Casefile True Crime - Case 77: Mia Zapata

Episode Date: March 10, 2018

The evening of July 6, 1993, was a typical one for Mia Zapata. The 27-year-old was a staple of Seattle’s music scene, having fronted punk rock band The Gits since the group’s inception in Ohio in 1986. She spent the night at a live music venue, The Comet Tavern, before visiting a friend at their apartment. --- Opening poem titled; ‘Slaughter of Bruce’, written by Mia Zapata. Closing song titled; “Bob - Cousin O” performed by The Gits, written by Mia K Zapata, Matthew F Dresdner, Andrew L Kessler and John Stephen Moriarty © Fishheadhotdogburrito Music, licensed courtesy of Rogue Octopus. Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Researched and written by Anna Priestland This episode's sponsors: MVMT Watches – Join the movement ZipRecruiter – Post your jobs for FREE Mafia – Brand-new podcast taking us into America’s criminal underworld For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-77-mia-zapata

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. All that's been and all that's been said, it's not to my regret. You gotta face the edge of yourself. And they say if you go humour through it all, you'll find the will to survive what seems like hell. Take me to the water, launch me out to bloody sea, cause all you gotta do is release. Through these obstacles you've got to beat.

Take us to the water, launch us out to sea, and may the drunken mad ones follow me. On August 25th 1965, Mia Zapata lived with her brother, sister and parents in Louisville, Kentucky. Her father Richard Zapata took up a manager's job with a local TV station, and her mother Donna worked as a manager at a radio station. With two parents in corporate TV and radio, the family lived a comfortable life in Douglas Hills, where the children had a free spirited and a carefree upbringing. Mia was independent, and even as a toddler it was common for her to wander off and do her own thing. She also liked to sing. Her voice was strong and husky for a kid, and people would often turn

around in surprise to hear such a tone coming from someone so small. A voice many thought was destined for big things, and Mia destined to show the world what she was made of. At school, Mia swam in Douglas Hills swim team and was good enough to be nicknamed the bullet. She had a lot of potential, but she wasn't really into sports. She wanted to forge her own style, and as her mother described it, find her own avenue. While her brother was a cool, popular kid and her sister Preppy, Mia found her groove by being constantly creative. She had a love of painting which she carried with her into adulthood. Her favorite was expressionist portraits. She also liked to alter her clothes and was often in trouble for messing

with her school uniform. High school saw Mia's individuality grow. Her love of music expanded, and along with it, her passion for poetry and writing. Mia and her friends were known to write poems and pass them as notes in the back of the classroom. Her grasp of words and expressing her feelings and thoughts into poetry was an asset many saw from an early age. She had a passion for Sixties Rock and idolized Janice Joplin, who had a husky and strong voice like Mia. She also loved David Bowie and The Pretenders. Mia and her friends spent countless hours hanging out and singing along to their favorite tracks, and Mia could sing. Her journal became her song book where she wrote lyrics throughout her teenage years. Her small, tight-knit

group of friends got her creativity. They weren't interested in the fashion malls or pop music. They were the nonconformers who gathered at the park or by the tracks and talked about creative stuff. But Mia never got herself into trouble. She wasn't like that. When her sister described her, she said, quote, You know when you meet people and they remind you of other people. When you met Mia, she never reminded you of anybody else. Mia's parents eventually separated. Her father Richard moved to Yakima two hours from Seattle, and her mother Donna moved to New York. Mia went off to Antioch University in Ohio.

Known for its experimental curriculum and study programs, Antioch's less-than-traditional approach suited Mia, and she thrived in the free-spirited environment. It was at Antioch Uni that Mia found her music family and her band, The Gits. One night at a coffee shop opened Mike Knight where Mia was singing. A fellow student, Matt Dresner, sat listening to her. He felt her voice coming from somewhere deep down, and it moved him in a way that he'd never experienced before. He knew immediately that he wanted to start a band with her. In 1986, the band was formed. They called themselves The Snivelling Little Rat-Faced Gits. Mia was the main lyricist, frontwoman, and spokesperson for

the band. Matt Dresner played bass, Joe Spleen the guitar, and Steve Moriarty the drums. It was also at Antioch that Mia met Valerie Agnew. Valerie was a drummer in the college punk scene, and with so much in common, her and Mia forged a strong friendship. Mia's love of the blues shined through, not just in her lyrics, but in her passion for the music. She was husky and unreserved like a punk musician, with the soulful and intense spirit of Janice Joplin. To Mia's friends, she was an intense thinker, favouring her journal and moments alone in between a busy social life. She was street tough, while at the same time possessing a worldly compassion people rarely saw in others. She held no judgements on anyone.

