Happy Face Killer cold case: Authorities try to identify last of 8 victims
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - Investigators in California are trying to identify a victim of a serial killer, and think she might be from Harris County.
Kieth Hunter Jesperson is known as the ‘Happy Face Killer.’ He got the name from the smiley faces he drew on notes to law enforcement and media.
Authorities say he killed the unidentified woman he called Claudia in 1992 after he picked her up in his truck.
"That's where he strangled her. Once he strangled her, he drove her body to Blythe, California, and dumped her body along the roadside Highway 95," said Ebony Caviness, Senior Investigator Riverside County District Attorney's Office.
She says new advancements in genetic testing showed them that Claudia has ties to Texas, "We saw that she had relatives in Cameron County, Texas, Harris County, and Southeast Texas," she said.
She says they were able to identify her father as Alfonzo Gonzales, who lived in Harris County, but is now dead.
Investigators are hoping that the new renderings of ‘Claudia’ will help anyone with information about her or the case to come forward, so they can shut the decades-old case.
"Part of justice isn't just arresting or identifying the suspect, part of justice is giving the family closure and giving our victims an identity," she said.
If you recognize Claudia or the name Alfonzo Gonzales, you can call the cold case tip line at 951-955-5567 or email
coldcaseunit@rivcoda.org.