ALERT for Missing Airman Corrie McKeague

ALERT: British authorities are still looking for Corrie McKeague, an RAF airman missing for [months] after a night out with his mates. (This article was first published on 1 October 2016 - original unedited story below.)

Multiple UK agencies are "urgently" conducting land, water and air searches for the 23-year-old Scot, who appears to have vanished after "getting separated" from his group this past weekend.

Authorities state they are especially interested in speaking to "anyone" who might have seen McKeague last Friday night or in the predawn hours of Saturday when he is believed to have left a Bury St Edmunds pub in Suffolk England.

They've also urged dog walkers in that neighborhood to keep an eye out for "anything unusual" and additionally requested that residents "with outbuildings" thoroughly check their properties, too.

According to the Free Bury Press, the missing young airman was spotted on foot and filmed by CCTV shortly after 3:00 a.m. last Saturday morning near Brentgovel Street, but it's not known where he went after that.

McKeague's mom told reporters that it isn't uncommon for her son to walk the 10-miles back to his Honington address sometimes when he's been to town late, but it's "abnormal" for him to not go home at all.

He also failed to show up for work, she said -- atypical conduct as well.

Investigators remain doubtful that McKeague's odd disappearance is related to an "attempted abduction" of another area RAF man about a month ago, but are "keeping an open mind" that the two cases might be connected.

Missing Scottish-born airman Corrie McKeague is a 5-foot-10 Caucasian male "of medium build" with short-cropped light brown hair. When last sighted he was wearing a pale pink shirt and white slacks.

Anyone with information about the young man's current whereabouts, or his fate, is asked to immediately contact the Suffolk Police Department by dialing 101.

(This missing persons story is developing - please check the article's comment section for updates.)

Eponymous Rox

message from the admins

Updated from May 25, 2016: Admins are temporarily manning the Killing Killers crime site until your regular blogger returns. We lost contact with Eponymous Rox last week. Roxy is (still believed to be) in the Boston area investigating a series of river deaths for the next issue of Hunting Smiley. Articles submitted before last week will be published in the order received. (ty)

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.

Abduction and Murder of Joey LaBute 'Not a Hate Crime'

Weeks after the abduction and murder of Joey LaBute -- and his staged river drowning -- Ohio police are still processing "a huge amount of information," but haven't IDd a single suspect.

And they're still convinced that 26-year-old Joseph 'Joey' Labute, rumored now to have been homosexual, wasn't the victim of a hate crime.

As the trail to his killer steadily grows cold, investigators announced this week they've "come across" new video from inside the restaurant where LaBute was last seen alive by family and friends before abruptly disappearing.

The footage shows him "on the dance floor" of the Union Cafe in Columbus center around midnight of March 5, 2016, and then, just "seven minutes" prior to vanishing from the establishment forever, exiting one of the restrooms.

It's not clear where that vital evidence has been all this time or how police finally obtained it. However, it doesn't seem to provide any clues as to why, and with whom, Joey LaBute went outdoors and subsequently died.

A coroner found no evidence whatsoever he had truly drowned and, in fact, ruled there was "a high probability" LaBute was "already dead" when he went into the Scioto River sometime last month.

A group of lawmen checking the riverbank for his body on March 31st coincidentally spotted it semi-submerged in a shallow section not far offshore.

Divers retrieved the corpse in "pretty good condition," suggesting that, whoever slew LaBute, and whatever their motive in doing so, they didn't dump him until well after an active search had all but ended.

Investigators hope the latest images from LaBute's last known location, once enlarged and forensically analyzed, will shed more light on who he was interacting with when he suddenly vanished without a trace.

Obviously the still unknown perpetrator/s themselves likewise had to be captured on security cameras that night, since America is by now a a full-fledged police state and the city of Columbus is no exception to such widespread privacy invasions.

Yet, despite all its traffic cams, license-plate readers, aerial drones, and numerous other clandestine methods of tracking the minute-to-minute movements of innocent citizens without probable cause or court-issued warrants, no images of LaBute's kidnapper and killer have ever surfaced...

Those following these so called Smiley Face Murders of course know that Joey Labute isn't the only young male to suspiciously go missing from a public place and later be found dead in a river, lake, pond, stream or reservoir. And he probably won't be the last. 

But his bogus cold-water death this season stands out as one of only a few in the decades-long Case of the Drowning Men which wasn't whitewashed by officials as a drunken "accident."

Anybody who can help solve the LaBute abduction, homicide and attempted cover-up during March of 2016 is urged to contact the Columbus Police Department at (614) 645-4545.