Her friends affectionately called her chicken woman. She was double-jointed, tall, and skinny, with long legs. In school, she was teased and called chicken, but as she grew older, it became a term of endearment. And Mia even wore a t-shirt with the word scrawled across a hand-drawn picture of a chicken. Mia's band shortened their name to the Gits, and they forged a passionate relationship with their music from those early college days. They didn't care about money or fame, and their punk roots cemented them as progressive, but they weren't content with being labeled a punk band. Their lyrics and melodies were more soulful than that, and they carved their own style with

influences of blues and punk rock. It was in 1989 that Mia and the rest of the members of the Gits decided to move to San Francisco, and a short time after that, on to Seattle. They wanted to get away from the Midwest to somewhere with passion and where their alternative music and non-conforming style would fit in. When Mia and her band moved to Seattle in 1989, the city already had a huge underground abuzz. Alternative music had been a long-time staple of Seattle. Possibly, it was Seattle's isolation from the big commercial music scene of Los Angeles, leaving the city's artists to form an individualistic and free-spirited scene of their own. Counterculture thrived in a city like Seattle, where its small clubs and intimate venues brought with it tight community values.

Artists felt no need to look outside their community for inspiration as they formed their own musical purpose. They had no interest in the big wide world of popular music. The alternative scene was about the music and their message. In the early 80s, hardcore punk and metal were amongst the most popular genres in Seattle, but the two scenes didn't get along. Fights often broke out between fans, and venues would rarely put on a hardcore band and a metal band on the same night for fear of an uproar. But then a club opened up in Seattle that brought the two genres together, emerging of fans, but also emerging of sound. And so, with the help of the venue Guerrilla Gardens, the early influences of grunge began.

An old two-screen movie theater was converted to a music venue, where two different and sometimes opposing acts were able to play on the same night. Patrons paid one fee, which covered admission for both bands, and so they were really paying to support both genres. As the nights went on, the fans, who once didn't say aye to aye, began listening to each other's music and hanging out together. This mashing of music became one of the major starting points for grunge. Lyrics Influenced by rock, punk, and metal, the grunge sound was muddy, unsettled, and distorted. Lyrics were angst-ridden, and vocals were raw. Song shifted from quiet,

emotive verses, to loud, angry choruses. The focus wasn't on technical prowess, but on the message they were delivering. Grunge was anti-establishment, supporting blue-collar workers and community housing over fame and money. The Gits moved into the Capitol Hill District of Seattle, where they spent a lot of time at a house nicknamed The Rat House. It became like a band and artist headquarters, serving as an artistic space, recording studio, and occasional place to crash. The Gits played local gigs around Seattle with the same passionate force of punk, but they had their own sound, with the husky, soulful, and deep-feeling voice of Mia Zapata. The summer of 1993 was a good time to be a musician in Seattle. The major music labels,

who had previously left the Seattle music scene alone, allowing the bands to shy away from mainstream popularity, all descended on Seattle. Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, The Melvins, and Mudhoney were all local staples at the time, who put Seattle on the map. But the mainstream interest was mainly due to the success of one band, Nirvana. Nirvana had found local fame in the mid to late 80s, and by 1989, when the Gits moved to Seattle, Nirvana were touring internationally with 37 back-to-back shows across Europe. Grunge was well and truly on its way to becoming a worldwide musical phenomenon, and by 1993, it had completely exploded. The Gits were part of this explosion, their own style of punk blending perfectly into Seattle's

grunge scene. They were on their way up, and to that year, 1993, they were set for national and international tours themselves, and were planning a new album. After their Californian tour in June 1993, the Gits arrived back to Seattle over the 4th of July weekend. The Californian tour had been a huge success, and Mia was even invited to perform two solo shows in LA. The Gits were only going to be home in Seattle for a few days, before beginning a cross-country tour across America, following in the footsteps of some of the big Seattle bands before them. They had also recently had a lunch meeting with two executives from Atlantic Records. The major label were keen to sign the Gits, and they weren't the only ones.

They were also being scouted by MCA. But the band was torn. If they signed to a major label, they would be shedding some of their old values. They were grappling with wanting to succeed and gain recognition, and worrying that fame and money would compromise what they had. The passion, the authenticity, would disappear if they went with one of the majors. They were nervous, apprehensive, and excited all at the same time. Although they all lived apart, Mia and her family were still close. Mia and her father Richard caught up a couple of times a month, as he only lived a few hours from Seattle. Mia's mum Donna visited Seattle and went to one of the Gits gigs. When Mia told the crowd

she was there, everyone yelled out, Hi mum. It was that sort of environment. Donna was proud of Mia. They had always encouraged her creativity and her music, never believing Mia should have been doing anything else. But they did still worry about her and her lifestyle. Mia's siblings were also very supportive of her, and they tried to catch up as much as possible. It was the Tuesday morning after the July 4th weekend, 1993. The Gits cross country tour was due to kick off in a few days. By 11am, Mia had rolled out of bed to meet her dad for lunch. They went to a local Thai restaurant where they talked about her tour, and the offer she and the band were considering from Atlantic Records. After lunch, they browsed the racks at

