Keith Jesperson, known as the “Happy Face Killer”, born in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, is a serial killer who was active during the 1990’s. He earned his nickname because he often drew smiley faces on letters he sent to the media and law enforcement, taunting them about his crimes.
Jesperson has claimed to have murdered about 166 people across several U.S. states, including Oregon, Washington, California, Wyoming, and Florida, but only 8 victims have been confirmed. His crimes typically involved picking up female hitchhikers or sex workers while travelling America’s highways as long-haul rig driver, often raping and strangling them to death and disposing of their bodies in remote locations.
NAME: Keith Hunter Jesperson
OTHER NAMES / ALIAS: Happy Face Killer
BORN: April 6, 1955
COUNTRY: Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada
VICTIMS: 8 confirmed
CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS: 7 consecutive life sentences
IMPRISONED AT: Oregon State Penitentiary
WHERE IS Keith Jesperson NOW?
- Received 7 concurrent life sentences.
Jesperson is currently serving his life sentences at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. In a November 2023 podcast interview, he claimed to be pen pals with Rex Heuermann, the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer, and stated he was trying to convince Heuermann to confess. Jesperson remains in contact with several media personalities, journalists sharing his thoughts and reflections. He spends a significant amount of time creating artwork. Some of his pieces have appeared on “murderabilia” websites, which sell items related to notorious criminals.
- On April 4 2024: Jesperson pled guilty to the murder of Suzanne Kjellenberg – charged with one count of homicide
- Earliest release date: March 1 2063
CRIMES COMMITTED
Keith Jesperson claimed to have murdered 166 people across several U.S. states, including Oregon, Washington, California, Wyoming, and Florida, but only 8 victims have been confirmed:
Taunja Bennett (1990)
- Location: Oregon
- Details: Taunja Bennett was Jesperson’s first confirmed victim. He met her at a bar in Portland Oregon. After an argument he beat, raped and strangled her, then dumped her body in the Columbia River Gorge. Laverne Pavlinac falsely confessed to assisting in the murder of Taunja Bennett implicating her boyfriend John Sosnovske. They both were convicted. Pavlinac and Sosnovske were exonerated years later after Jesperson confessed to Bennett’s murder in 1995.
“Claudia” (1992)
- Location: California
- Details: The last unidentified victim, whom Jesperson refers as “Claudia” was found north of the city of Blythe in Riverside County. She was hitchhiking when was picked up by Jesperson at the truck stop in Victorville area. He raped, strangled her and tied her up with a duct tape, disposing her body on the highway 95 near Blythe.
Cynthia Lynn Rose (1992)
- Location: California
- Details: Cynthia Lynn Rose was a sex worker whom Jesperson met in California. He later claimed that Rose tried to rob him while he was sleeping. Her body was found near truck stop in Turlock, California.
Laurie Ann Pentland (1992)
- Location: Oregon
- Details: Laurie Ann Pentland was a sex worker Jesperson met. He alleged that Pentland tried to double charge him for sex which led him to killing her. Her body was found in Salem, Oregon.
Patricia Skiple (1993)
- Location: California
- Details: nearly 30 years later an unidentified woman body that was found by the side of a Bay Area highway finally has a name. They met at a truck crop in Corning north of Gilroy.
Suzanne Kjellenberg (1994)
- Location: Florida
- Details: Jesperson confessed to killing an unidentified woman in Florida, but her identity remained a mystery for three decades. He met Kjellenberg at a truck stop near Tampa. She was strangled and had zip ties around her throat. Her remains were found along Interstate 10 in September 1994 in Florida, Okaloosa County. In October 2023 she was identified.
Angela Subrize (1995)
- Location: Washington
- Details: Jesperson met Angela Subrize at a bar in Spokane, Washington. After spending some time together travelling in his truck he ended up strangling her. Later he remembered that he let her use his credit card. To avoid implicating himself he dragged her body underneath his truck face down for 12 miles getting rid of all identification. He left her remains in Nebraska.
Julie Ann Winningham (1995)
- Location: Washington
- Details: Julia Ann Winningham was Jesperson’s girlfriend. They were dating before he killed her in March, 1995 reasoning that she only wanted his money. Her friends knew that she was dating a guy named Keith which led investigation straight to him. This is when he confessed to other murders.
CAPTURE & INVESTIGATION
Keith Jesperson was arrested on the 30th March 1995 for the murder of his girlfriend, Julia Ann Winningham. Jesperson didn’t cooperate at first with the detectives. He was detained for more than six hours but wouldn’t talk. Lacking concrete evidence they released him. A couple of days later he wrote two letters, one to his brother and another one to his children. In the letter to his brother he revealed that he’s been murdering women for the last 5 years. Later that day he confessed to the murder of his girlfriend. The letter to his brother was turned over to the police. Eventually Jesperson confessed to other murders including the murder of Taunja Bennett. He led police to Bennett’s purse and knew other details about the crime that weren’t revealed to the public. As a result Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske were exonerated for their wrongful convictions in the case and subsequently released from prison.
At the time some of his victims were unidentified. Only decades later detectives using DNA analysis and genetic genealogy were able to identify more women he had killed. But to this day one woman who Jesperson referred to as Claudia remains unidentified.
TRIAL & CONVICTIONS
In October 1995, Keith Jesperson pleaded guilty to the murder of Julie Winningham and was sentenced to life in prison.
