Victim of ‘Happy Face Killer’ identified 34 years after her body was found along a California highway

On Aug. 30, 1992, a woman’s body was discovered along Highway 95 near Blythe. She was one of the victims of Keith Hunter Jesperson, colloquially known as the Happy Face Killer, who committed a string of murders across five states in the 1990s.

Jesperson later confessed to the woman’s murder, but for decades her identity has remained a mystery and investigators have called her “Claudia” — the name Jesperson used to refer to her. Now, days before the 34th anniversary of the discovery of “Claudia’s” body, the Riverside County District Attorney has announced that cold case investigators have determined her real identity: Lydia Jane Wade McWhorter.

The regional cold case homicide team, comprised of members of the Riverside County District Attorney’s office, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and the Riverside Police Department, harnessed DNA technology to solve the case. The team previously had identified relatives on McWhorter’s paternal side, including her biological father, who was from Texas. However, they struggled to confirm details of the woman’s maternal side, which was needed to identify McWhorter.

McWhorter’s body was badly decomposed when it was discovered, making the identification process challenging. In 2024, the cold case team decided to ask the public for help, releasing renderings of what the woman likely looked like based on DNA profiling and a description from Jesperson, who the Riverside County cold case team interviewed at the Oregon State Penitentiary in late 2023.

Over the years, the Riverside County cold case team has received tips from the public, senior investigator Ebony Caviness said.

“An investigative lead received by our team led us to a direct maternal relative of Lydia’s — someone who had spent decades not knowing what had happened to her after she disappeared from Texas in the ’90s,” Caviness said. “After more than 30 years, Lydia’s surviving relatives finally know what happened to her.”

A DNA sample from the maternal relative confirmed McWhorter’s identity earlier this week.

“I knew if I did the swab that it would prove if the lady that they found was actually my little bitty sister who has been missing,” Brenda Burks, McWhorter’s sister, said in a statement through the Riverside County District Attorney. “It was either her or someone else’s little sister.”

McWhorter’s remains have been preserved as part of the investigation, and the cold case team is now in contact with McWhorter’s family, who will be able to determine how they would like to lay her body to rest.

McWhorter was one of eight known victims of Jesperson, who gained his notorious nickname “Happy Face Killer” because he would draw happy faces on letters addressed to prosecutors and media in which he would flaunt his crimes. McWhorter is the final victim to be identified in association with Jesperson’s known murders.

Around August 1992, McWhorter was hitchhiking along Interstate 15 when Jesperson, working as a long-haul truck driver, picked her up at a brake-check area south of Victorville, according to the 2023 interview with Jesperson. He claimed that she asked to be taken to Los Angeles, but he was traveling along a truck route to Arizona and instead took her to Cabazon.

After reaching Cabazon, she decided to continue to ride with him until they reached an Indio-Coachella rest stop, according to Jesperson. He confessed that he killed her in his truck after an argument about money. He said he then drove his truck from Coachella to Blythe, where he dumped McWhorter’s body.

Jesperson pleaded guilty on Jan. 8, 2010, to murdering McWhorter, and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He also admitted to killing women in Northern California, Washington, Wyoming, Oregon and Florida. Jesperson, now 71, is serving multiple life sentences for the murders.