The Sierra Nevada mountain range straddles the border of California and Nevada, and encompasses the region of Lake Tahoe, the main focus in the "Pines" postcard mailed on March 22nd 1971, which gives us cryptic directions to the gravesite of Donna Lass. The young 25-year-old nurse went missing from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino in Stateline, Nevada on September 6th 1970, her whereabouts unknown until December 2023 when her partial remains were discovered about 20 miles west of Lake Tahoe's northern tip by a local fisheman.
During the prime Zodiac activity of letter writing between July 31st 1969 and July 13th 1971, the Zodiac Killer only ever laid claim to one murder outside of California, and that was Donna Lass from the state of Nevada. That is probably why the May 6th 1986 letter stated that the "body count" was growing all over the state of California and Nevada, despite abbreviating Nevada incorrectly. However, bearing in mind the only reasonable murder victim outside of California to be identified thus far was Donna Lass, who disappeared from a state that shares a border with California, it can be strongly argued that the Zodiac Killer was referencing the state of Nevada on May 6th 1986. The Zodiac Killer for the first time claimed the "body count" was growing, not the victim count. This may suggest that a body (or remains) had been found which consequently (and in part) increased the Zodiac total, rather than solely a confession of recent murders.
During the prime Zodiac activity of letter writing between July 31st 1969 and July 13th 1971, the Zodiac Killer only ever laid claim to one murder outside of California, and that was Donna Lass from the state of Nevada. That is probably why the May 6th 1986 letter stated that the "body count" was growing all over the state of California and Nevada, despite abbreviating Nevada incorrectly. However, bearing in mind the only reasonable murder victim outside of California to be identified thus far was Donna Lass, who disappeared from a state that shares a border with California, it can be strongly argued that the Zodiac Killer was referencing the state of Nevada on May 6th 1986. The Zodiac Killer for the first time claimed the "body count" was growing, not the victim count. This may suggest that a body (or remains) had been found which consequently (and in part) increased the Zodiac total, rather than solely a confession of recent murders.
Click image to enlarge The May 6th 1986 letter was claiming the recent double murder of Laotian couple Koy Ien Saechao (48) and Choy Fow Saelee (40), who were gunned down in their 1983 Mercury Cougar near the interchange of Highway 99 and I-5 in Sacramento by 15 small caliber bullets. They had been murdered between 3:15 am and 7:30 am on April 22nd 1986, in what appeared to be a motiveless and random attack. The Zodiac Killer was claiming these latest killings in his total of 100+, but didn't write "the victim count is growing all over the state of California and Nevada", by instead choosing to write "the body count is growing all over the state of California and Nevada".
This may be extremely telling, when you consider that the remains of Donna Lass were discovered in late December 1985 and January 1986, yet she wasn't identified until December 2023. In other words, when both the skull and jawbone were discovered by January 19th 1986, nobody was aware that they were the remains of Donna Lass but for her killer. So it's quite remarkable that the Zodiac Killer referred to a "body count", including the state of Nevada for the first time, just three months after the discovery of her remains.
The previous victim count announced by the Zodiac Killer dated back to the "Exorcist" letter on January 29th 1974, which amounted to a duration of over 12 years. To put this into perspective, the Zodiac Killer was now claiming a new "body count" that included Nevada, only three months after the remains of Donna Lass were found, 147 months after his last victim total. That is impeccable timing or extremely fortuitous, to not only invoke the word "body" in his count, but to include the state of Nevada where Donna Lass went missing from.
This may be extremely telling, when you consider that the remains of Donna Lass were discovered in late December 1985 and January 1986, yet she wasn't identified until December 2023. In other words, when both the skull and jawbone were discovered by January 19th 1986, nobody was aware that they were the remains of Donna Lass but for her killer. So it's quite remarkable that the Zodiac Killer referred to a "body count", including the state of Nevada for the first time, just three months after the discovery of her remains.
The previous victim count announced by the Zodiac Killer dated back to the "Exorcist" letter on January 29th 1974, which amounted to a duration of over 12 years. To put this into perspective, the Zodiac Killer was now claiming a new "body count" that included Nevada, only three months after the remains of Donna Lass were found, 147 months after his last victim total. That is impeccable timing or extremely fortuitous, to not only invoke the word "body" in his count, but to include the state of Nevada where Donna Lass went missing from.
The last time the Zodiac added a "plus" sign after his running kill count was when he wrote "17+" on March 13th 1971, insinuating the distant murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on October 30th 1966, about 4 1/2 years previous. The "plus" sign probably denoting the belated addition of this victim from many years ago. He did exactly the same on May 6th 1986, a few short months after the remains of Donna Lass were found, nearly 16 years after she was likely murdered. The addition sign used in 1986, when he wrote "the body count is growing now 100+", could mean exactly the same thing - that we should be looking for a long dead victim in Nevada in this instance, rather than Riverside. Two distant murders, both accompanied by a retrospective "plus" sign, may be suggestive that law enforcement (SFPD) should now credit each of the belated discoveries to his, the Zodiac Killer's running victim total. It must also be noted that the March 13th 1971 and May 6th 1986 letters were the only two Zodiac communications to sign off in this fashion (and order), with the mocking SFPD = 0, followed by the crosshairs and a hyphen, and then the running victim total and addition sign (see below).
The newspaper articles above highlight a "Skull found in Sierra" and "Human remains found in Sierra" by Melvin Bennett in "two inches of snow", so it's pertinent to recollect how the Zodiac chose to emphasize the upside-down phrase "around in the snow", while using the "Sierra Club" pasting as a place marker on the "Pines" postcard. It is fairly clear at this point that the March 22nd 1971 "Pines" postcard with directions such a "pass Lake Tahoe areas" and a punch-hole, was pinpointing the location of Donna Lass' burial site. Factor in the observations made about the 1986 letter above, with the calculated measurements of the postcard which clearly showed the punch-hole landing squarely over the area her remains were found, and we seemingly have an author who knew exactly the burial location of Donna Lass, and the time period the skull and jawbone were found by Melvin Bennett and a later search party, headed by Deputy Lowell Carleton. Why would the Zodiac Killer mention the state of Nevada in 1986 if not for the recent breaking news? Only the killer of Donna Lass would have recognised this location as relevant to her murder and burial site.
FINDING THE LOCATION OF DONNA LASS' REMAINS USING THE PINES CARD
FINDING THE LOCATION OF DONNA LASS' REMAINS USING THE PINES CARD
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