Chris Jenkins Found in River After Halloween — Death Reclassified as Homicide

On Halloween night 2002, 21-year-old University of Minnesota student Chris Jenkins attended a costume party in Minneapolis, dressed as a Native American chief. He was last seen leaving a bar in the Dinkytown neighborhood after midnight, alone and intoxicated. His body was found floating face-down in the Mississippi River four months later, in February 2003. His death was initially ruled accidental drowning — presumed to be a drunk college student who stumbled into the river. However, investigators later noted several inconsistencies: his body showed little decomposition inconsistent with months in cold water, and his costume was remarkably intact. In 2008, Minneapolis police reclassified his death as a homicide. Jenkins's case became one of several cited by investigators Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte in their "Smiley Face Murders" theory — a proposed pattern of young men found drowned in rivers across the Midwest and East Coast, with smiley face graffiti found near the water at many locations. The theory remains controversial. No arrest was ever made in Chris Jenkins's death.