Yes, it’s the same article posted by me Nov. 6, 2013. It was originally in the RCC school newspaper and picked up by the Press Enterprise about three weeks later.

http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewtop … =33&t=1074

Also, the Chronicle newspaper article of Nov. 1, 1966 mentioned that the keys were in the car though it does not say in the ignition.

http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=41

Ok, thank you

The keys being left and found in the ignition is a detail I was not aware of before. That does change the way I tough of the whole incident. If she had gone with her murderer of her own free will, you’d think she’d have took the keys to her car out of the ignition and locked it before leaving with her killer, believing him to be a good Samaritan. The fact that her keys were still in the ignition suggests, to me anyway, that she was taken by surprise and/or abducted probably at gun/knife point.

Yep.
Or perhaps was walking just round the corner to get something he’d promised from his car (or similar lie) and expected to be walking straight back.

"They were confident that one suspect was the likely killer, but they lacked physical evidence needed to press charges. The suspect has been living out of the country, but several years ago, he flew back into California. Detectives obtained a warrant for his DNA and tested it against a hair fiber sample they had from the crime scene. The fiber didn’t match, but Simons said the police cannot be sure if the hair fiber sample they have is even that of the killer.

“They (previous detectives) zeroed in on one suspect that they did the direct comparison (DNA test) and it didn’t match, but it’s entirely possible it could still be him,” said Simons."

What nonsense! Unlike the Z DNA that comes from letters, this hair was found in Cheri Jo’s hand. Who else it could be from (unless it is hers and Michael would have the same mt-DNA if they had the same mother) except her killer? Just idiotic. Let them tell us how it could be from someone else.

I was in touch with the editor and a reporter from this paper earlier this year asking them to do an impactful and hard hitting investigative piece. Was DNA ever derived from the stamps or envelopes of the "Bates had to die" letters? Were they licked? If not, they may be from Z, who did not lick his stamps and envelopes.

Were the "Bates had to die" letters analyzed with the most modern techniques for identifying impressed writing?

This is a piece of trash. It could have been so much more.

Mike

I agree, it’s not the most hard-hitting of pieces, but then the relationship between the newspaper and the authorities in Riverside is no different than it is anywhere else. How hard you hit them has to affect your access to the "news" and thus your circulation, at some point. No?
I’d also agree, if not her attacker’s hair, then whose…?
Btw though Mike, not wishing to drag us off-topic here, but "Were they licked? If not, they may be from Z, who did not lick his stamps and envelopes…."
I wonder about the Badlands letter, a lot.

"They were confident that one suspect was the likely killer, but they lacked physical evidence needed to press charges. The suspect has been living out of the country, but several years ago, he flew back into California. Detectives obtained a warrant for his DNA and tested it against a hair fiber sample they had from the crime scene. The fiber didn’t match, but Simons said the police cannot be sure if the hair fiber sample they have is even that of the killer.

“They (previous detectives) zeroed in on one suspect that they did the direct comparison (DNA test) and it didn’t match, but it’s entirely possible it could still be him,” said Simons."

What nonsense! Unlike the Z DNA that comes from letters, this hair was found in Cheri Jo’s hand. Who else it could be from (unless it is hers and Michael would have the same mt-DNA if they had the same mother) except her killer? Just idiotic. Let them tell us how it could be from someone else.

I was in touch with the editor and a reporter from this paper earlier this year asking them to do an impactful and hard hitting investigative piece. Was DNA ever derived from the stamps or envelopes of the "Bates had to die" letters? Were they licked? If not, they may be from Z, who did not lick his stamps and envelopes.

Were the "Bates had to die" letters analyzed with the most modern techniques for identifying impressed writing?

This is a piece of trash. It could have been so much more.

Mike

Well said, RPD needs to have a big giant light shined on them and their mishandling of Cheri’s case. It’s a joke, and if I was Cheri’s Family, would be calling them out

Hi Smithy,

Please elaborate. I thought the Badlands letter was on a prepaid postcard. Is there even a stamp on it?

I realize that in order for a reporter to do the story right he’d/she’d have to grow a set. It is a shame they are too worried about politics to do the right thing. But asking about the DNA and the impressed writing would not be too in your face. They just aren’t smart enough to ask the questions. Or all they care about getting in a puff piece to fill some space.

Mike

The DNA in Riverside is much more like the DNA in the BTK case than in the Zodiac case. When you find the person who matches it, you know they had contact with the victim. Could RPD have been stupid enough not to have taken Cheri’s hair as a control, so they don’t know where the mt-DNA comes from, LOL?

I guess RPD is going with the two attacker theory even they know better than anyone if there were three sets of shoe prints at the scene or just two.

I thought the Badlands letter was on a prepaid postcard. Is there even a stamp on it?
Mike

It is, on a prepaid postcard and no, no stamps.

I thought the Badlands letter was on a prepaid postcard. Is there even a stamp on it?
Mike

It is, on a prepaid postcard and no, no stamps.

Yep. Makes me wonder, that. I’ll go and opine on the letters section I think.

Meantime, back to the news boys – nope, that’s not a filler and It sure ain’t a puff piece, since nothing’s being sold. (Unless they’re puffing the competence of their police force, and that’s debatable, isn’t it. Simons isn’t coming across as a genius, that’s for sure.) No, it’s just a weak indictment of the case handling, which is stronger for those who want to read between the lines.
Speaking of which, break this down for me would you?
The suggestion is that the RPD "know" that the guy who went off abroad attacked Cheri – but the hair they took from that blot at the base of her thumb which (we presume) she pulled out of her assailants head doesn’t match him – so position #2 is that he had a confederate who DID have his hair yanked out.
Is that it?
I can’t level criticism at RPD, personally. I simply don’t know what they know…..

This article was not written by a Press Enterprise reporter! As I said in my post above this article appeared in the Riverside Community College newspaper about three weeks before the Press Enterprise picked it up and ran it. Most likely the article was written by an RCC student.

http://viewpointsonline.org/2013/11/05/ … mment-3424

In other words the PE did nothing about writing an in depth article about Cheri Jo or writing an article at all for that matter. It is essentially a syndicated article.

This article was not written by a Press Enterprise reporter!

Who said it was? Find him and shoot him, the bounder!
Point taken though, yep.

Oh! And speaking of multiple attackers, I’m reading E A Poe’s "The Mystery Of Marie Rogêt" as homework, and it includes the observation:

"Let us reflect now upon ‘the traces of a struggle’; let me ask what these traces have been supposed to demonstrate. A gang. But do they not rather demonstrate the absence of a gang? What struggle could have taken place- what struggle so violent and so enduring as to have left its ‘traces’ in all directions between a weak and defenceless girl and a gang of ruffians imagined? The silent grasp of a few rough arms and all would have been over. The victim must have been absolutely passive at their will. If we imagine but one violator, we can conceive, and thus only conceive, the struggle of so violent and so obstinate a nature as to have left the ‘traces’ apparent."

Good eh?

Very good. I now believe that. lol. No, really. Makes sense, me likey.

Poe’s "The Mystery of Marie Roget" is based on the very true story of the murder of one Mary Rogers. Poe’s writing of that murder seems to have gotten him credited with be the person to have launched the true crime nonfiction genre. FWIW

http://my.ilstu.edu/~ftmorn/cjhistory/c … ogers.html