I guess what I’m getting at here is that the hair my have been planted there to throw off investigators. I know there was no such thing as DNA back then, but by planting hair a different color than the killer’s, it would be a clever ruse. I know it’s far-fetched, but not much would surprise me about this case.

Sorry, got hair found under stamp and hair found on Bates mixed up. Apparently they DID extract DNA from the hair found on her. Should have rechecked reports before I posted. That said, it seems safe to say that the DNA from Cheri Jo Bates’ s murder does not match with whatever DNA they have on Zodiac. Nobody has come out to confirm this but Riverside investigators are pretty adamant that Cheri Jo’s murderer was not the zodiac. But then, seeing as how they had to mix different cells from the letters to get partial DNA, it’s very possible that FBI could have goofed and mixed different DNA.. complicated stuff!

The mitochondrial DNA recovered from the clotted hair samples at the base of Cheri’s thumb eliminated ‘Bob Barnett’, but was this DNA eliminated from the cigarette butt.

Hi Joe,

Despite your skepticism, it is highly likely that the mt-DNA from the hairs from Cheri Jo’s hand are from her killer and were not mixed up and analyzed incorrectly or planted by the killer. They have eliminated Barnett and RPD needs to get over themselves and make info available to the public that will help us solve the case, as the investigators in the EAR/ONS case have done. All RPD did was provide misinformation in about 2001 about "42 stab wounds" and those bogus conversations that Barnett supposedly had the night of the murder. They are behaving like amateur investigators not professionals.

Mike

Hi Joe,

Despite your skepticism, it is highly likely that the mt-DNA from the hairs from Cheri Jo’s hand are from her killer and were not mixed up and analyzed incorrectly or planted by the killer. They have eliminated Barnett and RPD needs to get over themselves and make info available to the public that will help us solve the case, as the investigators in the EAR/ONS case have done. All RPD did was provide misinformation in about 2001 about "42 stab wounds" and those bogus conversations that Barnett supposedly had the night of the murder. They are behaving like amateur investigators not professionals.

Mike

Amen !

Mike R.

I share that frustration of LE not releasing info. I understand their position that it’s an (active case), but in reality it really isn’t. It’s been 51 years, there’s no witnesses, and even if there were, how could it stand up in court, "Is that the man you saw that night"? The guy was say, 25-30 years old then, that makes him, 76-81 now, but they don’t even have a witness. and if they did how could the witness answer that question? Justice, time has kind of thrown that out the window too. If he was tried tomorrow and found guilty, what would he serve, maybe 10 years? That’s no justice for murder. So why not release more info, and it could be they don’t have much to release, I don’t now what they could have, but to me it’s time to release more info. If CJB’s murderer can at least be ID’d, arrested, taken to trial, we would know in short order if this person was Z or not. If he was Z, than N. Ca. LE, could prosecute for those murders, and then maybe a whole host of cold cases begin to get solved. When this much time has past and LE obviously can’t do it, give others a shot at it, at this point what can it hurt?

BayArea60s

That said, it seems safe to say that the DNA from Cheri Jo Bates’ s murder does not match with whatever DNA they have on Zodiac.

Why? Z actually confessed – in written form – to his Riverside activities shortly after the SF Chronicle had published an article that tied him to CJB’s murder..

I guess nowadays no police employee would talk willingly about any case or publish DNA linking results before any trial had started..

QT

Riverside PD are so willfully obtuse in this case. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them close it altogether once their lead suspect passes away.

That said, it seems safe to say that the DNA from Cheri Jo Bates’ s murder does not match with whatever DNA they have on Zodiac.

Why? Z actually confessed – in written form – to his Riverside activities shortly after the SF Chronicle had published an article that tied him to CJB’s murder..

I guess nowadays no police employee would talk willingly about any case or publish DNA linking results before any trial had started..

QT

Z was a liar,so confessing to Cheri’s murder means nothing. It’s all about DNA and print evidence. It hasn’t been made public,but I am guessing that the print or DNA evidence found at Cheri’s crime scene was compared to Zodiac evidence and didn’t match, which is why Riverside PD wants nothing to do with the Zodiac mentions

Hi Joe,

Despite your skepticism, it is highly likely that the mt-DNA from the hairs from Cheri Jo’s hand are from her killer and were not mixed up and analyzed incorrectly or planted by the killer. They have eliminated Barnett and RPD needs to get over themselves and make info available to the public that will help us solve the case, as the investigators in the EAR/ONS case have done. All RPD did was provide misinformation in about 2001 about "42 stab wounds" and those bogus conversations that Barnett supposedly had the night of the murder. They are behaving like amateur investigators not professionals.

Mike

Well said. 50+ years is long enough, Riverside PD, you see how far it’s gotten you. Time to take the blinders off

The RPD is still investigating though, so regardless of who there may think what, results would point to the appropriate person.

Keep in mind RPD only has mtDNA, whatever DNA SFPD may have it would be Nuclear DNA and the two can’t be compared.

As far as the fingerprints go unless RPD has all ten fingerprints from Cheri’s car or all ten fingerprints from Stine’s cab
nothing can be ruled in or out as far as Z being Cheri’s assailant.