Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Will Hurley - full transcript
A team of retired detectives travels to Boston to investigate the 2009 death of a young Navy veteran. The victim's girlfriend spoke to him just minutes before he vanished and the team ...
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Since 1977, hundreds of
college aged men
have gone missing, vanished.
Almost all of the victims
are top students and athletes
who disappeared after
a night out with friends.
They're later found drowned
in a body of water.
Near where most of the bodies
are recovered,
smiley faces.
♪ ♪
We believe these deaths may
all be connected.
The work of an organized group
of serial killers.
We believe the victims may
have been drugged,
abducted, killed on land,
and eventually dumped
in the water.
With the help of preeminent
crime and forensic experts
from all over the nation,
our goal is to uncover
new evidence
to reopen these closed cases
and compel the authorities to
investigate them as homicides.
Like the case of Will Hurley,
who was found dead in 2009.
He's part of a cluster of
more than ten young men
who have died
in suspicious drownings
in the Charles River
in Boston.
Smiley face graffiti
was found
near where Will's body
was recovered.
We believe that Will was
not only murdered,
but that he may be a victim
of the Smiley Face Killers.
♪ ♪
- On the night of October 8,
2009,
William Hurley was attending
a Boston Bruins hockey game
with friends.
Will texted his girlfriend,
Claire,
to pick him up early
from the game.
Surveillance captured Will
leaving the arena.
When Claire arrived,
Will was gone,
vanished into the
Boston night.
His body was recovered
six days later
in the Charles River.
The autopsy report states
there are blunt impact
injuries to the head,
yet the Navy veteran's
drowning
was classified
as undetermined.
Was the death of William
Hurley a homicide,
and is it linked
to the Smiley Face Killers?
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
- Dying to get up here
for a long time.
Boston has a bunch of cases.
William Hurley fits
the pattern
of male, white,
24 years of age,
out drinking with friends,
and then he just disappears
off the face of the earth.
He's coming out of the Garden
from the Bruins game
talking to his girlfriend,
who is a couple blocks away
ready to pick him up,
and then all of a sudden
he's gone.
The prevailing theory from
law enforcement is that
he just continued walking
from the parking lot
to the docks by the hospital,
and then fell in the water
and drowned.
But the fact that
he disappeared
in the middle of
a conversation
to me feels like there's more
than just an accident.
The autopsy report states
there are blunt impact injuries
of the head and lower
extremity.
1 inch to 1 1/2 contusion
on the nose,
there is a periorbital
contusion
surrounding the right eye.
- I'm looking at William's
recovery photos.
- Right.
- His right eye is closed.
Contused by getting hit in
the eye with an elbow,
face, whatever.
To get an eye like that,
it's really direct.
- If you look at
the autopsy report,
this young man has GHB
in his body.
And the fact that the medical
examiner here
decided to test for it means
that they had to think
something was suspicious.
- In 100% of the cases
where we have helped
get the tissues tested for GHB,
in 100% of those cases
we have found GHB.
- Everything fits the pattern.
We might have an opportunity
to flip this case
and get them to start
investigating the other ones.
Boston is a university town
with multiple institutions
with thousands of students
that attend,
and in this specific area
of the Charles River alone
we have three victims.
Zach Marr,
Michael Kelleher,
and in 2009, William Hurley.
- I would like to talk to
the girlfriend.
- What's the young lady's name?
- Claire.
- Claire.
♪ ♪
- Thanks so much for coming.
- Oh, well,
it's the least I can do.
Claire is now married
with a family
and pregnant with twins.
But clearly,
she still wants to have answers
to what happened
to Will that night
and she knows that the official
report from the police
is not what happened.
- Will Hurley went to
a Bruins game Thursday night
with a couple of friends
from work.
That's the last time he's been
seen or heard from.
- It's not like the Bruins are
the greatest thing to him.
He was just kind of like,
"All right, I came, I saw."
I've been up since 4:30.
I'm kind of ready to go home."
- We're gonna try to bring
you back to the night
that Will went missing.
We want to get a little
background on,
you know, the kind of
relationship you had with Will
and what kind of person he was.
- We had a great relationship.
We had been together
for almost two years.
Will was in the Navy
when we met.
We had been living together
in Boston for a while.
I was out with some
girlfriends and my brother,
my little brother, and
there was a trolley passing by
and there was a bunch of
Navy guys on and they said,
"Come on board!"
And so we did.
Will was in his white
Navy uniform
with the white hat on
and everything,
kind of like you see
in the pictures.
You know I loved Will
very much,
and I know that he loved me
and I--we talked a lot about
a future.
It was really, like I said,
an instant connection.
I loved who he made me.
He made me a happy,
spontaneous, and fun person,
and I loved him for that.
- So take me back to
that particular night.
The night that he went missing.
- He had contacted me
through text to say
a co-worker and friend
offered him tickets
to the Bruins game that night.
He was sort of unsure
about going, on the fence.
I said, "Just go.
I'm going to class."
- According to
the police reports
he really didn't stay
at the game all that long.
- Yeah, maybe like halfway
through the game.
- Did he give you any
particular reason?
- He was tired.
He didn't know hockey
that well.
- Okay, and maybe
if you don't mind,
we can take a ride out there
and to the best of
your recollection
find out
the exact route you had.
- Okay.
I want to know what happened
to Will that night.
My whole life changed.
Everything about my plans
for the future,
it all changed right then
and there.
- I know it's gonna be very
difficult for you.
Hopefully, we can get you some
answers.
- That's what I hope for.
[tense music]
- This is the same way...
- This is the way I came in.
Off of 93,
came in right down this street.
- The night that Will
went missing,
Claire was in class
in Dorchester.
When Will texted her
that he was leaving
the Bruins game early,
she approached The Garden
from Causeway Street
to pick him up.
- It's very different with all
this construction here now,
but this used to be the front
side of the Garden.
So this is where
I pulled up initially
and said, "I'm here.
I'm out front."
And he said, "Okay. I'm here.
I'm out front as well.
- And he kept walking?
- I think he was probably
looking for me
when I was saying, "I'm at the
front of the garden."
He was thinking,
"Okay, I'll get myself
to the front of the Garden."
You can't stop.
There's no place to pull over
and just wait,
so I had to keep going.
My only choice was to take
a right on to Nashua Street
in hopes that he would be on
the other side of the Garden.
- Did he say at all that,
"I didn't see you in front
of the Garden.
I'm gonna go somewhere else."
- No, I don't know
why he was moving.
I don't know why
he didn't stay put.
- I wonder how long it would
take him to walk from the front
to go around to Nashua Street.
- I mean, not long.
It's not far.
- Why would he walk that way?
- I've always wondered that
because it would make
the most sense
to stay where everything is.
♪ ♪
I would say, "You know,
why don't you just stop
and ask someone where you are
and don't move."
And then he did.
He asked someone where he was
and it was 99 Nashua Street.
Perfect, 150 feet.
I put it in my GPS,
I rounded this corner,
and I pulled up along here.
- And this is where you
pulled over?
And you double parked?
- Yeah.
And then I got out of
my driver side door
and yelled his name.
♪ ♪
- So, you yelled out
a couple times.
You didn't see anybody here.
- I was assuming
he was gonna come out
of the parking lot
at any moment, you know?
And he just never did.
♪ ♪
When I was talking to Will,
he started to say towards
the ends like,
"The battery on my phone
is going low."
I was getting through to him,
and then it was straight
to voicemail.
So my first assumption was
that his phone had died
and there was no way I was
gonna get through to him.
- And this is Nashua street
park, correct?
- Yeah.
- This where they found him?
- Yep.
So much in life has changed,
but I feel such a sense of
responsibility to Will.
He got no justice
and no answers.
I feel responsible
to my boys.
I can't imagine losing
my son...
and having law enforcement
tell me...
"He must have drank too much
and fallen in water,
and that's the best
we have for you."
That just doesn't--
it's not fair,
and it's not right.
It's not the truth.
- Would you say he's been
drugged?
- He is under the influence of
an impairing substance.
- We don't believe
it's an accident.
- I don't believe it's
an accident either.
I want to know what happened
to my son.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Will's family lives
in North Carolina.
His mom has never received any
answers about her son's death,
so hopefully,
our investigation
will provide
some of those for her.
Thank you so much for taking
this meeting with us.
Obviously, we want to learn as
much as we can about Will
and try to put all the pieces
together with his death.
