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THE daughter of a notorious serial killer has relived the raw moment she learned her truck driver dad was in prison for heartlessly murdering women.
Then-teenager Melissa Moore was left in heaving sobs when she unraveled the dark truth about her “Happy Face Killer” dad, Keith Hunter Jesperson.
In 1995, when Moore was a senior in high school, her mom pulled her and her two younger siblings aside to deliver the unbelievable news, she told Time Magazine.
At the time, the family was living at her grandmother’s house in Spokane, Washington, four hours east of Seattle, and her parents were divorced.
The teen knew that something was wrong when her mom called for a family meeting, but nothing could have prepared her for what came next.
“I had a cot and a cellar area that I designated as my bedroom. I just remember going in there, throwing myself on the cot, crying and trying to picture what happened,” she said.
“Is this really true?”
Moore’s dad had been arrested for murdering his girlfriend and divulged to detectives that he was the evasive Happy Face Killer.
Jesperson had earned the bone-chilling title by taunting detectives as he serially murdered and raped women in the early 1990s.
After committing the sick acts, he would leave a gloating confession letter for police and the media – and each one was signed with a smiley face.
Now, Jesperson is serving multiple life sentences in Oregon after being convicted of murdering at least eight women, but he’s claimed to have killed as many as 185.
Jesperson’s dark story is being dramatized in Paramount+ crime thriller series Happy Face, which was produced by Moore.
The fictional series follows a grown-up version of Moore, played by Annaleigh Ashford, who is working as a talk show make-up artist when her serial killer dad, played by Dennis Quaid, reaches out to her.
The disturbed dad demands to reconnect with his daughter, and if she does his bidding, he’ll share details on his ninth murder victim.
Moore intends for the series to capture the “toxic entanglement” she was wrapped in with her father, as she says he emotionally exploited her in their back-and-forth interactions until she cut him off in 2004.
“There was always a reason why my dad would say something to me, and I always felt that my father wanted to get my guard down and open my heart, so then he would manipulate that,” she said.
“I think they [Ashford and Quaid] really embodied what it would be like to be in that type of relationship.”
SICK CRIMES
Jesperson trapped most of his victims by targeting hitchhiking women who agreed to get in his truck for a free ride.
He then would often rape, beat, and strangle them before dumping their bodies.
The killer started flaunting his crimes after someone else took ownership of his first murder – the killing of Taunja Bennett in January 1990.
Jesperson met 23-year-old Bennett at a bar near Portland, Oregon, and she later came to his home. Then, the two got into an argument, and he beat, raped, and strangled her.
An urgent investigation was launched, and the victim’s remains were found days later with a rope around her neck.
Then, a woman with a history of making false statements to the police told cops that she had murdered the woman at the orders of her abusive boyfriend.
The couple was convicted of Bennett’s killing, and he was furious. From then on, he gloated about each murder with a sick smile.
Jesperson later recanted his admission that he’d killed over one hundred women, so the total number of his victims remains a mystery.
Who are the Happy Face Killer’s victims?
KEITH Hunter Jesperson once claimed to as many as 185 women, but he’s only been charged for eight killings.
Here are the victims who died at the psychotic hands of the Happy Face Killer.
- Taunja Bennett – Bennet was 21 years old when she met Jesperson near a bar in Portland, Oregon, on January 21, 1990, and went home with him. At his house, the two got into an argument before Jesperson raped and strangled her to death.
- California Jane Doe – This unidentified victim, known only as Claudia, was murdered on August 30, 1992. She met Jesperson at a truck stop in Blythe, California, and he gave her a ride. Then, he duct-taped her mouth and hands, raped her, and strangled her to death.
- Cynthia Lyn Rose – Rose, 32, was found dead in September 1992 behind a cafe in Turlock, California. Jesperson claims she was a sex worker who climbed into his truck, so he killed her.
- Lauri Ann Pentland – Pentland, 26, was a sex worker who was murdered in November 1992 and her body was discarded in Salem, Oregon. Jesperson claims he murdered her when she tried to charge him double for sex.
- California Jane Doe – This second unidentified victim was found dead on a roadside rock pile in Santa Nella, California. Jesperson confessed to killing her but didn’t remember any details.
- Suzanne Kjellenberg – Kjellenberg, 34, was a hitchhiker traveling across America when she met Jesperson in Florida. Her body was found one month after she was killed.
- Angela Subrize – Subrize, 21, met Jesperson in a bar in January 1995, and she agreed to get in his truck for a ride. He murdered her and then strapped her body beneath his big rig to conceal her identity.
- Julia Ann Winningham – Winningham briefly dated Jesperson before he killed her after believing she was after his money. Because of their relationship, cops were able to link the murder to him and unravel his other killings.
MOORE’S FUTURE
Brave Moore has reclaimed her traumatic past by becoming a voice for other subjects of notorious crimes.
She’s worked hard to shine a light on other true crime stories, producing TV projects like The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, Jodi Arias: The Friends Speak, and Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up.
Plus, she’s spoken with over 100 children whose parents had committed murder to help them cope with the horrifying news.
“When I came forward with my story, I started getting emails – ‘I’m just like you’ – and I really validated my experience,” she said.
“I started to see that we all had a similar experience in the emotion range. We all had denial. The five stages of grief were really real for us.”
The survivor is married with two adult kids and plans to move to Italy with her husband, Steve Kenoyer, to restore a fixer-upper home.
Season one of Happy Face premiered on Thursday and is available to stream on Paramount+.
