‘Happy Face Killer’s’ Victim Identified Nearly 30 Years After She Was Found Dead

For nearly 30 years, authorities knew her as “Jane Doe.”

To the man who allegedly admitted suffocating her and dumping her body along a Florida interstate, "Happy Face Killer" Keith Jesperson, she was “Susan” or “Suzette.” Now, she has her name back.

Suzanne Kjellenberg has been identified as the woman whose skeletal remains were found by an inmate work crew September 14, 1994 near the Florida Panhandle community of Holt, authorities said in a Tuesday news release, announcing new charges against Jesperson.

“Thanks to the tireless efforts of so many over so long, the remains of Suzanne Kjellenberg … can finally leave the Medical Examiner’s Office, and return home,” said Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden.

Kjellenberg, 34 when she was killed, was one of eight confirmed victims of Jesperson’s coast-to-coast murder wave from 1990 to 1995. He became known as the "Happy Face Killer" for his penchant for drawing smiley faces on attention-seeking confession letters he sent to authorities and news outlets.

The 68-year-old serial killer — who claimed he has killed as many as 160 people — is serving a life sentence in Oregon and has now been charged with Kjellenberg’s murder, too.

Jesperson, who found his victims while working as a long-haul trucker, previously told investigators that he picked up a woman at a Tampa-area truck stop in August 1994, and drove her to a rest area in the Panhandle, according to authorities. He said that he knew her only as “Susan” or “Suzette.”

At the rest area, Kjellenberg fell asleep in Jesperson's bed, he said. When Jesperson sat down next to her, she woke up and started to scream.

Worried that Kjellenberg’s screams would draw the attention of a nearby security guard, Jesperson pushed his fist against her neck, stopping her from breathing, he allegedly told authorities. He also allegedly said that he later put zip ties around her throat.

Jesperson then drove along Interstate 10, dumping Kjellenberg’s body near the exit to Holt, an unincorporated community about 170 miles west of Tallahassee, he allegedly told investigators.

The next month, an inmate work crew found Kjellenberg’s skeletal remains among a row of trees near the exit, officials said.

After his arrest in another slaying, Jesperson confessed in February 1996 to dumping a victim’s body in the area, according to authorities.

But decades of forensic testing and facial reconstruction failed to produce any leads about the woman’s identity.

Authorities’ fortunes began to change last year, when they started working with Othram, a Texas-based company that uses “Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to develop comprehensive genealogical profiles,” said Chrissy Neiten, Chief Investigator with the District One Medical Examiner’s Office.

Testing conducted with funding from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System revealed a genetic profile that “produced leads that led to Suzanne Kjellenberg’s identification,” Neiten said during Tuesday.

Last month, investigators visited Jesperson unannounced at the Oregon State Penitentiary, where he recounted his earlier confession, according to authorities.

Though Kjellenberg was described by authorities in Tuesday’s release as the last of Jesperson’s confirmed victims to be identified, the killer’s second known victim remains officially unidentified.

Jesperson has said that he knew that woman, whose body was found on August 30, 1992 near Blythe, California, as Claudia.