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[Music] [Applause] % [Music] [Applause] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:48
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that has wagered everything he owns on Saturday's
00:01:54
big Mayweather McGregor fight including the deed to the garage he is the captain
00:02:00
I am boxing it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
00:02:08
hopefully you're right captain or we're going to be outdoors people well we always have tents and Parts
00:02:13
[Music] Unknown tonight we are drinking solar dog IPA by the Brilliant Minds over at a
00:02:23
Storia Brewing Company in beautiful atoria Oregon garage grade three and a half bottle caps out of five this is a
00:02:30
pretty straightforward IPA with a blend of citrus notes and a smooth multi finish and solar dog was brought to us
00:02:37
by these shiny garage Stars first up we have Ava in Gordonville Virginia we also
00:02:42
have Rachel in Grove City which I don't know if this is uh like I know Rachel in
00:02:48
Grove City like it this might be uh AKA Randall in Grove City and if it is Big shout out to Austin as well next we have
00:02:56
Ashton in Parts Unknown we also have Sarah who says she's working at The Outpost in Parts Unknown that must be
00:03:03
actually past the Border cuz I didn't realize we had an outpost we have an inpost and here's a note from Renee in
00:03:10
Parts Unknown she says she could listen to Nick read the phone book and she loves the captain's
00:03:17
Ranch you can listen to read the phone book if you want to go to bed and next up all the way from California we have
00:03:24
Catherine and morga and last but not least we have Ryan up in beautiful Ontario Canada so thanks to everybody
00:03:31
for filling up the fridge for this week's show and we'll need to do a beer run for next week's show so if you want
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to help out go to True Crime garage.com and click on the Donate button yes the refrigerator is low and for everything
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social media follow us on Facebook Snapchat Twitter Instagram all that stuff @ True Crime garage all right
00:03:49
Captain that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:03:58
cry [Music] Mia Zapata was born and raised in Louisville Kentucky she learned how to
00:04:20
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
00:04:31
enrolled at a college in Yellow Springs Ohio as a liberal arts student in 1986 she and three friends formed the punk
00:04:40
rock band the GS in 1989 the band relocated to Seattle Washington in 1990 and 1991 the band released a series of
00:04:52
well-received singles on local independent record labels as the gits were making a name for themselves in the
00:04:58
local music Mia Zapata was murdered in 1993 the investigation only led to a lack of leads and with little evidence
00:05:09
many investigators feared Mia Zapata's murder case would remain forever unsolved but the remaining members of
00:05:17
the gits refuse to let Mia's case go [Music] cold [Music] Mia Zapata was born August 25th 1965 in
00:05:42
Louisville Kentucky uh her parents were in the broadcast business they were fairly well off and provided a very
00:05:50
comfortable life uh for young Mia growing up now she got involved in music at a young age taking up piano and
00:05:57
guitar and it was obvious from that young age that she was quite talented at both yeah Mia's going to head off to
00:06:05
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
00:06:12
lot of people might be familiar with this this is where Dave Chappel resides mhm there's one hell of a Brewing
00:06:18
Company in Yellow Springs as well uh she moved up there in 1984 to attend college
00:06:23
and then in 1986 she with three friends formed a punk rock band called The git uh this included guitarist Andrew Kesler
00:06:33
drummer Steve moriori and basist Matt Dresner now Antioch college is a liberal arts college and there was actually a
00:06:41
pretty big um venue there before called Peaches I don't know if it's still there
00:06:46
um played a couple gigs there in my day but it was it was more popular in the in
00:06:51
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
00:06:59
Seattle now the thing here is Captain you and I both know from having played in Columbus Columbus obviously being a
00:07:06
very big uh college town you know not only the capital of the state but we have the Ohio State University here um
00:07:13
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
00:07:21
to be a successful College Band would you agree with that yeah I mean you have to have drive and and obviously this
00:07:27
band had Drive enough drive to say hey we might have outgrown um Yellow Springs Ohio and
00:07:35
maybe we should take our talents uh to a bigger a bigger town and not even just moving you know 40 some minutes to
00:07:42
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
00:07:50
not in my opinion too terribly hard to get a large following when you play in a college town because the the college
00:07:58
itself and the student students and your friends that you have in the area if you
00:08:02
have the talent it creates a natural following yeah but this again this is also the 90s I mean there's kind of a
00:08:09
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
00:08:18
take their talent to Seattle now at the time Seattle I mean is just booming with
