Could genealogy websites help reveal Zodiac Killer?
Technique used in Golden State Killer case holds promise.
DNA SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — sleuthing helped crack a decades-old cold case, leading to the arrest of a man suspected of being the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer.
Now could the same type of detective work on genealogy websites be used to catch another of California’s most infamous and elusive criminals — the Zodiac Killer?
“It is possible,” said Pam Hofsass, a former San Francisco homicide detective who worked on the Zodiac case and now runs the forensic lab for the Contra Costa County Sheriff ’s Office. “It’s totally worth looking at, and I hope with all of the news and reve- lations about the Golden State Killer that it will kind of be the impetus for the Zodiac.”
The Zodiac Killer roamed Northern California from D ecember 1968 t hrough October 1969, but was never caught, despite at least one close run-in with police.
He is k nown to have attacked seven victims, killing five — in Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa and San Francisco —and leaving two survivors. However, the Zodiac claimed responsibility for many more deaths in letters, often signed with a symbol of a cross over a circle.
Like the East Area Rapist, the Zodiac Killer took on an almost mythological presence in the psyche of Californians, and the story of his killing spree has been told in multiple books and movies over the decades.
Hofsass said one of the biggest hurdles to using DNA to track the Zodiac Killer is getting a clean genetic sample. She said evidence collection rules were much looser on crime scenes during the era when the Zodiac was active because DNA forensic science didn’t exist. Often, multiple people would handle evidence without gloves, adding their own genetic material to collected objects.
“Back in the day, that was the protocol,” Hofsass said. “It’s not a clean sample, that’s the problem.”
She gave an example of a blood-soaked glove she found when she first started work- ing on the Zodiac case around 2009. It was stuffed inside an evidence envelope and seemingly forgotten.
“I opened up the coroner’s materials, and there was this envelope that said, ‘Black Bloody Glove,’” Hofsass said.
The blood on the outside of the glove was identified as that of the Zodiac’s last known victim.
But the blood and other matter collected from inside the glove was too muddled to be of use, possibly contain- ing traces from anyone who had handled it over the years.
“We got a mixture on the inside,” she said.
Tom Voight, a recreational Zodiac expert who runs the website zodiackiller.com, said he believes a clean DNA sam- ple could be taken from saliva that might be on envelopes mailed by the Zodiac. The serial killer was a prolific communicator, sending letters, cards and mysterious cyphers to media, law enforcement and others, including former Sacramento Bee reporter Paul Avery while he worked at the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I think Zodiac was definitely licking his own stamps and envelopes,” Voight said. “You just need to get the evidence, get it to the lab. Just copy what was done with the Golden State Killer.”
Hofsass agreed that the envelopes could be useful.
“I think they are worth re-examining,” she said. “That would go for all of the (law enforcement) agencies that received mail (and) taunting cards.”
In 2002, that approach was attempted when ABC’s “Prime- time” asked a forensic expert from the San Francisco Police Department to compare a partial DNA sample authori- ties had from the surface of a stamp of a Zodiac letter with the DNA profiles of three men who were rumored suspects.
That DNA analysis elimi- nated all three as suspects due to their significant differences with the sample. However, what was on the stamp provided only a partial genetic profile, and it wasn’t strong enough to identify the killer, Voight said.
The East Area Rapist suspect, Joseph James DeAn- gelo, was identified when DNA saved from an old crime scene was associated with a distant relative on GEDmatch, an open-source genealogy site. Until recently, law enforcement limited DNA searches to databases of those with a criminal history. The use of the commercial site allowed investigators to virtually canvas a new pool of possible suspects, which included rela- tives of the killer.
From that hit, investiga- tors from a federal and state task force tracked his family tree to narrow it down to men who lived in the vicin- ity of the crimes, eventually targeting DeAngelo in April.
Voight said he would like to see a similar joint-agency effort around the Zodiac Killer. “If California law enforcement authorities would simply join forces as they did with the Golden State Killer ... then this would be a pretty big year because I don’t think it would take very long to catch him.”