Mia Zapata ////// 135 | Forensic Files

[Music] [Applause] [Applause] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that
has wagered everything he owns on Saturday's big Mayweather McGregor fight including the deed to the garage he is
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stuff at True Crime garage all right Captain that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab a chair
grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Applause] [Music] thank you Mia Zapata was born and raised in
Louisville Kentucky she learned how to play the guitar and piano at a young age and was influenced by punk rock jazz
blues and r b in 1984 Mia Zapata enrolled at a college in Yellow Springs Ohio as a liberal arts student in 1986
she and three friends formed the punk rock band The gets in 1989 the band relocated to Seattle
Washington in 1990 and 1991 the band released a series of well-received singles on local independent record
labels as the gets were making a name for themselves in the local music scene Mia Zapata was murdered in 1993. the
investigation only led to a lack of leads and with little evidence many investigators feared Mia Zapata's murder
case would remain forever unsolved but the remaining members of the gits refuse to let Mia's case go cold
[Music] Mia Zapata was born August 25th 1965 in Louisville Kentucky her parents were in
the broadcast business they were fairly well off and provided a very comfortable
life for young Mia growing up now she got involved in music at a young age taking up piano and guitar and it was
obvious from that young age that she was quite talented at both yeah Mia is going
to head off to college and she's going to go to Antioch so she's going to head to our neck of the woods in Yellow
Springs Ohio a lot of people might be familiar with this this is where Dave Chappelle resides there's one hell of a
Brewing Company in Yellow Springs as well she moved up there in 1984 to attend college and then in 1986 she with
three friends formed a punk rock band called The gets this included guitarist Andrew Kessler drummer Steve Moriarty
and bassist Matt Dresner now Antioch college is a liberal arts college and there was actually a pretty big venue
there before called Peaches I don't know if it's still there played a couple gigs
there and my day but it was more popular in the in the early 90s yeah and I'll tell you what uh their band was around
for a few years before they decided to move off to Seattle now the thing here is Captain
you and I both know from having played in Columbus Columbus obviously being a very big uh college town you know not
only the capital of the state but we have the Ohio State University here so you and I know that if if you have a
certain level of talent and a certain level of Showmanship it's not real hard to be a successful College Band would
you agree with that yeah I mean you have to have drive and and obviously this band had Drive enough drive to say hey
we might have outgrown um Yellow Springs Ohio and maybe we should take our talents to a bigger a
bigger town and not even just moving you know 40 some minutes to Columbus but hey
let's just go where some real stuff is happening uh in Seattle yeah and the thing here is Captain it's
not in my opinion too terribly hard to get a large following when you play in a college town because the the college
itself and the students and your friends that you have in the area if you have the talent it creates a natural
following yeah but this again this is also the 90s I mean there's kind of a new music explosion in the 90s and and
I'd say today it would be a way different it'd be way harder so they decide to take their talent to Seattle
now at the time Seattle I mean is just booming with with musical talent and great bands coming out of there yeah we
all know the big ones you know uh sound garden Pearl Jam Nirvana Alice in Chains
Reverend Horton Heat uh and there's probably many other great ones that we're leaving out but this is really
striking it out on their own and really a brave thing to do you and I know that that one just having a band that can
last a few years together you know they say that they started as friends first and then became a band that's how most
bands start as friends now most of the time they don't always leave as friends so just to be together for a few years
and then to decide to strike it out on your own in an area so competitive uh with great music like Seattle is really
a brave thing to do well it probably made their bonds stronger as on a personal level I think you're right you
know you you have to become even closer Friends by that point because you're kind of your your band mates kind
of become your last line of defense when you take it that far away from from where you've started off well and
they're also doing um a lot of touring as well and and it's it's a very weird connection
um and and we have this with our high school going into college band I mean it's almost like um there's still a
group of people that associate me with the other three guys or the other guys with the other three guys we're forever
linked in some people's minds right I mean I get asked more about ex-band members than I do like family members
uh the thing here is Captain when out in Seattle um what kind of band were was the gets
so it's often often described as a punk rock band uh and I think that's a fair statement you know we said that uh Mia
was influenced by punk rock jazz blues and R B uh I've read many people compare her to like a Janice Joplin or a Stevie
Nicks uh maybe even a Joan Jett the thing here I didn't when I when I watched and listened to the music
um that she performed I didn't get the same Vibe you know I didn't I didn't get the vibe like I felt like
when people were writing that that they were trying to compare her voice and vocals to those artists and I I think
