The ‘Happy Face Killer’ Committed a Brutal Murder on This Wyoming Highway

In 1995, a January blizzard swept over I-80 as Keith Jesperson and Angela Subrize traveled across Wyoming in a purple semi truck. The conditions were worsening, so Keith decided to wait out the storm at an isolated rest stop. Angela hitched a ride from Kieth in Washington. She wanted Keith to keep moving. He wanted to rest for a few hours, but she persisted. Keith snapped. "The Death Game," as described in the book Cold North Killers: Canadian Serial Murder, began. Keith raped, strangled then resuscitated Angela at least five times before taking a nap next to her lifeless body.

Keith was worried that he might have left a paper trail when Angela used his credit card to phone home. He decided to be extra careful disposing of the body. He strapped Angela's body to the underside of his semi and drove. The icy, cold Wyoming highway ground off most of her arms, shoulders, jaw bone, and skull. Then when all identifiable parts of her body were gone, Keith dumped her corpse in a ditch.

Angela was the 7th victim, Melor wrote, and the most horrendous part was how matter-of-fact Keith was about the murder. He described her death not as a struggle but like turning off a light switch.

The Discovery Channel's "Most Evil" ranked Keith as an 18 out of 22 for being a sexually perverse psychopath fixated on murder and torture. Not only did he enjoy killing women, but Keith needed to claim his victims. The reason he was known as the "Happy Face Killer" is he wrote letters to the police and media confessing to the murders. He signed the messages with a happy face. To him, in some sick and perverse way, these women were his prize.

Jasperson spoke with a law class on a conference call which the Pittsburg Post-Gazette covered. His words about Angela's death are as follows:

"I said, 'Just let me have four hours sleep and everything will be fine.' About 20 minutes later she pushed on me and I got angry and she died."