Previously it has been shown how the Zodiac Killer drew inspiration from current and historical newspaper coverage to fashion any recently prepared communications he was about to mail. Two possible examples were the phrases "man is the most dangerous animal of all" and "it was about time for her to die". Another simpler example was the January 29th 1974 letter, which was a reaction to "The Exorcist" film winning four awards at the Golden Globe ceremony at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California on January 26th 1974,  for "Best Film", "Best Director", "Best Supporting Actress" and "Best Screenplay". Which is probably why the Zodiac Killer.began his letter with a snarky rebuttal of the Exorcist film, by writing "I saw + think "The Exorcist" was the best saterical comidy". The following presentation shows some similarities to the kidnapping of Donna Lass and the resulting "Pines Card" mailed on March 22nd 1971, with the overlapping use of phraseology such as "around in the snow".

On December 8th 1963, an individual was kidnapped from Harrah's Casino in Stateline, Nevada, situated just a few hundred feet from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino where Donna Lass was last seen on September 6th 1970. This person was blindfolded and bundled into the boot of a car, with the abductors making a phone call subsequent to the kidnapping. At the time, this news story was plastered all over American newspapers and heavily featured on television - and in 1963 - was the second largest ransom payoff in US history of $240,000, which ultimately secured this person's release after days of negotiations. That person was Frank Sinatra Jr. (19). In a conversation with the kidnappers and his son, Frank Sinatra Sr. (48) relayed the message he had on the phone (shown below), stating "They took him out of the motel without socks and let him wander around in the snow with just a T-shirt on". The "around in the snow" phrase was featured in dozens of newspapers throughout the country.  

The kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. and Donna Lass both occurred on a Sunday in South Lake Tahoe by the California-Nevada border, both possibly taken from two casinos separated by no more than a few hundred feet, in which a kidnapper (in both instances) rang authorities making reference to the absent person. Frank Sinatra Jr. relayed a message to his father how he was made to walk "around in the snow", and the Zodiac Killer pasted the same message in the Pines Card on March 22nd 1971. A more mature Zodiac Killer would have almost certainly been familiar with this story of the Sinatra kidnapping, so had he delved through the library microfiche once again to select this odd phrase to add to his pasted communication, hoping that somebody might make a loose connection between the two crimes in South Lake Tahoe? To access this phrase in cutting form, the Zodiac Killer didn't have to go back to 1963, because it was readily available in more contemporary newspaper articles from 1971, shown here.     

Cal Neva Resort & Casino, previously known as the Calneva Resort and Cal-Neva Lodge, is a resort and casino straddling the border between Nevada and California on the shores of Lake Tahoe. The original building was constructed in 1926 and became famous when the national media picked up a story about actress Clara Bow canceling checks she owed to the Cal-Neva worth $13,000 in 1930 ($244,700 today). After burning down in a fire in 1937, the structure was rebuilt in only 30 days. In 1960, entertainer Frank Sinatra purchased the resort with several others, including singer Dean Martin and Chicago mobster Sam Giancana. Wikipedia. 

Many people have asked the obvious question of why did the Zodiac Killer make the effort of obtaining a second Halloween card to painstakingly cut out the skeleton from this card to paste onto the October 27th 1970 card we are all familiar with? Thanks to the great work of SmallOrbit from the Reddit platform, we now know the identity of that second Halloween card. The Zodiac Killer would also cut out a rectangular section from around the eyes of a young girl from the inner portion of this second card, to affix onto the skeleton in the appropriate place. It appears as though a additional skeleton was pivotal to the choice of the Zodiac Killer once his October 27th 1970 Halloween card was opened. It may also be significant that he took the time to add the eyes of a female to the skeleton he pasted on his card inner. Bearing in mind that the Zodiac Killer was now claiming a fourteenth victim - and Donna Lass is the only victim he has ever claimed between July 26th 1970 and October 27th 1970 - we could be forgiven for believing the skeleton with the female eyes was meant to be Donna Lass. The thirteen eyes (representing thirteen souls) looking at the latest Zodiac victim in skeletonized form.

This 1970 greeting card, and the Pines postcard on March 22nd 1971, were the only two mailings by the Zodiac Killer to San Francisco Chronicle journalist, Paul Avery. The Pines postcard, with its "Lake Tahoe" reference and punch-hole, is widely believed to be referencing the burial site of Donna Lass. It's almost as though the Zodiac Killer was directing Paul Avery and law enforcement to the remains of Donna Lass on March 22nd 1971, who he had implied was his fourteenth victim by addressing Paul Avery five months earlier. If the Zodiac Killer was claiming Donna Lass as somebody he murdered in the Pines postcard on March 22nd 1971 - and he only raised his victim count by one between July 26th 1970 and October 27th 1970 - then the Halloween card's fourteenth victim had to be Donna Lass, who disappeared between these dates on September 6th 1970. There really isn't any other option.​

Having fashioned thirteen "floating eyes" on the Halloween card inner to possibly represent his previous victims, it may have necessitated the adding of female eyes to the skeleton's skull to represent his current victim. With the choice of a skeleton being representative of the time elapsed between September 6th 1970 and October 27th 1970, and the probability that Donna Lass had been buried in a shallow grave somewhere around Lake Tahoe, unlike his previous victims, who were discovered at the site they were murdered. It's possible that the choice of skeleton was indicative of Zodiac's lack of faith in law enforcement to find Donna Lass in the next few months, until such time he provided additional clues to the police to aid in the discovery of her body (such as the Pines postcard). But why would the Zodiac Killer choose to bury his latest victim, something he had never done before?

​Maybe because of his fascination with puzzles, having previously given us a code and map on June 26th 1970, in which he claimed to have buried a bomb somewhere in northern California. Then followed this up on July 26th 1970 by giving us the phrase "The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians", to further help pinpoint its location. If the Bay Area murderer was prepared to play games with a bomb, why wouldn't he play games with a body? This isn't beyond comprehension, because he mailed the cryptic Pines postcard on March 22nd 1971 with a punch-hole and associated directional markers, such as "pass Lake Tahoe areas", "Sierra Club" and "around in the snow". These were obvious location points designed to direct law enforcement to a specific area beyond the lake. In 2024, I used the punch-hole and the directional aids on the Pines postcard to identify an area by Chubb Lake and Yuba Gap, just 1,000 meters from where the partial remains of Donna Lass had been discovered in 1986 (but not identified until 2023). The punch-hole sat over the remains of Donna Lass.

It was also interesting that the Zodiac Killer had chosen a 1962 UX48 Abraham Lincoln postal card on March 22nd 1971, lacking postage and issued nine years before this mailing. So was the Abraham Lincoln card chosen for a specific reason? I noticed that the address side of the postcard had the crosshairs and "Zodiac" around the punch-hole, with the upper point of the crosshairs touching the letter "D", which was the first initial of "Donna". Across from this was the "Abraham Lincoln" stamp with the initials "A" and "L". If the punch-hole represented the burial location of Donna, then this could have been fashioned to read "D .A. L" or Donna Ann Lass. The front of the postcard pointing to her name, and the reverse side pointing to her burial location.  ​

Therefore, we have two cards, both addressed to Paul Avery in the space of five months. The Pines postcard appeared like a cryptic puzzle giving us clues to the name and burial location of Donna Lass, with the October 27th 1970 Halloween card only increasing the victim count by one since July 26th 1970, spanning the period that Donna Ann Lass was last seen at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino. A Halloween card, in which the Zodiac Killer went to great pains to add a second skeleton with female eyes to the card inner.

