Police had never known where even to look for Bennetts purse or its contents. It wasnt Multnomah Countys case. He liked the political aspects of the law, he liked the idea of working for himself. She tells this to her own daughter.. That seven-page statement obviously wasnt true, not literally. They interviewed bartenders, they distributed photos, they built timelines. While police didn't get any hard evidence, the recordings demonstrate how Pavlinac attempted to convince her boyfriend he played a role in Bennett's death. Go tell them to put it back, he joked. That took precedence for McIntyre. Schrunk argued and pleaded; McIntyre even took the stand and testified. Could she really see the patrol cars odometer from the back seat? He considered his dad a great man. At Pavlinac, at Jesperson, at the whole situation. Goddamn, he fumed. Others involved practical limitations--it was hard to imagine Sosnovske, a frail drunk with bad knees, carrying a dead body down a steep embankment. Moreover, during her trial, an unknown person claimed to take responsibility for Taunja's murder through a couple of restroom graffitis. His people arent cowboys; his people dont charge up.. McIntyre called his boss. In a fashion, McIntyre thought, it was like dealing with Laverne Pavlinac all over again. Nor was McIntyre. Moreover, during her trial, an unknown person claimed to take responsibility for Taunjas murder through a couple of restroom graffitis. He also sketched a smiling face atop his first page. Once at the gorge, he carried the body into the woods, then threw the shower curtain from the car window. You know what happened? he started asking his colleagues. Little by little, they admit more. Whered you put her?, The detectives shifted in discomfort. The body left face up, the head pointing downhill, one arm stiff overhead. Keith Jesperson proved even more eager than Pavlinac to confess. In late March, detectives had arrested Keith Jesperson, a long-haul trucker whom Winningham had been dating. As soon as it ended, he started motions on an aggravated murder case--two men who killed a woman over her automobile. Far more express understanding--Pavlinac and Sosnovske, after all, looked awfully guilty not just to the prosecutors, but to a jury and judge. Pavlinac told investigators during her last recorded statement on Feb. 26, 1990. Even if he had more or less stumbled into it. I had been worried about this for a long time. Pavlinac died in 2003, while Sosnovske died in 2013. Pavlinacs release was trickier. Pavlinac had made the whole thing up. Four of McIntyres five aggravated murder cases in 1991 went to trial. She urged them to sit down; she made them a fresh pot of coffee. He talked of seeing the dumped body from the far side of a hairpin turn, which was physically impossible. She was convicted of felony murder and sentenced to life in prison with a 10-year minimum served. . What was going on here? At 39, he folded laundry and washed dishes most nights now, rather than join colleagues for drinks in downtown Portland. Mike Schrunk was asking questions. Everyone drove back to Portland. Why are people hesitant to trust a COVID-19 vaccine? Even their fiercest opponent, Pavlinacs defense attorney, Wendell Birkland, thought them men of good will. Dad always has worried about me because of what I have gone through in the divorce finances etc, hed written in various letters. "Now, I'm thinking, 'She's confessed she's pointed out the dump site, she's confessed to us on tape. This case hasnt made him gunshy about his job. In various contacts with reporters beginning in mid-September 1995, Jesperson so incessantly claimed he was the Happy Face Killer that a judge ordered him to stop talking. By then authorities knew something about Jesperson. At Schrunks side, agreeing, stood two assistant state attorneys general and Pavlinacs defense lawyer. Or was this a setup of some kind, a smoke screen? She felt trapped within the confines of her toxic relationship, and believed she had to go to extreme lengths in order to distance herself from him once and for all. Just hours after John Sosnovske scrawled his seven-page statement, McIntyres phone rang. Guy named John Sosnovske, Corson declared. In exchange, shed get everything else. Sosnovske pleaded no contest to murder to avoid the death penalty and also got life. Pavlinac later changed her story, however, and said that the two of them had met Bennett at a Portland bar and that Sosnovske forced her to help him rape Bennett and dispose of the body. That's whyall ofthis doesn'tmake sense. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Chris Peterson who decided they should once more search the Sandy River area where Keith Jesperson claimed to have scattered the contents of Bennetts purse. Police interview tapes obtained by "20/20" show the lengths Pavlinac went to convince investigators she and Sosnovske were the killers responsible when they weren't. He ordered her release because keeping an innocent person in prison would have been cruel and unusual punishment. I wanted him caught.. McIntyre seethed and paced about. Listening to Ingram, McIntyre settled into a seat, fighting a vague dread. She'sgiveher the shirt off her back," McAlpine said. In 1995, Bennett's real killer revealed himself to the authorities. I'm thinking, 'My God, she is actually involved in this,'" Ingram said. As the initial investigation was relatively slow, the police decided to make the details of the case public, hoping for a tip or lead. Pavlinacs house was different. Why dont the Electoral College and popular vote always match up? Her murder case struggled to gain momentum at first, due to a lack of leads. ". All calls are toll-free and confidential. Read More: Taunja Bennett Murder: How Did She Die? Early in the investigation into Bennett's murder, a woman named Laverne Pavlinac came forward to confess, saying she murdered Bennett with and at the direction of her abusive boyfriend, John Sosnovske. The detectives looked at each other, then turned on their tape recorder. A Question of Guilt - Los Angeles Times McIntyre frowned, looking as if he were in pain. A relative, or a friend of a friend. