Mia Zapata /// Part 1 /// 135 | Forensic Files

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cry [Music] 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 19 84 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 GS 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 gits were making a name for themselves in the
local music 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 [Music] cold [Music] Mia Zapata was born August 25th 1965 in
Louisville Kentucky uh her parents were in the broadcast business they were fairly well off and provided a very
comfortable life uh 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's 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 uh in Yellow Springs Ohio a
lot of people might be familiar with this this is where Dave Chappel resides mhm there's one hell of a Brewing
Company in Yellow Springs as well uh she moved up there in 1984 to attend college
and then in 1986 she with three friends formed a punk rock band called The git uh this included guitarist Andrew Kesler
drummer Steve moriori and basist Matt Dresner now Antioch college is a liberal arts college and there was actually a
pretty big um venue there before called Peaches I don't know if it's still there
um played a couple gigs there in my day but it was it was more popular in the in
the early 9s yeah and I 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 um
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 uh to a bigger a bigger town and not even just moving you know 40 some minutes to
Columbus but hey let's to 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 student 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' be way different it'd be way harder MH uh so they decide to
take their talent to Seattle now at the time Seattle I mean is just booming with
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 Allison Chains Reverend Horton Heat uh and there's probably many
other great ones that we're leaving out um 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 uh 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
bond 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 bandmates kind of become your last line of defense when you take it that far
away from from where you've started off well and there o 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 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 Captain when out in Seattle um what kind
of band were was the gits 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 um maybe even a Joan Jet 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 artist 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 inyour face than some of those people she's more Patty Smith than
jayen Joplin and 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 to describe her she's kind of a um you know you would see her in 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 um a lot more now but especially
in the early 90s I mean this is prean Moret yeah and this kind of brought in a new crowd to some of that Seattle music
scene uh a lot of the uh female fans became big fans of Mia um and in 1990 after the band moved to Seattle the gits
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 Beck 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 uh titled Frenching the bully uh this had some hits on it yeah that's the strange
Frenching the bully Frenching the bully but you does that mean like tonging the bully like I guess if there's some guy
that's picking on a bunch of people you run up 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 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 and the thing with rock and roll music Captain is that uh it's it's let me tell you let me tell
you tell you about rock and roll this is Behind the Music VH1 with uh 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 talking about well what I'm talking
about is you have bands like Alice and 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 and possibly one of the reasons why
the GS moved there in in the beginning mhm but the GS 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 record labels the one that I heard rumored the most would have been Atlantic Records well it would have been
really cool if Jimmy iven would have got a hold of them and did what he did with
Patty Smith I don't know who coin the phrase you remember the phrase the best band you never heard of was that Rolling
Stone magazine that that all always like every year they've got a new best band you've never heard of thing yeah um you
the best podcast you've never heard of uh the gits 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 gits I full disclosure I didn't hear I hadn't heard of the gits until uh 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 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 uh they spent most of
uh 1993 working on that album when 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've seen her on
stage you know the footage I've seen um she that's the best way to describe her she was a force you couldn't take your
eyes off of her well and 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 uh this brutal crime yeah during the time uh right around the time of her
murder um they like we said they were working on their second album and they had just come back from a 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 uh and this was going to be with the band many people have probably heard of them seven-year [ __ ]
was a band that 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 7year [ __ ] they were at this local
club called the comet Tavern mhm uh and they is Capitol Hill right yeah the Capitol Hill area of Seattle they they
they're this is going to be a celebration um 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 have a few drinks shoot some pool hang out at the bar it
but this was a typical this was a typical hangout spot for band members in this area well Mia
would leave the bar around midnight she was there from about 10:00 a.m. or I'm sorry 10:00 p.m. till midnight um and
then she went to a friend's house uh somebody that lived just blocks away from the comment she stayed there till
about 2: a.m. now her friend says that she tried to talk Mia into staying the night uh Mia says that she's going to
get a cab and she's going to head home for the night MH um it's around 3:15 to 3:30 that there's a woman
walking near the intersection of 24th Avenue in 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 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
department's then going to call this into the police department yeah and so when the when the police department
arrives uh the first thing they note 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 so it'd be more like Jesus Jesus 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 um and the the hood had been pulled down over her
face uh one of the strings or the ring from the her hoodie was wrapped around Mia's neck mhm 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 to churches or a uh I
should say a Catholic Community Service is 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 um
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 um 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 braw and
pantties stuffed into Mia's Pockets there's a portion of her brawl 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 there
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 there um they firmly believed that she was killed elsewhere
and brought to this location and laid there in this post now they did find tire tracks uh that would suggest that
maybe somebody had pulled her out of a car placed her on the ground and then sped off what it 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 uh I have 319 a.m listed here so that means we're dealing with 80 90 minutes MH um so we have a
short period of time that that is unaccounted for that Mia 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 '90s and
the grunge scene uh people you know dress in 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 MH 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 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 gits um 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 mhm and like the captain said the first thought is did she get in a cab you know
this was somebody that was 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 Uber mhm 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 a breakup well police could find no evidence or no
proof that she got into a cab that night um and then regarding the boyfriend uh 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 uh he submitted himself to any test that they asked for yeah I believe he took a lie detector
test uh 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 filling bad and maybe wanted
to make amends or or who knows but uh there was no evidence to show that she uh went to his house and he also had 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 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 and and passed away eventually from those that attack we'll dive right back into the initial investigation of M
zata right after this quick beer [Music] break [Music] this show is sponsored by better help do
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[Music] all right 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 7th 1993 uh 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 um 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 um 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 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