EPONYMOUS ROX

Young Man Found Drowned in Ohio River Yesterday (ID Pending)

An autopsy is due today on the body of a young man found drowned in the Scioto River of Columbus Ohio on Tuesday.

The Columbus Division Police Dive Team extricated the corpse from floating debris yesterday afternoon in the vicinity of the Scioto Audubon Metro Park near Interstate-71 and Greenlawn Ave.

It was then delivered to the Franklin County Coroner's Office for medical examination.

At present the victim's identity is still unknown, but homicide detectives said they're poring over several outstanding missing persons reports for a possible connection.

A department spokesman said the unidentified young male was found fully-clothed and that his body was in "pretty good condition," suggesting that it hadn't been in the river for very long.

“We have a male in his twenties and we don’t know why he died,” he also stated. The death is therefore being treated as "suspicious" pending further investigation.

Joey LaBute mysteriously went missing from a downtown Columbus restaurant earlier this month.

The 26-year-old has not been seen or heard from ever since that night.

EPONYMOUS ROX

BREAKING - Body Found in UK Stream Sparks Murder Arrest and Probe

BREAKING NEWS: UK police have arrested a suspect after a  body was found in a woodland stream today, and a homicide investigation into the unnamed man's death was launched.

The Press Association reporting for the Guardian News said a 21-year-old male is currently in police custody on suspicion of murder, but neither his identity nor that of his alleged victim's has been released yet.

Early Monday, someone walking near the Goodwyns estate in Dorking Surrey spotted the apparent drowned corpse of an unknown male and contacted the police.

The dead man was retrieved from the water and is now awaiting autopsy and formal identification at the county Medical Examiner's Office.

In the meantime, his suspected killer is being questioned by detectives and additional charges may be pending, according to a spokesman for the Surrey UK police.

He told press gathered at the scene that “the team and I are focused on a number of inquiries to try and establish the circumstances surrounding this incident and will be carrying out various searches in the area as well as making house-to-house inquiries.”

Arrests and murder investigations are exceptionally uncommon in the Case of the Drowning Men, particularly in the U.S. where, regardless of the circumstances surrounding a missing young man's drowning, such cases are typically ruled "accidents."

This breaking news story is developing -- please check the comments section for any additional updates, and feel free to add your own there or any other observations.

EPONYMOUS  ROX

Smiley Face Murders (1997 - 2016)

SMILEY FACE MURDERS: 1997 to 2016

a glance at 'Victim Zero' Patrick McNeill

Missing in NYC February 1997 - Found Drowned April 1997

NEW YORK, NY - April 17, 1997: “The Fordham University student whose body was found floating near a Brooklyn pier last week died from drowning, New York City's chief Medical Examiner ruled yesterday. He said that the level of alcohol in the body of Patrick McNeill Jr. was ‘more than a little and less than a lot.’ What remains unclear then is how Mr. McNeill, an athletic 21-year-old, wound up in the river and drowned. The manner of death was listed as undetermined in the autopsy report...”

 

"Stalked, abducted, held for an extended period of time, murdered and disposed."

 

The body of the first Smiley Face Murders victim, 21yo Patrick McNeill, "was 

already dead before it was placed in the water. I would call it a homicide, yes."

"There is a pattern ... around his neck, as if to suggest some kind of binding."

 

"We have a young man found with a blood alcohol level of 0.16 ... a relatively low level ...

no way in the world that this man then accidentally is going to fall into a body of water."

THE CASE OF THE DROWNING MEN

EPONYMOUS ROX

Missing Airman Keifer Huhman Presumed Drowned

Air Force officials say missing 21-year-old airman Keifer Huhman (below) drowned in the Dover Delaware canal system last month, although his body has yet to be found.

Huhman has been gone without a trace since February 7th, when he reportedly phoned friends to cancel previous plans to attend their Super Bowl party.

His truck was towed from the northbound side of the Route-1 bridge spanning the C&D Canal several days later, according to police reports.

Investigators also discovered overturned furniture in Huhman's apartment, but haven't said if the disarray found there is connected to his disappearance.

He was expecting to transfer soon to the Okinawa air base in Japan where his father, Chief Master Sergeant Kenneth Huhman, was  stationed.

It was an appointment Keifer Huhman was evidently looking forward to, but this week three officers of the Dover Air Force Base notified the missing young man's mother in person that her son is now "considered deceased."

They further promised "in writing" to assist the coroner in promptly issuing a death certificate stating he died when he "fell off the bridge" so the family can finally obtain "closure," she told reporters yesterday.

"We are continuing to ask everyone located within the C&D canal area to keep a lookout in and around the water," a relative also posted on Facebook. "Due to the waterway’s temperatures and extremely dangerous conditions, Keifer may not be found until the water warms up."

