(RIVERSIDE, Calif.) — More than three decades after she was murdered by a notorious serial killer, police and prosecutors in Riverside, California, are hoping the public can help them identify the unknown victim.
Riverside County officials launched a new, nationwide effort Monday to discover the identity of the woman who was murdered in 1992, the last unidentified victim of Keith Jesperson — the “Happy Face Killer.”
“Our goal is to identify this victim and provide closure to her family,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in a statement.
Police have referred to her as “Claudia” because that is how Jesperson, who was convicted of her murder 14 years ago Monday, has referred to her. The authorities, though, do not know if that is her real name.
In a new law enforcement interview with investigators, details of which Riverside officials released Monday, they say Jesperson told them he met “Claudia” at a brake check area near Victorville, California, while he was working as a trucker. She was hitchhiking and took a ride with him, he reportedly said. During that ride, he told them, they argued about money, and he killed her in his truck. He admitted to dumping the body in Blythe.
Jesperson allegedly described her as having shaggy, wild blonde hair. She was wearing tight clothing, he said. She was about 20 to 30 years old in 1992. Investigators believe she was living in, or frequented, Southern California and Nevada.
Investigators hope that recent advances in DNA technology and tips from the public could help them discover her name.
Forensic investigators and genealogists have traced her to a now-deceased father who was from Cameron County, Texas, but traveled extensively. Half siblings were identified but they were not aware of the woman as none were biological matches to her mother. Her mother may have had ties to Louisiana or Texas, authorities said.
Jesperson terrorized the country in the ‘90s. A Canadian-born long-haul trucker and divorced father of three, Jesperson claimed to have killed women in five states: Washington, California, Florida, Wyoming and Oregon.
His killing spree lasted from 1990-1995, when he turned himself in to police.
The unidentified woman’s body was found on Aug. 30, 1992, along Highway 95 near Blythe, California. Jesperson pleaded guilty to her murder in 2010 and was given a sentence of 15 years to life.
He received the name the “Happy Face Killer” due to the smiley faces he drew on a letter he sent to a newspaper in which he bragged about his crimes.
(NEW YORK) — A company’s attempt to make the first commercial moon landing is in jeopardy after the spacecraft developed a “critical” fuel leak on Monday.
The Peregrine lunar lander, built by Astrobotic, launched with the Vulcan rocket from the United Launch Alliance — a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing — at 2:18 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Peregrine separated from the rocket about an hour later and was making its journey to the moon, which was set to take place on Feb. 23 and would have been the first U.S. soft moon landing mission in more than 50 years.
However, several hours in, Astrobotic said the lunar lander was experiencing a “propulsion anomaly” that was preventing it from orienting the solar panels toward the sun so it could collect power to operate. This was discovered to be a fuel leak.
Just before entering a “known period of communication outage,” the Astrobotic team said it developed and executed an improvised maneuver to reorient Peregrine’s solar panels toward the sun to collect sunlight.
While this helped charge the battery, it may not be enough for the moon landing to occur.
“Unfortunately, it appears the failure within the propulsion system is causing a critical loss of propellant,” Astrobotic said in a statement on the company’s website.
“The team is working to try and stabilize this loss, but given the situation, we have prioritized maximizing the science and data we can capture. We are currently assessing what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time.”
Astrobotic said the lunar lander is carrying 20 payloads from seven nations and 16 commercial customers, and among them are instruments from NASA.
The Pittsburgh-based company was one of several approved by NASA to build commercial lunar landers that the federal space agency, among others, would use to send instruments into space.
Among the five NASA instruments aboard Peregrine are those that would study the lunar exosphere, the amount of hydrogen in the lunar soil and radiation monitoring, according to NASA.
“NASA instruments aboard Peregrine will help NASA prepare for the Artemis program’s missions to enable a sustained human presence on the Moon,” Astrobotic said.
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency are preparing to send four astronauts to fly around the moon in the upcoming Artemis II mission later this year. If the mission is successful, Artemis III — a moon landing — is scheduled for 2025.
The Artemis team will be made up of three Americans — Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch and Reid Wiseman — and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen.
“Each success and setback are opportunities to learn and grow,” Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a statement about Peregrine. “We will use this lesson to propel our efforts to advance science, exploration, and commercial development of the moon.”
If Astrobotic’s lunar lander does not make it the moon, another commercial company has the chance to do so. Intuitive Machines, based in Houston, has developed the Nova-C Lunar Lander, which is set to launch next month and will also carry five NASA payloads and commercial cargo. It will attempt to land near the south pole of the moon.
(NEW YORK) — United Airlines said Monday that it has found loose bolts during inspections of its 737 Max 9 fleet in the wake of a door plug getting blown out of an Alaska Airlines plane over the weekend.
United won’t say how many planes had loose bolts.