00:08:24
with with musical talent and great bands coming out of there yeah we all know the
00:08:28
big ones you know uh sound garden Pearl Jam Nirvana Allison Chains Reverend Horton Heat uh and there's probably many
00:08:36
other great ones that we're leaving out um but this is really striking it out on
00:08:41
their own and really a brave thing to do you and I know that that one just having
00:08:46
a band that can last a few years together you know they say that they started as friends first and then became
00:08:53
a band uh that's how most bands start as friends now most of the time they don't
00:08:58
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
00:09:04
an area so competitive uh with great music like Seattle is really a brave thing to do well it probably made their
00:09:11
bond stronger as on a personal level I think you're right you know you you have to become even closer Friends by that
00:09:19
point because you're kind of your your bandmates kind of become your last line of defense when you take it that far
00:09:25
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
00:09:34
weird connection um and and we have this with our high school going into college
00:09:39
band I mean it's almost like um there there's still a group of people that associate me with the other three guys
00:09:47
or the other guys with the other three guys we're forever linked in some people's minds right I mean I get asked
00:09:54
more about ex-band members than I do like family members uh the thing here Captain when out in Seattle um what kind
00:10:03
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
00:10:11
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
00:10:20
Janice Joplin or a Stevie Nicks um maybe even a Joan Jet the thing here I didn't
00:10:27
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
00:10:34
didn't get the vibe like I felt like when people were writing that that they were trying to compare her voice and
00:10:40
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
00:10:49
felt she was a little more aggressive a little more inyour face than some of those people she's more Patty Smith than
00:10:56
jayen Joplin and but she certainly um certainly the type that very artistic and the the vocals and the lyrics I
00:11:05
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
00:11:13
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
00:11:21
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
00:11:31
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
00:11:38
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
00:11:48
were they were very successful they went on a successful International tour spreading the word about the band all
00:11:54
without the support of a record label and just to show how big they were I mean they had groups like uh Beck you
00:12:01
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
00:12:08
released an independent album uh titled Frenching the bully uh this had some hits on it yeah that's the strange
00:12:16
Frenching the bully Frenching the bully but you does that mean like tonging the bully like I guess if there's some guy
00:12:22
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
00:12:28
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
00:12:36
it some independent hits one titled another shot of whiskey another titled Second Skin um and you know they we say
00:12:43
punk rock band but they were very much a part of this growing very quickly growing grunge scene that was coming out
00:12:50
of Seattle a lot of people would argue like Nirvana for example has more Punk Tendencies you know so yeah I think they
00:12:58
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
00:13:05
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
00:13:13
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
00:13:19
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
00:13:26
when the explosion is hitting there's all these things that get pulled into the mix on the way up and there's things
00:13:32
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
00:13:38
about is you have bands like Alice and chains you have uh sound garden Nirvana coming out of that same area well what
00:13:45
happens then is you have record labels flocking to that area to figure out what the heck is going on why is there so
00:13:51
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
00:13:59
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
00:14:06
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
00:14:12
with some record labels the one that I heard rumored the most would have been Atlantic Records well it would have been
00:14:16
really cool if Jimmy iven would have got a hold of them and did what he did with
00:14:20
Patty Smith I don't know who coin the phrase you remember the phrase the best band you never heard of was that Rolling
00:14:27
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
00:14:34
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
00:14:41
some kind of conversation like that now if this is hitting your ears and you're out there going what do you mean never
00:14:46
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
00:14:52
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
00:15:00
around Ohio at that time um still a small boy wandering around Ohio but these are this is one of those bands
00:15:07
that would have been lumped into that group because this they were playing with big names at the time they were on
00:15:13
