FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – A pregnant soldier lay dead in the bathtub. Reportedly scrawled on the motel room mirror in lipstick was a cross-hairs design – the same symbol contained in a letter that arrived at the local newspaper four days later.

"The following is to inform that I am responsible for the dead body," the typewritten letter read. "It was a master piece. I confess, that I have killed many times before in several states, but now I will start using my role-model's signature. There will be many more to come."

At the bottom was the same circle-and-cross drawing used a generation ago by San Francisco's infamous Zodiac Killer.

While police dismiss the notion there's a serial killer on the loose, the letter now appears to be an important piece of evidence in the investigation into the death last month of Army Spc. Megan Touma, a 23-year-old soldier at Fort Bragg.

Investigators are calling the case a homicide, but they say they have not established the cause of death and have offered no motive. Spc. Touma, whose body was found June 21 in an off-base motel, was divorced. Authorities have said nothing about her child's father.

"We're pursuing every lead," said Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Command. "We want to find out exactly what happened."

Fayetteville police Lt. David Sportsman said a "person of interest" – a soldier studying psychological warfare at Fort Bragg – is cooperating with investigators and has not been detained.

Detectives in the Touma case said the letter may, in fact, have come from the killer. The writing on the mirror was not public knowledge until The Fayetteville Observer published that detail over the weekend, along with the contents of the letter. But investigators do not believe the author's claim to be a serial killer.

"It was merely a tactic used to divert us off of what we are doing, and to cause panic in the community, which we have to deal with, too," Lt. Sportsman said. "But we don't believe there's a serial killer in Fayetteville."

The letter writer taunted Fayetteville police as "very incompetent. I basically, sat there and watch while investigators were on site."

Mike Baker,

The Associated Press