Since 1997, hundreds of college-aged men have mysteriously drowned after a night out drinking with friends. Their bodies have been found in clusters around the country, and the victims are eerily similar – they’re all athletic, academic achievers. In addition, near where many of the bodies are recovered is one distinct mark: graffiti of a smiley face.
“Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice” follows retired NYPD Detective Kevin Gannon and his team of investigators: Anthony Duarte, Mike ‘Mikey’ Donovan and D. Lee ‘Doc’ Gilbertson; who have dedicated the past 12 years of their retirement to finding justice for these cases.
All of the drownings have been individually classified as accidental or undetermined and have not been investigated as possibly related crimes. There are grieving families of these young men who are convinced that there is something more sinister at play, and desperately search for answers with Gannon and the team.
Their goal is to gather enough evidence to convince local authorities to reclassify and investigate these deaths as homicides. Only then can the team attempt to establish a possible connection between these deaths to further their theory that the young men are victims of a calculated group known as The Smiley Face Killers.