An independent group of cold-case investigators came forward Wednesday to identify the man they say was the Zodiac Killer, but the San Francisco police and the FBI say the case is still open.
Case Breakers, a team of 40 former law enforcement investigators, said they identified the man they believe is the Zodiac Killer using physical and forensic evidence and information from eyewitnesses, according to a press release. They say he died in 2018.
The Zodiac Killer is believed to be responsible for at least five murders in Northern California in 1968 and 1969. Case Breakers said he also killed an 18-year-old woman in Riverside in 1966, and much of their case hangs on that contention.
Among the clues, they said, was an image of the man with the same distinctive forehead scars as witness sketches of the Zodiac Killer.
In response to the new claims, the San Francisco Police Department confirmed to CNN that it is still an open investigation.
“We are unable to speak to potential suspects as this is still an open investigation,” the SFPD said in a statement.
The FBI, which has been supporting local law enforcement in the investigation, also did not acknowledge the claims.
“The Zodiac Killer case remains open. We have no new information to share at the moment,” the FBI said in a statement to CNN.
Riverside police public information officer Ryan Railsback said the Zodiac Killer is definitely not the person responsible for the death of Cheri Jo Bates in 1966.
The only link the Bates murder had to the Zodiac Killer was a handwritten letter received in mail claiming responsibility, Railsback said.
The Zodiac Killer, who was never caught, gained notoriety by writing letters to police and local media boasting of the killings up until 1974. Claiming to have killed as many as 37 people, he also wrote some letters in code and included bloody bits of clothing as proof of the acts.
The-CNN-Wire
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