The murder of Cheri Jo Bates on October 30th 1966 has split the Zodiac community down the center, when it comes to placing this crime alongside the five confirmed murders of the Zodiac Killer, widely believed to have started with the Lake Herman Road double murder of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen just over two years later on December 20th 1968.
Cheri Jo Bates was believed to have been lured to her death after the killer or killers had sabotaged her car outside the Riverside City College Library, suggesting she was specifically targeted. But it was the sheer ferocity of the attack with a short bladed instrument, that has led some away from the idea this was the work of the Zodiac Killer. The sheer nature of this despicable murder has been labelled a 'crime of passion', a phrase that has always left an uncomfortable taste in the mouth, bearing in mind the brutality and callousness of the attack - and passion has no place anywhere near this crime.
One of the more recent detectives charged with the Cheri Jo Bates case is Steve Shumway of the Riverside Police Department. He does not believe in a link to the Zodiac murders, as have many from the Riverside task force before him, despite the Confession Letter, Bates Letters and the Riverside Desktop Poem.
Cheri Jo Bates was believed to have been lured to her death after the killer or killers had sabotaged her car outside the Riverside City College Library, suggesting she was specifically targeted. But it was the sheer ferocity of the attack with a short bladed instrument, that has led some away from the idea this was the work of the Zodiac Killer. The sheer nature of this despicable murder has been labelled a 'crime of passion', a phrase that has always left an uncomfortable taste in the mouth, bearing in mind the brutality and callousness of the attack - and passion has no place anywhere near this crime.
One of the more recent detectives charged with the Cheri Jo Bates case is Steve Shumway of the Riverside Police Department. He does not believe in a link to the Zodiac murders, as have many from the Riverside task force before him, despite the Confession Letter, Bates Letters and the Riverside Desktop Poem.
| This crime had the hallmarks of a personal nature, in that she appeared to have been led at least 200 yards into a driveway, between two vacant properties belonging to the school. The suggestion being that she knew or trusted the person enough, that no harm would come to her. However, due to the complete absence of any eyewitnesses on that fateful night, only conjecture remains. We are now approaching the 48th anniversary of the Cheri Jo Bates murder, and the family and friends of Cheri Jo Bates deserve an answer. Several likely suspects have been ruled out down the years, but there is still hope that a resolution can be found, with viable DNA having been retrieved from the scene of the crime in this case. Recently I was contacted by somebody called 'Ace', who was reaching out for help with a discovery he had made in the August or September of 2006. A Riverside City College tablet from 1966/7 with the name Bates, Cheri at the top and a fingernail and hair embedded in the cover. He stated he has tried to contact the RCC Alum Association to verify if what he had found had any significance, and could help move the case forward in any way, but it appears to have failed to initiate a response from the relevant authorities. |  ...................Cheri Jo Bates.................. |
These are his words: Unaware of the Zodiac case at the time and not a resident of California, he, in 2006, found an old clear satchel with white piping. Inside of which was contained a green/ blue math schoolbook, with an interior square window of chartreuse orange/red, with a maths problem at the center. The satchel also held a light pearl blue colored coin purse with a gold frame, holding a few nickel and dimes, as well as tissues that had basically turned to lint and a faded ID Card. The satchel also held a heavy gold plated three rope necklace, with a unique clasp and a gold hair barrette, as well as a terrycloth navy/aqua colored headband with a dried bloodstain.
 Cover. Wording at top: Scholastics Collegiate Tablet.......... Wording at bottom: Riverside Cal, Community City College 66-67. | The first fifteen pages of the tablet contained homework, mostly graded. Each page had a large paragraph with a diagram beneath the problem question. The owner of the tablet had also apparently scribed the lines for the printing themselves. He is reluctant to divulge the exact location of his find, as he believes the satchel may have been placed there only hours, or even minutes before he discovered it, and the person may still have been in the vicinity. He viewed its contents for 5-7 minutes before he put them back as he found them - before leaving the scene. The site location is somewhere along the Blue River Parkway in South Kansas City, shown in this video entitled 'Blue River Parkway-Stage 1' on Youtube. Blue River Parkway is located approximately 1600 miles from Riverside County. View on Google Maps. He has supplied me with a crude sketch of the tablet and is now recruiting the assistance of an artist to create a better representation or likeness, and is seeking help from the RCC Alum Association for their expertise in verifying or negating the validity of the drawing, and therefore the additional contents of the satchel. The Cheri Jo Bates case seems the most likely of all the unsolved cases linked to the Zodiac Killer to possibly reach a conclusion, as the killer may have been known to the victim. Let us hope the answer is not far away. http://www.riversideca.gov/rpd/default.asp |
Also contained within the satchel were the following items, claimed to be from the taxicab of Paul Stine.
Below 'Ace' has designed a representation of the said items and outlined some small changes.
Below 'Ace' has designed a representation of the said items and outlined some small changes.
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