Conspiracy: The Smiley Face Killer and The Rainey Street Ripper

From 2022 to 2024, there have been 12 mysterious deaths in downtown Austin, Texas. Were they the work of a serial killer or killers? Or were they just unfortunate accidents?

Photo by Tomek Baginski / Unsplash

Not many people know of the Smiley Face Killer Theory, proposed by retired New York detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, as well as a criminal justice professor at St. Cloud State University, Dr. Lee Gilbertson. The theory states that at least 45 young men found dead in bodies of water across the Midwestern United States from the late 1990s to the 2010s, were not the result of accidental drownings, but the victims of one or more serial killers. The term "Smiley Face Killer" was coined because of the presence of graffiti in the shape of smiley faces at some of the locations where the bodies were found. The police departments investigating the cases, as well as the FBI, have refuted these claims of the Smiley Face Killer(s), but the rumors and theories persist.

14 years after the Smiley Face Killer theory was developed, a new serial killer conspiracy is growing in popularity. The conspiracy that more and more Austinites are believing is that there is a killer loose in downtown Austin, Texas. A killer known as the Rainey Street Ripper. The APD have repeatedly disputed and debunked these theories. At the time of this article, 12 bodies have been recovered in Lady Bird Lake since 2022. Could the Rainey Street Ripper be the new Smiley Face Killer of Texas, or is there another explanation?

The first body discovered in Austin was found in the water on April 9th, 2022, under the South 1st street bridge. The cause of death was described as a cardiac-arrest incident. Only 5 days later, another body was discovered by fishermen near South Pleasant Valley Rd. In the following years, 10 more bodies were found up and down the stretch of Lady Bird Lake. The most recent body was found in the morning of April 13th, 2024.

The APD is not investigating most of these deaths as suspicious, they have mostly been labeled as accidental drownings with no foul play. The only one currently ruled as a homicide is the death of Josue Moreno.

Josue Moreno was found in his partially submerged vehicle in the water on Monday, December 19th of 2022, having driven through the guardrail and off the bridge where West Bouldin Creek meets the Colorado River. Once the police retrieved him from his truck, it was discovered that he had been shot and was pronounced dead at the scene. The APD is unsure at this time why he had been shot, if it was an accident, or who the shooter was.

One man claims to be a survivor of the alleged "Rainey Street Ripper". Jeff Jones, a 38 year old from Boston, was in town for a bachelor party. He and his group of friends arrived on Thursday, June 22, 2023, and after dinner went out for drinks on 6th street (locally known as "Dirty Sixth"). Jones reports that he was not heavily drinking that night, and his friends say that he was casually chatting with some women around 1am before he just disappeared. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in the hospital a week later. Jones had been discovered at around 4 in the morning on Friday, June 23, under the Sixth Street Bridge. It is thought that he either was pushed, or had been climbing the bridge and fell himself. Either way, he ended up with a number of broken vertebrae, as well as a broken scapula and two broken ribs. He was rushed to the hospital, where they tested for drugs in his system. The results came back with benzodiazepines, including what is known as a "date-rape" drug called Rohypnol. Jones will make a full recovery, and is even amenable to the idea of visiting Austin again. He urges everyone to keep an eye on their drinks.

In March of 2024, there was a post made on Reddit in the subreddit of r/bartenders. This Reddit user claimed that a regular patron of theirs confessed to being the person responsible for the recent string of deaths. The post stated:

“Suddenly, [the customer] started talking about ‘killing homos’ from LAKE A that he found from STREET B. Have you ever had someone tell you they murdered someone/people?"

Only some of the victims were reported as being part of the LGBTQ+ community, so this statement is often dismissed. Before the original poster deleted this post, many other Redditors questioned why they chose to post on Reddit instead of contacting the police. The original poster replied that they had approached both their management at the bar and police, and neither took interest in his report.

If you have any information about the mysterious deaths in Lady Bird Lake, please contact the Austin Police Department at 512-974-TIPS or submit your tip anonymously by contacting the Capital Area Crime Stoppers Program at austincrimestoppers.org or calling 512-472-8477.

Sources:

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/rainey-street-killer-timeline-19384238.php