But what would be the point of burying Donna Lass and playing this quite extraordinary game of "hide and seek" with her body? Even if law enforcement had identified the general area of a possible burial site from the Pines postcard directions, there would be no guarantee they would find the specific location of her body after months or years had elapsed. I wonder if her burial site had been marked by the signature of Zodiac. On something like a heavy rock, that would stand the test of time? Although this may seem unlikely, it falls a long way short of impossible. 

On October 6th 1970, the Zodiac Killer mailed the 13-Hole postcard with the number 13 on the card, so why didn't the Zodiac Killer raise his victim count to fourteen here, if indeed, he was the murderer of Donna Lass on September 6th 1970? It is possible he wasn't ready to yet lay claim to this murder for any number of reasons, but could have pasted the phrase "Fk I'm crackproof" to indicate he had now achieved "Fourteen kills" (or "Fourteen killed") as another cryptic clue. The use of fourteen within this card could have begun the theme of "fourteen", which continued in the Halloween card three weeks later by way of "14" and "4-TEEN". The Halloween card symbol on the envelope and card inner also appeared to have the letter "F" in its design, so the Zodiac may have replaced "Fourteen killed" with "Zodiac Fourteen".

However, this doesn't change the fact that the Zodiac Killer, according to most researchers, was claiming the murder of Donna Lass on March 22nd 1971, and his victim count only increased by one between July 26th 1970 and October 27th 1970. Therefore, the Zodiac Killer, by mailing the Pines postcard on March 22nd 1971, has left us with the inevitable conclusion that the Halloween card must have been claiming Donna Lass as victim number fourteen. This being the case, are we to conclude that the skeleton he pasted onto the Halloween card inner, was the imagery of his misdeeds near Yuba Gap in Placer County? 

If the Zodiac Killer was the abductor and murderer of Donna Lass from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970, then one might have expected him to claim or insinuate her murder in his next communication, the 13-Hole postcard. Despite later suggesting his involvement in her murder on March 22nd 1971 when the Pines card was mailed, he never increased his victim count from the July 26th 1970 "Little List" letter to the 13-Hole postcard on October 5th 1970 by the Zodiac Killer, which spanned her abduction. Or did he increase the victim count and we simply didn't recognise it? The Pines postcard and 13-Hole postcard both contained punch-holes (suggestive of victims), both contained pasted text, and both carried inverted wording within the postcard. The inverted phrase of "around in the snow" on March 22nd 1971 was clearly referring to the murder and burial location of Donna Lass, so where was the reference to Donna Lass in the inverted text on October 5th 1970?

The construction of the October 5th 1970 postcard may have began just over two weeks after the disappearance of Donna Lass, because all the newspaper cuttings identified on the postcard were sourced from the Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner (all separated by only 9 miles)  The cuttings were taken from publications dated September 23rd and 25th. 

On the day the 13-Hole postcard was mailed, a newspaper article by The Orlando Sentinel carried the headline "Zodiac, Killer Of 5 or 13, Silent As Police Wait". The 13-Hole postcard carried a cutting of the number 13 and used the word "police" in the inverted text - so was this section of text giving us a clue to the total victims killed, which now included Donna Lass? The text read "There are reports city police pig cops are closeing in on me. Fk I'm crackproof. What is the price tag now?" Could this have been cryptic in nature, just like the Pines card mailed 5 1/2 months later, telling us surreptitiously that he was the murderer of Donna Lass and reading "There are reports city police pig cops are closeing in on me. Fourteen killed I'm crackproof. What is the price tag now?" In other words, responding to The Orlando Sentinel headline of "Zodiac, Killer Of 5 or 13" on October 5th 1970 (or earlier newspaper that carried the same or similar question).  

​It would mean that the main body of the postcard was reiterating the victim count from the Little List letter on July 26th 1970, but teasing us with the cryptic clue of "Fk" to suggest that there were now "Fourteen killied" in total. This may have been repeated when the Halloween card arrived 22 days later, on October 27th 1970, when he added 13 "floating eyes" to the card, but added the number "14" on the hand of the first skeleton, placed "4-TEEN" atop of the second skeleton, and used the letter "F" once again in the strange symbol at the foot of the card (and on the envelope). The "F" in "Fk" on the 13-Hole postcard may have denoted the number fourteen. The "F" in the strange symbol on the Halloween card may have also denoted fourteen, by combining "Z" and "F" to give us "Zodiac Fourteen". The four dots giving us a clue that "F" meant fourteen. This would mean that the Zodiac Killer gave us two cryptic clues containing the letter "F" in a span of 22 days. The Zodiac Killer could also have added the 14th punch-hole of his career to the Pines postcard, to make up for the one he deliberately withheld from the 13-Hole postcard on October 5th 1970. A postcard in which he decided to use "Fk" instead. But did the Zodiac Killer specifically invert his text in two postcards to represent one victim? That of Donna Lass.

The first three paragraphs are taken from a previous article, with the following information a completely new analysis.  

When determining whether the "concerned citizen" card mailed to Sergeant John Lynch on August 10th 1969 was written by a helpful member of the public or the Zodiac Killer, we need look no further than the "good citizen" letter mailed on October 7th 1969. Taking into consideration that the "concerned citizen" card was not in the public domain in 1969, the "good citizen" author would also adopt the word "citizen" in their signature, address the communication to Sergeant John Lynch once again, and refer to the July 31st 1969 cryptogram by mentioning "code letters", just as the "concerned citizen" author was addressing the "code letters" by supplying us with a key to the 408 cryptogram. Also, both communications would use the word "name" twice. 

​These are compelling reasons to believe that both communications were composed by the same author. The question being; is the wording in the "good citizen" letter that of a helpful citizen or a mischievous individual playing games with the police. The "good citizen" letter read "On occasion, while thinking of the code letters, the pencil wrote: Go to 56 Beach Street. I get the name Jerry, perhaps he knows people or his name is XXXXXXX".  

