Now that DNA has been used to arrest a suspect in the case of the Golden State Killer— who was accused of committing more than 100 rapes, 50 burglaries and at least 12 murders throughout California between 1974 and 1986— many have wondered if a similar process would be used locate a suspect in another long-unsolved case involving a series of murders that took place throughout California: that of the Zodiac Killer. In fact, even before Joseph DeAngelo had been identified as a suspect in the Golden State Killer case in April, the Vallejo Police Department had submitted envelopes sent by the Zodiac Killer to a private lab for a DNA profile.

Vallejo police Detective Terry Poyser, the department’s lead investigator in the Zodiac case, told The Sacramento Bee that the profile would be obtained via saliva on the envelope flaps and stamps that had been submitted by the Zodiac. As the famed serial killer often submitted letters to local newspapers, the letters were forwarded to the VPD to be used as evidence. Two of the letters used in the DNA test— submitted to the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner— were sent in envelopes with a double stamp. A third letter, sent to the Vallejo Times-Herald, does not have an envelope.

The Zodiac killings began in Benicia in 1968 when David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were shot on Lake Herman Road. Six months later, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau were shot in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, with Mageau surviving the ordeal and Ferrin perishing. These were followed by the stabbing death of Cecilia Shepherd at Lake Berryessa and the shooting death of Paul Stine in the back of a cab in San Francisco. Bryan Hartnell was also stabbed in the Lake Berryessa attack but survived.

Poyser said results from the lab should be expected in the next few weeks. He could not be reached for comment. The Vallejo Police Department issued a statement trying to calm speculation.

“The Zodiac case has been an open investigation for several decades in the City of Vallejo,” the department wrote. “With any open homicide investigation, Vallejo Police Detectives still follow up on new leads and continually work to identify a suspect. Over the course of this investigation, Vallejo Police Detectives have always taken advantage of emerging technologies and new advances in forensic science to assist in the identification of a suspect. Currently, we are not close to identifying a suspect, nor do we anticipate developing that information at any time in the near future.”

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