The Sun: With Cryptic Killer Now Unmasked, is his DNA TBA?

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The Sun; By Olivia Burke; May 18, 2023

The Case Breakers (CB), a team of top sleuths who have cracked a number of America’s most high-profile mysteries and stubborn local whodunits, claim the federal agencies know Poste is behind the California slayings.

The nonprofit, led by investigative journalist Thomas J. Colbert, alleged that deceased Air Force veteran Poste is currently listed as a suspect in the FBI Headquarters’ databases. They also claimed that a bureau whistleblower confirmed its lab has a “partial” DNA sample connecting him to the string of murders.

Poste, who died in August 2018, has “been secretly listed as the Zodiac ‘suspect’ in HQ’s computers since 2016,” the CB said in a statement. But the FBI has insisted for years that the decades-old case remains unsolved.

CB accused the Bureau of dragging its feet with the investigation while blatantly ignoring evidence and state laws, instead succumbing to “apathy, egos and fear of humiliation”. They called for a “serious review” of the agencies handling the case and claimed they have evidence tying Poste to another murder.

Their FBI tipster said: “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 waiting for answers.”

The CB said they had also obtained their own DNA sample of Poste and wanted officials to test it against evidence in the 1966 killing of Cheri Jo Bates. But the Riverside Police Department has denied that the brutal murder of the 18-year-old was connected to the Zodiac. This, despite an unearthed 1975 FBI memo that in fact declares her a victim of the serial killer.

The FBI’s San Francisco Office told Fox News that the case remains “open and unsolved,” but provided no further updates. “Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, and out of respect for the victims and their families, we will not be providing further comment at this time,” the statement said.

But several of the remaining ten victim-siblings told the CB that authorities haven’t been in touch with them for decades. Colbert dubbed it a “coverup,” adding that it was “nonsensical for the people that are still waiting,” more than a half-century later.

His organization – made up of over 40 former law enforcement, forensic investigators, journalists and military intelligence officers – first identified Poste as the prime suspect in 2021. With new technology and a series of lab specialists at five universities, the Case Breakers have made it their mission to unmask the Zodiac Killer.

The madman is known to have targeted at least seven victims – three couples and a lone taxi driver. Two of them survived gun and knife ambushes. The same killer has been linked to as many as 28 murders – claiming to have killed 37 people in taunting letters sent to newspapers and police.

He called himself “Zodiac” in his fourth message to the press on August 1969, which is how journalists coined his nickname. He would also sign his correspondence off with a circle and a cross over it, seemingly appearing as a target or a coordinate symbol.

The letters included complex ciphers – some of which haven’t been officially solved to this day. But Colbert’s team said many of the Zodiac’s ciphers point to Poste; after removing the letters of his full name from one of the infamous puzzles, it reportedly revealed alternate messages.

The CB revealed that in the run-up to his 2018 death, Poste decided to get rid of his home armory involving more than two dozen weapon calibers. Old associates of the housepainter and alleged serial killer claim that he had quietly farmed out the guns, pistol parts, gunpowder, bullets and shell casings – more than a thousand – to his favorite locals. But “most of these peculiar ‘gifts’ remained in their basements and closets, untouched, ever since.”

The sleuths said they had verified the tip-off from a long-time source in Poste’s High Sierra hometown of Groveland, and described it as an “evidentiary goldmine.” Colbert boxed up the haul and sent it to his team to have the items probed by private forensic labs in three different states.

But “when the Case Breakers approached officials about this new Zodiac suspect and his stash, six police state and federal agencies would no collaborate.”

The CB believed this current FBI whistleblower lead could prove key in confirming the Zodiac’s identity, suggesting the former housepainter may have wanted to receive the glory for the murders posthumously.

“We also have six people that he’s confessed to that he was the Zodiac. Three of them on our court affidavits. And then of course the murder scene in Riverside, where we have counted eleven evidentiary clues at the Cheri Jo Bates’ murder scene,” said Colbert.

Other evidence they say proves Poste was the Zodiac Killer was images from his darkroom, with one purportedly featuring scars on his forehead that closely match a 1969 San Francisco PD sketch of the Zodiac.

A former friend of the Air Force veteran also alleged he was obsessed with killing animals and relished in “getting dirty” and bloody on hunting trips.

The Sun exclusively obtained documents showing Poste had a criminal history and was locked up in a California mental facility. Court records show that the suspected serial killer was arrested and spent time in jail for assaulting and seriously injuring his wife Mary in their hometown of Groveland, California in February 2016.

 

 

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