The Smiley Face Killers:

[MadFistWilly]

Originally Posted by JudoChop!

How many people have to die before people like you get it?

The thing is that they are not always extremely drunk. Have you ever drank before? I have and Ive been wasted. Ive been well above .08. I have never gotten the urge to just leave a bar and go wonder into a river.

You think that when people get really drunk they just decide to leave their friends and go wondering about town? They just go for a walk without calling anyone they know? And yes, maybe the river in La Crosse is right next to the bars. But its not in MPLS, and not in St. Cloud. So why is the exact same thing happening in all three of these cities as well as many others.

Just a coincidince you would say? I say anyone who thinks college men suddenly have the urge to get wasted and wonder out into open water are very naive and ignorant. Especially when this is happening over and over.

Some of these cases may have been accidents. But thats very few if any.

Almost every case that happened here involved a lot of alcohol. With some over .30 BAC... I've had nights where I fully didn't remember how I got home or where I was the night before, but I've always been with my friends. I go to the bars, maybe only once every other week now, but you would not believe how drunk some people are that are still getting served alcohol. Yes, some people wander off. I've had people come up and talk to me on the street not knowing where they are or who they even came downtown with, and if they at least know their address I usually encourage them to take the safe-ride (drunk) bus. I think it's easy to underestimate how much some people really drink.

I don't think the similarities are a coincidence, I think it's common sense that us college kids drink way too much and do stupid things. I also think that the expectation to get wasted is much higher among certain social groups, and is true with athletic teams. Of course it happens in other large, college cities, think of how much we drink in the midwest and the population of those cities. These same sorts of occurrences happen in Boston, New York, New Orleans, and almost anywhere else you can imagine. As sad as it is, it's not surprising that this many accidents can happen.

And I don't think it's ignorant to be skeptical of serial killers, when a simpler explanation exists. It doesn't mean I rule it out and some cases make me question foul play, but from what I see every Thur-Sat night in this town, accidents like this are waiting to happen.

[JudoChop!]

Originally Posted by MadFistWilly

Almost every case that happened here involved a lot of alcohol. With some over .30 BAC... I've had nights where I fully didn't remember how I got home or where I was the night before, but I've always been with my friends. I go to the bars, maybe only once every other week now, but you would not believe how drunk some people are that are still getting served alcohol. Yes, some people wander off. I've had people come up and talk to me on the street not knowing where they are or who they even came downtown with, and if they at least know their address I usually encourage them to take the safe-ride (drunk) bus. I think it's easy to underestimate how much some people really drink.

I don't think the similarities are a coincidence, I think it's common sense that us college kids drink way too much and do stupid things. I also think that the expectation to get wasted is much higher among certain social groups, and is true with athletic teams. Of course it happens in other large, college cities, think of how much we drink in the midwest and the population of those cities. These same sorts of occurrences happen in Boston, New York, New Orleans, and almost anywhere else you can imagine. As sad as it is, it's not surprising that this many accidents can happen.

And I don't think it's ignorant to be skeptical of serial killers, when a simpler explanation exists. It doesn't mean I rule it out and some cases make me question foul play, but from what I see every Thur-Sat night in this town, accidents like this are waiting to happen.

As posted in one of the links I have provided.

Myth Number One

Unless you hear about a serial killer at large in your area, you can assume no serial killers are living in your community

The accepted definition of a serial killer is a person who kills at least three times with a cooling off period in between his murders.

Police are reluctant to label a murder as a possible serial homicide. Telling the community a serial killer is out there stirs up a lot of unpleasant attention. The bad publicity kills tourism, and citizens start asking police what they are doing about catching this creep terrorizing their neighborhood. Besides, if one follows the "gotta have killed three" requirement, unless there are at least those three and there is DNA matching the murders or the bodies are all dumped in the same place, the police aren't going to say there is a serial killer involved.

[FoxTrot9R]

FOXNews.com - Detectives: 40 Drowning Victims May Have Been Murdered by 'Smiley Face Gang' - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

[InternetHero]

I'm pretty confident you do have a group of serial killers up there. There are plenty... I mean plenty of drunks around here who go out by the lakes and nobody in ten years has ever gone in and drowned. Let alone a whole flood of guys just diving in to the drink...

Sounds like typical lazy, incompetent police work and police officials who do not want to cause a stir with the problem.

[ElMeroMero]

[quote=jTwo:

"water washes away all the DNA evidence."

I've seen one or two episodes of CSI, and that's just bullshit. [/QUOTE]

Are you serious?

[Iosephus]

bout time someone started taking out frat boys. prostitutes were getting it bad for a while there

[Bounz]

that is some creepy sheet..

[MadFistWilly]

Originally Posted by JudoChop!

As posted in one of the links I have provided.

Myth Number One

Unless you hear about a serial killer at large in your area, you can assume no serial killers are living in your community

The accepted definition of a serial killer is a person who kills at least three times with a cooling off period in between his murders.

Police are reluctant to label a murder as a possible serial homicide. Telling the community a serial killer is out there stirs up a lot of unpleasant attention. The bad publicity kills tourism, and citizens start asking police what they are doing about catching this creep terrorizing their neighborhood. Besides, if one follows the "gotta have killed three" requirement, unless there are at least those three and there is DNA matching the murders or the bodies are all dumped in the same place, the police aren't going to say there is a serial killer involved.

I don't see the point of this. I mean, I understand it and I believe it's true, but it provides no support for this particular case and provides absolutely nothing to sway my skepticism. There hasn't even been a single smiley face ever found or reported in La Crosse, and so far that's their big claim linking all of these together. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the theory, I just don't think it's the case... Until there's any solid evidence, it's simply a matter of personal opinion.

[Mackavelli]

I dont buy this at all.

"The smiley face gang is loosely connected via the Internet and various members meet up, kidnap young college-age men"

So these guys met in a chat room and decided to meet up and start killing college kids around the midwest? Were they nerds that got rejected from frat parties and bullied by athletes and so now theyre getting their revenge.

Unfortunately these kinds of thinks happen all the time. Kids that arnt used to drinking dont know when to quit and put themselves in danger. We had a freshman last year that went missing, everyone thought it was foul play, it turned out that he got too drunk and wondered off in a maintenance closet and got electrocuted to death.

MN is the state of 10,000 lakes, and the midwest has more lakes than other areas. This is bound to happen. There was a crime investigation show on a while back, i think on the court channel, where a college student downed and they showed statistics that this happened a lot more often in the mid west. Im sure these guys wouldnt have been around when they made these statistics.

[Apple Pie]

The team investigated 89 separate cases dating back a decade and said it had connected 40 of them through a variety of evidence — including matching sets of gang graffiti.

It was Jenkins' death, however, that tipped off police. His body was found encased in ice in the Mississippi, his hands folded across his chest in an odd pose that was inconsistent with a chance drowning.

Liquered up or not, this is doesen't add up with guys just drinking.