- [Narrator] What is up, EWU crew? As human beings, it's in
our nature to want answers to all our questions, especially those that are confusing,
suspicious, and unnerving. Many of us are willing to
spend thousands of dollars just to have the answers
to our pressing questions at our fingertips. But the families of these five individuals may never get the answers
they're looking for and may have to live
the rest of their lives without knowing what really
happened to their loved ones. Here are five of the most
mysterious missing person cases that, even today, can't be explained. Before we get started,
if you love mysteries, be sure to hit the like
button and subscribe. Now let's get into it. Number five. Patrick McNeill. Established in 1841, Fordham
University is sprawled across New York city, named after the Fordham
neighborhood of the Bronx, where it was originally located. It is the third oldest university
in the state of New York, boasting of more than
15,000 undergraduates and post-graduates studying
across three campuses, Rose Hill in the Bronx, the Lincoln Center in
Manhattan's Upper West Side and Westchester in West Harrison. The school has a buzzing student life and is particularly renowned for its large number of
theater organizations and acapella groups. There are many reasons
why Fordham University is a world-renowned educational institute, but in 1997, they made the headlines for an entirely different,
much more sinister reason. 21-year-old Patrick McNeill was a junior at Fordham University taking
a degree in accounting with his classes, mainly
concentrated in Rose Hill in the Bronx, the school's
main and original campus. He was a tall, handsome young man, medium built with dark
hair and a shy smile. Among his group of close
friends and roommates, he was considered to be a ladies' man, a moniker he earned for being meticulous and particular about
his physical appearance. Patrick had big dreams. He was going to join the
FBI after graduation, a job that many of his professors thought he was well suited for. He was a bright student with
an excellent work ethic, able to expertly balance his studies with his active social life and a volunteer with the
Fordham Ambulance Corps, a position that suited him
well due to his background as the captain of his high
school's football team. He also worked booking acts for Tops, the university's entertainment lounge, and as a driver shuttling a school van from the university's Bronx campus to its other campus at Lincoln Center. As with most college students, Patrick often went
drinking with his friends to blow off some steam and to relax after an exhausting day full of classes. At the time, the Dapper Dog, a bar located on Manhattan's Upper East
Side at 1768 Second Avenue was a popular watering hole for
Fordham University students, a preferred spot thanks
to their lack of ID checks and liberal bartending regulations. Both of which created
the perfect environment for underage drinking. Neighborhood residents
often filed complaints about public drunkenness
and excessive noise. On the cold night of February 16th, 1997, Patrick left the Rose Hill campus and went to the Dapper Dog to meet up with some of his friends, one of whom was his roommate
who was bartending that night. The group started out with a few drinks, but as the evening dragged on, Patrick proceeded to
get more and more drunk, until he was completely wasted. He spent the wee hours of
February 17th throwing up in the bathroom of the Dapper Dog. With his stomach churning
and his head aching, Patrick informed his
friends that he was through with their all-night drinking session and announced he would
take the subway back up to Fordham's Rose Hill Campus. One of his friends said that
she would go along with him, but when she failed to
appear outside the bar, he decided to head home alone. Patrick was seen by onlookers as he stumbled up Second Avenue and turned on East 90th Street, all the time while being
followed by a suspicious van. That was the last time
anyone ever saw him. Almost 10 days later on February 26th, more than 600 volunteers gathered at the Port Chester
Middle School auditorium to prepare themselves
to search for Patrick, who had officially been declared missing when he failed to materialize
for any of his classes. Detectives from the Westchester and New York City police
departments scoured hospitals, soup kitchens, and even Rikers Island, working under the theory that Patrick had somehow lost his memory and may have turned up
somewhere seeking aid, but unaware of his real identity. More than 10,000 flyers were
hung from the city to Yonkers, emblazoned with the word missing,
along with Patrick's face. After nearly an entire
month canvassing every nook and cranny of Upper Manhattan, Patrick's body was recovered
11 miles downriver, floating face up near a
pier in the East River, close to the Bay Ridge
