April 29, 2008
Retired Cops Suspect a Gang Behind Serial Drownings
The idea sounds preposterous at first, but a pair of retired NYPD detectives believes that a gang of serial killers are responsible for the deaths of at least 40 young men across 11 states.
All of the deaths have previously been determined accidental drownings, but Kevin Gannon, who worked the case of Patrick McNeill's disappearance 11 years ago, and Anthony Duarte believe that the Fordham Univ. student was one of the earliest victims of a loosely affiliated gang of serial killers who ritualistically killed men and dumped their victims in bodies of water.
McNeill disappeared after leaving an Upper East Side Bar in Manhattan in 1997. Less than two months later, his body appeared floating in the harbor near Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. After examining tidal patterns and currents in dozens of similar cases, Gannon believes he has located the points of entry of many bodies. Linking many of them are a series of similar smiley face graffiti symbols. Gannon doesn't believe they are a coincidence and some family members of victims agree.
Sara Lightner, whose brother's body was found in the Mississippi River five years ago, says she believes the disappearrances begin as targeted kidnappings. He brother, she tells me "was abducted, thrown into a vehicle, was tortured ... for hours then murdered and placed in the water."A professor working with the pair believes it's far-fetched to think that so many young men would leave bars and accidentally drown themselves. The mother of Patrick McNeill agrees and hopes that the NYPD will re-open the investigation of her son's death. A NYPD spokesman told WCBS News that they were unaware of any new information regarding the death of Patrick McNeill.
Photo of Patrick McNeill from the AP
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I remember when Patrick McNeill drowned. A few weeks later, another handsome male college student drowned in the city. Within one year, there were four drownings - all good-looking, male college students. I thought there was a pattern - it seems like it would take a lot of effort to accidentally fall into the Hudson or East River and drown. I hope they catch this killer - I've wondered about the Patrick McNeill case for years.
How totally f'd up would this be? What if it is a cult of fat ugly chics who hate the cool good looking guys....
Off to write my screenplay.
I would definitely question Ira Glass about this.
Linking many of them are a series of similar smiley face graffiti symbols.
Graffiti "tags" are all over this town - and it's not at all uncommon to see the same tag in a number of different places. That would seem to be a goal of the graffiti artists - to display their tag as far and wide as possible. To tie all these deaths together (over a period of 11 or so years) based on graffiti does seem a bit farfetched.
But then, stranger things have happened.
This article reminded me of the recent drowning of the drummer from the indie band Ra Ra Riot. I hope they're looking into this case as well:
http://media.www.dailyorange.com/media/storage/paper522/news/2007/06/05/News/Ra.Ra.Riot.Drummer.Found.Dead-2911755.shtml
Drewo: read the articles more closely. The tag has appeared at the points of entry for the bodies in five states, including on the banks of the Mississippi River. This is no NYC graffiti artist. The detectives also found the word "sinsiniwa" next to one of the smiley faces in Michigan, and they later traced river currents to determine that another body had gone into a river in Iowa at Sinsiniwa Avenue.
Chilling. I think these detectives are onto something, and should be commended for their efforts.
I never really believed any of these stories about wandering off drunk AND making it to a river AND falling in AND drowning. If you're so drunk that you might fall into a river and drown, you're probably not capable of walking there in the first place. The probability of all those happening is fairly remote, especially in NYC where it can take a fairly concerted effort to reach an accesible water point. I'm glad someone is looking into these things. I don't really believe the serial killer gang thing though...all it takes is one person, familiar with a couple of areas. The "sinsiniwa" evidence is pretty compelling....
hogarty, what's the point of linking to 3 different news sources for the exact same story? i understand that words are cooler when they're clickable, but take it easy man!
actually, 4.
This sounds like some shit that David Simon via Marlo, Snoop and Chris would come up with for The Wire. Scary...
The nail gun scenario? You're right. That is creepy.