the verge of of a potential record contract they were touring like we said they had a successful International tour
00:15:19
they were working on another album um this one was going to be called the Conquering chicken uh they spent most of
00:15:26
uh 1993 working on that album when we were talking off air earlier about one of her friends saying that Mia looked
00:15:33
like a chicken well and that's probably why the name the Conquering chicken for the second album you know she she was a
00:15:39
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
00:15:47
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
00:15:53
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
00:15:59
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
00:16:05
before uh this brutal crime yeah during the time uh right around the time of her
00:16:10
murder um they like we said they were working on their second album and they had just come back from a a successful
00:16:17
tour and they were gearing up for another tour um the way I understand this this was going to be like a West
00:16:23
Coast USA tour uh and this was going to be with the band many people have probably heard of them seven-year [ __ ]
00:16:31
was a band that that I believe they had some MTV success uh when we were younger
00:16:36
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
00:16:44
of 1993 uh Mia was with several band members and several band members of the band 7year [ __ ] they were at this local
00:16:54
club called the comet Tavern mhm uh and they is Capitol Hill right yeah the Capitol Hill area of Seattle they they
00:17:03
they're this is going to be a celebration um they are excited about the upcoming tour you know touring means
00:17:09
money means more fans means getting your name out there uh potentially getting that record contract that you're after
00:17:17
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
00:17:23
but this was a typical this was a typical hangout spot for band members in this area well Mia
00:17:31
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
00:17:39
then she went to a friend's house uh somebody that lived just blocks away from the comment she stayed there till
00:17:46
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
00:17:54
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
00:18:04
walking near the intersection of 24th Avenue in South Washington Street and she sees the body of a woman a young
00:18:13
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
00:18:22
the ground decides to run to the fire department and she reports what she has found now the when the fire department
00:18:29
arrives according to their report Mia is the victim and she is still warm at this
00:18:35
time uh her body's still warm the fire department tried to resuscitate her however they were unsuccessful the fire
00:18:43
department's then going to call this into the police department yeah and so when the when the police department
00:18:49
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
00:18:58
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
00:19:07
the crucifixion so it'd be more like Jesus Jesus Jesus on the cross you know so uh and and most the crucifixion poses
00:19:16
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
00:19:25
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
00:19:35
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
00:19:46
should say a Catholic Community Service is building and a church so she's kind of lying between these two religious
00:19:54
areas and she's in this cross formation and a possible religious pose correct um
00:20:01
now as far as the investigation goes one thing we have to talk about here Captain
00:20:05
is when you talk about a body being posed well that's a typical serial killer thing that we will see from time
00:20:13
to time and we're talking about this is King County so King County has been they
00:20:19
had to deal with Ted Bundy at one point uh at this point the um Green River Killer investigation is still going on
00:20:27
so this is something that they're very accustomed to and probably something that's always in the back of their minds
00:20:33
anytime they're finding a victim especially a female victim well the police are going to find her braw and
00:20:39
pantties stuffed into Mia's Pockets there's a portion of her brawl that is missing and of course on the serial
00:20:46
killer Theory here Captain that's one thing that they took note of because they wondered you know did the did this
00:20:52
killer take some kind of trophy or something to remember this act or event with him after he dumped the body now we
00:21:01
say dumped the body because the first thing that the police were dealing with here is they were convinced that there
00:21:08
this area where she was found they saw no sign of a struggle there was nothing to point to them that that this murder
00:21:15
had occurred here that she was attacked there and killed there um they firmly believed that she was killed elsewhere
00:21:23
and brought to this location and laid there in this post now they did find tire tracks uh that would suggest that
00:21:32
maybe somebody had pulled her out of a car placed her on the ground and then sped off what it makes you wonder did
00:21:39
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
00:21:47
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
00:21:54
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
00:22:05
