The Case of the Zodiac Killer: Is It Solved?

Elleson Connelly
The Zodiac Killer terrorized the northern California communities between the years of 1968 and 1969, gaining public attention after sending messages and ciphers to local newspapers and threatening to commit further violence if his letters were not published. He killed five people during this time and was thought to be the perpetrator of several other crimes. These murders remain some of America’s biggest cold cases, and this serial killer has managed to stay in the headlines for years as theories continue to be brought to light. Even last year, a group of amateur code breakers cracked one of the ciphers placed in the newspapers all those years ago.  
Significantly, a new development in this case just surfaced on Wednesday, October 6th from an independent group of cold case investigators who claim to have solved the mystery of who the Zodiac Killer really was. This team, dubbed "The Case Breakers," consisted of 40 former law enforcement investigators who used new physical evidence and information from eyewitness accounts to discover who the Zodiac Killer was. They claimed to have secured decades of pictures from their suspect’s former darkroom, revealing incriminating evidence. They also believe that the suspect’s name was present in anagrams published in newspapers. The team states that the suspect is believed to have passed away in 2018, but they have been unable to release a name to the press. Hopefully, as law enforcement investigates this claim, more information will surface about the believed identity of this serial killer.  
The San Francisco police department and the FBI have declined to comment to any news source on the announcement but say that the investigation is still open. Developments surface often for the Zodiac Killer case, but rarely so publicly with such confidence from those who claim to have solved it. A member of the Case Breakers named Tom Colbert stated, “I absolutely feel we solved this case.” Whether or not this is true remains to be seen. This new development in the Zodiac Killer case could be the final one, or maybe just a step along the way to figuring out who wreaked havoc on the media and the lives of countless citizens all those years ago.  

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