Preview Oxygen's New Investigative Series 'Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt For Justice'

Oxygen Media, the destination for high-quality crime programming, debuts the shocking new series, “Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice” on Saturday, January 19 at 7pm ET/PT. The series follows an active private investigation spearheaded by retired NYPD Detective Kevin Gannon and his veteran team of investigators as they work with victims’ families and top forensic experts to further investigate and question that the country’s most notorious string of mysterious, accidental drownings aren’t accidents, but homicides; and they could all be connected to a larger theory of The Smiley Face Killers.

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

“Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice” is produced by 44 Blue Productions, a Red Arrow Studios company,  and indie studio Blumhouse Television with Rasha Drachkovitch, Jason Blum, Marci Wiseman, Jeremy Gold and Leane Vandeman serving as executive producers and Julie Merson and Mary Lisio serving as co-executive producers.

[Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Lee Gilbertson]