#SMILEY FACE KILLER VICTIMS SERIAL#

Jesperson is currently serving a sentence of life without parole at the Oregon State Penitentiary. While he has claimed to have killed as many as 185 people, only eight murders have been confirmed. Jesperson's last victim was the crime that ultimately led to his capture. When that did not elicit a response, he began writing letters to the media and authorities. Upset that he was not getting any media attention, Jesperson drew a smiley face on a bathroom wall hundreds of miles from the scene of the crime and wrote an anonymous letter confessing to Bennett's murder, providing proof. Strangulation was Jesperson's preferred method of murdering, the same method he often used to kill animals as a child.ДЄfter the body of his first victim, Taunja Bennett, was found, media attention surrounded Laverne Pavlinac, a woman who falsely confessed to having killed Bennett with the help of her abusive boyfriend, John Sosnovske. Many of his victims were sex workers and transients who had no connection to him. He was known as the 'Happy Face Killer' because he drew smiley faces on his many letters to the media and authorities.

#SMILEY FACE KILLER VICTIMS SERIAL#

'We're going to keep fighting.Keith Hunter Jesperson (born April 6, 1955) is a Canadian-American serial killer who murdered at least eight women in the United States during the early 1990s. 'We believe we're onto something,' she said. Piehl, who said the connected deaths may number as high as 80, said they will keep investigating even though these cases have already been deemed closed. 'I think that's where these boys are falling through the loops,' he said. Szostak, who said his son could speak fluent Swahili, Arabic and Russian, said he understands that budgets are tight for municipal police departments and that it's easy to write off the deaths of young men who were found in the water after a night of drinking. 'I think the local police have done a fair job,' she told 'Good Morning America.' 'But they're not looking for the link.' Though the FBI declined to comment, local police departments maintain that the deaths were accidental and that they are not connected.Д«ut Piehl insisted that if the police would work together, they would see the similarities. Their goal is a federal investigation and a fresh look at the cases. Szostak is now working with investigative reporter Kristi Piehl and they are connecting the dots with dozens of other parents who believe their sons are also victims. But outside the bar, a few minutes later, he is staggering and bending down unable to remove his sweat shirt. In the bar, Josh appears to be lucid and relatively sober. Szostak said he saw surveillance tapes of his son that night inside the bar in Albany and insists it contains evidence that his son was drugged and murdered. 'It definitely screams homicide,' Szostak told 'Good Morning America.' 'Not an accidental death.' When looking for a personal item near the spot authorities believe Josh went into the water, he found it - a smiley face. When police ruled Josh's death an accident, Szostak, a retired fire investigator, went to work. His body was later found in the Hudson River. He was last seen with college buddies at an Albany, N.Y., bar. And it looks to be the work of more than one person because there have been strikingly similar deaths and smiley faces in numerous cities and states, some in a relatively short time span, they assert.Д«ill Szostak's son Josh went missing in December 2007. In city after city, the two detectives claim they found a smiley face painted somewhere at the crime scene, what they believe to be a sick signature claiming responsibility. 'They can't be a coincidence or coincidences,' Duarte said. Most of the men were last seen by friends leaving a bar or a college party. Perfect, he said, because the water washes away physical evidence and there never seemed to be any witnesses. 'It is almost a perfect crime,' Duarte said. It also became the reported connection to other suspicious drownings in 11 states in the opinions of retired NYPD detectives Anthony Duarte and Kevin Gannon. Their causes of death have been blamed on drunken accidents - except one.Д¬hris Jenkins, a University of Minnesota student, was found dead in 2003 and was the only one whose cause of death was changed to homicide. At least 50 men in 11 states have been found dead in the last 10 years, though no police department has said that the cases are connected.

Smiley face killer victims