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.

More Severed Feet Flotsam Washes Ashore in Canada

Severed foot number 16 has washed ashore this week on the border of Washington State and Canada, but officials still don't suspect foul play is the answer to this grisly and recurring mystery.

As has been happening for the past several years, the latest piece of freaky flotsam to arrive in British Columbia via the Salish seaway is also a detached foot in a sneaker.

U.S. and Canadian coroners have previously determined that nearly all the drown victims these rotting appendages belonged to deliberately drowned themselves, either because they were "depressed" or suffered from "mental illness."

However, in 2007, when startled beachcombers discovered two separate severed feet in the same area and time-frame, Corporal Garry Cox of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police offered his own expert opinion:

“Two being found in such a short period of time is quite suspicious,” he told reporters for the Vancouver Sun. “Finding one foot is like a million to one odds,” he assured them.

Five more sneaker shoes filled with decomposing feet or foot bones appeared the following year, and now they just keep on coming.

Submerged corpses will disintegrate fairly quickly, especially when repeatedly subjected "to the push and pull" of a body of water as turbulent as the Pacific Ocean.

As well, these could easily become dismembered soon after going underwater by hungry marine animals.

Either of those possibilities might explain why only detached feet clad in buoyant rubber-soled footwear would eventually resurface and drift to shore again... 

But not why they aren't showing up anywhere else in the world, or why there's always only one severed foot per victim.

Theories about this strange case range from organized crime and drug cartel assassinations to human traffickers or an actual serial killer using the northwest ocean waters as a body dump.

What do you think is really going on?

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

  

DEAD IN THE WATER: new evidence, new rulings

In November 1981, during a dragged out and drunken argument with her husband on his yacht The Splendour, 43-year-old actress Natalie Wood "accidentally" fell overboard and drowned. Her angry, soused spouse, actor Robert Wagner, then waited almost two full hours before reporting his wife missing. Shortly thereafter rescue personnel fished Wood's lifeless body out of the Pacific Ocean--covered front to back with bruises and lacerations, some of them "fresh," some "recent," some a "day old" or more.

 

Three decades later, based upon those suspicious injuries and the tireless pursuit for justice by the victim's family, authorities finally relented and overturned the determination that Natalie Wood drowned by "accident." They are now investigating her death as a likely homicide, with Robert Wagner the prime suspect.

 

In November 2012, under circumstances yet to be determined, Joshua Swalls, 22, went missing in Indianapolis. A few days later, after one of his shoes was discovered on the bank of a nearby retention pond, divers searched the small body of water but found nothing in it. Nevertheless, three weeks later someone sighted Swalls' body floating there and the cadaver was then sent to the coroner's office for examination. He had only been in the water for approximately 7 to 10 days, they say...

 

Unlike Wood, Swalls was found to have no drugs or alcohol in his system, yet he too had a number of bruises and lacerations which he'd received before dying. Namely “contusions of the right forehead and eyebrow, bridge of nose, and right zygomatic arch in the shape of  a reverse C, continuous” with an “abrasion of tip of nose” and “abraded contusions to kneecaps, bilateral and to shins, multiple bilateral, with one underlying a tear in the left pants leg.”

 

The Marion County Coroner's Office has been asked to revisit their autopsy findings, and is pondering now whether in fact Josh Swalls' death was truly accidental. Yet the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department still adamantly insists it was and refuses to investigate.

 

As part of my continuing efforts to assist the Swalls family in obtaining justice for their murdered son, I did a comparative analysis of both the Wood and Swalls drowning events including their autopsies, which was published this week on Crime Magazine. Help keep the pressure on the Indy authorities: Read DEAD IN THE WATER, and share the info in it with everyone.
 

 

UP NEXT: 'Mystery At Tupper Lake'

 

 

A missing youth and a dead serial killer. Are they connected?

 

 

What would Sarah do?

Investigating the Lambertville canal drownings

She was the valedictorian of her 1991 graduating class at South Hunterdon High, and a superb athlete who especially loved and excelled at volleyball.

A bright, strong-willed, independent female even at that tender age, Sarah Majoras is said to have declined to give a speech at her high school graduation, remaining silent instead in order to civically object to a religious invocation delivered at the opening of the ceremony by a school administrator. 

 

That forced prayer was in plain violation of black-letter laws that call for separation of church and state throughout the USA, including at publicly-funded school systems like South Hunterdon. It was, in young Majoras' uncorrupted view, a patently unconstitutional demand which she had the inalienable right to refuse. 