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Why would Ingram and Corson make such comments to her? Likewise, following conviction and sentencing, the prosecutor loses nearly all power to cause any verdict to be set aside.. I must have tightened it as I was hanging on., Did you pull the rope tight? Corson asked. With Laverne implicating herself in the crime, both she and John were arrested and charged with Taunjas murder. He convinced Taunja to go home with him, and that was where he committed horrific acts before dumping Bennett's body after killing her. By 6 p.m., the examiner concluded he had direct knowledge of or was responsible for the murder of Taunja Bennett. McIntyre frowned, clenched his glass, nursed his drink. . . OK, he said. 'Happy Face Killer' case tapes reveal the lengths woman went to frame For a while, the prosecutors held back. In 1995, Keith Jesperson, who was known as the Happy Face Killer, confessed to killing Bennett and gave information only the killer and the police knewthe location of Bennetts purse. Now it was another prosecutors problem. Did she want them to leave? He had dozens of other matters pressing; a senior prosecutor with three small kids had no time to squander. The experts findings were unequivocal: The handwriting in the Happy Face letters matched the handwriting in Jespersons letter to his brother; fingerprints on the Happy Face letters matched Jespersons; saliva retrieved from a Happy Face envelope matched Jespersons DNA type. On the line, Ingram sounded baffled. [He said,] 'No, no. No one at JBs or the adjacent Burns Brothers truckstop had seen Taunja; no one at the B&I; had seen Sosnovske. This is a waste, the detectives insisted. Everyone was joining hands, everyone was singing let these people go. That was when Laverne added details to her story and claimed that on the night of January 21, she met John, and together, the two disposed of Taunjas body alongside the Old Columbia River Highway. Pavlinac was tried first. Thats why Phelan had been so eager to deal. He wanted newspapers to print his letters in full. Hes seen news reports, McIntyre reasoned. . He knew that now. "She was that kind of woman. Some involved tangible evidence--the crime lab could find no physical trace of Taunjas presence in Pavlinacs car, for instance. Jesperson, he saw, had told his attorney everything right from the start. But in the process, she also falsely implicated herself. Based on Pavlinac's statements, and that Sosnovke failed a polygraph test, authorities arrested Sosnovke on murder charges. It looked obvious to him. Four days later, Judge Libscomb, in a written ruling, declined to release Pavlinac and Sosnovske. Three times before making the anonymous calls about Bennetts murder, shed tried to pin other things on Sosnovske. Talking about some dead girl. Maybe some folks in their jobs can take a car apart, leave the parts on the driveway. Hes an alcoholic, hes moody, he physically abuses her. Both were serving life sentences. Bennett was dead. That didnt mean he was never wrong, though. Once on trial in 1991, Laverne Pavlinac pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed that her whole story was false as she was trying to escape her relationship. Pavlinac died in 2003. To McIntyre, it looked as if she were playing craps. On the same day the crime lab report arrived, so did a deadly, unexpected diagnosis: His father had liver cancer. Hed met Taunja Bennett at the B&I; Tavern in January 1990, Jesperson said. Whoever wrote them is claiming credit for several murders. Were not reopening an old case. information about the Registry. On those occasions, Jim McIntyre more often than not bristles. Had the detectives, regarding her as a victim, drinking her coffee and driving her around, grown too close and unguarded? Yet thats what he felt obliged to do. I feel like its my fault . For the most accurate data, please search on the Detailed View page. Laverne Pavlinac is seen here showing investigators where Taunja Bennett's body was found, even though she had nothing to do with the crime. It was, undeniably, an implausible story. Pavlinac seemed to know intimate details about the case. Everyone but his detectives, after all, had been shown to be liars in this case. The courthouse got one, the Oregonian another. He started out thinking hed be a cop. On Sept. 25, Phelan met in the district attorneys office with McIntyre and his second chair, Keith Meisenheimer. And it was a reminder that in our heads, we might have shame about something and no one really cares.". What a nightmare it has