SARATOGA, Calif. (UPI) - The discovery Monday of the knife-slashed body of a pretty high school senior by her father touched off speculation today that the teen-ager might be yet another victim of the Zodiac killer.
Charles Bilek an IBM engineer who fled from Hungary with his family in the 1950s found the body of his-18-year-old daughter Kathy in a wooded area on the grounds of the Villa Montalvo Museum.
The Santa Clara County coroner's office said the girl, an honor student at Saratoga High School, had been stabbed 49 times with a short-bladed knife. Deputies said Miss Bilek's long-sleeved blouse was partially torn from her body and there was no evidence of sexual assault.
"One thing's certain," said one county homicide inspector "Miss Bilek's murder is almost a carbon copy of a double killing here almost two years ago. And all three could well be the work of the so-called Zodiac."
The murder scene was only a short distance from the site where Deborah Furlong, 14, and Kathy Snoozy, 15, were found slain in August 1969.
At the time, the killings were attributed to a "psychopath whose blood frenzy led him to overkills."
Miss Furlong's body had over 100 stab wounds and Miss Snoozy's, 200.
Autopsy surgeons said Monday ''it appears the death of Miss Bilek and the death of the Snoozy girls are related."
Police say the Zodiac is responsible for six victims and could have committed the 17 murders he claims.
He has boasted of multiple murders in the past year in rambling and sometimes coded messages mailed to newspapers.
In a message to a San Francisco newspaper last month Zodiac claimed "victim 12" was buried in the snow in the Lake Tahoe area.
Miss Bilek was last seen Easter morning driving away in the family car.
Her father notified authorities of her disappearance that evening then joined 30 sheriff's deputies in an all night search that ended Monday morning when he came across his daughter's body.