 

Being required to mumble along to a benediction, to bow one's head to "God" and country, infringed on everybody's rights who were assembled there that day, believers and nonbelievers alike. So she was leading the crowd in protest of it.

 

That's after all what Sarah Majoras was, all those who knew her agree: a natural born leader.

 

"Only the good die young"

 

Sometimes as we age, as we ardently pursue a host of other liberty interests--happiness, wealth, social status, acclaim--we lose ourselves in the chase. The principles and ideals we believed in and espoused in our youth become too cumbersome to maintain, and so we toss them, one by one, along the way. 

 

And sometimes, when we finally near or reach our goals, we end up completely different people than we used to be. Not always for the better.

 

But at age 39 Sarah Majoras was still the courageous and  "extremely smart person" her friends and admirers had always known her to be. She was still the all around, dependable team player who had, in the years since silently receiving her diploma, also earned a reputation as a kind, generous, "very accepting and inclusive" human being.

 

Majoras had not sold her soul for the almighty dollar, although it's clear she certainly could have if she liked. She was not chasing after the American Dream and untold fortunes bartending for 16 years at Lambertville's local hotspot, John & Peter's, situated just across the Delaware river and roughly only a mile from her house.

 

She had become a beloved fixture of the bar-and-grill, and its patrons adored her.

But this January, walking home in the early morning hours from there, Sarah Majoras mysteriously vanished, and nearly the whole town began searching for her. Days later she was found just a few blocks shy of her destination, drowned in the shallows of an icy canal.

 

Misstep or murder?

 

The loss of an individual like Sarah Majoras is not just felt at the tiny pub she graciously tended for nearly two decades, nor is it limited to the the small village she lived in almost all her adult life.

 

Noble characters willing to stand up for what they believe are rare in this world we've created, and whether dead or alive their decency and humanity serves to inspire others to behave nobly as well.

 

You can't have too many of such types; you can't bear to lose even just one of them.

 

In many ways now the world we know has grown suddenly small over the past 15 to 20 years, and word travels fast as a consequence. We can thank satellites and cell phone technology for our shrinking universe, and, of course, the internet.

 

In the bars and alleyways and kitchens of Lambertville New Jersey, and thousands of miles away via chatrooms, blogs, and discussion forums, there is a rumor circulating that Sarah Majoras didn't fall into the water by accident.

 

All over the planet people are saying Majoras was murdered, and they want the police to investigate her suspicious death. They think that her friend David Anderson's 2000 drowning in the same area of the canal--coming from the same bar where both were employed, walking the same route, to the same place, to see the same person, at the same hour--defies coincidence.

 

And yet a small but very vocal minority are saying nay to this, opening troll accounts on busy web boards where the case is being actively debated and interjecting that such discussions "are not helpful." 

It is their mission, as they see it, to derail any and all conversations concerning the possibility of foul play in the Majoras disappearance and drowning. 

None of them leave their names, of course, or even say what sex they are, but they do identify themselves as belonging to the tight-knit group of friends that included Majoras, Anderson, and the man these two decedents were both going home to when they each went missing and then died.

 

They are grieving for their dead friend, the trolls claim, and any inquest into that death will only drive their pain deeper and divide the community in the process. Moreover, they've known the man that everybody, everywhere now suspects of wrongdoing "for years and years." Therefore he is clearly innocent.

 

Life is awkward like this at times, making it difficult for good people to decide what honorable course of action they should be taking, because, understandably, nobody wants to make waves unnecessarily. Nobody wants to unduly distress another person, especially if that person doesn't deserve it.

 

What's more, it's risky sticking to your guns in the face of stiff opposition, and if you're not used to taking that risk each and every day, if you're not accustomed to making a stand and not giving even one inch to those who oppose it, well, then, you're suddenly in uncharted territory. Leaderless.

 

It'd be great when that happens to be able to consult with someone who does this sort of thing everyday. Someone who has always known their own mind and, no matter what others may say or think, follows through undaunted each and every time.

Someone who is used to shouting "damn the torpedoes" whenever it comes to confronting wrong and doing right, even if it does make some folks initially uncomfortable and, worse, forever alienates a few of them.

Someone who's always been unwavering in their convictions their entire life. An "incredibly special person" who is "capable of bringing the whole community together" and guiding them in the right direction, and......
 

 

I wonder what Sarah would do?

 

 

10 tips for eluding the Smiley Face killers

The unexplained disappearance and *drowning* of 26-year-old David Gerken, after he was mysteriously evicted from the Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park New York en route to the bathroom, is the classic 'Smiley Face Killer' motif.

