The Riverside District Attorney’s Office is asking the public to help identify a woman murdered in 1992.
The woman, a hitchhiker, was murdered by Keith Jesperson Aug. 30, 1992. Jesperson confessed to the murder, as well as seven others, and identified her as Claudia.
The DA’s Office says Claudia might not be her real name.
Jesperson has been imprisoned in Oregon since 1995, and pleaded guilty to the murder Jan. 8, 2010. He is now serving multiple life sentences.
“We are hoping that someone, anyone, might recognize her and be able to provide some information that could help with identifying her in this case. Even the smallest piece of information could be the key in bringing this person’s identity to light,” said Riverside District Attorney Michael Hestrin.
She was in her 20s and was about 5 feet, 7 inches tall, the DA’s Office said. She was likely to be from the Riverside, San Bernardino or Los Angeles areas. She had naturally brown hair that she dyed blonde and wore shaggy. She had a tattoo of two small dots on the left side of her right thumb. Investigators believe she was a frequent hitchhiker and cigarette smoker.
The DA’s Office made renderings of her face to help identify her.
Investigators identified her deceased father who was from Cameron County, Texas, but traveled to Santa Barbara County, Washington State and Oregon, the DA’s Office said. Her half-siblings were identified, but had no knowledge of her and were not matches to her mother. Investigators believe her mother’s family might have had ties to Louisiana or southeast Texas.
Jesperson said he killed the woman during an argument about money, and dumped her body in Blythe, according to the DA’s release.
The woman is Jesperson’s last unidentified murder victim, Hestrin said. On Oct. 3, Florida’s Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office identified a woman Jesperson murdered in 1994 as Suzanne Kjellenberg. The Sheriff’s Office used genetic genealogy to help identify her.
Another victim was identified as Patricia Skiple in April 2022, SFGate reported. Skiple was found on the side of State Route 152, near Gilroy.
Jesperson is known as the Happy Face Killer because he signed himself as “Happy Face”—along with a drawn smiley face—in confession letters he sent to police and media.
“I always have wanted to be noticed like Paul Harvey front page etc. So I started something I don’t know how to stop,” he wrote in one letter. In the letter, he continued to confess to raping and killing Sonya Bennett.
The DA’s Office says tips can be submitted to 951-955-5567, or by email to coldcaseunit@rivcoda.org. People who believe they might be related to her, or to other unsolved homicide victims, can submit their DNA to GedMatch.