section of Brooklyn. This spot was located more than 12 miles from where he was last
seen at the Dapper Dog. It's important to take note of the fact that Patrick was found face up, a position which is highly unusual for a person who has drowned. The autopsy report then revealed something even more highly unusual,
indoor fly larvae laid in the groin area. If Patrick somehow died in the river and remained there the
entire time after his death, how did indoor flies
lay larvae in his body? Experts were stumped. Even with this in mind, Patrick's death was ruled
an accidental drowning. The medical examiner revealed that he had only a
moderate amount of alcohol in his blood, 0.16. And therefore was not completely wasted at the time of his death as he was when he left the Dapper Dog. His final autopsy report also showed that Patrick had no
broken bones, head trauma, or any other physical injury, which more or less ruled out
the possibility of foul play. There were also no traces
of drugs in his system, which further baffled the investigators. After all, how in the world did Patrick, a healthy, athletic man
in the prime of his youth, wind up in the river, cold and lifeless, seemingly through no fault of his own? Because of the suspicious and
unexplainable circumstances, Dr. Charles Hirsch, the
chief medical examiner, ruled the manner of Patrick's
death as undetermined. The aftermath of
Patrick's death was messy. Five charges were issued
against the Dapper Dog, including the sale of liquor to a minor and the sale of liquor to a
visibly intoxicated person, along with a whole slew
of noise complaints that the neighboring establishments
had filed against them. On May 31st, 1998, the owners of the Dapper Dog agreed to pay an $8,500 fine for serving
alcohol to underage students. Patrick's family also
filed a $20 million lawsuit against the Dapper Dog and its owners, as well as against the
bouncer and the bartender who had been Patrick's roommate at Fordham at the time of his death. The family claimed that the
defendants all knew Patrick was under the legal age to drink, but had served him alcohol anyway, continuing to do so even
after he became so intoxicated that he could barely stand up straight. The suspicious particulars
of the case fascinated and alarmed the American public, prompting the country's
leading investigators and forensic experts to chime in with their own ideas about the case. One of the experts was the
renowned forensic pathologist, Dr. Cyril Wecht. When interviewed by journalist
Christy Peele, he said, "There's no way this man
is accidentally going "to fall into a body of water "and the fly larvae was found "to have been laid in the groin area. "It's an indoor fly, not an outdoor fly "so we have a body that was already dead "before it was placed in the water. "I would call it a homicide, yes." In short, Patrick had been kept alive for an extended period
of time before his death, long enough for indoor larvae
to find their way on his body before he was placed in the
waters of the East River to appear as if he had been drowned. The medical examiners
report allegedly noted black decomposition on
Patrick's face and body, explaining it was a result
of exposure to the elements and advanced decomposition. However, Detective Kevin Gannon, the New York Police Department, detective who was assigned to
Patrick's case and continues to investigate after retiring, disagreed. He believes that this
was actually charring, suggesting that Patrick had been burned from his head down to his mid torso. According to his website, https://www.GDinvestigations.com, possible ligature mark
noted in the autopsy report also suggested that Patrick was bound and tied by the neck to a chair, restrained and tortured by his abductors. Online sleuths remain skeptical. Is the PI a forensic
pathologist or medical examiner? One Redditor asks. Did they have direct access to the body or were they like us and doing things like making guesses from photographs? It's important to note
that Detective Gannon was the NYPD detective
assigned to Patrick's case, not a random investigator. Detective Gannon agreed
with the assumption that Patrick had not immediately drowned after he was last seen. He said he was stalked, abducted, held for an extended
period of time, murdered, and disposed of. They're psychopaths. They have no remorse. Most eerily, while
investigating Patrick's death, Detective Gannon came across another suspicious disappearance. Almost exactly one year later, Larry Andrews had come
from Westchester County into New York City by train
with a large group of friends, looking to celebrate New Year's Eve in the hustle and bustle of
a city that never sleeps. They were planning to
check out the festivities in Times Square. However, Larry never made it. The group had gone bar hopping practically the minute they arrived in New York, starting at a bar called Houlihan's, which was located close