that she was very good at what she did I just didn't get that vibe from her I felt she was a little more aggressive a
little more in your face than some of those people she's more Patty Smith than Janice Joplin it's but she certainly
um certainly the type that very artistic and the the vocals and the lyrics I thought very well done
um but to describe her she's kind of a um you know you would see her and cut off shirts and cut off shorts and uh
very much the grunge look one thing that's really cool Captain is that we all know that when it comes to Hard Rock
there's not a whole lot of female uh that females that front a band well there's a lot more now but especially in
the early 90s I mean this is pretty Alanis Morissette yeah and this kind of brought in a new crowd to some of that
Seattle music scene a lot of the uh female fans became big fans of Mia's and in 1990 after the band moved to Seattle
the gets were they were very successful they went on a successful International tour spreading the word about the band
all without the support of a record label and just to show how big they were I mean they had groups like uh back you
know a lot of people would know who Beck is uh opening up for them at the time yeah and it was in 1992 that they
released an independent album titled Frenching the bully uh this had some hits on it yeah that's the strange
Frenching the bully Frenching the bully but you remember I mean like tonguing the bully like I guess if there's some
guy that's picking on a bunch of people you yeah no you run up and shove your tongue down his throat and then he
shrinks into a little tiny person and then he's easily defeated yeah or he or he blushes uh but this had some hits on
it some independent hits uh one titled another shot of whiskey another titled Second Skin
um and you know they we say punk rock band but they were very much a part of this growing very quickly growing grunge
scene that was coming out of Seattle a lot of people would argue like Nirvana for example has more Punk Tendencies you
know so yeah I think they fit right in well on the thing with rock and roll music Captain is that uh it's it's let
me tell you let me tell you about rock and roll this is Behind the Music VH1 with the with your buddy the colonel
um the thing with rock and roll music it's like a lot of other things that we see
in pop culture where it's there's kind of an explosion right it's like an atom bomb goes off there's an explosion and
then there's all these things that when the smoke is rising when the explosion is hitting there's all these things that
get pulled into the mix on the way up and there's things that get pulled into the mix on the way down and so when you
have a band like what are you talking about well what I'm talking about is you have bands like Alice in Chains you have
uh sound garden Nirvana coming out of that same area well what happens then is you have record labels flocking to that
area to figure out what the heck is going on why is there so much talent in one area one city and let's grab up some
of that Talent well and possibly one of the reasons why the gets moved there in in the beginning but the gits were very
much a part of this explosion you know and I I don't know if it was going to be on the way up or the way down but they
were in the conversation uh they were having talks with some wreck record labels the one that I heard rumored the
most would have been Atlantic Records well been really cool if Jimmy iveen would have got a hold of him did what he
did with Patty Smith I don't know who coined the phrase you remember the phrase the best band you never heard of
was that Rolling Stone magazine that that always like every year they've got a new best band you've never heard of
thing yeah um you're the best podcasts you've never heard of uh the gets would have been
kind of one of those bands that you might lump into some kind of conversation like that now if this is
hitting your ears and you're out there going what do you mean never heard of the gets I full disclosure I didn't hear
I hadn't heard of the gets until a couple months ago when when this case came onto our radar but again I was not
in Seattle in the early 90s I was but a but a small boy wandering around Ohio at
that time um still a small boy wandering around Ohio but these are this is one of those
bands that would have been lumped into that group because this they were playing with big names at the time they
were on the verge of a potential record contract they were touring like we said they had a successful International tour
they were working on another album um this one was going to be called the Conquering chicken they spent most of
1993 working on that album one we were talking off air earlier about one of her friends saying that Mia looked like a
chicken well and that's probably why the name the Conquering chicken for the second album you know she she was a a
force this woman uh she she was artistic and she was going to be a force in the scene and if you'd seen her on stage you
know the footage I've seen um she that's the best way to describe her she was a four she couldn't take
your eyes off of her when she was an artist so um you know she was a victim in this horrible crime and we're going
to get into that but please take the time to go back and look at her art and that her life in which she created
before the brutal crime yeah during the time uh right around the time of her murder they like we said they were
working on their second album and they had just come back from a successful tour and they were gearing up for
another tour um the way I understand this this was going to be like a West Coast USA tour
and this was going to be with the band and many people probably heard of them Seven Year [ __ ] was a band that I
believe they had some MTV success uh when we were younger I couldn't name a song of theirs but I remember seeing
