In 1966, Riverside, California teenager Cheri Jo Bates was murdered near her college. Investigators knew the how, the what, and the when. They just didn’t know the who, or the why. Part one can be found here.
It was highly suspected that Cheri was brutally murdered either by someone local whom she knew, or simply by someone local to the Riverside area. They had to have knowledge of the area, and they knew just where, and how to lure Cheri – somewhere dark, and somewhere vacant. Somewhere where they couldn’t be seen, and Cheri couldn’t be heard during the attack.
With few leads, and even fewer answers, investigators began focusing on Cheri’s history and background. They found very little, and what little they found wasn’t very substantial. They didn’t know how to proceed. And then the first letters came.
In late November of 1966, the Riverside police headquarters and The Press-Enterprise newspaper each received identical letters. The letters described, in detail, the events leading up to Cheri’s murder. The letters were supposedly signed by Cheri’s killer.
The letters described the vandalism done to Cheri’s lime green Beetle, as well as how he lured her out of her vehicle after she tried to start it by claiming he could provide assistance. The letter went on to explain how he’d threatened her with a knife to her neck, and walked her to the alley. Some of the finer details of the letters hadn’t been released to the press, or the public.
However, there was an odd discrepancy. The author of the letter claimed that Cheri went quietly, and went down without a fight. Based on forensic evidence, crime scene examination, and the autopsy report, investigators knew this to be false. Cheri went down fighting. He skin and hair under her nails and in her hands, as well as the watch found near her body, all indicated that she fought fiercely for her life.
At first, investigators were baffled by this. However, it seemed as though this was an attempt by the letter writer to salvage his ego. Or he’d simply gotten that part wrong.
The letters solidified the notion to investigators that the killer was someone known to Cheri. To explain his motive for killing Cheri, the letter writer claimed: “Only one thing was on my mind: Making her pay for the brush-offs that she had given me during the years prior”. There was, and still is, no way to know if this claim was true. Despite the level of detail in the letter that wasn’t known to the public, there remains no way to know if the author of the letter was truly Cheri’s killer.
As the years wore on, forensic evidence found that DNA found on the letter did not match the DNA found under Cheri’s fingernails. This means that it’s unlikely the letter writer was the perpetrator – but it seems clear they were involved somehow. Either they were witness to the event, or the real killer told them what they’d done in excruciating detail.
A few months later, on April 30th 1967, The Press-Enterprise printed an update on the Cheri Jo Bates murder investigation. Which is to say, it was still unsolved, and investigators were stumped.
The following day, the police and Cheri’s father received hand-written letters. The letters appeared desperate, and manic. They were each one sheet of paper with the following message: “Bates had to die. There will be more”. The bottom of the letter was signed with an unreadable character. Some say it could have been a badly written number 2, while others posit it was signed with a near indecipherable “Z”.
Six months after Cheri’s murder, a custodian found an odd desk. The desk had a macabre and obscene poem etched into it. The poem boasted about assaulting young women. It was signed with the lowercase letters “r” and “h”, similar to the letter signed with either “2” or “Z”.
Even though the desk was found in storage, the custodian informed investigator that it had been on the library floor the same night Cheri was murdered. It seemed awfully coincidental. Investigators photographed the desk, and added it to the case file. They firmly believed that whomever had etched the poem onto the desk was the same person who wrote the letters. They were either the killer, or they were well known to the killer. Unfortunately, nothing ever came from finding the desk.
As the years went on, leads vanished, and investigators got nowhere with the investigation. They had a couple suspects in mind, but nothing to show for it.
Then, in 1968 and 1969, the Zodiac terrorized the San Francisco area. The Zodiac targeted couples, and then murdered a taxi cab driver. He also intrigued and terrorized the public by sending letters to police and newspapers.
In November of 1970, an anonymous letter was sent to San Francisco Chronicle reporter Paul Avery. Paul Avery was well-known for covering the Zodiac murders, and paying attention to the correspondence the killer sent to police and news agencies.
This anonymous letter pointed out the similarities between the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, and the murders committed by the Zodiac. The letter strongly suggested that if investigators could solve Cheri’s murder, they’d find the Zodiac. It didn’t take long for the public – and a few investigators – to speculate and theorize that the Cheri Jo Bates murder and the murders committed by the Zodiac were connected.
Paul Avery was a strong proponent of this theory, and began looking into Cheri’s murder. As a result, he took handwriting samples from the Zodiac, the desk found in the RCC library, and correspondence relating to Cheri’s murder to a so-called handwriting expert.
Sherwood Morrill, the expert sought out by Paul Avery, determined that the handwriting from the desk, as well as the letter sent to Cheri’s father in 1967, was the same handwriting that was contained in the letters written by the Zodiac.
