"She Is No Longer a Jane Doe": The News Conference Naming Suzanne Kjellenberg, 2023

Name: "She Is No Longer a Jane Doe": The News Conference Naming Suzanne Kjellenberg, 2023
Uploaded: 2023-10-03T00:00:00Z
Duration: 10 min 27 s
Description: FOX10's raw feed of the October 3, 2023 news conference at which Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden named the woman found near Holt in 1994 as Suzanne Kjellenberg and announced Jesperson's new murder charge.

FOX10's raw feed of the October 3, 2023 news conference at which Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden named the woman found near Holt in 1994 as Suzanne Kjellenberg and announced Jesperson's new murder charge.

Subject: Keith Hunter Jesperson
Recorded: October 3, 2023
Runtime: 10:27

Content warning: The sheriff describes how the victim was strangled, as Jesperson told investigators.

The Interview

This is not an interview, and Keith Jesperson does not appear or speak in it. It is FOX10 News's raw feed of a joint news conference held in Okaloosa County, Florida, on October 3, 2023. Sheriff Eric Aden gives the main statement and describes what Jesperson told investigators in a prison interview the month before. State Attorney Ginger Bowden Madden and District 1 Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Deanna Oleske begin brief remarks; the feed ends during the medical examiner's.

Historical Context

Jesperson was arrested in March 1995 and confessed to murdering eight women in California, Nebraska, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington and Florida. He is serving life sentences in Oregon. On September 14, 1994, by the sheriff's account, an inmate work crew found the remains of a woman in a tree line beside Interstate 10 near Holt. Jesperson admitted the killing in February 1996, the sheriff said, but the woman remained unidentified for nearly 29 years.

Circumstances

According to the sheriff, the District 1 Medical Examiner's Office sent material to Othram, a genetic genealogy laboratory in The Woodlands, Texas; Othram's work led to a relative, whose DNA sample identified the woman in March 2023 as Suzanne Kjellenberg, 34, whose family lives in Wisconsin. Investigators from the sheriff's office, FDLE and the State Attorney's Office then interviewed Jesperson, unannounced, in Oregon. The sheriff said Jesperson was now charged with her murder.

What the Recording Covers

The sheriff introduces the officials present, names the victim (spelled with "K-J" and pronounced "Shellenberger," he explains) and asks the media to respect her family's privacy. He recounts Jesperson's account as given in the interview: that he picked her up at a truck stop in Tampa, killed her at what he described as a rest area in the Panhandle when she would not stop screaming, and left her body near Holt. He explains the "Happy Face Killer" name, credits the retired original case agents, and speaks of the office's record of solving cold cases. The state attorney's remarks are largely missing from the machine sources, and the medical examiner's are cut off after she begins describing the original examination.

What Makes the Recording Significant

It is the official announcement that the last unidentified victim among Jesperson's eight confirmed victims had been named, and that he faced a new charge in Florida, almost three decades after the discovery.

Important Caveats

Jesperson does not speak; his account is as summarized by the sheriff and is his claim. The sheriff's figures (for example, "seven life sentences for seven other homicides" and "the sixth one he killed") are his statements. He says the interview took place "exactly 29 years to the day after her body was found"; a local news report gives a different date (September 29), so the date is unresolved. About a minute of the state attorney's remarks and most of the medical examiner's are not picked up by the machine sources. The YouTube captions misname the medical examiner as "Dr. Jan Garavaglia"; the machine audio text and the sheriff's introduction give Dr. Deanna Oleske. Several introduced names are as heard and unverified.

Eric Aden: Ginger, Othram, any of y'all that are gonna come up here. Kelly. Hey, more the merrier. Come on, everybody that's involved. I got a list. [unclear: "Call you up." (captions only)] All right, I guess let me turn this [unclear: "on" (captions) / "over" (Whisper)].

