FBI Denies Claims That the Zodiac Killer Was Identified: ‘The Case Remains Open’
The FBI said Thursday that the Zodiac Killer case is still considered unsolved, despite claims from an investigative group dubbed “The Case Breakers” that the late Gary Francis Poste was positively identified as the notorious killer.
“The case remains open and there is no new information to report,” the FBI told NBC News.
According to the Case Breakers’ website, the group consists of more than 40 investigators ranging “from working millennials to retired octogenarians — with law enforcement, military, forensic, academic, legal and investigative skill sets.”
The Case Breakers said they connected Poste to the Zodiac killings via photos from Poste’s darkroom that showed scars on his forehead that match those of a Zodiac Killer sketch.
Jen Bucholtz, a former Army counterintelligence agent on the team, told Fox News that the ciphers the killer sent police and local media revealed his identity. In one note, she said, the letters of his full name were removed to show an alternate message.
“So you’ve got to know Gary’s full name in order to decipher these anagrams,” Bucholtz said. “I just don’t think there’s any other way anybody would have figured it out.”
The group also claimed that Poste was responsible for the 1966 killing of Cheri Jo Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman who was found stabbed to death on the campus of Riverside City College.
“We 100% believe our Cheri Jo Bates case is not affiliated with the Zodiac case,” Riverside Police Officer Ryan Railsback told Fox News. “Nothing has changed on that.”
Railsback additionally noted to NBC News: “We don’t know how we can be any more clear. “The $50,000 private reward is still valid. If someone has any information on the Bates case please come forward.”
