Evidence

Fingerprints

• Latent prints were found on Page 2 and 3 of the "This is Zodiac" letter sent to the Times Herald.

• Fingerprints were lifted from Paul Stine's cab.

• Fingerprints were lifted from Cheri Jo Bates's car.

• Eight prints were lifted from Brian Hartnell's car door at Lake Berryessa. https://www.zodiackiller.com/LBReport16.html 

• A green bottle found at Lake Berryessa near a stump on the suspected approach to the crime scene was processed for fingerprints and placed in evidence. 5 fingerprints were lifted. https://www.zodiackiller.com/LBReport17.html 

• Fingerprints were lifted from the Napa pay phone after Berryessa attack. These should be in Napa PD files. https://www.zodiackiller.com/LBReport33.html

Which of the above prints are currently considered to be legitimate Zodiac prints? Why do we only ever hear about the prints from Paul Stine's cab? 

DNA

CODIS

Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is a federally funded computer database containing more than 13 million genetic profiles of convicted felons and suspects.

Genetic DNA analysis

“After matching a DNA profile to an open source genealogy database led to the arrest of former cop Joseph James DeAngelo in the decades-old Golden State Killer/East Area Rapist case last month, other California law enforcement agencies are hoping to use the same methods to solve other notorious cold cases.”

---- The "Open Source database" referred to here is apparently GEDmatch

"Primary DNA comes from stamp from 340 cipher" --- SOURCE?

SFPD has DNA from other zodiac letters, some of which has apparently never been tested. SOURCE?

Pam Hofsass Contra Costa county forensic services, did dna analysis of gloves in Stine cab. 

Several facts come from a 2021 letter to the editor in the Times Herals (Vallejo CA) by author Mike Rodelli (https://www.timesheraldonline.com/2021/09/09/michael-rodelli-taxpayers-deserve-answers-on-zodiac-dna-questions/?fbclid=IwAR3pa22s9ABIjC27RNoJBhJ67jvuwHkIHb8o1oT9DSkTpgtN4SS-nI-AnnA ):

• There is no verification that there is ANY reliable DNA in the case that can be verified to be from Zodiac.

•  "Former SFPD Forensics Lab director, Alan Keel, who told me that in testing the “true” Zodiac letters for the presence of saliva (which would prove that the person who sent the letters actually licked them and left DNA on them to begin with) he only found “background,” or very, very low, levels of saliva on the Zodiac letters. "

• In 2002, SFPD undertook DNA testing at the behest of ABC News, which was doing a story on the case at the time. ABC reportedly footed the bill for that testing. This DNA was subsequently used on national television to eliminate three suspects as the Zodiac. It took until 2018 and a whistleblower coming forward for us to find out what actually happened at that time. The whistleblower said that the lab initially looked for Zodiac DNA in the places where it should have been, which is on the underside, or glue side, of the stamps and in between the sealed flaps of the envelopes, where you would moisten the flap with saliva and seal it. They apparently found no DNA that could be attributable to the Zodiac letter writer in either place!  In fact, that whistleblower said that as of 2018 there was no Zodiac DNA … and that there never had been any!

• In 2007, Mr. Keel told me that in contrast to the “true Zodiac letters,” which are characterized by having virtually no saliva on them, there were two other letters that are considered to be forgeries by the lab. In contrast to the “true” Zodiac letters, these two letters are reportedly teeming with both saliva and DNA-containing cells, and both were easily analyzed for DNA in the late 1990s. These two letters, one of which is the April 1978, “I am back with you,” letter and one of them an as-yet-unnamed letter from 1974, not only have abundant DNA on them, but the DNA on both of these letters matches between them, thus proving that they were both sent by the same person.

Witness Descriptions

• Mike Mageau: White male, short, possibly 5’8”, was real heavy set, beefy build... not blubbery fat, but real beefy, possibly 195 to 200 [lbs] or maybe even larger... short curly hair, light brown almost blond... with a large face. https://www.zodiackiller.com/DFR10.html 

• Bryan Hartnell: Age 20-30, 5’8” to 6’, 225-250 lbs, dark brown “greasy” hair, sloppy dresser, stomach hanging over trousers. Pleated pants dark blue or black. Cotton windbreaker with a zipper, dark blue. https://www.zodiackiller.com/LBReport23.html 

• Dr. Clifton Rayfield and his 16-year-old son David: Saw a white male adult, 5’ 10”, heavy build. Saw this person from a distance of about 100 yards. Dark trousers, and a "dark shirt with red in it." (The red may have been blood). https://www.zodiackiller.com/LBReport5.html 

• Joanne ___ (college student at Berryessa): Male, 40 years old, 6’ tall, 200-210 lbs. Muscular. Rather nice looking. dark clothing. He observed the girls while they were sunbathing from 40-50 feet away. 