Because there have now been hundreds of similar deaths, beginning with young Patrick McNeill's in 1997, and since there doesn't seem to be any end in sight to the carnage, it's time for those who match the standard victim profile in these cases to learn how to avoid falling prey. Study the following fact sheet and tips carefully, and be safe.

SMILEY VICTIMOLOGY: Are you a popular, clean-cut, slim and athletic, college-age male, between 17 and 30, planning an evening out with your friends? Then pay close attention to the details of Gerken's disappearance and drowning, because your description--like his--is identical with approximately 95% of the Smiley Face victims:

David Gerken, 26, was just named 'Employee of the Month' at his workplace where he had risen to the rank of foreman. Responsible and well-liked, he was attending a Bills' game with his brother and a friend last Thursday. They report he drank only two beers while there, and hadn't been in any altercations with anyone, prior to being intercepted on his way to the men's room and ordered to leave the stadium.

Additionally, Gerken expected to go to work the very next day and under those circumstances he customarily wouldn't have engaged in heavy *drinking. This is important to note since, in nearly all of these cases, alcohol is ruled a major factor leading to "accidental drowning" whether or not any had been consumed. (*Toxicology tests will always show the presence of alcohol in dead bodies because it is a byproduct of decay, and is often accelerated in corpses that have been submersed for a period of time.)

Once Gerken had gone outdoors, he immediately called his brother to inform him he'd been forced to leave the premises and said he didn't know why. He then calmly arranged for the three to meet up again at the nearby Tailgaters bar after the game had ended.

That was the last anybody heard from him. The final GPS tracking signal on his cell phone was for a location two miles from the sports arena, and his body was ultimately discovered by family searchers floating face down in Smokes Creek--the opposite direction of Tailgaters and a destination that required scaling numerous obstacles to get at, as well as a tall fence. Police have tentatively ruled Gerken's death an accident.

SMLEY'S MODUS OPERANDI: A young man is separated from his friends somehow--usually asked to leave an establishment by management personnel, although he is not outwardly intoxicated. Once he's gone outside, typically he will cell-phone one or more from his party to explain the odd incident to them and to arrange for a meeting place. He then goes missing instead and is found drowned in a nearby river, lake, pond or stream, some days, weeks or months later. On occasion, as with 18-year-old pre-med student Colin Gillis from Tupper Lake NY last March, he is never seen or heard from again.

Police almost always determine NSOFP (no signs of foul play), sometimes well in advance of finding a body. In a few extreme cases, say when  a corpse was actually recovered weighted down with a chain and cinder block (e.g. Jonathan Dailey/October 2012), or showed other indications that the deceased didn't "fall" into the water naturally, then investigators will pursue a theory of suicide. It is also not uncommon for parents to be told by the authorities that their sons died as a result of auto-assassination (reckless behavior symptomatic of a death wish). 

KILLING SEASON: Annually, from the months of September to April. Once in awhile it may extend without interruption into late spring.

KILL ZONE: Maine to the Dakotas and all parts in between; now also reaching across the border into Canada as well as a few more southerly districts of the United States. Some metropolitan hotspots in the US kill zone include but are not limited to Boston, New York, Lacrosse, Minneapolis, and Milwaukee, but essentially any town or city in a state traversed by the east/west interstate highways of 90 and 94 is in the high risk area.

RUIN SMILEY'S DAY: Follow these tips to minimize the danger of vanishing into thin air one night and ending up another unsolved "drowned" statistic:

1. Buddy up at all times. Safety in numbers is the name of the game, before, during and after a night out on the town.

2. Scrap the hoodie attire. Too many people think it makes young men look like...well...hoods, quite frankly. And, considering the percentage of Smiley Face victims who were wearing this particular piece of apparel when they went missing, a hooded sweatshirt should be regarded as a significant liability. (Ditto for flip-flops, and any other type of shoe not suitable for running in.)

3. Watch what you're drinking--never drink from someone else's bottle or glass, especially if you don't know them. This includes any liquid whatsoever (or substance) being offered by a female you might've just met.

4. If you are asked to leave an establishment ... get all 10 TIPS IN ALL, PLUS SMILEY CASE SPOTLIGHTS, UPDATES & MORE HERE OR HERE & find a full forensic analysis of the famous 'Smiley Face Serial Murder Theory' in:THE CASE OF THE DROWNING MEN, illustrated or plain text eBook editions.

Because you really can't see what you're not looking for.

