At A Glance
Name(s) of victim(s) + age(s): Joseph William Smedley II, 20
Date(s) of crime(s): Sunday, September 27, 2015
Location of crime(s): Indianapolis, Indiana; found deceased
Perpetrator(s): unknown
Relationship to victim(s): MA
Crimes in sum: Joseph William Smedley II, a 20-year-old multitalented college student in his sophomore year at Indiana State University, disappeared after a night watching the blood moon with his fraternity brothers. A few days later, his body was found floating in a lake close to campus. When he death was ruled a suicide, Vivianna Brenas, Joseph’s sister, felt something wasn’t right, and she continues to advocate for his case to be reopened.
Getting To Know Joseph Smedley II
It seems like there was nothing too challenging for Joseph William Smedley II. The 20-year-old Indiana University student succeeded at whatever he put his mind to.
From the time Joseph began wearing his first pair of glasses, his family called him “the little professor,” and it fit his personality. Born on March 17, 1995, Joseph, who was living in Indianapolis, Indiana, was in his sophomore year of college at Indiana University at Bloomington, about an hour away from home. He was studying biochemistry as a pre-pharmacology student and dreamt of working in pharmaceuticals to support the research and discovery of life-saving medicines.
While attending school, Joseph worked part-time as a painter and for a moving company. He was also member of the IU chapter of the Sigma Phi fraternity and lived off-campus with two of his fraternity brothers, identified only as Jake and Ben. Joseph lived in a different off-campus apartment shortly before his death, but he broke his lease to live with his fraternity brothers. It’s been said that Joseph felt pressured to make this move and it cost him $500 to break the lease. When Joseph rushed for the fraternity as a freshman, his grades slipped and he often spoke of being tired. Now in his sophomore year, his grades were on track to recover.
Joseph was born to parents Dr. Joseph Smedley Sr. and Laura Smedley. The Smedley’s divorced when Joseph was around 10 years old and he became estranged from his father. At 20 years old, Joseph hadn’t spoken to his father in about five years and he also wasn’t on good terms with his mother, who lived in the Virgin Islands. In high school, Joseph moved in with the family of a friend and he also lived with his older sister, Vivianne Bernas.
Joseph had three siblings: a younger, half-sister Gisselle, an older brother and his older sister Vivianne. He was particularly close with both sisters, especially Gisselle. Vivianne is steadfastly advocating for the reopening of Joseph’s case.
Throughout his childhood and leading up to college, Joseph expressed interests in many areas and went on to excel in them all. He was a whizz in reading and math, a skilled swimmer and martial artist, and he played sports, including soccer. In middle school Joseph joined the school band where he played the trombone and in high school he joined the school’s jazz band, recording at least one CD and participating in concerts and solo performances. Joseph loved jazz and planned to travel to New Orleans to experience the city’s historic music scene. He also joined the wrestling team in his sophomore year of high school and wrestled varsity.
At home, Joseph took up an interest in cooking and began asking family members for family recipes and to borrow cookbooks. He even had his very own chef’s hat and jacket with “Chef Joseph” embroidered on it, given to him by a friend of his father’s.
Joseph was described as a positive person to be around and a good friend to have. He was funny, determined and smart. He knew how to set goals for himself and achieve them.
So the odd manner in which Joseph’s body was found and the way the case was handled by the Bloomington Police Department suggest something different than the picture painted by investigators. Let’s dive into why that is.
Leading Up To Joseph’s Disappearance
It was Sunday, September 27, 2015, sometime between 7-8 pm, and Joseph was at a nearby restaurant, Noodles & Co., with six or so of his Sigma Phi fraternity brothers.
That night the fraternity brothers planned to observe the supermoon lunar eclipse, known as a “harvest moon” or “blood moon.” It was chilly with a low-temperature of 41-degrees Fahrenheit and it rained throughout the week, so the ground was still damp. When it was time to go, Joseph grabbed his binoculars and the young men headed out. The eclipse took place from 10:11-11:23 pm. The fraternity brothers claimed their view was obstructed by cloudy skies, so they ended the outing early. The men allegedly returned to the fraternity house—this is different from the apartment where Joseph lived—around 11 pm, which is the last time any of them saw Joseph.
From 11 pm to 4 am that night, no messages were sent or received to Joseph’s phone. Then around 4:15 am, Joseph’s sister Vivianne received a text that Joseph was “leaving the country.” The text read:
“Viv I love you. I’m leaving the country. By not telling you why I’m keeping you safe and protected. Please don’t try to contact me at this number, it won’t work. I’ll contact you once I’m set up overseas. Thank you for everything viv, i love you. And im sorry.”