• Linda ___ (college student at Berryessa): Male, age 28, 6’ to 6’ 2”. 200-225 lbs. Black hair, possibly styled, parted on the left. Well built, nice looking. Subject passed within 20 ft of witnesses. 

• Linda Lee ___ (college student at Berryessa): Male, 6’, stocky build, ~200 lbs, dark clothes, straight dark hair neatly combed. 30 years old. Not wearing glasses. Fairly nice looking with a round face. Thought she saw a white belt around his back, but it was possibly a t-shirt hanging out. (Could this have been the rope?) Standing 45 yards away watching them. SEE: https://www.zodiackiller.com/LBReport10.html (pgs. 8-10)

• Officer Don Fouke: White Male, 35 to 45 years old, 5'10", 180-200 lbs, medium heavy build, barrel chested, light-colored, crew cut hair, possibly graying in back, medium complexion, wearing glasses, dark blue, waist-length, zipper type jacket (Navy or Royal Blue) zipped part-way up, elastic cuffs and waistband, brown wool pants, pleated-type, baggy in rear, may have been wearing low-cut shoes. Subject at no time appeared to be in a hurry, walking with a shuffling lope, slightly bent forward. The subject’s general appearance suggested Welsh ancestry. (?)

• Kids at Stine murder: White Male, 25 to 30 years old, 5'8" to 5'9", stocky build, reddish-brown hair worn in a crew cut, heavy-rimmed glasses, dark brown trousers, dark (navy blue or black), ‘Parka' jacket, dark shoes.

Cars

The Zodiac seems to have had a pattern of driving his car in an intimidating, predatory manner. At Lake Herman Road, a car (quite possibly Zodiac) drove past William Crow and his girlfriend, then abruptly put on his brakes and backed up. At Lake Berryessa, a suspect (probably Zodiac) passed the college girls' car, then reversed. At Blue Rock Springs, Zodiac pulled right behind Ferrin's car and turned off the headlights, then sat for a minute, before driving off, then returning a few minutes later.

• Lake Herman Road: Two separate witnesses reported seeing a white or light colored Chevy Impala sedan (possibly 1959-1960) at Lake Herman road.

• Blue Rock Springs: the suspect's car was described as a Corvair or Mustang, medium light brown in color.

• Lake Berryessa: The three college girls described a suspect's car as being a late model 1966-67 Chevy, light blue in color. Headlights were long rather than round. Rear window glass was tinted dark. 

Footprints

• Bates murder: Heel prints found near the body of Cheri Jo Bates were made by a heel that was manufactured for military and other government agencies. --- Letter dated Oct. 20 1969 from Riverside Chief of Police Thomas Kinkead to Sheriff of Napa County Earl Randol. See https://zodiackillerfacts.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=88&pid=1053#top_display_media  

• Lake Berryessa: bootprints were observed leading from a wooden foot stile over the fence to the passenger side of he car. Plaster casts were made of the boot impressions. Boot print left by size 10.5 Government-issue “Wing walker” boots at were both Air Force and Navy issue. Plaster casts were made of the bootprints. https://www.zodiackiller.com/LBReport5.html Special agent Donald ___, OSI, Travis Air Force Base, reported that 500-1000 of that type of wing-walker shoe had been sold as surplus on the base, over and above those sold at the Sales Store. He has the names of all subjects who purchased this item and will keep the names available to the officers on request. https://www.zodiackiller.com/LBReport13.html Compaction tests on the boot print gave a calculated weight “in excess of 220 pounds.”

Note - accuracy of time estimates

The time estimates in this website come primarily from witness statements. It is important to be aware that any time estimate may be (and probably is) inaccurate by several minutes. In my opinion, very few time estimates in a case like this are likely to be accurate. 

