The Chilling Story Behind the 1999 Smiley Face Murders Jesperson met 21-year-old Bennett in a bar in Portland, Oregon. The last known sighting of the Duquesne University graduate student was caught on asurveillance camera in the downtown area. Questions Smiley Face Killers: The Hunt for Justice Hopes to Answer, A First Look at the Murder of Susan Berman. Santa. Pavlinac made this false statement because she wanted to escape her abusive relationship with Sosnovske. One of the things about my dad - which made me very uncomfortable as a young woman - was that he was very explicit about his sexual relationships. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. After a series of letters are sent to the press, the killer earned the moniker, the Happy Face Killer. He was caught after killing his 41-year-old girlfriend, Julie Ann Winningham, in 1995. I thought, 'Oh my God, it felt like I put my mother in jail.'". [13] Police originally considered her death a drug overdose. She previously claimed to the FBI that he was a wanted bank robber and frequently complained to Sosnovske's probation officer that he was drinking too much. He met the developmentally disabled Bennett while out drinking and convinced her to go to his house. "Madonna, that's what she listened to all day," White said. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more!
THE HAPPY FACE K!LLER - KEITH HUNTER JESPERSON #storytelling Jespersons fifth victim was known only as Susanne, whom he met in Crestview, Florida. Jesperson's first known victim was Taunja Bennett on 21 January 1990, near Portland, Oregon, United States. Victim 1: Taunja Bennett. After the body of his first victim, Taunja Bennett, was found, media attention surrounded Laverne Pavlinac, a woman who falsely confessed to having killed Bennett with the help of her abusive boyfriend, John Sosnovske. Homan was the eighth accidental drowning case in La Crosse over a nine-year period. "I don't think she was in love with him. A smiley face had been spray-painted on a tree near where Geib's body was found, and a smiley face sticker was later placed on his gravesite. When investigators asked him why he decided to come forward, Jesperson listed two reasons. When that did not create the attention he desired, he wrote letters to media outlets and police departments confessing to his murders, starting with a six-page letter to The Oregonian in which he revealed the details of his killings. [32] The series had 12 episodes.
'Happy Face' Serial Killer Victim Identified Nearly 30 Years After Her After Jesperson was in custody, he provided the location of Bennett's purse, which only the killer would know.
10 Twisted and Unbelievable Facts About the Happy Face Killer Sosnovske pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty. , 24, disappeared on January 19, 2008 from a bar in Woodlyn, Pennsylvania. In reality, smiley face is a joyous symbol to convey happiness and joy, which is used everywhere from message chatting to letters to wall decoration in our daily lives. Sosnovske was brought in for questioning and denied any involvement. The Santa Clara County Sheriffs Department announced on Tuesday that, using genetic genealogy, they were able to identify a body found in 1993 as Patricia Skiple of Colton, Oregon. Keith Hunter Jesperson was born in 1955 in British Columbia, Canada and is a serial killer. On April 23 in Hamburg and the following weekend in Dusseldorf, the bodies of young men were retrieved from waterways. On January 1, 2000, Northern Illinois University junior. [5] This continued as he got older. "He went off into the woods with her," Pavlinac told investigators. He had a relationship with his final victim and became a suspect after her body was discovered in March 1995. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. "Just so many bad things that happened in her life that I think, I don't know, it caused her to kinda snap or something," McAlpine said.