short period of time that that is unaccounted for that Mia is unaccounted for well the police are also going to
00:22:11
find scuff marks on her shoes you know kind of evidence that maybe she was dragged I think this would be kind of
00:22:17
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
00:22:24
the grunge scene uh people you know dress in in tattered clothes in that scene and and from the video footage
00:22:32
I've seen uh that was kind of her outfit was tattered clothes right but but there
00:22:38
could have been more evidence that pointed like you know fresh scuff marks or something MH uh now the thing here
00:22:44
she didn't have any identification on her uh so she it wasn't like once they brought her to the medical examiner's
00:22:51
office that they were able to just open up a a purse or pull out uh identification from her pockets and know
00:22:59
immediately who she is um but the somebody working in the medical examiner's office was familiar with the
00:23:06
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
00:23:14
hoodie so since they have this information they're able to start retracing her steps and start
00:23:19
questioning people pretty quickly mhm and like the captain said the first thought is did she get in a cab you know
00:23:26
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
00:23:33
cab and go home days before Uber mhm so you have to wonder what happened to her during this 80-minute time period the
00:23:40
other the other rumor around this too was that she just recently had a breakup well police could find no evidence or no
00:23:47
proof that she got into a cab that night um and then regarding the boyfriend uh they basically say that he he assisted
00:23:57
as much as anybody possibly could in the investigation he answered all their questions he was eager to come forward
00:24:03
and talk with police uh he submitted himself to any test that they asked for yeah I believe he took a lie detector
00:24:10
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
00:24:16
maybe based on conversations that you know she had a couple drinks or whatever and she was filling bad and maybe wanted
00:24:22
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
00:24:30
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
00:24:40
was raped and she was strangled she was strangled obviously with the the string from her hoodie um the medical according
00:24:48
to the medical examiner she had she not been strangled she would have died from internal injuries suffered from the
00:24:55
beating um it was that bad they found the autopsy found evidence of a a struggle in which Zapata suffered
00:25:03
from blunt impact to her abdomen and a lacerated liver so had she not been strangled she would have probably lied
00:25:11
there and and passed away eventually from those that attack we'll dive right back into the initial investigation of M
00:25:17
zata right after this quick beer [Music] break [Music] this show is sponsored by better help do
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or connecting more deeply with family from afar Rosetta Stone Bridges the language Gap I've tried others but
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Rosetta Stone's immersive lessons and voice feedback technology are game changers dive into 25 Languages by
00:26:42
learning intuitively just like when you were a kid and here's the holiday Sparkle grab a lifetime membership now
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and save 50% gift yourself the world head to rosettastone.com now and save 50% Angie's List is now Angie and we've
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[Music] all right cheers mates I want to quickly thank everybody that has left a five
00:27:43
star review it really helps the show we're discussing the murder of young Mia Zapata she was 27 years old found dead
00:27:50
July 7th 1993 uh this was about 3:30 in the morning when she was found now police
00:27:57
have been investigating as we said they already spoke to her boyfriend um but this is going to bring them to her Inner
00:28:04
Circle you know talking to her friends family band members people in the area that she that she knew and one thing
00:28:13
that's going on here is that it's clear during the course of this questioning to
00:28:19
her friends and band members that Not only was she brutally beaten attacked and strangled um but Mia was raped
00:28:27
uh when she was attacked and this was something that they were asking the people that they were questioning to
00:28:33
keep to themselves um this was not something that they had released to the general public but I just wonder why
00:28:40
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
00:28:49
bite marks on her chest and breast area um and this would have been something that would not have been known um I
00:28:57
think that they were probably keeping that especially to themselves where maybe they were able to question these
00:29:04
people and talk about the the rape or that she was sexually assaulted without including that portion of it there's a
00:29:12
couple things here one that's something that only the killer would know and you and I know from talking about these
00:29:18
cases so often that when you have when you have Crazies come out of the woodwork and somebody comes up and
00:29:24
confesses to this well they have to know certain details about the crime the other thing too is if they can get
00:29:30
somebody to slip up during the course of questioning and reveal information that
