While I personally don’t feel these were Zodiac murders, it has certainly been brought up in the past.
On October 5th, 2016 the following news story, along with a video which includes Nancy’s sister speaking about her sister, actual photos, etc., was shared by a Sacramento news station.
They have a full DNA profile of Nancy’s killer.
http://fox40.com/2016/10/05/after-46-ye … -unsolved/
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SACRAMENTO — For the past four years, at least once a week, Micki Links has come into the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.
The former sergeant is retired, and she’s busy at home with a 2-year-old grandson. But she comes back, for the broken-hearted.
Linda Bennallack Cox has been grieving for nearly half a century. Her sister Nancy was murdered in 1970.
"I just wish so badly we could find out who did this," she said.
But Nancy wasn’t the only victim. Her neighbor, Judith Hakari, was also killed that same year.
"Oh, there’s a lot of similarities," Links said.
Nancy and Judy were both from Sacramento and both in their 20s.
"They’re both professional women, working jobs" explained Links.
Both were ready to walk down the aisle.
"Both young and in love, they’re going to get married" Links continued.
They also both lived in the Arden area. The neighborhood has changed a lot in the last 45 years. But back then, the two would have been able to see each other’s apartments, which were separated by only a block.
March 7, 1970, 11:30 p.m. Hakari calls her fiance to tell him she’s leaving Sutter Memorial Hospital where she works as a nurse. By 1:30 in the morning, she has still not come home. Her fiance, waiting at her apartment, begins to worry.
"He went out to the apartment complex parking lot and discovered her car was parked in the assigned space that she had," Links said.
But Judith was nowhere to be seen. She was found one month later, strangled and bludgeoned to death.
"Some hikers discovered a body in a shallow grave up in the town of Weimar, in Placer County. And during their investigation they determined that it was Judith Hakari," Links said.
October 25, 1970. Seven months after Hakari’s murder. Nancy Bennallack, a court reporter, kisses her fiance goodbye and gets ready for bed.
"She lived in a second-story apartment, and she had the sliding glass door opened a little bit because she had a cat, and she wanted to make sure the cat could go in and out," Links explained.
That night, as Bennallack slept, someone climbed a fence and sneaked into her apartment through the open balcony door. A friend found her the next day. She had been stabbed to death.
"She was just so sweet and nice," Bennallack Cox said.
For Bennallack Cox, it’s painful to even talk about her sister after so many years. Healing is difficult without knowing who killed her and why.
"She was just a good person, who never hurt anybody," Bennallack Cox said.
After 46 years, no one has been arrested in either case. Several suspects were questioned and eliminated. But new forensic technology is giving detectives hope. Technicians retested blood evidence left behind at Nancy’s apartment and developed a full DNA profile of the killer.
"If we find the right person, and his profile matches, then we will know that’s our suspect," Links said.
In Hakari’s case, there is no DNA profile. The evidence was accidentally damaged and couldn’t be tested. But Links believes both cases could be connected.
"The bottom line is, a case from 40 or 50 years ago where someone was murdered and taken from their family is not any less important than the homicide that happened yesterday," Links said.
It’s her promise to the broken-hearted.
"I just hope that somebody out there will see this, and this will help solve the mystery," Bennallack Cox said.
— Katie Talbot filed this report.
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
Thanks for posting this!
I guess the DNA found on Nancy Bennallack rules out Phillip Arthur Thompson, a suspect in the murder. He was convicted of killing Betty Cloer in 2009, she was murdered in 1971. It was DNA that linked him to Cloer so they obviously have his on file.
I sure hope they compared the DNA!
For those unfamiliar, Dr. Doogie had done some fine research on him (see http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/3 … _mKoNQrL6o ).
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
That sucks, I guess it wasn’t PAT. You also have Richard Hirschfield and EARONS and a few other creeps in the area with the same MO, and it seems not to have been any of them either. A shame.
I was going through the cold cases in the Sacramento Area for the 70’s and into the 80’s. There were sure a lot in the late 70’s into the early 80’s. It was a definite spike, at least in their cold case files….