The "good citizen" letter was postmarked October 7th 1969 and mentioned 56 Beach Street, which is the old block numbering from the original planning maps, which comes out as 1654/1656 on the street numbering. The address at 1654/56 Beach St, San Francisco, California is a condominium home that measures 2,141 sq ft, and was built in 1938. Irrespective of the exact numbering, Beach Street is just 240 meters from the Presidio of San Francisco, where eyewitnesses saw a white male, about 40 years of age, weighing 170lbs, sporting a blond crewcut and wearing glasses, running into Julius Kahn playground shortly after the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969. Of all the places in northern California or the Bay Area the author could select, the composer of the "good citizen" letter was not only referring to Zodiac's code letters, but managed to choose the location of Beach Street bordering the Presidio, in which the Zodiac Killer was seen running into just four days later. Possibly coincidence, but noteworthy nonetheless. The "good citizen" author may have been referring to Beach Street in San Francisco just a matter of days before the Zodiac Killer first struck in the big city, before mailing a letter on October 13th 1969, again detailing a destination in the form of a street name - this time "Washington St and Maple St".  ​

I have long believed that the Zodiac Killer lived in Vallejo during his first three crimes, but for the purposes of objectivity we will look towards San Francisco as a possible home location of the Zodiac during and after the Paul Stine murder (and possibly before). When the Zodiac Killer mailed the Bus Bomb letter on November 9th 1969 he gave us an indication to his movements in Presidio Park a month earlier, writing "The dogs never came with in 2 blocks of me + they were to the west + there was only 2 groups of parking about 10 min apart then the motor cicles went by about 150 ft away going from south to north west".

It was apparent that after entering Julius Kahn playground the Zodiac Killer suggested that he had traveled 2 blocks east, which placed him close to Presidio Boulevard that went from south to north west in the south-eastern corner of Presidio Park. From a location 150 feet shy of this road, he was extremely close to the Lyon Street steps and his exit route from the park. If the Zodiac Killer had headed northwards from this location to the Marina District and the area around 1654/1656 Beach Street, he could have opted to walk for 25-30 minutes or enter a vehicle parked on Lyon Street for the 5 minute journey. 
​
​If the Zodiac Killer mailed the "good citizen" letter four days before the Paul Stine murder, one could argue that he didn't just pluck the Beach Street address and the name "Jerry" out of thin air. It is possible that he lived close to this location (or within a reasonable distance) and was familiar with somebody who lived or frequented either 1654 or 1656 Beach Street. As an example, he could have lived somewhere within the green circle shown below  The reason I've positioned the circle this way will become evident in a moment.   . 

At the time of the Paul Stine murder on October 11th 1969 Donna Lass worked at the Letterman General Hospital in Presidio Park and lived at 4122 Balboa Street, San Francisco. However, according to Robert Graysmith she moved from this address a few months later and relocated to 225 Mallorca Way in the Marina District. If a few months was three or four, Donna Lass could have moved to 225 Mallorca Way in January or February 1970  Either way, it is possible she moved into an area where the Zodiac Killer lived. He was heading in this general direction after killing Paul Stine, and was referring to 56 Beach Street (1654/1656 Beach Street) on October 7th 1969, only four days before the murder. The 1654 Beach Street address was a mere 300 meters from the 225 Mallorca Way home that Donna Lass moved into. She would have spent several months at an address 300 meters from the residence mentioned in the October 7th 1969 letter, before heading off to South Lake Tahoe on June 5th 1970.

​In the Pines postcard on March 22nd 1971, the Zodiac Killer pasted "Sought Victim 12", indicating that he had previously targeted Donna Lass between the April 20th 1970 letter (10 victims) and the Button letter on June 26th 1970 (12 victims). Therefore, if the Zodiac Killer had sought her in San Francisco as victim number 12, he would have set his eyes on her between April 20th and June 5th 1970 (when she left for South Lake Tahoe). Because the Dragon card on April 28th 1970 didn't increase the Zodiac Killer's victim total, we can narrow down the time he sought Donna Lass as victim number 12 to between April 28th 1970 and June 5th 1970 (probably sometime in May 1970). During this time she would have been living at 225 Mallorca Way, close to the Beach Street residence. Donna Lass and the Zodiac Killer may have been living near to one another in the Marina District of San Francisco, in an area that had relevance to an address mentioned in one of Zodiac's letters. If we could positively identify the "Jerry" in the October 7th 1969 letter (assuming they exist), it may edge us a little closer to resolving this mystery. 

It has always been difficult to reconcile how the Zodiac Killer could be claiming Donna Lass as a victim when he failed to increase his count from the time of the Little List letter to the 13-Hole postcard, which spanned her disappearance on September 6th 1970 but maintained the victim count of thirteen.

On October 27th 1970, the Zodiac Killer attached the number 14 to the skeleton's hand to signify an increase in the victim count, next to the text "I feel it in my bones, you ache to know my name, and so I'll clue you in". What if the Zodiac Killer was asking us to guess the name of his fourteenth victim, who was represented by the skeleton, necessitating the adding of a blindfolded skeleton on the card inner to symbolize an identity hidden, with the wording "But, then why spoil our game". 

​The 13-Hole postcard may have used thirteen punch-holes to represent thirteen victims, the Pines postcard may have used one punch-hole to represent the murdered and buried Donna Lass, but in the Halloween card the Zodiac Killer only added 12 eyes to the one in the knot-hole of the tree, to make thirteen again. So was the inner skeleton our fourteenth unidentified victim that the thirteen eyes were looking at, with the author playing a sort of cryptic game to discover the victim's name? The sort of cryptic game he played with the Pines postcard, which also never made it clear what victim he was referring to.

In the Pines postcard it has been widely considered that the punch-hole was the burial site of Donna Lass, and we had to "peek through the pines" to discover her grave. This methodology may have been employed in the Halloween card with the eye looking through the hole in the tree, with the wording "peek-a-boo you are doomed". In other words, we had to "peek.through the pines" to discover her skeleton. The hole in the tree and the hole in the Pines postcard both being a window to death. The number count atop of the skeleton signifying a new, but yet undiscovered head count - and symbolic of a victim undiscovered for 51 days.

​This could play into the notion of the strange design on the envelope and card inner, where a case can be argued for a joined "L" and "F" with 4 dots in between, signifying "look four fourteen" or "look for fourteen" from a phonetic standpoint. With all thirteen eyes trained on the inner skeleton facing right, it's possible the author is asking us to look for a victim he was keeping close to his chest in some sort of macabre game (whether he was responsible or not). A game he would reinvent on March 22nd 1971. By October 27th 1970 it was still unknown what had happened to Donna Lass, so it's possible the Zodiac Killer played on this uncertainty in this card and the one five months later, which were both linked through journalist Paul Avery.  ​

Was the position of the pasted skeleton on the Halloween card inner representative of the "Danse Macabre", in which skeletons escort living humans to their graves in a lively dance. In this instance, the skeleton of Donna Lass leading us to her gravesite, not dissimilar to the Pines postcard, that seemed to carry instructions to her burial location. "The Danse Macabre, also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory from the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The Danse Macabre consists of the dead, or a personification of death, summoning representatives from all walks of life to dance along to the grave, typically with a pope, emperor, king, child, and labourer. The effect is both frivolous and terrifying, beseeching its audience to react emotionally. It was produced as memento mori, to remind people of the fragility of their lives and how vain are the glories of earthly life. According to legend, Death appears at midnight every year on Halloween. Death calls forth the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle. His skeletons dance for him until the cockerel crows at dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year". Wikipedia. 

