Mike Renault Mageau and Bryan Calvin Hartnell are the only two known survivors of the
His confirmed victims include David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, Cecelia Ann Shepard, Paul Lee Stine and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin. The Zodiac was known to target couples, attacking three separate young pairs in his killing spree, although two of the male victims survived.
Journalist Thomas Colbert presides the team that believes in the DNA match. Although most news outlets claim that the Case Breakers version is solid, the FBI needs to officially confirm that the deceased person by the name of Gary Francis Poste is responsible for the murder's public statements.
While five known victims have been linked to the Zodiac killer, it is believed more than 20 people fell victim to the murderer. The FBI maintain that the case remains unsolved, as it was as open as recently as October 2021.
Even years later, government forces have not cracked this case because there was simply no DNA evidence. The zodiac killer also sent police a total of four coded messages. While most have been solved, it took years for most of them to be decoded.
Although Zodiac left two survivors, Hartnell and Michael Mageau, neither man got a good look at the killer's face (he wore a mask at Lake Berryessa and he shone a flashlight in Mageau's eyes). The only people who unquestionably saw his face were three teenagers on the night of Oct. 11, 1969.
"The FBI's investigation into the Zodiac Killer remains open and unsolved," the FBI's San Francisco Office told Fox News Digital in a statement. "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."
Whether it was Gary Francis Poste or not, one thing that is clear according to the authorities is that the Zodiac killer would now be around 90 years old.
The California Department of Justice has left the case open since 1969. Mike Renault Mageau and Bryan Calvin Hartnell are the only two known survivors of the Zodiac. Mageau was conversing in a car with her co-worker, Darlene Ferrin, when the Zodiac shot and killed Ferrin. Mageau was shot four times and survived.
The last known victim, a taxi driver, was shot in October 1969. The murders were the subject of intense investigation and media coverage, particularly because of the killer's taunting letters to newspapers and phone calls to police.
Lake Herman Road murders: The Zodiac killer's first victims were a high school couple, Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on December 20, 1968. The two were on their first date and had driven out to Lake Herman Road, just within Benicia City limits, where they had parked their car.
After threatening the pair with a gun, he then tied them up, then stabbed them. Despite being alive when help arrived on the scene, Shepard passed away while Hartnell recovered, becoming the Zodiac's second survivor.
From the late 1960s to the early 1970s the Zodiac killer sent four coded letters. Of the four ciphers, only one has actually been solved. His letters were written in two parts. The first part was usually written in plain text, while the other was in cipher text, in which he claimed contained his identity.
History of the zodiac
However, we do know that as far back as the 14th century B.C., ancient Egyptians had created a system that assigned 36 stars to the celestial plane, each one representing 10° of the 360° ecliptic.
Case Breakers said it found DNA on a hiking mat once owned by Poste and connected it to him after securing DNA from a relative of Poste's. The group wants law enforcement to compare that DNA to hairs found on Cheri Jo Bates, who it believes was a sixth victim of the Zodiac killer in 1966.
Aquarius is the rarest zodiac sign. Water-bearer babies tend to be few and far between because February is the least common birth month, according to the CDC. Additionally, the overlap period between January and February is the shortest astrologically, says Ash.
There's no clear-cut DNA evidence
The Golden State Killer, for example, left dozens of samples at dozens of crime scenes. Even decades-old evidence can be re-examined with modern technology for blood or semen. But detectives aren't as lucky with Zodiac.
FBI has IDENTIFIED Zodiac Killer as Air Force veteran Gary Francis Poste - who died in 2018 - and has partial DNA sample that could link him to five serial murders, cold case investigator claims.
He communicated with the media and law enforcement through a series of letters and ciphers. The letters began with the words: “This is the Zodiac speaking” and contained various taunts alluding to his planned murders. The media ran with the frenzy, and his own name stuck.
The only suspect authorities ever publicly identified is Arthur Leigh Allen, a schoolteacher who was institutionalized in 1975 for child molestation.
Jack the Ripper was an English serial killer. Between August and November 1888, he murdered at least five women—all prostitutes—in or near the Whitechapel district of London's East End. Jack the Ripper was never identified or arrested. Today the murder sites are the locus of a macabre tourist industry in London.
Five of the cases, between August and November 1888, show such marked similarities that they are generally agreed to be the work of a single serial killer, known as "Jack the Ripper". Despite an extensive police investigation, the Ripper was never identified and the crimes remained unsolved.