Happy Face Killer Victim Remains Unidentified

Keith Hunter Jesperson is behind bars in Salem, but police are still trying to identify his last known victim. Jesperson confessed that he killed a woman near Indio, California back in 1992. He also took responsibility for killing seven other women, the first was Taunja Bennett
here in Portland. He also killed Laurie Ann Pentland in Salem, and Julia Ann Winningham near Washougal Washington. His other victims were scattered across California.

He pleaded guilty in 2010 and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin says Jesperson referred to his last victim as Claudia, but police haven’t figured out much else about her. Advances in technology led police to the woman’s biological father, who is now deceased. He was from Texas, but traveled a lot, including to California, Oregon and Washington.

Jesperson described the victim as a woman with shaggy, wild blonde hair, and tight clothing. He said her name was ‘Claudia,’ but that may not be her real name. She was described as about 20 to 30 years old, about 5’6″ to 5’7,” and was of medium build, around 140-150 pounds. She was
found wearing a t-shirt printed with a motorcycle and had a tattoo of two small dots on the left side of her right thumb. A number of sketches have been made of the woman as she may have appeared prior to her death. These forensic approximations were created using a combination
of DNA technology, her remains, and a description by Jesperson himself.

Jesperson is called the Happy Face Killer because he wrote letters to police and the media and added a smiley face to them. He’s from Canada but lived as a child in Selah, Washington.