them on TV quite a bit um and that night this would be in July of 1993. uh Mia was with several band
members and several band members of the band Seven Year [ __ ] they were at this
local club called the comet Tavern uh and then this is in Capitol Hill right yeah the Capitol Hill area of Seattle
there there this is going to be a celebration they are excited about the upcoming tour you know touring means
money means more fans means getting your name out there uh potentially getting that record contract that you're after
and they're they're going to be out celebrating they're you have a few drinks shoot some pool hang out at the
bar it's but this was a typical this was a typical hangout spot uh for band members in this area well Mia would
leave the bar around midnight she was there from about 10 a.m I'm sorry 10 p.m till midnight and then she went to a
friend's house uh somebody that lived just blocks away from the comet she stayed there till about 2 A.M now
her friend says that she tried to talk Mia into staying the night Mia says that she's going to get a cab and she's going
to head home for the night um it's around 3 15 to 3 30. that there's a woman walking near the
intersection of 24th Avenue and South Washington Street and she sees the body of a woman a young woman in her mid to
late 20s and she happens to be near a fire department so this woman that's that sees a victim on the ground decides
to run to the fire department and she reports what she has found now the when the fire department arrives according to
their report Mia is the victim and she is still warm at this time uh her body's still warm
the fire department tried to resuscitate her however they were unsuccessful the fire departments then going to call this
into the police department yeah and so when the when the police department arrives uh the first thing they know is
how the body is found um they describe it as like a cross-like formation so her arms are both out to
the sides um and she has her legs crossed with the right leg over top of the left leg well
like the crucifixion yeah so it'd be more like more like Jesus on the cross you know so uh and and most the
crucifixion poses they have a foot on top of the other foot she was wearing a hoodie and the the hood had been pulled
down over her face one of the strings or the string from the her hoodie was wrapped around Mia's neck
this area the first thing that became alarming to the police is one how her body is found and two the area it's near
Two Churches or a uh I should say a Catholic community services building and a church so she's kind of lying between
these two religious areas and she's in this cross formation and a possible religious pose correct now as far as the
investigation goes one thing we have to talk about here Captain is when you talk
about a body being posed well that's a typical serial killer thing that we will see from time to time and we're talking
about this is King County so King County has been they had to deal with Ted Bundy
at one point uh at this point the Green River Killer investigation is still going on so this is something that
they're very accustomed to and probably something that's always in the back of their minds anytime they're finding a
victim especially a female victim well the police are going to find her bra and panties stuffed into Mia's Pockets
there's a portion of her bra that is missing and of course on the serial killer Theory here Captain that's one
thing that they took note of because they wondered you know did the did this killer take some kind of trophy or
something to remember this act or event with him after he dumped the body now we
say dumped the body because the first thing that the police were dealing with here is they were convinced that their
this area where she was found they saw no sign of a struggle there was nothing to point to them that that this murder
had occurred here that she was attacked there and killed killed there they firmly believed that she was killed
elsewhere and brought to this location and laid there in this pose now they did find tire tracks that would suggest that
maybe somebody had pulled her out of a car placed her on the ground and then sped off one that makes you wonder did
she get into a taxi cab that night like she told her friend she was going to yeah because we have a very short period
of time here to be concerned with we know that she was last seen alive and well at 2 A.M that morning and her body
is found at roughly I have 3 19 a.m listed here so that means we're dealing with 80 90 minutes so we have a short
period of time that that is unaccounted for that me is unaccounted for well the police are also going to find scuff
marks on her shoes you know kind of evidence that maybe she was dragged I think this would be kind of difficult
because especially like in the 90s I mean I don't think I had a shoe without scuff marks on it well it's 90s and the
grunge scene uh people you know dressing in tattered clothes in that scene and and from the video footage I've seen uh
that was kind of her outfit was tattered clothes right but but there could have been more evidence that pointed like you
know fresh scuff marks or something uh now the thing here she didn't have any identification on her uh so she it
wasn't like once they brought her to the medical examiner's office that they were
able to just open up a purse or pull out uh identification from her pockets and know immediately who she is
um but the somebody working in the medical examiner's office was familiar with the local music scene and was
familiar with the band The gets and I also believe that on her hoodie that it was a band hoodie so since they have
this information they're able to start retracing her steps and start questioning people pretty quickly and
like the captain said the first thought is did she get in a cab you know this was somebody that was known to take cabs