Tower Records, before going to the Seattle Art Museum. Richard dropped Mia off at her Rainier Valley Shared rental apartment around 3pm that afternoon. He said goodbye to her at the bottom of the steps, and then headed home himself. Mia was planning on heading to the production studio later on to rehearse, so she used the afternoon to do her laundry and to walk the dog. At around 6.30pm, dressed in her cut off denim jeans shorts, her black Gits hooded sweatshirt, socks, and short black boots, Mia arrived at the 11th Avenue Winston Apartments. The production studio was out the back in a rundown three-story wooden building. The studio itself was dingy and dark, with various rooms used by different bands and

independent filmmakers. Mia spent the next two hours rehearsing with her ex-boyfriend's band. It was a tense session. Her ex-boyfriend, David, not his real name, had only broken up with Mia recently, and she was still upset about it. They had once spoken about marriage, but now David was seeing someone else, and Mia wasn't ready for it. Mia sang backup vocals in David's band, which is why she was rehearsing with him. After rehearsal, Mia was looking forward to her first night out back in Seattle since arriving home from the Californian tour. At 8.30pm, she walked a block down the road to the Comet Tavern in Capitol Hill. The neighborhood bar she and her friends always hung out at,

and the place where she had engraved her name in one of the wooden booths. She met up with some of her crew, including her friend Valerie Agnew, who she had met at Antioch University. Valerie had also moved to Seattle, and she played in a band called Seven Year Bitch. Valerie and her band were out that night, marking the one-year anniversary of the death of their bandmate, Stephanie Sargent, who had died from asphyxiation after a night of drinking and drugs. Mia spoke about drawing on the good memories they had of Stephanie as she consoled her friends while they drank at the bar. Mia was good like that, a constant support for others, even though she had her own shit to deal with. Mia was still shaken up about the breakup with

David. She wasn't over it, and she decided to drown her sorrows that night. She had been a big drinker for a while. She smoked pot and occasionally dabbled in some harder stuff too, but generally her vice was alcohol. It had caused some issues with her bandmates, and they had recently asked her to ease up a little. So Mia had been off the booze for two weeks. But that night, she was drinking hard. It was a night mixed with nervous excitement for the future, sorrow over her friend's anniversary, and anger over her recent breakup. Mia and a couple of mates then left the comet and walked a few blocks to Pacora's Pizza, where Mia worked as a part-time waitress. They'd downed a few shots there, and then went back to the comet, where she was seen making a call from the payphone.

According to court documents, at 1 a.m. when the comet closed, Mia went to the nearby apartment of a female friend, Gemma. Not her real name. Gemma was the singer in David's band who Mia had rehearsed with earlier that night. Gemma's apartment was actually in front and above the rehearsal studio. Before going up to the apartment, Mia checked out the back in the studio to see if David was still there. She wanted to talk and thought he might have still been rehearsing, but he wasn't. A neighbour then saw Mia walking up a wooden ramp to Gemma's apartment. Mia and Gemma talked for a while about the breakup and about other things. Mia was really upset. After spending an hour at Gemma's, Mia left. She told Gemma she was going to head two blocks west

to a gas station and get a cab home from there. Gemma wanted Mia to crash at her place, but Mia was adamant she would get a cab home. Mia left Gemma's apartment and walked down the central staircase towards the exit doors. It was 2 a.m. Whether Mia really intended to get a cab or not is unknown. She loved walking and she had put her Walkman on, which meant she may have been planning to walk south towards home, maybe intending to get a cab after sobering up a little. She may have also gone to look for David again, who didn't live far away. Maybe she went to find another drink somewhere. The reality is, after Mia left Gemma's apartment, no one knows where she went. One hour and 20 minutes later, at 3.20 a.m.,

a woman was walking along 24th Avenue South, 1.6 miles southeast of Gemma's apartment. At the time, it was a small and isolated dead-end street between a church and church community center and was a known location for sex workers and late-night drug deals. The woman who was working that street noticed what she thought was a garbage bag on the foot path near the curb. But as she walked closer, the street lamp lighting up her path. She realized it was a body. Face up, legs straight and crossed at the ankles and arms stretched out to the sides. The body formed a cross. The woman ran through a nearby fire station for help.