- Will is--was a great kid.
He was a friendly,
outgoing kid.
A handsome kid.
He had the best smile.
I think it's probably one
of my favorite things
about Will was his smile
and his personality,
and he just would rather be
outside doing things
with his hands.
He wanted to be
a landscape architect.
He liked to draw
and design things.
Friday, about lunch time,
I got a phone call from Claire
asking me had I heard
from Will.
She said he went to
a Bruins game last night
and he didn't come home.
When we hadn't heard from
him by Saturday,
I drove up to Boston just
to see if I could help her.
Claire had put
missing posters up
all down around the waterfront
and up around the Garden area.
- It became real in a way
that it wasn't before.
To see his face like that
on the missing posters.
You never think that
you're going
to experience that
in your own life.
You never expect to see
the person that you love
staring back at you from
a missing poster.
When it was going on,
when he was missing,
he was on--
he was big in the news cycle.
He was on every broadcast.
♪ ♪
- Six days later, like at 3:00
in the morning,
the police detective come and
knocked on our hotel door,
and I can't remember exactly
what he said
other than...
"We found Will...
"in the river...
deceased."
And I just remember shutting
the door in his face, and...
I just didn't believe it,
I just--
'cause it just couldn't
be true.
It just couldn't be true.
- Do you think something
happened to Will
or do you think this was just
a tragic accident?
- No, I don't think
it was an accident.
I've never thought it was
an accident.
- What do you believe happened?
- I have a lot of questions,
you know,
and I want to know
why they started
searching the river first.
You know, and then, I mean,
what made them think
that that would be where
he was?
- How has
your communication been
with the police department?
Have you asked those questions
of the police?
- I have asked those questions
of the police.
You know, I think they kind of
just wrote it off,
"Oh, another drunk kid falling
into the water."
The hurt, the wonder,
it never goes away.
It's a loss.
I mean,
he was a part of me.
I carried inside my body.
I loved him for 24 years.
You know,
I have a daughter, and a son,
and two wonderful
grandchildren,
but they can't take his place.
They can't take his place.
- Did Will engage in any
kind of, you know, drugs?
- I would have been shocked
to find out that he had.
- How was he in respect
to alcohol or drinking?
- Will could hold his liquor.
- Will could hold his liquor,
yeah.
- That was something that
didn't make sense to us.
Just the amount that they had
been drinking
would not have been enough
to make him that inebriated.
- Will had GHB in his system
which--it's like a--
date rape drug.
The fact that he was
like appearing to be
what the police say inebriated,
we figured it was more
the drugs than alcohol
because toxicology
reports showed
a minimum amount of alcohol
to be that inebriated.
- We did see some of
the surveillance
of him coming out
of the Garden area.
And it looked like he
was texting,
and then he just, you know,
and then he just walks off
and we don't see anymore
footage of him after that.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- They did find his phone?
- Right, they found his phone
and it looked like it
had been run over.
- Did you see the phone?
- I have the phone.
- Oh, you have the phone.
- Yes, sir, I have the phone.
- That's terrific.
- They sent it to me.
- The police didn't do any
forensic testing on the phone?
- Not that I know of.
When they told us
they had found it,
they asked Claire
for her phone battery
'cause they had the same type
of phone,
and they tried to use her
phone battery to turn it on,
but it didn't turn on.
- And they said,
"Well, we can't get anything."
And that was really it.
- Do you have it know?
- Yes, sir.
- It's still in the police
department bag,
and the battery was out.
The battery's gone.
- Right.
- Is it okay with you
if we take this
and get it tested forensically?
- Yes.
- For us to have Will's phone
gives us the ability
to look at it from
a physicality standpoint
of what actually happened
to the phone,
and then secondly, what can
we uncover from the phone?
Pictures, sometimes there's
other stuff on there.
And we've had that in some
other cases,
so it can aid us
in trying to prove
what actually happened to Will.
So you think he met foul play?
- I think so.
I want to know what happened
to my son.
♪ ♪
- So the next step for us
with Will's phone
was to bring it to an expert
that could tell us
what specifically happened
to the phone,
and then what other evidence
could be on the phone.
Derek Ellington is a digital
forensic analyst
who specializes in the recovery
of data from mobile devices.
We're trying to determine now
from you
if it was run over
or somebody destroyed it,
and we want to see what we can
retrieve from this phone
if you can help us.
- I can see here with the phone
that there's
an awful lot of damage
to the hinge.
When a phone is run over,
you don't see that much damage,
maybe a cracked screen.
So let's just imagine
this phone here
being run over by a tire.
Now, like I said,
it might squish,
it might deform a little bit.
What's most interesting to me
is the damage done
to the hinge.
When somebody wants
to destroy a phone,
it's always take
the battery out, discard it,
and then they do what
we call a twist and separate.
If you go to twist it,
you're gonna get a lot of
torque and resistance
from the first hinge.
The second hinge popped easy.
Now there is a lot of scuffing,
and scratching, and stuff
that would be consistent with
it having been run over
after it was broken.
- Derek's assessment of the
damage to Will's phone
could support our theory
that some type
of human intervention
was involved on the night
Will went missing.
- But I hope it didn't
do any damage
to the information
that might be on there.
- What we're hoping is that
the circuit board
and the main memory of the
phone is intact.
- So what can you find?
You get text messages,
phone calls, photos?
- Depending upon
the type of phone
we can find a frightening
amount of information
I think for the normal person,
and so far, so good.
- Oh, looks really clean.
- Considering.
- Because this motherboard is
still in good condition,
we can connect just
the memory chip.
- How long will that take?
- It's gonna require
a little research,
but we're definitely gonna keep
working on it
'cause we're interested as much
as everyone else is
to see what this phone
can tell us.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- We have learned from
William Hurley's family
that he did not use drugs,
but their surveillance
footage demonstrates to me
that there seems to be some
sort of debilitating drug
at work beyond just a couple
of beers he just drank.
Sabra Botch-Jones is a trained
professional toxicologist
who can hopefully explain
to us what she sees
as far as his behavior
and how it might relate to GHB.
- Well, thank you so much for
meeting with us, professor.
We have some questions
on the autopsy report
and the toxicology.
- So what can you tell us about
GHB in general?
- Because of its stimulant and
euphoric effects at low doses,
it has been used as
a recreational drug
At high doses, it has hypnotic
and sedative effects,
and for that reason
it has been encountered
in drug-facilitated
sexual assault cases.
- What we know from
crime reports
is that GHB is currently being
used as a date rape drug.
They're putting into people's
drinks in bars
so that they can victimize
them.
Was William Hurley the target
of such a behavior?
Is it normal to test during
an autopsy for GHB?
- It's not typical unless
there's some evidence
that supports that we should
be looking for GHB.
- With William Hurley,
he had 18 micrograms.
Is that a lot?
Is that a little?
- So we all naturally
have a certain level of GHB
in our bodies at any given
point in time,
but it can also be administered
as a drug.
We typically use a cut off
of about 10 micrograms
per millimeter for GHB
to distinguish between
the natural GHB levels
and administration
of the drug.
- And how long after
ingesting GHB
would it start taking effect
on him?
- It could be around 20,
30 minutes
that they're starting to start
experiencing those effects.
- Okay.
- So I was provided
this particular surveillance
footage of Mr. Hurley.
At the beginning of the video,
nothing looks too abnormal.
About 30 seconds in
you really begin to see
some lack of coordination
and some effects
on his balance.
At low doses,
GHB will actually cause
euphoric and stimulant
effects.
It's very similar
to alcohol impairment.
As the concentration rises,
so does
the central nervous
system depressant
effects of the drug.
There, you're seeing him
actually almost fall forward.
He has definitely had some lack
of balance going on,
little bit of sway.
- Would you say
he's been drugged?
- He is under the influence of
an impairing substance.
♪ ♪
- Toxicologist agreed
that he was functioning
with a debilitating drug
in his system,
and he was recovered
with GHB in him.
- We also know he has
a periorbital injury
that would take brute force
to damage that eye socket.
This makes no sense to me.
- I took Claire around
in the car, okay.
She was right around
the corner,
next thing you know,
he vanished.
- How does that happen?
He just supposedly,
according to the prevailing
theory of the police,
wanders off and falls into
the river over here.
They search this area.
He's not there,
but then 12 hours later
or something,
he's recovered over here.