Was the design of the Pines postcard driven by a desire to inform investigator's where the body of Donna Lass was buried, or were the measurements related to it just an unusual coincidence? The initial point of interest was the upside down pasted wording of "around in the snow" and whether we had to flip the postcard through 180 degrees to locate the remains of Donna Lass "around in the snow". In doing so, it repositioned the punch-hole west of the "Sierra Club" pasting on a horizontal plane, exactly like the relationship between Yuba Gap and the Clair Tappaan Lodge Sierra Club. The 2.19 inch distance between the "Sierra Club" pasting and the center of the punch-hole was 14.02 miles using the Mount Diablo map scale of 6.4 miles to the inch, employed by the Zodiac Killer on June 26th 1970. This distance on Google maps landed just shy of Yuba Gap, 997 meters southwest of the jawbone of Donna Lass, within the 1.96 square mile circle represented by the punch-hole. Then we measured the radian angle between the home of Donna Lass and Yuba Gap, and the radian angle between the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino and Yuba Gap, which both fell between 303 to 304 degrees. Five radians and magnetic north was 303.5 degrees in 1970. The three measurements of radians and inches (set to Magnetic North) that Zodiac suggested we use to locate his buried bomb on June 26th 1970 and July 26th 1970 can all be used in relation to the Pines postcard. The 2.19 inches from Clair Tappaan Lodge Sierra Club and the 5 radians set to Magnetic North from Donna's home or workplace, both fall inside the punch-hole on the Pines postcard.  

On July 26th 1970 the Zodiac stated "The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians" and positioned a crude black circle around his crosshairs, close to 4 radians and Magnetic North (246.2 degrees). It was clear that to locate his buried bomb we had to first use radians to locate a position around the circumference of his crosshairs and then use inches along that radian to pinpoint the target. The location "concerned" radians and inches, so the claimed buried bomb was likely to be close to a whole value but not necessarily exact.

​The Zodiac Killer's measurements were probably nothing more than a rough guide in 1970, which is why he placed SFPD next to the crude circle to help us on our way. Therefore, it was quite surprising to discover that both Yuba Gap and the center of the punch-hole were situated extremely close to 5 radians and Magnetic North (at most a one degree error). The distance between the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino and Yuba Gap, and the home of Donna Lass and Yuba Gap measured 6.83 and 6.86 inches respectively (an 83% to 86 % accuracy over one inch). Both distances were approaching 44 miles by crow. A distance of 44.8 miles would have been 7 inches.

But if these radian values of four in 1970 and five in 1971 were deliberately engineered (or that we were required to use whole radian values to locate the buried bomb and buried Donna Lass), can we therefore conclude that the Pines postcard was mailed by the Zodiac Killer? If the Bay Area murderer placed his crude circle at a position representing 4 radians and Magnetic North on July 26th 1970, then he was using radians in a manner that was flawed. They should be measured anticlockwise from the 3 o' clock position, yet the Zodiac Killer gave us a zero on the Mount Diablo map in the north position and wrote "is to be set to Mag. N", suggesting that we needed to measure radians clockwise. This appeared his intention based upon the position of the crude circle. If the author of the Pines postcard wasn't the Zodiac Killer (and the 5 radians and Magnetic North from abduction to burial was intentional), then this individual would have made exactly the same error as the Zodiac Killer by using clockwise radians from the north position. How likely is that?   

On June 26th 1970 the Zodiac Killer mailed a Phillips 66 map with the instructions "the map coupled with the code will tell you where the bomb is set". He claimed he had buried a bomb. A month later another communication was sent with extra clues of "The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians" and crosshairs with a bold, black circle positioned at close to 4 radians set to Magnetic North (246.2 degrees). When the Zodiac Killer mailed the Pines postcard on March 22nd 1971 he used a punch-hole (another circle) and the wording "Sierra Club", "pass.Lake Tahoe areas" and "around in the snow", coupled with an advertisement of Incline Village, to probably direct us to the burial site of Donna Lass.

Using measurements between the "Sierra Club" pasting and the punch-hole (after inverting the postcard), I was able to determine that the 1.96 square mile punch-hole around Yuba Gap captured the location of the jawbone of Donna Lass, discovered on December 31st 1985. This suggested that the author of the Pines postcard knew where the remains of Donna Lass were. If the circles in both instances were the location of a buried mystery that we had to solve, could the Zodiac Killer have added another layer to the Pines postcard to identify the burial site of Donna, similar to the June 26th and July 26th 1970 letters? In other words, did the Zodiac Killer bury Donna Lass at a specific location west of Clair Tappaan Lodge Sierra Club?  

The three major locations regarding Donna Lass were her 3893 Pioneer Trail Road home, the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino where she worked and the Yuba Gap area where her jawbone was found. So I placed a compass rose over the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road home and the casino, and calculated the position of Yuba Gap in degrees. From her 3893 Pioneer Trail Road home it measured 303.5 to 304 degrees. From the casino it measured 303 to 303.5 degrees. There could be a margin of error of one degree. The measurement of 303.5 degrees is exactly 5 radians and Magnetic North (5 X 57.3 + 17). Therefore, the Zodiac Killer may have twice given us a "circle" denoting a burial location, and both times it was positioned at a radian value plus Magnetic North. In 1970 from Mount Diablo, in 1971 from either the home or work address of Donna Lass.  

​A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART ONE)
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART TWO]
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART THREE] 

Expanding on my last article, I have calculated the position and area of the punch-hole on the Pines postcard to 1.96 square miles, and placed it over the map below. If the punch-hole was intended to be a burial or deposition site, then the measurement and direction of this punch-hole with respect to the "Sierra Club" pasting on the card, coupled with the map scale, means that the jawbone of Donna Lass falls inside the punch-hole created by the author of the postcard (shown on the map below).This technique was previously used by the Zodiac Killer on June 26th 1970, when he used radians and inches along those radians to pinpoint the location of a buried bomb. Only this time in the Pines postcard it was a human being. 

Years ago I identified a location for this bomb alongside a road close to Ingleside Police Station of 4 radians and 5 inches (tilted to Magnetic North). Long time Zodiac researcher, Andrew Gray, later took these measurements and slotted them into the Z32 code, reading "Estimate Four Radians and Five Inches". The word "estimate" allowed for a margin of error. When the Zodiac Killer crafted his Bus Bomb letter on November 9th 1970, he may have used the 9 o' clock position tilted to Magnetic North to identify the Salesian High School of teacher Daniel Williams, who had just been targeted for death by somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer. The 9 o' clock position had been highlighted along with 0, 3 and 6 on the June 26th 1970 Phillips 66 map.

So this technique of using a clock face, radians and inches (measurements) to identify a location, is not without precedent. On this occasion the Pines postcard author placed the punch-hole of 1.96 square miles.over the remains of Donna Lass. This location also landed on the 9 o' clock position of a clock face from the Sierra Club of Clair Tappaan Lodge. But were these measurements created deliberately by the Zodiac Killer, or was he just lucky when he applied the "Sierra Club" and punch-hole 2.19 inches apart on the same horizontal plane, and used "around in the snow" upside down, which when flipped through 180 degrees forced a change and corrected their east-west relationship to one another? It's rather curious that the newspaper read in January 1986 that remains had been "found in 2 inches of snow", given that the author of the postcard likely expected her to be found "around in the snow". Read more.  

