The David Gerken 'Smiley Face' Drowning

It's being hushed up and whitewashed as I speak, but, for all you fellow Smiley Face theorists, the David Gerken drowning in November 2012 behind the Ralph Wilson Stadium in New York, is the one to watch right now.

 

That's the disappearance and drowning death that could potentially bust THE CASE OF THE DROWNING MEN wide open, I believe. 

 

I've already provided comprehensive coverage of this matter for Crime Magazine where I'm a contributing writer, and since that website has exclusivity to the work in terms of online publication, I'll just provide the link to the article here for any cyber-sleuths who want to investigate all the suspicious events surrounding 26-year-old Gerken's case on their own. 

The title of the Gerken exposé is Wrongful Death, or Bloody Murder?  Feel free to share the piece too if you like; I'm pretty sure it can be read in its entirety there without a paid subscription.

 

Gerken's untimely (and thus far unexplained) demise is what's called "a quiet little murder" but, who knows, maybe the truth can still out before a hefty, hard-to-refuse cash settlement is offered to the family and a gag order puts the facts regarding his killing forever in the dark.

 

If the truth about it ever does come to light, however, it will very much resemble the same one floating just beneath the murky surface of similar fatalities which have been happening in America's northland these past 15 years. Hundreds of those would have to be revisited and reclassified as homicides as well.

 

And you'd be stunned to discover then who these 'Smiley Killers' really are.

 

On that note, Smiley Face victim Walton Matthew Ward's mother will join Killing Killers this week to help shed light on the circumstances of her 23-year-old son's recent drowning in October 2012. 

 

Her name is Julie Kvinge and I've posed her with about three-dozen questions which I think you'll find the answers to quite intriguing.

 

I've also sent her and her family on a mission to take some pictures of the Indianapolis area that Matt disappeared from, including along the shore of the White River where his body was found on October 24th.

 

It will be interesting to see if they discover any new graffiti down there...

 

The Ward interview, along with accompanying photographs, will be posted on this site shortly in the Voices for the Dead section, so look there soon for it.

 

 

Thanks for dropping by today--

Eponymous Rox

 

Smiley Face Interviews

Posting advance notice to readers that the parents of Matthew Ward and of Joshua Swalls will each be giving Killing Killers in depth interviews in early December concerning their sons' disappearances and drownings in Indiana this past October and November.

 

This will hopefully shed additional light on these suspicious deaths, as well as to call more public attention to the young mens' cases so police will feel compelled to continue to investigate them.

 

The first interview, regarding Matt, is scheduled to go live here in the opening days of December, followed shortly thereafter by Joshua's. Photos will accompany.

All interviews will be permanently featured on the Voices For the Dead page.

 

The Ward Drowning - Overview

 

On October 24, 2012, the body of Walton "Matt" Ward was recovered from the White River near 64th Street and Westfield Boulevard in Indianapolis. The 23-year-old man had gone missing on Oct. 12th.

Ward was visiting from California and planned to hook up with a girl he'd met on Cupid.com. His mother said she dropped him off outside Peppers Bar where the two had arranged to meet, but then never saw her son again.

 

The owner of the pub confirmed that Ward was there alone and stayed for about an hour or so before departing alone as well. The girl never showed.

At around 10:30 that same night Ward checked in with his mother by cell phone to say he was okay, but at approximately 1:30 a.m. on October 13th he placed a 911 call from his cell which only lasted for one second before terminating. Shortly thereafter Ward disappeared.

Detectives traced the call back to a cell phone tower in Broad Ripple near where his drowned corpse was ultimately found almost two weeks later.

 

The Swalls Drowning - Overview

 

Joshua Swalls, 22, vanished without a trace from a friend's apartment in Indianapolis where he was staying this November, leaving behind his cell phone, keys, and car. Allegedly, he was last seen in the early morning hours of November 4th, 2012.

 

A few days after he went missing, police say they found a shoe in the vicinity of the residential complex which they believe may have belonged to Swalls and so a tactical dive team then fruitlessly searched for his body in the nearby retention pond for approximately an hour.

 

Extensive searches by Swalls' family and friends were also conducted throughout the neighborhood in the days and weeks that followed, and similarly produced no results.

 

On November 23, Swalls' body was discovered floating in the same retention pond that had been already searched. He was subsequently identified by the family the day after. 

 

Autopsy & Toxicology Reports

 

In both cases the young men's deaths were immediately ruled accidental drownings. As of this writing, BAC and other toxicology tests are still pending.