to Grand Central Station. At some point during the night, one of Larry's friends
noticed that he was missing. His body was found six weeks
later on February 12th, floating in the Bay Ridge River, nearly the same exact spot where Patrick's body was also found. His father was distraught, claiming that his son had
disappeared off the face of the earth. When Larry's body was found, he alleged that there
would be no reason for him to walk all the way to the
water on the West Side. Because of these
questionable circumstances, the Andrews family hired a private investigator named Gil Alba, but his investigations
proved to be fruitless. He found nothing, no leads to follow, no
suspicious background, and no one with a vendetta against Larry. It seemed like his
father's claims were true. He had simply disappeared
off the face of earth, Patrick McNeill and Larry
Andrews are just two of the many other hundreds
of young college-aged men who died in the suspicious
drowning man phenomenon. Most of them had vanished, turning up months later,
floating on rivers with their cash and
valuables still intact. Their bodies displayed no visible or obvious signs of foul play and their deaths were reported either accidental or undetermined, but the circumstances
surrounding their deaths were certainly questionable. Kevin Gannon, one of the
original investigators of Patrick McNeil's death, had promised the college student's parents that he would find their son's
killer during the early days of the case. More than 22 years have passed since then, yet even to this day, he
hasn't given up on his promise. Now retired from the police force, Gannon is still working on Patrick's case. He, along with fellow former New York Police Department
detective, Anthony Duarte, and professor of criminal
justice, Lee Gilbertson, have been investigating
the mysterious deaths of Patrick and Larry and
the hundreds of other men who died in a similar fashion. They have dubbed this an epidemic of college educated white men, healthy, athletic, and in
the prime of their youth disappearing during or after
nights out with friends to be later found dead in
local rivers and lakes. This so-called epidemic has spread beyond New York state lines across 25 cities in the
Northeast and Midwest. For instance, in 2009, 24-year-old Navy veteran William
Hurley was found floating in the Charles River in Massachusetts. Like Patrick, his death was
ruled and undetermined drowning. Since 2008, Gannon and
his group have argued that this epidemic, this
disturbing phenomenon, is the work of a gang-related organization of domestic terrorists, which they've dubbed
the Smiley face killers, due to the happy face
graffiti found at some of the alleged crime scenes. The group also claims that the crimes are motivated by jealousy, pointing out that the
targets were young men who, from the outside, could
be perceived as privileged and the best of the best. They further hypothesized
that the victims didn't drown, but were actually targeted and kidnapped before finally being murdered by criminals who remain unknown, at large,
and at liberty to kill. As compelling as the idea sounds, no hard evidence has ever been uncovered to prove that the Smiley
face killers do exist. Until that happens, this sinister and murderous gang remains to be just that, a theory. Number four, Mark Kraynak
and Steven Wright, 23-year-old Mark Kraynak
of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and 20-year-old Steven Wright
of Guerneville, California, were male strippers and
models working at a strip club for gay men called Remington's
in Toronto, Canada. Although neither of them was gay, both Mark and Steve
were largely considered to be the best of the club's strippers, with owner Bill Hidvegi even calling them the fabulous people and exemplary dancers. Mark's stage name was Nick while Steve was known to the
Remington's patrons as Trevor. They were part of a group of six Americans who were dubbed as the Backstreet Boys of the gay entertainment world when they made the news in June, 2005, after their applications
for a Canadian work visa to perform as exotic dancers were denied. Eventually they were all
issued temporary licenses and entered Canada to work. On August 21st, 2005, Mark and Steve traveled from Toronto with their friend and
employer Steven Zarad, the CEO of French Connection Francais for a much-needed weekend break from work. With his modeling agency, Steven had brought the two young men from their small hometowns to perform in some way Canada's most popular clubs. He had suggested a trip to Montreal as a special treat to
celebrate a successful summer, one that was bound to be the start of their long and successful careers. The three men, accompanied
by another American stripper named Derek Mansi, had spent the day exploring
Montreal's tourist sites, including the basilica and the old town. They even hired a horse and carriage ride and played several rounds of
