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The Zodiac killer case took another turn this week after a team of investigators claimed to have unmasked the man who has stared at the public and amateur sleuths for decades.
But the apparent breakthrough was not so clear.
On Wednesday, a team of former law enforcement officials, prosecutors and intelligence officers who call themselves the Case Breakers said they had determined the identity of the killer responsible for a series of killings in the region of San Francisco Bay in the late 1960s.
However, police said the murder investigation was still open. The police regularly receive information about the case, including from people who believe they know the identity of the killer.
The Zodiac killer was responsible for a spate of murders in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s and remains one of America’s biggest cold cases. But despite this week’s attention, police and some investigators remain skeptical of the alleged development. The Zodiac has managed to grab the headlines for years, as new theories continue to surface.
The Case Breakers said they had new physical and forensic evidence and eyewitness evidence that supported their theory that an Air Force veteran who died in 2018 was behind the killings.
“I absolutely think we have this case resolved,” Case Breakers member Tom Colbert told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The FBI and San Francisco Police Department declined to comment directly on the announcement, but said the investigation was still open.
“The FBI investigation into the Zodiac Killer remains open and unsolved. Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation and out of respect for the victims and their families, we will not provide further comment at this time, ”the FBI office in San Francisco said in a statement.
The Case Breakers said in a press release that they made their identification based in part on photos of the suspect which show scars on his forehead that match a police sketch of the Zodiac. The team also said the suspect’s name could be found in anagrams sent by the Zodiac.
The Zodiac terrorized communities in northern California between 1968 and 1969 and was responsible for the deaths of five people. Police suspect he may be behind other crimes as well. The murders were the subject of numerous documentaries and the 2007 thriller Zodiac.
The Case Breakers argue that the killer was also responsible for the 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, a belief the FBI may have shared at one point, according to a 1975 agency note provided by the group. Local police say they have determined that Bates’ murder is unrelated to the Zodiac.
The zodiac killer gained public attention after he began sending taunt messages and numbers to local newspapers, threatening to commit further violence if his letters were not printed.
In 2020, a team of experts cracked the one-digit code from 1969 that the Zodiac sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, although law enforcement said at the time that they had not done so. much to help investigators.
“Hope you have a lot of fun trying to catch me,” the message read, sent in a series of symbols. “I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to heaven especially sooner as I now have enough slaves to work for me.”
The arrest of the Golden State Killer, which was identified in 2018 after investigators used forensic genealogy to link a former police officer to decades-old rapes and murders, fueled hopes that the Zodiac could finally be identified. But unlike this case, there is no confirmed DNA from any of the Zodiac murders. Police managed to create a partial profile by testing for traces of saliva from a tampon on a letter sent by the Zodiac, but this can only be used to ward off suspects.
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