Add The California Post on Google A 34-year-old mystery surrounding the Happy Face Killer has finally been cracked.
The last unidentified woman tied to serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson has been identified as Lydia Jane Wade McWhorter, Riverside County prosecutors announced Thursday.McWhorter’s remains were discovered Aug. 30, 1992, along Highway 95, roughly 7 miles north of Blythe. For decades, investigators knew her only as “Claudia.”
Jesperson, who earned the Happy Face Killer nickname after reportedly sending taunting letters to authorities and the media marked with smiley faces, confessed to killing her.After being arrested in another case, he admitted the killings to a news reporter in Portland, Oregon.
He later told Riverside County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Jan. 8, 2010, that he had killed McWhorter and seven other women.According to investigators, Jesperson met McWhorter while working as a long-haul truck driver.
She wanted to go to the Los Angeles area, but Jesperson refused. Since he was headed toward Arizona, he took her to Cabazon instead.
She continued traveling with him until they reached the Indio/Coachella Burns Brothers rest stop.
Jesperson claimed an argument over money erupted inside his truck and ended with him killing her. He then drove his purple semi-trailer from Coachella to Blythe and dumped her body.
McWhorter was described as being between 20 and 30 years old, with shaggy, wild blonde hair and tight clothing.
She was wearing a T-shirt with a motorcycle printed on it and had a tattoo of two small dots on the left side of her right thumb.
Investigators created several sketches of what she may have looked like before her death, but her identity remained a mystery.That finally changed after the Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team appealed for information in 2024.
DNA technology and genetic genealogy helped investigators locate relatives on McWhorter’s paternal side.
They still needed a maternal connection to make the identification.
A new lead brought detectives to a direct maternal relative. A DNA sample collected earlier this week confirmed the match.McWhorter had reportedly disappeared from Texas in the 1990s and her sisters spent decades not knowing what happened to her.
“I want to thank the public for the role you play in our investigations,” said Billy Hester, Supervising Investigator of the Cold Case Unit. “When people take the time to share information, submit a tip or simply pay attention to what is happening in their community, it can make a real difference. You may not know where a piece of information will lead, but our investigators will follow it. Most importantly, I hope this will finally bring closure to Lydia’s family.”The District Attorney’s Office is now working with McWhorter’s family as they decide how to lay her to rest.
Her identification closes the final case connected to the murders for which Jesperson was convicted.
Jesperson has eight confirmed victims killed between 1990 and 1995 in Washington, Oregon, California, Florida, Nebraska and Wyoming. He once claimed to have as many as 160 victims.
He is currently serving multiple life sentences in Oregon.