Blackjack at a local casino. Just before 10 PM, the three dancers headed to Vatican, a nightclub located on
Crescent Street in Montreal, where they all went their separate ways. As the club was closing, Derek, who was busy talking up
one of the wait staff, told Mark and Steve that he
would catch up with them later. At around 3:00 AM, Derek, while eating quick snack at a Burger King, received a call from his friends who said they were headed to
another after hours rave club, a place called Red Light, which was located 30 minutes
away in the city of Laval. Derek initially told Mark and Steve that he would meet them there, but later changed his mind and headed back to the hotel instead, arriving there at 3:35 AM. The next morning, Derek and Steven awoke to find that Mark and Steve had still not made it back to the hotel. They each tried their phones
repeatedly, but to no avail. As the day went by with
no sign of the pair, they grew worried that something
may have happened to them. Finally, Steven decided to
file missing person reports with the Montreal and Laval police. However, this was initially rejected since only 12 hours had passed. By the evening, Steven
was a nervous wreck. He went down to the
Montreal police station and insisted on filing a police report. Annoyed at the apathetic attitude that the officers exhibited. Later he would claim that
the negligent reactions of the authorities worsened upon learning that Mark and Steve were male strippers. Approximately 10 days later, the fractured and badly-decomposed
bodies of Mark and Steve were found in a rock quarry, located more than 300 feet
from the Red Light club. Their deaths were initially ruled by the Canadian authorities as suspicious, due to the fact that no
trace of violence showed up on their autopsies, despite
the severity of their injuries. Neither Mark nor Steve seemed to be missing any clothing,
valuables, or money, which ruled out the
possibility of a robbery. More than that though, their toxicology tests
came back inconclusive, which meant that there
was no clear evidence as to whether they had taken any drugs or illicit substances that
might've led to their death. Ultimately, it was determined that the pair had been
victims of a 50-foot fall into the quarry. This ruling was put into question when the investigators gathered
surveillance footage taken from the security cameras
outside the Red Light club. Surveillance uncovered that
Mark and Steve had dashed into an alley leading to the
quarry as a taxi chased them. The footage showed the
taxi following the pair towards the fenced pit,
before both the cab and the men left the frame. The taxi was then seen on camera
two to three minutes later, heading away from town toward Montreal. The men were never seen again. The police assumed that the
two had stiffed the cab driver, seeing as the usual fare for
a trip from Montreal to Laval would've been around $40. When the pair's wallets were checked, authorities realized they
did not have enough money to cover both the cab fare
and the club's entry fee. Perhaps they had attempted
to escape from him by jumping over a fence and
heading into the quarry. However, the cab driver shown
in the surveillance footage never came forward, despite
pleas from the authorities. Neither the race nor gender
of the cabbie is known and his secrecy led the
authorities to believe that he either had a criminal record or was an illegal immigrant. Either way, the question of
why the cabbie chased them was never answered. The spokesman for the Laval
Police Force, Guy Lajeunesse, later told the media that it
seemed Mark and Steve had died for a measly $40. "It's unpleasant, but
sometimes you do crazy things." He reportedly told the Tribune Review. Another newspaper, The Montreal Gazette, also pointed out that the
quarry's warning signs were only written in French, postulating that Mark
and Steve were unaware of the dangers that it posed. Naturally, this theory
was doubted and criticized by Mark's family. His mother, Janice, questioned
why the cabbie driver, who was purportedly either
a criminal or an immigrant, would draw attention to himself by chasing down the pair. Moreover, she claimed that
the pair had enough money to pay the $40 fare, pointing out the fact that
they had left a $200 tip for a waitress back at the Vatican. Seeing the surveillance footage further confirmed her doubts. Mark had been on the track
team and his mother claimed that the way he behaved
in the video made it seem like he was running for his life. Janice believed that there
had been a third individual inside the cab with Mark and Steve and this unknown person had
ultimately caused their deaths. More than that though, she claimed that the adult
entertainment industry was behind their deaths, believing that Steven and Derek hadn't told Canadian
authorities everything and were hiding something. She also criticized the
investigations conducted into their son's death, saying
