i avoid this place. since 1990. my sister tanya bennett was murdered here.

>> it was the most jumbled up case i had ever seen in my life. it was becoming very bizarre to me. >> laverne said she heard her boyfriend talking about killing a woman. >> she was a character. i can tell you that. >> a decade long relationship that can only be described as dysfunctional, to put it mildly. >> the police start to zero in on john. >> no, no, no, who's trying to put this on me? i don't remember going no gorge, no body. >> she says, i know he did it because i was there. >> she points out exactly where that body had been placed. she couldn't have missed it by 10 feet. i thought, my god, this woman was here. >> this was like, laverne, are you telling stories again? >> i always believed that the truth would come out eventually. i just didn't think the truth would come out of the mouth of a serial killer. >> it's like shoplifting.

>> it is nothing like shoplifting. you're killing somebody. ♪ portland is located in multnomah county. it's basically northwest oregon. it's a rather large metropolitan area. >> interstate 5 goes right on through the city of portland. a lot of trucking. if you get on the freeway, you will see a lot of trucks. >> it's a trucking hub. it's also a shipping hub. it used to be that thousands of containers would come in on ships, land in portland, be taken off, and put onto trucks and trains headed elsewhere in america. >> portland is divided by i-5 and the river. downtown businesses and the wealth were on the west side, and then you had more of an underclass on the east side. >> back in the early '90s, portland was a bit on the gritty side. definitely working class, no question about it.

>> portland was like any other large urban area. we had our fair share of violent crimes. >> murders would really get big news coverage because we didn't have that many murders. >> so when big crimes happened, people paid attention in a big way. >> portland, especially back in those days, was known mostly as a beautiful place. >> one of the most beautiful and impressive features of oregon is the columbia gorge. >> it's a place where god just decided to gouge out a big long ditch in the earth, and the columbia river runs down this gouge. but we call it the gorge. >> the gorge is a place where people come to enjoy the outdoors. there's hunting, fishing, boating, hiking. just lots of fun activities to do. >> the area is on all the postcards for the state of oregon everywhere and is also a very common location for the dumping of bodies,

unfortunately. >> i worked for the multnomah county sheriff's office in portland, oregon. i retired as a sergeant. in january of 1990, i was working homicide. it was a monday, of course. everything was basically routine, you know, for about an hour, and then maybe around 9:00, 9:30, we got notified that a body had been found in the columbia gorge. >> a community college student taking a drive along the old scenic highway discovers a body and immediately alerts the authorities. >> they're facing eastbound on the old scenic highway. this here is the crime scene. >> the body of an unidentified woman was found in the columbia gorge. but it was off this twisting road through a very lush, forested area. >> when we got there, i looked up the hill, and i could see

this ravine and that there was a body there. it was a female. her clothing was lifted up above her breasts, and her jeans were down around between her knees and her ankles. and as i got to the body, i could see that she had been severely beaten and that there was a rope around her neck. and she was obviously deceased. >> she had been strangled, and it was evident that there had probably been some kind of sexual assault. >> authorities begin to process the scene for clues. they need to find out who this woman was, how she got there, and who had done this horrible thing. >> there was a head hair found on the body. >> the fly of her jeans had been torn away. it was missing. >> there was nothing there that would have indicated who this person was.

there was no identification. the only items that we found were a small, red swiss army knife and a set of headphones for, like, a sony walkman, which were real popular back then. >> when she had still not been identified, the police had a sketch made up and circulated that in the local media looking for suggestions about who she might be. >> a great deal of time elapsed, probably seven or eight days. >> michelle white's younger sister hadn't been home for a week. no one knew where she was. and then one night, a neighbor told her to watch the news. >> this is a channel 2 news brief. >> good evening, everybody. i'm steve dunn. ere are some of the stories we're working on in the channel 2 newsroom tonight. we had a young woman who was dumped in the forest and brutally murdered. >> right off the bat, they showed a sketch of the person. i thought to myself, "well, that don't look like her." but once they showed the clothes and her shirt, all i could think

about -- oh, my god, my sister. >> at that point, the family recognized her as taunja bennett. >> she's a 23-year-old woman. she's described by her family as super friendly, but maybe a little bit naive. >> taunja bennett was intellectually disabled. she was coping, though, and had apparently some social life. >> she was a little bit slow, but she's the only one that graduated from high school. she read a lot. instead of watching tv, it was music. ♪ i can feel your power ♪ >> madonna -- that's what she listened to all day. ♪ you know i'll take you there ♪ >> taunja bennett had a history of some troubling behavior due to her lack of impulse control. >> we tried to retrace taunja bennett's steps from when she was last seen on the 21st of january. >> the day that she left the house, i do remember. she said, i'm going to go see my friends.

i said, it's sunday. the bus only runs once an hour. where are you going to go? she said, "yeah, i'm gonna go see my friend." i said, "okay, well, um, you know, take the movies back on the way." >> she had left her home, according to her mother, and she had some video tapes she was going to return. and she had her sony walkman with her in her purse. >> she was carrying her soul ii soul cassette tape. ♪ however do you want me ♪ >> listening to her favorite song "back to life." ♪ however do you want me ♪ >> not far from where taunja bennett lived was a neighborhood tavern called the b&i, and she was kind of a semi regular there. a waitress at the bar remembered taunja being in there. >> she walked in just happy-go-lucky and was hugging people, and she was there playing pool with two guys. and then later during her shift, she noticed that taunja had left

and the two men had gone. >> but she didn't know anything more about whether she left with them or who the men were. >> it wasn't unusual for her to leave the house and not come home for a few days. >> never found out what she was doing, how she was doing it, because she kept everything a secret. >> we needed to check out who she's been with, who might have a motive to do something like this. >> police spend days trying to track down these two guys who were playing pool where she'd been hanging around. >> not only did we go to the b&i tavern, we went to -- oh, gosh, i don't know how many bars. there was one down in southeast portland at 92nd and foster that she liked to go to also. >> they tried everything they could to figure out what had happened to taunja and who had done this to her. they were all dead ends. >> they opened an anonymous tip line on crime stoppers.

and one of the phone calls that came in was from a woman. >> he's mouthed off a couple of times talking about some dead girl. i shouldn't be telling all this, but i can't protect him anymore. before my doctor and i chose breztri for my copd, i had bad days, (cough, cough) flare-ups that could permanently damage my lungs. with breztri, things changed for me. breztri gave me better breathing. starting within 5 minutes, i noticed my lung function improved. it helped improve my symptoms, and breztri was even proven to reduce flare-ups, including those that could send me to the hospital. so now i look forward to more good days. breztri won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. it is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. don't take breztri more than prescribed. breztri may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling,

problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. can't afford your medication? astrazeneca may be able to help. ask your doctor about breztri. listen, your deodorant just has to work. i use secret aluminum free. just swipe and it lasts all day. secret helps eliminate odor, instead of just masking it. and hours later, i still smell fresh. secret works! ohhh yesss. ♪ ♪ don't worry, it happens to the best of us. surgeons. judges. even bowlers. ♪ try new pringles harvest blends.

i call it a diary of cases i worked on. of course, this is just one year. and it's got a lot of the stuff about taunja bennett's homicide in here. there's 800 pages of reports. on this here it says, follow up on homicide, see file number -- blah, blah, blah. so, i didn't go into detail.

it was the most jumbled-up case i've ever seen in my life. i wish that i'd have never drawn it to be honest with you. just my turn in the barrel, i guess. >> several weeks go by after taunja's body is discovered, and the police really are trying to solve the case. they're working around the clock but to no avail. >> the two men she was last seen playing pool with at the bar were eliminated as suspects. so, it was back to the drawing board for the detectives. >> they put out more information in the media asking for tips. >> we also canvassed taunja's neighborhood. that's basic. you go from door to door and ask people, hey, when was the last time you saw taunja? blah blah blah. uneventful. no fruit there. >> the anonymous tip line starts blowing up, and it was one caller who provided the break in

the case they were looking for. >> he said that him and this guy did it and they took her up near vista. one of them strangled her to death. >> a phone call came in that was a woman claiming, anonymously, that a guy named john sosnovske had been heard at a bar almost boasting that he had strangled a girl. >> by day, john worked at a lumber yard, but at night he drank. john was an alcoholic. >> he was only on probation for dui. no criminal history other than that. >> they learned that john sosnovske had a girlfriend, an older woman named laverne pavlinac. >> laverne pavlinac and john sosnovske were involved in a codependent, dysfunctional relationship, the details of which were never made real clear, but she was really wanting to be out of the relationship. >> laverne would repeatedly call the probation officer kind of claiming that he was drinking

too much, he was not pleasant to live with. >> he's real paranoid. he does his drinking after about 8:00 at night. he waits till he knows nobody's going to come around. and he's so unpredictable, and i know he's capable of being violent. i've went through many rages with him through the years. >> laverne eventually admits to the probation officer that she's the one who's been making anonymous calls to the police. >> this is typical behavior for her. they had a volatile relationship. earlier she'd tried to pin other things on sosnovske. >> there was a bank robbery where they published a picture and she reported him as the likely suspect in the bank robbery. and the fbi investigated that case and found out that john couldn't be responsible for it. >> she agrees to meet with police to talk with them about the possible involvement of john sosnovske in the murder.