In 1971, the Zodiac sent a letter to the Los Angeles Times which solidified this theory for a lot of people. This letter stated: “I do have to give [the police] credit for stumbling across my Riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones. There are a hell of a lot more down there”. For a lot of people, this was confession enough that the Zodiac was responsible for Cheri’s murder. Find her killer, and you find the Zodiac.
However, investigators in either case weren’t convinced. While they remained open-minded to the theory, they still believed that the cases were separate. Both cases remain unsolved, but police have never stopped investigating.
For years, Riverside police believed they knew who Cheri’s killer was. They just couldn’t prove it. They didn’t have enough evidence. They referred to their suspect as “Bob Barnett”, and they hounded him.
Riverside investigators were under the impression that Cheri and Bob were in a relationship. In the weeks leading up to her murder, Cheri became engaged, and broke things off with Bob. As a result, Bob flew into a rage.
Bob and Cheri had a heated, public argument. During the argument, Bob was witnessed as having slapped Cheri. Clearly, he was capable of violence against the woman he supposedly loved.
The night of her murder, witnesses stated that they’d seen Bob playing basketball with his friends. His friends also told police that when he saw Cheri drive by, and she called out to him, he left the basketball game, saying to them: “That bitch is going to the library!” Bob appeared to be following Cheri there.
Before Cheri’s body had been discovered, witnesses reported having seen two men searching the grounds around the RCC library with flashlights. Police assumed it was Bob and his best friend. Both agreed tot ake polygraph tests. Bob’s best friend failed his, while Bob stonewalled and clammed up during the test. He was thrown out by the examiner.
Despite the animosity between Bob Barnett and Cheri, the evidence simply wasn’t there to charge him with anything.
In the 1990s, friends of Bob’s came forward, and stated that they’d seen Bob shortly after the time of Cheri’s murder. Bob was agitated. He wanted a ride to the RCC library to look for something he’d told his friend he lost.
Another friend stated that Bob told them, later in the morning after Cheri’s body have been discovered, that he’d ‘snuffed Cheri’. Both friends passed polygraph tests. However, they couldn’t question or test Bob. He was out of the country.
In December of 1998, investigators in charge of Cheri’s cold case file found out that Bob was returning to the United States for the holidays. They got a warrant for his DNA, and waited for him at the airport. Bob was not surprised to see them, and gave them DNA samples willingly.
Forensic DNA analysis results came back conclusively. Bob Barnett was not the man who had murdered Cheri Jo Bates. 32 years after the fact, the man who had been the prime suspect in her murder was clear of suspicion. However, he would never get those 32 years back.
Another suspect seemed promising – Ross Sullivan. In 1966, Sullivan worked at the library. He often creeped people out, and was a creature of habit, wearing fatigues and Wing-Walker shoes every day.
At the time of Cheri’s murder, Sullivan lived part-time at the YMCA, and mentioned to colleagues that he felt the need to constantly be writing, in order to curb his urge to harm anyone. Even though he was a notoriously bad speller, he enjoyed taking English and Cryptography classes. He was a tall, imposing figure with bad hygiene who often creeped out other library staff.
After Cheri’s murder, Sullivan disappeared. He didn’t report to work, or the YMCA. He couldn’t be found. Six days later, Sullivan returned. He’d cleaned himself up, tidied up his appearance, and wore clean, fresh clothing. It was a drastic change. And the timing was highly suspicious.
He left Riverside shortly after his transformation. In 1968, he was arrested for indecent exposure in Santa Cruz, California. While incarcerated, investigator’s in Cheri’s murder discovered that Sullivan was severely mentally and physically ill. He died in 1977, at the age of 36.
Despite the suspicious timing of his disappearance, his transformation, his move from Riverside, and the general air of creepiness he exuded, police never considered Sullivan a serious suspect in the murder. They claimed that he had an airtight alibi, even though this alibi has never been shared with the public.
Some theorists believe Sullivan wasn’t considered a viable suspect because police firmly believed Bob Barnett to be Cheri’s murderer.
Over the years, suspect after suspect has been eliminated. With advances in forensics and DNA analysis, more and more people can be ruled out. Despite this, DNA profiling has determined that Cheri’s killer is, or was, a Caucasian male.
Cheri’s murder has never been solved. However, cold case investigators are hopeful that the possibility of closing this case does exist.
Cheri was a cheerful, pleasant, happy young woman with her entire future ahead of her. To honour her memory, the Bates family established the Cheri Jo Bates Memorial Endowed Scholarship. Every year, this scholarship is awarded to a student demonstrating financial need, who is active in school initiatives, school projects, undertakes volunteer work, and who majors in music with a B grade average.
As of 2020, there are no solid updates on either the Cheri Jo Bates cold case, or the Zodiac murders. With current advancements in technology and forensics, they’re hopeful that both cases can be solved.
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Sources:
The Unsolved Murder of Cheri Jo Bates – Heather Monroe – Medium
Criminal Prints podcast – The Murder of Cheri Jo Bates
Murder of Cheri Jo Bates Wikipedia page