However, a spokesman for the Dover Police Department has emphasized that their own probe into Keifer Huhman's unsolved disappearance remains open and active.

"It's still being investigated as a missing persons case at this time," he said.

Anyone who knows what happened to Senior Airman Huhman over a month ago, or knowledge of his current whereabouts, is urged to contact the DPD at (302) 736-7130.

EPONYMOUS ROX

College Athlete Douglas Usseglio Found Drowned in NH

Massachusetts college athlete Douglas Usseglio (below) has been found drowned with a head injury in New Hampshire after attending a local gathering. But police "don't suspect foul play."

The 22-year-old student from Franklin Pierce University was studying accounting and finance and played for the school's ice hockey team, the Ravens.

He was last seen at a house party in Rindge, NH on Saturday night, and found dead the next day in a stream some distance away.

Although the circumstances of how Douglas Usseglio ended up in the water are yet unknown and an autopsy is still pending, investigators said his head wound was "consistent" with an "accidental fall."

They made no mention of the youth's arrest last September in Waltham Massachusetts on multiple counts of drug trafficking, or whether these facts might have a bearing on his death inquiry now.

Usseglio and his 21-year-old associate Nicholas Haczynski were both set up and snagged in 2015 by the Southern Middlesex County Drug Task Force.

Undercover cops reportedly bought significant quantities of cocaine from the pair at least twice before finally arresting them on charges related to the third sale of over an ounce.

Task Force agents also seized an undisclosed amount of drug money from Usseglio during his apprehension and arraignment last fall.

In addition to conspiracy to violate drug laws, he also faced two counts of distributing cocaine, one count of possession with intent to sell, and one count of trafficking cocaine.

It's not clear how or if that matter had been settled at the time of Doug Usseglio's death, but his case and alleged drowning last weekend appears almost identical with that of Andrew Sadek two years prior.

Sadek, 20 and a student at the North Dakota State College of Science, had also gotten himself busted by a Task Force for dealing illegal substances while at university.

He was arrested in the winter of 2013, but those charges were discreetly dropped in exchange for his *cooperation* in apprehending other similarly-enterprising college students.

Drug informant Sadek went missing in May of 2014 while still on *assignment* with the Southeast Multi-County Agency Drug Task Force. About a month later his body was retrieved from the Red River with a bullet wound to the head.

Police said he somehow shot and drowned himself, and a coroner then closed the book on Sadek's untimely death, ruling it a suicide...

EPONYMOUS ROX

Announcing Smiley Face Killer Interview #1 with Gannon and Gilbertson

KILLING KILLERS is pleased to announce our upcoming Smiley Face Killer interview with none other than former NYPD homicide detective Kevin Gannon and internationally renown criminologist D. Lee Gilbertson.

It was Detective Gannon who, in 1997, first identified Victim Zero -- 21yo Patrick McNeill -- in what would become a decades-long *drowning* spree by an elusive "group" dubbed the Smiley Face Serial Killers.

Nearly 20 years ago, Gannon promised McNeill's grieving parents he'd never stop hunting their son's murderer, and to this day he has kept that vow, at great cost and consequence.

In that epic pursuit, Gannon joined forces with St. Cloud University's acclaimed sociologist and criminal-justice professor, D. Lee Gilbertson, and together this duo became one of Smiley's most relentless and formidable foes.

Since the late 1990s, Gannon and Gilbertson have been throwing a wide net for Smiley; forensically and statistically proving beyond a reasonable doubt, that the missing young men being victimized weren't drowning in cold weather by "accident" or committing "suicide."

In 2014 though, frustrated with local authorities stomping on Smiley Face crime scenes and with coroners rubber-stamping suspicious water fatalities as "accidental," they published the definitive, 462-page death-by-drowning analysis.

Gannon and Gilbertson's Case Studies in Drowning Forensics painstakingly dissects over a dozen  high-profile 'Smiley Face' disappearances and murders in the last 19+ years -- with autopsy results, photos, phone records, GPS data, and other never-before-seen evidence, permanently debunking the official "accidental drowning" myth.

So, if you're independently hunting Smiley too, then don't take another step until you've read this major treatise. Because, yes, your hunch that the Smiley Face cases are actual homicides is correct, and Gannon and Gilbertson can show you why.

And don't miss our exclusive Smiley Face Killer interview with Kevin Gannon and Dr. Gilbertson this week!