- Yeah, and that area was
searched thoroughly
by both the state police divers
and the city police divers.
- Right,
so what's the possibility
that they could have
missed him?
- What about the phone?
- The police said the phone
was run over.
- Run over?
- But it was twisted apart.
- Well, that means
human intervention.
That sounds like an abduction.
Somebody grabs the young man,
throws him in a van,
breaks the phone,
throws it out the window.
- What we need to do is get out
there and walk the path
to understand where
the phone was found
in relation to where
he was recovered.
[investigative music]
♪ ♪
- He's walking this way
from TD Garden.
- This is the same route
that Will took
at the same time.
- Really, right?
- This is 99 Nashua Street
right here.
- And here's the
wooden structure.
This is the last contact
that we have for Will.
- I don't know how
he made it this far
'cause he was staggering badly,
as we saw in that video.
♪ ♪
- According to
the police report,
right here somewhere,
they found Will's phone
eight or nine hours later
the following morning, smashed.
- Right around her?
- Right here.
- The space is so short
from the time Claire
says, "I'm 150 feet away."
- Well, if she pulls up
right there,
if he was stumbling around here
she would have seen him.
- She would recognize him.
- So why was his phone
found here?
- Well, that's what I'm saying.
- Perhaps he got
snapped up somewhere
between there and here
- Well, let's keep on going
on down to the park, all right?
♪ ♪
- This is Nashua Street Park.
- The body's found--
- 30 feet off shore.
- Off shore, right.
- They contend that he walked
all the way to the river.
There's no way he made it
this far in that condition.
- I know.
- He had to be
totally debilitated.
- The current is going from
my left to my right.
There's a floating dock
over there.
- Well,
according to the police report,
that's where they did
the search.
Massachusetts State Police
dive team,
Boston Police dive team,
they did a whole search.
They made an announcement,
"Will Hurley is not
in the river.
He's not here."
Eight hours later,
he's found.
- The night before Will
was found,
they had divers in the water
of the Charles River,
and they pulled the divers out.
A police detective contacted me
and said,
"Will's not in that water,
so you can put that to rest."
And then he was found
in the water
the very early morning hours
of the next day.
That has never made sense
to me.
It's never settled with me.
It's never made sense to me
and it will never will.
And I'll never feel com--
like this experience
is complete
until I know what happened
to him.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Joe Fisher is a retired
- Joe Fisher is a retired
Boston police officer
who was very suspicious of the
multiple drowning deaths
in the Boston area.
At which point,
he started doing
some research on his own
and uncovered a bunch
of smiley faces
and contacted us.
And what made you think
that something was really
going on here in Boston?
- Obviously, you would see
these cases,
you know, when they pop in
the news once in a while.
You take note.
You start to see the frequency.
It's almost every year,
and a lot of common factors.
There seems to be
a geographical pattern.
So three victims in
the Boston Harbor.
You then have three victims
gone missing the area
of 99 Nashua Street.
- Where William Hurley
was recovered
and then they believe
went into the water.
- That's right.
We then go out to Brighton,
which is the opposite side of
the city.
We have a couple victims out
there in that area.
And then when you get to the
area of Boston University,
Commonwealth Ave,
The BU Bridge.
We have three, about--
probably three victims
there as well.
You know, you have 12 arsons
in a neighborhood,
I think you have an arsonist,
you know?
And when the numbers start
to add
and you just, you see it
and you say,
"Geez, something's not right."
Around 2015 is when
I found a smiley face
on the electrical box
that really kind of
triggered it for me.
- Where was the electrical box
at, the location?
- It's a concert venue that's
right on the Boston Harbor.
And right in there is where
the Boston Police
Harbor Unit is,
where they keep all
the marine boats
and that's their headquarters,
little base there.
I see the smiley face and
there's three stars above it
and it occurs to me at that
point three of the victims
had gone missing into
the Boston Harbor.
Smiley face, three stars,
three victims recovered
by Boston police.
So I says, "Let me start at the
State Police Harbor Unit at,
essentially, 99 Nashua Street."
I go into the park
and I can see
what appears to be
a smiley face.
So I end up getting
some pictures, you know.
- Yeah, I can see,
it's almost like
we've had some of these
where the...
- So the eyes are long.
- The eyes are like the line.
- A line, that's correct.
- No nose with just a smile.
So this one's at 99 Nashua
by the skate park.
- Correct.
- This is the second one.
- So there is a pattern
that's been growing here
in Boston.
♪ ♪
- In our investigation
this far,
we've collected several pieces
of information
that lead us to believe that
Will was drugged and abducted.
The tampered cell phone,
the elevated level of GHB,
and the multiple drowning
deaths in the Boston area.
The next up in
the investigation
is to speak to
a forensic team
involved with water death
investigations
and to try to determine
whether or not
Will could have accidentally
fell into the water
and sustained those injuries
or if he was murdered
and placed into the water.
♪ ♪
Thanks for meeting with us.
This is great.
- Well, thanks for coming down.
- Yeah, the more brains
the better.
- That's right, as always.
- Dr. Laposata is a forensic
pathologist
and Rhonda Moniz is
an underwater investigator.
And the two of them have
worked hundreds of cases
with bodies recovered
from water.
So we're hoping
that they can give us
their professional opinion
on William Hurley's death.
- William Hurley's death,
we don't believe he went in
at Nashua Street.
I believe he went in
past where the bridge was.
Do you think he went in
somewhere further there?
- The interesting thing is
the Charles current
flows northeasterly,
and he was found
in the opposite direction
of the Charles
before 99 Nashua
which would have been against
the current.
Especially since they checked
the day before
and the body wasn't there.
- There's no way that a body is
gonna go against the current.
- Live body maybe,
but a dead body
can't go against current
- No.
- So do you think
there was any
foul play in this?
- Well, the medical examiner,
who did a thorough job,
said the cause of death
was drowning,
but then the manner
was undetermined
which means it wasn't clear
if it was an accident
or a homicide,
meaning,
"Give me more information."
The fact that he has some blunt
trauma to his face.
He has a bruise on the nose and
then going under the right eye.
So how did the body get
that trauma?
- Could he have fallen,
hit his head,
and rolled in
or do you think
that was more from
a strike or something,
like--or a blunt object?
- So the way we can tell
somebody has
head injuries from a fall
is that when they fall,
they hit the bony prominences.
So they hit their chin,
they hit the tip of the nose,
they hit their cheekbones.
They don't hit the recessed
area here or here.
- Is there any way we can tell
when those, that,
those injuries occurred,
relative to his death?
- To have a really fully
developed contusion
as Mr. Hurley had,
you would have to have
the heart pumping.
- What would be
the time element?
Is it 15 to 20 minute before
the bruise becomes prominent?
Or how long does
it take before
something like that
would show up?
- Oh, several minutes.
It would show up
'cause it's very superficial
and it's slightly swollen.
So it would be something around
the event of his death,
and if someone punched him
and he fell in
that's a homicide.
- William didn't enter
the water here.
I think it needs to be reopened
and investigated more
thoroughly.
- He had evidence of
blunt force trauma to his face.
There is some
human intervention.
[tense music]
- In a new development,
Derek Ellington was able to
retrieve data from Will's phone
even though it was damaged
and laying dormant for nine
years in Lynn's home.
Hopefully, we'll find some
piece of critical information
from the data that we recovered
that we can bring forth
to the authorities
to compel them to give
Will's case a second look.
- And also from these texts
at 6:44.
"I don't like this other kid
we are with.
Such a tool."
She replies back,
"Haha, sweet.
"Have fun.
Keep me updated on the time
"so I know when to get you.
Try to scope out a place
you want me to pick you up
so it's not too chaotic."
- He replies back
to Claire again,
"I'm gonna kill this kid."
He must be really having
a problem with this guy.
- Yeah, that's weird for
somebody you just meet.
That's he's already
tired of him.
From Will's text messages,
we know that he's angry
or agitated about something,
but according
to the police report,
there was no altercation.
So at this time,
there's no reason to believe
that the kid at the game was
involved in Will's death.
- She replies back
four minutes later,
"My second class is starting.
I'll check in at the break."
So she can't use her phone.
- Right.
- And then in capital letters,
"Please, please, be careful."
So she's worried about him.
- She's getting
the energy from him
that he's not comfortable
for whatever reason.
I mean, that's wild that she
would do that,
put that all in caps.