When the fire department arrived, they found the body of a young woman still warm but lifeless. She was declared dead at the scene around 3.35 a.m. There was no idea on her body, so they had no idea who she was. The only identifiable feature was a tattoo on her calf of a chicken. She was partially dressed. A black gitz hoodie had been pulled up under her arms and the hood pulled down over her face. The cord removed and tied tightly around her neck. There were fresh scuff marks on the toes of her black boots and other scuff marks on her left hip and on her belt just below it. There were some small middle fragments on the ground by her body and around one foot from her head, there was a tyre residue mark that appeared to have been

caused by a vehicle speeding away. There were no signs of a struggle. It appeared that she was killed elsewhere and dumped at the scene. Her wallet, underwear and bra had been shoved into her shorts pocket. The bra was ripped and one of the cups was missing. Her body was taken to the King County Medical Examiner. He recognized her the moment he saw her. He often went to local venues to hear bands perform. He knew it was Mia Zapata. Although initially held back from the public, it was determined that Mia had been raped. However, no semen was found. With ligature marks present on her neck, it was confirmed she had been strangled with the cord of her hoodie. She had also received blows to her abdomen and body that badly injured

her internal organs. So even if she wasn't strangled, she likely would have died anyway. There were fresh red marks and what appeared to be bite marks on her right breast with evidence of teeth scrapings. But the indentations were not deep enough to obtain tooth impressions. Swabs were taken from the bite marks in the hope that there may have been evidence of saliva. When those results came back, it showed they did contain saliva, but the sample was too small to use for DNA testing. The medical examiner filed the evidence and put it into long-term storage in the hope that future advances in forensic science would one day be enough to retrieve a DNA profile of the killer. Initially, police suspected the murder

was drug-related or connected to the area Mia was found in being a hotspot for sex work. But with the realization of who Mia was and her rising fame, they began to look down other avenues. When police went public about her murder, they held back the fact she had been sexually assaulted, as well as the information about half of her bra being torn off and missing. Like many police investigations, they deliberately withheld information. If a suspect was later identified and questioned and they possessed information that hadn't been released to the public, it could go a long way to closing the case. It also helped identifying false confessions. Police were also worried that if they mentioned the missing bra cup, the offender might dispose of it.

But Mia's friends weren't happy that not all the information was being made public. They felt that as much as possible should be shared in order to find out who was responsible. The level of violence and the extent to which Mia was injured showed a desire to cause her great physical pain. The police had to try and establish who would want to do that and why. They were adamant that she didn't die at the location she was found. She could have been killed in a vehicle or even in a house. But without knowing exactly what Mia's plans were after leaving Gemma's apartment, it made it difficult to trace her steps. Not one person saw her or heard from her after she left the apartment.

During the one hour and 20 minutes that were missing from the timeline, she could have been anywhere. But the fact that her body was located southeast of Gemma's apartment did insinuate that she may have begun walking towards home and not to the gas station like she said. Everyone who knew Mia knew full well she wouldn't get in a car with anyone unless she knew them. And there was a chance that if someone had stopped to offer her a lift, she may have mouthed off and angered them. Mia could yell better than most and she was tough and able to stand up for herself. So the lack of witnesses hearing anything made her murder so much more perplexing. Police started to wonder if she accepted a lift from someone she knew.

They interviewed all of her friends and acquaintances and many felt like they were suspects. As police began piecing together the timeline and collating the information on all friends and acquaintances, they realized just how wide the net was. It seemed like everyone knew Mia somehow. As a result of being famous and having lots of fans in a small community, wading through the personal histories of everyone was a huge task. Many of the people in the music scene also had criminal histories, some lengthy. Not necessarily for violent crimes, more often it was theft or drugs, but the list was large. Add in the people who didn't know Mia but lived in the vicinity of

where she was last seen or where she was found and the list went into the hundreds. With so many people in the area having previously been in trouble with the law it came as no surprise that there was a lack of witnesses coming forward. Mia's ex David was one of the first to be called in for questioning. Mia had already tried to find him once that night. What if she tried again after leaving Gemma's and was successful. The rehearsal studio where Mia had looked for him was fairly isolated at the back of the building and it was soundproof. If she was killed there no one would have heard a thing. The studio was examined, no forensic evidence was found but police did locate Mia's

microphone. According to friends she always carried it around with her but no one could remember her having it when she was out drinking so it's possible she just left it there after rehearsal. David was asked to provide a semen sample, blood sample, hair sample and he participated in two polygraph tests. Many people in Mia's extended circle weren't that forthcoming but David supported the police without question and wanted to help any way he could. He was devastated by Mia's death and he believed the sooner police cleared him the more chance they had of finding the real killer. Not only did David cooperate fully he also had a strong alibi for the entire night. He had spent the evening with friends and his new girlfriend.