More Drowning Men Cases

Barely a week has passed since the drowned corpse of missing grad student Jonathan Dailey was found in Boston's chilly Charles River, tethered to a chain and a cinderblock. Yet his roommate and longtime pal, Miles Smith, has already crossed off his deceased friend's name from the mailbox they both shared, and is packing up his own things, he said, with the aim of leaving town.

 

And the suspicious death itself still remains shrouded in mystery; the police as mum as ever about the latest fatality in this 15-year string of weird and chronic drownings.

 

Was young Dailey's demise a homicide? A suicide? Or a bungled 'Smiley Face' killing?

 

INTERESTING TIDBIT: The late Jon Dailey and his (ex)roommate Miles Smith met years ago as undergraduates at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. Why is that information so intriguing? Because ASU was recently the scene of a strange drowning event too, and only a few days before Dailey first went missing.

 

Police and university officals in North Carolina confirm that 19-year-old Tyler Blalock was discovered drowned in a campus creek September 29th 2012, with apparent head injuries. His death has nevertheless been ruled 'accidental'. 

 

However, Blalock was an expert swimmer and a lifeguard, so his family is not entirely convinced he isn't the victim of foul play, and they also question why someone so savvy about water safety would have been at the creek at all, especially by himself.

 

“I know he wasn’t there alone,” his mother insisted. “I know he wouldn't have been there alone.”

 

Mrs. Blalock is asking the public to assist in finding the answers to what could have happened to her son the night he allegedly drowned.

 

“Anybody that knows anything [or] somebody that was with him last night...just come forward and talk to the police,” she pleaded through tears. “Just so I can know what happened to my baby. That's all I ask … I beg for that.”

Anyone with information regarding this tragic incident is encouraged to call the ASU Police Department at 828-262-2150.

 

At the time of his death, Tyler Blalock was a sophmore at Appalachian State University, Dailey's and Smith's alma mater. 

 

Weird coincidence, eh?

 

 

Drown victim's family offers $100,000 reward

The parents of Alexander Grant, the 19-year-old who mysteriously drowned last winter after attending a party in upstate New York and becoming separated from his friends, believe he was the victim of foul play and are now offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of his murderer/s. Alexander’s suspicious drowning is one of the deaths featured extensively in my published report THE CASE OF THE DROWNING MEN. For full analysis and details of it, including the complete police report and autopsy findings, click HERE. For the terms and conditions of the Grant family’s bounty offer click HERE. Below is an excerpt of their appeal for the public’s assistance:

 

“We are Ken and Deanna Grant, the parents of Alexander Grant.  Alex died last year in Saratoga Springs, New York, after driving there to visit a friend who was attending college in the area.  His death has caused us more sadness than we can describe, and we are asking you to help us find the answers which we know must exist as to how Alex went from a dorm room to a house party and ended up dead some six hours later.  So far, all we have learned is that the events of his last night alive cannot be explained by what is currently known…

 This is why we are offering a $100,000 reward to the first person who comes forward with material information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person(s) responsible for causing Alex’s death.^[i]  We know that Alex encountered many people on the night he died, and we hope and pray that you can help us learn how and why he died…

 After an extensive investigation of this tragedy, undertaken by the Saratoga Springs Police Department, the Saratoga County District Attorney, the New York State Medical Examiner and others, we are convinced in our hearts, minds and souls, that the key contributing factors leading to Alex’s death have not yet been disclosed.  We are not alone in our belief that Alex’s death cannot be explained by the official report of his death, issued in September 2011. Many of those involved in the investigation have also expressed their belief that material facts remain unknown.”

 

"Jack the Pusher"

A DROWNING-MEN  PANDEMIC?

A spate of cold weather river drownings -- 17 in one year alone -- has ignited fears in France that the deaths may be the work of a serial killer. And so certain are French citizens that this is in fact what's happening that they've even named the mystery murderer "Jack the Pusher".

Residents of  the affected cities, towns and villages have also organized massive public protests demanding an official investigation into the matter as well as calling for heightening of security all along their riverbanks.

Police, community leaders, and even bars and restaurants, are also warning young males, who are the exclusive targets for this death-by-drowning scenario, to be on their guard at all times whenever they're out partying now, especially late at night or very early in the morning:

33-year-old John Ani disappeared October 7, 2010 after a night of drinking. His body was found Oct. 11, 2010 in the Deule River. Toxicology testing confirmed alcohol and drugs in his system, according to French media reports.