that the coroner's report was based on an inadequate
examination of the facts, as well as the crime scene. "I don't mean to trash the
police department up there, "and I don't know if it's
time or money or what it was, "but I don't feel like they
did a thorough investigation, "and I was counting on them to do that." She told the media in a 2007 interview. Number three. Kayelyn Louder. Born on January 21st, 1984, Kayelyn Louder had an
eventful, yet turbulent life. In 2006, she graduated with
a degree in social work from Utah State University. While Kayelyn never showed
any signs of mental illness, her father claimed that her
long stints of unemployment led her to suffer from bouts of depression and Kayelyn had just lost her job. On the other hand, her mother claimed that Kayelyn
was still in good spirits, despite being out of work. Further saying that her daughter had been updating her resume and applying for open positions. The bright future that Kayelyn
had ahead of her seemed to indicate that she wasn't the sort of person you would
expect to suddenly disappear. But unfortunately, that's
exactly what happened. In the days before her disappearance, her roommate told
investigators that Kayelyn had been acting strangely. A little after 9:00 PM
on September 26th, 2014, Kayelyn made a call to 911. The first of what would be a
series of bizarre phone calls. In this call, she insisted that there
was a fight going on in her condominium's clubhouse, claiming that guns were involved and that she had heard gunshots. - [Kayelyn] I did hear a
fight that was very brutal. - [Dispatcher] Were weapons
involved or mentioned? - [Kayelyn] Yes. - [Dispatcher] Yes, and
what kind of weapons? - [Kayelyn] Guns. - [Narrator] When police arrived, they found a wedding reception with no signs of any
altercations and guests confirmed that none had taken place. An hour later, Kayelyn called 911 again, but hung up before the call was answered. When the dispatcher called her back, she sounded confused and troubled, unable to remember her own address. Her mumbles were practically incoherent. Although she mentioned that
her roommate considered her to be delusional and paranoid. At 8:18 AM the following day, Kayelyn made her final 911 call wherein she claimed that there
was an intruder in her home. - [Kayelyn] They're
stealing from my house. Get the out of my house. Shut up! - [Dispatcher] Are they saying anything? - [Kayelyn] Yes, I heard
someone say hey go in there, so there's probably two of them. - [Narrator] While she sounded convinced and extremely distressed, her roommate insisted that
no one was inside the house, pointing out the locked
bolt on their front door. - [Roommate] The bolt's still locked. It's impossible. - [Kayelyn] They must
have a key or something. - [Roommate] Why is the door still locked? - [Kayelyn] Well, I can't explain that but I heard like two people talking. - [Narrator] When authorities arrived to check out the scene, there were no signs of
a break-in or robbery. And Kayelyn's roommate confirmed that no one else had been inside, apart from the two of them. That same day at 3:30 PM
and 5:45 PM, respectively, security footage showed
Kayelyn outside her condominium in an area that led to a creek. She was dressed in shorts and a tank top, even though it was pouring,
and had no shoes on and no umbrella. A little while later, she was shown running in a light jog, a speed, which didn't look
as if she was being chased. In the final clip, Kayelyn was seen carrying her dog into the same location outside, talking to either herself or her pet. This was her last known location. And the last time that she was seen alive. Later that day, she was reported missing to the police. Her body was only found nine
weeks later on December 1st in the Jordan River in West Valley City, a spot that was about
five or six miles away from her residence. - The body was discovered
yesterday in the Jordan River and today authorities were able to confirm that it was Louder. - [Narrator] A city crew
inspecting the drainage pipes had made the gruesome discovery, coming across the submerged
and partially concealed body of Kayelyn Lauder. She had been obscured by plant debris that had lodged against a
concrete bridge support. A police spokeswoman stated, "The footage and photos
you're looking at now show the actual location
where Kayelyn was found, under the bridge in the
waters of the river." Family crowded around
the scene near the water, appearing baffled at how Kayelyn had possibly ended up there. The autopsy into the
case of Kayelyn's death came back inconclusive and the cause of her
death was undetermined due to exposure to the water, with nothing to indicate
a clear explanation of how she died. Besides Kayelyn's distraught nature the day before her disappearance and the strange phone calls, she was a healthy 30-year-old
woman who ended up submerged in a river with no signs
