Happy Face serial killer victim who was dumped on the side of Florida highway in 1994 is identified as Suzanne Kjellenberg, 34, a hitch-hiker who was murdered while making her way across the country

A sixth victim of serial killer Keith Jesperson – nicknamed the “Happy Face Killer” – was identified Wednesday as a 34-year-old woman who was hitchhiking across the country when she was brutally murdered in 1994.

Jesperson, 67, of British Columbia, Canada, killed at least eight women while traveling on U.S. highways as a long-haul truck driver in the 1990s. He earned his fame by sending gratifying confessions to police and journalists and signing them with a smiley face.

On Wednesday, authorities in Florida were able to identify Suzanne Kjellenberg as one of Jesperson’s victims, using forensic technology and DNA evidence.

Her body was discovered on September 14, 1994 near an Interstate 10 exit in Holt, Florida.

Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden revealed that Jesperson admitted to killing the woman in the mid-1990s – and had previously said her name was Suzanne – but that he could not properly identify her.

‘He has a phenomenal memory. Right down to specific exit numbers,” said senior researcher Kelly Henderson.

The Othram Inc. DNA technology provided helped them confirm it was Kjellenberg.

“A family member gave a sample and it became a 100% DNA hit for Suzanne Kjellenberg,” Aden said.

Her family, who live in Wisconsin, requested privacy, according to investigators.

Jesperson was arrested in 1995 on suspicion of murdering a woman in Washington state and was dubbed the Happy Face Killer because he drew smiley faces on letters he sent to the media and police, prosecutors said.

He would eventually confess to killing eight women between 1990 and 1995 in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Nebraska and Wyoming. is currently serving four life sentences without the possibility of parole in Oregon.

During his reign of terror, the Happy face Killer Jesperson mostly targeted prostitutes and homeless women – raping them before strangling them with his bare hands.

In 2021, Jesperson detailed his heinous crimes in Oxygen’s Snapped Notorious: The Happy Face Killer.

He claimed that his first memories of violence were being beaten with a belt by his father, who seemed to enjoy the abuse. Despite his difficult upbringing, he found a partner and started his own family.

In 1975, the then twenty-year-old married his wife Rose Huck, and they had three children. However, Huck later suspected that he was unfaithful, and their marriage began to crumble.

Huck shut him down sexually, according to Jesperson, who claimed to Phelps that his marital problems had fueled his future murders.

‘My wife always said, ‘Just stick it in the keyhole. Just leave me alone,” he recalled. “It really struck me, kind of like, you know, what the heck, I don’t need this.”

The couple finalized their divorce in 1990 after fifteen years of marriage, and he admitted to Phelps that he was “very angry with women” at the time.

That same year he was dumped by his new girlfriend, who left him for another truck driver. To get over the breakup, he went to the B&I Tavern in Portland, Oregon in January 1990.

“Then I met (Taunja) Bennett,” Jesperson said of his first known victim, who was 23 when he raped and murdered her after convincing her to come home with him.

Jesperson killed Bennett, 23, in January 1990 after meeting her at a bar near Portland, Oregon.

He invited her back to a house he was renting, where they had sex. He then beat and strangled her and went back to a bar to drink more and provide himself with an alibi.

He later returned to the house, tied Taunja’s body in the front seat of his car and disposed of it before leaving town.

Three months later, Jesperson met Daun Richert-Slagle, a 21-year-old mother of three who became the only known victim to survive an attack.

The truck driver waited more than two years before striking again in 1992, raping and strangling a woman near Blythe, California. She still has not been identified, but Jesperson said her name was Claudia.

His killing spree then escalated – a month later he raped and strangled a prostitute Cynthia Lyn Rose in Turlock, California.

The following month he murdered a fourth woman, also a prostitute, named Laurie Ann Pentland of Salem, Oregon. He claimed to have strangled her because she tried to double the amount she wanted for sex and threatened to call the police.

His fifth victim, an unidentified “Jane Doe” who lived on the streets of Santa Nella, California, was discovered in July 1993. Police initially thought she had suffered a drug overdose.

In January 1995, Jesperson picked up a 21-year-old hitchhiker, Angela Subrize, whom he offered to drive from Spokane, Washington, to meet her boyfriend in Indiana.

During the journey, he raped and strangled her, then tied her body face down to the undercarriage of his truck so that her face and prints would be ground away as he drove along the road.

The killer was finally caught in March 1995 after strangling his longtime girlfriend Julia Ann Winningham, 41, who he claimed did not love him but only wanted his money. She was the only victim he could be linked to. The rest are believed to be strangers.

Jesperson initially refused to talk to police and attempted suicide twice. He then turned himself in, hoping for leniency during his trial.

He confessed details of his murderous history while in custody, but later recanted much of it. At one point he claimed to have had as many as 160 victims, but so far only eight have been confirmed.