Happy Face true story: The harrowing real-life case behind Paramount Plus drama

"After decades of no contact, he finally finds a way to force himself back into his daughter’s life," reads the official synopsis.

"In a race against the clock, Melissa must find out if an innocent man is going to be put to death for a crime her father committed.

"Throughout, she discovers the impact her father had on his victims’ families and must face a reckoning of her own identity."

But Happy Face is based on the life of Melissa G Moore, whose father is real-life serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, who was active in the US back in the 1990s.

"He killed eight women in five years," Quaid told IndieWire. "He was also a father to Annaleigh's character, Melissa, and she had a very close relationship. Then she found out at the age of 15, when he was caught, that he was a serial killer.

"How do you reconcile having that loving dad, with this monster, what he did? That’s basically what the show Happy Face is about. That's what makes it different from a lot of other crime thrillers out there."

For more information about the disturbing true story behind Happy Face, read on.

Happy Face true story

The series is "inspired" by the real-life story of Melissa G Moore, who was 15 years old when she discovered that her father, Keith Hunter Jesperson, was the Happy Face Killer.

He claimed to have killed 160 women, but is officially believed to have murdered at least eight women across five states – Washington, California, Florida, Wyoming and Oregon – while working as a long-haul truck diver in the 1990s.

Jesperson would draw smiley faces on the bathroom walls of truck stops to mark the murders, and he'd also write letters detailing his crimes, which he'd leave at truck and bus stops, or send to the press, which would also be signed with a smiley face.

Speaking to Deadline about Happy Face, on which she's an executive producer, Moore said: "The reason why I wanted to tell my story is because I felt alone. We don’t really see about serial killers' families.

"We see serial killer documentaries, and it really focuses on the offender, but there are a lot of other people affected by the criminal... I just never felt seen in any true crime films, and so for me, it was really important to put my story out there to connect with other families."

Moore completed several media interviews about her father before the release of her book, Shattered Silence: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer's Daughter, in 2008.

Her second book, WHOLE: How I Learned to Fill the Fragments of My Life with Forgiveness, Hope, Strength, and Creativity, was published in 2016.

She also has two podcasts, 2020 series Happy Face Presents: Two Face, in which she speaks to Becky Babcock, the daughter of convicted child murderer Diane Downs, and 2021's Life After Happy Face, in which she "tells the actual stories of people who shared their lives with a killer or their victims" alongside forensic criminologist Dr Laura Pettler.

"I loved my dad, but I didn't really enjoy being around him," she told the BBC in 2014. "He made me anxious. He never molested or beat any of us, it was just a feeling that something was building, seething beneath the surface.

"I had once tried to articulate it to a school counsellor but it didn't come out right. I mean, a lot of kids think their dad is weird."

Moore also recalled one particular meal at a diner, where he was "flirting horribly with the waitress".

"It was during this meal that my dad said, 'Not everything is what it appears to be, Missy.' And I said, 'What do you mean, Dad?'

"I watched him wrestling with something internally. Then he said: 'You know, I have something to tell you, and it's really important.' There was a long silence before I asked him what it was. 'I can't tell you, sweetie. If I tell you, you will tell the police. I'm not what you think I am, Melissa.'"

Moore said she "goes back to that incident so often".

"If he had told me, what would have happened next? If he had told me about his seven murders - it was very soon to be eight - would I have gone to the police? Having revealed his secrets, would he have given me the chance?" she said.

"Could my father have killed me? That has been a huge question mark in my life."

Moore has visited her father twice in prison – once in 1995 and again in 2005.

She is now married and has two children of her own.

Speaking to People, Moore said that her kids have gotten a "crappy deal" because of who their grandfather is, but Happy Face has helped her to manage her emotions around that.

"I think, watching the series, it's given me a way of looking at my own story as an observer, and that's a unique gift that I don't think a lot of people get," she explained.

"I appreciate the gift of observing my own experience and how I parented. Now that my kids are adults, it's kind of my graduation and my report card."

Who is Happy Face Killer Keith Hunter Jesperson?

Jesperson was born in Chilliwack in British Columbia, Canada, but grew up in Selah, Washington, with a mother who was reportedly withdrawn and a father who was allegedly physically abusive, according to 2018 documentary Monster in My Family.

During his childhood, he exhibited delinquent and concerning behaviour, including attacks on other children, arson and animal abuse.

Speaking to the BBC, Moore recalled a couple of disturbing incidents from her childhood involving cats, during which her father's enjoyment of inflicting cruelty was on full display.

Jesperson went on to marry Rose Hucke when he was 20 and they lived in Spokane, Washington. They had two daughters, Melissa and Carrie, and one son, Jason.

He is believed to have killed his first victim, 23-year-old Taunja Bennett, in January 1990 following his divorce from Hucke. He met Bennett in a bar, before raping and strangling her.

Initially, another couple were wrongly convicted of her murder, which is when he began writing his letters.

He continued killing until 1995, when he handed himself in while he was being investigated for the murder of 41-year-old Julie Winningham, who was his girlfriend at the time.

His other victims include 23-year-old Laurie Ann Pentland, 21-year-old Angela May Subrize and Cynthia Lynn Wilcox.

It took decades to identify some of his victims due to challenges and limitations in DNA analysis, one of whom was Patricia Skiple, around 45 years old, who was identified 30 years after she was murdered.

34-year-old Suzanne Kjellenberg, who wasn't identified until 2023, is believed to have been his final victim.

A woman called Daun Slagle was attacked by Jesperson in 1990 in a car park in California, but she managed to escape.

In 2024, he told The Independent that he was still being looked at for a number of murders.

Where is Happy Face Killer Keith Hunter Jesperson now?

Jesperson, now 69 years old, is imprisoned in Oregon State Penitentiary, where he's serving consecutive life sentences.

"I sometimes now wonder, if he was freed now, if he was released, would he kill again? And I believe he would," Moore said in an interview with 20/20 in 2021.

"I don't believe my dad is sorry at all... what he is sorry about, though, is that he got caught."

Happy Face premieres on Friday 21st March with two episodes, exclusively on Paramount+ in the UK, and on Thursday 20th March in the US. New episodes will air weekly.

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