been. A lady in Bend had called him, saying the Happy Face Killers handwriting looked an awful lot like her estranged husbands. Jesperson addressed Pavlinac and Sosnovske directly in his letter. Pavlinac had become obsessed with details of the crime during interrogation by police. I thought, 'Oh my God, it felt like I put my mother in jail.'". McIntyre never wavered. Well, there was a case where a woman named Laverne Pavlinac claimed she and her boyfriend, John Sosnovske, murdered another woman named Taunja Bennet in 1990. Friends and family had previously described her as a 'cheerful and lovely person' with a flare for striking up conversations with strangers. Sosnovske would later plead no contest to the murder charge. Right or wrong, the district attorney was saying, this is a problem. I dont know what happened.. She even said we could search the house, but we thought we should get a search warrant.. A disturbing case indeed--but also a refreshing one. They took her to the Columbia River Gorge to see if she could point out locations only the police and killer would know. At 62, afflicted by heart disease and diabetes, she still remained an enigma to all in the courtroom. You fix on your theory, you argue your vision, the jury decides whats true. First, just before it began in late January, Pavlinac officially recanted her confession. Now 66, Jesperson is serving five non-consecutive life sentences in Oregon's state penitentiary. McIntyre thought the two men complemented each other. . I didnt plan to kill her, Pavlinac sobbed. He wont be happy until I am replacing that man in Oregon State Penitentiary., Jesperson wanted the noted criminal defense attorney Gerry Spence to represent him. First they would hack away the blackberry bushes. Laverne claimed to have then tied a rope around the womans neck while John allegedly sexually assaulted her before strangling her to death. It started in late January 1990 with the body of an unidentified female, found strangled in the brush off an isolated road in the Columbia Gorge. Just days later, she made the first anonymous call. Corson, with the Oregon State Police, was the more hardnosed; some in the district attorneys office even called him a right winger. He believed people should go to jail, he was a sniper on the state SWAT team, he pursued suspects relentlessly. A few critics snipe at the prosecutors and detectives for buying a confused, depressed womans preposterous story. Good Piece printed in pencil. Some were even accurate. Still, Ellis was an ex-girlfriend; Ellis didnt like Jesperson anymore. I have been a killer for five years and have killed eight people.. Before serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, known by his nickname "Happy Face Killer," turned himself in, authorities believed they had solved the murder of his first victim Taunja Bennett. When he returned home at 4 p.m., he headed for the shower. I'll go to death row.'". . Has there ever been a case of a serial killer taking false credit for John Ingram, who worked on the case. Before the return of a jurys verdict, a district attorney has almost complete discretion over how and whether to prosecute a criminal case. ". Laverne Pavlinac and John Sosnovske (Oregonian). Clear your docket, Schrunk told McIntyre. . Pavlinac was found guilty for her 'crime' - being an accessory to rape and murder. He would never, McIntyre reminded himself, put before a jury a story he didnt believe to be true. His last piece for the magazine was on a U.S. Forest Service ranger who was the target of a bombing in a dispute over land rights, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Virginia Gov. OK, she said. The detectives swung into action. Could she be getting even for some long-ago offense? Her first husband divorced her after 26 years and four children, her second died of cancer. When she recanted, Pavlinac said she falsely confessed because she was stuck in a volatile relationship with Sosnovske, desperately seeking a way out and wanting him in prison. Evidence Clears Two. The Law Doesn't. - The New York Times Pavlinac shook her head. McIntyre stared out his office window at a steady rain. The anonymous writer now claimed Taunja Bennetts was the first of five murders hed committed while working as a long-haul trucker. Why on Gods earth? She knew from news reports and a search warrant receipt that it was 1 1/2 miles east of Vista House, below an embankment, in a loop between switchbacks before Latourell Falls State Park. She's told her own daughter the same story, very convincingly.' She also saw two small orange markers, placed by the police so they could precisely triangulate the spot. . Riley, the detectives soon learned, was clean as a whistle. Eventually, the case was turned over to prosecutors and Pavlinac and Sosnovske were arrested in February, 1990. Sosnovske called her from JBs Lounge late that night, Pavlinac began. Julie Winningham is seen here in this undated photo. Now they had a live body saying hed killed Taunja Bennett, not just an anonymous letter. They saw crackpot stuff like this all the time. Yes, that fact did demonstrate how hard it was to know the truth. We have a confession, we have a jury verdict. . She was so hospitable, not the typical sort they interviewed at all. If you need help or need help supporting someone else, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. It