00:29:35
they've not revealed then they know they're on the right path right that leads to the Smoking Gun but I also
00:29:40
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
00:29:47
there the band was you know had some success going and that they would have been known by a lot of people and so
00:29:53
maybe like you were saying it brings out you know another level of crazy what if
00:29:58
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
00:30:05
about that with any case but especially in one like this now this is this is going to be tough for her friends
00:30:11
because we're we're talking about like you know we said Mia is kind of in-your-face aggressive person when
00:30:17
she's on stage you you've seen these crowds uh the people that would have gone and seen her bands they're not
00:30:23
people that like to sit on their hands and go well we're not doing anything about this uh our our friend was was
00:30:31
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
00:30:37
maybe especially hard for this circle of friends all right so the evidence that we have right now is that we know that
00:30:43
Mia was she was raped she was sexually assaulted now we have no DNA evidence of this right we have no DNA left over
00:30:51
right there is no seamen um found correct that kind of goes nowhere M um the please don't want her friends
00:30:59
talking about that but now we have these bite marks that we have no definitive Impressions so we can't match it up with
00:31:06
somebody else's you know teeth right but we possibly have some DNA evidence there
00:31:12
mhm uh there's also they the police found some metal pieces like debris almost like small bits of metal uh
00:31:20
either on or around her body uh they they never really give any kind of conclusion into what this was or where
00:31:29
it came from um you know you and I talked about you know she was known to have wore a Walkman everywhere she went
00:31:36
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
00:31:42
pocket or strap it to your side and you can walk amongst town and listen to all your favorite music and cassette tapes
00:31:50
um great advertisement well nobody's selling those anymore so nobody cares uh but I'm guessing that they it these
00:31:59
items this metal bits and pieces wouldn't have come from that Walkman uh very well could have because it's a
00:32:06
small device however you know there's no no mention that it was destroyed in the
00:32:12
attack yeah and I think what investigators were questioning here is that we like we said before we have you
00:32:17
know you start speculating she's she's her body is dropped by this church and by this U Catholic you know Community
00:32:26
Center mhm and her body is in this pose of maybe a crucifixion you start wondering is there some meaning behind
00:32:33
these metal objects the other thing that's weird to it during this time period as far as like Grunge music goes
00:32:39
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
00:32:45
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
00:32:53
it just in the area that her body was dumped yeah I remember people used to make jewelry out of things that look
00:33:00
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
00:33:08
possibility I also wonder though if you know they they say that she was killed elsewhere and then brought there yeah
00:33:16
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
00:33:23
later and only half mile from that friend's house right so you know one is there an alley or anything that that she
00:33:33
could have been attacked with and I'm sure that law enforcement looked into that and if they didn't see any signs
00:33:39
you know there are other crime scenes right that maybe that's why they were saying hey we believe that she was taken
00:33:46
somewhere else and but my first thought would be is at some point during this attack she
00:33:54
was on the ground um and and this could these pieces of metal could had it simply been something that was picked up
00:34:04
by her clothing well she necessarily didn't have to be on the ground she could have been you know in a
00:34:11
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
00:34:19
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
00:34:25
floor of a car um and could have been transferred to this area through that Manor um or through the process of was
00:34:35
she drugged to this area did somebody drag her to this area you know we mentioned the scuff marks on her shoes
00:34:42
but there was also additional scuff marks uh there was some bruising on her side which which is hard to determine
00:34:49
whether that was part of the attack or maybe part of being dragged to this area uh there was also some scuff marks on
00:34:56
her belt as well so we don't know how much of her was being dragged when transported and placed at this location
00:35:03
well and look I mean depending on the the surface area that she's being dragged on I mean it could have been
00:35:10
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
00:35:17
interesting here is you know she was leaving and then the question is you know if law enforcement believes that
00:35:23
she was taken somewhere else well how did she get there she she obviously left her friend's house she's obviously on
00:35:30
the street okay so now how does she get into the vehicle because this individual
00:35:35
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
00:35:41