lots of cabs were used in this area she told her friend she was going to take a cab and go home days before Ubers so you
have to wonder what happened to her during this 80 minute time period the other the other rumor around this too
was that she just recently had breakup while police could find no evidence or no proof that she got into a cab that
night and then regarding the boyfriend they basically say that he he assisted as much as anybody possibly could in the
investigation he answered all their questions he was eager to come forward and talk with police he submitted
himself to any test that they asked for yeah I believe he took a lie detector test there was also a thought that maybe
that she was going to try to drop by his house that night you know like maybe based on conversations that you know she
had a couple drinks or whatever and she was feeling bad and maybe wanted to make
amends or who knows but uh there was no evidence to show that she went to his house and he also had a I think a pretty
solid Alibi as well so how did Mia die how was she killed well she was she was brutally beaten uh
she was raped and she was strangled she was strangled obviously with the the string from her hoodie
um the medical according to the medical examiner she had she not been strangled she would
have died from internal injuries suffered from the beating um it was that bad they found the
autopsy found evidence of a struggle in which Zapata suffered from blunt impact to her abdomen and a lacerated liver so
had she not been strangled she would have probably lied there in and passed away eventually from those that attack
we'll dive right back into the initial investigation of Mia Zapata right after this quick beer break
foreign [Music] [Music] cheers mates I want to quickly thank everybody that has left a five-star
review it really helps the show we're discussing the murder of young Mia Zapata she was 27 years old found dead
July 7 1993. this was about 3 30 in the morning when she was found now police have been
investigating as we said they already spoke to her boyfriend but this is going to bring them to her Inner Circle you
know talking to her friends family band members people in the area that she that
she knew and one thing that's going on here is that it's clear during the course of this questioning to her
friends and band members that Not only was she brutally beaten attacked and strangled
um but Mia was raped uh when she was attacked and this was something that they were asking the people that they
were questioning to keep to themselves this was not something that they had released to the general public but I
just wonder why they were doing that um I I think that here's here's the speculation I got for you
um part of her attack was they found bite marks on her chest and breast area um and this would have been something
that would not have been known um I think that they were probably keeping that especially to themselves
where maybe they were able to question these people and talk about the the rape or that she was sexually assaulted
without including that portion of it there's a couple things here one that's something that only the killer would
know and you and I know from talking about these cases so often that when you have when you have Crazies come out of
the woodwork and somebody comes up and confesses to this well they have to know certain details about the crime the
other thing too is if they can get somebody to slip up during the course of questioning and
reveal information that they've not revealed right then they know they're on the right path right that leads to the
Smoking Gun but I also wonder if it's because of her you know her her status you know as far as you know the lead
singer of a band that their the band was you know had some success going and that
they would have been known by a lot of people and so maybe like you were saying it brings out you know another level of
crazy what if it was just like some obsessed fan that comes out and admits to the murder for no reason yeah and you
have to worry about that with any case but especially in one like this now this is this is going to be tough for her
friends because we're we're talking about like you know we said Mia's kind of in your face aggressive person when
she's on stage you you've seen these crowds uh the people that would have gone and seen her bands they're not
people that like to sit on their hands and go well we're not doing anything about this uh our our friend was was
killed in she was raped and we're not allowed to talk about it and that can be hard for any Circle but I'm guessing
maybe especially hard for this circle of friends alright so the evidence that we
have right now is that we know that Mia was she was raped she was sexually assaulted now we have no DNA evidence of
this right we have no DNA left over right there is no semen found correct that kind of goes nowhere
um the police don't want her friends talking about that but now we have these bite marks that we have no definitive
Impressions so we can't match it up with somebody else's you know teeth right but
we possibly have some DNA evidence there uh there's also they the police found some metal pieces like debris almost
like small bits of metal uh either on or around her body uh they they never really give any kind of conclusion to
what this was or where it came from um you know you and I talked about you know she was known to have wore a
Walkman everywhere she went the old Sony Walkman um and for those of you not old enough
to remember that's the tape deck that you put in your pocket or strap it to your side and you can walk amongst town
and listen to all your favorite music and cassette tapes um great advertisement well nobody's
selling those anymore so nobody cares uh but I'm guessing that they these items this metal bits and pieces wouldn't have
