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Zodiac Claim to be Questioned By SF Police

Monday, Jun 15, 2009 | Updated 7:06 AM PST

Deborah Perez says her father was the infamous Zodiac Killer and that he sometimes took her with him on his attacks.

A woman who in late April stood in front of dozens of people and claimed her father was the infamous Zodiac killer will be questioned by the San Francisco Police Department on Wednesday.

Deborah Perez, 47, made the announcement April 29 on the steps of The San Francisco Chronicle, where the Zodiac killer mailed letters that were splashed across the front pages of newspapers, taunting reporters, police and the public with codes and clues to find his identity.

The Zodiac killer is believed to have murdered at least five people and possibly as many as 36 in the Bay Area in the 1960s and 1970s.

Perez said she saw a composite sketch of the Zodiac killer in August 2007 and recognized the man as her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, who died in 1983.

San Francisco police Lt. Michael Staskos has reportedly received information from forensic experts who say handwriting, psychological and DNA evidence link Perez to her involvement in the Zodiac case and will question her Wednesday.

She said she was 7 years old when she helped her father write and mail some of the letters that terrorized the Bay Area and earned him the sensational nickname.

She also claimed to have the glasses belonging to Paul Stine, a San Francisco cab driver the Zodiac killer fatally shot. She said her father took the glasses off of Stine's face and she kept them all these years, only recently realizing they belonged to a murder victim and not to her father.

The glasses were reportedly turned over to the San Francisco Police Department in early May.

San Francisco police Lt. Lyn Tomioka said at the news conference that detectives continue to follow leads and treat all claims equally but emphasized there was only one known murder that took place in San Francisco linked to the Zodiac.

Kevin McLean, acting as Perez's spokesman at the April news conference, said he worked with attorney Melvin Belli who the Zodiac killer contacted pleading for help.

According to McLean, Perez decided to reveal her father's identity in response to a Sacramento man who reportedly claims a relative of his was the Zodiac killer.