- Then he says, "(BLEEP)"
but Claire's concerned
about him.
She replies back again,
"Stop, baby, just have fun."
- Sometimes people have those
intuitive feelings
that she sensed, like,
you know,
this is a bad situation
for him.
He's writing to Claire,
"Pick me up."
This is 7:49.
He's ready to go.
He's got to get out of there.
That's like a half hour,
40 minutes into the game,
which is consistent with what
time he left.
8:12, "I'm still in class.
What's up?"
Then he goes,
"Meet me at home."
Then nothing from 8:16 to 8:46.
- A whole--a half hour.
- Yeah, 30 minutes later.
- She doesn't know what's
going on, so she calls him.
- Yeah, exactly.
- That's that big gap
where she was on the phone
with him the whole time.
- The texts on Will's phone are
important to us
because they show us
that there was a lot of
activity going on
that the police may not have
been necessarily aware of.
So these are all little pieces
that we can use
to build the story
that Will's death
is suspicious in nature
and requires
a further investigation.
♪ ♪
- Hey, guys.
- How are you?
Good to see you.
- Great to see you again.
- For William Hurley to have
fallen in the water here
where the state police
and the city police searched,
and then a week later
he's found
a football field away
up stream.
It does not make sense.
Rhonda Moniz has agreed
to meet us in the park
at the Charles River
to do a survey of the water
and to test our hypothesis.
- The current always goes
towards the bay, this way?
- Right, that's why
the locks are there.
- Is there any way
that the current could have
been going the other way
for Will to be pushed up?
- No, the thing that
could move a body
once it's at the surface
is wind.
Wind can move a body against
a current
if it's strong enough.
- I'd like to test
the forensics of this
just a little further.
The wind is about
the same today
as it was when
he was recovered,
so if we put a person in here,
we can see how far they float
in this current
and with this wind.
- Right.
- We have anybody
that can do that for us?
- I think you just volunteered
yourself, Doc.
- Yeah, I did.
- [laughs]
- I'm willing to do it.
You get me a wetsuit,
I'll go in there.
- All right, we can do that.
- According to the National
Weather Service Data,
the wind today
is exactly the same as it was
on the day that
William Hurley went missing.
So what we're gonna test
is whether or not
this wind is actually
strong enough
to blow a body backwards
against the current upstream.
- You ready to go?
- Have you ever used
wreck reel before?
- No.
- We're gonna attach this
to Doc
so that we have, you know,
keeping him safe.
- Like a tether?
- Yeah, like a tether.
There you go.
So he's floating
in the direction
I said the current flows.
So that's proven
our hypothesis.
- So this is the way William
would have floated...
- So this is the way William
would have floated.
Now William was found up there
against the current.
There would have needed
to have been wind
with him at the surface
to push him against a current.
Today's conditions were very,
very similar
to what they were those
six days he went missing.
Stop.
Okay.
- The floating test actually
proved to me
that the wind on the day that
William Hurley went missing
as well as the day
he was recovered
was insufficient to blow
his body backwards
against the current.
- So then it seems
from this test
pretty unusual that William was
found upstream.
- Correct.
The conditions like this,
we don't have him getting
pushed by the wind
against the current.
- So, Rhonda, considering
everything we've done,
how do you feel about
William's case now?
- I think that William didn't
enter the water here
because we,
they searched the area
a matter of hours before.
I think that he went in
further up the Charles.
- So the likelihood is
he was entered into the water
either on the other side
and came through that lock
or he was entered in the water
10, 15 minutes prior
to them finding him.
- Although this was just
a basic test,
this is the final piece to show
that he was more
than likely murdered
and placed into the water
further upstream
because where the body
was recovered
was in a completely
different location
where it should have been
according to the water test.
- I think it needs
to be reopened
and investigated more
thoroughly.
I think there's just a lot of
odd things about it.
- Doc's test could be
- Doc's test could be
the final piece
that we can bring forward
to the police.
- The current goes towards
the east, right?
So how did he end up on
the west end of the park?
I didn't float to the west.
The wind didn't push me.
It had no effect against
that current.
The current pushed me back to
the east.
William Hurley had to have
entered the water
much further to the west.
- The phone was broken with
human intervention,
William has a high level of GHB
in his body,
and the fact that he has
injuries
that the forensic pathologist
stated
could not have occurred from
him falling into the water,
and then the body
being recovered
in a place
that's completely opposite
from where the wind and current
would have lead him.
This is definitely enough
right now
to bring to the authorities.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
It's great seeing you
guys again,
and you know that my team
and I have done extensive work
on Will's case now.
Will's mom, Lynn,
and his sister, Amanda,
have flown to Boston
to hear firsthand
what we've uncovered
in our investigation.
We're hoping that we can get
the authorities to listen
and reopen Will's case.
- So I reviewed all
the information
about the examination
of Will's body,
and there were some things
that were troubling.
He had evidence of blunt force
trauma to his face.
So that is an indication
that there is some human
intervention.
Also, he did have GHB
and some further testing of
some other blood samples
could have clarified
that for us.
- So you're thinking that
the GHB in his system
was higher than what it would
be from normal.
- Looking at that video
surveillance
shows someone who's a little
more uneasy on their feet
than just having some alcohol.
- Right.
- Had they known about
the phone,
had they known about some stuff
Rhonda's gonna tell you about,
then maybe they would have
done more.
- So my job is train
investigators
on a crime scene specifically
that has to do with
a body of water.
Very dynamic environment.
Where they were searching
makes sense,
but where he was found doesn't.
And that's the problem
that we have with this.
It's very odd that he was
found upstream
from where they found his phone
and where he was last seen.
So this area right here,
it's not a large area.
If Will were there,
they would have found him.
- I'm surprised to know
that it was here, I guess,
'cause we didn't ever
walk that whole area
where they said this is where
he was, I guess.
It's much different
than what we were told before.
Much different.
Sorry.
- No, that's okay.
It's a hard thing
and you're very brave
to do that.
We're here to help.
- I'm sorry.
- It's very brave to, you know,
keep,
keep it in your heart to try to
get the right thing done.
You know,
if the medical examiner
had been aware of some
of this
additional investigative
information
that now Kevin and Rhonda
have put together,
then it certainly becomes
suspicious enough
to call it a homicide.
There's been some
human interaction
besides Will falling in.
♪ ♪
- What do you think
our chances are
of getting into
the police station?
You get a meeting.
- You know, we roll up on them,
catch 'em cold, and then
maybe they'll let us in
and speak to somebody.
- We want to prove homicide.
How do you prove homicide?
You prove it forensically,
scientifically.
- Many times
it's very difficult for us,
being retired members, to get
the police to engage with us,
but I believe, in Will's case,
that we've collected
enough evidence
to prove that Will's death was
not accidental
and more likely a homicide.
♪ ♪
- In the studio with us,
Kevin Gannon
and Anthony Duarte.
We're discussing the
Smiley Face Killer theory.
- Since we're having difficulty
getting the authorities
to meet with us
and to engage us,
our last option is to go
to the public.
And once we do that,
we're hoping that
that will spur interest
and force the authorities
to either have to take a second
look or to engage with us.
- These guys are here
in Boston today
to ask the Boston Police
Department to meet with them
so that they can share
their evidence
that there is a serial killer
or a group of serial killers
that is here in our city.
- Everything about his case
is inconsistent,
including--there's physical
injuries on the body
that are inconsistent
with a drowning.
This is something about
injuries
that came from some type
of an assault.
- Yeah,
let's talk about this case,
and I think that Lynn Martin
is Will's mom
and she is on the Framingham
Ford studio line with us.
Lynn?
- Hi.
- Thanks for being on this
morning with the detectives.
So it's been nine years
and I am assuming
that the family would like
some answers.
Is that fair to say, Lynn?
- It is.
We would like some answers.
- Hopefully, the fact that
you're here in the city,
they will get together with you
and they will hear
at least what you have to say
and take a look
at this evidence
because it's pretty extensive.
It's a scary thing when you
think about here in the city
the potential for
this many victims
of the Smiley Face Killer
or killers.
♪ ♪
- I want nothing more
for Will's family
than to have his case
reclassified as a homicide
so that they can finally get
some justice that they deserve
after nine long years
of wondering what happened
to their son
and their brother.