>> we were greeted at the door by mrs. pavlinac, and she invited us in. she was very cordial, offered us coffee. and she struck me as just a really nice older lady. i thought, wow, this is going to be interesting. you know, was my first impression. >> when police go to visit laverne pavlinac, they find a 57-year-old woman. she used to work at a state mental hospital. >> she was alone until she kind of latched into this relationship with sosnovske, who was 18 years her junior. >> i found it an odd relationship. now, why she was attracted to him, i have no idea. lavrene stated she had been with sosnovske at jb's lounge and she had overheard him tell a man that he had killed a girl and left her body in the gorge and that he had sex with her. >> she then describes, he's talked about tying me up, he

plays with rope, implicating him further in what's gone on with taunja bennett. >> laverne then says that on the night of taunja's disappearance, john came home at about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, immediately took off all his clothes, she says, and jumped in the shower, which laverne told police was a very unusual thing for him to do. >> the police believed her. she was credible. >> she was a grandmotherly-type person, you know? very accommodating. >> i forgot about a lot of these. >> here's us right here. >> here's when you were born. >> she was like a best friend. that's how i felt about her. you could tell her anything. >> she's caring. she's naive. wants to help anybody that she can help. >> she was a character. i can tell you that. she was funny. >> here's a good picture of mom and dad. >> we were so normal.

and then when their marriage ended after 26 years, because my dad kind of looked elsewhere, that's when things fell apart for her. horribly fell apart for her. >> she had gone through a lot of difficult steps in her life. she had been divorced, remarried. the new husband had died of cancer. >> before he died, he had a farmhand, and his name was john sosnovske. >> they begin a decade long relationship that can only be described as dysfunctional to put it mildly. >> they were an unlikely romantic couple. >> i don't think she was in love with him. i think that she was at a bad place in her life. >> she was lonely, and she didn't have anyone to take care of anymore because everybody was gone. >> police were able to get a search warrant to search the home that the two of them shared together. >> we were looking for a purse. a section of taunja bennett's jeans had been cut away, a fly section. we were looking for that. >> they're able to get into the

house, and they search and they find basically nothing except for a piece of paper that has t. bennett, dash, good piece written on it. >> t, like in the initial t for taunja. bennett, good piece. that, i thought was amazing. >> a good piece? the expression used to be a good piece of ass. >> was that a reference to a woman he had just murdered and raped? >> not able to identify the handwriting, but it moved the investigation forward. >> the police decide to question john sosnovski, and they bring him in. >> do you have any knowledge of the death of taunja bennett? >> then they discover something that will turn this entire case on its head. >> it's beginning to become very bizarre to me. and we're done. hm, what about these? ♪ looks right. [sfx: spilling sound] nooo...

nooo... nooo... quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty absorbs spills like a sponge. and bounty is 2x more absorbent so you can use less and get the job done with one. this works. kind of. bounty, the quicker picker upper. can a cream really reduce wrinkles? more than one hundred women tried l'oreal triple power. my smile lines and the wrinkles have diminished. triple power visibly reduces wrinkles, firms and brightens. i saw results in 1 week. it absolutely works. revitalift triple power from l'oreal paris. it does what it says. ( ♪ ♪ ) ♪ (hey, here come that swirl) ♪ ♪ (hey, here come that) ♪ ♪ (shake, shake) ♪ ♪ (hey, here come that swirl) ♪ ♪ (hey, here come that) ♪ ♪ (shake, shake) ♪ ( ♪ ♪ ) ♪ (shake, shake) ♪ ever notice how stiff clothes can feel rough on your skin? for softer clothes that are gentle on your skin, try downy free & gentle downy will soften your clothes without dyes or perfumes. the towel washed with downy is softer,

and gentler on your skin. try downy free & gentle. get an extra 20% off now during kohl's friends and family sale! save on styles for clocking in... and working out. like men's tek gear activewear starting at $11.99. plus, earn kohl's cash on it all. at kohl's. ♪i've got home internet from t-mobile.♪ ♪it only costs $50 bucks at t-mobile.♪ ♪just one cord to set up.♪ ♪say goodbye to that truck.♪ ♪oh, what a beautiful mornin'...♪ ♪oh, what a beautiful day...♪ ♪they won't raise your rates at t-mobile...♪ ♪you'll get a great deal every day!♪ home internet from t-mobile... just $50 bucks a month.

i drove on this road at least a thousand times when i was a kid.

i avoid this place since 1990. my sister, taunja bennett, was murdered here. >> this is the area where taunja bennett's body was dumped. >> the homicide investigation is finally picking up speed. laverne pavlinac says she heard her boyfriend talking about killing a woman. >> after searching laverne and john's apartment and finding that note with taunja bennett's name on it, the police start to zero in on john sosnovske. >> on the strength of statements from laverne pavlinac, the detectives got john sosnovske to come down to the station. >> he agreed to accompany us to a substation located in wilsonville. at that point we interviewed john. >> today is friday, february 16, 1990. time now is 6:40 p.m.

mr. john allen sosnovske. john, you realize that this conversation is being recorded? >> yes, i do, sir. >> you understand, we're investigating the homicide of taunja anne bennett? >> yes, sir. >> he was cooperative. he was willing to speak with them and talk to them. >> we've shown you a polaroid photograph of taunja anne bennett. do you recognize this person? >> no, i do not, sir. >> do you recall, ever having seen this person before in your life? >> no, sir. >> did you have a conversation, with an individual in a lounge, j.b.'s, regarding the murder of taunja bennett? >> no, sir. >> do you have any knowledge of the death of taunja bennett? >> no, sir. >> john sosnovske was adamant that he had never met taunja bennett and that he definitely didn't kill taunja bennett.

>> that of course was flying in the face of what pavlinac was saying. one of them is lying. >> anything else you'd like to say, sir? >> yes, if i may. i'm more than willing to help in any way that i can and clear myself and to help you people, because i have nothing to hide. >> okay. we'll conclude the interview. time now is 6:58 p.m. >> they took a hair sample from john sosnovske to try to match that up to evidence from the crime scene. >> the interview ends, but john is sent home. the police decide they just don't have enough evidence to arrest or detain him. >> the interesting part is that right after he gets released, pavlinac contacts detectives again, and she's very concerned about why things aren't going her way. >> she was now engaged in this process.

in fact, she was showering them with calls at all times and kind of escalating the situation. >> over the weekend, laverne had contacted me and said that john had told her he may have written that note that was found in a dresser drawer that said t. bennett, good piece. >> laverne contacts law enforcement again and says, oh, i have even more for you. >> she had found a strange purse in her trunk of her car. >> and it contains news clippings about taunja bennett's murder and also contained a cutaway piece of denim from a pair of girl's jeans. >> remember when taunja's body was found, the fly had been cut out of the jeans. now police think this is a huge break because this appears to be that missing piece of denim. >> i'm thinking, this is really amazing. >> killers will often take a little trophy. they'll take a little memento. they'll keep something from the victim. >> and there's more good news

for police -- there's physical evidence that seems to corroborate laverne's claims to the police. >> there was a head hair found on taunja's body that was consistent with john sosnovske. >> i can't say that it is for sure john's. i can't say it isn't john's, but it's a distinct possibility. >> it wasn't like a fingerprint. it was just a corroborating piece of evidence. >> armed with new evidence, detectives go back to john sosnovske. they ask him to take a lie detector test. >> took a polygraph, flunked it. >> the examiner informs corson that, in his opinion, john sosnovske has direct knowledge of the death of taunja bennett. >> after he is told that he was deceptive, sosnovske begins to modify his version. >> john writes out a seven-page statement and reads it out on tape.