MORE ABOUT KEVIN GANNON: Kevin Gannon retired as a Detective-Sergeant for the NYC Police Department after 20 years of service, 14 of which were in supervisory positions. In addition to policing, he has extensive training and experience in personal and physical security, investigation and surveillance, and disaster response, including biochemical warfare training with the Department of Defense. Gannon has held leadership positions in the personal protection of numerous international dignitaries and celebrities, and was an NYPD representative on ex NYC mayor Giuliani’s 1997 "Operation ICE" (Interagency Chemical Exercise) task force, which planned and coordinated emergency responses to any major chemical disaster in lower Manhattan. 

As a detective and sergeant, Gannon routinely supervised plainclothes personnel in anti-crime, narcotics and robbery units, and was second in charge of the NYPD's Missing Persons Squad. He also headed the Bronx Homicide Task Force 'Nightwatch' from 1999 until his retirement. During his distinguished career in law enforcement, Gannon has made over 1000 felony arrests for offenses involving narcotics, burglaries, robberies and homicides, and was awarded almost 100 medals for heroism in the line of duty. As such, he remains one of the most decorated members of the Special Investigation Division of the NYPD's Detective Bureau, receiving the Medal of Valor twice before retiring. In 2008, Gannon also received the Frederic Milton Thrasher award for his continued investigative work on gang crime, a field in which he's also considered an expert.

ABOUT D. LEE GILBERTSON: A three-time recipient of the Frederic Milton Thrasher award, Dr. Gilbertson holds a doctorate in sociology with a concentration in gang criminology and substance abuse, as well as a Master of Science in Criminal Justice focusing on criminology and victimology. His background includes 16 years of exemplary military service (signals intelligence and infantry) from 1976 to 1992. He also trained in and served as the unit Alcohol and Drug Coordination officer (responsible for substance-abuse prevention training and overseeing urinalysis collections), and as the unit Nuclear and Biochemical Warfare Defense officer.

Dr. Gilbertson currently teaches at Saint Cloud State University and regularly works as a law enforcement consultant, providing training in the areas of forensic victimology, crime analysis, and gangs. He has in fact studied gangs, militias, and extremist groups since 1995 and is a certified gang specialist as well as the executive editor of the Journal of Gang Research. He's also presented and taught at numerous national and international conferences and academic institutions, and is a staff member of the National Gang Crime Research Center, participating in all phases of its 'International Gang Specialist Training' conferences.

EPONYMOUS ROX

Hunting the Smiley Face Serial Killers

The Smiley Face killers have been busy these past couple of years, especially in America's northeastern kill zone, where the disappearances and drownings first began almost two decades ago.

But Killing Killers is constantly watching and hunting Smiley, and it seems that things haven't been going his way lately.

Smiley's made a few mistakes...

FEATURED IN THIS DOUBLE ISSUE OF HUNTING SMILEY

Bones in the River: The cold cold-case disappearance of Michael Jansson [partially] solved;

What Goes Down Must Come Up: Refloat times for submerged cadavers & autopsy photos;

Missing - Found Drowned 2014: sampling includes the Shane Montgomery case in Philly;

Manslaughter in Milwaukee: Looking back on the Nick Wilcox disappearance & drowning;

FBI to Join the Hunt for Smiley:  How independent investigators achieved the impossible;

Diatoms and Drowning: Examining why single-cell organisms can solve major crimes;

Missing - Found Drowned 2015: sampling includes the baffling case of Paul Kochu in PA;

Smiley Breakthrough:  Two arrested in murder and drowning cover-up of Donta Williams;

‘Still Missing’ in 2016:  Open and unsolved, including the 2008 Brandon Swanson cold case;

No Foul Play:  Elements of authentic recreational drowning deaths with examples & pics;

Featured Autopsy:  Dawn Brancheau, SeaWorld trainer attacked & drowned by killer orca;

The Case of the Drowning Men:  What we know now; profiling and victimology at a glance;

Across the Pond:  Manchester England’s serial ‘Pusher’ drowns his 29th victim since 2008;

Why People Don’t Drown Outdoors, Even in Summer: Some cold facts and hard stats...

AND MORE

ACROSS THE POND: Manchester's Serial 'Pusher' Drowns 29th Victim

Fears across the pond about a serial killer dubbed 'The Pusher' have heightened again, now that another drowned man has surfaced in a Manchester UK canal.

The body of "a white middle-aged male" was found floating in a Greater Manchester spillway over the weekend, making his "unexplained" drowning one of dozens that have occurred in the past several years.

Manchester cops and coroners have ruled the cold-weather drowning deaths of at least 29 of these "mostly young male victims" as due to "undetermined" causes, in many cases also labeling their missing persons cases "suspicious."

In fact, in 2015 local officials acknowledged in a YouTube public-service presentation intended to allay serial murder fears that "some" of their drowned men had indeed been "deliberately pushed" by an unknown assailant.