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
00:35:49
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
00:35:56
an apartment and and why do you say you know Nick Captain well why why do you immediately jump a car or apartment
00:36:02
that's the area that we're talking about that would be the quickest method of getting somebody into a secluded area to
00:36:10
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
00:36:17
the open you know out on the street what did we say that was the near the intersection of 24th in South Washington
00:36:24
if that attack would have taken place there she was found by somebody that was walking by she was found by a pedestrian
00:36:31
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
00:36:39
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
00:36:49
where somebody was able to to grab her attack her and abduct her and pull her either into a car or a nearby uh
00:36:59
building or apartment well and she was badly beaten so you wonder if you know you know initial hit you know a lot of
00:37:06
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
00:37:12
do and we hear this all the time you know we'll get pictures every week of listeners in a park and they're
00:37:18
listening to our our show while they're run and all I think is why are you doing
00:37:24
that I mean I appreciate you listening to the show but uh when you're not familiar with the surroundings
00:37:30
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
00:37:37
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
00:37:45
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
00:37:51
attacked and so the possibility is that her attacker could have you know been several inches away from her without her
00:37:59
possibly knowing mhm so she's blasting this music maybe you know he hits her from behind and then grabs her she could
00:38:06
have potentially been followed uh shortly after leaving her friend's apartment um and who knows how long she
00:38:14
could have been followed for before she was attacked like you said I mean she's walking in the dark most likely with her
00:38:20
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
00:38:28
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
00:38:36
walking alone in the dark without without her ears like you said you're taking away one of your senses you could
00:38:41
potentially follow that person for several blocks uh and they might not even notice that you've been you've been
00:38:47
trailing behind them at some distance for some time waiting for this potential victim to walk into an area that would
00:38:54
be uh a better situation for the attacker it well it's really frustrating with this area this Capitol Hill area
00:39:03
with their being there no eyewitnesses right because I mean we know that Mia walked from a bar yeah right so we have
00:39:11
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
00:39:18
when we dive into these cases is I know what time bars close here right and then
00:39:23
you know we're we're talking about one uh different part of the country but we're also talking about different times
00:39:29
in history so who knows but you would assume that you know there'd be some pedestrians out walking getting cabs in
00:39:36
their cars you know getting home from bars around 2:00 well she walked often she took cabs often uh this is an area
00:39:44
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
00:39:51
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
00:40:00
um you know girls working the streets and we have uh a good amount of drug activity going on selling are they
00:40:06
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
00:40:14
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
00:40:20
in this area this it was this is what this area was thought of during and what right then law enforcement then has to
00:40:27
start thinking okay well she's out with some friends did a friend come and drive
00:40:32
by and see her and say hey do you need a ride now we we got now we're going down
00:40:36
a whole different area but then that friend you know that'd be like the friend stalking her to get the
00:40:43
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
00:40:52
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
00:41:01
certainly a possibility um you know with no eyewitnesses the the other thing Captain we uh have not mentioned yet
00:41:09
they had a um when I say they I mean the gits had a rehearsal space uh and I'm a
00:41:15
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
00:41:22
rehearsal space or maybe a hangout space yeah well sometimes it's it's deceiving
00:41:28
it's all three well sometimes it's deceiving because people will say hey come down to my rehearsal studio and
00:41:35
when you hear the word Studio you think you know mixing board and big monitors and and and that kind of stuff but you
00:41:42
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
00:41:49
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
00:41:57
either Mia or Andor the band um and one thing that came up early in the investigation was they had wondered
00:42:04
maybe had she dropped by there after leaving her friend's apartment or this is the even more scary thing could this
00:42:12
have potentially been an area where she would have been attacked would she have been attacked inside of this uh
00:42:18
rehearsal space right and there's no evidence that she was intact tacted inside of this space you're exactly