“Since we began preliminary inspections on Saturday, we have found instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug — for example, bolts that needed additional tightening,” United said in a statement. “These findings will be remedied by our Tech Ops team to safely return the aircraft to service.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
(NEW YORK) — Five months after wildfires destroyed homes and lives on the Hawaiian island of Maui, residents are sounding the alarm on an ongoing mental health crisis facing those impacted by the destruction.
The Aug. 8 wildfires left thousands of businesses and residential buildings burned to the ground and killed at least 100 people. Thousands of people are still moving from hotel to hotel, shelter to shelter without a place to officially call home. Many are still without a job, with unemployment claims increasing by almost 400% since the tragedy, according to data from the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.
“The people of Maui are incredibly resilient, but there’s only so much you can take,” said Noelani Ahia, founder of grassroots organization Maui Medic Healers Hui.
“The juxtaposition of people on golf courses right next to people who don’t know where they’re going to sleep tomorrow is painful,” Ahia went on. “It’s really painful and hurtful.”
Ahia said she and roughly 600 volunteers — from doctors to counselors — traveled to the impacted communities within days of the wildfires to support residents’ physical and mental health needs. Months later, the work continues.
“The constant shuffling of people from one hotel to another, getting a notice under your door saying that you have to be out in 24 hours — all of these kinds of things keep people in that fight-or-flight [response],” she said.
The pain in the community is palpable, as residents cope with the compounding grief, loss and uncertainty, she said.
Concerns have spread among residents about a spike in suicides after the tragedy, prompting calls for action from officials to tackle what they say is a mental health crisis.
The Maui Police Department told ABC News that at least 10 people have died by suicide since the fires. Last year, there were eight deaths by suicide in the same period, according to Hawaii News Now.
It is unclear if the deaths are related in some way to the Aug. 8 wildfires. Concerns, however, remain high as the Maui Department of Health reports ongoing instances of suicide attempts and suicidal ideations among those recovering from the tragedy.
“It is on people’s minds,” said John Oliver, public health program manager of the state’s adult mental health division. “It’s a lot of stress and a lot of anxiety and a lot of depression.”
Mental health professionals urge people to be vigilant of their loved ones’ mental health in the aftermath of a tragedy.
“I’m always happy if we have somebody who’s referred to us who’s having suicidal thoughts because if they’re caught at that time, that’s important. It’s important to catch this early,” said Oliver. “Intervention earlier has much better outcomes than later so it’s important to start getting help as soon as you start feeling like you need it so that you don’t develop, say, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and some other conditions.”
PTSD could be loss of appetite, difficulty sleeping, wanting to socially withdraw or become short-tempered in a way that’s out of character, health experts said.
When new brush fires start to burn on the island, it reminds some residents of the wildfire scenes, according to Lauren Ampolos, a clinical director and psychologist based on Maui.
“We have to work on allowing people to understand that they’re still safe,” said Ampolos. “There were some fires that came up over the last few months, little brush fires, and those definitely put people on edge. I think that the community is still just a little bit sensitive.”
Ahia said the tragedy has likely exacerbated preexisting traumas, particularly within the native and immigrant communities that are facing longer-term fights for water rights, decolonization and housing.
Hawaii health officials have also noted a rise in calls and visits for mental health care, which they see as a positive sign. This means people are reaching out for help instead of potentially harmful alternatives, they say.
Post-tragedy access to mental health care services has increasingly become a priority in disaster response, service providers say. Past U.S. disasters, such as Hurricanes Katrina and Maria, appeared to spark a spike in suicides and other mental health complications in their wake, research has found.
Federal, state and local agencies have been on the ground in Maui to offer mental health resources and have invested millions of dollars in long-term mental health programs. Officials have said it could take years to rebuild the infrastructure in the hardest-hit areas of Lahaina.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has given the Hawai’i State Department of Health a $17.3 million grant to provide emergency behavioral support, spotlighting the importance of such care in the aftermath of a tragedy.
“When there is a disaster, nearly every disaster survivor is affected in some way,” said SAMSHA Division Director Maryann Robinson in an interview.
Mental health professionals already in the Upcountry and Lahaina areas find themselves at the forefront of the need for mental health care following the wildfires.
“If you talk to individuals with trauma, oftentimes it’s very personal and they want to have that connection of being there physically,” said Oliver. His team at Lahaina Comprehensive Health Center is one of the few behavioral health centers in Lahaina that wasn’t impacted by the blaze. His clinic treats people of all ages and doesn’t turn people away based on their ability to pay. The clinic also works as a facilitative resource for other needs clients may have.
Other local programs for those in need can be found on the county’s Maui Nui Strong website of mental health resources.
Oliver said the number of calls and referrals is likely to keep climbing as people find space to prioritize mental health.
But if residents’ basic needs — like stable housing and financial security — aren’t met soon, Ampolos said these issues will continue to hinder the community’s recovery.