there 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 mhm 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 is 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 and 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 all right 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 seamen um found correct that kind of goes nowhere M um the please 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
mhm 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 into 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 it these
items this metal bits and pieces wouldn't have come from that Walkman uh 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 U Catholic you know Community
Center mhm and her body is 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
mhm uh 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 um 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 cuz here's the weird thing so she's at her friend's house then her body's found you know a good hour and a half
later and only 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 were 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 and this could these pieces of metal could had 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 Manor 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 uh 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 3 feet and got those scuff marks MH so it's it's kind of hard to tell there but what's
interesting here is you know she was 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 would 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 mhm I would I would have to guess if if she ended up in a vehicle or ended up in in
an apartment and and why do you say you know Nick Captain well why why do you immediately jump 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 attack 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 in 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 there's zero eyewitnesses I mean we don't have a 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 uh
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 while they're 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 2:00 in the morning and it's super dark and you're walk walking home you blast that music you're cutting
off one of your sensors yeah so I don't know it's scary thing and 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 I don't think we're not in constant fear that we're going to be
attacked and so the possibility is that her attacker could have you know been several inches away from her without her
possibly knowing mhm 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 um 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 and I hate to say this uh cuz it sounds like I'm the bad guys 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 it well it's really frustrating with this area this Capitol Hill area
with their 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 part 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 2:00 well she walked often she took cabs often uh this is an area
that I've been told and from what I've read this is an area like we said that 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 uh a good amount of drug activity going on selling are they
selling lemonade that's right uh 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 during and what right 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 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 the 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 mhm right and she gets in the the car mhm so that's a possibility as well it's
certainly a possibility um you know with no eyewitnesses the the other thing Captain we uh have not mentioned yet
they had a um when I say they I mean the gits 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 Andor the band um 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 uh
rehearsal space right and there's no evidence that she was intact tacted inside of this space you're exactly
right what led them to the conclusion was 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
and these were items that were later found at the rehearsal space uh 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 the 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 him away right uh attack him
somewhere else murder him somewhere else and then when you go to drop them off drop him back in the same location that
you found them mhm you you'd think you would want to drop them further way 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 the 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 then a block later I saw this um there was there was
a guy there was a a a man sleeping in an apartment near this area that did say he
heard some screams around 3:00 a.m. that morning so this would have just been about 19 20 minutes before she was
found um could it been now did they say male screams or female screams or not 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 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 whe 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 Iden an ID uh
to get into the bar or to drink at the bar yeah those are the best bars right when you just walk in he 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 tab yeah or Tom where's
that 50 you owe me yeah you got to collect the money before you start drinking 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 and read several of her friends say this in interviews and this is
something that really hits home for all of us is that they a lot of them believed you know this was brutal attack
she's found out in the open mhm uh you 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 the monster that did this to our friend and when days go by and then days turn into weeks and
then to months well 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 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 mhm right but those ex lovers I mean we know this with bands
from being in one but it's like you know your bandmates you know all their girlfriends and then or in this case a
boyfriend mhm so you so you know that if it's one of them you you met this psycho
before right and so you have that but then you also got you know was it another jealous ban or a jealous singer
mhm I mean because think about how many times you play a gig with a 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 MH 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 on at bars and thinking you know
is the is the murderer here am I having beer with the murder is the guy that did
this sitting four stools from 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 they're 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 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 an obsessed fan yeah um you know that that 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 ni Nick was
the singer quote unquote singer of our band mhm so you had a lot more I I don't know that I did 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 better than I did so yeah there's a playing games with all
of us they were toned deaf 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 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 B B Marks again we have bite marks but we don't have the it's not enough to you're not going to 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 uh 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 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 this is a huge problem we're very likely going to
destroy it and never be able to test it again right 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 and risk it all unfortunately we're going to 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 well
and 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 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 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 band mates the gets right and and
they're going to really come to the Forefront and almost uh 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 gits for sticking by their their fallen uh friend mhm because you
know they could have very EAS 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 not even about that but I think they stepped
up and said look this is an individual that we loved and we're going on a 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 gits they had her [Music] back
[Music] and remember Mia Zapata was not just a victim she was an artist uh she was a
Creator check out her work and check out her band The 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 [Music] [Applause] [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on Angie to
tackle your dream kitchen remodel connect with skilled professionals to get all your home
projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that

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 in 1993 remains unsolved, highlighting the challenges of the investigation and the impact on her band, The Gits.

Key points

Mia Zapata's Musical Journey. Mia Zapata, born in Louisville, formed the punk band The Gits in Seattle.
The Tragic Murder of Mia Zapata. Mia was found murdered in 1993, leading to a long investigation.
The Gits' Rise to Fame. The Gits gained popularity in the early 90s, touring internationally without a label.
Mia's Last Night. Mia was last seen alive celebrating with band members before her tragic end.
The Discovery of Mia's Body. Mia's body was found in a disturbing pose, raising alarms for investigators.
The Mystery of the Cab Ride. Despite rumors, police found no evidence Mia got into a cab that night.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Mia's case would remain forever unsolved.

Investigation status of Mia Zapata's murder

5:12WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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