 

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.

Police renew search for missing college student

 

The Search For Colin Gillis Is On Again

A classic 'Smiley Face' murder - but no body



With hunting season about to go full speed, New York State Police and officers from the Department of Environmental Conservation in the Tupper Lake region have renewed their efforts to locate the now-19-year-old Colin Gillis, calling on hunters to assist them in finding articles of the young man's clothing, or worse, even his body.

 

Missing since March of 2012, Gillis was home for spring break and had attended a party with his friends on the evening of March 10th. He is said to have left that event alone on foot in the early morning hours of March 11th and was last sighted by a passing motorist walking along Route 3 in the direction of his family’s nearby Piercefield home.

He never made it there.

The eyewitness, a local newsman driving his elderly mother to her residence in the town of Tupper Lake, had promptly driven to the nearest police station to report that he’d observed a young man (who would later match Gillis’ description) apparently in “distress” and “flailing his arms” to oncoming traffic. Police said they immediately went to the area in question but, by the time they got there, the youth, presumed now to be Gillis, had already vanished.

In the days and weeks following his mysterious disappearance, numerous law enforcement agencies and nearly a 1000 community members searched over 2000 acres of Adirondack woodland as well as all the nearby waterways, but there was no sign of Gillis. There was also no indication anywhere of someone having fallen through the ice and drowning either, by now an established pattern of death in these strange disappearances of college-age men in the I-90 and I-94 corridor, since 1997.

Oddly enough, the only item belonging to Collin Gillis which was recovered in the massive ground and air rescue attempt was his driver's license, clearly indicating that he’d been asked for identification by whomever it was that had stopped him that darkened morning. It’s obvious too that Gillis did in fact produce a picture ID 'on the spot' for the yet unknown subject or subjects involved, because his license was found at the side of the very highway he’d last been observed walking on before he went missing.

Gillis was a pre-med student in his sophomore year at Brockport University and is described as 6’1” tall, 170 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes. He was clothed in a black and white striped shirt, blue jeans and red sneakers, and was carrying (or wearing) a reversible black and red L.L. Bean jacket together with an orange and black day pack.

Foul play is strongly suspected in the Gillis disappearance and therefore the official inquiry into it remains active and the search status labeled as “continuous”. This means, in addition to an ongoing but sporadic investigation, exercises and drills are also being routinely conducted in and around the location the victim was last known to have been at between March 10th and March 11th, 2012.

“In the past, we’ve had hunters come across things that have helped us locate people,” DEC spokesperson David Winchell explained last week.

The Gillis family is also offering a substantial financial reward for their loved one’s return or for information about what may have happened to him. Although heartbroken and worried, they remain optimistic. “We are still hopeful and we await Colin's arrival every day," his brother Lyndon recently stated. 

With late autumn baring the trees and a wider range of visibility as a result, it is hoped that savvy outdoorsman may more easily spy something of interest as they prowl the woods for game this season.

Anybody who does come across such items, or who has any information at all concerning the Collin Gillis case, is asked to contact Ray Brook State Police headquarters at 518-897-2000, or the DEC dispatch at 518-897-1300. 
 

 

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?

 

 

Killing season upon us...once again

Summer is officially over, and yet that's when the dubious drownings start up again--all young men, all mysteriously disappearing, all matching a strikingly similar description--as has been the case now since 1997.

 

THE CASE OF THE DROWNING MEN

Investigating the 'Smiley Face' serial killings: 

Add the Boston Architectural grad student Jonathon Dailey, 23, to the growing list of 2012's victims. He disappeared on October 2d and was found in the Charles River by a Boston University rowing coach on October 9th 2012.
 

Will the police insist his drowning too is "accidental" which has become the norm for them in regard to these peculiar deaths? Well, that might be kind of difficult this time since Dailey's body was discovered with a chain wrapped around it and anchored to a cinder block. But...

"It is far too early to make a determination as to manner of death, and reports indicating that the individual was the victim of a homicide are premature," said Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney.

Just a couple weeks before Jonathon Dailey went missing in Massachusetts, 18-year-old pre med student, Harsha Maddula, likewise disappeared after becoming separated from his friends sometime around midnight. An undergrad at Chicago's illustrious Northwestern University, Madulla's corpse was found by a local fisherman on September 27th, floating near a harbor in Wilmette, Illinois.

