Madison Meeks

Editor-in-Chief

mvm7037@psu.edu

OKALOOSA, FLORIDA – Investigators have identified an eighth victim of the serial killer Keith Jesperson, who is known as ‘Happy Face’ killer who was at large in the 1990s.
According to Fox News, on Tuesday, the Okaloosa sheriff’s department announced that they have identified one of the victims as 34 year old Suzanne Kjellenberg. They identified her nearly 30 years after an inmate worker discovered her body off Interstate 10 in 1994. In 1996, Jesperson told investigators, a year after he was arrested, that along with the seven other victims he had killed an unknown woman in 1994 whose name was “Susan”.
Jesperson was named ‘Happy Face’ killer by the media after he had sent letters to them detailing what he had done. Each letter had a smiley face at the bottom of the page. He committed his crimes while he was a long hall trucker across state lines.
In an interview with authorities, Jesperson states that he met Kjellenberg at a rest stop. She had told him that she was heading to Lake Tahoe and needed a ride there. He stated that they rode together all the way to Georgia and had a meal together. As they began to drive to Florida together, they had stopped at a rest stop. Kjellenberg had began to scream when he sat next to her on a mattress in the trucker’s lounge. Since she was screaming, Jesperson claims that he decided to kill her. He then dumped her body off Interstate 10.
Othram began working with the police so that they could identify the body that was found on the interstate. Authorities have announced that Jesperson is being charged with the murder of Kjellenberg.