come from that Walkman uh it very well could have because it's a small device however you know there's no no mention
that it was destroyed in the attack yeah and I think what investigators were questioning here is that we like we said
before we have you know you start speculating she's she's her body is dropped by this church and by this uh
Catholic you know Community Center and her body's in this pose of maybe a crucifixion you start wondering is there
some meaning behind these metal objects the other thing that's weird to it during this time period as far as like
Grunge music goes that's part of uh you know a lot of people would wear I think Chris Cornell used to wear like a fork
or something so some odd types of jewelry so maybe that was part of you know just something
that she was wearing uh or was it just in the area that her body was dumped yeah I remember people used to make
jewelry out of things that look like trash almost you know like like you said a fork or a screw or a bone or anything
like that that's a possibility I also wonder though if you know they they say that she was killed elsewhere and then
brought there yeah well because here's the weird thing so she's at her friend's house then our bodies found you know a
good hour and a half later and only a half mile from that friend's house right so you know one is there an alley or
anything that that she could have been attacked with and I'm sure that law enforcement looked into that and if they
didn't see any signs you know there are other crime scenes right that maybe that's why they're saying hey we believe
that she was taken somewhere else and but my first thought would be is at some point during this attack she was
on the ground um and this could these pieces of metal could it simply been something that was
picked up by her clothing well she necessarily didn't have to be on the ground she could have been you know in a
vehicle yes that's that's a good point um but but what I mean is she would have been lying uh in a situation where she
could have picked up her clothing could have picked up pieces of things whether it be on the ground or a car seat or the
floor of a car um and could have been transferred to this area through that manner
um or through the process of was she drugged to this area did somebody drag her to this area you know we mentioned
the scuff marks on her shoes but there was also additional scuff marks there was some bruising on her side which
which is hard to determine whether that was part of the attack or maybe part of being dragged to this area uh there was
also some scuff marks on her belt as well so we don't know how much of her was being dragged when transported and
placed at this location well and look I mean depending on the the surface area that she's being dragged on I mean it
could have been that she was dragged three three feet and got those scuff marks so it's kind of hard to tell there
but what's interesting here is you know she's leaving and then the question is you know if law enforcement believes
that she was taken somewhere else well how did she get there she she obviously left her friend's house she's obviously
on the street okay so now how does she get into the vehicle because this individual Mia does not seem like
somebody that would go hey uh girl I got some candy and she'd go hey let me jump
in your car no she was far too smart she's not falling for that right and so it's like what how did this uh how did
the attacker get her into the vehicle I would I would have to guess if if she ended up in a vehicle or ended up in an
apartment and and why do you say you know Nick Captain why do you immediately jumped a car or apartment that's the
area that we're talking about that would be the quickest method of getting somebody into a secluded area to do this
type of attack and you have we have no eyewitnesses you know if this were attacked to me that that were out in the
open you know out on the street what did we say that was the near the intersection of 24th and South
Washington if that attack would have taken place there she was found by somebody that was walking by she was
found by a pedestrian there would have been eyewitnesses in my mind right and so there's zero eyewitnesses I mean we
don't have it we don't even have an eyewitness of seeing a girl dragged into a car or out of a car right so this to
me looks like a very quick attack um where somebody was able to to grab her attack her and abduct her and pull
her either into a car or a nearby building or apartment well and she was badly beaten so you wonder if you know
you know initial hit you know a lot of people speculate that maybe she put on her Walkman and it was like well I'm
just going to walk home and what do we do and we hear this all the time you know we'll get pictures every week of
listeners in a park and they're listening to our our show why they run and all I think is why are you doing
that I mean I appreciate you listening to the show but uh when you're not familiar with the surroundings
especially at two o'clock in the morning and it's super dark and you're walking walking home you blast that music you're
cutting off one of your sensors yeah so I don't know it's a scary thing and and I do it too I mean I'll bike at night
and I blast some music and take off on my bike but I don't think we're not in constant fear that we're going to be
attacked and to the the possibility is that her attacker could have you know been several inches away from her
without her possibly knowing so she's blasting this music maybe you know he hits her from behind and then grabs her
she could have potentially been followed uh shortly after leaving her friend's apartment and who knows how long she
could have been followed for before she was attacked like you said I mean she's walking in the dark most likely with her