Police continued questioning everyone they could. Eventually all of Mia's male friends were asked to give DNA samples but no matter how many people they spoke to they couldn't account for the missing hour and 20 minutes. Mia regularly caught cabs and many of the local cab drivers knew her but none of them picked her up that night. Maybe she had accepted a ride from someone passing by after all. The police had no leads and they still had no idea where Mia was actually murdered. After the initial shock, fear set in to the local community. The murderer was out there, was at one of their own, someone who knew Mia, a crazed fan, a random act, a serial killer.

Mia's body being left would appear to be deliberately in a religious pose and the location between the church and church community center created the suspicion that there was a religious motive. Police looked at the possibility that there was a hidden message for them. They even started to consider whether the Green River serial killer had been responsible. The then uncorked Green River killer was known for raping and strangling his victims and sometimes he left them in poses. He was believed to be a religious fanatic and he was known to leave his victims in areas away from where he killed them. But the Green River killer also had many differences and one of those differences was the fact that Mia's body

was dumped with the intention of it being found. She wasn't hidden from sight. A possible connection was closely looked at but after much consideration police moved away from the Green River killer theory. Instead they concentrated on Mia's fan base as well as her peers in the music industry. The fact that the Gits were succeeding did raise the question whether someone may have been envious of Mia's success. But that would suggest a person who had likely never killed before, someone in her group or in the industry that just had a grudge. This type of murder didn't really fit with that theory. According to the profile of Mia's attacker, the brutality and a level of violence she

endured indicated that the person was likely to have had a history of violence, possibly someone who had assaulted females in the past. Not someone who had just decided to kill because of envy. Friends of Mia's arranged an all night vigil that was attended by over 1000 people. Her murder shocked everyone. Those in the grudge scene were destroyed. And they were scared. Her friends spoke about looking over their shoulders, worried that they may be next. On Saturday July 10, a few days after her murder, Mia's family and friends held a private memorial service in Seattle before her body was taken back to Louisville for burial. She was remembered not just for her music but for her painting,

her writing, her friendship and for who she was as a person. At one point, Mia's father looked out the window and watched the line of people grow, all coming to pay their respects and remember Mia. Friends, acquaintances and fans gathered and the line began snaking around the block. A lot of them were carrying yellow roses, Mia's favorite flower. Mia's parents, Richard and Donna, were completely overwhelmed by the amount of kids, as they called them, that came to pay their respects. A table was filled with the yellow roses they had brought. There was incense burning and poetry and photos of Mia were pinned to the wall.

Some of her friends told Mia's parents stories about things Mia had done to help them, or ways she had made a difference in their lives. Richard and Donna were surprised by how many people Mia had touched in her short 27 years. They learned that she had helped people when they were homeless and helped friends recover from drug addictions. She was a rock for a lot of people. As time went on, many of Mia's friends kept a suspicious eye, wondering if the killer was among them. They were told by the police that although it could have been anyone, there was a good chance it was someone they knew. Many worried that it was going to happen again.

No one felt safe while the killer was still out there. Everyone in the scene felt a dark cloud was hanging over them. Mia's friend Valerie Agnew said, quote, It's just surreal to sit next to somebody you'd been drinking with or going to shows with for so many years and wonder, did they do it? Friends put up posters all over Seattle hoping that someone might have seen something. Handwritten in marker pen, the posters read, Did you see Mia? Tuesday night, July 6th, 2am to 3.30am. She was walking between 11th Avenue and Broadway at 2am.

She was found strangled to death on 25th Avenue between Yesla and Washington. Did you see her catch a ride, talking to someone, walking? If you have any info, please call. Crime stoppers posted a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Police started getting numerous calls from people with tips who wanted to help, but also from people who just wanted to insert themselves in the investigation. By this stage, Mia's celebrity status meant that there were people who wanted to be involved purely on the basis that other famous people were offering their help. Despite the publicity of the case, nothing was moving the investigation along at all.

It had come to a standstill. Mia's friends didn't rest though. They understood there were no leads, but they weren't the type to just sit on their hands and do nothing. After a couple of weeks, Steve Moriarty, the kid's drummer, and a few friends became so frustrated that they got together and hired a private investigator, Lee Herron. Lee focused on the community and those close to Mia. She wanted to piece everyone together, which she found hard initially as after her death. Just about everyone had suddenly become Mia's friend. Lee interviewed women who worked the streets where Mia was found, as well as every person who lived in that area. She also visited the clubs and hung out in the grunt scene to try and get

all the information she could. She quickly realized that the majority of people in Seattle's music scene lived nomadic lifestyles. It was normal not to have a phone or a steady job, so pinning people down proved almost impossible. Also, people were paranoid, still wondering if the killer was out there stalking his next victim, so many people were too scared to talk. Lee discovered that the Gits had a group of dedicated fans who followed the band around Seattle and went to every show they performed. She set her sights on this small group, hoping to get a lead, but nothing came up. Then, Mia's roommates told Lee that Mia had made a new friend in the lead-up to her murder,