Manchester UK's elusive serial Pusher allegedly has been active since 2008, but a couple of high profile disappearances and drownings of male college students in 2011 and 2012 brought national attention to the case:

On New Year's day 2012, young design student Souvik Pal vanished without a trace, after bar bouncers physically removed him from the Warehouse Project Club in Trafford Park.

Minutes after, surveillance cameras captured images of the teen being escorted on foot by an *unidentified* man, after which Pal was never seen alive again. 

The body of the 18-year-old "excellent swimmer" was pulled from the Bridgewater Canal system almost a month later; and a medical examiner then left his case open and unsolved when she couldn't determine how he'd entered the water.

Pal joins the ranks of numerous other young men who also "got separated" from their friends and subsequently met a chilly end in Manchester waterways.

For instance, 21-year-old athlete and sports trainer Nathan Tomlinson likewise vanished while visiting a city pub after dark during the winter holidays.

His  body was fished out of the River Irwell in February 2011, two months after he went missing.

In all, some seven-dozen victims like Tomlinson and Pal have been pulled from the area's icy canals and rivers in as many years.

Although the majority of these were ruled "accidental," far too many others disappeared and drowned under circumstances which were clearly so questionable that even crime experts are now subscribing to the serial Pusher theory.

Birmingham City University professor and criminologist Craig Jackson is just one of many who have been expressing similar beliefs that "it's unlikely" all of Manchester's water fatalities could be "accidents or suicides."

And in a recent United Kingdom news documentary titled Manchester's Serial Killer? a senior police detective also outlined the body of evidence which supports a contention that the multiple drownings are intentional homicides.

The Case of The Drowning Men first came to light in the United States during the late 1990s.

Since then, hundreds of young males of every race, creed and nationality have suddenly gone missing, only to be found drowned days, weeks or months later in rivers, lakes, ponds, streams ... and canals.

America calls its pushers 'The Smiley Face Killers' but, by whatever moniker they're called, the standard operating procedure appears to be the same.

EPONYMOUS ROX

R.I.P. Ken Gruno (missing found drowned)

Michigan's missing man Ken Gruno, 27, was finally located this week, three months after he vanished without a trace from an Otisville pub where he'd been celebrating Christmas with good friends.

His body was just found partially submerged in a shallow pond, and a medical examiner says the Air Force veteran "accidentally" drowned there somehow.

Young males like Ken Gruno, vanishing in the dead of winter and showing up drowned in an icy body of freshwater weeks or even months later, appears to be a scary modern-day phenomena now ... read more

Eponymous Rox

Smiley Face Killers update

Read a 2015 Smiley Face Killers update on Crime Magazine containing special mention of still-missing Pennsylvania resident Paul Kochu, as well as the Shane Montgomery disappearance and drowning in that same state and time-frame.

Portrait on the article's accompanying illustration (shown above) is that of Michael Jansson, a youth who similarly vanished without a trace from an Illinois dance club on the evening of March 9, 2001.

In classic Smiley Face Killers tradition, he was never seen or heard from again, until the car he'd hurriedly fled in that night was found twelve years later, upside down at the bottom of the Chicago River. 

A subsequent DNA test on the skeletal remains strewn throughout the vehicle confirmed they were in fact "Mikey" Jansson's bones ... full story @ Crime Magazine.

Missing UK Man Found Drowned

Missing man James Brindley inexplicably vanished this month during a Christmas party at a pub in Stoke-on-Trent. Days later his corpse was fished out of a nearby canal.

Staffordshire Police said the 28-year-old's disappearance and death was now being treated as "unexplained" and that some of his personal items were also retrieved on the canal's towpath in the water-rescue team's search for him.

Brindley's disappearance from a downtown bar and his apparent cold-weather drowning is similar to many others confounding cops in the UK in recent years. Even Spain and France are beginning to see a similar pattern in their river districts.

Until then such cases -- dubbed the Smiley Face Murders -- had been a decades-old phenomenon largely limited to the United States and Canada, and particularly concentrated in the Great Lakes region where both Canada and the US share a border.

UK authorities are presently awaiting autopsy and toxicology results before listing a cause or manner of death for James Brindley.

Eponymous Rox

Missing in Michigan: Finnerty, Heeringa, Woodruff ...

MISSING IN MICHIGAN:

Browse the missing person databanks for Michigan and you'll find hundreds of vanishing people listed for that state.
 

 

Most, in accordance with national statistics, are likely gone on their own volition. Runaway males and females of all ages and races who someday will return to their puzzled yet relieved loved ones when they're good and ready ... or not.