♪ ♪
If we can get Will's case
classified as a homicide,
then we're one step closer
to proving
that his case,
along with all the other cases,
are linked.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- Join the conversation
on Oxygen's facebook page
♪ ♪
- Since 1977, hundreds of
college aged men
have gone missing, vanished.
Almost all of the victims
are top students and athletes
who disappeared after
a night out with friends.
They're later found drowned
in a body of water.
Near where most of the bodies
are recovered,
smiley faces.
♪ ♪
We believe these deaths may
all be connected.
The work of an organized group
of serial killers.
We believe the victims may
have been drugged,
abducted, killed on land,
and eventually dumped
in the water.
With the help of preeminent
crime and forensic experts
from all over the nation,
our goal is to uncover
new evidence
to reopen these closed cases
and compel the authorities to
investigate them as homicides.
Like the case of Will Hurley,
who was found dead in 2009.
He's part of a cluster of
more than ten young men
who have died
in suspicious drownings
in the Charles River
in Boston.
Smiley face graffiti
was found
near where Will's body
was recovered.
We believe that Will was
not only murdered,
but that he may be a victim
of the Smiley Face Killers.
♪ ♪
- On the night of October 8,
2009,
William Hurley was attending
a Boston Bruins hockey game
with friends.
Will texted his girlfriend,
Claire,
to pick him up early
from the game.
Surveillance captured Will
leaving the arena.
When Claire arrived,
Will was gone,
vanished into the
Boston night.
His body was recovered
six days later
in the Charles River.
The autopsy report states
there are blunt impact
injuries to the head,
yet the Navy veteran's
drowning
was classified
as undetermined.
Was the death of William
Hurley a homicide,
and is it linked
to the Smiley Face Killers?
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
- Dying to get up here
for a long time.
Boston has a bunch of cases.
William Hurley fits
the pattern
of male, white,
24 years of age,
out drinking with friends,
and then he just disappears
off the face of the earth.
He's coming out of the Garden
from the Bruins game
talking to his girlfriend,
who is a couple blocks away
ready to pick him up,
and then all of a sudden
he's gone.
The prevailing theory from
law enforcement is that
he just continued walking
from the parking lot
to the docks by the hospital,
and then fell in the water
and drowned.
But the fact that
he disappeared
in the middle of
a conversation
to me feels like there's more
than just an accident.
The autopsy report states
there are blunt impact injuries
of the head and lower
extremity.
1 inch to 1 1/2 contusion
on the nose,
there is a periorbital
contusion
surrounding the right eye.
- I'm looking at William's
recovery photos.
- Right.
- His right eye is closed.
Contused by getting hit in
the eye with an elbow,
face, whatever.
To get an eye like that,
it's really direct.
- If you look at
the autopsy report,
this young man has GHB
in his body.
And the fact that the medical
examiner here
decided to test for it means
that they had to think
something was suspicious.
- In 100% of the cases
where we have helped
get the tissues tested for GHB,
in 100% of those cases
we have found GHB.
- Everything fits the pattern.
We might have an opportunity
to flip this case
and get them to start
investigating the other ones.
Boston is a university town
with multiple institutions
with thousands of students
that attend,
and in this specific area
of the Charles River alone
we have three victims.
Zach Marr,
Michael Kelleher,
and in 2009, William Hurley.
- I would like to talk to
the girlfriend.
- What's the young lady's name?
- Claire.
- Claire.
♪ ♪
- Thanks so much for coming.
- Oh, well,
it's the least I can do.
Claire is now married
with a family
and pregnant with twins.
But clearly,
she still wants to have answers
to what happened
to Will that night
and she knows that the official
report from the police
is not what happened.
- Will Hurley went to
a Bruins game Thursday night
with a couple of friends
from work.
That's the last time he's been
seen or heard from.
- It's not like the Bruins are
the greatest thing to him.
He was just kind of like,
"All right, I came, I saw."
I've been up since 4:30.
I'm kind of ready to go home."
- We're gonna try to bring
you back to the night
that Will went missing.
We want to get a little
background on,
you know, the kind of
relationship you had with Will
and what kind of person he was.
- We had a great relationship.
We had been together
for almost two years.
Will was in the Navy
when we met.
We had been living together
in Boston for a while.
I was out with some
girlfriends and my brother,
my little brother, and
there was a trolley passing by
and there was a bunch of
Navy guys on and they said,
"Come on board!"
And so we did.
Will was in his white
Navy uniform
with the white hat on
and everything,
kind of like you see
in the pictures.
You know I loved Will
very much,
and I know that he loved me
and I--we talked a lot about
a future.
It was really, like I said,
an instant connection.
I loved who he made me.
He made me a happy,
spontaneous, and fun person,
and I loved him for that.
- So take me back to
that particular night.
The night that he went missing.
- He had contacted me
through text to say
a co-worker and friend
offered him tickets
to the Bruins game that night.
He was sort of unsure
about going, on the fence.
I said, "Just go.
I'm going to class."
- According to
the police reports
he really didn't stay
at the game all that long.
- Yeah, maybe like halfway
through the game.
- Did he give you any
particular reason?
- He was tired.
He didn't know hockey
that well.
- Okay, and maybe
if you don't mind,
we can take a ride out there
and to the best of
your recollection
find out
the exact route you had.
- Okay.
I want to know what happened
to Will that night.
My whole life changed.
Everything about my plans
for the future,
it all changed right then
and there.
- I know it's gonna be very
difficult for you.
Hopefully, we can get you some
answers.
- That's what I hope for.
[tense music]
- This is the same way...
- This is the way I came in.
Off of 93,
came in right down this street.
- The night that Will
went missing,
Claire was in class
in Dorchester.
When Will texted her
that he was leaving
the Bruins game early,
she approached The Garden
from Causeway Street
to pick him up.
- It's very different with all
this construction here now,
but this used to be the front
side of the Garden.
So this is where
I pulled up initially
and said, "I'm here.
I'm out front."
And he said, "Okay. I'm here.
I'm out front as well.
- And he kept walking?
- I think he was probably
looking for me
when I was saying, "I'm at the
front of the garden."
He was thinking,
"Okay, I'll get myself
to the front of the Garden."
You can't stop.
There's no place to pull over
and just wait,
so I had to keep going.
My only choice was to take
a right on to Nashua Street
in hopes that he would be on
the other side of the Garden.
- Did he say at all that,
"I didn't see you in front
of the Garden.
I'm gonna go somewhere else."
- No, I don't know
why he was moving.
I don't know why
he didn't stay put.
- I wonder how long it would
take him to walk from the front
to go around to Nashua Street.
- I mean, not long.
It's not far.
- Why would he walk that way?
- I've always wondered that
because it would make
the most sense
to stay where everything is.
♪ ♪
I would say, "You know,
why don't you just stop
and ask someone where you are
and don't move."
And then he did.
He asked someone where he was
and it was 99 Nashua Street.
Perfect, 150 feet.
I put it in my GPS,
I rounded this corner,
and I pulled up along here.
- And this is where you
pulled over?
And you double parked?
- Yeah.
And then I got out of
my driver side door
and yelled his name.
♪ ♪
- So, you yelled out
a couple times.
You didn't see anybody here.
- I was assuming
he was gonna come out
of the parking lot
at any moment, you know?
And he just never did.
♪ ♪
When I was talking to Will,
he started to say towards
the ends like,
"The battery on my phone
is going low."
I was getting through to him,
and then it was straight
to voicemail.
So my first assumption was
that his phone had died
and there was no way I was
gonna get through to him.
- And this is Nashua street
park, correct?
- Yeah.
- This where they found him?
- Yep.
So much in life has changed,
but I feel such a sense of
responsibility to Will.
He got no justice
and no answers.
I feel responsible
to my boys.
I can't imagine losing
my son...
and having law enforcement
tell me...
"He must have drank too much
and fallen in water,
and that's the best
we have for you."
That just doesn't--
it's not fair,
and it's not right.
It's not the truth.
- Would you say he's been
drugged?
- He is under the influence of
an impairing substance.
- We don't believe
it's an accident.
- I don't believe it's
an accident either.
I want to know what happened
to my son.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Will's family lives
in North Carolina.
His mom has never received any
answers about her son's death,
so hopefully,
our investigation
will provide
some of those for her.
Thank you so much for taking
this meeting with us.
Obviously, we want to learn as
much as we can about Will
and try to put all the pieces
together with his death.
- Will is--was a great kid.
