Melissa G. Moore was having breakfast in a restaurant with his father Keith Jesperson when he almost revealed his secret double life.
The high school student who is preparing to obtain a driver’s license is eager to gain freedom. She was also happy to spend time with her father, a truck driver, when he divorced Moore’s mother.
“I was on the verge of 16,” Moore recalled. “He had an unannounced visit asking my siblings and if I wanted to have breakfast with him before school started. My siblings had other promises so they couldn’t join us. …We talked about my first car. I remember him saying he would buy me Pontiac and I debated with him.
Melissa G. (Storm Santos)
“Then the subject starts to turn to next time I’ll see him,” Moore shared. “He looks forward to seeing us during the summer vacation. But the way he talks sounds like wishful thinking. … Then he starts, ‘I need to tell you something, but you’ll tell the authorities.’ It stopped me.
Melissa G. Moore said there were early signs that her father, Keith Jespers, was wrong. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)
“At first, I thought, ‘It must be the rumor my mother told me that he was fired for stealing from his employer.” Did he steal? He was like, “No, no, I can’t tell you.” I started to feel uncomfortable.
“Looking back at this conversation, I feel like he knows his crime is catching up with him.”
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Melissa G. Moore’s story inspired “Happy Faces.” She wrote her autobiography “Broken Silence”. (Paramount+)
Moore was captured at the age of 15 in a notorious prolific serial killer in letters to the media and prosecutors. Now, the case is the subject of a Paramount+real crime drama “Happy Faces” starring Annaleigh Ashford and Dennis Quaid.
Moore used to be Best-selling memoir, “Broken Silence” and the 2018 “Happy Face” podcast.
Dennis Quaid and Melissa G. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
“I’m proud of this series because I think the victim’s family will feel seen, and so will the perpetrator’s family members,” she explained. “I’ve never seen anything like that. When you watch a show about serial killers, they don’t show the complex nature of their relationship with their own family.”
Here is a photo of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office booking, a circa 1995 serial killer Keith Jespers. (AP Photo)
Moore describes her childhood as “very normal” In rural Washington. Her father, standing at a towering 6-foot-6-300 pound height, is a long-distance truck driver. Her mother stayed at home with the couple’s three children.
“I grew up in the countryside, where we had the freedom to roam,” Moore said. “When my dad came home from his long-distance truck driving, he loved it. He was very caring.”
Watch: Happy Face Serial Killer Enrols Murdering the Eighth Victim during Florida Official Interview
“He used to love riding bikes, and he always wanted us to be with him,” she shared. “He was a very real father. He would read stories about us just before bed. He would play games with us. He would hang out with us as much as possible.”
Dennis Quaid serves as Keith Jespers in “Happy Face.” (Katie Yu/Paramount+)
But there are signs that her family life is not so pastoral. Moore said she witnessed “animal abuse of our property” when she was 5 years old.
“My father would kill animals for the movement,” she explained. “He would kill cats. He would kill dogs. It’s a young man…you just think that’s wrong. But it’s not something that’s really discussed. It’s just Keith is Keith. It’s not that we accepted it, but no one really wants to admit it.”
Watch: “Happy Face” star Dennis Quaid
Jesperson was arrested in 1995 Suspected of killing his girlfriend in Washington state. He eventually admitted to killing eight women in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Nebraska and Wyoming between 1990 and 1995. Victims, including girlfriends, acquaintances and sex workers, were sexually assaulted and strangled.
Keith Hunter Jespers, 40, was right when Tom Phelan listened to Tom Phelan for a moment before pleading guilty on October 18, 1995 in Clark County Courthouse in Vancouver, Washington. (AP Photo/Troy Wayrynen, Colombia)
He was arrested before Moore’s birthday.
“I found it through mom,” Moore said. “In the series, it was portrayed accurately. I came home from school and my mother called us our siblings. She had something she needed to tell us. She told us all our father was in prison and he was charged with murder. She didn’t provide any more details.
Watch: “Happy Face” stars James Wolk and Tamera Tomakili work with Dennis Quaid
“As an adult, I think…she may not be willing to discuss these details with us.”
Melissa G. Moore has nothing to do with his father, Keith Jesperson. (Jesse Grant/Variety Show via Getty Images)
News soon spread in Moore’s hometown. Her friends described seeing Jesput on TV while watching the news, wearing orange jumpsuits and being tied up. he Known as the “happy face killer”.
“I’m very upset about going to school and being deeply ashamed,” Moore said. “Whenever I turn on the TV, there’s a dad’s face, flashing. My friends told me that their parents had seen the news and they didn’t want them to hang out with me.
For the series, Melissa G. Moore provides an unread letter from his father. (Amy E. Price/SXSW Conference and Festivals via Getty Images)
“I internalized it,” Moore admitted. “I think I might have a problem. Maybe the apple doesn’t fall on the tree. It’s the beginning of this deep decline, struggling with my own identity. I internalized his crimes in a way that I wrapped up in my own identity.
On December 19, 1995, in Clark County Court in Vancouver, Washington, the sons of the murder victims, Don Findlay (far right) and Julie Ann Winningham and Keith Jespers (orange jumpsuits). (AP Photo/Colombia, Jeremiah Coffland)
“It took me years to reconcile with it,” the 47-year-old added.
Today, Jespers, 69, is serving several sentences without the possibility of parole.
“He never explained why,” Moore said. “I’m still curious why he chose his life and chose to commit these crimes. I believe he feels insecure deep inside and wants to have control. I’d say it’s about power and control. … It makes this perfect monster.”
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Kate Maree plays Melissa G. Moore. (ed araquel/paramount+)
On the show, viewers will see a letter from Jesperson mailing to Moore. She said the scene was accurate.
“Since he entered the prison, he has written to me, [those letters] She said: “I didn’t answer. I didn’t write him. I’ve collected them and given all the letters [executive producer] Jennifer Cacicio. She used letters for conversations in the series.
“Sadly, her house is one of them Lost in the California fire. Those letters were burned. They left. ”
Keith Jesperson was nicknamed the “Happy Face” serial killer for sending letters to the media detailing his crimes, and he committed crimes across states as a long-distance truck driver with a smiley face signature at the bottom of each note. (Okaloosa Sheriff’s Office)
Today, Moore has his own family. While sharing her story, Moore was able to build a network of more than 300 people related to the killer, talk to them on the phone and support them in person, People Magazine Report. She’s told before BBC News The project gave her “meaning and direction in life”.
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Melissa G. Moore has been linked with others who are involved in and struggling with the killer over the years. (John Nacion/Variew via Getty Images)
“I’m proud of who my father is, but I no longer feel the need to hide,” Moore said. “I no longer attribute his crime to who I am as a person. And, I’m not alone in dealing with these unique issues. … There is no support group for the family members of the perpetrator. There is no real support group for the victim’s family. We leave ourselves to find people like us.
The shouting also helped Moore satisfy her painful past.
Melissa G. Moore said she is no longer afraid to share her story and hope it will help others. (Jesse Grant/Variety Show via Getty Images)
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“My father gave me the greatest sorrow, and it was the trauma of growing up with his father,” she said. “I would say that the series is awesome to show that my deep desire to stop my father from being, my childhood father. He is no longer here. Maybe he never really existed.”
The new episode of “Happy Face” will drop on Paramount+ Thursday. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