>> i have seen t. bennett at j.b.'s truck stop on several occasions. the last time was 21 january, 1990. i was visiting with chuck riley, who was playing darts. >> he says that, yes, they were in the bar and that taunja left with another guy. >> they went to a nearby truck stop, supposedly, to have sex with each other. >> later that evening i saw chuck riley and asked him for a ride home. i believe i saw a body in the back of the car. the body was wrapped in a blanket. the body -- the body was one of a white female adult. i had not known how she was killed. >> john sosnovske has moved from never knowing or seeing taunja bennett all the way through to seeing her dead in the back of chuck riley's car. >> we go and try to talk to chuck riley. he says, you're crazy. no, that didn't happen at all. >> do you have any knowledge in the death of taunja ann bennett? >> none. >> do you have any

responsibility? were you involved in that personally? >> no. >> do you know anything about this gal at all? >> no. >> do you have any idea of why mr. sosnovske would tell the police that you were involved in that? >> no, i do not know why he would do something like that. >> chuck riley voluntarily says, hey, look, he says, you guys can search my car. >> fully cooperative with the examination of the car. >> it's totally processed. there isn't one item of evidence in there to indicate that taunja bennett had ever been in that car. no blood, no hair, nothing. >> there was no indication at the truck stop that any room had been rented, either by that man or by taunja bennett. he passed his polygraph. >> the chuck riley story in the analysis of the investigation becomes a deflection by sosnovske, who we believe is responsible for the murder. >> police really need something much more concrete to be able to arrest him for taunja's murder. so, they get a warrant and they install a wiretap in john's apartment.

>> i just think about that girl's mother and it just makes me sick. >> we were outside in an unmarked van, and we had asked laverne to try to get john to volunteer information regarding the homicide of taunja bennett. >> oh. i dumped the body into the gorge. >> you carried it. >> no, no, no. who's trying to put this [ bleep ] on me. i don't remember going to no gorge, dumping no body for god's sake. i don't. and he raises his voice and says, i don't know what you're talking about. are you trying to frame me? >> john, that's the worst thing you've ever gotten yourself into. somedays, i cover up because of my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now i feel free to bare my skin, thanks to skyrizi. ♪(uplifting music)♪ ♪nothing is everything♪ i'm celebrating my clearer skin... my way.

with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. in another study, most people had 90% clearer skin, even at 5 years. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. thanks to clearer skin with skyrizi - this is my moment. there's nothing on my skin and that means everything! ♪nothing is everything♪ now's the time. ask your doctor about skyrizi, the #1 dermatologist-prescribed biologic in psoriasis. learn how abbvie could help you save. want a smarter way to mop? introducing the new swiffer powermop. an all-in-one cleaning tool with a 360-degree swivel head that goes places a regular mop just can't. mop smarter with the new swiffer powermop.

when the lunches you pack with love are filled with quality ingredients... when you can celebrate big wins, with low prices... and when saving on easy dinners together bring everyone a smile... that's totally target. have you heard about this samsung flip phone? you only have to look at it once... ...and then it gets, like, stuck inside your mind or something. and the only way to stop it is to switch. that's like the dumbest thing i've ever heard. there's no way i'd ever switch... [phone ringing] ♪ (dramatic music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (dramatic music) ♪ [ indistinct chatter ] [ cars unlocking and honking ]

[ engine starting ] [ "dancing in the moonlight" playing ] stand out in the new, restyled volkswagen atlas cross sport. it does life beautifully.

in the month since taunja was murdered, so much is happening in the world -- politics, sports, joe montana

threw those five touchdowns to win the super bowl for the 49ers. >> good evening, this was nelson mandela's first full day of freedom. >> nelson mandela walking free in south africa after spending decade in prison. >> i have lost a great deal. >> and taunja's favorite song, "back to life" won the grammy. >> for the detectives, their investigation hits a major roadblock when they examine evidence found in laverne pavlinac's trunk. >> one of the items that she provided for them was a piece of cloth from a pair of levi's jeans. >> she hands them a purse that is of similar description to what taunja bennett would have lost. >> taunja bennett's mother said, no, that's not her purse. i've never seen that purse before. >> we send a section of jeans down to the crime lab to have them compared to taunja's jeans

that she was wearing when she was found, and it does not match. >> so, it tells you laverne is fabricating evidence. >> we confronted laverne with that fact, and laverne admitted that she had planted those items in the trunk of the car trying to convince us that john sosnovske had been involved in the homicide of taunja bennet. >> she wanted him out of her life. she thought, this is the way to get this man away from me. >> when they confront her, she then implicates herself. she says, "i know he did it because i was there." >> laverne tells police a new story that she got a call from john in the middle of the night and that he had a request. >> the phone rang. it was john sosnovske. >> okay. >> calling to tell me he was in trouble and to come fast. >> what did he want you to bring? >> bring something large to wrap something in. >> okay, and what did you take with you when you went to see john at the j.b. lounge? >> a blue shower curtain.

>> she stated also that she had met john sosnovske at j.b.'s lounge and brought along a shower curtain. when she pulled into the parking lot, there was body laying on the pavement. >> and as you drove closer, what did you find that something on the ground to be? >> a female. she was lying on her side, very prone, very quiet. >> laverne pavlinac said she immediately recognized the woman to be taunja bennett, a former patient at the mental hospital where pavlinac herself once worked. >> she asked john, is she okay? he said, it's worse than that, she's dead. >> i said, why is she dead? he says, because i choked her. i said, i think we need to take her to a hospital. we need to report this, john. no, no, i'll go to the pen. i'll go death row. >> he made her wrap up the body

and hide the body in the trunk of the car, and they drove out to the gorge to dispose of the body. >> we opened the back door on the passenger side and pulled her out, and he went off into the woods with her. >> after dumping the body in the woods, do you recall any conversation he might have with you? >> just that i better not open my mouth. this never happened, or i will cause trouble for your family. i'll hurt your family. >> at that point, she's implicating herself. she's saying, okay, i helped him, but was only after he had murdered taunja bennett. >> laverne has changed her story multiple times. police start to be skeptical of whether or not she's telling the truth. >> so, at this point, the police need to really test the credibility of laverne. >> so they say to her, okay, take us to where you disposed of taunja's body. >> detective ingram and corson take her out and see whether or

not they could make sense of the physical locations versus what her statements were. they drove her up to the gorge. >> there's a place called vista house. that's kind of an identifiable spot. >> a well-known place to local people. you can see up the gorge all the way to the horizon. >> but that's not where the body was found. it was more in the surrounding area. >> now, as corson and i are proceeding on the columbia highway -- >> kind of this twisting, winding road where everything sort of looks the same. >> they drove the distance from the vista house to lateral falls. >> we drive past where the body had been deposited. and she says, well, we've gone too far. turn around. and we're driving back, she this here bugs me. stop. >> she got out and said, this is it. this is where the dropped the body. >> she points out exactly where that body had been placed.

she couldn't have missed it by 10 feet. and that absolutely astounded me. i thought, my god, this woman was actually here. >> we have a photograph. she is standing in the forest pointing, and the detectives swore to me they had not in any way given her a clue. >> they brought that information back and we said, you need to go out and arrest him and put him in jail. >> john sosnovske has been charged with the murder of taunja bennett based on laverne's account. but now laverne tells police she has something new to share. >> what she said was, "correction time." >> i thought, "okay, what do we got now?" >> this was sort of like, "laverne, are you telling stories again?" moving forward with node- positive breast cancer is overwhelming. but i never just found my way; i made it. and did all i could to prevent recurrence. verzenio reduces the risk of recurrence of hr-positive, her2-negative, node-positive, early breast cancer with a high chance of returning,

as determined by your doctor when added to hormone therapy. hormone therapy works outside the cell... while verzenio works inside to help stop the growth of cancer cells. diarrhea is common, may be severe, or cause dehydration or infection. at the first sign, call your doctor, start an antidiarrheal, and drink fluids. before taking verzenio, tell your doctor about any fever, chills, or other signs of infection. verzenio may cause low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infection that can lead to death. life-threatening lung inflammation can occur. tell your doctor about any new or worsening trouble breathing, cough, or chest pain. serious liver problems can happen. symptoms include fatigue, appetite loss, stomach pain, and bleeding or bruising. blood clots that can lead to death have occurred. tell your doctor if you have pain or swelling in your arms or legs, shortness of breath, chest pain, and rapid breathing or heart rate, or if you are nursing, pregnant, or plan to be. i'm making my own way forward. ask your doctor about everyday verzenio. this isn't charmin! no wonder i don't feel as clean. here's charmin ultra strong. ahhh! my bottom's been saved! with its diamond weave texture, charmin ultra strong cleans better with fewer sheets and less effort.

enjoy the go with charmin. that's it! i'm going on a dunkin' run. i'll do a dunkin' run. i will also go on a dunkin' run. time for a dunkin' run. add a $3 sausage egg and cheese to a medium or larger coffee. america runs on dunkin'.

every business deserves a great deal. that's why comcast business is launching the mobile made free event. with our business internet, new and existing customers can get one year of unlimited mobile for free. it's our best internet. powered by the next generation 10g network and with 99.9% reliability. plus one line of free mobile for an entire year. it's the mobile made free event-happening now. get started for just $49.99 a month.

plus, ask how to get one free line of unlimited mobile. comcast business, powering possibilities. believe they have finally solved the murder of taunja bennett. they arrest john sosnovske.

