Edhat Staff
Riverside County Detectives Identify Victim’s Father as Alfonso Sandana Gonzales who Lived in Santa Barbara
The Riverside County District Attorney is hoping the Santa Barbara community can help solve a decades-long cold case.
Recent advances in DNA technology have allowed cold case investigators to come the closest they’ve ever been to identifying the only remaining unidentified victim of serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, known as the “Happy Face Killer.”
In response to two people taking credit for a murder he committed, Jesperson wrote a confession on the bathroom wall of a truck stop and signed it with a smiley face. He then wrote letters to media outlets and police departments confessing to his murders, including a letter to The Oregonian in which he revealed the details of his killings. Jesperson signed each letter with a smiley face leading a journalist to dub him the “The Happy Face Killer.”
Although Jesperson at one point claimed to have had as many as 160 victims, only the eight women killed in Washington, Oregon, California, Florida, Nebraska, and Wyoming have been confirmed.
The unidentified woman’s body was found on Aug. 30, 1992 along Highway 95, approximately seven miles north of the city of Blythe, California. Jesperson referred to the woman as ‘Claudia’ but she was never positively identified so it’s unclear if that was her real name.
He pleaded guilty to the murder of the identified woman in Indio on Jan. 8, 2010, and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Adding another life sentence to his already three consecutive life sentences at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.
Investigators have now identified the unknown woman’s father as a former Santa Barbara man due to improvements in forensic science allowing investigators and genealogists to determine some familial relatives, including her biological father, who is now deceased.
Several half-siblings were identified, unfortunately, these living relatives are not biological matches to the victim’s mother, and so these individuals were not aware of ‘Claudia,’ and cannot assist with her identification. However, at the time of her probable conception, the woman’s father, Alfonso Sandana Gonzales, was living in Santa Barbara, so it is possible that she may have relatives who also lived in that area. There is also reason to believe the woman’s maternal side of the family has ties to the Louisiana and/or southeast Texas area.
“Our goal is to identify this victim and provide closure to her family, wherever they may be,” said Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin. “We are hopeful someone hearing any of these details may remember anything that could help us reunite this woman with the family who may have been looking for her for over three decades.”
The Riverside County DA’s Office is calling on the community to contact our investigators with any additional leads that will grant dignity to the victim and answer long-asked questions from her family.
Any leads, no matter how insignificant they may seem, can be reported to the Cold Case Hotline at (951) 955-5567, or by emailing coldcaseunit@rivcoda.org. For example, those who may have known the woman’s father, or who he was dating in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.
If you believe that you are a relative in this case, or other unsolved homicides, please consider contacting GedMatch for DNA comparison.