The cause of his death is still being determined and toxicology tests may take weeks to process as well. However, Wilmette police investigators have expressed their opinion anyway, despite not being in possession of all the facts yet. "There were no signs of foul play on the body," they said.

Also consistent with a troubling pattern in the drowning men phenomena, rescue divers had already thoroughly searched the area Maddula was ultimately found in. So perhaps it's time law enforcement officials just admit that DISAPPEARING AND DROWNING OFF SEASON is unto itself a sign of foul play, and then truly begin to give this perplexing matter their undivided attention.

Or else call in the FBI...again.

 

 

Help sought in suspicious drowning

The family of 23-year-old "drown" victim Gregory Hart believe he was murdered and they are appealing for the public's help in gathering information which will lead to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for his disappearance and subesequent drowning in Providence Rhode Island in March of 2010.

 

Greg Hart was at a downtown Providence pub celebrating a new job when he mysteriously became separated from his friends. His badly battered corpse was found a few days later on the banks of the Woonasquatucket River. His loved ones conducted the search for him because local authorities appeared to be unwilling to launch a timely search and rescue. The facts of this young man's death are covered in THE CASE OF THE DROWNING MEN.

 

Find photos and more at:

http://www.JusticeForGregHart.com

http://www.facebook.com/JusticeforGregHart

 

 

 

"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...

Blood and Alcohol

A Cautionary Note For Medical Examiners:

Accurately determining blood/alcohol levels for victims of drowning

The National Institute for Health and the National Study Center for Trauma and Emergency Medical Science has recently urged medical examiners and police forensic teams not to jump to conclusions about toxicology reports for drown victims which show extremely elevated BAC readings.

A victim's high blood/alcohol content does not provide irrefutable evidence that he was intoxicated at the moment of his death, they are warning.

In the published results of a study these well-respected institutes jointly conducted on over 500 males who died in both cold and warm water, it was proven conclusively that, in the case of a drowning, alcohol production from decompostion begins as soon as 12 hours after death from submersion. In part, this advanced decay is promoted by water and the effect it has on the lungs.

The comprehensive report, titled Evidence For Early Endogenous Alcohol Production In Bodies Recovered From Water: Implications for Studying Alcohol and Drowning, cites the hallmark drop in mean lung weight of drown corpses as the chief trigger for early postmortem decay. Alcohol is a natual byproduct of putrefaction in all deceased bodies, but, as the study demonstrates, this substance is significantly enhanced in those who have perished in water:

"Endogenous alcohol production can increase the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of drowning victims following submersion and confound epidemiological studies of the role of alcohol," the authoritative analysis unequivocally states.

And yet, in the case of the drowning men syndrome that's been vexing America's northland since 1997, this empirical data is routinely being ignored by local law enforcement officials in a rush to judgement of "no signs of foul play." Time and time again, police and medical examiners have swept these matters under the rug in such an offhand manner, leaving unanswered one of the most important questions about these water fatalities: If a young man, headed for home after midnight, was in fact not drunk when he went missing, then how in the world did he drown?

Odd Drownings & Drowning Odds

Mishaps or Murders?



Since the mid 1990's the drowning men phenomena has become the norm in America's northern corridor, with literally hundreds of these cold-water fatalities tallied up so far...and stll counting.

Police don't think it's weird that young men are drowning on their way home at night in wintertime. They insist, over and over again, that it's just the natural byproduct of young men and too much alcohol. They're not alarmed by these statistics.

But, statistically speaking, just how common is it to perish in water? What exactly are the odds of death by accidental drowning?

The odds that a male or female will die during water recreational activities, any time of the year, are surprisingly slim, with or without consuming alcohol--of the many, many millions of people who engage in boating and swimming annually, approximately only 1 in 84,000 of them will actually drown.

The odds of a person of either sex and any age dying in freshwater are even slimmer than that, with only 1 in 186,000 such fatalities occurring each year.

And the odds of falling into a body of water and drowning is virtually impossible, the statistics assure us. Only 1 in 720,000 people, drunk or sober, will die in this unlikely manner.

The odds of being murdered in any given year?

Significantly higher, unfortunately. Nearly 1 in 19,000 people will die every year as a result of foul play.

* Numbers rounded - Source = Book Of Odds / Accidents & Deaths / Death Rates / Annual

THE CASE OF THE DROWNING MEN:

Investigating the Smiley Face Serial Murders

THE CASE OF THE DROWNING MEN: discount paperback edition

NEW THIS WEEK VIA AMAZON

discounted B&W illustrated edition

~ Only $12.95 USD ~

Missing/Drowned in 2012

More Serial Drownings, Or More Serial Murders?