Later that same year, in November 1995, he entered a no-contest plea for the murder of Taunja Bennett and received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after a minimum of 30 years.
For the murder of Laurie Ann Pentland, Jesperson was again sentenced to life in prison.
In 1998, he was convicted in Wyoming for the murder of Angela Subrize and received another life sentence, which was ordered to run consecutively to his existing life sentences in Oregon and Washington.
In 2007, Jesperson pleaded guilty to the murder of Patricia Skiple (who was unidentified at the time of her death).
In 2009, he was indicted for murder in Riverside County, California, and was extradited to face charges related to the death of Claudia (last name unspecified).
Most recently, in 2024, Jesperson pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Suzanne Kjellenberg, adding yet another conviction to his long list of crimes.
Throughout these proceedings, Jesperson has remained incarcerated, serving multiple life sentences with no possibility of release.
Jesperson also claimed responsibility for the murders of several women, including:
- Bobbie in Oregon (October 27, 1992)
- Lynn in Nevada (January 1993)
- Susan in Oklahoma (January 1993)
- Linda in Washington (March 1993)
- Sunny in Arizona (April 1993)
- Jane Doe in Idaho (April 1993)
- Jane Doe in California (May 1993)
- Jane Doe in California (July 1993)
- Jane Doe in Arizona (September 1993)
- Carrie in Idaho (November 1993)
- Karen in Georgia (February 1994)
- Carol in Nevada (February 1994)
- Jane Doe in Nebraska (October 1994)
- Jane Doe in Iowa (February 1995)
- Jane Doe in Indiana (February 1995)
Additionally, he mentioned other victims whose names or locations he could not recall. In total, Jesperson claimed to have committed at least 160 murders across the United States. He told the media that he confessed to these crimes because his guilty conscience was troubling him. However, much like Henry Lee Lucas before him, Jesperson later recanted most of these confessions, casting doubt on the validity of many of his claims.
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REFERENCES / CITATIONS:
1. Yahoo: Happy Face Killer: Who Is Keith Hunter Jesperson and What Did He Do? – Jan 19, 2024
2. Forensic Lab: The Fifth Victim of the Happy Face Killer Finally Gets Her Name Back – Apr 20, 2022
3. CNN: A trucker killed women in six states. Investigators say they’ve identified his last victim – Oct 7, 2023
4. Daily Mail: Canadian ‘Happy Face Killer’ reveals he strangled eight women to put them ‘out of their misery’ and says he ‘exploded’ on his first victim because she acted like his ex-wife, in unseen interview footage – Oct 13, 2021
5. People.com: Where Is Keith Hunter Jesperson Now? Inside the Happy Face Killer’s Life Decades After His 5-Year Murder Spree – Mar 10, 2025
BOOKS ABOUT Keith Jesperson
Shattered Silence: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer’s Daughter
For over a decade, Melissa kept her family’s shameful secret. Locked in silence, she felt her innocence slip away as she slowly uncovered the truth about her father’s violent past. And she told no one.
“I”: The Creation of a Serial Killer
In February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovke and Laverne Pavlinac for the vicious rape and murder of Taunja Bennet, a troubled twenty-three-year-old barfly who had a mild…
TV SHOWS & DOCS FEATURING Keith Jesperson
Mind of a Monster S1:E7 – The Happy Face Killer
Detective Rick Buckner has to prove Keith Jesperson is the serial killer known as Happy Face Killer, guilty of murdering a woman in 1995, and has to make sure he is apprehended before he kills again.
TV Series / Documentary | 2019
ID
Monster in My Family S1:E1 – Happy Face Killer: Keith Jesperson
Melissa Moore–daughter of Keith Hunter Jesperson, infamously known as the “Happy Face Killer” tells her own personal story as the daughter of a serial killer. The episode reveals shocking behind-the-scenes accounts of what it was like growing up with a father who…
TV Series / Documentary | 2015
LMN
World’s Most Evil Killers S5.E4 – Keith Jesperson: The Happy Face Killer
A profile of the serial killer Keith Jesperson, whose chilling confession letters to the media and prosecutors were signed off with smiley faces.
TV Series / Documentary | 2017
Snapped: Notorious – S1.E34 – Notorious: Happy Face Killer
A married father of two (Keith Hunter Jesperson) starts a killing spree after his wife leaves him. The Happy Face Killer strangled eight women to death in his murderous career, dumping each of their bodies along the side of the road as a truck driver.
TV Series / Documentary | 2017>
OXYGEN
20/20 – S45.E5 – Sincerely, the Happy Face Killer
A woman frames her boyfriend for murder and implicates herself, but the real culprit is a serial killer;
Documentary / News show | 1978>
ABC
MORE ARTICLES ABOUT Keith Jesperson
A selection of articles about Keith Hunter Jesperson, sourced and curated from around the web:
Keith Hunter Jesperson, AKA the ‘Happy Face Killer,’ pleads guilty, gets life in prison
WKRG | Author: Pat O’Donnell | 5 Apr 2024
Daughter of ‘Happy Face’ serial killer reveals how she found duct tape in his truck’s sleeper cabin and how he hanged and tortured her kittens when she was five
Daily Mail | Author: Louise Boyle | 6 Nov 2014