and a few days after she died, her new friend was heard shouting, the bitch is dead, why did I do it? After looking into this person, Lee managed to obtain DNA samples from his car. She also convinced the police to look into the police's car, Lee managed to obtain DNA samples from his car. She also convinced the police to look into him. The police asked him to come in for questioning, during which he agreed to take a polygraph test. He passed. A woman then came forward to police, describing a man she had encountered a few weeks after Mia's

murder. This woman was walking along the street near the Comet Tavern, when she could sense a car was coming up slowly behind her. She thought the driver was about to offer her a ride, but when she looked over, she saw the male driver was masturbating. The woman got away and took note of the number plate, but when she reported it to police, they said it wasn't something they could pursue. In order to keep Lee Heron's private investigation going, people rallied to raise funds. Joan Jade agreed to join the GITS for a small tour of benefit geeks as she had been personally touched by Mia's murder. Mia's music friends got Warner Brothers to front up the money for

a benefit concert in Seattle. With Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Courtney Love and Soundgarden involved, it gained enough publicity to keep Mia's case in the minds of the public, as well as the police. Mia's friends also felt a sense that if Mia had some form of self-defense training, she may have been able to get away from her killer. They decided to set up an organization called Home Alive, which provided self-defense training and gun classes to women. The publicity around the Home Alive organization also had the added benefit of keeping Mia's case in the news. The remaining members of the GITS did what they could to keep the fires burning for the band, but the reality was they had lost their essence. Mia, their front woman, was what made them their

GITS. Without her, they were lost. When going through what they had from recording sessions for their second album, they discovered that Mia had saved some vocal tracks that they thought she had never recorded. One of these songs was called Sign of the Crap. It was a song Mia had written only two months before her death. The lyrics were eerily prophetic. The song describes being murdered at the hands of a stranger. A section of lyrics reads, quote, anything to get me in and then get me killed. Go ahead and slash me up, spread me all across this town, because you know you're the one who won't be found. With what they had already recorded, the GITS were able to release their second album in 1994. It's titled, Enter the Conquering Chicken.

By mid-94, Seattle's music scene was reeling from further deaths of young and beloved musicians. It had started before Mia's murder in 1990 with the fatal heroin overdose of Andrew Wood, lead singer of Mother Love Bone. Two members of that band would go on to form Pool Jam. That was followed in 1992 by the asphyxiation death of Stephanie Sargent, the guitarist from Seven Year Bitch. Mia's murder came a year after that. A year after Mia's death in 1994, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Two months later, Kristen Faff, basis for the band Hull, died of a drug overdose. Hull was the band fronted by Kurt Cobain's wife, Courtney Love. It led to the media labelling grunge as the deadliest music genre.

By 1995, the remaining members of the GITS had worked with numerous artists to produce albums and play benefit gigs to continue raising money to keep the private investigator Lee Herron going. Following three benefit shows where they had worked with rocker Joan Jett as their frontwoman, they collaboratively released an album titled Evil Stig. The name is actually GITS Live spelt backwards. They had Joan Jett sing vocals and play with the band, releasing the album as a cross promotion between Warner Brothers and Jett's Blackheart Records. Joan Jett had found fame as a teenager, leading the all-female group The Runaways, and she was living in Seattle at the time of Mia's murder. Also known for her feisty, raspy and energetic voice, she brought exactly what the GITS

felt was a very Mia style to their music. The GITS then held the opening music slot for an AIDS benefit concert, as well as contributing a new song to another album, this time a compilation also being used to raise funds. This one was called Home Alive, The Art of Self-Defense, and it was dedicated to the organization that Mia's friends had set up to help provide self-defense classes to women. So many bands wanted to contribute to the Home Alive album and ended up becoming a two CD set. All publishers, record companies and artists agreed to donate all royalties for use of the songs. The Home Alive organization is still in operation today. 3 years after Mia's murder, the white body outline on the pavement remained,

faded after time, but still there as a reminder of that night and a reminder to the community that a murderer was still out there. The police investigation had stalled, but the private investigation by Lee Herron continued. A woman contacted Lee and told her she had met a man on an internet site and had recently begun a romance with him. During an argument, this man told the woman that he would do to her what he had done to Mia as a part of. When Lee looked into him, she discovered that he was known to watch young schoolgirls from his car. Lee turned the information over to Seattle police and when they questioned him, he said that he was staying with a friend in Olympia the night Mia was murdered.