Unidentified: [unclear: "You want to split? ... Switch sides?" (captions) / "Yeah. Yeah." (Whisper)]

Eric Aden: Good morning. Thank you all for being here. Um, got some great, exciting news that we've been able to solve a homicide that's 30 years in the making. But first, before further ado, I want to introduce some special guests. We have Ginger Madden, our state attorney for the First Judicial Circuit. We have Michelle Sandler. She is the assistant... Michelle, come on up. Michelle Sandler from the assistant state attorney's office. Uh, she's, excuse me, assistant state attorney. We have Chris Williams, Pensacola special agent in charge out of that field office. Mark Zagar, special agent, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, as well. Dr. Deanna Oleske, chief medical examiner for District One Medical Examiner, who was critical in solving this case. Absolutely instrumental, her office was. Dan Schebler, which is director of operations, District One Medical Examiner's Office. And, uh, Chrissy Nieten, chief investigator, District One Medical Examiner's Office. Dave Nutting, which is law enforcement liaison for Othram. And then our own case investigators, Kelly Henderson, Investigator Kelly Henderson, and Investigator Aaron Pitman. Think I didn't... Did I leave anybody out? Oh, no, I got you, Zagar. And y'all, thank you. All right. So...

Eric Aden: The last unidentified victim of the notorious Happy Face Killer has now been identified. She is no longer a Jane Doe. Keith Jesperson is now charged with murder, uh, in of the Jane Doe that we had previously known as Jane Doe since September of '94. He's been in prison in Oregon. He's already serving seven life sentences for seven other homicides, uh, between 1990 and 1995. He was caught in '95 and admitted killing seven others in addition to the one he was originally charged with, for a total of eight. He committed these while being a long-haul trucker and killed these women in six different states, to include California, Nebraska, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington and Florida.

Eric Aden: The relentless efforts of the OCSO, FDLE, Florida Medical Examiner's Office and the State Attorney's Office, as well as the private lab Othram, it was instrumental in us solving this case; otherwise it would likely still be unsolved. The victim is now known, that she was 34 years old, and her family is in Wisconsin. Her identity is known as Suzanne Kjellenberg [pronounced "Shellenberger"]. It's spelled K-J, but it is pronounced S-H, Kjellenberg. Her family obviously wants privacy at this time. Uh, with the new events that have unfolded and details, they're, they're obviously dealing with that, so please protect their privacy.

Eric Aden: In February of 1996, Jesperson actually admitted to killing our victim. Unfortunately, we didn't know the identity of our victim, uh, and admitted to killing someone in this area, um, and dumping her body. We had him as a suspect early on. Uh, just didn't have an identity for our victim. The identity was not learned until March of 2023, this year, and that was after the District One Medical Examiner's Office sent, uh, to Othram Inc., which, out, out of Woodlands, Texas, and they are, uh, specialized in genealogy DNA analysis. Uh, that development sent investigators... Excuse me. So, while at Othram, during the analysis, it was determined that they were able to narrow down a family member, and a family member gave a sample, and it became a 100% DNA hit for Suzanne Kjellenberg.

Eric Aden: The development sent our investigators Kelly Henderson, Aaron Pitman and FDLE's investigator Mark Zagar, as well as Michelle Sandler from the First Judicial Circuit, our First Judicial State Attorney's Office, to interview Jesperson. This, this interview was unannounced. He did not know they were coming, but he fully cooperated. And exactly 29 years to the day after her body was found, they, they went to Oregon to interview him. He talked openly about the murder and how it took place. He picked her up at a truck stop in Tampa and brought her up to the Panhandle. We don't know exactly where this happened, but he describes it as a rest area.

Eric Aden: He describes brutally on how he killed her. He alleges that she was sleeping in his bed, I'm assuming of his rig, and he was allegedly parked next to a security guard, and when he went to sit next to her, she began to scream. He said she would not stop screaming. He was nervous because he was concerned because he was not allowed to have authorized riders. And so he used zip ties, electrical zip ties, to cut off her airway and then further used his fist forcibly to cut off her airway to the point where she was deceased. She was the sixth victim out of the eight victims. We believe she's the sixth one he killed.