It was so bizarre and out of character that Vivianne responded lightheartedly, taking it as a joke. She reminded her brother to pay for his apartment. But when Vivianne didn’t hear from him all day, she contacted Indiana University Campus Police and asked them to do a wellness check on Joseph.
Joseph promised Vivianne previously that he would handle the $500 balance she paid for him to break his apartment lease. Vivianne cosigned on the apartment, so she was responsible for paying the balance and was in the process of purchasing a home, so she wanted to maintain good-standing credit. Joseph also made plans to hang out with a female friend and attend a party with her that Thursday. There was no mention of taking a trip.
Vivianne was worried and with good reason. This wasn’t like Joseph.
Joseph didn’t have a passport. He also didn’t bring anything with him. He didn’t pack his laptop, tablet or phone charger into a backpack, or throw together a bag of clothes and shoes. His jacket was still hanging where he’d left it. Everything was left as if Joseph planned to return—all except for a handwritten note asking his loved ones not to contact him. But Joseph’s loved ones don’t believe he penned this note. Vivien told WTHR that it’s not written in her brother’s handwriting. The note read:
“Had to leave country. Don’t try to contact me via cell it won’t work. will contact you once set up overseas.”
The note was signed “Smedley,” which is what Joseph’s fraternity brothers called him, but not what his family called him. The letter was written haphazardly with the words running overtop the page lines and the style did not depict Joseph’s natural handwriting. The note also wasn’t presented to authorities for several days, which includes when the fraternity brothers were initially questioned. (If someone is missing and they left behind a note, isn’t that the first thing you want to show to investigators?) Next to the note sat a check worth the $500 Joseph owed for his housing.
Joseph was not depressed. He didn’t have a history of mental illness or suicidal attempts. He never took off and disappeared before, and it was especially odd that he contacted his sister to state he was leaving the country in the middle of the night, and then turned up deceased a few days later. Joseph’s plan, or the plan that was painted for him, didn’t add up.
When campus police first responded to Vivianne, they told her they found Joseph and he was in jail on a battery charge. Startled because this was so unlike him, Vivianne followed up, only to learn that Joseph had not been arrested, but someone else by the name of John Smedley.
At the same time, Joseph’s fraternity brothers allegedly spoke about his absence amongst themselves. He wasn’t at the fraternity meeting on Saturday morning, which prompted Joseph’s roommates to go into his room to look for him; this is supposedly when they discovered the note Joseph left. On September 30, Indiana University tweeted a missing person’s poster of Joseph.
Vivianne traveled to Indianapolis to visit Joseph’s apartment and search for clues herself. She also spoke directly with his fraternity brothers, who presented her with the note.
The Discovery
On Friday, October 2, 2015, about five days after Joseph disappeared, two fisherman discovered a body floating in shallow water in Griffy Lake around 7 pm. The area was heavily wooded and 3.5 miles north of, or a 45-minute walk from, the main Indiana University campus. The body was identified as Joseph’s the following day.
Joseph’s body was floating face-up in three feet of water. He was found wearing a backpack filled with 66 lbs. of rocks strapped to his chest. He was also wearing a school backpack on his back that contained a few papers, a laptop charger and an external hard drive. Joseph had binoculars around his neck, likely from when he went to see the blood moon. He also had on jeans and a sweater, socks and shoes, and his wallet was still in his pocket. Joseph’s cell phone was later found at another location. The autopsy revealed that Joseph had THC and alcohol in his system.
When Vivianne received the news of her brother’s death, she was eating at a local restaurant in town with two friends—a detective and a prosecutor—and suddenly saw police cars rushing down the street. With a sinking feeling in her chest, Vivianne called one of the detectives involved in her brother’s case, who claimed that all was fine. She then drove to Griffy Lake and observed an area blocked off with yellow police tape. She knew.
Still, detectives alleged they didn’t have any information to share with Vivianne. They later called her inquiring about dental records and if Joseph had ever been fingerprinted. Now in the company of her two friends, they tried to guide her into an understanding of what these questions insinuated. Vivianne was called down to the precinct, where she saw one of Joseph’s roommates. When she received the heartbreaking news, she was utterly shocked.
The ‘Investigation’—If You Can Call It That
The case initially stalled when the Bloomington Police Department presented the information on Joseph’s case over to his father, Joseph Smedley Sr., who Joseph was long estranged from. It was only after Joseph’s mother signed over power of attorney rights for Joseph to Vivianne that Vivienne was provided any details.
As the investigation began, investigators learned that Joseph was known to spend long hours in the library studying and doing work. However, although he signed up for his fall semester classes, Joseph’s teachers said he wasn’t attending them. (It’s unknown as to whether this detail is associated with the case.)