of what killed her. These suspicious circumstances
surrounding her death led the Louder family to
suspect possible foul play. Later, her family would say
without influential people and deep pockets, our
family fears we are left to accept what the
authorities have speculated, but we know that this was not an accident. While the case of Kayelyn
Louder's disappearance and eventual death has been
officially closed by the police, these theories are still rampant. Some point out the
inconclusive autopsy reports along with the questionable
particulars of the case. Others also say that while the creek outside
her apartment connected to the Jordan River, the
waters were usually shallow and the current was
certainly not strong enough to drown an otherwise healthy woman. There are also those who claim
that the bizarre 911 calls that Kayelyn placed indicate that something more sinister was abound. While some internet
sleuths suspect Kayelyn was experiencing a
mental-health related episode, her cousin claims she had been
having normal conversations just hours before she disappeared, including a Facebook chat
with a high school friend. And despite her roommate
noticing her delusional behavior prior to her disappearance, Kayelyn had never been diagnosed
with any mental illness. Online theorists seem to agree that while a psychotic break is possible, perhaps due to the sudden loss of her job, it seems highly unlikely. Redditor CaptainOtterpop
states, "30 is a little older "than the average age
of onset schizophrenia. "So although it certainly
doesn't mean it never happens, "that's a little unusual "if she hadn't ever displayed
any symptoms prior." Police also stated that they
did not find any medications in her condo to indicate
she was being treated for any mental or emotional issues. Others online speculate that Kayelyn could have been under
the influence of drugs. But according to the family statement regarding the medical examiner's report, her toxicology report indicated
nothing fatal or illegal in her system. And finally, others point to the flooding in the area that evening
due to the pouring rain. But again, it just doesn't seem this is what likely
resulted in Kayelyn's death. But since the authorities have refused to investigate further and
it seems no other information was ever made public by her roommate, we may have to accept that Kayelyn Louder accidentally
drowned on the afternoon of September 27th, 2014. Number two, Brian Welzien. For many, the first day of the new millennium was unforgettable. It held the promise of a new era, one of boundless opportunities, but for the family of
21-year-old Brian Welzien, it was anything but. Brian was a student at the
Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, where he was majoring in finance. On the eve of the new millennium, he had driven up to
Chicago with two friends, Nick Young and Mike Wittrup to attend a Y2K New Year's Eve party jockeyed by a former
NIU student, Reid Cain. Upon their arrival in the city, the group checked into
the Ambassador East Hotel, where they would be sharing a room with Reid and two of his other friends. Afterward, they all headed
to a pub called Irish Eyes where Brian, who wasn't a big drinker, only had between two to
five Long Island iced teas. By 2:00 AM, he was more than ready to return to the hotel
and rode back with Reid and his friends, leaving
behind Nick and Mike, who decided to go to another bar, one that would close
much later at 4:00 AM. Back at the hotel, Reid
had let his two friends out in the front of the hotel lobby when he noticed Brian sitting quietly in the back seat,
practically unresponsive. He claimed that Brian threw up twice before stumbling out of the vehicle, whereby then Reid's other friends were already inside the hotel. Reid drove to a parking
spot about two blocks away and returned to find that
Brian had disappeared. Thinking nothing about it and assuming Brian had
entered the hotel safely, he went up to the hotel room and slept off the day's exhausting events, later saying that he had
no clue that something foul was at play until he
woke up in the morning. By this time, Nick and
Mike had already returned to the Ambassador East Hotel. When his friends failed to
find Brian in their room, they started searching
the area around the hotel, but gave up and went to sleep, believing that he would
turn up the following day. But when 1:00 PM on January
1st, 2000 rolled around and he was still nowhere in sight, they decided to call the police. During the inquiry into
Brian's disappearance, any of the hotel's guests
and staff remembered seeing a seemingly intoxicated Brian vomiting near the hotel entrance. The doorman, a bartender,
and a man parked nearby, all reported seeing him, describing his movements
to be Jell-O like. Brian's body was found on March 17th, more than two months after he
