Cops dating felons

The Zodiac Killer roamed Northern California from December 1968 through October 1969, but was never caught despite at least one close run-in with police.

"There are probably 30 different circumstantial things that point to him. He was extremely intelligent but a deviant dude." Allen largely was cleared as a suspect in 2002, when investigators obtained a partial DNA sample from the envelopes that didn't match his.

They originally were sent to the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner, he said.

The third letter was sent to the Vallejo Times-Herald, but does not have an envelope with it, he said.

Investigators searching for the Zodiac Killer have submitted evidence to a private DNA lab in the hopes of obtaining a genetic profile of one of California's most elusive criminals — then tracking him down using the same kind of family-tree tracing recently used in the East Area Rapist case.

Vallejo police Detective Terry Poyser, who has worked the Zodiac case for four years, said his agency has submitted two envelopes that contained letters from the Zodiac Killer for a type of advanced DNA analysis that previously had not been available in the case.