It’s really cool that these old cases are seeing new clues & info come to light
There is more than one way to lose your life to a killer
http://www.zodiackillersite.com/
http://zodiackillersite.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/Morf13ZKS
Morf….
You just never know if technology can break through some piece of evidence and ID the killer. It does happen…
Bay
Who ever stabbed Nancy Bennallack to death didn’t make sure that the handle of the knife wouldn’t slip and cut him, like Zodiac had done with his knife at lake Berryessa.
That was the assumption about the Lake B knife having been wrapped, so if Zodiac was so careful with that knife, why wasn’t he careful about the knife he used if he killed Nancy? Did he wear gloves and the knife penetrated the glove? Seems there wouldn’t be much found if that was the case. I am guessing the killer went out the apt door rather than have to jump down to the fence? I wonder if the cut was deep enough that the killer went to a hospital to get stitches? I hope that the detectives handling her case would have called all of the hospitals in the area?
I would like to believe that Zodiac had been ruled out in the Bennallack murder, assuming the police have checked the partial DNA ‘Zodiac sample’ against the full DNA profile of the killer in the Nancy Bennallack case. If so, you can effectively rule out this case as a Zodiac crime.
Being that there seems to be a lot of work being done in the Zodiac case, that could be something that is being done and they just don’t have the results yet,
sense it still takes a long time?
One thing is for sure at least what I think , is that for the killer to be as agile as her killer had to be to get up to the two story apt.without a ladder. I doubt he could be as large as Art Allen.
More like the size that Foukes and Kathleen Johns had described and closer to early 30’s than mid to late 40’s is my guess. (My number one suspect looked to be about 33 in 1970)
The timing of Zodiac’s letters is something else to think about. Two days after Nancy was killed Z wrote to Paul Avery and claimed 14. Two weeks after Judith Hakari went missing another Z letter was sent on 4-20-70. Three days after her body was found the 4-28-70 arrived. I suppose that the timing of letters could be just a coincidence, but I personally don’t believe everything can be just a coincidence.
The Oct 17 70 Adams letter could have been a warning to not only Adams, but a clue to Zodiac following through with what he said he would do and that was to continue to kill.
I’m new to the forum, looking for a place to start in. I like to research and I see there isn’t much done on these two cases.
I’m wondering though, why are these two cases even suspected that they "might" be connected to Zodiac? Was there something that
turned up to give someone a reason to think they might be Zodiac victims? I’m sure someone did not just toss all California murder
victims into a hat and then randomly pull out these two. I can see if the two have similarities that they might be connected to one another,
but what is the common denominator that connects either of these to anything Zodiac related? If I know the answer to this question, I
might have a better idea which direction in which to start in on these two.
I don’t think there is any Zodiac link, but to each his/her own. If I remember correctly, Graysmith added them to his list of possibilities. Since some think Donna Lass was a Zodiac victim, and because she was a nurse, they find a link there.
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
Thank you, Tahoe, for answering my question. That kind of reasoning is a very long stretch to make Nancy seem as though she might
have been a Zodiac victim.
So Lass = possible Zodiac victim
Lass and Kakari = nurse
Nancy Murder = similarity to Kakari
and because of Graysmith coming up with this, we are now researching the Nancy Bennallack & Judith Hakari as Zodiac victims?
Okay…. sounds like a good reason…. NOT….
hopefully there is something more that we do not know about to warrant time and effort to warrant researching these as Zodiac victims.
To research them for the sake of researching them to help bring closure to the families, yes, but as Z victims; no
If someone has other reasons these two murder victims might be connected to Z, I will gladly jump in here and research them. Until then,
I should probably focus my time and effort elsewhere. I will however, come back to this thread now and then and see if there are more reasons
and if so, I’ll research them then.
There has been a whole lot of research of them in regards to the Zodiac case…I suppose more never hurts.
“…they may be dealing with one or more ersatz Zodiacs–other psychotics eager to get into the act, or perhaps even other murderers eager to lay their crimes at the real Zodiac’s doorstep.“ L.A. Times, 1969