was first reported missing. A local had discovered the remains on a beach in Gary, Illinois, which is approximately 25 miles
away from downtown Chicago. The cause of the death
was officially listed as asphyxia due to drowning. However, the questionable nature of Brian's disappearance
meant that everyone, even the authorities and the instigators, doubted the purported cause of death, with one investigator calling
it the most perplexing case that he had ever handled. Local law enforcement put forward a theory that Brian had fallen into
Lake Michigan and drowned and claimed that his body had
traveled the 30 miles south in the water before the
chilling discovery was made. But none of them Brian's
friends and family believe this theory, saying
that he would have never made it to Lake Michigan all on his own, given that he had been throwing up and struggling to even stand up straight on the night that he disappeared. In other words, crossing the eight lanes of
traffic on Lakeshore Drive to get to the lake would
have been an impossible feat. Even for someone sober. An autopsy also later revealed
his blood alcohol content to be at 0.084% when he died, leaving him just over
the legal driving limit. This meant that while he was drunk, he wasn't intoxicated enough to the point that the idea of him
falling into the water and drowning without putting
up a fight was plausible. More importantly, Brian
was an avid football player and sported a relatively
muscular body frame, thanks to his frequent gym sessions and should have been able to
stop himself from drowning. Robbery was also ruled out when Brian's wallet with
all his money still in it was recovered on his body. There was no obvious signs
of struggle or foul play, which gave credence to the idea that he had simply fallen into the lake, rather than being pushed or dumped. And then there was also the fact that he had been found 30
miles away from Chicago. Most people who had gone
missing from the area were found within two miles of entering the treacherous
waters of Lake Michigan. Adding to the suspicious
circumstances of the case was that Brian's body showed only little to moderate signs of decomposition, even after more than two
months of his alleged death. This piece of evidence prompted one of the original investigators on the case to comment that the body
looked like it had only been in the water for a week, further claiming that the facts about the case didn't add up. Because of these doubtful circumstances, Kevin Gannon and his team strongly believe that Brian was another tragic victim of the Smiley face killers. The same group that they believe could have also killed Patrick McNeill. There were significant similarities between Patrick and Brian's cases. For one thing, they both fit the victim profile
of the Smiley face killers, handsome, athletic, and college-aged men, bursting with privilege. Neither fluid in Brian's lungs nor significant amounts of sand
in his esophagus was found, which meant that drowning and
being carried by the water was highly unlikely. His organs were even
described as well-preserved and his body showed signs of
fixed livor mortis posteriorly, which indicated that
he had been positioned on his back after death
for more than 12 hours, a scenario that would have been impossible if the police theory of
him falling into the lake was to be believed. A mannequin buoy analysis, combined with the SAROPS
probability model further showed that while a body could
travel from Chicago to Gary, it would have only taken
around 36 hours, not 77 days. Brian's situation was also eerily similar to that of Patrick's, as well
as the other possible victims of the Smiley face killers. Like many of them, he had also been out partying and became separated from
the rest of his companions as the evening progressed. Pathologist Cyril Wecht also examined the facts of the case, along with the autopsy photos, concluding that Brian's
behavior that night had to be the result of ingesting
something other than alcohol. After all, he did only
consume a few glasses of Long Island iced tea, a cocktail that usually
contains only a small amount of tequila and vodka. There were a lot of questionable
and suspicious facts about Brian's case, along
with glaring inconsistencies between the theory that had been posited and the evidence uncovered. Because the facts of his
case simply don't add up, many believe that Brian
Welzien was yet another victim of the elusive Smiley face killers. Frank Paul Palusik a UIC professor and clinical toxicologist stated, "There's just no way
that amount of alcohol "caused what happened to him." He proposed a theory that Brian could have been slipped a drug called GBH, a substance that his body
was never tested for. To this day, Kevin Gannon and his team are still investigating the case, hoping to bring justice to Brian, Patrick, and to the hundreds of other men whose deaths seem to suggest that something more sinister