>> we had enough probable cause to arrest john sosnovske and took him into custody and transport him to a booking facility. >> a few days later, they get another call from laverne pavlinac, and she has more to talk about. >> so, myself and detective corson go out to her condominium. she says, "it's correction time." >> "correction time." that's what she said to them. "correction time." >> i mean, those two detectives, their heads must have been spinning because this was a constantly evolving story. >> i thought, okay, what do we got now? >> in this conversation, laverne tells them that she needs to tell them what really happened with sosnovske and bennett. >> then we ask her if she'd be willing to make a statement on tape, and she said yes, she would like to do that. >> they then turn on the tape recorder. >> today is monday, february 26, 1990. >> and she now revisits her trip to j.b.'s truckstop. she went there to pick up sosnovske.

>> you pulled into the lot. what did you see, if anything? >> i see john standing with a young lady. >> that young lady we're talking about is taunja bennett. is that right? >> correct. >> sosnovske was there with taunja bennett, and taunja bennett was alive. >> sosnovske tells laverne that they're going to give bennett a ride home. bennett and sosnovske both get in the car. >> they're leaving j.b.'s lounge. john and taunja are in the car. they're playfully fighting with one another. >> she slapped him. he slapped her. punched her, slapped her. and they were laughing. >> did it progress into something where there wasn't laughter any longer? >> yes, then it become serious, a serious argument. as we went further down the freeway, he said, i'm going to take her. >> did he tell you that he was going to have sex with her? >> yes. >> you told us there was a point where john said, quote, she's

not going home, end quote. is that his words to the best of your memory? >> yes, it is. >> and they drive up to the columbia gorge. they get to vista house, crown point on the scenic highway. he tells laverne to pull into the parking area. >> he went to the trunk, and there was rope in there. he says, i'm going to tie her up. it's more of a thrill this way. >> laverne says she gets out of the car and she goes to this stairwell, and taunja bennett is laying there in the stairwell. she's alive. >> john wanted her to get behind her head and to pull the rope tight and tighten it around her neck while he was having sex with her. >> and what were you doing while he was having sex with her? >> i was holding the rope outward. >> he says, "draw the rope tight." laverne says she continues to draw the rope tight and looks away. >> he kept saying, "hang on, hang on." i must have tightened it as i was hanging on. >> she said taunja bennett was moving. suddenly, taunja bennett ceases to move. >> and is the process of pulling

that rope tight when her body went limp? >> yeah. >> okay. ms. pavlinac, let me ask you a question. do you believe, sitting here today, that by pulling that rope tight that you caused the death of taunja ann bennett? >> yeah. >> you do? >> i feel like it's my fault. >> laverne said at that point they put taunja bennett back in the car. they transport her to where her body was located, and they drive home. >> moments after telling her story to the police, she turned, in front of the two detectives, and confessed to the daughter. >> they have her tell me the story. and i looked at her again, and i said, mom, are you sure? and she said, well, they told me i had to tell you this, because if i told you, they would believe me. >> now i'm thinking, she's pointed out the dump site. she's confessed to us on tape. she's told her own daughter the

same story, very convincingly. i'm thinking, my god, she is actually involved in this. >> in this final version of what happened to taunja bennett, she has implicated herself in the murder, and she gets arrested. >> i'm told to place her into a holding cell. i said, okay, laverne, you need to go into that room right there. she turned around and looked at me and gave me a hug. i thought, oh, my god, it felt like i put my mother in jail. >> they slam that metal door on you. that's when i started to realize what i had done. like it woke me up. >> so once behind bars alone with her thoughts, laverne pavlinac has a stunning about face. she says her dying grandson pleads with her to finally come clean. >> i finally told my attorney, what would you say if i told you i didn't -- that i made all this up? that i lied? he said he wouldn't believe me.

but i says, well, i did. i lied. >> she told me that she wasn't going to plead guilty. and i warned her that she was likely to be convicted, but she still wanted to go trial. her trial defense was that she had made this up. >> she recants her confession and says, i made it all up just to get rid of this guy. >> she says, "i just wanted to get out of this abusive relationship." so you're going to frame him for murder and incriminate yourself? who does that? >> she did say that she was sorry about it all. it was kind of a weak compared to what she had been saying. >> in the closing arguments, i argued for eight or nine hours all of the defects in the confession, all of the things that were incorrect. i was convinced that she was innocent. >> but the prosecution only had to hit the play button on the recorder and say, listen to her words.

>> and did you pull it tight -- the rope tight? >> yes, i did. >> and that's what causes you to believe that maybe she died during that incident at that time? >> uh-huh. >> the tape did the argument for him. >> we heard a lot of tapes of her making these accusations of what took place and all. she really just convicted herself. we all found her guilty, all 12 jurors. >> the jury finds her guilty of felony murder and sentences her to life. >> now john is up next for trial, but he sees this is bad. she got convicted. he believes he's going to go down. he takes a plea. >> john pled no contest to the charge of first-degree murder to avoid the possibility of the death sentence and wound up getting life imprisonment. >> laverne pavlinac was so convincing that i think people will tell you that john sosnovske himself came to believe, like, i guess that must be what happened. because he blacks out so often, he wasn't really able to account

for where he would have been or to provide a more aggressive defense, something like an alibi. >> you know, the night before laverne's trial was to start, i told jim, i said, you know, i don't feel right about this. i couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was. >> just before the trial started, there were writings that were made on a bathroom stall door in a truck stop or a rest area. >> these cryptic messages were found hundreds of miles away from the courthouse. one in montana and one in eastern oregon. >> "i killed taunja bennett." >> "two people took the blame." >> "so i can kill again." >> we don't know who wrote it. don't know when it was written, why it was written. >> it was classic hearsay, not admissible in evidence. >> so we never heard about it in the jury. >> there's somebody who's claiming credit for the murder of taunja bennett. >> who's doing this and why? is the real killer still out

there? or is it some sort of creepy prank? >> it's the strangest case i'll have ever worked on. too many people confessing to the same crime. >> i always believed that the truth would come out eventually. i just didn't think the truth would come out of the mouth of a serial killer. where are you going? we have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. that's the old me, before i started taking zeposia. is that just one pill? once a day. old me is still catching up with the zeposia me. zeposia can help people with uc achieve and maintain remission. and has been shown to reduce symptoms in as early as 2 weeks. you're hiking the shorter trail today, right? not with zeposia. don't take zeposia if you had a heart attack, chest pain, stroke or mini-stroke, heart failure in the last 6 months, irregular or abnormal heartbeat, if you have untreated sleep apnea, or take maois. zeposia may cause serious side effects including infections that can be life-threatening and cause death, slow heart rate, liver or breathing problems,

increased blood pressure, macular edema, swelling and narrowing of the brain's blood vessels, and increased risk of pml -- a rare brain infection that usually leads to death or severe disability. tell your doctor if you are pregnant or plan to be. looks like zeposia is really working out. you've got that right, old me. ask your doctor about once-daily zeposia. [♪] did you know, sweat from stress is actually smellier than other kinds of sweat? that's why i use secret clinical antiperspirant. it provides 3x stress sweat protection. danielle? [♪] secret works. [♪] get an extra 20% off now during kohl's friends and family sale! save on styles for clocking in... and working out. like men's tek gear activewear starting at $11.99. plus, earn kohl's cash on it all. at kohl's.

i've always been prone to hair thinning. i'm genetically predisposed. i just gave birth. i was under a lot of stress. i started taking nutrafol. we test our formulations with the highest rigor of clinical trials and we're the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement. i noticed it becoming... stronger and thicker. nutrafol has taken me back to the hair i was meant to have. i am back to me. start your hair growth journey at nutrafol.com you can't leave without cuddles. but, you also can't leave covered in hair. with bounce pet,

you can cuddle and brush that hair off. bounce. it's the sheet. i'm your overly competitive brother. check. psych! and i'm about to steal this game from you just like i stole kelly carter in high school. you got no game dude, that's a foul! and now you're ready to settle the score. game over. and if you don't have the right home insurance coverage, well, you could end up paying for all this yourself. so get allstate, and be better protected from mayhem, yeah, like me. thanks, bro. take a lap, rookie. real mature.

seems like my luck has run out. i have been a killer for five years and have killed eight people. >> we thought that our case is closed, and it now looks like it's anything but closed. >> this handwritten letter with

a happy face scrawled on the top. a smile and two eyes. i thought, he's teasing the police. like ha, ha, ha, here i am, see if you can find me. >> then he started confessing to other murders. >> this is the recovery of a body that was located over the bank. >> it's taunja bennett all over again. >> maybe this guy did do it. maybe these people are innocent. >> now, remember, laverne implicated her boyfriend john in the murder of taunja bennett. she and even claimed she was involved. now there's a whole new suspect. >> they now have not just an anonymous letter writer drawing a happy face, they had a real person. >> he'd tell anybody who'd listen, i am the happy faced killer. >> she sent this from prison. it says, love mother.