 

But sometimes, as in the recent case of star college-quarterback Cullen Finnerty, 30, who disappeared under suspicious circumstances during a weekend fishing trip, or Jessica Heeringa, 25, abducted one night at her place of employment, or Jeffrey Woodruff, 25, missing and found drowned behind the pub he'd visited after work, foul play is clearly indicated.

 

For Finnerty, discovered face down and dead in the woods near remote Baldwin Lake with no signs of trauma, and whose cause and manner of death is therefore still pending, the matter remains a giant question mark.

 

For Woodruff, retrieved by divers from the filthy Kalamazoo River in the quaint and touristy town of Saugatuck, three days after he mysteriously disappeared, his case too hangs unresolved. Because, without so much as a BAC test to ponder over yet, it's impossible to even know how intoxicated he was.
 

And as to the pretty and petite blonde Heeringa, abruptly gone without a trace since April 26th, leaving behind all her valuables, a toddler son, and one tiny droplet of blood, the anguish for her family, friends, coworkers and neighbors goes on and on and on.

 

Such is the plight of those connected to people like Heeringa who go missing and are never actually found. They will live suspended in a kind of anxious wait, and somehow or another search for their undead and eternally young forever.

 

Nationwide, including the folks missing in Michigan, nearly a million people annually drop off the radar, and usually they are indeed fairly young. Entire communities are turned upside down whenever that happens and, as is understandable, citizens immediately look to police to solve the mystery.

 

But most often they don't, or can't.

 

Law enforcement officers resent the fact that when they do fail to swiftly act or, worse, bungle an investigation completely, savvy searchers will now resort to social media to get the word out about their absent loved one, enlisting the aid of the worldwide Web's amateur sleuthing communities, occasionally with great success.

 

In fact, crowdsourcing the hunt for an AWOL individual is a fast growing trend these days. So, whether police like it or not, and whether they're conducting an able inquiry or being totally apathetic, they'll probably just have to learn to work with it.

 

Launching a Facebook campaign after filing a missing-person report, and then networking with specialized sites like Websleuths, Reddit and Killing Killers, has become the first order of business in effectively locating the lost these days.

 

Regardless if they're alive or dead.   

 

EPONYMOUS ROX 

SMILEY RAGES ON: The Jeffrey Woodruff Killing

Missing Found Drowned: Jeffrey Woodruff

Sometime around midnight of April 27th 2013, police in Saugatuck Michigan responded to a report of an unidentified male passed out in a lot near Wally's Bar and Grill.

When officers arrived to investigate the incident, however, the man "was gone," they claim. 

The following day the family of Jeffrey Woodruff, 25, realized he'd inexplicably gone missing overnight from the exact same town, so they began organizing a posse straightaway in order to effectively hunt for him.

They also called the local police department, of course, urging them to join in the search effort, but, to their puzzlement and dismay, the cops declined that invitation.

Officials also refused to list the uncharacteristically absent Woodruff as a missing person, despite learning his abandoned cellphone was recovered in a spot close to where the reportedly unconscious man had been sighted, the same night that Woodruff disappeared.

About Jeffrey Woodruff

The athletic Michigan native had only recently relocated to the riverside community of Saugatuck and was last seen on the night of April 27th socializing at Wally's popular pub.

Although new to the area, Woodruff was at ease going to a boisterous place like Wally's by himself because the bar owner is great pals with his boss over at the antique shop just down the road.

Amsterdam Antiques is in fact slightly more than a mile from Wally's watering hole, but the evening was fairly mild so, after closing up shop for his vacationing employer, Woodruff walked to the bar alone.

 
A number of other patrons who recalled chatting with him during the night found the newcomer friendly and outgoing, they said, adding that, while they'd observed him down a few beers, he was by no means slurring his speech or staggering.

Yet the nimble Woodruff still ended up dead in the Kalamazoo River hours later -- to be retrieved from those chilly waters by divers on April 30th, the supposed casualty of too much alcohol and an "accidental drowning."

Exactly how he went so quickly from a barstool to the bottom of a river, we may never know, since Wally's owner claims to have had a bit of a slip up too: He says he mistakenly erased all the film from his surveillance cameras.

The dead man was sporting a fresh gash across his knuckles, and an injured ear.

The Case of the Drowning Men

"They drink, they fall down, they drown," police and medical examiners always simplistically explain.

Not just a few though, not just a dozen, but hundreds and hundreds of young males between 17 and 30 -- from all walks of life, every race, every creed, every religion -- are drowning fully clothed in cold weather, for the past 16 years.

But before they all die in that bizarre manner, these victims first mysteriously disappear.

