Smiley Face Killers

Hosted byIan Punnett

Smiley Face Killers

About the show

In the first half of the show, journalist and investigator Kristi Piehl discussed the latest evidence in the string of nationwide deaths that may have been caused by the "Smiley Face Killers." Over the past 12 years, more than 80 young men, predominantly from the Midwest, have drowned or disappeared under similar circumstances. In at least a dozen cases, the smiley face symbol was located near where bodies were found in the water. Yet now, Piehl has come to believe the smiley face graffiti may have been a red herring, and not directly related to the cases. Interestingly though, the word 'Sinsiniwa' was written at a crime scene in Michigan, and it was later learned that a victim in Iowa had been found in a river that ran alongside Sinsiniwa Avenue.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Sikirica joined Piehl to talk about the Todd Geib case. Geib was last seen walking away from a party on June 12, 2005 near his home in Muskegon County, Michigan. His body was found in a remote pond on July 2, 2005, and authorities determined he drowned the night of the party. Yet when Sikirica examined the autopsy files, he concluded that Geib had only been dead 2-5 days. This suggests that someone could have been holding the young man captive. "Whoever had Todd...is a sick individual...A lot of people have asked, who is doing this?...I think we're going to find a dark human being, of a kind we haven't met yet," said Piehl.

She also spoke about the Chris Jenkins case, in which a young man disappeared after a Halloween party in Minneapolis in 2002, and was found in the Mississippi River four months later. Initially the case was called an accidental drowning, but his death was later reclassified as a homicide. For more, see the footprintsofcourage.com website, about the Jenkins family's struggle for justice.

The latter of half of the show featured Open Lines, with a number of callers discussing their sleep paralysis experiences.

Bumper Music

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