>> got a lot of those. here's one right here. >> for more than 25 years, bonnie and darlene have literally saved everything related to their mother's case. >> "air tight except for a lot of leaks." here we are visiting mom at the women's prison. and her prison photo. >> pokey picture. >> pokey picture. >> she was very giving. she'd give you the shirt off her back. she was that kind of woman. that's why all of this doesn't make sense. >> their mother laverne told police a series of stories that implicated not only herself, but her boyfriend john sosnovske in the murder of taunja bennett. she not only confessed to not on the only putting a rope around taunja's neck, she pointed out the exact spot where they found taunja's body. >> i think what happened to mother was she was in an abusive

relationship and she was desperate, and desperate people do desperate things. >> people are like, who would do that? >> she must have been really desperate though. she must have been. >> these two sisters knew that their mother was not guilty in their hearts, but nobody would listen to them. and then in the spring of 1994, they discovered that there was at least one other person who believed laverne was not guilty. >> i got a call on my cellphone, and it was phil stanford from "the oregonian." and he said, darlene, i think we know who's done all this. i think we can get your mom out. >> every morning at "the oregonian", there would be a stack of mail. it was mostly letters and news tips, complaints. i remember that day, we got a really sick one. this handwritten letter, several pages, with a happy face

scrawled on the top. you know, a smile and two eyes. >> and these were anonymous letters. >> about halfway through the first page, the writer confessed to a murder. named the victim, taunja bennett. >> but we already have two people locked up in prison, laverne pavlinac and john sosnovske. >> so it looked like a hoax. but the letter just went on for several pages, all handwritten. and then he started confessing to other murders. and another murder and another. >> i went to truck driving school and learned to drive. while driving, i learned a lot and heard of people that have gotten away with such a crime because of our nomad life. >> here's a guy who is on the move constantly.

he's a long-haul trucker. he pulls into one place for a night, he's there for a few hours, maybe sleeps in his cab, and he's gone. who even knew he was there? >> i had to decide whether i was going to recycle it or do something with it. i decided i would give it to a reporter, a guy named phil stanford. >> phil, who was sort of a muckraker in many respects, but he could be pretty thorough. >> the letter said five of five. pretty cryptic. turned out to be five murders he was talking about. and the first one was a local murder, taunja bennett. two people were already in prison for that. i figured, okay, i'll check out the other four. >> this person says that he killed five women in the past four years in two different states, in oregon and california. >> i called the authorities in these other locations where the

writer claims to have killed women and dumped their bodies, and there were bodies in every one of those cases. >> we first got a copy of a letter from a reporter in portland, signed with a smiley face. and he claimed responsibility for a jane doe homicide that we had. and we had no other leads at that point. >> i killed her, dumped her body about seven miles north of blythe on 95. >> he described the location, which was correct. we did find duct tape at the scene. >> he knew things that no one would have known unless they were the killer or an investigator. >> stanford's a journalist so he decides to go back and take another look at taunja bennett's police file.

>> pretty soon, it came clear to me that these people didn't do it. even though they confessed. they didn't do it. >> i went over everything that he wanted to report and double-checked it, triple-checked it, and it all checked out. and we decided that he would report it in a series. >> now, at that point, they didn't know who had written the anonymous letters. phil stanford, he's the one who came up with the nickname happy face killer. >> the letter was of key interest to the newspaper. but authorities looked at it with skepticism. they weren't going to put much stock in it unless they knew who wrote it. >> i thought, he's teasing the police, like, ha ha ha, here i am. see if you can find me. look over your shoulder. i might be right behind you. obviously the guy was mentally ill, to say the least. >> i read all the information stanford was putting out in his columns. there really wasn't anything in those letters about taunja bennett that hadn't been widely discussed at the trial. it was very good reading, but it

was really nothing we could deal with criminally on our case. >> nothing ever really came of the happy face letter. think about it, detectives in multnomah county weren't about to re-open a murder case just because of an anonymous letter, especially because they already had two people in prison serving time for the murder of taunja bennett. >> then in march of 1995, another dead body in the columbia gorge, but this time on the other side of the river in skamania county, washington. >> we're about a quarter mile, maybe a little less, into skamania county from the clark county side on state route 14, which is also known as the evergreen highway. this is where the motorist pulled over to urinate. >> he had walked across the guard rail, walked over and closer to the bank where it's a more wooded area where he could be a little bit more concealed from the traffic. >> 911. how can i help you? >> i think i found a body alongside the road. it looks like a female.

i can see a hand with fingernail polish. >> so, looking just down over the bank about 20 feet down, there's a little vine maple, broad-leaf tree that comes up right there. her body was found just next to that and a little bit uphill from that. >> this is the recovery of a body that was located over the bank. >> as we approached the scene where she was located, the first thing that i was struck by was that she was completely nude. there was no purse. there was no jacket. there was no anything nearby that could possibly give us an identity to who this person was. >> there appeared to be some adhesive on her cheeks and over her mouth, that appeared consistent with maybe the adhesive from duct tape. i notice that there's a dark discoloration on her shoulders and neck area. it could have been consistent with strangulation. >> it's taunja bennett all over again. another woman found dead with no i.d.

a naked body found in the columbia river gorge, death by strangulation, and another phone call to police confessing. >> i check my voicemail, and i received a telephone message from him recorded on my answering machine. i was very surprised by it. >> you were right. let me be direct... you're watching football wrong! what do you call a guy in face paint that can't get the game? ...a clown! sorry, what app was it again? no, no. just give me a second... amateurs. ohhh! sorry everybody. directv sports central gives you access to every game... ...so you never have to compromise on gameday. ...was that necessary? i was just illustrating a point. oh. get in the redzone with sports pack. call 1-800-directv my late father-in-law lit up a room, but his vision dimmed with age. he had amd. i didn't know it then, but it can progress to ga,

an advanced form of the disease. his struggle with vision loss from amd made me want to help you see warning signs of ga. like straight lines that seem wavy, blurry, or missing visual spots that make it hard to see faces like this one, or trouble with low light that makes driving at night a real challenge. if you've been diagnosed with amd and notice vision changes, don't wait. ga is irreversible. it's important to catch it early. talk to your eye doctor about ga and learn more at gawontwait.com [slurp] get all your favs like an order of small fries for just a few bucks, only on the mcdonald's $1 $2 $3 dollar menu. why do dermatologists worldwide recommend la roche-posay? effective skincare like la roche-posay double repair face moisturizer

delivers double-action to help repair skin's barrier and provide 48-hour hydration for healthy-looking skin. la roche-posay. when low prices on supplies spark great ideas... when they've got it all fo in the bag for less... and when you can save more on school spirit... that's totally target. ( ♪ ) ♪ all right ♪ hoping for your love (horn honking) eggo liège-style waffles are a no toaster needed, grab and go breakfast. l'eggo with eggo. i'm adding downy unstopables to my wash now. i'll be smelling fresh all day long. [sniffs] still fresh. still fresh! get 6 times longer-lasting freshness, plus odor protection with downy unstopables. [city ambience sounds] [car screech] [car door slam] [camera shutter sfx] introducing

ned's plaque psoriasis. [camera shutter sfx] he thinks his flaky, red patches are all people see. otezla is the #1 prescribed pill to treat plaque psoriasis. [ned?] it can help you get clearer skin and reduce itching and flaking. with no routine blood tests required. doctors have been prescribing it for nearly a decade. otezla is also approved to treat psoriatic arthritis. don't use otezla if you're allergic to it. serious allergic reactions can happen. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. some people taking otezla had depression, suicidal thoughts, or weight loss. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. [crowd gasp] ♪ with clearer skin, movie night is a groovy night. [ting] ♪ live in the moment. ask your doctor about otezla.