00:42:24
right what led them to the conclusion was the proximity and B I guess there was an item or two um that were items
00:42:31
that they considered that they considered them to be items that she normally would carry on her person uh
00:42:40
and these were items that were later found at the rehearsal space uh but like you said there would have been she's
00:42:46
brutally attacked she's brutally attacked there is a scuffle a struggle that happened at some point and I think
00:42:55
there would have been obvious signs of that in the space well yeah and then the other question too is if she was taken
00:43:03
away why would you if as the attacker right why would you attack an individual pull him away right uh attack him
00:43:15
somewhere else murder him somewhere else and then when you go to drop them off drop him back in the same location that
00:43:21
you found them mhm you you'd think you would want to drop them further way because therefore maybe people wouldn't
00:43:28
recognize the victim yeah and one of her friends in an interview said you know and this is a very good point is you
00:43:37
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
00:43:47
vocalist a singer but a screamer a yeller yeah I think their drummer Steve was talking about that saying look I've
00:43:54
I've heard her yell many many times yeah you know we went on tour and she yelled
00:44:00
many many times and he was extremely surprised and I think we all should be at the fact that there was no eyewitness
00:44:07
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
00:44:16
a guy there was a a a man sleeping in an apartment near this area that did say he
00:44:22
heard some screams around 3:00 a.m. that morning so this would have just been about 19 20 minutes before she was
00:44:30
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
00:44:39
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
00:44:47
uh her Mia's friend's house that she had left um this very likely could have been
00:44:53
MIA like we said you know she when she was found they were trying to resuscitate her there was a chance there
00:45:00
uh she might have been she may have been dropped at that location just minutes before The Pedestrian walking by found
00:45:07
her yeah I I wondered this I couldn't find this anywhere maybe you know the answer do you know where they found her
00:45:13
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
00:45:22
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
00:45:28
she was staying um I get the I get the impression that she didn't bring extra things with her when when unnecessary
00:45:37
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
00:45:44
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
00:45:51
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
00:45:57
that 50 you owe me yeah you got to collect the money before you start drinking seriously Tom I want my 50
00:46:04
bucks but while we're on the subject of of the bar scene and drinking with friends this is what's haunting to me
00:46:13
and I heard several of her friends say it and and read several of her friends say this in interviews and this is
00:46:20
something that really hits home for all of us is that they a lot of them believed you know this was brutal attack
00:46:27
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
00:46:35
out in the open in the middle of the night your first thought is this is probably something that could be solved
00:46:41
very quickly that they might be able to apprehend this person he left something at the scene or left something on her
00:46:48
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
00:46:54
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
00:47:01
then to months well you start you start wondering where is this guy who did this
00:47:08
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
00:47:14
somebody that was involved in the Seattle music scene whether it be from another band or somebody that followed
00:47:22
the the music yeah it could I mean first with almost every case I mean you start
00:47:28
looking at ex lovers mhm right but those ex lovers I mean we know this with bands
00:47:33
from being in one but it's like you know your bandmates you know all their girlfriends and then or in this case a
00:47:41
boyfriend mhm so you so you know that if it's one of them you you met this psycho
00:47:47
before right and so you have that but then you also got you know was it another jealous ban or a jealous singer
00:47:54
mhm I mean because think about how many times you play a gig with a band and there's just that [ __ ] band where you
00:48:01
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
00:48:07
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
00:48:15
because of this horrible crime and you're sitting around the scene and hanging on at bars and thinking you know
00:48:22
is the is the murderer here am I having beer with the murder is the guy that did
00:48:27
this sitting four stools from me you know well and and the other thing the one of the reasons that law enforcement
00:48:34
really thought this had to be somebody that she knew was they're they're implicating the idea that um she was
00:48:42
strangled and what was her voice or what what was her instrument her instrument was her voice yeah and that the fact
00:48:49
that she was strangled that somebody was trying to maybe destroy her Talent her gift and so maybe that that would lead
00:48:56
