The Vallejo Police Department has confirmed that DNA believed to belong the infamous Zodiac Killer has been submitted to a private lab in the hopes of submitting a viable profile to a genealogy website. By tapping into the wellspring of men and women researching their family trees, investigators hope to employ the same technique that ensnared the Golden State Killer after an exhaustive 40-year search.
“If we get a good profile, then you start tracking back,” said Vallejo Detective Terry Poyser. “It really comes down to DNA. Without it, you have nothing. It’s a 50-years-old case.”
The Zodiac Killer terrorized the Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He murdered at least 5 people -- though he claims to have killed many more -- and gained national notoriety for the cryptic, coded message he sent police and news outlets during the crimes.
Those letters eventually yielded what investigators have long believed to be the suspect’s DNA. Developing an adequate profile from the sample been difficult. But thanks to rapid advances in DNA technology, investigators hope they’ll get enough this time to catch a killer.