headphones on um it's it would be I hate to say this because it sounds like I'm on the bad
guy side which everybody knows I'm not but it would be an ideal way to track somebody or follow them
meaning what are you saying well she's walking alone in the dark without without her ears like you said you're
taking away one of your senses you could potentially follow that person for several blocks uh and they might not
even notice that you've been you've been trailing behind them at some distance for some time waiting for this potential
victim to walk into an area that would be uh a better situation for the attacker
um well it's really frustrating with this area this Capitol Hill area with there being there no eyewitnesses right
because I mean we know that Mia walked from a bar yeah right so we have bars in this area and again now it's that's one
of the things that's so frustrating here uh for me as far as when we dive into these cases is I know what time bars
close here right and then you know we're we're talking about one uh different parts of the country but we're also
talking about different times in history so who knows but you would assume that you know there'd be some pedestrians out
walking getting cabs in their cars you know getting home from bars around two o'clock well she walked often she took
cabs often this is an area that I've been told in from what I've read the scenario like we said the cabs were
frequently used in this area um I no disrespect to the good people of Seattle but the way Capitol Hill has
been described to me is an area that has um you know girls working the streets and we have a good amount of drug
activity going on are they selling lemonade that's right some of the best lemonade you've ever had my friend uh
but this right so they're sex workers yes this might not ring True to this day but when you're talking about the early
90s that's what was going on in this area this it was this is what this area was thought of and what right and then
law enforcement then has to start thinking okay well she's out with some friends did a friend come and drive by
and see her and say hey do you need a ride now we got now we're going down a whole different area but then that
friend you know that'd be like the friend stalking her to get the opportunity that my other question here
is was the attacker you know here's an easy way to get her in the car you you pretend that you're a taxi right
and she gets in the car so that's a possibility as well it's certainly a possibility
um you know with no eyewitnesses the the other thing Captain we have not mentioned yet they had a um when I say
they I mean the gets had a rehearsal space uh and I'm a little unclear as to what exactly the space was I've heard it
described as a studio I've read that it's was simply a rehearsal space or maybe a hangout space yeah well
sometimes it's it's deceiving it's all three well sometimes it's deceiving because people will say hey come down to
my rehearsal studio and when you hear the word Studio you think you know mixing board and big monitors and and
and that kind of stuff but you know then you show up and you're like okay we're at this rehearsal studio and it's just a
big empty room it's a lamp and a harmonica and you're going what's going on in here I Love Lamp they had a space
in this area that that was used by either Mia or and or or the band and one thing that came up early in the
investigation was they had wondered maybe had she dropped by there after leaving her friend's apartment or this
is the even more scary thing could this have potentially been an area where she would have been attacked would she have
been attacked inside of this rehearsal space right and there's no evidence that she was intact attacked inside of this
space you're exactly right what led them to the conclusion was a the proximity and B I guess there was an item or two
um that were items that they considered that they considered them to be items that she normally would carry on her
person uh well and these were items that were later found at the rehearsal space
but like you said there would have been she's brutally attacked she's brutally attacked there is a scuffle a struggle
that happened at some point and I think there would have been obvious signs of that in this space well yeah and then
the other question too is if she was taken away why would you if as the attacker right
why would you attack an individual pull them away right uh attack him somewhere else murder him
somewhere else and then when you go to drop them off drop them back in the same location that you found them
you'd think you would want to drop them further away because therefore maybe people wouldn't recognize the victim
yeah and one of her friends in an interview said you know and this is a very good point
is you know she's a vocalist she is she is the leader of of this band of this Punk Heavy band you know so she's not
just a vocalist a singer but a screamer a yeller yeah I think their drummer Steve was talking about that saying look
I've I've heard her yell many many times yeah you know we went on tour and she yelled many many times and he was
extremely surprised and I think we all should be at the fact that there was no eyewitness coming forward saying that
you know oh I heard screams and then I've then a block later I saw this um there was there was a guy there was a
a man sleeping in an apartment near this area that did say he heard some screams
around 3 A.M that morning so this would have just been about 19 20 minutes before she was found
um could it be how did they say mail screams or female screams or um clear on that I'm I'm definitely not
clear on that um it sounds to me like this guy would have been a few blocks his apartment was a few blocks away from
uh her Mia's friend's house that she had left um this very likely could have been MIA
