Police Say Zodiac Killer Case Still Unsolved, 'Case Breakers' ID Is Based on Circumstantial Evidence

Police and the FBI have pushed back on a claim that the Zodiac Killer was identified, while insisting that the case remains unsolved.

An investigative group called The Case Breakers announced a breakthrough in the cold case on Wednesday, claiming to have identified the infamous serial killer as Gary Francis Poste, an Air Force veteran and professional house painter who died in 2018. Zodiac was the confirmed killer of five victims in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1968 and 1969, although he claimed to have killed 37 victims.

News of the alleged identification was met with enthusiasm as well as surprise due to the intense difficulties detectives had experienced while trying to find the killer during official investigations over the previous 50 years. However, law enforcement agencies wasted little time in throwing cold water on the claim that Poste had been confirmed as the killer and soon pointed to holes in the conclusion of The Code Breakers.

One of the major clues that led to the identification involved a claim that the Riverside, California murder of Cheri Jo Bates in 1966—two years before the confirmed Zodiac murders started—was committed by Poste. Zodiac may have claimed to be Bates' killer in a 1971 letter to The Los Angeles Times, although some investigators questioned the authenticity of the letter or did not believe the claim.

Riverside Police Officer Ryan Railsback said Wednesday that Poste could not have been Bates' killer during an interview with The San Francisco Chronicle, the same paper that Zodiac sent ciphers and multiple letters bragging of his exploits in the years immediately following the murders.

"Is there a chance that (the Case Breakers suspect) killed Cheri Jo Bates? No," Railsback told the paper. "If you read what they (the Case Breakers) put out, it's all circumstantial evidence. It's not a whole lot."

"If the Cheri Jo Bates case was actually related to the Zodiac Killer, we wouldn't be holding that back, especially 55 years later," Railsback added in comments to Nexstar. "Unequivocally, we are saying that the Cheri Jo Bates case and the Zodiac Killer case are not related."

The Code Breakers complained that the Riverside Police Department refused to compare DNA from Poste with evidence taken from the Bates case, while noting that the department continued to be skeptical of a connection with Zodiac despite the FBI calling Bates "the 6th victim" in 1975.

Although a connection between the Bates murder and Zodiac is disputed, the modern-day FBI appeared to be less than convinced by The Code Breakers' alleged identification of Zodiac, saying in a statement that the case "remains open," while stressing that there was "no new information to share at the moment."

The Code Breakers cited several other pieces of circumstantial evidence in linking Poste to the Zodiac case. Scarring on Poste's head resembled similar marks on the serial killer's head which was reported by surviving victims and reflected in the official police sketch. A member of the team also told Fox News that the letters in Poste's full name could be used to decipher hidden messages in letters sent by Zodiac.

Poste is far from the first person to have been put forward as a potential Zodiac suspect. Other potential suspects have included Arthur Leigh Allen, who was suspected to be the killer by detectives working on the case at the time of the murders. Allen died in 1992.

Newsweek reached out to The Case Breakers for comment.