According to NBC Bay Area News, A 47 Year old woman has stepped forward and claimed that her father is the Zodiac killer. Deborah Perez, now 47, believes her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, is responsible for between five and 36 killings pinned on the infamous Zodiac killer. Forensic experts claim DNA evidence links Ms. Perez to the killings. A San Fransisco Citizen Blog gives an overview of this case.
Apparently, the DNA evidence is on a few of the envelopes of the letters written by the Zodiac, which Perez assisted in writing. I question how much DNA evidence exists in this case.
Keep in mind these murders occured in the 60's and 70's when DNA evidence didn't exist. The police weren't looking around for traces of DNA to send off to the state crime lab for testing.
How were these envelopes preserved? Granted, DNA remains viable for long periods when it's stored properly(dry and at room temperature or a bit cooler), but how many people touched these envelopes? Were they wearing gloves? Is there any chain of custody showing who touched the evidence samples?
I am not an expert on the Zodiac killings, but the DNA aspect interests me. The killer may be responsible for as many as 36 killings. How many will DNA link him to? If no DNA evidence was found at the actual crime scenes, then can you really tie all the crimes to the Zodiac based on a few cryptic letters? ZodiacKiller.com appears to follow the case extremely closely, and does not give Ms. Perez's claims any merit. Another website focused on the Zodiac murders has in-depth information about the case.
If DNA is extracted from evidence samples, experts can use paternity testing yo prove a relationship if Hendrickson is the biological father of Perez.
Hopefully the forensic experts working with Ms. Perez will come out with some more details about this case.
