Serial killers final victim identified as chilling California mystery solved after 34 years

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 detect...