On Februrary 5th, 26-year-old Thomas Ducroo disappeared while walking home and turned up dead in the same river on the 23rd of February. Toxicology tests also confirmed drugs and alcohol in his body tissues.

And, on February 21st, Jean-Meriadec Le Tarnec, age 22, also mysteriously vanished. Rescue divers located his body in the Deule River on Feb. 25th. Toxicology results are still pending.

In 2011, nearly 1000 protesters marched along the riverbanks in Lille France demanding answers in these troubling deaths. Autopsies concluded they all were accidental drownings, but family members and friends of the victims totally disbelieve it.

Posters in the town of Lille now warn students to watch out for a killer nicknamed "Jack the Pusher."

Attorney Laura Robinson, a 28-year-old Californian who's younger brother now resides in Lille, said the issue is a very curious one indeed, "because the victims all left nightclubs in the center of the old part of town, but their bodies were found in the Deule River near a wooded area on the outskirts of the city."

She added that repeated police rulings of 'no foul play' in these drownings "doesn't make sense" because "after falling into a river and possibly landing on rocks, there must be bruises and cuts present on the bodies."

But, as with similar drowning in the northern US,  there aren't...

Drowning Forensics

Anatomy of a Drowning

(From THE CASE OF THE DROWNING MEN)

For those who think that drowning is a pleasant way to go, think again. Drowning is a violent assault on the body during which the frightened victim fiercely, albeit briefly, battles to survive. Death follows exhaustion within only two or three minutes.

Technically, it is true that a person can drown in as little as a cup of water. A cup, a puddle, a ditch, a bathtub—anytime liquid enters the air passages and lungs, even if someone doesn’t die immediately, it can still turn fatal because there are a host of medical complications which arise that are always life-threatening, such as pneumonia and renal failure. These type of delayed fatalities are known as “secondary drownings” and, although their symptoms may develop over the course of several days, or even longer for some patients, they’re usually triggered within only a few hours of the initial incident.

But most victims drown fully submerged in water when the nose and mouth inadvertently become covered. Sometimes, when there is an instantaneous glottal spasm blocking off oxygen, or a preexisting medical condition, death can be automatic without any signs of a struggle. In the majority of drownings, however, this is not the case. Struggling is one of the key stages leading to unconsciousness and death. In fact, so intense can this final fight for life be that, in more than ten percent of drowning fatalities, an autopsy will actually reveal bruised and ruptured muscles, particularly in the shoulders, chest and neck. Evidence of injuries of this nature suggest to a medical examiner the strong likelihood that a victim was alive in the water at the time of their demise and not placed there already dead.

The stages of a full-immersion drowning event are fairly quick and, because the victim’s airways are being blocked, either by water and/or the epiglottis, it’s often completely soundless. There will be panicked thrashing as the victim desperately attempts to get air and to grab onto nearby objects for security, and then, when they can no longer hold their breath, they’ll begin to inhale water in large quantities, gulping it into their stomach as well. This action also rapidly circulates water throughout their other systems and bloodstream with differing biochemical reactions depending on whether they’re in saltwater or in fresh. This last stage of drowning ends with coughing, vomiting, convulsions, loss of consciousness, death, and rigormortis.

Very shortly after the victim dies their body will start to sink. If retrieved soon thereafter, their arms and hands may display cadaveric spasm, a posture in death borne out of extreme mental anguish and which reveals the person’s final thoughts and movements as they frantically fought to stay alive.

If a victim is not promptly retrieved at death, then, without exception and no matter how deep or how swift the water may be, their corpse will continue to drift downward until it reaches the bottom. This is where it will remain in a somewhat fetal position until gases from putrefaction cause it to rise to the surface once more.

A semi-fetal posture is the norm for all drown victims, so if divers do locate such a body before it ascends, but it isn’t in this pose and/or the head is seen to be tilted to one side, they must include these observations in their police recovery report, as it reveals the victim died on land and was put in the water post-rigormortis.

Typically, once the body does emerge on its own, it will surface in the general vicinity of where the victim originally went under. From this location the water may then carry the corpse along for quite a distance, depending on the strength of the currents or if it becomes ensnared and is thereby prevented.

Refloat largely varies on the water’s depth and temperature, taking only a matter of hours to occur if extremely warm and up to two weeks or longer if at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or less. The timetable, therefore, is not fixed but is loosely as follows: at 40 degrees Fahrenheit it takes approximately fourteen to twenty days for a drown victim’s corpse to resurface; at 50 degrees ten to fourteen days; at 60 degrees seven to...read the rest for FREE here