god will be my judge when i die. i am telling you this because i will be responsible for these crimes and no one else. but i will not turn myself in. i am not stupid. >> it's been a year since the happy face articles appeared in "the oregonian."

laverne's daughters are trying in vain to clear their mother's name in the murder of taunja bennett, but the news cycle has already moved on. >> in march of 1995, i received a telephone call from my supervisor saying that they had recovered a body a female that was over the embankment on highway 14. there was no identification on her. we had no idea who she was. >> the medical examiner ruled that the cause of death was due to manual strangulation. during the autopsy, the fingerprints were lifted of the victim. we were able to identify her as julie winningham. >> then this is julie with my son joshua. and then this is julie with jeff. this was in '78 this was taken. she was my best friend. i called her jules. she was 5'2", blond hair, blue

eyes. weighed about 98 pounds and adorable. always wore her hair very short, did not like long hair. always wore hoop earrings. she was just cute. yeah. wasn't she beautiful? she truly was. she was beautiful inside as well as outside. and that's how i remember her. she was a free spirit, and she would go here, there, and she would go to work at a place and wouldn't work for very long because she would always go out on the road. but you know, she would pop in and pop out, and over the years she was that type of person. >> but melissa says the last time she saw julie, they had this really big blow-out fight about julie's partying and her drinking, and then she never saw her again.

>> i told her to get out, and then she went back out on the road. i knew we would make up, because you can't be friends for 20 years and not make up. so i felt very guilty for a number of years, because i feel that if i hadn't had that fight with her, she would never have left town and she might be alive today. >> we showed her photograph to other residents of the area, that we were able to identify who she might have been hanging out with. >> as the investigators were going out, those interviews were being audio recorded on their -- it was a little microcassette player. >> this is detective joel lebow of clark county sheriff's office. the date is march 16, 1995. >> investigators talked with several people who hung out with

julie just two days before her body was discovered. >> where do you know julie from? >> i know her from down on d street, when she came over with the guy. >> was julie here with someone else? >> yes, she was. >> okay. can you tell me a little bit -- how'd they get here? >> in a blue semi-truck. >> interviewing other friends of julie winningham, and we're getting a picture that she had been seen with a very large man, a long-haul truck driver, drove a big blue semitruck. >> what did he look like? >> he was tall, built, brown hair. >> he was about 6'6", good 300 pounds. >> police learned that julie was in a relationship with a very tall, large trucker, that they were talking about moving in

together, and julie had even told some people that they were engaged to be married. >> so, it's something that it was a close relationship with whoever this man was. unfortunately, the friends couldn't remember what his name was. >> do you know the guy's name? >> no, i don't remember. >> who was that person? >> i don't know. i think his name was chris. >> i recall either rich or chris. those are the two names. i couldn't say for sure though. >> julie introduced me to this guy, and i can't for the life of me remember his name. it's chris or keith. >> from an investigative standpoint, we obviously wanted to talk to him. we wanted to find out if he knew what happened to julie winningham. because as far as we knew, he was probably the last person to be with her. >> there were several names. nobody actually recalled what his name was until we met with bonnie valenstein. >> how do you know julie? >> we met at the restaurant that i used to work at. she used to come in and have

coffee with me all the time. >> bonnie tells us that she had bought a car from julie winningham recently. >> her new fiance. that's how she introduced him. i don't remember personally what his name was, but everybody said it was jerry, so -- >> somebody mentioned it was jerry? >> yeah, her new fiance. that's how she introduced him. >> okay. then what happened? >> he wrote up the bill of sale, she signed it. >> so obviously we asked to see this bill of sale. she did show it to us. and at the very bottom, not only is there a signature of this very large, long-haul truck driver, but there's a printed name above it. keith hunter jesperson. and that was our first knowledge of who this long-haul truck driver was that she had been seeing. my active psoriatic arthritis can make me feel like i'm losing my rhythm. with skyrizi to treat my skin and joints, i'm getting into my groove.

♪(uplifting music)♪ along with significantly clearer skin... skyrizi helps me move with less joint pain, stiffness, swelling, and fatigue. and is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. skyrizi attaches to and reduces a source of excess inflammation that can lead to skin and joint symptoms. with skyrizi 90% clearer skin and less joint pain are possible. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. thanks to skyrizi, there's nothing like clearer skin and better movement... and that means everything. ♪nothing is everything♪ now's the time to ask your doctor about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. ( ♪ ♪ ) ♪ (hey, here come that swirl) ♪ ♪ (hey, here come that) ♪ ♪ (shake, shake) ♪ ♪ (hey, here come that swirl) ♪ ♪ (hey, here come that) ♪

♪ (shake, shake) ♪ ( ♪ ♪ ) ♪ (shake, shake) ♪ get an extra 20% off now during kohl's friends and family sale! ( ♪ ♪ ) save on styles for clocking in... and working out. like men's tek gear activewear starting at $11.99. plus, earn kohl's cash on it all. at kohl's. ♪ believe it or not baby... at university of phoenix... you... you... you... you could earn your... master's... for under than 11 thousand! 11... yes! 11! master's degree for under 11k in less than a year. some things are too obvious to be a coincidence. earn your competency-based master's at university of phoenix.

i know what it's like to perform through pain. if you're like me, one of the millions suffering from pain caused by migraine nurtec odt may help. it's the only medication that can treat a migraine when it strikes and prevent migraine attacks. treat and prevent, all in one. don't take if allergic to nurtec. allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. we're in this together. talk to a doctor about nurtec odt. it ain't my dad's razor, dad. ay watch it! it's from gillettelabs. this green bar releases trapped hairs from my face... gamechanga! ...while the flexdisc contours to it. so the five blades

can get virtually every hair in one stroke. for the ultimate gillette shaving experience. the best a man can get is gillettelabs. we're starting to hear these things about this long-haul truck driver keith jesperson. it was really starting to concern us. these were people that possibly were getting married. it was a pretty significant relationship as being described to us. yet where's keith jesperson?

this person was just gone. where's this person at and why aren't they here asking questions? >> it was hard to pin down any information, but all of their research around trucking and truck stops and truck companies led them to an important clue. he drove a blue rig, just like the kind that the twt truckers drove, and that was a really key detail. >> so, we just traveled to spokane and asked to speak with the management. just asked a little bit of questions about keith jesperson. they admitted that he was a driver for them. >> so then the trucking company told buettner that jesperson was actually due to make a delivery in las cruces, new mexico, in just two days. ♪ ♪ >> and we flew down ahead of him. we were able to set up there, wait for him to show up. >> we identified ourselves as detectives and asked if he'd

come to the sheriff's office to talk to us. he said he'd absolutely go there, no problem. and that was our first insight into keith jesperson. because keith jesperson thoroughly enjoyed talking about about how great keith is. >> can you just state your full name please? >> my name is keith hunter jesperson. >> and your date of birth? >> april 6, 1955. i got introduced to truck with my father in jesperson contracting in 1972 when i was still in school. >> how did you get the nickname the happy face killer? i had the opportunity to speak with keith jesperson back in 2010. i found him to be polite, and yet he spent a lot of time talking about himself. >> what was your childhood like? >> well, i considered it a good childhood. you know, my father and mother were good people. we had tough love in our family, and my father used his belt and

my mother used a wooden spoon and that's the way he punished us. >> these photos and videos licensed from his daughter, melissa moore, provide a glimpse into keith jesperson's life. >> he didn't have close relationships with other kids in the neighborhood, was picked on. because he was bigger than the rest of the kids. >> yeah, i brought a yearbook. this is keith's senior picture and his song he picked, which i thought was kind of ironic, is "born to be wild." ♪ born to be wild ♪ >> he was really awkward. i don't know if it was his size or what, but he just seemed really out of place and awkward. some of us called him, unfortunately, baby huey, and that wasn't very nice. >> baby huey, which is a cartoon character of -- i think it's like a big chicken or something.

