Was Spc. Megan Lynn Touma Murdered by Zodiac Copycat?

The role model's signature that the letter writer referred to appeared to be that of crosshairs as seen through a rifle scope, like the one used by the Zodiac killer that were placed at the bottom of the cryptograms, or ciphers, that were sent to the San Francisco Police Department during that killer's reign of terror in Northern California during the 1960s and possibly as late as 1970.  Although the numbers of deaths attributed to the Zodiac killer have reportedly been as high as 37, only five murdered victims and two who had survived were ever officially confirmed.  The Zodiac killer was never apprehended, and the case remains open to this day.

Although the police had confiscated the letter from the Fayetteville Observer immediately upon learning about it, the newspaper had made a copy and executive editor Brian Tolley, despite the police request to not release its contents out of fear that it would impede their investigation and unnecessarily frighten the public, Tolley nonetheless followed his newspaperman's instinct and published the letter anyway.

"Not printing the letter goes against nearly everything I, and this paper, stand for," Tolley wrote in one of the Observer's articles.  "Our job is to gather and report information, not to keep it in the dark."

Tolley also, on Friday, June 27, 2008, confirmed that the symbol at the bottom of the presumed killer's letter had also been found written on a mirror, with lipstick, inside the motel room where Touma's body was found.

"We now know exactly why (the homicide investigators), sitting in my office, were confident that the letter was an important piece of evidence and not a hoax," Tolley wrote.

Fayetteville Police Department Lt. David Sportsman, however, told reporters that even though the letter was important, its purpose had likely been to misinform or to otherwise deceive the police.

"There is absolutely no reason to believe there have been any other killings or that any other killings have occurred related to this so-called confession," Sportsman said, adding that the case was the department's top priority.  "We want to solve this thing."

A separate investigation by the Army is being conducted to determine why it took so long before anyone noticed that Touma was missing.

"She was left in the room for two days," Touma's ex-husband told television reporters.  "They didn't even bother to go check on her in the motel where she stayed."

Also, according to a statement issued to the Associated Press by Army spokesman Lt. Col. John Clearwater, a soldier in training at a special operations school has been named as a person of interest in the case but has not been charged with a crime.
 
As of today, police have not determined the cause of Touma's death and are also saying that they have not ruled out natural causes—which seems preposterous considering the letter that was received.  Similarly, although the autopsy on Touma's body has been completed, the police have refused to release any details surrounding the postmortem examination, citing the fact that the investigation is ongoing.

ID will keep you updated as this fascinating and bizarre case continues to unfold.