Eric Aden: And he talked about the murder openly, and he dumped her body a short time later in Holt on the side of I-10, and was discovered September the 14th of 1994 by an inmate work crew that was working along doing landscaping, and so the body was found in a tree line. He's known as the Happy Face Killer because he sent media, he sent the media details of his homicides and would always end it with a smiley face.

Eric Aden: He first, he kind of got caught himself, because the first murder he committed in Oregon, some random lady said she killed the, the female along with her abusive boyfriend, which was not true, and he got upset by this, so he started sending media letters describing it, and he got no attention with that, or not enough, so he sent it to authorities, to which ultimately, uh, landed his prosecution for that case. Unfortunately, not before several other women had been killed. His first victim was in Oregon.

Eric Aden: Suzanne deserves a voice, and we, we're that voice for her today, and this case has been years in the making. There's other, others here that I've already introduced that, that, that we're going to recognize, and they're going to be able to tell you about their roles, of their entities and agencies and how they were involved. But I want to say that Investigator Glenn Barbary, who's retired, and FDLE Agent Dennis Haley, that are retired, they were initial case agents, and they were instrumental in us at least obtaining a suspect early on. It's unfortunate that it took this long to bring this case to justice.

Eric Aden: But before I conclude and bring them up here, and we'll do question and answers after these individuals get a chance to talk, um, I want to reiterate how proud I am from this investigative team that we have, not just from the sheriff's office, but all these men and women standing up here before you. We've had over a dozen cold cases, we've, we've really had a good reputation here at the sheriff's office for solving cold cases. We've solved over a dozen that I know of in the last 10 years, seven since my administration began, some of which were 40 years old. We did a press conference about this earlier this year, and this particular one is 29 years. It's, again, the, the seventh one, and we've had national recognition on shows like Dateline and 48 Hours and Cold Justice. And it's not, it's, it's solely because of a testament of the dedication and relentless tenacity of the investigative teamwork, coupled with advances in forensic evidence, that allows us to bring justice to Suzanne and her family nearly 30 years after her death.

Eric Aden: [unclear: "Speak briefly." (captions) / "Just briefly," (Whisper, run into the next speaker's words)]

Ginger Bowden Madden: Sure. I don't have any prepared statement today, but I would like to just very briefly state how proud I am that the state [unclear: "of" (captions only)] [no sound: the upload's audio drops to digital silence from about 08:18 to 08:59] very hard-working assistant state attorneys who work for me. [09:01 to 09:23: no text in either source; the change of speaker is not picked up.]

Dr. Deanna Oleske: [unclear: "Dr. Deanna Oleski" (Whisper) / "Dr. Jan Garavaglia" (captions)], I'm the chief medical examiner. [unclear: "Sorry, not" (Whisper only)] [inaudible] [unclear: "39 ... years" (captions) / "the remains" (Whisper)] of a female found near I-10, and during the initial investigation, we sent the remains to [inaudible] [unclear: "Greene" (Whisper) / "female" (captions)]. [inaudible] So, uh, we sent some samples for additional examination for [unclear: "S..." (captions, cut off)] [inaudible] [unclear: "some hair" (captions only)] [inaudible] [About 10:10 to 10:27: no further text picked up; the video ends during the medical examiner's remarks.] --- - **Audio dropouts in the upload (checked 2026-10-11):** a loudness measurement shows the uploaded audio falls to digital silence (about -87 dB) at about 08:18 to 08:59, 09:04 to 09:23, 09:26 to 09:39, 09:45 to 09:57 and 10:01 to 10:27. Nothing can be heard or transcribed in those stretches of this copy; they are dropouts in the upload, not omitted speech. A second pass with Whisper medium.en on short windows recovered only the words already in the transcript ("briefly state how proud I am that the state", "very hard working assistant state attorneys who work for me", "I'm the chief medical examiner", "remains of a female found near I-10 and during the initial investigation we sent the remains to", "we sent some samples for additional examination"). If the full remarks are wanted, the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office's own recording would be the source.