than drowning was afoot. Number one, Jay Polhill. Jay Polhill was a 20-year-old student at Columbia College, Chicago, a private college that specializes in arts and media disciplines. He majored in photography
and was often described to be a happy-go-lucky guy with
a bright smile on his face, and always willing to lend a
helping hand to his friends. On February 20 2010, Jay left
his downtown residence hall, which was located at
the university center, at 525 South State Street
in the South Loop area. Nobody knows where exactly
he went that night, but the following morning, his mother received a text from him that stated, sorry, busy night. Way behind. Be in touch later. Love you. A few days later on March 2nd, his body was recovered
in the Calumet River, situated in an industrial area, close to 126th Street
and South Stony Island in South Chicago. He was undressed from the waist down and an autopsy conducted the following day ruled the cause of death as inconclusive. However, another autopsy
report was conducted and later revealed that Jay
had extensive skull fractures on both sides of his head, as well as a broken neck bone. Still, the cause of death
was ruled undetermined. To further aid police investigations, Jay's family turned to
social media for help, posting on online communities like Reddit in a bid to get some answers. Many of Jay's friends
believed that he was murdered, noting that his camera,
laptop, and wallet were missing along with the fact that his presence in the area was questionable as it was a remote industrial site some 20 miles from his dorm. There were no traces of
either drugs or alcohol in his system, which they
considered to be evident, ruling out any accidental or self-inflicting causes of death. Since surveillance footage showed Jay walking out of his dorm with a camera strapped around his neck, investigators believe that he
had gone to the Calumet River to take pictures of its towering
and weather-beaten bridges. However, the question remained as to how exactly he got there. Jay didn't own a car
and none of his friends had given him a ride there. Moreover, his city
transportation card also showed that it had last been
used a few days prior at a subway station near his dorm. Still, detectives speculate that he had taken a train and a bus, walking a short distance from
the station to get there. Injuries reported in his autopsy were also extremely disturbing. Aside from the serious
head and neck injuries, Jay also had two identical
wounds on his legs that seemed consistent with lacerations from a boat propeller. He was also examined for
any signs of assault, given the fact that some of
his clothes were missing. However, Dr. Mitre Kalikar,
Cook County medical examiner, failed to find any evidence. One theory investigators
have considered is that Jay simply fell from a
bridge or lost his footing while shooting photos, resulting
in him, striking his head, sustaining massive injuries and drowning. Further investigations included
the Chicago Marine Unit searching the waters of the Calumet River for more clues while detectives pored over the area's pawn shop records to see if any of Jay's
devices had been sold. As the leads on Jay's case
started turning into dead ends, his family grew even more desperate. Three months after his body was uncovered, they paid a private investigator $15,000 to look into the case. He had another pathologist
review the autopsy photos and records who concluded that Jay had been physically harmed, proven by the injuries to
both sides of his head. He also ruled out the accidental fall that local law enforcement had posited, noting the lack of significant injuries to other parts of his body, which would have been present
if he had suffered a fall. Because of these findings, the Polhill family pushed even harder. They asked a state representative to help them secure a
meeting with Dr. Kalikar, who put Jay's case through
a peer review process. In November that same year, nine months after her initial ruling, Dr. Kalikar changed Jay his cause of death from undetermined to homicide,
saying that he had died of either drowning or multiple
injuries due to assault. Upon learning of the
amended ruling, Tom Byron, the Chicago Police Department's
chief of detectives, put cold case detective Bob Rodriguez on Jay's possible homicide. His case remains open and is
still under investigation. These five mysterious cases are just some of the thousands of others out there who died under suspicious circumstances. Even today, their families are
still searching for answers, hoping that one day the mystery
of their loved one's deaths will be laid to rest. They would finally have closure
and their killers, if any, would be brought to justice. If you or anyone you
know have any information on the disappearances and eventual deaths of Patrick and McNeill, Mark Kraynak, Steven Wright, Kayelyn
Louder, Brian Welzien, and Jay Polhill, please come forward. (eerie music)