The last pinged location of Joseph’s phone was in the Griffy Lake area. This area was also where the fraternity brothers observed the blood moon, which makes it probable that Joseph was in this general vicinity throughout the night.
However, at 4:15 am, after the unusual text was sent, Joseph’s phone pinged to the corner of Seventh and Walnut Streets, a distance that takes one hour and seven minutes to walk from Griffy Lake. Then at 4:45 am, Joseph’s phone pinged again, now around the bridge area of Griffy Lake. The locations of Joseph’s phone suggest that he (or his phone) made the trip in a half-hour, which would have been impossible without a vehicle. What’s more, is Griffy Lake is an unlit, wooded area, and the walk there is about a mile; a venture that most people wouldn’t feel comfortable walking at night and alone.
Joseph had a vehicle but it wasn’t working. Handed down to him from Vivianne, he didn’t keep up with maintaining the car and it stopped running a year earlier. These details suggest there was a vehicle involved, but it’s unknown as to whose it was.
At 6:30 am, Joseph’s cell phone pinged for the final time at North Walnut Street between Old State Road 37, which is right outside Griffy Lake. After that, it was turned off. And even though Joseph’s phone pinged in this location, scent dogs were unable to track him here. It seems more likely that Joseph wasn’t there physically, but only his phone.
Joseph’s body was found in about three feet of water. Not only was Joseph 5′ 7″ and he could have easily stood up, but he was also an excellent swimmer and would not have trouble keeping himself afloat. (These details indicate to me—a regular person with no professional legal experience, that he was either killed and then placed here, and the rocks were used to weigh down his body, or he was placed elsewhere and floated to this location. If you think this is a common-sense assumption, you’ll soon learn it’s not.)
Another stall in the case involved the mishandling of Joseph’s body. Investigators placed Joseph’s body in the body bag with his clothes on, so they never removed his clothing for evidence. It was all thrown in the bag. With precious evidence already lost due to long-term exposure to water, this discrepancy stripped the body of evidence even more.
An Unexpected Coroner’s Report
Much of the debate surrounding this case also has to do with the coroner’s report, which lists drowning as Joseph’s cause of death to drowning, unknown. Two months later, the ruling was changed to suicide by way of drowning. Monroe County Coroner Nicole Meyer also determined that no foul play was suspected in Joseph’s death.
Disagreeing with the findings, Joseph’s family hired a third-party agency to conduct another autopsy on his body. This second autopsy revealed that Joseph had bruises on his body, specifically hemorrhaging on his back, that were consistent with forcefully being held down. This second autopsy concluded that Joseph’s death was a homicide, not a suicide.
When the second autopsy was conducted, the autopsy technician tried to get in touch with the Bloomington Police Department, but received no response. There were some unknown details that would be important in determining what happened to Joseph. In an episode of the podcast, “So Mean, Allegedly,” which covered this case and featured Vivianne, she noted the backpack that was strapped to Joseph’s chest, and how it was unknown whether the backpack itself was in front or back of Joseph, and if only the straps were across his chest. This information might determine a reason for the bruising on Joseph’s back, as blood pools after death, producing a bruise-like appearance. Because of the lack of response from the Bloomington Police Department, this information cannot be confirmed.
Where Is The Case Now? Six Years Later
In 2020, Vivianne started a petition that called for the Bloomington Police Department to reopen Joseph’s case. So far, the petition has received nearly 121,000 signatures with a goal of 150,000 signatures. Sign the petition here. Vivianne also created a GoFundMe with a goal of raising $10,000 for the family to hire a forensic pathologist to conduct a second autopsy. Although the autopsy was conducted, the forensic pathologist remains unable to finish the report until the Bloomington Police Department shares photos and additional details about how the body was found. Without this information, the report remains at a standstill.
Despite the family’s ongoing and tireless efforts to advocate for the truth behind Joseph’s death, investigators have yet to reopen it.
”Mr. Smedley’s cause of death was determined to be drowning by the Monroe County Coroner’s Office and the manner of death was determined to be suicide,” Public Information Officer for Bloomington Police Ryan Pedigo said in a statement. ”There is no further investigation being completed in that case.”
Vivianne continues to push for #JusticeForJoseph, but it’s been a tough road. She has had several attorneys who agreed to help and then became “spooked” and backed out. One attorney even dropped out the day before a hearing due to “conflict of interest.”
“I really hope that somebody realizes that this is a whole life,” Vivianne said in an interview with Indiana University. “You know, people go through college and they just meet a lot of people and they think this is just a person, but it’s not. He had a whole life and a family, and a huge amount of friends, and impacted so many people in the community more than anybody realized.”