He was a friendly,
outgoing kid.
A handsome kid.
He had the best smile.
I think it's probably one
of my favorite things
about Will was his smile
and his personality,
and he just would rather be
outside doing things
with his hands.
He wanted to be
a landscape architect.
He liked to draw
and design things.
Friday, about lunch time,
I got a phone call from Claire
asking me had I heard
from Will.
She said he went to
a Bruins game last night
and he didn't come home.
When we hadn't heard from
him by Saturday,
I drove up to Boston just
to see if I could help her.
Claire had put
missing posters up
all down around the waterfront
and up around the Garden area.
- It became real in a way
that it wasn't before.
To see his face like that
on the missing posters.
You never think that
you're going
to experience that
in your own life.
You never expect to see
the person that you love
staring back at you from
a missing poster.
When it was going on,
when he was missing,
he was on--
he was big in the news cycle.
He was on every broadcast.
♪ ♪
- Six days later, like at 3:00
in the morning,
the police detective come and
knocked on our hotel door,
and I can't remember exactly
what he said
other than...
"We found Will...
"in the river...
deceased."
And I just remember shutting
the door in his face, and...
I just didn't believe it,
I just--
'cause it just couldn't
be true.
It just couldn't be true.
- Do you think something
happened to Will
or do you think this was just
a tragic accident?
- No, I don't think
it was an accident.
I've never thought it was
an accident.
- What do you believe happened?
- I have a lot of questions,
you know,
and I want to know
why they started
searching the river first.
You know, and then, I mean,
what made them think
that that would be where
he was?
- How has
your communication been
with the police department?
Have you asked those questions
of the police?
- I have asked those questions
of the police.
You know, I think they kind of
just wrote it off,
"Oh, another drunk kid falling
into the water."
The hurt, the wonder,
it never goes away.
It's a loss.
I mean,
he was a part of me.
I carried inside my body.
I loved him for 24 years.
You know,
I have a daughter, and a son,
and two wonderful
grandchildren,
but they can't take his place.
They can't take his place.
- Did Will engage in any
kind of, you know, drugs?
- I would have been shocked
to find out that he had.
- How was he in respect
to alcohol or drinking?
- Will could hold his liquor.
- Will could hold his liquor,
yeah.
- That was something that
didn't make sense to us.
Just the amount that they had
been drinking
would not have been enough
to make him that inebriated.
- Will had GHB in his system
which--it's like a--
date rape drug.
The fact that he was
like appearing to be
what the police say inebriated,
we figured it was more
the drugs than alcohol
because toxicology
reports showed
a minimum amount of alcohol
to be that inebriated.
- We did see some of
the surveillance
of him coming out
of the Garden area.
And it looked like he
was texting,
and then he just, you know,
and then he just walks off
and we don't see anymore
footage of him after that.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- They did find his phone?
- Right, they found his phone
and it looked like it
had been run over.
- Did you see the phone?
- I have the phone.
- Oh, you have the phone.
- Yes, sir, I have the phone.
- That's terrific.
- They sent it to me.
- The police didn't do any
forensic testing on the phone?
- Not that I know of.
When they told us
they had found it,
they asked Claire
for her phone battery
'cause they had the same type
of phone,
and they tried to use her
phone battery to turn it on,
but it didn't turn on.
- And they said,
"Well, we can't get anything."
And that was really it.
- Do you have it know?
- Yes, sir.
- It's still in the police
department bag,
and the battery was out.
The battery's gone.
- Right.
- Is it okay with you
if we take this
and get it tested forensically?
- Yes.
- For us to have Will's phone
gives us the ability
to look at it from
a physicality standpoint
of what actually happened
to the phone,
and then secondly, what can
we uncover from the phone?
Pictures, sometimes there's
other stuff on there.
And we've had that in some
other cases,
so it can aid us
in trying to prove
what actually happened to Will.
So you think he met foul play?
- I think so.
I want to know what happened
to my son.
♪ ♪
- So the next step for us
with Will's phone
was to bring it to an expert
that could tell us
what specifically happened
to the phone,
and then what other evidence
could be on the phone.
Derek Ellington is a digital
forensic analyst
who specializes in the recovery
of data from mobile devices.
We're trying to determine now
from you
if it was run over
or somebody destroyed it,
and we want to see what we can
retrieve from this phone
if you can help us.
- I can see here with the phone
that there's
an awful lot of damage
to the hinge.
When a phone is run over,
you don't see that much damage,
maybe a cracked screen.
So let's just imagine
this phone here
being run over by a tire.
Now, like I said,
it might squish,
it might deform a little bit.
What's most interesting to me
is the damage done
to the hinge.
When somebody wants
to destroy a phone,
it's always take
the battery out, discard it,
and then they do what
we call a twist and separate.
If you go to twist it,
you're gonna get a lot of
torque and resistance
from the first hinge.
The second hinge popped easy.
Now there is a lot of scuffing,
and scratching, and stuff
that would be consistent with
it having been run over
after it was broken.
- Derek's assessment of the
damage to Will's phone
could support our theory
that some type
of human intervention
was involved on the night
Will went missing.
- But I hope it didn't
do any damage
to the information
that might be on there.
- What we're hoping is that
the circuit board
and the main memory of the
phone is intact.
- So what can you find?
You get text messages,
phone calls, photos?
- Depending upon
the type of phone
we can find a frightening
amount of information
I think for the normal person,
and so far, so good.
- Oh, looks really clean.
- Considering.
- Because this motherboard is
still in good condition,
we can connect just
the memory chip.
- How long will that take?
- It's gonna require
a little research,
but we're definitely gonna keep
working on it
'cause we're interested as much
as everyone else is
to see what this phone
can tell us.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- We have learned from
William Hurley's family
that he did not use drugs,
but their surveillance
footage demonstrates to me
that there seems to be some
sort of debilitating drug
at work beyond just a couple
of beers he just drank.
Sabra Botch-Jones is a trained
professional toxicologist
who can hopefully explain
to us what she sees
as far as his behavior
and how it might relate to GHB.
- Well, thank you so much for
meeting with us, professor.
We have some questions
on the autopsy report
and the toxicology.
- So what can you tell us about
GHB in general?
- Because of its stimulant and
euphoric effects at low doses,
it has been used as
a recreational drug
At high doses, it has hypnotic
and sedative effects,
and for that reason
it has been encountered
in drug-facilitated
sexual assault cases.
- What we know from
crime reports
is that GHB is currently being
used as a date rape drug.
They're putting into people's
drinks in bars
so that they can victimize
them.
Was William Hurley the target
of such a behavior?
Is it normal to test during
an autopsy for GHB?
- It's not typical unless
there's some evidence
that supports that we should
be looking for GHB.
- With William Hurley,
he had 18 micrograms.
Is that a lot?
Is that a little?
- So we all naturally
have a certain level of GHB
in our bodies at any given
point in time,
but it can also be administered
as a drug.
We typically use a cut off
of about 10 micrograms
per millimeter for GHB
to distinguish between
the natural GHB levels
and administration
of the drug.
- And how long after
ingesting GHB
would it start taking effect
on him?
- It could be around 20,
30 minutes
that they're starting to start
experiencing those effects.
- Okay.
- So I was provided
this particular surveillance
footage of Mr. Hurley.
At the beginning of the video,
nothing looks too abnormal.
About 30 seconds in
you really begin to see
some lack of coordination
and some effects
on his balance.
At low doses,
GHB will actually cause
euphoric and stimulant
effects.
It's very similar
to alcohol impairment.
As the concentration rises,
so does
the central nervous
system depressant
effects of the drug.
There, you're seeing him
actually almost fall forward.
He has definitely had some lack
of balance going on,
little bit of sway.
- Would you say
he's been drugged?
- He is under the influence of
an impairing substance.
♪ ♪
- Toxicologist agreed
that he was functioning
with a debilitating drug
in his system,
and he was recovered
with GHB in him.
- We also know he has
a periorbital injury
that would take brute force
to damage that eye socket.
This makes no sense to me.
- I took Claire around
in the car, okay.
She was right around
the corner,
next thing you know,
he vanished.
- How does that happen?
He just supposedly,
according to the prevailing
theory of the police,
wanders off and falls into
the river over here.
They search this area.
He's not there,
but then 12 hours later
or something,
he's recovered over here.
- Yeah, and that area was
searched thoroughly
by both the state police divers
and the city police divers.