Keith Hunter Jesperson Now: The Happy Face Killer Today - Heavy.com Skiples remains were found on the side of California State Route 152 in the Gilroy area about 80 miles southeast of San Francisco in June 1993, in an area known as Pacheco Pass. Halfway through the game, Hurley called hisfiance, ClaireMahoney, pictured above, and said he wanted to leave. According to police reports, one dog later hit on an an SUV owned by a local band member, who had played a show at the bar the night of Homan's disappearance, but the K9 alert was inconclusive. "The greatest human tragedy is that Laverne Pavlinac derailed the investigation in 1990, and in four years, Keith Jesperson killed more women," said Jim McIntyre, the Multnomah County, Oregon, prosecutor who handled the cases. Dr. Laura Pettler, along with her partner in crime-fighting, Melissa Moore, are taking a deep dive into murder cases in the upcoming podcast, "Life After Happy Face." "Life After Happy Face" is a follow-up to Moore's "The Happy Face Killer" podcast, which followed the case of Keith Jesperson, a serial killer who wreaked havoc in the Pacific Northwest during the 1990s. Jespersons second victim, known only as Claudia, was found murdered on August 30, 1992 in Blythe, California. This led police agencies in several states to reopen old cases, many of which were found to be possible victims of Jesperson. Jesperson worked as a truck driver to support the family. He was a 21-year-old student at Fordham University, and his body was found in. And she [said], 'Well, they told me I had to tell you thisbecauseif I told you then they would believe me,'" Carpenter said. Julie Winningham is seen here in this undated photo. In. After a night of barhopping, Homan headed home at around 10 p.m. with a friend. A victim of the "Happy Face Killer" has been identified nearly 30 years after her body was left near a California highway, authorities said Monday. Gannon and Gilbertson also notedthe body appeared to have been staged three sticks were strategically placed around his body, and there were shoe and drag marks in the soil. [27] In November 2014, she wrote an article about her father for the BBC.[28]. [6] Although Jesperson was not successful with girls in high school, having never even attended a school dance or his prom, he did enter into a relationship after high school. He was sentenced to life in prison while Pavlinac was sentenced to no less than ten years, much more than she had anticipated. She had changed her story so many times that investigators said they wondered if she was telling the truth. [2] Jesperson's father was a domineering alcoholic; according to Jesperson, his paternal grandfather was prone to violence. A smiley face was paintedon a wall of the bar under a deck. She maintains a very private lifestyle, so not much is known about her. Victim 4:Laurie Ann Pentland, 26. 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. Many of his victims were sex workers and transients who had no connection to him. If you need help or need help supporting someone else, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. Skiples remains were found on the side of. Jesperson sent the photo to the Duquesne University students. Some of his victims, as seen in this timeline, have never been identified. In 1975, when Jesperson was aged 20, he married Rose Hucke, and the couple had three children: two daughters and one son. Victim 6: Florida Jane Doe. They divorced in 1989. Here's what the evidence says. California State Route 152 in the Gilroy area about 80 miles southeast of San Francisco in June 1993, in an area known as Pacheco Pass. ", This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 19:00. Her sister Michelle White said Bennett was the only one in their family who graduated from high school, someone who read a lot and loved music.
Duct tape in the car, dead kittens hanging from the - The Sun Her body disintegrated against the hot asphalt as he drove. Her body was found after his arrest. After Jesperson came forward in March 1995, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder charges for Bennett and Winningham of Camas, Washington, his last known victim. They believed his body traveled for almost 10 miles and even went through a dam before its discovery. James' parents later hired a private investigator who organized a massive citywide search, which led tothe discovery of James' bodyin the Ohio River on March 6, 2017, 40 days after he had disappeared. ABC News/YouTube By Jean Mendoza / June 8, 2021 9:24 am EST Keith Hunter Jesperson is a serial killer who claimed the lives of eight women between 1990 and 1995. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. . He would often get into trouble for behaving badly, sometimes violently, and would be severely punished by his father. Murderous Keith Hunter Jesperson became known as the Happy Face Killer for his boasting letters to police, signed with a smiley face. Jesperson claims that her name was Susanne. The night of his disappearance, Geib made several calls from his cell phone. She changed her story again, this time to say she too was involved in Bennett's death. He split from his wife in 1990 after 15 years of . that, using genetic genealogy, they were able to identify a body found in 1993 as Patricia Skiple of Colton, Oregon. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. His death was ruled an accidental drowning, andthe autopsy report noted"acute alcohol intoxication was a major contributing factor.". Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! That letter-writer turned out to be. While he has claimed to have killed many more people, officials can only confirm that Jesperson killed eight women between 1990 and 1995 in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Nebraska and Wyoming. Keith Hunter Jesperson (born 6 April 1955) is a Canadian-American serial killer who murdered at least eight women in the United States during the early 1990s. Now 66, Jesperson is serving five non-consecutive life sentences in Oregon's state penitentiary. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Gannon, Duarte, Donovan and Gilbertson claim an organized group of serial killers would drug unsuspecting victims at a bar or party then abduct, hold and torture the victims before finally killing and dumping the bodies in water. In September 2009, Jesperson was indicted in Riverside County, California, on murder charges; he was extradited in December 2009. In the majority of the cases, the victims were successful students and athletes who disappeared after a night out drinking with friends, and they were ultimately found dead in a body of water. According to Jesperson, Pentland attempted to double the fee she charged for the sex he had been engaged in with her.
