If she was killed before 9 p.m., how did no one discover her? If she was killed after 9 p.m., where was she from 6:15 p.m. until her time of death?

Exactly this is the missing piece of the jigsaw. She couldn’t have been killed before 9.30 at the earliest. We have someone in the location where she was found at 9.30, and then two witnesses hearing a scream around 10.30. Ipso facto she had to have been somewhere else after the Library closed at 9pm, irrelevant for how long.

Did anyone see her leave the library at or around 6:15 p.m.? If not, then our options are:

1) She was abducted before she went into the library;
2) She was still in the library until it closed and left when their were few people around to observe her;
3) She left the library undetected, went somewhere else for a few hours, and came back undetected (all with not one soul having any idea where she went).

2 is the only one that doesn’t gang rape Occam’s Razor.

Okay is 2 is the logical answer where was she from 9 – 10.30 and why did nobody see her (including friends) in the Library during the 2 3/4 hours she was there ? And is so why were the windows down when it would have cold at this time ?

I assume you are aware there were 3 exits from the library and not just the one opposite where her car was parked ?

Wow, lots of Ross talk of late. The issue for me has always been the lack of a verifiable link to Vallejo, etc.
He’s still on my suspect list, but he is now #2. I feel pretty confident in saying, I think I know who Zodiac was!

Holy Jeepers Batman !

That’s the thing for me as well. Even the earliest possible time of death is a long time from the close of the library. The wire pulling tactic only works if the perp knew she couldn’t go back into the library to ask for help. He had to know where she was the entire time, which is notable because no one else seemed to know.

That’s the thing for me as well. Even the earliest possible time of death is a long time from the close of the library. The wire pulling tactic only works if the perp knew she couldn’t go back into the library to ask for help. He had to know where she was the entire time, which is notable because no one else seemed to know.

Ding ding, and if the Library was open this was the closest location for her to go to for help. Remember also we had a man in the alley where she was found, who was missing from the re-inactment, only two people, a man and a woman.

According to the Mexican-American student who noticed Cheri Jo Bates close to opening time, "he knew Cheri Jo Bates and had noticed her in the library the night in question. He said he saw the girl "writing something with a ball point pen in her blue spiral school notebook." The boy told us he was outside about 5:30 pm, waiting for the library to open at 6, and it was then he saw the girl". Walter Siebert of 3667 Gloreen Court, who attended the library that evening, stated that "he and a few friends were in the library from 7:15 pm until 9, but did not see Miss Bates, whom they all knew. They said they saw four men dressed in work clothes sitting on a fence across from the spot where Miss Bates’ car was found, but they did not know them". ‘Other students who were acquainted with Cheri Jo said they were in the library between 6:30 pm and 6:40 pm, and did not see the girl during that time’.Therefore, we have several eyewitnesses who made no mention to police of seeing Cheri Jo Bates in the library from 6:30 onwards, particularly when the library was likely less than the 65 attendees finally recorded.

The four workmen sitting across from Cheri’s Volkswagen stated "they had seen Cheri Jo near her car the previous night". If they saw her arrive, they made no mention of somebody approaching her vehicle and disabling it while she was in the library. If they saw her after she left the library, they made no mention of Cheri having car trouble. The Confession letter plants a seed that somebody disabled her vehicle without her knowledge, but this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Her vehicle could have been disabled by somebody she knew, while in the middle of a confrontation. If the 4 workmen saw Bates before 6:30 pm – and were spotted again by Siebert at 7:15 pm – then they were there for an extended period and reported nothing suspicious to police.

Wow, lots of Ross talk of late. The issue for me has always been the lack of a verifiable link to Vallejo, etc.
He’s still on my suspect list, but he is now #2. I feel pretty confident in saying, I think I know who Zodiac was!

Morf, you’re a brave man, you know you’re going to be inundated with questions! I’m having flashbacks to when you teased us with the JJD reveal As I’m sure you and others are aware, Gian Quasar has a book pending. He believes he has identified the Zodiac. Any connection between his suspect, “Steve”?

Even though people who knew her visited the library later in the evening, Cheri was last seen at 6:15 in that small library. She had arrived 10 to 15 minutes prior to the library opening, indicating she wanted to get her library business over with and get on with her night. All she was there to do was check out a couple of books, which would not have taken long. My theory is she made it back to her car by 6:15 and that was when her ordeal began. I believe her killer quickly approached her car after she tried starting it, he had a gun and demanded she get into his nearby car. If that scenario is accurate, she wasn’t killed until a minimum of three hours later, and as many as six. She certainly was not taken directly to the alley and attacked.