didnt faze him, though. . Im sorry for the whole situation., When it was Sosnovskes turn, he addressed not her but the judge. No news account had ever provided a hint. More than noises, really. Laverne even took the police to the exact spot where Taunja was found. Jim was four rows back when Roberto Clemente went up and over the fence to make the final, glorious series-winning out. Nor were any of his own lofty, passionate proclamations to Pavlinacs jury. It's thought that Pavlinac suffered abuse at the hands of her partner, John Sosnovske. What the hell, he decided. McIntyre reviewed all they had. In 1990, Laverne Pavlinac had reached her breaking point. Nor did the state crime lab; fingerprints lifted off the Happy Face letters didnt match any existing records. She recanted her confession and said that she had made it up to escape from Sosnovske. Once authorities determined that Laverne and John were a couple, they brought them in for questioning. He offered unlimited access to Jesperson--in exchange for no death penalty. From where he sat, he could see the radiant bronze statue of a woman, perched gracefully on a terrace by the Portland City Hall. I killed Miss Bennett Jan 20 1990 and left her 1 1/2 miles east of Lateral Falls on a switchback . On the last day of the trial, McIntyre watched Wendell Birkland beseech the jury for seven hours--Its not logical to assume that this 58-year-old grandmother strangled a girl to death--before finally sitting down. Who was this guy Jesperson? When the killer came forward, Sosnovske was released from prison; his conviction overturned. Laverne Pavlinac, 57, a plump, gray-haired hospital worker, confessed to helping her boyfriend, John Sosnovske, 39, attack the girl. When Jesperson finished, McIntyre considered. "Her persistence in this manipulation resulted in her own conviction.". What shed seen was some red paint or tape, two spots marking the area. I raped her and beat her real bad . Most of all Laverne Pavlinacs confession. When Jesperson began talking, McIntyre thought he sounded ill-educated, but not stupid or delusional. Next morning, he returned to the gorge to scatter the contents of Bennetts purse along the Sandy River. Pavlinac remarried, but her second husband died a few years later. . She made it all up, she said, to escape Sosnovske. Phelan had expected some resistance from him. He remained convinced, though, that the right people were imprisoned for Bennetts murder. How A False Confession Led To The 'Happy Face Killer' Name In November 1995, Jesperson pleaded no contest to murdering Bennett. Cant you see this is all bogus? Combined, it looked mighty compelling. Had they all suffered from tunnel vision once they started hearing Pavlinacs stories? Few knew he was a highly decorated infantry commander in World War II and Korea, for he talked little of himself. Hi Brad, the handprinted letter began. Returning to get a piece of rope from the car trunk, Sosnovske told Pavlinac to come watch. Their investigation almost hinted at Johns innocence when Laverne decided to bring another twist to her story. . On Oct. 7, they searched the Sandy River area where Jesperson said hed scattered Bennetts purse contents. I threw her walkman and her purse into the Sandy R. I cut the buttons off her jeans . Hed always wanted to hang big fake dice from her hand. Go get out there and bust her ass.. The judge insisted, "Pavlinac has selfishly engaged in an obsessive and persistent obstruction of justice which deflected the investigation at an early stage, causing it to focus on her boyfriend, Sosnovske, while the real killer remained free to kill and kill again". After three weeks and 70 lab hours, the state crime team had found not a single link between Jesperson and Bennett. He was one of Schrunks top lieutenants, a senior deputy district attorney in charge of the violent crimes unit. McIntyre laughed when he heard the news. "I said 'Why is she dead?'" On the morning of Sept. 29, to find out, McIntyre drove with Multnomah County Sheriffs Det. What are these letters about?. More to the point, he accepted the lawyers proposals for how to free them. She was able to lead police to the spot where the body was. Details of the murder were made public by the police in the hope that someone would come forward with insider knowledge. Jesperson refused. He needed an income; the Multnomah County district attorneys office was offering a $13,000-a-year internship. It was, to him, familiar territory: You take a stand, or else you never get anything done. A search failed to turn up incriminating evidence. Pavlinac retracted her confession, claiming she made it to escape an abusive relationship with Sosnovske . She left with his friend Chuck Riley to have fun. Later he saw Riley in the parking lot, so he asked for a ride home. How to know the truth, how ever to know for certain? Mac, I know its screwy, Ingram told McIntyre when he finished his account. Cigarette butts everywhere, messy, stinky. That's when they said she implicated herself in the murder, according to Det. In 1990, when authorities were trying to solve Bennett's murder, Pavlinac came forward with a story implicating her boyfriend at the time, Sosnovske, in the crime. Sosnovskes roommate called us recently, complaining about his heavy drinking. McIntyre still remembered the detectives expressions that gloomy afternoon.