to some sign that you know this was some uh jealous uh musician or other band person or more what I think more likely
00:49:05
would be maybe even an obsessed fan yeah um you know that that thought of her as
00:49:12
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
00:49:21
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
00:49:30
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
00:49:36
love your singer or the best I always thought they were going to say that they loved me but never happened most of
00:49:43
those girls told me that the captain sang better better than I did so yeah there's a playing games with all
00:49:50
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
00:49:57
was a there was there was no leads there's no leads evidence what kind of evidence do we got here Captain we got
00:50:04
very little to almost no evidence at all well we had a lot of speculation a lot of speculation but so little evidence to
00:50:12
the point where after they interview friends and people in her Inner Circle and they have to release some
00:50:17
information to get information back from them they're asking them to be quiet and
00:50:21
not talk about this stuff so well right but then as far as law enforcement goes because I mean they were doing their due
00:50:29
diligence right right they were collecting all this stuff they were you know there's a lot of law enforcement
00:50:35
officers that would walk up onto the scene and not realize that she might have been posed or or recognized where
00:50:42
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
00:50:47
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
00:50:54
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
00:51:00
match those to any kind of dental records or anything like that they're basically getting uh what they would
00:51:05
refer to as uh teeth scrapings from um which would provide some form of DNA evidence for them this is going to be
00:51:15
basically little bits of saliva uh that they're going to find on her person and they know they can they can determine
00:51:22
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
00:51:29
red flag and that's going to be you know we unfortunately you know I sigh when I
00:51:36
say this but unfortunately we have had to cover so many cases that we've seen uh you know maybe the police
00:51:43
department or investigators don't know exactly what they're dealing with or are unable to handle a certain case that's
00:51:52
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
00:51:59
we're talking about 1993 DNA evidence isn't even that big at this point right right there's still a
00:52:05
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
00:52:14
some DNA we have a tiny little bit that we can get from the saliva that we found
00:52:19
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
00:52:30
destroy it and never be able to test it again right mistake right if that happens I've heard several investigators
00:52:38
State regarding this crime that if they don't have DNA evidence at this point in
00:52:44
the investigation they have nothing so one thing that I think is brilliant here that they decide you know what rather
00:52:52
than throw rather than push all of our chips in and and risk it all unfortunately we're going to have to put
00:52:58
this on the shelf right we're going to have to hold back and we're going to have to see what possible developments
00:53:04
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
00:53:12
and think about her friends and her family uh and the band members at this point right they're hearing all these
00:53:17
updates and they're going okay well so you have DNA evidence right right well we'll test it right and then and think
00:53:24
about this too especially one of your loved ones is brutally murdered and you have this evidence I mean there's a part
00:53:30
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
00:53:36
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
00:53:41
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
00:53:48
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
00:53:56
they're going to really come to the Forefront and almost uh champion this case keep her name in the spotlight and
00:54:03
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
00:54:13
reflect life in a way and and I and I applaud the gits for sticking by their their fallen uh friend mhm because you
00:54:23
know they could have very EAS easily gone one of two ways you know we had this whole thing going on we were riding
00:54:31
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
00:54:37
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
00:54:45
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
00:54:51
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
00:54:57
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
00:55:05
because they have friends behind them playing instruments that have their back right and just just like in her life as
00:55:14
goes her death with the investigation these guys the gits they had her [Music] back
00:55:25
[Music] and remember Mia Zapata was not just a victim she was an artist uh she was a
00:55:33
Creator check out her work and check out her band The gets all right I'm fired up
00:55:39
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
00:55:44
already sometimes we drop these episodes early so make sure you subscribe until next time be good be kind and don't
00:55:54
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