- Right,
so what's the possibility
that they could have
missed him?
- What about the phone?
- The police said the phone
was run over.
- Run over?
- But it was twisted apart.
- Well, that means
human intervention.
That sounds like an abduction.
Somebody grabs the young man,
throws him in a van,
breaks the phone,
throws it out the window.
- What we need to do is get out
there and walk the path
to understand where
the phone was found
in relation to where
he was recovered.
[investigative music]
♪ ♪
- He's walking this way
from TD Garden.
- This is the same route
that Will took
at the same time.
- Really, right?
- This is 99 Nashua Street
right here.
- And here's the
wooden structure.
This is the last contact
that we have for Will.
- I don't know how
he made it this far
'cause he was staggering badly,
as we saw in that video.
♪ ♪
- According to
the police report,
right here somewhere,
they found Will's phone
eight or nine hours later
the following morning, smashed.
- Right around her?
- Right here.
- The space is so short
from the time Claire
says, "I'm 150 feet away."
- Well, if she pulls up
right there,
if he was stumbling around here
she would have seen him.
- She would recognize him.
- So why was his phone
found here?
- Well, that's what I'm saying.
- Perhaps he got
snapped up somewhere
between there and here
- Well, let's keep on going
on down to the park, all right?
♪ ♪
- This is Nashua Street Park.
- The body's found--
- 30 feet off shore.
- Off shore, right.
- They contend that he walked
all the way to the river.
There's no way he made it
this far in that condition.
- I know.
- He had to be
totally debilitated.
- The current is going from
my left to my right.
There's a floating dock
over there.
- Well,
according to the police report,
that's where they did
the search.
Massachusetts State Police
dive team,
Boston Police dive team,
they did a whole search.
They made an announcement,
"Will Hurley is not
in the river.
He's not here."
Eight hours later,
he's found.
- The night before Will
was found,
they had divers in the water
of the Charles River,
and they pulled the divers out.
A police detective contacted me
and said,
"Will's not in that water,
so you can put that to rest."
And then he was found
in the water
the very early morning hours
of the next day.
That has never made sense
to me.
It's never settled with me.
It's never made sense to me
and it will never will.
And I'll never feel com--
like this experience
is complete
until I know what happened
to him.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Joe Fisher is a retired
- Joe Fisher is a retired
Boston police officer
who was very suspicious of the
multiple drowning deaths
in the Boston area.
At which point,
he started doing
some research on his own
and uncovered a bunch
of smiley faces
and contacted us.
And what made you think
that something was really
going on here in Boston?
- Obviously, you would see
these cases,
you know, when they pop in
the news once in a while.
You take note.
You start to see the frequency.
It's almost every year,
and a lot of common factors.
There seems to be
a geographical pattern.
So three victims in
the Boston Harbor.
You then have three victims
gone missing the area
of 99 Nashua Street.
- Where William Hurley
was recovered
and then they believe
went into the water.
- That's right.
We then go out to Brighton,
which is the opposite side of
the city.
We have a couple victims out
there in that area.
And then when you get to the
area of Boston University,
Commonwealth Ave,
The BU Bridge.
We have three, about--
probably three victims
there as well.
You know, you have 12 arsons
in a neighborhood,
I think you have an arsonist,
you know?
And when the numbers start
to add
and you just, you see it
and you say,
"Geez, something's not right."
Around 2015 is when
I found a smiley face
on the electrical box
that really kind of
triggered it for me.
- Where was the electrical box
at, the location?
- It's a concert venue that's
right on the Boston Harbor.
And right in there is where
the Boston Police
Harbor Unit is,
where they keep all
the marine boats
and that's their headquarters,
little base there.
I see the smiley face and
there's three stars above it
and it occurs to me at that
point three of the victims
had gone missing into
the Boston Harbor.
Smiley face, three stars,
three victims recovered
by Boston police.
So I says, "Let me start at the
State Police Harbor Unit at,
essentially, 99 Nashua Street."
I go into the park
and I can see
what appears to be
a smiley face.
So I end up getting
some pictures, you know.
- Yeah, I can see,
it's almost like
we've had some of these
where the...
- So the eyes are long.
- The eyes are like the line.
- A line, that's correct.
- No nose with just a smile.
So this one's at 99 Nashua
by the skate park.
- Correct.
- This is the second one.
- So there is a pattern
that's been growing here
in Boston.
♪ ♪
- In our investigation
this far,
we've collected several pieces
of information
that lead us to believe that
Will was drugged and abducted.
The tampered cell phone,
the elevated level of GHB,
and the multiple drowning
deaths in the Boston area.
The next up in
the investigation
is to speak to
a forensic team
involved with water death
investigations
and to try to determine
whether or not
Will could have accidentally
fell into the water
and sustained those injuries
or if he was murdered
and placed into the water.
♪ ♪
Thanks for meeting with us.
This is great.
- Well, thanks for coming down.
- Yeah, the more brains
the better.
- That's right, as always.
- Dr. Laposata is a forensic
pathologist
and Rhonda Moniz is
an underwater investigator.
And the two of them have
worked hundreds of cases
with bodies recovered
from water.
So we're hoping
that they can give us
their professional opinion
on William Hurley's death.
- William Hurley's death,
we don't believe he went in
at Nashua Street.
I believe he went in
past where the bridge was.
Do you think he went in
somewhere further there?
- The interesting thing is
the Charles current
flows northeasterly,
and he was found
in the opposite direction
of the Charles
before 99 Nashua
which would have been against
the current.
Especially since they checked
the day before
and the body wasn't there.
- There's no way that a body is
gonna go against the current.
- Live body maybe,
but a dead body
can't go against current
- No.
- So do you think
there was any
foul play in this?
- Well, the medical examiner,
who did a thorough job,
said the cause of death
was drowning,
but then the manner
was undetermined
which means it wasn't clear
if it was an accident
or a homicide,
meaning,
"Give me more information."
The fact that he has some blunt
trauma to his face.
He has a bruise on the nose and
then going under the right eye.
So how did the body get
that trauma?
- Could he have fallen,
hit his head,
and rolled in
or do you think
that was more from
a strike or something,
like--or a blunt object?
- So the way we can tell
somebody has
head injuries from a fall
is that when they fall,
they hit the bony prominences.
So they hit their chin,
they hit the tip of the nose,
they hit their cheekbones.
They don't hit the recessed
area here or here.
- Is there any way we can tell
when those, that,
those injuries occurred,
relative to his death?
- To have a really fully
developed contusion
as Mr. Hurley had,
you would have to have
the heart pumping.
- What would be
the time element?
Is it 15 to 20 minute before
the bruise becomes prominent?
Or how long does
it take before
something like that
would show up?
- Oh, several minutes.
It would show up
'cause it's very superficial
and it's slightly swollen.
So it would be something around
the event of his death,
and if someone punched him
and he fell in
that's a homicide.
- William didn't enter
the water here.
I think it needs to be reopened
and investigated more
thoroughly.
- He had evidence of
blunt force trauma to his face.
There is some
human intervention.
[tense music]
- In a new development,
Derek Ellington was able to
retrieve data from Will's phone
even though it was damaged
and laying dormant for nine
years in Lynn's home.
Hopefully, we'll find some
piece of critical information
from the data that we recovered
that we can bring forth
to the authorities
to compel them to give
Will's case a second look.
- And also from these texts
at 6:44.
"I don't like this other kid
we are with.
Such a tool."
She replies back,
"Haha, sweet.
"Have fun.
Keep me updated on the time
"so I know when to get you.
Try to scope out a place
you want me to pick you up
so it's not too chaotic."
- He replies back
to Claire again,
"I'm gonna kill this kid."
He must be really having
a problem with this guy.
- Yeah, that's weird for
somebody you just meet.
That's he's already
tired of him.
From Will's text messages,
we know that he's angry
or agitated about something,
but according
to the police report,
there was no altercation.
So at this time,
there's no reason to believe
that the kid at the game was
involved in Will's death.
- She replies back
four minutes later,
"My second class is starting.
I'll check in at the break."
So she can't use her phone.
- Right.
- And then in capital letters,
"Please, please, be careful."
So she's worried about him.
- She's getting
the energy from him
that he's not comfortable
for whatever reason.
I mean, that's wild that she
would do that,
put that all in caps.
- Then he says, "(BLEEP)"
but Claire's concerned
about him.