The Happy Face Killer: Mind of a Monster - IMDb [11] Jesperson gives the Jane Doe's name as Claudia. M. William Phelps penned a memoir about his interactions with Jesperson: Dangerous Ground: My Friendship with a Serial Killer (2017). Jesperson was a middle child, with an older sister and brother and a younger sister and brother. He later claimed his intention was to kill the boy. "I [had] seen all these tracks and all this and that. In March 2018, she was featured in an episode, titled "Put on a Happy Face", of the Investigation Discovery true crime series Evil Lives Here. The term "Smiley Face Killers" come from the graffiti smiley faces supposedly found at the crime scenes. Angela Surbrize was the name of Jesperson's second-to-last victim. The day of his disappearance, Homan had been celebrating Oktoberfest with his friends. Jesperson met 21-year-old Bennett in a bar in Portland, Oregon. "[Julie] was beautiful inside as well as outside. The Pittsburgh police theorized James fell into the river while crossing a bridge near the city center and drowned. [00:02:05] Hi, everyone. A television movie, Happy Face Killer, starring David Arquette as Jesperson, aired in 2014. [4] Because of this, Jesperson was a shy child, content to play by himself much of the time. Keith Hunter Jesperson (born April 6, 1955) is a Canadian-American serial killer who murdered at least eight women in the United States during the early 1990s.
Keith Hunter Jesperson - Wikipedia In the summer of 1992, Jesperson met "Claudia" at a truck checkpoint in California. Her daughters are still trying to understand why their mother did what she did, and why she didn't see another way to end the relationship.
'Happy Face Killer' Victim Identified 30 years After Body Found Near [17] He was convicted of another murder and received a fourth life sentence in January 2010. [3], Treated like an outcast and a black sheep by his own family and teased by other children for his large size at a young age, Jesperson was a lonely child who showed a propensity for torturing and killing animals. In 1990, shortly after his marriage ended, Keith Jesperson, a long-haul trucker from Selah, Washington, began killing women. . That this never happened. Before his arrest, he also wrote a letter to his brother that admitted, "I am sorry that I turned out this way. Pavlinac then confessed to her. [10] Jesperson soon realized that this job afforded him the opportunity to kill without being suspected. [20], On 7 January 1996, more than five years after their conviction, Pavlinac and Sosnovske were released from prison after Jesperson and his attorney offered his confession with convincing evidence of his guilt. The Smiley Face Killers. Dubbed the Long Island Serial Killer or the Craigslist Ripper, the extent of these unsolved crimes is still unknown. "Then it becameserious,a seriousargument. Jesperson described murdering her, like other women he killed, as putting her out of her misery.. About two weeks after he went missing,Booth's body was foundfacedown in a creek behind the bar. One day, she watched, horrified, as he hung stray kittens from the family's clothesline. A "witchy" smiley face left at a murder site of the supposed "Smiley Face Serial Killer" seems to represent Charlie Manson.
The Untold Conspiracy Of The Smiley Face Murders - Grunge.com Some of his victims, as seen in this timeline, have never been identified. The Santa Clara County Sheriffs Department. He introduced himself to Bennett at a bar and invited her to a house he was renting. T he Smiley Face death toll continues to climb, this time in Germany. Safety in numbers is the name of the game, before, during and after a night out on the town. All drowned after getting intoxicated. Jesperson murdered another woman in August 1992 at a Turlock, California truck stop. All Rights Reserved. Buddy up at all times. After he raped and strangled her, Jesperson dumped her body near the Columbia River Gorge, outside Portland. According to former detective Kevin Gannon and Dr. Lee Gilbertson, when Booth was found, his body was in full rigor mortis, which normallydissipates within 24 to 36 hours after death. She was a previously-unidentified woman named Patricia Skiple,[12] who, he claimed, was named "Carla" or "Cindy". Kreuger, Peggy; Kendra Justice & Amy Hunt (March 2006). Daughter of the infamous 'Happy Face' serial killer, Melissa Moore, and leading female Forensic Criminologist, Dr. Laura Pettler, unearth chilling details from homicide case files in this weekly true-crime series which tells the actual stories of people who shared their lives with a killer or their victims. In these supposed "Smiley Face" serial killings, popular, high-achieving, athletic young men (i.e. In both cases, and as per usual . Punched her, slapped her. While he has claimed to have killed many more people, officials can only confirm that Jesperson killed eight women between 1990 and 1995 in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Nebraska and Wyoming. Pavlinac told investigators during her last recorded statement on Feb. 26, 1990. Jesperson, who was born in British Columbia in 1955 and moved to the US when he was 12, kept on killing until he was caught in 1995. . Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. Pavlinac and Sosnovske were both arrested on 5 March 1990 and both were convicted of the murder on 8 February 1991. You could tell where people had been in and out, the vehicles and everything else, limbs broke.
