Suzanne Kjellenberg identified as Happy Face Killer’s victim

One of the eight victims of “Happy Face Killer” Keith Jesperson has been identified 29 years after her gruesome death — allowing him to be finally charged with her murder.

Suzanne Kjellenberg, 34, had previously been known only as “Jane Doe,” until genetic genealogy was successfully used to identify her earlier this year, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Tuesday.

Investigators made a surprise visit to the serial killer in prison — where he is already serving four life sentences without the possibility of parole — and he gave a full confession with fresh details, the statement said.

“As of [Tuesday], Jesperson has been charged with the murder of Suzanne Kjellenberg,” Sheriff Eric Aden said.

Kjellenberg’s skeletal remains were found by an inmate work crew in the tree row by the side of Interstate 10 in northwestern Florida on Sept. 14, 1994.

Jesperson — dubbed the “Happy Face Killer” because of the smiley faces he drew on letters bragging about his murderous exploits — first admitted it when he was arrested in 1995, nearly 30 years before Kjellenberg’s ID was discovered.

The eight women he confessed to killing included one he believed was named Susan, Susanne or Suzette, the sheriff’s office said.

The long-haul truck then told investigators in his jailhouse interview last month that he picked up the woman at a truck stop near Tampa in August 1994 and they traveled together to a rest area in the Florida Panhandle.

Jesperson’s truck was parked next to a security guard and his passenger was sleeping on his mattress.

When he sat down next to Kjellenberg, Jesperson said the woman wouldn’t stop screaming.

“Jesperson told investigators he was not allowed to have unauthorized riders in his truck, and didn’t want to draw the security guard’s attention, so he stopped her from breathing by pushing his fist against her neck,” the Florida officials said.

After silencing the woman, he also placed zip ties around her throat, killing her, then dumped her body off Interstate 10.

The remains were determined to be those of a white woman between the ages of 35 and 55, but a clay facial reconstruction made at the time failed to generate any leads.

The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and District One Medical Examiner’s Office would spend the next two decades trying to identify the victim through new facial reconstruction in 2007 and additional anthropological examination of the remains at the University of West Florida the following year.

In 2018, specimens from the body were sent for isotope analysis at the University of Florida, but all in vain.

Then in late 2022, the medical examiner’s office teamed up with Othram, a private company that uses genetic genealogy to help with identification.

In March, specialists at the Texas-based Othram used samples from “Jane Doe” to create a genealogical profile, which ultimately led to Kjellenberg’s positive identification, said Chrissy Neiten, chief investigator with the District One Medical Examiner’s Office.

In September, Florida investigators showed up unannounced at the Oregon State Penitentiary, where Jesperson is serving four life sentences without the possibility of parole, and took down his account of Kjellenberg’s killing, which included new details.

Okaloosa Sheriff Eric Aden stated that Kjellenberg’s family members living in Wisconsin have been notified of her identification “and expressed gratitude for the perseverance of investigators, the Medical Examiner’s Office, and the FDLE.”

Jesperson, now 68, had previously copped to killing eight women between 1990 and 1995 in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Nebraska and Wyoming.