The Lost and the Found

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Hunter_Jesperson


Keith Hunter Jesperson




Born Keith Hunter Jesperson
April 6, 1955 (age 61)
Chilliwack, British Columbia,Canada
Other names The Happy Face Killer, Igor, Ig
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment
Spouse(s) Rose Hucke (m 1975–s 1990)
Children 3
Killings
Victims 8 confirmed
Span of killings
23 January 1990–10 March 1995
Country United States, Canada
State(s) California, Florida, Nebraska,Oregon, Washington,Wyoming
Date apprehended
30 March 1995


Keith Hunter Jesperson (born 6 April 1955) is a Canadian Americanserial killer who murdered at least eight women in the United States during the early 1990s. He was known as the "Happy Face Killer" because he drew smiley faces on his many letters to the media and prosecutors. Many of his victims were prostitutes and transients who had no connection to him.

Strangulation was his preferred method of murdering, the same method he often used to kill animals as a child.

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.

Jesperson was upset that he was not getting any media attention. He first drew a smiley face on a bathroom wall (hundreds of miles away from the scene of the crime), on which he anonymously confessed to killing Bennett.

When that did not elicit a response, he began writing letters to the media and prosecutors.

His last victim was his long-time girlfriend, a crime that ultimately led to his capture. While Jesperson has claimed to have killed as many as 160 people, only eight murders have been confirmed.