The Texas Killing Fields/I-45 murders began on July 1, 1971...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Killing_Fields_(location)Zodiac sent the Halloween card to Paul Avery on Oct. 27, 1970 postmarked San Francisco. This is the last San Fran letter until 1974. In between the Halloween card and the Jan. '74 Exorcist letter was the March 1971 L.A. Times letter. Could it be that shortly after sending the L.A. Times letter that Zodiac relocated to southern Texas?
There were four confirmed Zodiac mailings in 1974, between Jan. 29th and July 8th. There were no murders in the Galveston, TX area during that time. Two girls did go missing in the area, from a convenience store, on Sept. 6th of that year.
Here is a timeline of known Zodiac activity in the bay area and the I-45 murders (note that it is possible that not all the I-45 crimes were the work of the same killer):
Dec. 20, 1968: Zodiac murders David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen - Lake Herman Rd. Vallejo, CA.
July 5, 1969: Zodiac murder Darlene Ferrin and injures Mike Mageau - Blue Rock Springs Park Vallejo, CA.
July 31, 1969: Zodiac sends letters and pieces of the 408 cipher to three bay area newspapers.
Aug. 1969: Debut of Zodiac letter
Sept. 29, 1969: Zodiac murders Cecelia Shepard and injures Bryan Hartnell - Lake Berryessa Napa, CA.
Oct. 11, 1969: Zodiac murders Paul Stine - Presidio Heights San Francisco, CA.
Oct. 13, 1969: Zodiac follows up the Stine murder with a letter claiming responsibility.
Nov. 8, 1969: Dripping pen card/340 cipher.
Nov. 9, 1969: Bus bomb letter. Zodiac letters on back to back days, and this one claims he will no longer announce his murders.
Dec. 20, 1969: Zodiac sends a letter to lawyer Melvin Belli.
March 22, 1970: Kathleen Johns is abducted on Highway 132 near Patterson, CA. Zodiac claims that he is responsible.
April 20, 1970: "My name is......" letter/cipher.
April 28, 1970: Dragon card.
June 26, 1970: Button letter/cipher/66 map.
July 24, 1970: Kathleen Johns letter.
July 26, 1970: Little list letter.
Sept. 6, 1970: Donna Lass disappears - Sahara Tahoe in South Lake Tahoe, CA.
Oct. 27, 1970: Zodiac sends Halloween card to reporter Paul Avery.
March 13, 1971: The L.A. Times receives a letter from someone claiming to be Zodiac. It has been six months since his last letter, and this is the first sent somewhere outside of the bay area. The handwriting is different that the previous letters, but a handwriting expert confirms it is authentic. The is the last confirmed letter in California that the killer uses the name Zodiac and uses the crosshair symbol.
June 17, 1971: Colette Wilson murdered - Her body was found near the Addicks Reservoir, near the body of Gloria Gonzales.
July 1, 1971: Brenda Jones murdered - Her body was found in Galveston Bay near Pelican Island.
Aug. 4, 1971: Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw murdered - Remains were found in a marsh near Clear Lake.
Oct. 28, 1971: Gloria Gonzales murdered - Her severed remains were found near Addicks Reservoir in the same area as Colette Wilson.
Nov. 9, 1971: Alison Craven murdered - Partial remains found early on. Recovered the rest of her body in a Pearland, TX. field 3 months later, near her home in Houston.
Nov. 15, 1971: Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson murdered - Both were found naked and bound at Turner's Bayou near Galveston, TX.
Jan. 3, 1973: Kimberly Pitchford murdered - Houston/Galveston, TX. area
Jan. 24, 1974: The Exorcist letter sent to the SF Chronicle.
Feb. 14, 1974: SLA letter sent to SF Chronicle.
May 8, 1974: Citizen card sent to SF Chronicle.
July 8, 1974: Red Phantom letter sent to SF Chronicle.
Sept. 6, 1974: Brooks Bracewell and Georgia Geer murdered - Remains found in a ditch in Alvin, TX.
May 21, 1977: Suzanne Bowers murdered - Her skeletal remains were found two years later in Alta Loma, TX.
May 2, 1978: An unconfirmed letter sent to Channel 9 in Los Angeles, CA.
June 1982: Michelle Garvey - Body was found on July 1, 1982, in Baytown, TX.
Oct. 10, 1983: Heide Villarreal-Fye - Her remains were found in the 3000 block of Calder Road in League City, TX. after a dog brought her skull to a nearby house.
Oct. 26, 1983: Sondra Ramber - Disappeared from her home in Santa Fe, TX. and has not been found.
Sept. 10, 1984: Laura Miller - Last seen at the same convenience store Heide Villarreal-Fye was last seen. Also found in the 3000 block of Calder Road in League City, TX.
Dec. 1985: Audrey Cook - Discovered in a field in the 3000 block of Calder Road alongside Laura Miller. She was not identified until April 2019.
May 24, 1986: Shelley Sikes - One of her convicted kidnappers, Gerald Peter Zwarst, drew police a map of where to find her body, but she still has never been found. Galveston, TX.
Oct. 7, 1988: Suzanne Rene Richerson - Disappeared from Casa Del Mar Condominiums in Galveston, TX.
1991: Donna Prudhomme - Discovered in a field in the 3000 block of Calder Road. She died six weeks to several months prior to being found and was not identified until April 2019.
Feb. 1, 1996: Lynette Bibbs and Tamara Fisher - Bodies were found off the side of a dirt road near Cleveland, Texas.
March 5, 1996: Krystal Baker - She was raped, strangled, and dumped over the I-10 Trinity River bridge in Texas City, TX. Kevin Edison Smith, 45, was convicted of capital murder in her death in 2012.
April 3, 1997: Laura Smither - Her body was found in a retention pond in Pasadena, TX.
Aug. 17, 1997: Jessica Cain - Remains were found in 2016 in a field off of East Orem Road, next to Hobby Airport Clear Lake, TX.
July 12, 2001: Tot Harriman - Disappeared near League City, TX and has not been found.
July 12, 2002: Sarah Trusty - Her body was found in the Texas City Dike by fishermen in Algoa, TX.
Oct. 31, 2006: Teressa Vanegas - her body was found strangled, raped, and cut in a field across from Dickinson High School in Dickinson, TX.
Suspects and POI's in the I-45 murders:
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remember that it is most likely that not all of these murders are the same killer.William Lewis Reece has been charged in the murders of Tiffany Johnston, 19, Jessica Cain, 17, and Laura Smither, 12. He is suspected but not charged in the death of Kelli Cox, 20. He was serving a 60-year sentence for kidnapping when he led police to the remains of Cain and Cox in 2015.
Edward Harold Bell, who was 72 years old in November 2011, claimed in a 1998 letter to police that he had murdered 11 girls (between 1971 and 1977) in Galveston County. Although he was a longtime suspect, prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to prosecute him. Bell died in prison a couple days ago while serving a 70-year sentence for the murder of Larry Dickens, an ex-Marine from Pasadena, TX.
George Victor Jonasson
Clyde Edwin Hedrick
Robert Abel