♪ here we going swimming here we going swimming ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i got married august 2, 1975, in moxy, washington. >> okay. and you got two kids? >> three. >> three? >> he's a long-haul truck driver. had been doing it for a long time. >> he would be gone during the week and then come friday, he'd be rolling down the dirt road with his semi truck and pull in. and we'd have a glorious, fun weekend together. and then he would be off on the road again. >> i got divorced around the year 1988. she packed up and moved to spokane with the kids. >> you see him at age 26 being fired from a very important job that he had. >> dr. robert schug is a

forensic psychologist, and he evaluated jesperson by speaking with him multiple times. >> keith mentions this period of his marriage when things really went south. so all of this really starts creating a very turbulent emotional period for the entire family, to be sure, but particularly for keith. >> once my parents divorced, my father's behavior became more erratic and -- creepy. it was like he was free and unfiltered to say whatever disturbing thing he wanted to say. or do. >> once jesperson is tracked down in new mexico, the police go and get him and they question him, but he denies having anything to do with winningham's death. >> the interesting part about it is after we told him that julie winningham was killed, he never asked how she died, what happened to her.

>> we spent probably six or seven hours interviewing him in regards to his last contact with julie winningham. he emphatically denied killing her. >> rick buckner and i, we all were very concerned that at that stage we felt that he had killed julie winningham and that we just weren't able to make the arrest yet. >> his story was that he had consensual sex with her, so we had no physical evidence. so how do we prove different? >> we were going to let this guy drive away. and we're a couple miles away from the mexican border. and so we were pretty convinced that he was going to hightail it into mexico and that would be the end of that. >> what the detectives don't know is that jesperson is desperate to cover his own tracks. >> i called my brother, brad. i said, you really need to get rid of this. go flush it down the toilet.

yeah, everything's taken care of. -hey, jamie. -oh, what am i up to? just visiting a special secret client. i can't say who it is, but let's just say she bundled her dream house and her dream car for round-the-clock protection with progressive. oh. she has another house in malibu. she's been an astronaut, an architect, a ceo. we're in front of her house, dude. i'd love to tell you who her boyfriend is, but i don't think i "ken." i'd love to tell you, but i don't think i -- "barbie" in theaters now. when the murrays discovered gain scent beads, they fell in love with the irresistible scent. ♪ ♪ huh, huh, so did their dog roger. ♪ ♪ gain scent beads keep even the stinkiest stuff smelling fresh.

lowe's knows that fall's shorter days... call for bigger deals. gain scent beads get the most out of your fall projects... by getting the most out of our deals now. and with lowe's pay, it's never been easier to shop at lowe's. labor day savings are here. in-store and online.

back in the day, sneaker drops meant getting online to wait in line. now with xfinity mobile... ...we get the fastest mobile service and can get the freshest kicks asap. i got this. get the best price for 2 lines of unlimited when you switch to xfinity mobile for $30 a line per month. nice job, little sis! they grow up so fast... i'm a fan. from xfinity.

the plane ride back was pretty quiet from all of us, just racing through our mind

what the next step's going to be. once we got off the plane in portland, i turned on my phone, and i did have a voicemail. >> this is keith hunter jesperson. i'm turning myself in in the morning. i've decided it's the best way. >> after playing phone tag for a tense two days, detective buettner finally gets the nomadic truck driver on the telephone for a critically important phone call. >> okay, keith, tell me what happened. where are you at right now? >> right now, i'm at the 4-d truck stop, exit 378 on i-10 in arizona. >> i told him, i said, i think you killed julie winningham. all the evidence points in your direction. but he was never hostile. he was never aggressive.

>> keith, why don't you go ahead and tell me what happened? >> she came in about 12:00. she came in and ate some pizza. >> told rick that she had came to his truck, they had sex, and that he wanted to have sex again and she didn't. and so he strangled her. >> i knew i had to get rid of the body somewhere, so i parked in a wide spot and took her over to the side, tossed her off the side. >> okay. at this point, what i'm going to do is i'm going to call the local sheriff's department and have them come down and contact you, all right? >> all right. >> when the officers got there, he followed all of their orders. he was secured and transported back to the sheriff's office. >> i flew down to arizona with

another investigator, and we took him into custody. >> she was my friend. she was my sister, and i would stand and defend her to this day. because if i would have met jesperson, i would have pulled her away from him immediately, because i wouldn't have liked him. >> that confession was the key to the whole investigation. without his confession, we didn't have a case. we couldn't prove that he killed her. >> police almost didn't get the confession. jesperson admitted that before he gave himself up, he had tried to end his life. >> i remember him saying, there's not enough pills in this damn world that would kill me. >> he felt his back was up against the wall. he doesn't want to go to prison at all, obviously. when i spoke to him on the phone, he had described the letter that he had written to his brother. >> i started realizing that by sending the note to my brother brad that i shot myself in the foot.

>> seems like my luck has run out. i have been a killer for five years and have killed eight people. i guess i haven't learned anything. >> i didn't know anything about the letter. we get back to my office, and he wanted to make a phone call. he said, can i call my brother? i said, sure. i said, obviously you're in custody. i can't let you out of my sight, but if you want to use the phone in my office, go right ahead. >> you have to remember, jesperson was in jail for only one murder, and he did not want police to find out about the other seven murders he confessed to his brother in that letter. so he told him to flush the letter down the toilet. >> but his brother pretended like he threw it out, pretended as if he flushed it down the toilet, but he handed it over to the police. >> the letter described, basically, that he had been killing for the past five years. he actually said he had killed eight people. at that point in time, we only knew that he had killed julie winningham.

we thought that our case is closed, and now it looks like it's anything but closed. >> reporters covering jesperson's arrest remember the happy face letters, and they start putting two and two together when they start seeing the similarities between the bennett case and the winningham case. when we compared the two letters you can easily see the similarities in the handwriting. >> and that matched. the dna, the fingerprints, the saliva on that letter also matched the happy face -- anonymous happy face letters. so clearly, they now had not just an anonymous letter writer drawing a happy face. they had a real person, keith jesperson. >> defense attorney tom phelan was appointed to the case. and at that point, there was only one murder, the winningham murder.

but it didn't take long for tom phelan to learn that there was a lot more to his client, keith jesperson. >> the prosecutor called me. she said, listen, we got this letter. we're looking into it. i look at it and go, okay. so i took that and went and had a conversation with mr. jesperson about it. >> my lawyer comes in with a copy of the letter, asked me if there was any truth to it. and i realized then that the detective, rick beuttner, had put two and two together with the 1994 letter that dubbed me the happy face killer. >> he told me that, yeah, this is all true. i had killed -- he said, i killed eight women. you ask yourself, what do i do with this? how do i handle this? this person's just told me he's committed multiple murders. >> meanwhile, jesperson is still behind bars, seemingly enjoying his notoriety. he'd tell anybody who would

listen, i'm the happy faced killer. >> he was taking to the media, and that upset me. it upset the prosecutor, and it upset the judge. this is where it had gotten to sort of a circus level. i mean, i had to wake up each day and see what my case was doing. he just loves the attention. >> when i interviewed jesperson, he told me step by step what lead him to murder. >> you're breaking the law, but you're getting away with it. and so there's a thrill of getting away with it. have you heard about this samsung flip phone? you only have to look at it once... ...and then it gets, like, stuck inside your mind or something. and the only way to stop it is to switch. that's like the dumbest thing i've ever heard. there's no way i'd ever switch... [phone ringing] ♪ (dramatic music) ♪ ♪ ♪ we used to struggle with greasy messes. now, we just freak, wipe, and we're done!

with mr. clean clean freak, conquering messes is that easy. clean freak's mist is three times more powerful, and it works on contact. clean freak, just freak, wipe, done. ♪ it's time to stop staring at this dunkin' sausage egg and cheese. and time to go get this dunkin' sausage egg and cheese. for $3 with a medium or larger coffee. it's time for a dunkin' run. america runs on dunkin'. get an extra 20% off now during kohl's friends and family sale! it's time for a dunkin' run. save on styles for clocking in... and working out. like men's tek gear activewear starting at $11.99. plus, earn kohl's cash on it all. at kohl's. ♪ on your period, sudden gushes happen. say goodbye gush fears! thanks to always ultra thins... with rapiddry technology... that absorbs two times faster. hellooo clean and comfortable. always. fear no gush.

featuring fresh artisan bread piled high with tender roast beef, smothered with melty provolone cheese, just enough chipotle mayo and served with hot au jus for dipping. try the roast beef or pastrami french dips today. only at togo's. our customers don't do what they do for likes or followers. their path isn't for the casually curious. and that's what makes it matter the most when they find it. the exact thing that can change the world.

some say it's what they were born to do... it's what they live to do... trinet serves small and medium sized businesses... so they can do more of what matters. benefits. payroll. compliance. trinet. people matter.

after keith jesperson was arrested, he was almost like running a media campaign from the prison, wanting everybody to know that he was the happy face killer. >> he reached out to our television station and said, i want to talk. >> there are eight total victims in the following states -- washington, oregon, california, florida and wyoming. >> you're saying you're the happy face killer? >> i am the happy face killer. >> it was just stunning to listen to. >> to accept this call dial 5 now.