The accuracy of any time estimate is affected by numerous factors: 

1. How recently did the witness look at a clock (or otherwise know the time), either before or after an incident took place; 

2. How good is the witness at estimating times or time durations; 

3. How good was their memory; 

4. How recently did the event occur prior to the witness trying to estimate the time. As memory fades, the accuracy of time estimates decreases. 

Note that it is likely that witnesses may "round" time estimates to the nearest 5 or 15 minutes on the hour. In other words, a witness would be more likely to estimate that an event happened at "11 PM" or "11:15 PM," instead of a more precise time like "11:08 PM." 

Because of this, we must assume that any time given in a witness statement might be inaccurate by as much as 5, 10, or even 15 minutes... or more. For this reason, precise reconstructions based on time estimates must be considered conjectural only. 

We may assume that some time estimates are more accurate than others. This is dependent on several factors: for example, if there was a specific reason a person checked the time an event occurred. Nancy Stover's 12:10 AM time estimate for the phone call reporting the Blue Rock Springs murder is probably quite accurate, as it was presumably part of her job protocol to log the times at which calls were received (Is it possible to verify this?). This 12:10 time might in fact be precise to the minute, or at least within a few minutes... but this is the exception, not the norm. MOST witnesses do not know the time when events occur with any degree of accuracy. 

In this website, in some cases, I have based time estimates more on logic rather than strictly on witness statements. The Blue Rock Springs timeline, for example, is based in part on working backwards from Nancy Stover's 12:10 time estimate, using the estimated duration of events instead of just relying on time estimates given by witnesses such as Mike Mageau and Richard Hoffman, that are, in all likelihood, less precise. But even here, the timeline is mostly conjectural.

Note - accuracy of witness testimony

Witness testimony, in police reports and other sources, is undoubtedly one of the most important primary sources in criminal cases. However, witness statements should not be taken as being 100% accurate. Eyewitness testimony has been shown to be notoriously inaccurate: witnesses often misremember things, and might simply not notice things in the first place. When reading police reports it is important to keep in mind that much of what is written may have been misremembered, not noticed, or simply guessed at. 

It is also important to note that witness statements are not usually verbatim transcripts of what was said by a witness, but rather are summarized responses to questions asked by investigators. 

For example, much has been made out of the fact that James Owen changed his estimate of the distance between David Faraday's car and the car parked next to it at the turnout on Lake Herman Road. In his first police statement, Owen said the cars were "about 10 feet apart," but then in a second statement this was changed to "three or four feet." What happened here? In all likelihood, Owen probably did not notice (or remember) how far apart the cars were, and was just guessing. And he was likely responding to a question asked to him. The reporting police officer probably asked, "how far apart were the cars?" to which Owen may have answered something like, "I don't know. Maybe ten feet, I'm not sure." The officer then would summarize this by writing that the cars were "about 10 feet apart apart." Owen may have later reconsidered this, and given a slightly different answer. People often do not notice such things with any degree of accuracy. This should be kept in mind when reading witness statements.

Note - accuracy of eyewitness descriptions of suspects

The accuracy of eyewitness descriptions of suspects has long been assumed to be unreliable. As noted in an article published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, "the prevailing view, by far, is that eyewitness memory is unreliable—a blanket assessment that increasingly pervades the legal system." (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29716454/)

This topic is a subject of ongoing debate and research, and I will only summarize a few concepts here.

In short, the reliability of eyewitness suspect descriptions is dependent on many factors:

• Lighting conditions when the observation took place

• Distance between eyewitness and suspect

• Time duration of the observation

• Whether or not the witness had any reason to pay attention to the suspect

• Emotional state of the witness

• Whether the suspect was carrying a gun

• Eyesight

• Age of eyewitness

• Time duration between observation and description

• etc.

It is also important to state that the accuracy of memory tends to deteriorate over time. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that a memory of an event can become corrupted by things that influence the memory of a suspect. For example, if an eyewitness is shown mugshots of suspects before giving their description. 

In the Zodiac case, it is perhaps relevant, for example, to consider that the memories of the suspect seen by Officers Fouke and Zelms on the night of the Stine murder may have been influenced (ie. corrupted) by the fact that they had seen the suspect sketch of Zodiac based on descriptions provided by the Robbins' kids.