PRIVATE investigators who identified a new suspect as the Zodiac killer were ignored by Police when they came forward with fresh DNA evidence, a damming new report suggests.
The Case Breakers, who earlier this week named their suspect as Gary Francis Poste, say they were “met with silence” when they previously presented findings to the authorities in April.
According to an email exchange obtained by TMZ, the team sent a message to the Riverside Police Department which had referred to evidence from victim Cheri Jo Bates – who was murdered in 1966.
They allegedly found hairs in her hand which they state was so strong that it was able to identify a “viable suspect for a potential comparison.”
But, Police reportedly decided to shun the evidence despite it’s potential to lead a breakthrough in the case – which is still considered ‘ongoing.’
It contradicts a statement made this week that denied that they ever receiving such evidence from the team.
Meanwhile, the Police have also distanced themselves from the Bates case saying that the case remains unsolved.
It comes as TMZ, via another leaked email exchange, claim that the authorities had previously denied the legitimacy of the group’s DNA findings.
They allegedly wrote: “We can say without a doubt this case is not related to the Zodiac Killer case.”
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However, the Case Breakers – a crew is comprised of more than 40 former law enforcement investigators, journalists and military intelligence officers – said this week that they discovered Poste’s identity after years of digging through new forensic evidence and his darkroom.
The man, who was found to have previously died aged 80, was named as the man believed to be the infamous “gruesome” killer.
One image uncovered from the darkroom purportedly featured scars on Poste’s forehead which match a sketch of the Zodiac.
The team said ciphers the Zodiac sent to newspapers and police bragging about his kills also point to Poste.
The Zodiac is known to have targeted at least seven victims between 1968 and 1969 – 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 — and he claimed to have killed 37 people in his letters to newspapers and police.
The case was deemed inactive in 2004 but the San Francisco Police Department reopened it in March of 2007.
After the Case Breakers’ announcement this week, authorities made it clear that they do not officially consider Poste to be a suspect and the case is ongoing.
The FBI and California cops pushed back against the team’s claims on Thursday, noting that they have continued to receive hundreds of tips about the case each year.
Local police in both Riverside and San Francisco have said the group’s claims consisted of “circumstantial evidence.”
Meanwhile, the Sun has exclusively obtained documents showing Poste does have a criminal history.
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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