Riverside County DA seeks help in identifying serial killer’s victim

Riverside County officials are asking for the public’s help in identifying a victim of serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, also known as the “Happy Face Killer.”

Using “recent advances in DNA technology,” investigators said they hope to identify a woman Jesperson referred to as “Claudia,” whose body was found on Aug. 30, 1992, along Highway 95 near Blythe but who was never identified.

Jesperson, known as the “Happy Face Killer” because he included smiley faces in his written confessions to law enforcement and the media, met with Riverside County cold case investigators at the Oregon State Penitentiary late last year, and the former long-haul truck driver told them he met her at a brake check area on the 15 Freeway south of Victorville in August 1992.

“The woman asked to be taken to the Los Angeles area, but he refused, and due to his planned truck route to Arizona, took her to Cabazon, California instead. After stopping in Cabazon, the woman decided to continue traveling with Jesperson until they arrived at the Indio/Coachella Burns Brothers rest stop,” the release said. “The two argued about money and Jesperson claims he killed the woman in his truck, then drove his purple semi-trailer from Coachella, California to Blythe, where he dumped her body.”

Jesperson described Claudia as being in her 20s or 30s and about 5 feet 6 inches or 5 feet 7 inches tall.

She was of medium build, weighing about 140 or 150 pounds, and had shaggy blonde hair and was wearing tight clothing, including a T-shirt bearing the image of a motorcycle. She had two small dots tattooed on the left side of her right thumb.

“Based on conversations with Jesperson about his encounter with the victim, it is believed she was living, or at least familiar with the Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside County areas, and had ties to Las Vegas and southern Nevada. She is believed to have been a cigarette smoker and a frequent hitchhiker,” the release said.

DNA testing has shown the woman’s father was from Cameron County, Texas, though he traveled across the country, including to Santa Barbara County, Washington state and Oregon.

“Several half-siblings were identified, unfortunately, these living relatives are not biological matches to the victim’s mother, and so these individuals were not aware of ‘Claudia,’ and cannot assist with her identification. There is reason to believe the woman’s maternal side of the family has ties to the Louisiana and/or southeast Texas area,” authorities said.

“Our goal is to identify this victim and provide closure to her family, wherever they may be,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in a news release. “We are hopeful someone hearing any of these details may remember anything that could help us reunite this woman with the family who may have been looking for her for over three decades.”

Anyone with potential leads, “no matter how insignificant they seem,” is asked to call the cold case hotline at 951-955-5567 or email coldcaseunit@rivcoda.org.

More information from the Riverside County DA on the case can be found here. For Spanish speakers, information can be found here.

Those who may be a relative in this case, or other unsolved homicides, are asked to consider
contacting GedMatch for DNA comparison

In addition to Claudia, Jesperson killed seven other women, he confessed to law enforcement and a Portland, Oregon, news reporter. He pleaded guilty in 2010 and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.