MT. Clue for Ross?

[Marshall]

look on Tom Voight's site under DNA. a woman with LE in 2013 stated
they had it. no questions asked. so now what? why are we chasing
a bunch of circumstantial evidence and playing he said, she said.?

They have DNA from somebody. How are they going to get Ross's DNA, he's dead and buried. They would need a court order to dig up a grave. A judge needs much more than that to allow such a thing. His surviving family doesn't want to cooperate in the investigation. There is nothing more they can do.

Ross was cremated. My point above was that the DNA could be tested by itself, without needing (for now) to be compared to a POI. If Z was 80% Italian, and Ross' maternal and paternal ancestry is mostly Irish, that tells us something.

This could be done without Ross' DNA, or that of his surviving family members.

[Holmes201]

look on Tom Voight's site under DNA. a woman with LE in 2013 stated
they had it. no questions asked. so now what? why are we chasing
a bunch of circumstantial evidence and playing he said, she said.?

They have DNA from somebody. How are they going to get Ross's DNA, he's dead and buried. They would need a court order to dig up a grave. A judge needs much more than that to allow such a thing. His surviving family doesn't want to cooperate in the investigation. There is nothing more they can do.

Ross was cremated. My point above was that the DNA could be tested by itself, without needing (for now) to be compared to a POI. If Z was 80% Italian, and Ross' maternal and paternal ancestry is mostly Irish, that tells us something.

This could be done without Ross' DNA, or that of his surviving family members.

That's a good idea. At least it can rule out somebody.

[Nick, no Nora]

I do wonder if Katz or others would have Tim DNA on something for MtDNA.

[Holmes201]

I do wonder if Katz or others would have Tim DNA on something for MtDNA.

All they need is a few exfoliating cells contained in saliva from a relative of the guy. A plastic water bottle discarded, would be a start. The big problem is how are you going to convince LE to do the testing. Unless they recover it themselves, and compare it to their DNA sample they think is the Zodiac, the trail goes cold again.

[Holmes201]

The Boston medical examiner in 1962 put samples of the Strangler's hair and other things, and stored them away for future analysis. Dr. George believed new advances in science would someday be able to use this evidence. By 1969 the FBI was well aware that in theory DNA could be utilized. They have hair from the Zodiac.

[Marshall]

I do wonder if Katz or others would have Tim DNA on something for MtDNA.

I'm going to make an assumption here - maybe those of you who have had interaction with Jon Sullivan might want to correct me. The impression I have gotten, from reading just about all the posts here regarding Ross as a POI, is that Jon doesn't want to answer (endless) questions posed by amateurs like us, regarding his very disturbed, deceased brother.

I find that extremely understandable. I also think that it is a leap to think that Jon would refuse to provide a DNA sample if requested by LE. So, it might be safe to say, if more evidence could be found that makes Ross an increasingly interesting suspect, DNA would be available to compare. I don't think that's the issue. The issue is, can a decent enough case be put together that LE would have interest in obtaining Jon's DNA and then testing it?

LE could do so many things regarding Ross, from the DNA testing to obtaining various records and so on (the records would be redundant if the DNA was a match.) I wonder what the tipping point would be, where Morf could go to them and say, "Here's the circumstantial evidence we have regarding Ross. Is this enough for him to be scooted up the list of prominent suspects?"

[morf13]

If I was Jon,I'd want to prove these 'internet kooks' wrong,and I would release info to shut them up if it proved he could not be Z.
I would release writing samples, his mental hospital stays, etc.
If his Brother Jon was willing to give DNA,I would pay for the testing.
Instead, he does none of this,he simply says that we are wrong, and Ross was a sick Guy. When he is asked about Tim's suspicions of Ross, he brushes it off as, "Tim was sick too".

Who knows what Jon's level of familiarity is with the Zodiac case. I would think,after his Brother getting all the attention in regards to Z, he would want to learn more about the case, and why people are suspicious of Ross,and he would learn that Ross was connected to the RCC Library where Zodiac's writing was linked, and that Ross looked just like the Z sketch. He would learn that Ross knew Cheri, and that Z possibly killed her or at the least, likely wrote letters about her. My guess is, he has read these threads, and that he has nothing that can counter the argument that Ross may have been Z

[Holmes201]

That's it, the whole thing right there.

[Tahoe27]

We don't know what has been done though. There could be valid reasons Ross is not considered by law enforcement. Our inquiring minds my want to know, but those who have the power to do something may already know they don't need to.

[JeffP]

We don't know what has been done though. There could be valid reasons Ross is not considered by law enforcement. Our inquiring minds my want to know, but those who have the power to do something may already know they don't need to.

Here's the thing. When LE dismissed Ross they didn't know about the Cheri connection. That's what we have that no one else has ever had. And that was what RPD were looking at strongest. They believed, rightly IMO, that Cheri knew her attacker. It is almost certain that they didn't know of this connection. If they had they probably would have taken Ross more seriously.

After all, I had read the librarians letter prior to learning about Katz and didn't really think anything of it. It wasn't until you learn Katz' story about Ross' brother, and when we discovered that Bonnie and Cheri were close, that suddenly what the librarians had to say became all the more interesting.

It's because you have two broken pieces, neither side knowing of the other, that when put together tells a more complete story.

How do we know that police didn't know of the Ross-Cheri connection? Because Ross' brother and his then wife, Bonnie, were living in San Francisco and were never questioned. The only reason the two things were ever put together at all was because Katz knew Noel Jette independently of Timothy/Ross and Noel knew Ross. Noel, like Katz, went to UC Riverside. Katz had known of Ross because he was the brother of a close friend from high school.

I doubt Katz knows more than he has told us, but what he knew (as little as what it was) was significant because he is the link between those two facts and was the only person who would have realized the importance of those two facts.

1. In the letter, Jo ann Bailey knew of some link between Ross' brother and Cheri but didn't know what it was. She mentioned something about hearing a rumor about Ross' father ministring in Cheri's church. We know this wasn't true. So even if she had mentioned this to police, it would have turned up a dead end. She never knew what the connection was. We know she spoke to the police, so if they had known the connection it's likely she would have known.

2. By the time Cheri was murdered, everyone who knew the connection no longer lived in Riverside save Gerald. Tim and Bonnie lived in San Francisco. Others like Dannell lived in San Diego and then moved to San Francisco.

3. According to Katz, none of them spoke to the police that he's aware of.

Therefore, the police had no way to know Ross had a connection to Cheri. The coincidence to me is just TOO GREAT. I don't know if Ross was the Zodiac, there is some interesting circumstantial evidence but nothing conclusive, but I AM POSITIVE he killed Cheri.