FBI failed to investigate Zodiac Killer ‘suspect’: Group claims

A volunteer group that investigates unsolved cases believes they have identified the notorious Zodiac Killer and slammed the FBI, claiming the bureau didn’t do enough to investigate the apparent lead.

Case Breakers, a nonprofit run by investigative journalist Thomas Colbert, claims to have connected Air Force veteran Gary Francis Poste to the murders and said a FBI agent confirmed to them that he has been considered a suspect since 2016.

“The felon has been secretly listed as the Zodiac ‘suspect’ in Headquarters’ computers since 2016 – with his ‘partial DNA’ safely secured at the feds’ Quantico, Virginia lab,” Case Breakers said in a press release Thursday.

The team said the FBI has a partial DNA sample of Poste’s in its database but has failed to utilize the sample in its investigation into the serial killer responsible for five confirmed murders in northern California in the late 1960s.

The FBI, meanwhile, has repeatedly said that it has not solved the Zodiac Killer case and that its investigation remains open.

Case Breakers also said it has collected its own DNA sample of Poste, who died in 2018, and wants the agency to test it against DNA evidence collected in a sixth murder — the 1966 killing of Cheri Jo Bates — who they believe the serial killer is responsible for.

However law enforcement officials have disputed that Bates was part of the murder pattern.

“We 100% believe our Cheri Jo Bates case is not affiliated with the Zodiac case,” Riverside Police Officer Ryan Railsback told Fox News Digital in October 2021. “Nothing has changed on that.” 

The nonprofit has called for “a serious review” into the FBI, Riverside Police Department and the San Francisco Police Department.