The 4 workmen either saw Cheri by her vehicle as she prepared to enter the library (6ish), or saw Cheri by her vehicle after she had exited the library (6:15ish). They were also spotted at 7:15 pm by Walter Siebert & friends – and nothing suspicious was reported by the 4 workmen to police at any time.

Okay is 2 is the logical answer where was she from 9 – 10.30 and why did nobody see her (including friends) in the Library during the 2 3/4 hours she was there ? And is so why were the windows down when it would have cold at this time ?

I assume you are aware there were 3 exits from the library and not just the one opposite where her car was parked ?

Where was she from 9-10:30 p.m.? I don’t know. So, if she walked to her car, and tried to start it, I could see her burning up 20-30 minutes before the killer arrived. Potentially, the killer approached her at first but she didn’t accept his help. Maybe she blew him off and he lied in wait for her when she attempted to walk to a pay phone or to look for help. We could be at 9:45 p.m. by now.

Why were the windows down? You assume that it was cold. Cold is relative to the person. Neither of us know what she would have considered cold. It is also possible that she put the window down to talk to her killer. Maybe she blew him off, so he lied in wait for her down the alley.

Why didn’t her friends or anyone else see her in the library? They could have just missed her. I know people are inattentive and sloppy. So, I have no trouble imagining that people can just miss things. I know that its easy to miss someone in a library because I have spent more time in libraries than I have ever cared to. If she left the library and went elsewhere, I would expect someone to have seen her, whether as she left the library, on her way to her destination(s), at her destination(s), or on the way back to the library. It’s far easier for her to put her head down in a set of books in a remote corner of the library where you could only recognize her from a specific vantage point and remain unnoticed than it is for her to leave the library, travel across campus, and travel back unnoticed.

So, if she walked to her car, and tried to start it, I could see her burning up 20-30 minutes before the killer arrived.

It is rightfully believed her killer disabled her car. There would have been no reason to not approach her immediately once she was trapped inside.

Why were the windows down? You assume that it was cold.

It was described as being unseasonably warm that night. In fact one of my contacts was a little kid named Dana at the time who heard a scream that night because his bedroom window was open from the uncomfortable weather.

Even though people who knew her visited the library later in the evening, Cheri was last seen at 6:15 in that small library. She had arrived 10 to 15 minutes prior to the library opening, indicating she wanted to get her library business over with and get on with her night. All she was there to do was check out a couple of books, which would not have taken long. My theory is she made it back to her car by 6:15 and that was when her ordeal began. I believe her killer quickly approached her car after she tried starting it, he had a gun and demanded she get into his nearby car. If that scenario is accurate, she wasn’t killed until a minimum of three hours later, and as many as six. She certainly was not taken directly to the alley and attacked.

Ok, that explains why no one saw her in the library. But, if she is abducted at gun point at or around 6:15 p.m., and there were no indications of torture, ligature marks, or sexual assault of any kind, what happened in the intervening 3 hours? I’m not saying I disagree, but generally one does not abduct someone to play chess or talk for hours. And if he put her in a car, why bring her back? Why not just kill her and dispose of the body elsewhere?

Even though people who knew her visited the library later in the evening, Cheri was last seen at 6:15 in that small library. She had arrived 10 to 15 minutes prior to the library opening, indicating she wanted to get her library business over with and get on with her night. All she was there to do was check out a couple of books, which would not have taken long. My theory is she made it back to her car by 6:15 and that was when her ordeal began. I believe her killer quickly approached her car after she tried starting it, he had a gun and demanded she get into his nearby car. If that scenario is accurate, she wasn’t killed until a minimum of three hours later, and as many as six. She certainly was not taken directly to the alley and attacked.

Ok, that explains why no one saw her in the library. But, if she is abducted at gun point at or around 6:15 p.m., and there were no indications of torture, ligature marks, or sexual assault of any kind, what happened in the intervening 3 hours? I’m not saying I disagree, but generally one does not abduct someone to play chess or talk for hours. And if he put her in a car, why bring her back? Why not just kill her and dispose of the body elsewhere?

Couldn’t have happened as 4 people were sitting on a wall in view of her car and did not see this?

She couldn’t have been abducted at 6:15 pm.

So, if she walked to her car, and tried to start it, I could see her burning up 20-30 minutes before the killer arrived.

It is rightfully believed her killer disabled her car. There would have been no reason to not approach her immediately once she was trapped inside.

Unless there were witnesses around at first. My assumption was that this occurred when the library closed. So, there could be people still leaving the parking lot and surrounding areas. I would wait until everyone left if I am the killer. But you then stated that you believe she was abducted around 6:15 p.m. In that case, it would make more sense to pounce as soon as she is in the car because she could still try to go back into the library or to a pay phone.