My-Two-Cents Corner ↴
There are a few theories on what happened to Joseph, but there’s only one I agree with. And please note that the content in this section contains my opinion only.
The theory I believe is the one Vivianne is pushing officials to consider: that Joseph died, either accidentally or by way of force, while he was observing the blood moon with his fraternity brothers. Whether it was intentional or unintentional, as I stated, is unknown. I personally don’t have enough personal experience with fraternities or sororities to know what goes on behind closed doors there, so I can’t speak on that. But this is the outline of what I generally believe happened that night.
The second coroner’s report and the presence of Joseph in shallow water and despite him being a skilled swimmer, suggest that his death either occurred as a result of force; perhaps he was held underwater or he was hit or ambushed, which impaired his response. The 66 lbs. of rocks in the backpack fastened to Joseph’s chest seem like a poor last-minute attempt to weigh Joseph’s body down and make it possible to argue as a suicide. I don’t necessarily believe they thought he wouldn’t be discovered, as the weight wasn’t enough to submerge Joseph’s body. I don’t really know what that was about other than a measly attempt. When I think hard about this case, sometimes I even question whether there were real plans to observe the blood moon.
Here’s what I think happened that night…
Joseph’s body indicated he had alcohol and THC in his system. I imagine this means that after Joseph and his fraternity brothers finished eating at Noodles & Co., they went back to the frat house, had a few beers and smoked some marijuana together. It was a Friday night after all. (I’m curious to know what Joseph’s pinged locations were for the entire night, not just 11 pm and after.)
When they were feeling good and relaxed, I believe they sent out for the blood moon. Something happened during this time, and I believe that a text was sent to Vivianne’s phone from an individual who wasn’t Joseph. I believe Joseph may have already been deceased by the time the text was sent.
I think signing the letter “Smedley,” being that Joseph didn’t refer to himself this way, was also a clear giveaway that he didn’t pen the note himself. As for Joseph’s cell phone, I believe it was turned off and possibly thrown or discarded somewhere so it couldn’t be used to retrieve additional evidence, like fingerprints, from the perpetrators. I think all this also explains why the text message and the note read similarly, and those who may have been present present when the text was sent and where the note was found.
My beliefs about what happened that night are based on my research on this case, but when I think about the possible motives for something like this, the conversation switches to speculation. There’s simply not enough information to prove a motive that’s based in fact, at least not one that’s present in media coverage. However, based on the details about what happened that night, I believe this was the lead-up to Joseph’s death. The fact that Joseph’s death was ultimately ruled a suicide makes me curious as to whether someone involved is connected to the Bloomington Police Department.
It’s also important to note here that the Sigma Phi chapter at Indiana University was actually suspended by the national Sigma Phi Society in 2021 through 2023 for hazing, endangering others, dishonest conduct and failure to comply with university and county directives. Considering the possibilities of what could have happened in this case, I think the chapter’s suspension speaks to the kinds of behaviors that are regular occurrences there. This could have been a situation of hazing gone too far and causing Joseph’s fatal outcome.
I think the decision to declare the death of Joseph Smedley II a suicide doesn’t make sense.
I’m not only speaking from the parameters of my own mind, but from both a statistical and human behavioral standpoint.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022 data shows that 1% of people who commit suicide do so by way of drowning, though it’s slightly more common in older adults.
As humans, we are biologically programmed with a survival instinct. We are designed to do whatever we can to survive. We have a built-in fight or flight instinct. Withstanding the physical pain associated with drowning, and forcing one’s self to do so in three feet of water where it is possible to find safety in an instant, goes against this primary instincts Further, with Joseph in a good headspace and on a positive track in general, and without a history problematic behavior, the crime doesn’t align with who he was as a person. I believe Joseph was died in the vicinity of Griffy Lake, though I’m not exactly sure how, and that his body was subsequently dumped in the lake.
Thank you for reading and please continue to advocate for the reopening of Joseph Smedley II’s case. It’s been almost seven years since this happened and there’s still no #JusticeForJoseph. Please help spread awareness on the effort to change that.
References:
- Indiana University student reported missing – 13WTHR
- Case of missing IU student found dead now a death investigation – 13WTHR
- Coroner rules IU student’s death suicide – IndyStar
- Joseph Smedley’s sister speaks up about brother’s death – IDS News
- Family of former IU student seeking new death investigation – 13WTHR
- Petition to re-open 2015 case of IU student’s alleged suicide gets tens of thousands of signatures – WRTV
- Unresolved Mysteries, Joseph Smedley – Reddit
- Fraternity cover up: Joseph Smedley + Unsolved* We Need Justice Now* – YouTube, Leya Nicole
- Justice for Joseph Smedley – YouTube, “So Mean, Allegedly”