Riverside, California – The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office has launched a public appeal to help identify the final victim of notorious serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, also known as the Happy Face Killer.
Recent advancements in DNA technology have brought investigators closer to identifying the woman, and authorities have revealed that she has connections to Santa Barbara County.
The woman’s body was discovered on August 30, 1992, along Highway 95, 7 miles north of Blythe, California. Jesperson confessed to murdering this woman, whom he referred to as “Claudia,” and seven others. Investigators have now identified the unknown woman’s father as a Santa Barbara resident, Alfonso Sandana Gonzales. Although Gonzales is deceased, his ties to Cameron County in Texas, as well as Santa Barbara, Washington, and Oregon, are under scrutiny.
It is believed that Gonzales was living in Santa Barbara at the time of the woman’s conception, and investigators suspect that her maternal side of the family has ties to the Louisiana or southeast Texas area. Despite identifying several half-siblings of the victim, none of them were biological matches to the victim’s mother and could not aid in the identification process.
Jesperson pleaded guilty to the unidentified woman’s murder in 2010 and was subsequently sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. The Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team is now seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the woman. District Attorney Mike Hestrin expressed hope that sharing these details might jog someone’s memory and lead to the resolution of this case that has spanned over three decades.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office is urging anyone with any 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. They also advise individuals who believe they may be related to people involved in this case or other unsolved homicides to consider contacting GedMatch for DNA comparison. This effort aims to provide closure to the victim’s family and bring clarity to a decades-old case.