The Calgary Police Service has been credited for helping the Santa Clara Office of the Sheriff identify a victim of a cold case homicide.
Patricia Skiple of Colton, Ore., was known as “Blue Pacheco” for the colour of her clothing when her body was found on the side of a California highway.
Skiple, a mother known to friends and family as “Patsy,” would have been approximately 45 years old when she was murdered, the sheriff’s office said.
California investigators partnered with the DNA Doe Project, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that helps identify “Jane Does” and “John Does” using genetic genealogy services.
“We were tasked with helping Santa Clara track down Canadian ‘relatives’ that were identified through their genealogy searches,” a CPS spokesperson said.
Get breaking National news
“There were several hits in Alberta and Saskatchewan, across the country. Our detective and his team helped track them down to rule them in or out as potential family.”
Skiple’s body was found on June 3, 1993, on the side of California State Route 152 in the Gilroy area of the San Francisco Bay Area. The cause of her death was listed as undetermined at the time.
A year later, an Oregon newspaper ran a five-part series where an anonymous letter writer claimed to have committed five murders throughout the west coast. Investigators later identified the anonymous letter writer as Keith Hunter Jesperson, otherwise known as the “Happy Face Killer” for signing off letters to police and the media with a happy face symbol.
- Sentencing delayed for semi-driver who killed 2 charity ride motorcyclists in northern Alberta
- Man who killed Toronto police officer in 1994 denied parole for 4th time
- ‘Freshly broken windows’ among damages following attack on Winnipeg mosque: WPS
- Appeal for bail denied for man accused of Saskatchewan highway shooting
He was arrested in 1995 on suspicion of murder in Washington state, according to prison records. He eventually confessed to killing eight women between 1990 and 1995 in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Nebraska and Wyoming.
In 2006, Jesperson wrote to the county district attorney’s office and said he sexually assaulted and killed a woman near Highway 152.
He is currently serving four life sentences without the possibility of parole in Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Ore., according to prison records.
–with files from The Associated Press.
Comments
Comments closed.
Due to the sensitive and/or legal subject matter of some of the content on globalnews.ca, we reserve the ability to disable comments from time to time.
Please see our Commenting Policy for more.