Sometimes they're gone for days, like Woodruff in Michigan. Sometimes for weeks, like Ward in Indiana. Sometimes for months, like Wilcox in Wisconsin. Sometimes for a decade, like Jansson in Illinois.

And sometimes, like Gillis in New York, they're never seen again...

Killing Killers will be featuring an exclusive interview with Becky Woodruff, in hopes of unraveling the tangled story of her own son's similar disappearance and untimely death in late April 2013.  Look for it soon in the VOICES FOR THE DEAD section. And read more about this case on CRIME MAGAZINE today.

Eponymous Rox

  

Smiley Face Murder Mystery: masonic eye tattoo key to IDing John Doe

Can you solve this Smiley Face Murder mystery?

Man with all-seeing mystic eye tattoo found drowned in Harlem's river

 

 

Detectives from New York  City's police department won't say exactly how they happened to stumble upon the partially clad and decomposing body of an adult male floating near the Bronx shore of the Harlem River early this May.

 

But they are asking for assistance from the public in identifying him. Something which, for those who knew the deceased man well, should be pretty easy to do -- he's got a very distinct eye and accompanying phrase tattooed in black ink on his shoulder.

 

Police say they've found no outward indication of any trauma on the cadaver, although they're still mystified as to how the mystic-eyed gent ended up dead in the water.

 

The meaning of his compelling tattoo has them a bit stumped, too.

 

Is it emblematic of membership with the secret order of the Masons? Is it an icon borrowed from the back of a dollar bill that the man merely found intriguing?  Or is he an assassinated Illuminati?

 

No one but the Smiley Face Killers can say, at the moment. But for anybody else who may recognize this graphic image, the NYPD asks that you call their anonymous Crime Stoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS.

 

EPONYMOUS ROX for Killing Killers

 

Cullen Finnerty Famed College QB Found Dead

UPDATE 6/14/13:  Cullen Finnerty toxicology tests negative;
Cause and manner of athlete's death still undetermined; 
Preliminary autopsy revealed a "slightly enlarged heart"
but coroner says there was no evidence of a heart attack.

Finnerty found face down in the woods with arms spread;
Had been fleeing "two men" allegedly following his boat.

-  5/29 story below; join active case discussion via comment section -

Cullen Finnerty, 30, a former star college QB found dead while fishing on Baldwin River in Michigan: Snakebite? Suicide? Psychosis? Or just another run-of-the-mill 'Smiley Face' serial killing?

 

Finnerty spent the weekend vacationing with his family and, in a classic Smiley Face Killer scenario -- absent an outright drowning -- somehow got  separated from them on Sunday, May 26th, while boating downriver.

 

Shortly thereafter the panicked-sounding athlete cellphoned his wife to vaguely inform her he was "in danger." He then left his watercraft and fled on foot into the adjacent woods ... promptly disappearing.

 

A massive search in those dense and swampy woodlands ensued, and the young man's corpse was found three days later. He was still wearing his waders and cammies.

 

Autopsy results are pending, but Michigan authorities are already insisting there was "no foul play" involved in the famous college quarterback's premature death. Ostensibly because there are no apparent indications of trauma on his body.

 

They also emphasize, rather self-consciously, that he "was not found in the water."

 

That's because Cullen Finnerty is but one of hundreds of males between 17 and 30 to weirdly vanish under similarly suspicious circumstances over the past 16 years, only to be found deceased days, weeks or months later in or near a lake, creek, pond, stream, or river.

 

In fact, Finnerty's sinister disappearance matches the following sampling of missing/found drowned cases documented for the month of May alone:

 

May 5, 2013 - Oklahoma: The body of Jerry Lytle, 22, was discovered floating face down in a local creek. Police state the young man disappeared following an altercation with friends and was found in the water a few days later. Foul play is therefore being investigated.

 

May 6th - Indiana: While searching for a male reported to be missing, searchers found the cadaver of a man in a nearby pond. Officals say it's not clear if this unidentified victim is the same person they were looking for, as an ID is still pending.

May 9th - Arkansas: The body of a young adult male found floating in a Polk County pond has been identified as that of missing 19-year-old Benjamin Wahl. Officials say the exact cause of his death is still unknown.

 

May 12th - Texas: The man recently discovered dead beneath a Medina River bridge has been identified as Mohamad Taiym. Foul play is strongly suspected, police say, because the 23-year-old vanished under suspicious circumstances. His car is still missing.

 

May 15th - Washington: Officials state that the body found in one of their coastal rivers is that of 30-year-old Jake Simons, missing since April 5 2013. They "know of no medical reason" why the man disappeared and drowned, they've claimed.