>> hello? >> hello, can you hear me? >> yeah. >> one of your lawyers says you were a difficult client because you liked the spotlight so much. >> i needed the press to help get the evidence up front to show that they had the wrong people in prison. >> you say it's because you wanted to help the innocent victims behind bars, but there are other people who suggest that maybe you just wanted to take credit for those murders. >> well, i understand the point of that. >> his demeanor's very soft spoken. he engages in humor. you can have a good conversation with him aside from the fact that she's he's responsible for eight murders. >> a lot of people describe you as a funny, charming guy, and yet, you committed cold-blooded murders. how do you reconcile those two personalities? >> it's just a moment in time when situations present themselves, and you become what you are. >> these were women who were simply at risk. he looked for victims of

opportunity. >> he chose women, it seems, who were not likely to be found. and if they were found, difficult to identify. >> these women, they were daughters, they were mothers. they were sisters. they did not deserve what he did to them. >> she was found on august 30, 1992. the body at that point was badly decomposed, and to this date, she has not been identified. >> jesperson says a month later, he killed another woman. her body was found behind a local cafe in turlock, california. >> what about lori ann pentland? >> yes. i did kill her, yeah. >> what happened? >> well, she was a prostitute. i used her services. >> jesperson says she tried to make him pay her more money. and he didn't like that, and he choked her. >> in april of 2022, victim

number five is finally identified as patricia victim six is still unidentified. >> what about angela subrize? is she the victim you tied under the truck? >> yes, she is, yeah. >> he killed her and then he tied her body underneath his truck and dragged her for a number of miles. >> why did you do that? >> i felt that by dragging her under the truck that i would destroy all evidence of who her identity was. >> they had not even found the body yet, so his confession to that homicide actually led the police to the body, and the details lined up with what he had described. >> it was shocking to hear him describe these victims so callously with no regard for their lives, for their humanity. did it occur to you that you were taking somebody's life? >> it became a nonchalant type thing because i got away with it. it was like shoplifting.

>> it is nothing like shoplifting. you're killing somebody. >> it is everything like shoplifting. you're breaking the law, but you're getting away with it. and so there's a thrill of getting away with it. >> it's so gruesome, keith, what you're describing. i mean, there's a possibility that these people's family members might be listening to you describing this. >> i'm sorry it happened. wish it never happened. it's done, it's over with. >> it was just heartbreaking. the women he murdered were human beings and they all deserved to live. >> remember victim number one, taunja bennett? jesperson finally revealed after all these years her final moments. >> i interviewed him five or six times, and we got along. >> detective chris peterson from the multnomah county sheriff's office and keith hunter jesperson. you want to talk to us about a homicide that occurred in 1990.

>> keith told me that he had gone to the b&i tavern to play pool. >> this gal walked over and gave me a hug like i was somebody she knew. >> describe this female to me. >> i guess she'd be 5'6", dark hair, blue jeans, plaid shirt, tennis shoes and a purse. >> a lot of those details did line up, but he got some items of the clothing wrong. >> they decided to go back to his house. >> she made some comment to him that made him angry, so he started to hit her. >> he ended up brutally beating her before strangling her. >> and ultimately tied a rope around her neck. >> he was worried about his fingerprints, so he cut off the button on her jeans, got rid of it. >> he loaded her in the car and

drove her out to the columbia gorge. we found no forensic evidence to link jesperson to this crime none. >> the detectives brought keith jesperson to the columbia river gorge. >> it was heavy brush just like you see here to my right. he said, this is where i threw the contents of her purse. once we found the i.d., we felt like we solved the case. >> jesperson is not able to point out the right spot of location of the body. >> he couldn't remember where the body was, but laverne pavlinac did. >> she knew details that only the killer would know. >> if she's not the killer how does she know the exact area where the body was found? >> tell me how you picked the spot where the body was dumped.

what do you think about their offer? i think... you can never have too many zeros. (♪)

[loud roar] (♪) (vo) for over 50 years purina cat chow has been helping cats feel at home. [loud roar] with trusted nutrition, no wonder it's the number one dry cat food in america. come home to cat chow. sweet pillows of softness! this is soft! holy charmin! oh! excuse me! roll it back, everybody!! charmin ultra soft is so cushiony soft,

you'll want more! but it's so absorbent, you can use less. enjoy the go with charmin. somedays, i cover up because of my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now i feel free to bare my skin, thanks to skyrizi. ♪(uplifting music)♪ ♪nothing is everything♪ i'm celebrating my clearer skin... my way. with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. in another study, most people had 90% clearer skin, even at 5 years. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. thanks to clearer skin with skyrizi - this is my moment. there's nothing on my skin and that means everything! ♪nothing is everything♪ now's the time. ask your doctor about skyrizi, the #1

dermatologist-prescribed biologic in psoriasis. learn how abbvie could help you save. in the fall of 1995, keith jesperson finally pleads guilty to killing julie winningham and taun so, you know, he had no remorse . none. you could see it in his eyes. his eyes were cold as ice

. we had to sit there and listen in to what he did. you know it's not an easy thing to listen to. i washed the blood off the walls. >> what i could, and eventually painted the walls of the house i was in and tried to forget about it. >> i think there may very well have been more victims had he not killed his girlfriend. >> so i had 40 good years and i had eight days of insanity. >> and i'm being held responsible for the rest of my life on these eight days of insanity. >> the greatest human tragedy is that laverne pavlinac did trailed the investigation in in 1990 and in four years, keith jesperson killed more women. >> the number one question on everyone's mind is how in the world did laverne pavlinac manage to dupe the authorities?

was easy. so did you just remember what they said? >> i just did it from the papers and the search warrant. >> oh, so you got to read the search? >> i read it when they were busy doing something else. >> but what about that photo, which really was the coup de gras? that sealed john suzannephan swease fate? how did she know the exact area where tanya bennett was found? this. >> tell me how you picked the spot where this victim's body was dumped. >> seen all these tracks and all this and that. i knew it had to be around there someplace. but you can tell where people have been in and out with vehicles and everything else. limbs broke. i just said this. close enough. >> why in the world would she put herself in the middle of that and get herself in a position to be convicted for something she didn't do? >> the way laverne pavlinac incriminated herself? it's like it was a real head scratcher. i

used the term disturbed. >> i was very disturbed person back then. i didn't think of it as lying even. it was just a way to get him out of my home. >> on november 28th, 1995, laverne pavlinac and john sosnovske were freed from prison . >> we were all outside the door and she hugged everybody, kissed everybody, just real happy. >> go ahead and hit the door happy. but i really felt sorry for john when he sat there for four years in prison for nothing , that he was accused of doing. >> as for keith jesperson, i had to ask him the ultimate question does he have any remorse? what, if anything, are your biggest regrets? >> sorry to the world. >> i'm sorry. i am who i am. if i could go back and change, everything will would be better place. however, we all know that is going to happen. >> actually feeling sorry for

the people that he caused pain to, he said he doesn't. and it's just something that i guess he's really not wired to feel. >> sadly, we forget the names of the victims, and i would rather remind people of the people who died than the people who did it . >> everybody has the right to be who they want to be. julie was young, beautiful, silly. i didn't know that anything was going to happen to her. she didn't know either. but she comes in my dreams. i'm good and she makes me happy. >> keith jesperson has been convicted of six murders in four different states. he's currently serving consecutive life sentences. authorities in florida are still working to identify why one of his victims. that is our program for tonight. thanks so much for watching. i'm david muir. and from all of us here at 2020 and abc news, good

night. real life, true crime. >> trauma follow the clues. >> the hunt, binge it all anytime. 2020. true crime streaming now on hulu. >> let's play for you. name something that happens to a man that his ex-wife might say he had it coming, that he goes bald. >> sorry. well, then that. building a better bay area moving forward, finding solutions. >> this is abc seven news. >> a chase spanning three counties with a driver speeding across the bay bridge recklessly weaving through traffic and then getting into an hours long standoff with police. good evening. i'm ahmed. >> and i'm dan ashley. thanks for joining us. new developments tonight. we've learned the driver surrendered to police in richmond at about 9 p.m. two hours ago. police say he is a juvenile and the car was stolen. now, this wholeng