His blood-alcohol concentrationwas only 0.08 percent. California 'Happy Face Killer' victim identified after 29 years By Associated Press 8:06am Apr 20, 2022 A victim of the Happy Face Killer has been identified nearly 30 years after her body was left near a California highway, authorities said this week. In the majority of the cases, the victims were successful students and athletes who disappeared after a night out drinking with friends, and they were ultimately found dead in a body of water. [15], Although Jesperson at one point claimed to have had as many as 160 victims,[16] only the eight women killed in Washington, Oregon, California, Florida, Nebraska, and Wyoming have been confirmed. California investigators have identified a victim of the West Coast's notorious "Happy Face Killer" nearly 30 years after her body was discovered near a highway in 1993, officials recently . 45 colleged-aged males across a 20-year span. A smiley face was found spray-painted near where Homans body was found. RUIN SMILEY'S DAY: Follow these tips to minimize the danger of vanishing into thin air one night and ending up another unsolved "drowned" statistic: 1. At age 35, Keith was 6'7.5" tall and weighed 240lbs. Watch the full story on "20/20" THIS FRIDAY at 9 p.m. [18], Early in the investigation of Bennett's murder, Laverne Pavlinac read the news reports surrounding Bennett's death and saw it as an opportunity to force an end to the long-term abusive relationship she had been in with her live-in boyfriend, John Sosnovske.
The 'smiley face' murder theory: They didn't - Mysteriesrunsolved He has said he strangled her because she wouldn't let him sleep. , 32, was found dead in September 1992. A smiley face was found spray painted on an underpass near where James body was discovered. The body of 23-year-old Taunja Bennett was found in this remote woodland near the Columbia Gorge in 1990. The Smiley Face Killers. One of Welzien's friends, Nick Young, stayed behind. Geib's remains also had very little signs of decomposition, which would have been present if he had died the day he went missing 22 days before the recovery of his body. And just like his British counterpart, the police denied . Various witnesses outside the hotel saw Welzien vomiting in the street. "She was very giving.
California 'Happy Face Killer' victim ID'd after 29 years - Yahoo! He strangled her and left her corpse in Oregon. When contacted by sheriffs detectives, he said he had gagged her with duct tape, raped her in the sleeping cab of his rig and strangled her, reported the Spokesman-Review.
Killing Killers: 10 tips for eluding the Smiley Face killers His death was ruleda probable drowning, and there wereno signs of trauma. And they were laughing," Pavlinac told investigators. Her body was discovered behind the Blueberry Hill Cafe in Turlock, California. I wanted to get those two people out of prison," he said in 1995, referring to Pavlinac and Sosnovske. I'llgo to the pen. The Insane Details of the Smiley Face Killers Theory; The Most Recent Alleged Smiley Face Killers' Victims Highlight How Long This Theory Has . Laverne Pavlinac convinced investigators she and John Sosnovske had killed Taunja Bennett, when they hadn't. According to Jesperson, after he killed his fifth victim in 1993 he managed to stave off murderous urges for more than a year by committing arson while on the road as a trucker. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. Authorities came to believe they had convicted the wrong people. Sometimes they even brag about it. [1], At a very early ageas young as fiveJesperson would capture and torture animals. His brother gave this letter to law enforcement. I think that she was at a bad place in her life," said her daughter Darlene Carpenter. "[He said] I better not open my mouth. For now it remains only a theory that has yet to be proved. But a few days later, they got another call from Pavlinac. [1] The man said "99 Nashua Street, and Hurley said his cell phone battery was going dead. He never made it home. When she recanted, Pavlinac said she falsely confessed because she was stuck in a volatile relationship with Sosnovske, desperately seeking a way out and wanting him in prison. During his depraved spree, Jesperson taunted authorities with anonymous confessions signed with a smiley face. Today, we're finishing our look at Keith Jesperson, the twisted murderer otherwise known as the Happy Face Killer. Many of his victims were sex workers and transients who had no connection to him. Soon after his injury was when Keith started to kill. When she arrived, however, he was nowhere in sight. His last known victim was a woman he dated, which led to his capture and, During his depraved spree, Jesperson taunted authorities with anonymous. Jesperson has said that he took 166 lives, but only the above eight murders have been attributed to him.