Victim of the ‘Happy Face Killer’ identified after 30-year mystery

Clara County authorities began reevaulting case in 2019

Patricia Skiple of Colton, Oregon (Clara County Sherif’s Office)

A victim of serial killer Kieth Hunter Jesperson has been identified nearly 30 years after her body was found near a California highway.

On Monday, Clara County authorities said the body of Patricia Skiple of Colton, Oregon, was the woman found in 1993 on California State Route 152.

She was known only as “Blue Pacheco” because of the colour of her clothing, authorities said, but was only recently identified with the help of DNA technology.

Jesperson, who was known as the “Happy Face Killer” because of his smiley drawings to local newspapers, confessed to killing a woman on the same highway along with seven others following his arrest in 1995.

He told authorities in 2006 that he had sexually assaulted and killed an unknown woman near the highway, but her body remained unidentified for years.

Authorities – who reopened the case in 2019 – said the DNA Doe Project, a non-profit organisation that has helped to identify deceased individuals 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.

“This case was exceptionally challenging due to recent Norwegian ancestry which resulted in very distant DNA matches on GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA,” said DNA Doe Project team leader Cairenn Binder in a statement.

“It would not have been possible to solve this case without the dedication of our law enforcement partners at Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office”.

“Patsy,” who would have been around 45-years-old when she was killed, was found on 3 June 1993 on the side of the California State Route 152 iin the San Francisco Bay Area by a trucker.

The cause of her death was listed as undetermined at the time, and according to the DNA Doe Project her death was later found to be from strangulation. She also appeared to have been dumped by the roadside.

Jesperson is currently serving four life sentences for killing eight women between 1990 and 1995 in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Nebraska, and Wyoming.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.