But after digging further, they discovered he was actually working as a taxi driver in Capitol Hill that night. So not only had he lied about his whereabouts, he was working in the area where Mia was killed. When confronted by police, he broke down and confessed to having drug problems. He said he would never hurt Mia though. There was not enough evidence to make an arrest or press charges, so the investigation into the cab driver didn't go any further. But Lee felt convinced he had something to do with it. By now, the money had run dry and Mia's friends weren't able to keep paying Lee, but she had become so invested in the case she agreed to work pro bono.

When this latest lead fizzled out, the case went cold and the gits dissolved. By 2001, detectives Greg Mixall and Richard Gagnon had been allocated cold cases at the Seattle Police Department. Their job involved going through the enormous backlog of unsolved cases and identifying those that had a chance of moving forward with new technologies in forensic testing. When they went through Mia's file, they saw that a swab of saliva had been stored in 1993. It wasn't tested at the time because the sample was too minute for the technology available. But by 2001, there had been enough advances in DNA technology and the cold case detectives thought that although saliva had a very slim chance of producing a DNA profile, it was worth a shot.

At the time, this possible DNA evidence police had was not public knowledge, only the investigators knew about it. Washington State Patrol Crime Lab technician Jody Sass performed a DNA analysis on the swab using polymerase chain reaction and short tandem repeat methodology, also known as PCR, a new technology and one that had just been awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry. The discovery made it possible for DNA to be extracted from very small biological samples and then amplified to allow them to obtain the DNA information. Because the sample taken from Mia's body was so small,

the crime lab was worried it would be destroyed, so they had to wait for the PCR process to be perfectly refined before they sent the sample for testing. When the swab was finally tested, they were able to amplify it and the lab technician Jody Sass was able to obtain two separate DNA profiles in equal concentrations. From that, she was able to extract Mia's DNA profile, which then isolated a complete profile belonging to an unknown male. It had worked. They had the killer's DNA. No other DNA profile was obtained on any of the other material tested, only the tiny saliva swabs.

Detectives Mixill and Gagnon immediately ran the DNA profile through the Washington State database to find a match, but the search came up with nothing. As disappointing as that was, it did officially rule out everyone that was close to Mia who had provided a DNA sample during the investigation. In June 2002, they were able to submit the DNA profile to the CODIS database maintained by the FBI, a national database containing the DNA profile of everyone who was committed to felony across the country, but they got no match there either. The killer continued to evade them. Every week, the system was automatically rechecked in the hope that they would get a match from a new entry, but week after week, they came up empty. The case had

stalled again. Six months later, in December 2002, lab technician JD Sass got a phone call from authorities in Florida. A new law had passed in Florida only months earlier, and burglary was now considered a felony. As a result, there was an influx of new DNA profiles hitting the system in Florida. Someone had just entered the system, who was at the time on probation following a recent conviction for possession of burglary tools. As a condition of his probation, he was required to submit two cheek swab samples. Those cheek swabs had come back as a match to the DNA found on Mia's a part of his body. The chance of it being from anywhere else in the United States was one in 1.5 trillion. They had their hit. 48-year-old Jesus Mesquia was a Cuban exile living in Florida.

He had convictions for aggravated battery of a pregnant woman in 1997, as well as kidnapping, false imprisonment, robbery, and indecent exposure in the early 80s in Florida. In California, he had convictions in the late 80s and early 90s for battery of a spouse and assault to commit rape. It was discovered that Mesquia lived in Seattle between 92 and 94 during the time of Mia's murder. He shared a home with a woman three blocks from where Mia's body was found, and he had a record for a speeding ticket in the same area. On the night Mia was murdered, the woman he lived with was out of town. Looking back through Mia's police file, it was discovered that Mesquia's number plate was a match for a car that had been reported during

the investigation, the incident where a woman saw a man masturbating in his car not long after Mia was murdered, the incident where the police said they weren't able to investigate any further. In Florida, the U.S. Marshals were informed and they placed Jesus Mesquia's home under surveillance until detectives Mixall and Gagman arrived from Seattle. But after a day's surveillance, they weren't sure if he was home. There hadn't been one sighting of him. Monroe County Sheriff's deputies who were assisting with the case, questioned Mesquia's wife while she was at work. She told them that Mesquia had left town for Miami, where he had a temporary job on a fishing boat.

Police moved quickly to track Mesquia down in Miami, going to an address provided by his wife. When they arrived, they found his white van parked out the front. And a few hours later, Jesus Mesquia was in custody. Mesquia didn't resist or run. He thought the police were just checking up on his probation. He got the shock of his life when he found out the real reason they wanted to speak to him. Late on January 10, 2003, just shy of 10 years after Mia Zapata was murdered, 48-year-old Jesus Mesquia was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Mesquia denied ever meeting, knowing, or killing Mia Zapata.