She replies back again,
"Stop, baby, just have fun."
- Sometimes people have those
intuitive feelings
that she sensed, like,
you know,
this is a bad situation
for him.
He's writing to Claire,
"Pick me up."
This is 7:49.
He's ready to go.
He's got to get out of there.
That's like a half hour,
40 minutes into the game,
which is consistent with what
time he left.
8:12, "I'm still in class.
What's up?"
Then he goes,
"Meet me at home."
Then nothing from 8:16 to 8:46.
- A whole--a half hour.
- Yeah, 30 minutes later.
- She doesn't know what's
going on, so she calls him.
- Yeah, exactly.
- That's that big gap
where she was on the phone
with him the whole time.
- The texts on Will's phone are
important to us
because they show us
that there was a lot of
activity going on
that the police may not have
been necessarily aware of.
So these are all little pieces
that we can use
to build the story
that Will's death
is suspicious in nature
and requires
a further investigation.
♪ ♪
- Hey, guys.
- How are you?
Good to see you.
- Great to see you again.
- For William Hurley to have
fallen in the water here
where the state police
and the city police searched,
and then a week later
he's found
a football field away
up stream.
It does not make sense.
Rhonda Moniz has agreed
to meet us in the park
at the Charles River
to do a survey of the water
and to test our hypothesis.
- The current always goes
towards the bay, this way?
- Right, that's why
the locks are there.
- Is there any way
that the current could have
been going the other way
for Will to be pushed up?
- No, the thing that
could move a body
once it's at the surface
is wind.
Wind can move a body against
a current
if it's strong enough.
- I'd like to test
the forensics of this
just a little further.
The wind is about
the same today
as it was when
he was recovered,
so if we put a person in here,
we can see how far they float
in this current
and with this wind.
- Right.
- We have anybody
that can do that for us?
- I think you just volunteered
yourself, Doc.
- Yeah, I did.
- [laughs]
- I'm willing to do it.
You get me a wetsuit,
I'll go in there.
- All right, we can do that.
- According to the National
Weather Service Data,
the wind today
is exactly the same as it was
on the day that
William Hurley went missing.
So what we're gonna test
is whether or not
this wind is actually
strong enough
to blow a body backwards
against the current upstream.
- You ready to go?
- Have you ever used
wreck reel before?
- No.
- We're gonna attach this
to Doc
so that we have, you know,
keeping him safe.
- Like a tether?
- Yeah, like a tether.
There you go.
So he's floating
in the direction
I said the current flows.
So that's proven
our hypothesis.
- So this is the way William
would have floated...
- So this is the way William
would have floated.
Now William was found up there
against the current.
There would have needed
to have been wind
with him at the surface
to push him against a current.
Today's conditions were very,
very similar
to what they were those
six days he went missing.
Stop.
Okay.
- The floating test actually
proved to me
that the wind on the day that
William Hurley went missing
as well as the day
he was recovered
was insufficient to blow
his body backwards
against the current.
- So then it seems
from this test
pretty unusual that William was
found upstream.
- Correct.
The conditions like this,
we don't have him getting
pushed by the wind
against the current.
- So, Rhonda, considering
everything we've done,
how do you feel about
William's case now?
- I think that William didn't
enter the water here
because we,
they searched the area
a matter of hours before.
I think that he went in
further up the Charles.
- So the likelihood is
he was entered into the water
either on the other side
and came through that lock
or he was entered in the water
10, 15 minutes prior
to them finding him.
- Although this was just
a basic test,
this is the final piece to show
that he was more
than likely murdered
and placed into the water
further upstream
because where the body
was recovered
was in a completely
different location
where it should have been
according to the water test.
- I think it needs
to be reopened
and investigated more
thoroughly.
I think there's just a lot of
odd things about it.
- Doc's test could be
- Doc's test could be
the final piece
that we can bring forward
to the police.
- The current goes towards
the east, right?
So how did he end up on
the west end of the park?
I didn't float to the west.
The wind didn't push me.
It had no effect against
that current.
The current pushed me back to
the east.
William Hurley had to have
entered the water
much further to the west.
- The phone was broken with
human intervention,
William has a high level of GHB
in his body,
and the fact that he has
injuries
that the forensic pathologist
stated
could not have occurred from
him falling into the water,
and then the body
being recovered
in a place
that's completely opposite
from where the wind and current
would have lead him.
This is definitely enough
right now
to bring to the authorities.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
It's great seeing you
guys again,
and you know that my team
and I have done extensive work
on Will's case now.
Will's mom, Lynn,
and his sister, Amanda,
have flown to Boston
to hear firsthand
what we've uncovered
in our investigation.
We're hoping that we can get
the authorities to listen
and reopen Will's case.
- So I reviewed all
the information
about the examination
of Will's body,
and there were some things
that were troubling.
He had evidence of blunt force
trauma to his face.
So that is an indication
that there is some human
intervention.
Also, he did have GHB
and some further testing of
some other blood samples
could have clarified
that for us.
- So you're thinking that
the GHB in his system
was higher than what it would
be from normal.
- Looking at that video
surveillance
shows someone who's a little
more uneasy on their feet
than just having some alcohol.
- Right.
- Had they known about
the phone,
had they known about some stuff
Rhonda's gonna tell you about,
then maybe they would have
done more.
- So my job is train
investigators
on a crime scene specifically
that has to do with
a body of water.
Very dynamic environment.
Where they were searching
makes sense,
but where he was found doesn't.
And that's the problem
that we have with this.
It's very odd that he was
found upstream
from where they found his phone
and where he was last seen.
So this area right here,
it's not a large area.
If Will were there,
they would have found him.
- I'm surprised to know
that it was here, I guess,
'cause we didn't ever
walk that whole area
where they said this is where
he was, I guess.
It's much different
than what we were told before.
Much different.
Sorry.
- No, that's okay.
It's a hard thing
and you're very brave
to do that.
We're here to help.
- I'm sorry.
- It's very brave to, you know,
keep,
keep it in your heart to try to
get the right thing done.
You know,
if the medical examiner
had been aware of some
of this
additional investigative
information
that now Kevin and Rhonda
have put together,
then it certainly becomes
suspicious enough
to call it a homicide.
There's been some
human interaction
besides Will falling in.
♪ ♪
- What do you think
our chances are
of getting into
the police station?
You get a meeting.
- You know, we roll up on them,
catch 'em cold, and then
maybe they'll let us in
and speak to somebody.
- We want to prove homicide.
How do you prove homicide?
You prove it forensically,
scientifically.
- Many times
it's very difficult for us,
being retired members, to get
the police to engage with us,
but I believe, in Will's case,
that we've collected
enough evidence
to prove that Will's death was
not accidental
and more likely a homicide.
♪ ♪
- In the studio with us,
Kevin Gannon
and Anthony Duarte.
We're discussing the
Smiley Face Killer theory.
- Since we're having difficulty
getting the authorities
to meet with us
and to engage us,
our last option is to go
to the public.
And once we do that,
we're hoping that
that will spur interest
and force the authorities
to either have to take a second
look or to engage with us.
- These guys are here
in Boston today
to ask the Boston Police
Department to meet with them
so that they can share
their evidence
that there is a serial killer
or a group of serial killers
that is here in our city.
- Everything about his case
is inconsistent,
including--there's physical
injuries on the body
that are inconsistent
with a drowning.
This is something about
injuries
that came from some type
of an assault.
- Yeah,
let's talk about this case,
and I think that Lynn Martin
is Will's mom
and she is on the Framingham
Ford studio line with us.
Lynn?
- Hi.
- Thanks for being on this
morning with the detectives.
So it's been nine years
and I am assuming
that the family would like
some answers.
Is that fair to say, Lynn?
- It is.
We would like some answers.
- Hopefully, the fact that
you're here in the city,
they will get together with you
and they will hear
at least what you have to say
and take a look
at this evidence
because it's pretty extensive.
It's a scary thing when you
think about here in the city
the potential for
this many victims
of the Smiley Face Killer
or killers.
♪ ♪
- I want nothing more
for Will's family
than to have his case
reclassified as a homicide
so that they can finally get
some justice that they deserve
after nine long years
of wondering what happened
to their son
and their brother.
♪ ♪
If we can get Will's case
classified as a homicide,
then we're one step closer
to proving
that his case,
along with all the other cases,
are linked.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
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