where they'd been socializing with friends and relatives.

True to The Case of the Drowning Men, however, LaBute's body was found weeks later dumped in an outdoor body of water; but this young man's death is one of the few to subsequently be ruled a homicide.

A medical examiner determined that LaBute hadn't been in the Scioto River the entire time he was gone without a trace. And it was clear by other autopsy results that he didn't really "drown."

Naturally, these two strikingly-similar missing-persons cases in Ohio has generated a lot of speculation as well: For Joey, over what role his "sexuality" might have played. For Brian, whether he "deliberately" fell off the radar or even "killed" himself.

Though Joey LaBute was found dead relatively soon after he disappeared and his suspicious death remains unsolved, the LaBute family has partial closure that the Shaffer family has not.

Thus, the rumors surrounding the Shaffer's missing young man still abound, even ten years after the fact.

“There is a possibility he is alive," conceded one of the detectives who first worked the Brian Shaffer case back in 2006. "But, if you look at the probabilities that he isn’t, those are just as great.”

“Everybody has a theory,” he added,“but the ultimate mystery remains -- where is Brian?”

What do you think, was Shaffer also killed the night he went missing in Ohio? Did he, instead, commit suicide someplace where he'll never be found? Or is he alive and well today, living under a false identity?

EPONYMOUS ROX

Missing NH Man John Watkins Found Drowned

The drowning of yet another missing young man -- John Watkins of New Hampshire (below) -- is making this winter one of the deadliest 'Smiley Face Killer' seasons on record.

Watkins, 23 and slight, was last seen early Christmas eve in Merrimack NH.

Loved ones reported the Nashua man missing after his vehicle was later found abandoned in the town of Milford, some distance from his last known location.

Watkins hasn't been seen or heard from since December 24, 2015, but over the weekend a jogger running along the Souhegan River Trails spied a corpse floating in the water.

Police said today they were sure it was the remains of John Watkins and don't suspect foul play, although a formal identification and autopsy to determine how he died is pending.

Watkins is one of many unfortunate young men in the U.S. and across the pond who've gone mysteriously missing this winter, only to turn up dead in icy bodies of water days or weeks later ... if at all.

In Boston, for instance, police continue to probe the city's waterfronts and waterways for missing Harvard man Zach Marr, who disappeared while standing outside the historic Bell In Hand on February 13th.

Minutes before vanishing, Marr had urgently texted a relative inside the tavern that security personnel wouldn't let him reenter because "it was closing time."

Bell In Hand's management refuted that person's account days later, claiming via Facebook that their surveillance video "clearly" showed missing student Zachary Marr walking off as other patrons were being allowed back into the bar.

The alleged film footage of this series of events has yet to be released to the public, and Marr is still gone without a trace.

EPONYMOUS ROX

Shane Montgomery Missing: Presumed Drowned

The search for missing student Shane Montgomery has focused on the river and canal. Like other Smiley Face Killer victims who vanished after a late night mid-winter encounter with heavy-handed police, and/or bouncers, he too was instantly presumed to have "somehow" drowned:

Montgomery disappeared in Philadelphia over the Thanksgiving holiday immediately after an over-zealous bouncer unceremoniously ejected the youth from the bar he and his friends were celebrating at.

It is the same district that Carlesha Freeland-Gaither's violent street-abduction occurred last month. One which was captured and thus quickly solved via surveillance cameras positioned throughout the area, and, of course, with aid from the kidnapped woman's abandoned cell phone.

Yet, strangely enough, Montgomery's would-be rescuers claim those very same devices are of little help to them now. It seems, when a hunt involves a missing young man, "it's a real challenge looking for video from surveillance cameras." And, "Trying to determine from the missing person's cell phone where they were last using the phone," is also weirdly perplexing.

But at least these inordinately confounded authorities are "interviewing as many people as [they] can."

Classically, this approach too will no doubt prove futile, as stories quickly change and film footage of the event and the territory it took place in begins to rapidly deteriorate, ultimately to vanish just as Shane Montgomery did: without a trace.

One thing is for certain though, if indeed the *educated hunch* is correct that Montgomery is somewhere in the frigid canal or river, then his body won't refloat to the surface for a number of weeks and maybe even months. By which time his slowly decomposing corpse would have naturally created volumes and volumes of alcohol -- far in excess of what he consumed just prior to his death.

And, using that false BAC level, he'll thereafter officially be declared to have been "severely intoxicated" and to have "accidentally drowned" as a result.

Case closed. Again.

Story from 12/1/14 - see comment section for updates

NOTE:  Body found in river on January 3rd 2015
believed by family to be Shane Montgomery's -  read 
SHANE MONTGOMERY "ACCIDENTALLY DROWNED"
(Feel free to add your own comments and
updates in either article's comment section.)

Smiley in Cali? Paulo Netto found drowned in San Francisco

With confirmation that 22-year-old Paulo Netto has been found drowned near Pier 48, the search is still on for the Frisco Five missing under ominously similar circumstances. 

Brazilian-born Netto came to the city in October 2013 in order to explore art schools there. He vanished one night after placing a frantic call for help to his sister.

Police say they tracked the youth's cellphone but "no one was there" when they arrived shortly thereafter. They then began suggesting that Netto's "state of mind" must have been impaired somehow, although never elaborating on the reasons for their theory.

Paulo Netto's missing persons case mirrors hundreds of "Smiley Face Killer" ones accumulated nationwide over the past 16 years -- including a handful from the specific area he was visiting.

The west coast, however, is a recent hot spot for these kind of disappearances and drownings, having never before made it on the map.

So far there are five other missing young men in the California cluster since 2010, all of whom vanished without a trace and from the exact same San Francisco district:  

1. The body of Derrick Shao, 20, washed ashore on November 7, 2013, eight days after the college student went missing;.

2. Nineteen-year-old Sean Sidi has been missing since May 21st of this year;

3. Shawn Dickerson, a 24-year-old, has been unaccounted for since 2011;

4. Businessman Cameron Remmer, 31, hasn't been heard from since checking out of his hotel room in October 2011;

5. Jackson Miller, 23-years-old, likewise mysteriously disappeared in May of 2010;

The badly decomposed body of Paulo Netto was actually found floating in McCovey Cove last month, but it allegedly took all these weeks for the coroner to positively identify those remains.

His cause of death has not been released yet.

Smiley Face Killer interview with family of Jeffrey Woodruff

VOICES FOR THE DEAD:

 

Coming up next in my Smiley Face Killer question-and-answer sessions, I'll be interviewing the family of Jeffrey Woodruff who disappeared and *drowned* late April 2013.

 

The athletic 25-year-old had visited Wally's Bar and Grill in Saugatuck Michigan after finishing work on April 27th. But around 10:30 PM that same night he mysteriously vanished from the pub.

 

His bruised body was found three days later at the bottom of the Kalamazoo River.

 

The Woodruffs will discuss missing voice messages, deleted video surveillance, midnight calls to 911 about "an unconscious man" in a nearby lot, odd graffiti on the waterfront, and present other forensic evidence that will help shed light on this classic-sounding Smiley Face murder. 

 

So familiarize yourself with the case of Jeffrey Woodruff in the interim, and keep an eye out for my next Q&A session, coming soon on Killing Killers.

 

You can also read more Smiley Face Killer interviews already on file in the Voices For The Dead feature. 

 

EPONYMOUS ROX

Updated from July 3, 2013