like we said you know she when she was found they were trying to resuscitate her there was a chance there uh she
might have been she may have been dropped at that location just minutes before The Pedestrian walking by found
her yeah I wondered this I couldn't find this anywhere maybe you know the answer
do you know where they found her wallet because she had no ID on her right I don't know where they found that
I wonder if this is a complete guess so don't put any weight into this but my guess would be that it would have been
uh either where she was living whether where she was staying um I get the I get the impression that she
didn't bring extra things with her when when unnecessary the bar that she went to that night was a place that she had
been many times would not have required an identif an ID uh to get into the bar or to drink at the bar yeah those were
the best bars right when you just walk in and he's walking hey Phil Tim what's up the best is when you don't have your
wallet and you just go put it on my tap yeah or Tom where's that 50 you owe me yeah the guy collect the money before
you start drinking no seriously Tom I want my 50 bucks but while we're on the subject of of the bar scene and drinking
with friends this is what's haunting to me and I heard several of her friends say it and read several of her friends
say this in interviews and this is something that really hits home for all of us is it they a lot of them believed
you know this was a brutal attack she's found out in the open uh you all almost feel like when you hear how how brutally
she was attacked she's found out in the open in the middle of the night your first thought is this is probably
something that could be solved very quickly that they might be able to apprehend this person he left something
at the scene or left something on her that's going to lead you to this Maniac immediately yeah and you're going to be
able to apprehend this guy we're going to have a face for the monster that did this to our friend and when days go by
and then days turn into weeks and then to months will you start you start wondering where
is this guy who did this who did this to our friend wait a second was it one of our friends was it somebody that ran in
our Circle was it somebody that was involved in the Seattle music scene whether it be uh from another band or
somebody that followed the the music yeah it could I mean first with almost every case I mean you start looking at
ex-lovers right but those ex-lovers I mean we know this with bands from being in one but it's like you know your band
mates you know all their girlfriends and then or in this case a boyfriend so so you know that if it's one of them you
met this psycho before right and so you have that but then you also got you know
was it another jealous band or a jealous singer I mean because think about how many times do you play a gig
with the band and there's just that [ __ ] band where you you might like them but you're never going to say that
you like them because they're kind of your rival band so was there any of that going on and like you said now it's
weeks later you're drinking you're not on tour because because of this horrible crime
and you're sitting around the scene and hanging out at bars and thinking you know is the is the murderer here am I
having a beer with the murderer it is the guy that did this sitting four stools for me you know well and and the
other thing the one of the reasons that law enforcement really thought this had to be somebody that she knew was there
they're implicating the idea that um she was strangled and what was her voice or what what was her instrument
her instrument was her voice yeah and that the fact that she was strangled that somebody was trying to maybe
destroy her Talent her gift and so maybe that would lead to some sign that you know this was some uh jealous uh
musician or other band person or more what I think more likely would be maybe even a an obsessed fan yeah
um you know the the thought of her as that vocalist as that singer and only saw her as that I've never had an
obsessed fan um I don't Nick was the singer quote-unquote singer of our band so you had a lot more I don't know that
I did yeah I didn't pay any attention oh yeah there there'd be all these girls that would come up and say uh I just
want to let you know that I love your singer or the best I always thought they were going to say that they loved me but
never happened most of those girls told me that the captain sang better than I did so
yeah I think there's playing games with all of us they were tone deaf so so obviously just like we said at the start
of this show there the the lack of leads there was a there was there was no leads
there's no leads evidence what kind of evidence do we got here Captain we got very little to almost no evidence at all
well yeah we had a lot of speculation a lot of speculation but so little evidence to the point where after they
interview friends and people in her Inner Circle and they have to release some information to get information back
from them they're asking them to be quiet and not talk about this stuff so well right but then as far as law
enforcement goes because I mean they were doing their due diligence right right they were collecting all this
stuff they were you know there's a lot of law enforcement officers that would walk up onto the scene and not realize
that she might have been posed or or recognized where she you know where the body was dropped right you know that's
all I'm saying so they're doing their due diligence and then every turn it's like okay we know she's sexually
assaulted but we don't have any DNA evidence but let's go back to those bite marks again we have bite marks but we
don't have the it's not enough to you're not gonna be able to match those to any
kind of dental records or anything like that they're basically getting uh what they would refer to as uh teeth
