The Happy Face Murderer – Keith Hunter Jesperson –7. Laurie Ann Pentland

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Laurie Ann Pentland
November, 1992 saw Keith driving up the Pacific coast, heading eventually towards Salem. With a truckload of meat to deliver, his mind was occupied by the thoughts of companionship. Arriving at a truck stop in Wilsonville, he remembered that he had known a prostitute in the area who went by the name of Laurie. To his recollection, the girl was in her early twenties, and despite not being the most beautiful, certainly knew how to show him a good time. The last three stops in Wilsonville had involved a visit from Laurie, though each time she had raised the price she charged. Keith began to wonder about her whereabouts and put out a message on the radio, but it was still early.

An hour later, he heard Laurie's voice calling out over the airwaves. Replying, he told her where to find him. Just as before, the price had gone up five dollars, she informed him upon arrival at the truck. Keith accepted and paid the girl, spending the next hour having sex. As she began to get dressed before leaving to search for another client, Keith got talking to her. She began to insist that Keith owed her an extra forty dollars, having taken up an hour of her time where most men were satisfied with just a quarter of that. The two began to quarrel over the amount, Keith insistent that they'd had a deal. Soon, Laurie was threatening to call the cops. Flatly, Keith informed her that she had no idea about the risk she was taking. Still she argued, insisting on being paid the extra money.

Keith took hold of Laurie and thrust her down on the bed. Taking her throat in his hands, he began to choke her to death. Just before she was completely out of breath, Keith relented. He allowed her to come back to consciousness before choking her again. This was repeated for an hour, with the killer watching and later remembering how Laurie's will to live flickered and eventually died right in front of him. When she closed her eyes for the last time, Keith kept choking until he was sure she had died. Shutting the body up in the cabin, he went into the diner for a cup of coffee.

Drinking his coffee, Keith mulled over what he considered to be the stupidity of the truck stop prostitutes, these women who so willingly put themselves in harm's way. Finished, he walked back to his vehicle and began to grope the body. Inside her pockets was close to $250. Already Keith's thoughts were wandering to how best to dispose of the body. He focused on a little parking lot not far from his final drop off, a place where he could cover her with vines and garbage containers.

The route he took when heading south was determined by which authorities would give him the least bother. While not the most direct course, Keith was at least sure that this would keep him away from cops. By the time he arrived in the parking lot, it was two in the morning. There was not only an abundance of foliage and garbage to hide the body, there was a six-foot fence bordering the property to provide extra cover. The place was empty.

Laurie was dragged out of the cabin by her hair. The body fell to the ground with a dull thud before being dragged to the fence and covered with leaves, junk, and anything else. Satisfied, Keith left the corpse, drove some hundred yards down the road to a nearby Waremart, and slept in the parking lot, ready to deliver the truck's load in the morning.

The next day, Keith's first thoughts were to blame the girl for her own death. If only she hadn't insisted on being paid that little bit extra. Next, he realized that he would have to stop killing soon. One of these days, he was bound to get caught. Murder was almost too easy for him as a trucker. But if he wanted to be sure of stopping, he might have to give up life on the road. Maybe he didn't even know how to stop these murders.