​A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART ONE)
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART TWO]
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART THREE]   

In previous articles I wanted to evaluate how accurate the Pines postcard was in identifying the location where the jawbone of Donna Lass was discovered on December 31st 1985 near Yuba Gap. Because the phrase "around in the snow" was inverted 180 degrees and we had a punch-hole in the postcard that many believed was her burial location, I decided to flip the postcard upside down. What we notice from here is that the center of the punch-hole is now west of the "Sierra Club" pasting, with the center of each being in perfect horizontal alignment. The postcard used by the author was a USPS Abraham Lincoln 4 Cent Blank Postcard that measured 5 9/16 by 3 1/4 inches (5.56 by 3.25 inches). 

​So using the map scale of 6.4 miles to the inch, used by the Zodiac Killer when mailing the Mount Diablo Phillips 66 map in 1970, I measured the distance between the "Sierra Club" pasting and the center of the punch-hole. It measured 2.19 inches, which I multiplied by 6.4 miles to the inch, to get a distance of 14.02 miles. Drawing a perfectly horizontal line westwards from Clair Tappaan Lodge, the 14.02 miles ended just above Interstate 80, directly below the eastern edge of Chubb Lake (in the top right image shown below). The jawbone location was only approximated as one mile northeast of the I-80 at Yuba Gap (in the top left image shown below). I then had to calculate the distance between the location identified by the Pines postcard and the actual (but approximated) location of the jawbone. The remains of Donna Lass could have been deposited or buried anywhere in California or Nevada, yet the Pines postcard identified a location only 997 meters (or thereabouts) from the actual location of the jawbone (if my interpretation is correct). This can be seen in the bottom image below.

If I had drawn a line on Google maps from Clair Tappaan Lodge to the estimated location of the jawbone, it would have measured 13.62 miles, so from a distance standpoint, the accuracy was 97.1%. The angle deviation was approximately 2 degrees. In other words, there was an error of 997 meters over 14.02 miles. But was the Pines postcard created with these calculations in mind, or was it purely accidental? The phrases on the postcard such as "pass Lake Tahoe areas", "Sierra Club", "peek through the pines" and "around in the snow", pasted onto an advertisement of Incline Village, with a punch-hole added to the postcard, does lend to the notion of an author giving us directional markers. That is why I decided to measure the distance between Clair Tappaan Lodge (Sierra Club) and the punch-hole. 

The distance from the "Sierra Club" pasting to the right side of the punch-hole (with the postcard inverted} is 2 1/16 inches (2.06 inches), which when multiplied by the map scale of 6.4 miles to the inch, gives us a distance of 13.2 miles. Westwards from Clair Tappaan Lodge, this takes us to Vista Point just below Yuba Pass. Therefore, from the right side of the punch-hole to its center encompasses 13.2 miles to 14.02 miles, with the jawbone estimated at 13.62 miles and inside these parameters. The jawbone was 2 2/16 inches from Clair Tappaan Lodge, with the center of the punch-hole at 2 3/16 inches from Clair Tappaan Lodge, meaning its author had 1/16 inch error to the location the jawbone was ultimately discovered. The left edge of the punch-hole measures 14.78 miles. This means that the punch-hole will capture 1.58 miles east to west and north to south. The jawbone will comfortably fall inside the punch-hole. All figures were rounded off to two decimal points.
​
The punch-hole may have denoted the burial site on both sides of the postcard, with the letter "D" of Zodiac and initial "D" of Donna positioned over the crosshairs, and the Abraham Lincoln stamp, initials "A" and "L" positioned horizontally to the right. This gave us "D", "A" and "L", the initials of Donna Ann Lass originating from the punch-hole. . 

A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART ONE)
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART TWO]
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART THREE]   

The one thing that could change everything about the disappearance of Donna Lass on September 6th 1970 is knowing whether she drove her 1968 Chevrolet Camaro to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel in the late afternoon of September 5th 1970. Earlier that day she had been given an inspection tour of the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartment by the landlord Nick Davis and agreed to sign the rental agreement. As her shift time approached, Donna Lass had the choice of ignoring her vehicle in the parking lot of the apartments and walking the near mile journey to the casino (a journey of 17 to 20 minutes) or opting to drive to the casino, which would have taken approximately 3 minutes. We have to bear in mind she would have been finishing her shift at 2am in the morning on September 6th 1970, traveling back to her apartment in less than familiar surroundings, so using her vehicle may have been the wise choice. Because nobody saw Donna Lass leaving the casino that morning we don't know for certain whether her vehicle was parked in the grounds of the Sahara Tahoe Hotel. If it was, it completely changes the potential pool of suspects.

When the sister of Donna Lass, Mary Pilker, arrived at South Lake Tahoe after Donna's disappearance she was given access to apartment 6 at 3893 Pioneer Trail Road. This is where the locked car of Donna Lass was found after she had been reported missing. When the family returned to South Dakota they drove the Chevrolet Camaro of Donna Lass back to their home state. This means they must have located her car keys inside the apartment, suggesting that if Donna Lass had traveled by car to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 5th 1970, she must have arrived back at her apartment in the early morning hours of September 6th 1970, negating any idea of a stranger abduction from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel parking lot or on the way home, because her keys would be missing and not inside the apartment.    

Let's ignore part of the statement used by the sinister caller to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on either September 7th or 8th, when he made the claim that Donna had to leave the city because of an illness in her family. This could have implied a close knowledge of Donna Lass and her family circumstances, suggesting a previous interaction with the young nurse, or on the flip side, her murderer could have rang the casino and used the "out of town" illness ruse without knowing anything about her. The person who made the phone call knew that the casino wouldn't have known all of Donna Lass' family members, so claiming she had been called "out of town" for one of them wasn't really going to arouse suspicion, and does not necessarily mean he was knowledgeable to the fact they lived in South Dakota. He just said it to delay any immediate worries over her absence and buy a little extra time.

If Donna Lass was murdered in the early morning hours of September 6th 1970 at her apartment or elsewhere, why didn't the killer just distance himself from the crime scene and do nothing? Why would he wait approximately one or two days to ring the Sahara Tahoe Hotel and make a seemingly pointless excuse for her absence? If the killer only knew the limited information that she worked at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, then he probably made the phone call to the casino immediately after murdering her, to prevent somebody coming to the apartment to check on her when she didn't turn up for work. He didn't need to know her work schedule, he just needed to quickly buy some time to remove her body from the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartment and dispose of her remains at Yuba Gap in Placer County. This means she was probably murdered on September 7th or 8th, shortly before security guard Gordon Petrovich received the phone call at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel. This supports the notion that she arrived home in the early morning hours of September 6th 1970 from the casino, because her car keys were found in the apartment. 

It also brings back into play the sighting of Mrs. Dorothy Cullison, who stated that she observed Donna Lass (who she recognised from a later photograph) in the company of a clean shaven, blonde haired man, traveling southbound on Pioneer Trail Road away from the Tahoe Bottle Shop at 3950 Lake Tahoe Blvd, South Lake Tahoe on September 7th 1970 at about 3pm to 4pm. Donna Lass and the mystery man would have been traveling towards the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartments, quite possibly hours before she died. Was he a resident of the apartment complex? If Dorothy Cullison was correct, this also supports a possible murder and phone call on either September 7th or 8th.

