A Southern California woman said Wednesday that her late father was the infamous Zodiac killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay area four decades ago.

San Francisco homicide investigators said they will check into the information from Deborah Perez, who said her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, killed at least two of the known victims 40 years ago.

Sgt. Lyn Tomioka said the investigation into the 1969 death of San Francisco taxi driver Paul Lee Stine related to the Zodiac killer is ongoing.

During a San Francisco news conference Wednesday, Perez, of Corona, said she has given police what she believes are Stine’s eyeglasses and letters she wrote -- some to a newspaper -- on her father’s behalf about the crimes.


Perez alleges that she was a naive 7-year-old daughter tagging along with her father during the killings.

“He told me he was sick and all I wanted to do was help my dad,” Perez said. “He kept telling me he was sick and he killed many, many people.

“I had no idea.”

The self-described Zodiac killer is blamed for at least five slayings in 1968 and 1969. He was never caught.


Three killings occurred in Vallejo. Teenagers David Farraday and Betty Lou Jensen were shot to death in December 1968. Darlene Ferrin, 22, was shot and killed seven months later at Blue Rock Springs Golf Club. Her companion, Michael Mageau, 19, survived.

Perez said Wednesday that she was with her father when he killed Ferrin and then Stine in San Francisco.

“My father grabs his gun, goes to the passenger side and I hear shots, I hear moans, I hear screams,” Perez recalled. “We leave and we’re pulled over by police and my father takes the gun and puts it into a brown paper bag and sticks it into the back of my pants and says ‘I need you to not move. Don’t move. The police will not understand if they find this gun.’ ”