Lake Berryessa, Napa, California 1969

On 27th September 1969 the Zodiac would strike again, only this time Zodiac was in full mask & moniker and would attack another young couple. Bryan Hartnell 20 and Cecelia Ann Shepard 22 both Students were having a relaxing picnic at the shore of Lake Berryessa, 30 miles north of Napa when a man started to approach the young couple. Not thinking much of it Bryan noticed Cecelia kept looking over him when she said that the man had gone behind the tree, Oh my god she said, he has a gun. As Bryan turned to look he saw a masked man coming towards them with gun in hand.

The masked man told the couple he had escaped from Prison and needed to get to Mexico, all he wanted was their money and their car as his was hot. Bryan tried to talk to the man as did Cecelia telling him they didn't have much money but he could take the car and they would help him. The man told took some pre cut rope from a belt he wore round his waist with what looked like a 12 inch knife in sheath, he threw the rope to Cecelia, he told Bryan to get on his stomach and told Cecelia to to tie his hands, when she had done this he tied Cecelia's in the same position. The man then retied Bryan's hands then tied both their ankles. Bryan asked the man if his gun was loaded, he laughed and showed Bryan the chamber saying he had killed before and was willing to do it again.

Bryan could see the man's hand was shaking and asked "are you getting nervous", he replied, "Yes then laughed calmly", without warning he plunged the knife into Bryan's back about 6 times, Bryan lay still, pretending to be dead as he watched the man stab Cecelia in a frenzy, he showed much more aggression towards her than him. The man got up and calmly walked away. Bryan managed to get the attention of a fisherman out on his boat who got help for the couple, it took about an hour until the police and ambulance arrived, Cecelia died in hospital 2 days later, Bryan miraculously survived and was able to give Detectives a description of what would become the Zodiac.

Bryan described a stocky man approx 5ft 8 to 6ft tall, the man wore a Black Mask (cloth) which covered his face, shoulders, and chest almost coming to his waist, (paperbag style hood). The Chest area of the cloth had a Symbol to the centre in White, a Circle and overlapping Cross. There were 2 slits for eyes which had 2 clip on sunglasses, no nose or mouth opening. He wore a Belt with attached Knife approx 12 inches in a Sheath with cotton surgical tape around handle. Bryan could not remember if he wore gloves but thought he got a glimpse of his hair, dark brown. Click on photos below to enlarge.

Again there would be a call to Napa Law Enforcement, this time the caller said " I want to report a murder, no, a double murder, they are two miles north of park headquarters. They were in a white volkswagon karmen - ghia", there was a pause and the operator asked "Where are you now?" a calm voice said I'm the one who did it" the operator could feel the phone being put down but could still hear people in the background.

Zodiac had called from a car wash in Napa, he'd left the phone hanging off the hook, Police took some prints from the phone. Zodiac had also took the time to write the dates of his crimes on the side door of Bryan's car along with the Zodiac symbol. Below are the reports taken from Police records of Bryan's statement with some photo's.

On my next page I will discuss how some of Zodiac's traits are so alike The Golden State Killer's, especially when looking at the M.O of both and the way they attack their victims not to mention the phone calls and letters. I have come across some interesting information whilst researching both and will go into much more detail as we progress through their crimes.