So who did Donna Lass engage with from the time she signed the contract for her apartment on September 5th 1970 to the time of her potential murder on September 7th or 8th, just before the phone call was received using the name of her landlord "Mr. Davis"? A friend or acquaintance who she confided in about her move, who didn't live at the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road complex, could have murdered her at the apartment or elsewhere and just left the scene, with little reason to buy time. But who had the most to lose had Donna Lass been found murdered in her apartment, who would also have known the name of her landlord when making the phone call? Somebody who lived at the apartment complex.

This wasn't a normal row of houses on a street - these apartments were in a shared space, where people could easily engage with each other. Individuals living at this apartment complex would have been some of the first people that police investigated. To alleviate this worry and move the focus away from the complex, it is possible the killer chose to not only relocate her body, but decided to bury Donna Lass 70 miles away in Yuba Gap to prevent a murder investigation. Somebody who lived at the apartment complex from September 5th 1970 when Donna rented the property, through September 6th 1970, and at least some of September 7th 1970, who engaged with her and knew where she worked, who obviously would have known the name of her landlord, who had every reason to relocate her body to deflect suspicion away from the complex, is a prime candidate for her murder. Unfortunately, by invoking the name of the landlord to add validity to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel phone call, they may have inadvertently drawn the focus back onto the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road address.

However, by piecing together the private investigator's report we can confidently establish that John Schott of Sahara Tahoe security didn't ring Nick Davis until September 11th 1970 enquiring on the whereabouts of Donna, shortly after he had reported the "family illness" story received at the casino on September 7th/8th to Sergeant Tucker of the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (but no accurate record was made), who must have then contacted the Douglas County Sheriff's office and relayed this information. So when Nick Davis rang the South Lake Tahoe Police Department on September 11th 1970 and spoke with dispather Bob Morgan, he told Nick Davis that he had received a call from the Douglas County Sheriff's office about Donna Lass and the "family illness" story. This is when he informed Nick Davis. It appears that the sinister phone call had the desired effect of delaying any serious concern for Donna Lass for at least two to three days. Enough time for the killer to dispose of Donna Lass many miles away. Find the residents of the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road complex in early September 1970 (and/or their associates) and you may identify the murderer. 

READ THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR'S REPORT INTO DONNA LASS 

The phone caller to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino was most likely the murderer of Donna Lass, but who was it that rang security guard Gordon Petrovich on either September 7th or 8th 1970 stating that he was "Mr. Davis" and claiming that the young 25-year-old nurse would not be coming to work because she had been called out of town for a family illness? This individual appeared to know two crucial factors about Donna Lass: [1] That her family lived out of town (they lived in South Dakota), and [2] The surname of her landlord. If she was murdered in the few hours after she was last seen at 1:50am on September 6th 1970 at the casino, they should have made the phone call to buy time on that day but they didn't. A complete stranger killing Donna Lass after she left the casino on the 6th wouldn't have known the name of her landlord, and the residency of her family. 

The private investigator's report stated Mr. Davis had accompanied subject (Donna) on an inspection tour of the apartment on September 5th 1970, and his inventory sheet is dated September 5th 1970. Also with him was Frank Desimone". Even if this was 9:00am in the morning, Donna Lass, had she set off for work at about 5:00pm that evening (for her 6pm shift), would only have been living at her new apartment for 8 hours if she was abducted outside the casino or on her way home in the early morning hours of the 6th. It would mean she had never slept at the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartment.

Several possibilities have been put forward. She could have been coaxed from her work station by somebody claiming they needed urgent assistance in the parking lot and abducted, or she could have been lured to somewhere within the casino, murdered, and surreptitiously removed at a later date. Donna may have been offered a lift home and murdered in her apartment by somebody she trusted, or driven elsewhere. Or she could have walked home and been abducted along the way, or the moment she arrived at her 3893 Pioneer Trail Road home. Another possibility is that Donna Lass could have arrived home safely and gone to sleep, to be murdered at this juncture by somebody entering her apartment. She could also have been murdered later, on September 6th, 7th or 8th (depending when Gordon Petrovich received the mystery call)..We could wade through all these options forever, so the best approach is to discover how the phone caller knew the name of her landlord and that her family lived out of town. 

Testimony from Nick Davis (Donna's landlord} stated that he received a call from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel security office on September 11th 1970 enquiring on the whereabouts of Donna Lass (so they knew he was her landlord and knew his phone number). This means that Donna Lass could have informed the casino of her new address and the name of her landlord when she arrived to work on September 5th 1970, or the Sahara Tahoe Hotel security were given this information by somebody else. But who else would have known that she now lived at the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartments, let alone the name of her landlord, "Mr. Davis", by the time she was last seen?

​Donna inspected the apartment on September 5th 1970, accepted the accommodation and then went to work a few hours later, where she was last seen at approximately 1:50am on September 6th 1970. The only people that could possibly have known this information would have been the casino itself, or friends/work colleagues that she told between the time she signed the rental agreement on September 5th 1970 and 1:50am on September 6th 1970. This information is not going to be known by a random abductor from the casino parking lot, or a stranger snatching her from the street while walking home. We also have to factor in that the perpetrator likely knew that her family lived in South Dakota, and by making the phone call claiming a family illness out of town, he was affording himself plenty of time to cover his tracks.

​If he had known Donna Lass when she moved to South Lake Tahoe in early June 1970, he had plenty of opportunity to know about her family circumstances in the intervening 3 months, but could only have learned about her new apartment and the name of her landlord from the moment she put pen to paper on September 5th 1970 to the time she was last seen. Even if he was the person who recommended the apartment complex to her in advance of September 5th 1970, it is not certain she would have accepted the accommodation until after the inspection. This information could only realistically have been known after she signed the contract. 

While working from 6:00pm to 1:50am on September 5th and 6th 1970, what work colleagues and friends could she have told about the name of her landlord - who would then make a mental note of this name for the purpose of a murder they knew they were soon going to commit - to use on September 7th or 8th as a delaying tactic. Does this sound plausible? If Donna had informed the casino of her address and the name of her landlord when arriving for work on September 5th 1970, the only people who would know this information, were the people who could reasonably gain access to her written details.

Without access to this information, the notion that somebody would make a conscious decision to remember the spoken mention of her landlord's name (had she ever told anybody), knowing they were going to kill Donna Lass in the coming hours and then make a phone call to the casino they worked at, or frequented as one of her male friends, takes some believing. But if the person who made the phone call using the name "Mr. Davis" had access to this written information at the casino, he is in danger of drawing the police to people who worked at the casino, including himself. It is possible that this was a mistake by the killer, who was desperate to buy time by using the credible name of her landlord to deliver the message. 

​Somebody who knew Donna Lass had signed the rental agreement at the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartments and knew the landlord's name, could have been another resident at the complex. Such a person had the opportunity to abduct her if she had made it back to this location in the early morning hours of September 6th 1970 (or on September 7th/8th), but how many people at this complex would Donna Lass have told about her family "living out of town" in the few hours between signing the contract and leaving for work? In those few hours she could have spoken with a neighbour who asked where she had moved from - and at some point she told them she was originally from South Dakota. This scenario isn't implausible.    

