Victim of notorious ‘Happy Face’ serial killer identified after 29 years

Suzanne Kjellenberg was 34 when she was murdered and her body dumped near a Florida highway in 1994

Nearly three decades after she was murdered and her body dumped on the side of a Florida highway, a woman previously known as Jane Doe has been identified as the last established victim of the “Happy Face” serial killer, a man who ruthlessly murdered at least eight women in several states between 1990 and 1995.

Suzanne Kjellenberg, 34, was identified as the woman Keith Jesperson killed in August of 1994, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office announced on Tuesday.

Jesperson, who was known as the “Happy Face” killer because he wrote letters to the media that he signed with a smiley face, is serving multiple life sentences after having confessed to the slayings.

In February 1996, Jesperson admitted to an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office investigator that was responsible for killing a “Jane Doe” in August 1994 and dumping her body near an exit on Interstate 10. He told OCSO Investigator Glen Barbaree that he believed the woman’s name was Susan or Suzette.

Last month, exactly 29 years to the day Kjellenberg’s body was found, investigators visited Jesperson at the Oregon State Penitentiary.

“Jesperson was unaware until that morning of the group’s arrival ... and provided additional details which law enforcement was not previously aware of,” Okaloosa Sheriff Eric Aden said at a press conference this week.

Sheriff Aden said Jesperson repeated the claim that he met Kjellenberg in 1994, when he was working as a long-haul trucker. They then traveled to a rest area in the Florida Panhandle where he parked next to a security guard while she slept in his bed.

Kjellenberg then “began screaming and wouldn’t stop,” according to the sheriff’s office, and since Jesperson said he was not allowed to "have unauthorised riders" in his truck, he said he “stopped her from breathing by pushing his fist against her neck.”

He then “placed zip ties around her throat.”

Suzanne Kjellenberg (OKALOOSA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE)

A prison crew found the woman’s body on 14 September 1994 but at the time, they could only determine that the body was that of a white female who was likely between the ages of 35 and 55.

A facial reconstruction was done in 2007, additional anthropological examination in 2008 and isotope analysis from the remains at the University of Florida in 2018, but no further leads were generated.

Then in 2022, the medical examiner’s office began working with Othram, a private company that “uses genetic genealogy to aid in identification,” Chrissy Neiten, a chief investigator with the office, said in the news release.

Othram used what Neiten described as "forensic-grade genome sequencing” to create a comprehensive genealogical profile of the woman which led to her identification.

Jesperson has since been charged with Kjellenberg’s murder and her family, who live in Wisconsin, has been notified.

“Thanks to the tireless efforts of so many over so long, the remains of Suzanne Kjellenberg, the final unidentified victim of Jesperson’s cross country murder sprees, can finally leave the Medical Examiner’s Office and return home,” Sheriff Aden said.

Jesperson is currently serving four life sentences for the killings, which took place in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Nebraska and Wyoming.

Patricia Skiple, another victim of the “Happy Face” serial killer (Clara County Sherif’s Office)

In 2022, another victim of Jesperson’s was identified nearly 30 years after her body was found near a California highway in 1993.

Patricia Skiple of Colton, Oregon, was known only as “Blue Pacheco” because of the colour of her clothing, authorities said, before she was identified with the help of DNA technology.

Jesperson confessed to the murder in 2006, admitting in a letter to the county district attorney’s office that he had sexually assaulted and killed a woman in the area. Her identity, though, remained a mystery.

Authorities who reopened the case in 2019 said the DNA Doe Project, a non-profit organisation that has helped to identify remains using forensic genealogy, was instrumental in solving the mystery behind the woman. The process involves matching a relatives’ DNA with that of the deceased person.

Skiple, who was known as Patsy and would have been around 45 years old when she was killed, was found by a trucker on 3 June 1993 on the side of the State Route 152 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The cause of her death was listed as undetermined at the time, but according to the DNA Doe Project her death was later found to be from strangulation.