The following are just a few new cases for this year that I'm still tracking and/or waiting on toxicology reports for, but which aren't included in my special investigatory report THE CASE OF THE DROWNING MEN:

1. Honor student Eric Duffey briefly spent the eve of his twenty-first birthday at a bar in Stevens Point Wisconsin in the company of his many classmates and friends. He left that establishment relatively early--and alone--because he had plans to meet his family the very next morning. They were coming into town to celebrate the special occasion with him.

But Duffey never made it home that night. Instead, his drowned body was discovered days later in a location which was in the opposite direction from where he had been headed:

"Preliminary autopsy reports show a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student died earlier this month from accidental drowning.  Eric Duffey went missing March 3 after leaving Joe's Bar in Stevens Point. His body was found March 5 in the Wisconsin River. The Stevens Point Journal reports Portage County Coroner Scott Rifleman released the preliminary autopsy results Friday."

___

2. Boston College honor student Franco Garcia quickly stepped out of a local bar he'd been attending with his friends so that he could withdraw some funds from an ATM machine. He would be right back, he texted to them from just around the corner."Don't leave without me."

But, ultimately, those friends had to do just that, because Garcia never returned from his errand. His corpse was discovered many weeks later in the nearby reservoir, a place which had already been exhaustively searched by authorities and dive teams at least a half a dozen times, or more...

"The Boston College student whose body was recovered yesterday in Chestnut Hill Reservoir, seven weeks after he went missing upon leaving a nearby bar, died of an apparent accidental drowning. Officials said 21-year-old Franco Garcia's preliminary autopsy indicated that 'there are no signs of foul play. Everything is consistent with accidental drowning.' But Justin Billard, a private investigator working for the family, questioned how Garcia could have fallen down the gently sloped wall of granite blocks that line the inside of the reservoir, considering there was no ice on the warm night of Feb. 22 when the student disappeared."  There were no signs of injury on Garcia, and water in his sinus cavity."

___

3. Pre-Med student Colin Gillis, 18 of Tupper Lake New York, had returned home in early March to visit with his parents and friends during school break. He was last observed walking to his residence after attending a party several miles away...but he never made it back to his family. An exhaustive search of a massive area involving every local authority imaginable, including military personnel (and equipment) from the nearby training base has yielded no results except, according to rumor, one of his shoes and his driver's license, items allegedly found placed at the side of the highway. Colin Gillis is still missing and unaccounted for today...

"More than 1,000 volunteers have contributed so far to the search for missing Tupper Lake teenager Colin Gillis. State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Ranger Capt. John Streiff said that that means 10,000 hours have been spent by volunteers searching the woods. Gillis, 18, had just returned home on spring break from SUNY Brockport when he went missing after leaving a party on foot early Sunday morning. It's believed he was last seen on the side of the road near the line between Franklin and St. Lawrence counties, where Tupper Lake and Piercefield meet. Anyone with any information that might help find Gillis is asked to call State Police at 518-897-2000."

___

4. Recent Harvard Business School grad, Nathan Bihlmaier, was celebrating in Maine with his buddies in advance of their pending graduation ceremonies at Harvard, when he was mysteriously booted from the bar they were drinking at. Bihlmaier went missing shortly thereafter and an all out search was launched the next day for him when he did not return to the hotel situated across the street from the pub. A few days later, police divers fished his body out of the nearby harbor. Thirty-year-old Nathan Bilhmaier was married and the couple was expecting their first baby. He was also a highly-skilled swimmer and a certified lifeguard in his youth...


"The account given by the security manager at Ri Ra Irish Pub who told Nathan Bihlmaier to leave the bar shortly before he drowned in nearby Portland Harbor is not supported by videotape from the bar, police said Friday. After being ejected from the establishment, Bihlmaier got separated from his friends. He last spoke with them at 12:15 a.m. Sunday and then his cellphone went dead at 12:54 a.m. His body was found on Tuesday in deep water alongside Custom House Wharf. Police said the security video from the Ri Ra Pub shows the bouncer escorting Bihlmaier from the bar and returning 28 seconds later, which is inconsistent with 'walking a block and a half with Bihlmaier' and trying "to get him into a cab'. The video does not show the two outside the bar, and police still don't know where the vicitm was the prior 90 minutes before his phone went dead."