Zodiac
Police in San Francisco, California are one step closer to unmasking the city serial killer who inspired Jake Gyllenhaal movie Zodiac after a woman claiming to be the stepdaughter of the sick murderer agreed to speak to investigators.
Deborah Perez claims spectacles she snatched from Guy Ward Hendricksen's last victim will prove that he was the fiend who terrorised San Francisco, California in the late 1960s and avoided capture.
The police investigation into the Zodiac Killer murders was revisited in the 2007 film, which starred Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey, Jr.
Perez has kept her dreadful memories to herself for 40 years - because she witnessed at least two of her father's slayings and even helped pen several of the mocking notes he sent to police.
And she reveals that, as a child, she embroidered a mask the Zodiac Killer wore on his killing sprees.
Hendricksen died in 1983 after losing his battle with cancer.
Perez, now a real estate broker, insists she never realised her late stepfather was the Zodiac Killer until the film prompted fresh interest in the case, and U.S. TV news show America's Most Wanted revisited the killings. Upon seeing a police sketch of the sick murderer, she realised it was her father.
The 47 year old met with homicide detectives on Wednesday (17Jun09) after top forensic experts declared handwriting analysis and psychological evidence proves Perez's participation in the infamous Zodiac Killings.
Perez has been asked to participate in further questioning and police have confirmed the Zodiac case is open.
Her spokesman Edward Lozzi says, "Deborah feels she owes it to the families of the victims to put this case to rest."
Perez tells WENN, "I am very pleased with the professional and official behaviour of the SFPD's Zodiac Killer detectives. I have made myself available to them as per their request.
"It has been a tremendous sacrifice for me and my family and hopefully the case will be solved soon."
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