By Andrew Mark Miller | FOX News, May 18, 2023
A volunteer cold case team says an FBI official confirmed the man they believe to be the “Zodiac Killer” is currently listed as a suspect and accuses government agencies across the country of not properly investigating the alleged serial killings.
Thomas J. Colbert, an investigative journalist and leader of the non-profit volunteer team the Case Breakers (CBs), said in a press release this week that a whistleblower on his team was told by an FBI agent that Gary Francis Poste, an Air Force veteran, is listed in Headquarters’ databases as the murderer, and that the lab has his “partial” DNA sample.
“The felon has been secretly listed as the Zodiac ‘suspect’ since 2016,” the group wrote in a press release, with his ‘partial DNA’ safely secured at the feds’ Quantico, Virginia lab.”
The FBI has consistently rejected reports and conclusions that the investigation has been solved and told Fox News Digital in October 2021 that the case was still open.
That same month, the CBs announced they had identified Poste, who passed away in 2018, as the Zodiac believed responsible for at least five murders that occurred in 1968 and 1969 in the San Francisco area. But team members believe his trail involved as many as a dozen victims, stretching from San Diego to Lake Tahoe.
Unlike most serial killers, the Zodiac Killer taunted officials with complex ciphers 
in letters sent to newspapers and law enforcement.
Today, the retired public servants believe they have tied Poste to each of the murders, and the sleuths hope that law enforcement agencies will compare the DNA they found on a hiking mat and confirm it belonged to Poste to DNA from the crime scenes. That includes the mystery hairs found on Cheri Jo Bates, a sixth alleged victim in Riverside, California, that they believe the Zodiac Killer victimized in 1966 – based on a 1975 FBI memo. Colbert claims the CBs have identified 11 evidentiary clues at that horrific scene and in old records.
“We 100% believe our Cheri Jo Bates case is not affiliated with the Zodiac case,” Riverside PIO Ryan Railsback told Fox News Digital in October 2021. “Nothing’s changed on that.”
Colbert noted that includes the agency’s refusal to share those hairs for a simple lab comparison to Poste.
In a Wednesday press release, the CBs said law enforcement agencies at all levels have ignored California state law, evidence, mishandled DNA, and succumbed to “apathy” “egos” and fear of “humiliation.”
“Like cops, federal agents are dealing with huge caseloads, constant training, odd rules and bureaucracy. But when someone wearing a badge or uniform works with others to avoid or hide materials, sidestep difficult procedures, or lie about evidence, they’re hurting our volunteers and the tens of thousands of families around the country, waiting for answers,” the Case Breakers’ whistleblower said in a statement. “That includes the ten siblings left in the Zodiac victim families. The team says they’ve documented over two dozen examples of law enforcement unprofessionalism in the field.”
The Case Breakers explained in the press release that “the questionable actions by SFPD, Riverside PD and FBI, provided by eyewitnesses and old emails, warrant a serious review.”
Colbert told Fox News Digital it is the family members of the victims who deserve answers, including whether Poste is considered a suspect by the FBI. “As a nation, we’ve abandoned them,” Colbert said, adding that the “coverup itself is nonsensical for the people that are still waiting.”
The bureau, nevertheless, gave its standard statement: “The FBI’s investigation into the Zodiac Killer remains open and unsolved,” the FBI’s San Francisco Office told Fox News Digital.
