The Riverside County District Attorney is hoping someone on the Central Coast can help answer the last remaining question in a murder case.
On Aug. 30, 1992, a woman’s body was found in a remote area along Highway 95 north of the small city of Blythe.
Her killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, known as the "Happy Face Killer," is currently serving several life sentences for her murder and the murders of seven other women across the country.
The woman, known only as "Claudia" to investigators, has never been identified, but recent DNA testing has connected her to the Santa Barbara area. That's where investigators say her now-deceased father lived around the time she was born.
He has been identified as Alfonso Sandana Gonzales.
Investigators also determined that "Claudia" has several half-siblings who never knew they had a sister.
“This woman was brutally murdered here in Riverside County. Her remains were dumped on the side of the road, you know, near Blythe, in the desert area of Riverside County and she deserves to have her identity back," Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin told KSBY. "She was a human being, and even though we know her killer, we want to put some effort in seeing if we can identify her to give her back her identity and then perhaps give some closure to anyone who may have loved her.”
"Claudia" is the only remaining unidentified victim of the "Happy Face Killer." Jesperson, who was a long-haul truck driver, was given that nickname because of the smiley faces he drew on confession letters he sent to journalists and police departments around the country.
The unidentified woman was reportedly hitchhiking to Los Angeles when Jesperson picked her up at a truck stop south of Victorville. According to investigators, the two got into an argument after stopping for lunch in Indio. That's when Jesperson killed her, disposing of her body along the side of the road.
Hestrin is hoping artist renderings of "Claudia" may help someone in the Santa Barbara area recognize her.
She is described as white with a fair complexion, between the ages of 25 and 35 years old, 5'7" tall, and with a medium build. She had brown or dyed blond hair and a tattoo of two dots on her right thumb. At the time of her death, she was wearing a t-shirt with a skeleton riding a motorcycle and the words, "Ride Me, Ride Free, California."
Investigators say the woman's father also lived in Texas, Washington, and Oregon, and they believe her mother may have had ties to Louisiana and/or southeast Texas.
Authorities would also be interested in talking to anyone who may have known Alfonso Sandana Gonzales or who he was dating in the 1970s and 1980s.
If you have any information that can help investigators identify the victim, call the Riverside County DA's Cold Case Hotline at (951) 955-5567, or email coldcaseunit@rivcoda.org.
