The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office is asking the public to help identify the last victim of Keith Hunter Jesperson, also known as the Happy Face Killer.
Recent DNA advances have gotten investigators closer than ever before to identifying the woman, and authorities said this week that she has ties to Santa Barbara County.
The woman’s body was found on Aug. 30, 1992 along Highway 95, 7 miles north of Blythe, California. Jesperson confessed to killing this woman, who he referred to as “Claudia,” and seven others to a reporter in Portland, Oregon and later to Riverside County deputies.
Investigators have identified the unknown woman’s father as a Santa Barbara resident, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office announced this week.
The man, Alfonso Sandana Gonzales, is now deceased but known to be from Cameron County in Texas, and traveled all over the country including Santa Barbara, Washington and Oregon.
Gonzales is believed to have been living in Santa Barbara at the time of the woman’s conception and could have other relatives in the area, Riverside officials said. Investigators also think the woman’s maternal side of the family has ties to the Louisiana or southeast Texas area.
Several half siblings of the victim have been identified but are not biological matches to the victim’s mother, and could not assist in identification, Riverside officials said.
Jesperson pleaded guilty to the unidentified woman’s murder in Indio on Jan. 8, 2010 and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
Now the Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team, led by investigators from the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, is asking for help to identify the woman.
“Our goal is to identify this victim and provide closure to her family, wherever they may be,” said District Attorney Mike Hestrin in a statement. “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.”
The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office is asking that if anyone has leads, no matter how insignificant they may seem, to report them to the Cold Case Hotline at 951.955.5567 or by emailing coldcaseunit@rivcoda.org.
The office also suggests that anyone who believes they are a relative of people involved in this case, or other unsolved homicides, consider contacting GedMatch for DNA comparison.