When the trial began, Mia's family, her kids being made, and many of her friends attended court every day. When Mesquia walked into the courtroom, they were instantly hit by the enormous size of him, six foot four and 240 pounds. They realized that there was no way Mia would have been able to defend herself against him. Overpowering him would have been impossible. Senior prosecuting attorney Tim Bradshaw told the jury that the DNA taken from saliva on Mia's body matched Jesus Mesquia, and that was proof beyond reasonable doubt that he killed her. Quote, The evidence that was previously left in darkness has been illuminated and exposed to the light of the laboratory and will be exposed for your consideration in the light of this courtroom.

The medical examiner testified that there was no doubt in his mind that the saliva was from the accused, and in addition, there was no doubt that the saliva was left on Mia's body during the attack. The prosecution's case was that in the early hours of July 7, 1993, Jesus Mesquia was cruising the streets in his car. He drove past Mia, who was unable to hear him pull up because she had her headphones on. He abducted her, pulling her into his car. She was bashed and sexually assaulted in his vehicle at a deserted location, and later dumped just a few blocks from Mesquia's home. Although at the time police questioned the religious significance that Mia had been dumped next to the church and in a religious pose, they now believed that this was nothing better

coincidence, that her pose wasn't deliberate, but it was just how she happened to end up after Mesquia dragged her from the car and left her in the street. They believed he had never met Mia before that night. It was a random attack. During the trial, after the state had rested its case, a woman came forward and alleged that Mesquia had assaulted her about six months after Mia's murder. While out on a jog in downtown Seattle at 4.30am, Mesquia knocked her to the ground and she felt pain in her throat, but she managed to get to her feet and run away. She returned to her apartment building and found Mesquia standing at the corner of her building, staring at her and masturbating. If it wasn't for two people sitting in a nearby car, she may not have escaped.

Following a two-week trial, a jury took over two days to reach their verdict. They found Jesus Mesquia guilty. Because of the extreme injury suffered by Mia and based on the aggravating circumstance of deliberate cruelty, the judge made the decision that although the standard sentence ranged from 18 to 28 years, there was legal justification for a 36-year sentence over and above the standard. Mesquia appealed both his conviction and his sentence. In 2005, when it went to appellate court, the judge overturned the sentence based on a US Supreme Court ruling known as the Blakely decision. A decision that meant that any factor that extended

a sentence beyond its standard range must itself be proven and approved by a jury. But then something unusual happened, something Mesquia's own lawyers didn't understand his reasoning for. In 2009, when facing resentencing, Mesquia waved his right to have a jury determine whether aggravating circumstances would justify the longer sentence, allowing the King County Superior Court judge to uphold his conviction and sentence. Had Mesquia not a waved his right, his lawyers believed he would have received a reduced sentence. Instead, he returned to prison to continue his 36-year sentence. His lawyers stated they had no idea why he had chosen to waive his rights.

During the initial trial, a video was played to the judge, the jury, and everyone in the courtroom. In the video, Mayor's father, Richard, says the following. What I know of my daughter, she was very quiet, very reserved, ultra-ultra shy. The last person in the world who would call attention to herself. And yet, put a microphone in her hand, march her up on a stage, and she was just magnetic. After closing Mayor's case, cold case detective Gagnon spoke about the pile of cold cases they still had waiting for them, and to the killers they were yet to catch. Quote, The clock's always ticking, you're not a free man. Maybe someday on the road,

there'll be a knock on the door. If you're having trouble sleeping at night, I think we've done our job. I'm awake and in a state it's not my own, the only thing that's really bad among these walls, I whisper to a fear that speaks in my soul, waiting on my conscience, but I think I know it hurts me to be angry, kills me to be kind, but my own the torment is my own disguise, waiting on the favors they are like on the show, there's not much in there for you to hold. Waking to the sudden fact that I'm simply with the chance, but I'm not yet to die, waiting for my temperment to come, well maybe they can hit and crash me on his eyes, it hurts me to be angry, kills me to be kind, but my own the torment is my own disguise,

waiting on the favors they are like on the show, there's not much in there for you to hold. Thoughts have become something I can't touch, but you can feel, but it's something else around it's not easy to say. Waking to the only chance I've got, hide behind these walls, I look through the cracks, I see the same mistakes that I once made, but all that I can tell you, there is a part of pain that hurts me to be angry, kills me to be kind, but my own the torment is my own disguise, waiting on the favors they are like on the show, there's not much in there for you to hold. Thoughts have become something I can't touch, but you can feel, but it's something else around it's not easy to say.

It hurts me to be angry, kills me to be kind, but my own the torment is my own disguise, waiting on the favors they are like on the show, there's not much in there for you to hold.