On November 18th 1970 the private investigator interviewed taxicab driver Raymond Jacobs, who lived at apartment 11 of the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road complex when Donna Lass went missing. Her apartment was number 6. Sometime between September 6th 1970 and November 18th 1970 he had moved to 3780 Aspen Avenue, a multi-family residence, 530 meters south of the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartments. He stated "he observed the subject on many occasions, and that he drove a cab on the street at the same time the subject was getting off work, but had never seen her on the way home walking. He had not observed any male companions around her apartment on any occasion". Bearing in mind Donna Lass moved into the apartment on September 5th 1970 and was last seen at 1:50am on September 6th 1970, how did he "observe the subject on many occasions" and how could he possibly have observed "male companions around her apartment on any occasion". Only if Donna Lass was alive on September 5th, 6th and 7th could this be somewhat true.

The only way Joseph Stephen Holt, responsible for the murders of ​Brynn Rainey (27) in 1977 and Carol Andersen (16) in 1979, could have reasonably known the name of Donna's landlord and that her family lived out of town, was if he was either in the casino on September 5th or 6th 1970 and had picked up this information by word of mouth, or had coerced this information from her for the purpose of the phone call. It's unlikely a stranger to Donna would need to force information from her to to buy time, yet somebody known to her may want to create this necessary breathing space, knowing that they could come under suspicion, Forcing information from somebody you've abducted to create a delaying phone call isn't the likeliest of scenarios, however, since we now know that Joseph Stephen Holt was responsible for the murder of Brynn Rainey in 1977, in which a phone call was made to her place of work (the Sahara Tahoe Hotel) to excuse her absence, it doesn't seem inconceivable in 1970. After all, both Donna Lass and Brynn Rainey's family lived a considerable distance from South Lake Tahoe, in South Dakota and Ohio respectively. I still doubt the involvement of Joseph Stephen Holt in the murder of Donna Lass, so if it isn't him, the focus should still remain on the Sahara Tahoe Hotel and anybody that knew she signed that rental agreement with Nick Davis just a few short hours earlier.

FURTHER READING: THE MYSTERIOUS PHONE CALL TO THE CASINO RE-EXAMINED ​

Identified murderer Joseph Stephen Holt, responsible for the murders of ​Brynn Rainey (27) in 1977 and Carol Andersen (16) in 1979, had a love of skiing (a passion he shared with Donna Lass). When murderers dispose of bodies they often choose locations they are familiar with, so I thought I would identify the four main ski resorts around Lake Tahoe in 1970. The four locations were the Heavenly Mountain Ski Resort next to his 1390 Keller Road address, the Diamond Peak Ski Resort, the Pallisades Tahoe Ski Resort (formerly Squaw Valley) and Donner Ski Ranch (Northstar Ski Resort opened in 1972).

If Joseph Stephen Holt drove from his 1390 Keller Road home towards the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, he would pass by Van Sickle.Park where the body of Brynn Rainey was found on August 20th 1977. From here, heading northwards, he would pass the Diamond Peak Ski Resort and Incline Village (the advertisement that featured on the Pines card). Heading westwards he would reach the Northstar Ski Resort where a human skull was found in 1986, then he would have gone past the Donner Ski Ranch and Clair Tappaan Lodge (the Sierra Club on the Pines card), before continuing westwards and arriving at Yuba Gap, the location of Donna Lass' skull. Traveling to Yuba Gap from his home on the west side of Lake Tahoe, he passes the Pallisades Tahoe Ski Resort (formerly Squaw Valley), the Donner Ski Ranch and Clair Tappaan Lodge. The attempted double murder of Heidi Hoffman (16) and Lenny Parsons (19) on December 13th 1969 occurred on Saddle Road by Heavenly Valley Ski Resort. All of these "Lake Tahoe areas" are "around in the snow". 

As stated in previous articles, the person who phoned the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on either September 7th or 8th claiming to be Mr. Davis and that Donna Lass had been called out of town for a family illness, was almost certainly the murderer of the young 25-year-old nurse. An individual who knew that she worked at the casino, knew her family lived "out of town" and knew where she lived by using the surname of her landlord, Nick Davis. This sort of information is unlikely to be known by a stranger who just randomly abducted Donna Lass from the street. This individual chose to phone the casino to seemingly buy time for his actions. The murderer of Donna Lass could have been somebody living at the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartments or an individual who worked at, or frequented the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, picking up relevant information about her circumstances in casual conversation. 

Although many people lived at the Pioneer Trail Road apartments, the private investigator's report into her disappearance only mentioned Raymond Jacobs, a local taxicab driver, who moved away from the apartments shortly after she vanished and relocated to 3780 Aspen Avenue. Was this the reason the private investigator focused in on Jacobs, who he recruited to provide him with information? Somebody living at the apartments at the time of Donna's disappearance would have certainly known the name of her landlord, Mr. Davis. Or was this information acquired by the killer through interactions with Donna Lass at the casino?

Recently we have been delving into the life of murderer Joseph Stephen Holt, who strangled both Brynn Rainey (27) in 1977 and Carol Andersen (16) in 1979, because we now know that he most likely made a phone call to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel after the abduction of Brynn Rainey, who also worked there. If Donna Lass was murdered by Joseph Stephen Holt, can we place him inside the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino at the relevant time?

​The answer is no - but if he was living at the 1390 Keller Road home in any of the weeks up to her disappearance - we can place him just 596 meters from a woman who knew Donna Lass and had drinks with her on several occasions after her work shift ended. A woman who also knew Jo Anne Goettsche, the close friend of Donna Lass who once lived with her in San Francisco and came to visit Donna Lass at the time she went missing. Jane Allen stated that although she wasn't a close friend of Donna Lass, she drank with her after hours - and according to the timeline of the private investigator - Jane Allen saw Donna Lass the night of September 2nd 1970, just three days prior to her last being seen alive. So is it possible Jane Allen could have crossed paths with Joseph Stephen Holt and spoke with him?

In 1970, Jane Allen lived at the once home at 4180 Saddle Road, a cul-de-sac address only 596 meters from 1390 Keller Road. Any time she wanted to leave this address by car, her only exit route would have taken her onto Keller Road. Her quickest route by vehicle to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel would have had her passing the 1390 Keller Road home, heading towards the Pioneer Trail Road apartment of Donna Lass. Had she decided to leave her 4180 Saddle Road home on foot, her safest route based upon the terrain (shown by the red line), has her entering the eastern side of Bridle Road and traveling westwards to Keller Road, 40 meters shy of 1390 Keller Road. Her other possible route has her traveling westwards on Crest Road, emerging 140 meters above 1390 Keller Road (shown by the blue line). If Joseph Stephen Holt was living in South Lake Tahoe at the time, did she ever get to know him through the close proximity of the two addresses?