“It’s difficult to actually work through the trauma of a situation without addressing those things first, so I think that for some people, that’s very much still where they’re at — how do we get our basic needs met?” said Ampolos.
(SAN ANTONIO) — A father and son arrested in connection with the fatal shootings of pregnant teenager Savanah Soto and her boyfriend in Texas now face additional charges, police said Friday.
San Antonio police said they arrested Christopher Preciado, 19, and his father, Ramon Preciado, 53, on Wednesday, more than a week after the bodies of Soto and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, were found in a car in an apartment complex parking lot.
The son was initially charged with capital murder and the father abuse of a corpse, police said.
The son now also faces the charge of abuse of a corpse and both face the charge of altering, destroying or concealing evidence of a human corpse, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told reporters on Friday.
McManus said police also recovered a firearm from their home that is believed to be the murder weapon.
Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales told reporters Friday that it is “too early to tell” whether his office will pursue the death penalty. He said they have 90 days to indict the cases.
“I anticipate that we will have indictments returned, but we have to wait and let the grand jury make that decision,” he said. “After that, then we will take it to the next level and make whatever decisions that we need.”
Soto, 18, and Guerra, 22, were found dead on Dec. 26, days after the Texas mom-to-be was scheduled to be induced. Both victims had a gunshot wound, police said.
Soto’s cellphone, collected at the scene, was a critical piece of information for officers, San Antonio Sgt. Washington Moscoso told news media late Wednesday during a press briefing announcing the arrests.
Detectives used her phone to find a possible location of the suspect’s vehicle from surveillance video, which police previously released when issuing a call for the public’s help, Moscoso said.
Police then found the vehicle and the house the vehicle was connected to, Moscoso said. The father answered the door, and the authorities interviewed him and his son, the sergeant added.
Moscoso said that based on what they said during the interview, there was enough information for police to get a search warrant, which led to the charges Wednesday night.
The Preciados were walked to waiting police vehicles in front of the media during Wednesday’s press briefing. It wasn’t immediately clear if either had legal representation.
The sergeant told the media it appeared to have been a possible narcotics deal gone bad.
The father was not there for the murders but was called afterward, according to Moscoso.
Police initially said an 18-year-old full-term pregnant woman and a 22-year-old man believed to be Soto and her boyfriend were discovered dead in a Kia Optima in San Antonio last Tuesday. An unborn child was also found deceased, police said at the time. The vehicle had likely been at that location for several days, according to the authorities.
In the days following the discovery, the medical examiner identified the victims as Soto and Guerra, police said.
Police released footage on Dec. 28 of two persons of interest being sought in connection with the case. One was captured driving the victims’ Kia Optima, and the other was seen driving a dark-colored pickup truck, police said.
Soto was last seen on Dec. 22 in Leon Valley, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. The agency issued a CLEAR Alert — used to help law enforcement locate someone in imminent danger or whose disappearance is involuntary — for Soto on Monday.
The pregnant teen had passed her delivery date, which “caused significant concern among her family members after missing an essential medical appointment,” the Leon Valley Police Department previously said.
(NEW YORK) — A new round of court records from a lawsuit related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released Monday.
At least 17 documents were unsealed. Hundreds of documents have been released since Wednesday.
The records are part of a defamation lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, an alleged victim of Epstein, against his longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell that the two settled in 2017. Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ruled last month there was no legal justification for continuing to conceal more than 150 names of “John and Jane Does” mentioned in the records.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in 2021 of aiding Epstein’s sex trafficking of young women and girls. Her appeal will be heard in March.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — New York City police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked traffic at the entrances to the Holland Tunnel and three East River bridges during the Monday morning commute, officials said.
About 120 protesters were arrested while blocking entrances to the Holland Tunnel, which links downtown Manhattan with New Jersey, authorities said.
Protests also broke out at the Brooklyn Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge and Manhattan Bridge, which connect Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The Holland Tunnel and the three bridges have since reopened.
The Manhattan Bridge’s upper level remained open during the protests as the protesters were on the lower level.
(NEW YORK) — Efforts were underway Sunday to rescue five people who became trapped in a cave in southwestern Slovenia when torrential rains caused water levels to rise in the subterranean labyrinth, cutting off their exit routes, officials said.
A 22-year-old Slovenian man, his parents and two guides became trapped in the Krizna Jama cave on Saturday morning, Sandi Curk, head of the Regional Civil Protection Headquarters for the Notranjska Region, told ABC News.
Curk said heavy rain in the area caused the cave’s myriad of lakes to rise, stranding the tour group about 1 1/2 miles from the entrance to the cave.
Rescuers, according to Curk, will have to wait until the water level drops to extract the group.
Saturday evening rescue divers located the group and moved them to a safe area where they could set up heated tents, officials told The Associated Press.
