'Happy Face Killer' Bay Area murder victim finally identified

SFgate ^ | April 18, 2022 | Andrew Chamings

[BenLurkin]

The Jane Doe, known only as "Blue Pacheco" by authorities, has now been identified as Patricia Skiple of Colton, Oregon.

On June 3, 1993, Skiple's body was found on the side of California state Route 152 in unincorporated Gilroy. She was 45 years old at the time of her death.

In 2019, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office partnered with the DNA Doe Project to attempt to identify the body via investigative genetic genealogy.

“This case was exceptionally challenging due to recent Norwegian ancestry which resulted in very distant DNA matches on GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA,” said DNA Doe Project team leader Cairenn Binder in a statement.

[gnarledmaw]

I know what some of you are thinking and almost said it myself but this is the “Happy Face Killer” not the “Smiley Face Killers”.

[PghBaldy]

There was a made for TV movie about this serial killer, starring David Arquette.

[Tupelo]

Keith Hunter Jesperson?

Any relation to Robert Hunter Biden?

[Rio]

The victim was located on westbound Pacheco Pass highway near Casa de Fruta by a truck driver who stopped at the turnout to relieve himself.

Serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson confessed to her killing in 1997 in a letter to authorities. In his letter, Jesperson claimed that he met her at a truck stop on Interstate 5 in Corning, California about 20 miles south of Red Bluff and gave her a ride after buying lunch for her. In Williams, California, they had sex then strangled her, before driving on toward Gilroy, California. Along the way several hours later, he stopped at the Pacheco Pass on Highway 152, and tossed her body off the berm. He said she claimed to have relatives in the Sacramento, California area and she may have been a prostitute.

[Steve_Seattle]

I wonder if the “Red John” character from “The Mentalist” TV show was partially based on this. He would leave a smiley face painted on the wall of the crime scene with the victim’s blood.