The ‘Smiley Face’ murders have to be among the weirdest wave of serial killings. The name comes from ‘smiley face’ graffiti found at a dozen sites where the killer or killers dumped the bodies, from the late 1990s to the 2010s.

The victims of these crimes are not young women, hookers, or children. They have all been males of college-student age. The bodies were usually found in some kind of body of water, leading authorities to believe at first that they died from drowning.

45 of these deaths were found in eleven states…and one of those locations was in Michigan.

Get our free mobile app

According to journalnews.com, it was on Saturday evening, June 11, 2005, when 22-year-old Todd Geib from Casnovia left his apartment to meet some buddies at the Half Moon Bar & Grille. From there, they headed to a kegger in an apple orchard north of White Road. It was about a quarter to 1am when a fight broke out, threatening to spread; Todd decided to leave before things got too out-of-hand.

For ten minutes, from 12:47am to 12:57am, Geib made phone calls that recipients said were odd, with remarks like “I’ve had enough” and “I’m in a field.” When the phone unexpectedly went silent, the friend called back, only to hear heavy breathing and then silence. The phone was not used again.

That was the last anyone would hear from Todd.

In the hours that followed, search parties were sent out, planes combed the area, and over 1,500 police and volunteers all came up empty.

On July 2, 2005, Geib’s body was found floating vertically in Ovidhall Lake by a man and his wife. The wife thought it was a beaver, but her husband realized there was something not quite right with this…and he was right. It was Todd, who had been missing for three weeks.

Todd was fully clothed, wallet in pocket, and vertical – rather strange, as drowning victims are usually found floating horizontal. A forensic biologist from MSU who made an examination, said “there should be insects in the clothing, even in the mouth, in and on the ears, in the folds of the skin. That’s where these flies will typically lay their eggs…..We saw none of this in Todd’s shirt…..If a body was here, it would be colonized with some type of aquatic insect…..Based on our study, it is unlikely that his clothing and his body had been in for 21 days. This heavily suggests that Todd’s body had been put into the water not long before he was found”.

It was discovered later that Todd’s body had traces of hallucinogenic/antidepressant drugs, possibly given to Todd against his will. The Michigan State Police never reopened the case, and authorities have refused to do so, even though death-by-drowning has been not an option.

Even though a ‘smiley face’ was not found at the body site, the circumstances fit the pattern of the other 45 nation-wide victims:
1) college-age males
2) found dead in water
3) murdered after leaving parties or bars

It’s believed that the killer or killers are still out there, continuing…

Smiley Face Murder in Michigan?

MORE QUIRKY MICHIGAN:

Michigan During Prohibition

The Creepy Dolls of Comins

Murder/Suicide Location in Brice, Michigan

More From 100.7 WITL