Who is to say that Cheri wasn’t already on the ground at 9:30 p.m.? I dont mean to say that she was already dead but perhaps unconscious.

She died within a minute or so of her throat being cut. The autopsy report had the earliest time of death around 9:30 or so, possibly as late as 12:30 AM. So that would mean she was somewhere not in the library or her car for three to six hours before she was killed.

Hi,

"So in this scenario the confrontation was planned, thus the disabling of the vehicle, but the murder itself was not, thus the pocket knife."

Yes! This guy was unsure of himself and did not know how to approach a woman, so he chose to disable her car in order to give himself an excuse to talk to her.

Hi,

"So in this scenario the confrontation was planned, thus the disabling of the vehicle, but the murder itself was not, thus the pocket knife."

Yes! This guy was unsure of himself and did not know how to approach a woman, so he chose to disable her car in order to give himself an excuse to talk to her.

Possible? Yes. Likely? No.

Disabling a car, just to have a confrontation? Disabling someone’s car is a profoundly sinister act, that strongly suggests a profoundly sinister intent. It’s highly criminal.

This individual disabled a young woman’s car, leaving her stranded at night, in secluded location, with the aim of luring her away. This is an extremely deplorable, aggressive and predatory act.

It’s also behavior consistent with predatory rapists and killers. Disabling a woman’s car at night has to be in top 5 things most likely to indicate someone is about to commit a major crime. It’s got to be up there with wearing a balaclava and carrying a murder kit in your boot.

I was merely noting the apparent paradoxes. I don’t really think it’s very likely the killer went there with any other plan than to kill his victim. I think the paradoxes might be a clue to something else, I have another theory that accounts for both the sinister disabling of the vehicle and the somewhat poor choice of weapon.

What if the killer planned to kill, but not in advance. Suppose the killer saw Cheri that night and seized the opportunity. The murder is reasonably well carried out, suggesting either an experienced killer, or one that had thought a lot about it. But it also seems as if it is not as well prepared as it could be. There are many accounts of real serial killers who took advantage of opportunities. Many criminals act on opportunity. They may always be somewhat prepared, at least mentally.

Actually, there was a guy who recently got busted for doing just that…disabling women’s cars just so he could talk to the women. Had done it many, many times. Can’t find the story now, because Google just wants to show me articles about cars belonging to disabled people…

I know the frustrations with Google and I often read things and later can’t recall where, usually right when I need them to support something I’m saying. I believe you. I’m sure it’s happened. I’m just arguing probability. It seems unlikely that someone would disable a woman’s car at night just to talk to them. The fact that someone, somewhere has, does little to convince me that these are the actions of someone with a relatively benign plan.

If there was a prankster on the loose who liked to walk into convenience stores wearing a ski mask just to scare people, you wouldn’t conclude that most people who walk into convenience stores wearing ski masks are pranksters.

My argument is this: most people who disable women’s vehicles at night in secluded locations do so because they plan to commit a serious crime.

If the claims in the letter are true, it makes it unlikely that her murderer was Zodiac as it makes its likely that he was the same/similar age and would not fit in with eyewitness accounts.