Short answer: No idea.

I tried to find out a while back but came up with very little. The Ghia car door is in the Napa evidence lockup – as for the rest, nobody seems to know.

In general, I don’t think cars that are evidence in an investigation at some point are either destroyed or kept, but rather given back to whoever has a claim on them after the necessary forensic job has been completed.

Perhaps Stine’s cab went back into regular service.

UK & Norse:
Years ago, I read that Stine’s cab had a noticeable dent in its side. Don’t know which side it was on, or if Z hailed Stine’s cab from that side. Either of you know? Incidentally, mine is not an idle question.

I know I’m not UK or Norse but I think I know the answer to the question. I believe it was the driver’s side that was dented. The passenger side does not look like it was dented to me.

I got the image from here-

http://www.bermuda-triangle.org/paul_st … 11-69.html

I got an image of the passenger side here-

http://altereddimensions.net/2013/zodiac-serial-killer

Yep, it was dented.

I remember there was some pretty wild speculation about that, none of which had much merit, IIRC.

Main point to keep in mind would be that there’s no reason to believe it was anything but coincidental that Stine drove that particular cab that night. It wasn’t "his" cab in any relevant sense.

I’d assume the taxi’s long gone, simply because there has never been any discussion of scouring it for DNA… (???)

I did some digging on matters cabbie. It appears that some companies, at least, both rent cabs to their cabbies, or sell them. I’m going to make a WAG here, and assert that Stine’s cab was, in fact, "his," and that Z could see the driver’s side (with its noticeable dent) of Stine’s cab when he hailed it. Further, I maintain Z knew Stine, and that Stine was a cabbie, and drove a cab with a dented driver’s side.

From memory, Stine hadn’t been working for Yellow Cab for long – and he was a student, not a full time cabbie. So I doubt very much that he owned the car he drove, if that was even a structure they had at that particular cab company at the time.

Norse:
I’ll defer to your opinion re Stine owning his cab. But, I still have this gut feeling that his killer knew him.
Dag

No reason to defer to my opinion, Dag – I’m just theorizing too.

But I think it makes some sense: Stine was a part-time driver, not long on the job, so probably didn’t own the vehicle. I’m sure it’s possible to find out for sure, though – in fact, I’d be surprised if someone hasn’t done so already, but I can’t seem to find anything definite.

There was a guy on one of the old boards, IIRC, who used to drive a cab for a Yellow Cab style company back in the day. I remember him saying that the routine was that whoever got to work first, got to pick the best cars – i.e. if you arrived late for your shift, you’d be stuck with a piece of junk (relatively speaking *). But there were obviously different companies with different structures.

* If I ran a cab company I’d make sure my cabs looked alright, which means I’d probably straighten out dents and the like pretty quickly. Companies with a fleet of cars would have mechanics of their own who worked on the cars constantly.

Norse:
Main reason I thought Stine owned his cab WAS the dent. I’d think the company would have repaired so obvious a dent ASAP. Since Stine wasn’t exactly rolling in dough, he probably wouldn’t have had the money for bodywork on the cab.

Wasn’t the damage quite recent? I thought I read that somewhere.

Fair point, Dag – although you’d think the company would insist on their drivers maintaining the vehicles according to some sort of protocol, so whether he owned it or not, my guess is that the dent – if it was very noticeable – would have been up for repair one way or the other.

Still, it was there – so if your theory is that Z could have identified Stine by the dent, so to speak, then that holds water in terms of the dent itself being there.

However, we still need to establish

a) that is was not coincidental that Stine drove that particular cab (i.e. that he owned it or rented it)

and

b) that it was not coincidental that Stine was working that night, i.e. that it was his regular shift and that Z could have expected him to be around.

Wasn’t the damage quite recent? I thought I read that somewhere.

My theory is that it HAD to be recent, since the company wouldn’t have kept a dented vehicle on the road for too long before having it serviced – or, in the case of the driver owning it, before demanding that he had it serviced.

Could be wrong about that, of course.

Anyway, the main speculation back in the day was that the dent was actually caused by Z – who was involved in an accident with Stine (and his cab). And who then…I don’t know, killed Stine in a fit of post-road rage? I have no idea – it seemed pretty preposterous to me.

Fair point, Dag – although you’d think the company would insist on their drivers maintaining the vehicles according to some sort of protocol, so whether he owned it or not, my guess is that the dent – if it was very noticeable – would have been up for repair one way or the other.

Still, it was there – so if your theory is that Z could have identified Stine by the dent, so to speak, then that holds water in terms of the dent itself being there.

However, we still need to establish

a) that is was not coincidental that Stine drove that particular cab (i.e. that he owned it or rented it)

and

b) that it was not coincidental that Stine was working that night, i.e. that it was his regular shift and that Z could have expected him to be around.

i thought it WAS coincidental that he was working that night. he was filling in for someone who called out. if i remember correctly he had been at a friend’s party and was called into work. i can look up the reference if necessary tomorrow but i’m pretty sure that’s the case.