 

May 18th - Illinois: Officials have confirmed that the decomposed corpse of an adult male found in a local lake is that of Matt Pulis, the 31-year-old man who had suddenly gone missing in October 2012 during a night out with his coworkers and friends.

 

May 19th - Michigan: Forensic analysis of the remains of an unknown male found drowned in Thornapple River are being compared to local missing person reports in hopes of identifying the victim. The nature of John Doe's death has not been announced yet.

 

May  24th -  South Carolina:  Authorities have identified the body of a man found in Lake Welchel as Terry Lynn Martin Jr. The  29-year-old's disappearance was reported by his family and is considered suspicious, although his cause of death has not yet been determined.

May 26th - Georgia: The body of Calvin Cunningham, 19, has been found in an Augustan canal, after he was reported missing only days earlier. A local police officer claims to have sighted Cunningham and then pursued him on foot, but then he says the teen fled and even "jumped in the lake" to elude capture ... so he removed Cunningham from the missing persons databank. Further details concerning this case are being withheld pending a full investigation.

 

May 26th - New York: The badly decomposed corpse of an unidentified male was pulled out of the Hudson River. The body was discovered just 20 blocks south of the George Washington Bridge, the area where Curtis Aukshunas, 25, was said to have been sighted just before he mysteriously vanished on May 8, 2013.

 

May 28th - Michigan: Following an intensive search for him, '30-year-old Cullen Finnerty college QB found dead near Baldwin River', search-and-rescuers have just announced. The star athlete vanished without a trace after placing a distress call to his spouse in which he stated a belief that he was imminently "in danger." A cause of death is unknown at this time, authorities are stating.

May 28th - Arizona: The "fully clothed" body of 21-year-old Gerrick Begay was discovered floating in Tempe Town Lake, the same river basin where a number of other men his age have similarly been found over the past few years. Police are investigating and autopsy results are still pending.

May 29th - Alaska: Authorities say the remains of a young adult male retrieved from an Alaskan lake have been tentatively identified as those of Shanon Lovell, a resident of Anchorage. The 30-year-old had been reported missing after attending a party in early October 2012.

May 29th - California: Marine patrol deputies were dispatched to Konocti Bay in Clear Lake to retrieve the drowned body of 31-year-old Cuong Minh Tran, missing a few days prior after allegedly visiting his friend. Autopsy results and a cause of death are still pending.

May 31st - Pennsylvania: Rescue divers and homocide detectives from the Pittsburgh Police Department were called to the shores of the Ohio river after a boater spied the rotting corpse of 25-year-old Vijay Rajaputana floating in the water. No report yet on the cause or manner of death.
  

(NOTE: This is a partial list; more cases will be added as additional IDs and CODs as determined. Bookmark to follow and be sure to also check out April 2013's victims as well. Use the comment sections to send notice of other cases or updates on existing ones.)

 



MISSING PERSON ALERT: Curtis Aukshunas

UPDATE MAY 29, 2013 - Curtis Aukshunas found drowned: The badly decomposed body found on May 26th floating in the Hudson River just 20 blocks south of the George Washington bridge is in fact that of the missing 25-year-old man. 

Aukshunas, a NYC financial analyst, mysteriously went missing from work in midtown Manhattan on May 8th around noontime. He was dressed in a dark gray suit (no tie) and was believed to have taken a taxi at nearby 51st street and Seventh Avenue.

Allegedly he was last sighted in the vicinity of the George Washington Bridge, although it is not clear yet if he committed suicide by jumping, slipped over the rail as he was jogging, or met up with foul play somehow. Autopsy results are still pending.

 

 

Aukshunas resided in New Jersey with his wife and a host of rescue pets. Per his missing persons poster, he was 6' 3" tall and about 165 pounds, with brown hair and eyeglasses.

 

Anybody who may recognize this individual or who might know what happened which ultimately led to his drowning death is asked to call 911 or the Englewood, NJ police at (201) 568-4875.


Matthew Royer FOUND SAFE in another state. (At the request of the family no other details are available at this time:) MISSING FROM PENNSYLVANIA on 5/16/13: , 21 and a student at Rhode Island University, drove from campus at around 6PM on May 16th to his parent's home in Pennsylvania. He made a couple of service station stops along the way, but within only 35 miles of his destination his cell hone went dead and the young man then vanished without a trace.

Royer is a Caucasian male approximately 6'1" tall and 160 pounds. He has light brown hair and blue eyes and was last seen wearing a green golf shirt, off-white shorts, flip-flops, and a Biltmore Adventures cap. He is/was driving a silver 2008 Chevy Cobalt with Pennsylvania license plate number GZR-9059. Anyone with any info about what happened to him is urged to contact the Pennsylvania State Police in Skippack at 610-584-1250.