Another team of divers on Sunday delivered food, drinking water and warm clothes to the marooned cave explorers, and checked on their psychological state, Curk told ABC News. A doctor, who is also a licensed diver, also examined all five people and is satisfied with their condition, Curk said.
The rescuers are optimistic about getting the trapped group out on Monday.
Curk said it takes rescuers up to five hours to reach the group.
Rescuers are contending with low visibility inside the cave and near-freezing water temperatures, Curk said.
ABC News’ Dada Javanovic contributed to this report.
(PORTLAND) — The Boeing 737 MAX 9 that was forced to make an emergency landing a few moments after takeoff on Friday had only made it to about 16,000 feet before a door plug fell out, opening a hole in the fuselage next to seat 26A.
Had the Alaska Airlines flight made it to its cruising altitude of more than 30,000 feet, the situation may have been much more dire, with passengers potentially walking around the cabin, said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board.
“We could have ended up with something so much more tragic,” Homendy told reporters late Saturday.
NTSB investigators arrived in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday to begin their investigation into what happened on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. The board’s “Go Team” included experts on “structures, operations and systems.”
That team is expected to work closely with officials from Boeing, Alaska Airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration, and associations representing pilots and flight attendants, Homendy said.
The FAA said earlier Saturday it was temporarily grounding certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft operated by U.S. airlines or in U.S. territory until they were inspected. The FAA said the pause would affect about 171 planes worldwide.
Sunday evening, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announced he cancelled a two-day leadership summit and instead will hold an all-employee safety meeting from the 737 factory in Renton, Washington on Tuesday.
Calhoun also sent out a company-wide memo to staff addressing the incident and ensuring that safety is a top priority.
“When it comes to the safety of our products and services, every decision and every action matters. And when serious accidents like this occur, it is critical for us to work transparently with our customers and regulators to understand and address the causes of the event, and to ensure they don’t happen again. This is and must be the focus of our team right now. I am deeply grateful to our colleagues who have been working tirelessly on our company’s response over the past two days,” his statement partially read.
“The FAA’s first priority is keeping the flying public safe,” the administration said in an update Sunday. “We have grounded the affected airplanes, and they will remain grounded until the FAA is satisfied that they are safe.”
Boeing said in a statement that safety is “our top priority.”
“We agree with and fully support the FAA’s decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane,” Boeing said.
Homendy said the situation had been designated as an “accident” rather than an “incident.” That designation is used by the NTSB when an aircraft “receives substantial damage.”
The NTSB announced that the plug that fell out of the fuselage had been found by a teacher in their backyard Sunday.
The organization plans to retrieve it.
It had covered a section of the fuselage wider than a window. Typically, when an airline purchases an aircraft, Boeing constructs the frame and inserts plugs based on the carrier’s needs.
The particular aircraft used on Flight 1282 had been certified for 189 passengers, so Alaska wouldn’t need emergency exit doors installed where the door plug was, Homendy said. If the plane had been configured for a higher density, like 215 or 220 passengers, it would have needed exit doors.
Six crew members and 171 passengers were on board Flight 1282 bound for Ontario, California, the airline said.
“The safety of our guests and employees is always our primary priority,” Alaska said in a statement, “so while this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation.”
ABC News’ Amanda Maile, Meredith Deliso, Riley Hoffman and Sam Sweeney contributed to this story.
(NEW YORK) — As Sean Bates went for a Sunday walk in Oregon, he was keeping an eye out for the door plug from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.
The National Transportation Safety Board had asked the public for help locating the plug, which fell out of the Boeing 737 Max 9 moments after it took off from Portland International Airport on Friday night.
Bates had been scanning for the plug or other debris and as he walked along Barnes Road in Portland. But instead of the door plug, he found something that belonged to a passenger, he said.
“I found a phone sitting on the side of the road that had apparently fallen 16,000 feet,” Bates said in a video recorded for social media Sunday.
The phone Bates found under a roadside bush was fairly clean, he said. He noted that there were no scratches on it when he picked it up.
He said he was “a little skeptical” when he first found it, thinking perhaps it may have been tossed out of a passing vehicle. But the phone wasn’t locked, so he opened it up, he said.
“It was in airplane mode with a travel confirmation and baggage claim for Alaska 1282,” Bates said. “So, I had to go call the NTSB.”
Bates said an NTSB staffer told him is was the second passenger phone found from the flight. The NTSB confirmed the incident.
The door plug was found by a teacher in their backyard Sunday, the NTSB said later. The organization said it plans to retrieve it.
Six crew members and 171 passengers were on board Flight 1282 bound for Ontario, California, the airline said. The plane landed safely after the in-flight emergency.
“The safety of our guests and employees is always our primary priority,” Alaska said in a statement, “so while this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation.”
ABC News’ Amanda Maile, Sam Sweeney and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this story.