scrapings from um which would provide some form of DNA evidence for them this is going to be basically little bits of
saliva that they're going to find on her person and they know they can they can determine that whoever put that saliva
there would have had to have done that at the time of her death right uh so that is your red flag and that's going
to be you know we unfortunately you know I sigh when I say this but unfortunately
we have had to cover so many cases that we've seen uh you know maybe the police department or investigators don't know
exactly what they're dealing with or are unable to handle a certain case that's not this case this case they did their
their work they did the hard work they did the hard work to the point of this okay so we're talking about 1993 DNA
evidence isn't even that big at this point right right there's still a lot to learn and a lot of growing room left as
far as DNA evidence goes they went so far to to determine this we have some DNA we have a tiny little bit that we
can get from the saliva that we found the problem is it's such a minuscule amount that if we test it
is a huge problem we're very likely going to destroy it and never be able to test it again right so if that's a
mistake right if that happens I've heard several investigators State regarding this crime that if they don't have DNA
evidence at this point in the investigation they have nothing so one thing that I think is brilliant here
that they decide you know what rather than throw rather than push all of our chips in and risk it all
unfortunately we're gonna have to put this on the shelf right we're going to have to hold back and we're going to
have to see what possible developments come in the way of DNA evidence to see if we're able ever going to be able to
use this and test it appropriately one think about her friends and her family uh and the band members at this point
right they're hearing all these updates and they're going okay well so you have DNA evidence right right well we'll test
it right and then and think about this too especially one of your loved ones is brutally murdered and you have this
evidence I mean there's a part of you that wants to take the gamble right oh I would think so I would definitely think
so and so they're kind of faced with this tough thing you know do you put pressure on law enforcement to try to
get them to test it what do you do but I think in this case and we're and I one of the main reasons why we're covering
this is to to point out something that you can do and the secret weapon in this case is going to be her bandmates the
gets right and and they're going to really come to the Forefront and almost champion this case keep her name in the
spotlight and and try to get answers and closure for her family yeah and it's it's strange how
how life can you know even death can reflect life in a way and and I and I applaud the gifts for sticking by their
their fallen uh friend because you know they could have very easily gone one of two ways you know we had this whole
thing going on we were riding this roller coaster and it was on its way up and our dreams got crushed not only did
I lose a friend but my dream got crushed too this is too much for me to take I'm
out of here or or you can you can try to carry on you can try to carry on and you
can continue to do your music thing but at the same time about that but I think they stepped up and said look this is an
individual that we loved and we're gonna fight to get answers well and a lot of times Captain the reason why a good
performer a good artist is able to stand on stage and have a voice in front a band is because they have friends behind
them playing instruments that have their back right and just just like in her life
as goes her death with the investigation these guys the gets they had her back [Music]
and remember me as Zapata was not just a victim she was an artist she was a Creator check out her work and check out
her band that gets all right I'm fired up let's let's stick around and get to part two I agree and that's why if
you're listening and you haven't subscribed already sometimes we drop these episodes early so make sure you
subscribe until next time be good be kind and don't live thank you [Applause] [Music]

Mia Zapata ////// 135

Part 1 of 2

TrueCrimeGarage.com

Some people are born to make it famous. 27 year old Mia Zapata was one of those people. In 1993 her band "The Gits" was making quite the name for themselves. Talent, charisma and showmanship- Mia had a lot of that stuff. Murder is always a shocking and tragic event but some murders shock an entire community. The senseless murder of Mia Zapata shocked a community and the Seattle rock scene. Join us as we discuss the murder of Mia Zapata.

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Brief Summary

Mia Zapata's murder is examined, detailing her life, music career, and the investigation's challenges.

Key points

Mia Zapata's Early Life. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Mia was a talented musician from a young age.
The Formation of The Gits. In 1986, Mia and friends formed the punk rock band The Gits, making waves in Seattle.
Mia's Murder and Investigation. Mia was murdered in 1993, leading to a complex investigation with few leads.
The Gits' Impact on Music. Despite their struggles, The Gits were part of the booming Seattle music scene.
The Discovery of Mia's Body. Mia's body was found in a disturbing pose, raising alarm for investigators.
The Brutal Attack on Mia Zapata. Mia was brutally beaten, raped, and strangled, leaving a community in shock.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The investigation only led to a lack of leads.

Describing the initial struggles in solving Mia's case.

4:08WatchDec 3, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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