If the two had ever sat together (as acquaintances) at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino for after hours drinks, it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that Joseph Stephen Holt could have met Donna Lass through Jane Allen. We know that both Joseph Stephen Holt and Donna Lass shared a passion for skiing. And we know that two phone calls were received by the Sahara Tahoe Hotel in 1970 and 1977 excusing the absences of Donna Lass and Brynn Rainey, with the latter call almost certainly placed by Joseph Stephen Holt. Jane Allen is the only person I could find who knew Donna Lass and Jo Ann Goettsche, that I could place in close proximity to an address accessible to Joseph Stephen Holt.

THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR'S REPORT INTO THE DONNA LASS DISAPPEARANCE 

Recently a few researchers have been looking into the murders of Brynn Rainey (27) in 1977 and Carol Andersen (16) in 1979, who were both victims of Joseph Stephen Holt in the South Lake Tahoe region. A recent contributor to this website, Joseph, pointed me in the direction of another murder in South Lake Tahoe approximately 11 months before the disappearance of Brynn Rainey. 

On September 2nd 1976 at about 6:30pm, Kathleen Keohane (17) was spending some time with her fiance Mike Warren at Carrows Restaurant, where he was working as a dishwasher. She had decided to leave the restaurant for a walk to pass some time, planning to meet him back at the restaurant when his shift ended at 10:00pm. She never made it back and was found face down and fully clothed in shallow water under the Upper Truckee River Bridge 12 hours later.(6:30am). Investigators determined that Kathleen Keohane had been struck in the back of the head several times with a heavy blunt instrument, causing a massive skull fracture.

When she left the restaurant she had told her fiance she was going to head to the "Y", which is the shape formed on a map by the intersecting Highway 50 and Interstate 89 at Tahoe Valley. Kathleen would have traveled along Lake Tahoe Boulevard. This was a 4.5 mile journey, so would have taken her at least 3 hours to walk there and return back to Carrows Restaurant at 9:30pm. Had she completed the outward journey, she would have been about 4,000 feet from where her body was found. 

The location of her body under the Upper Truckee River Bridge was 3,900 feet from where Carol Andersen's body was found on Sundown Trail in 1979. Both murdered teenagers were found fully clothed. The Sahara Tahoe Hotel, where both Brynn Rainey and Donna Lass worked, was 3,400 feet from Carrows Restaurant. Donna Lass would have walked along Lake Tahoe Boulevard in 1970 had she decided to walk to her 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartments from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel in the early morning hours of September 6th. Brynn Rainey would have walked along Lake Tahoe Boulevard in 1977 had she decided to walk to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel from the Bittercreek Saloon shortly before her shift on July 25th. Carol Andersen would have joined Lake Tahoe Boulevard on June 30th 1979 had she decided to walk to her Lower Kingsbury residence after leaving a party on Regina Road. Kathleen Keohane would have been walking along Lake Tahoe Boulevard after leaving Carrows Restaurant. Four females, four murders, one road.   

Thanks to Joseph for highlighting this case.

After Donna Lass was last seen at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970, Gordon Petrovich, security guard at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, stated that somebody calling himself "Mr. Davis" had rang the casino on either September 7th or 8th and reported that Donna Lass had left town because of a family illness. The landlord of Donna Lass, Nick Davis, said he first learned of the family illness story from Bob Morgan of the South Lake Tahoe Police Department on September 11th 1970, so he couldn't have been the "Mr. Davis" who rang the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 7th or 8th. The caller was most likely Donna's killer, buying time after the murder. It is now clear that the Sahara Tahoe Hotel informed the police of Donna's absence from work after not hearing from her for a few days. They must have made this call to police sometime sfter the call received by Gordon Petrovich, and before the call made by Nick Davis on September 11th. This sinister phone call from the killer successfully bought him valuable breathing space. 

Recently we learned that in an episode of "Bloodline Detectives" with Nancy Grace entitled "The South Lake Tahoe Strangler", Joe Alexander, the Deputy District Attorney of El Dorado County stated "One of the interesting facts in this case is that an unidentified male called Brynn Rainey's employer and informed them that she would not be showing up for her shift at the casino where she worked. We certainly don't know for sure who that was that made the call, but under the circumstances, and the fact that Brynn at that time was likely already dead, it would strongly suggest that the killer made that call in order to buy more time before people knew she was missing". This information was backed up by the host, Nancy Grace, who added "While detectives tried to trace that mystery caller, they also pieced together Brynn Rainey's last known movements". But there was something else in the documentary that supports the fact that Brynn Rainey's killer rang the Sahara Tahoe Hotel and relayed information to quell any worries over her absence from work - and it must have been pretty compelling. 

There is a good chance it was convincing because the Sahara Tahoe Hotel didn't report Brynn Rainey missing to the police in the three weeks that followed this phone call. The "Bloodline Detecives" episode Investigator John Gaines stated "She was due to work at 2:00am on the 25th (July 1977). She never showed up for that work shift. On August 15th (1977) her landlord reported her missing. The landlord said he had seen her around the last she had been seen, which would have been around July 24th, and that he had not seen her since".

​In the Donna Lass case the phone caller on September 7th or 8th 1970 didn't ring the casino in the 16 hours after her last shift ended at 2;00am, suggesting that if he had abducted her on September 6th he may have known that Donna Lass wasn't due into work at 6:00pm on September 6th 1970 at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel. The caller also stated that she had been called "out of town" for a family illness. So how did he know her family didn't live "in town"? A murder on September 6th and a call to the casino on September 7th would very likely have failed had she been married. Therefore, was he somebody fairly close to Donna, who knew her marital status, knew her work pattern and knew her family lived in South Dakota approximately 1,560 miles away. A phone call in this instance would have bought plenty of time for the killer. Or did he coerce this information out of her primarily for the purpose of the phone call?

​Brynn Rainey fell in love with South Lake Tahoe and had moved there from Ohio, which was a journey of 2,240 miles. She took up employment at the Crystal Range Motel located at 941 Emerald Bay Road, working as a maid, before becoming a Keno runner at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel in April 1977. So if her killer had rang the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on July 25th 1977 and used the "called out of town because of a family illness" ruse, it would have been just as effective as the deceit used in the Donna Lass case. It must have been something along these lines because she was excused from work on July 25th 1977 by a male caller and wasn't reported missing until August 15th 1977 (and not by the casino). This information was corroborated by the newspapers of the day. Does this show intimate knowledge of the life of Brynn Rainey, which also appeared to be the case with Donna Lass? Both women lived alone in rented accommodation overseen by landlords.

​Did the killer in 1970 and 1977 spend considerable time with each victim after their abduction, thereby necessitating the phone calls in order to buy time? If he had killed and disposed of them within hours, why would a phone call be necessary? Or was a phone call made in each case to delay any impending investigation into their murders, because he had some previous interactions with both women at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel and feared the police may come knocking at his door? The burial of Brynn Rainey and the deposition site of Donna Lass ​74 miles from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel (possibly buried) showed a marked deviation from the murder of Carol Andersen in 1979, who was just dumped by the side of the road in plain sight. But she never worked at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel.  

FURTHER READING: THE MYSTERIOUS PHONE CALL TO THE CASINO RE-EXAMINED