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[Music] [Applause] [Applause] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are
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doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that
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has wagered everything he owns on Saturday's big Mayweather McGregor fight including the deed to the garage he is
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the captain I am boxing it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for
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listening thanks for telling a friend hopefully you're right captain or we're going to be outdoors people well we
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always have tents and parts to know [Music] tonight we are drinking solar dog IPA by
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the Brilliant Minds over at Astoria Brewing Company in beautiful Astoria Oregon garage grade three and a half
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bottle caps out of five this is a pretty straightforward IPA with a blend of citrus notes and a smooth multi finish
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and solar dog was brought to us by these shiny garage Stars first up we have Ava
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in Gordonsville Virginia we also have Rachel in Grove City which I don't know if this is uh like I know Rachel and
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Grove City okay this might be uh AKA Randall in Grove City I know if it is Big shout out to Austin as well next we
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have Ashton in Parts Unknown we also have Sarah who says she's working at The Outpost and Parts Unknown that must be
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actually past the Border because I didn't realize we had an outpost we have an end post and here's a note from Renee
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in Parts Unknown she says she could listen to Nick read the phone book and she loves the captain's rants
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[Music] you can listen and read the phone book if you want to go to bed and next up all
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the way from California we have Catherine and more reggae and last but not least we have Ryan up in beautiful
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Ontario Canada so thanks to everybody for filling up the fridge for this week's show and we'll need to do a beer
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stuff at True Crime garage all right Captain that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab a chair
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grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Applause] [Music] thank you Mia Zapata was born and raised in
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Louisville Kentucky she learned how to play the guitar and piano at a young age and was influenced by punk rock jazz
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blues and r b in 1984 Mia Zapata enrolled at a college in Yellow Springs Ohio as a liberal arts student in 1986
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she and three friends formed the punk rock band The gets in 1989 the band relocated to Seattle
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Washington in 1990 and 1991 the band released a series of well-received singles on local independent record
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labels as the gets were making a name for themselves in the local music scene Mia Zapata was murdered in 1993. the
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investigation only led to a lack of leads and with little evidence many investigators feared Mia Zapata's murder
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case would remain forever unsolved but the remaining members of the gits refuse to let Mia's case go cold
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[Music] Mia Zapata was born August 25th 1965 in Louisville Kentucky her parents were in
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the broadcast business they were fairly well off and provided a very comfortable
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life for young Mia growing up now she got involved in music at a young age taking up piano and guitar and it was
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obvious from that young age that she was quite talented at both yeah Mia is going
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to head off to college and she's going to go to Antioch so she's going to head to our neck of the woods in Yellow
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Springs Ohio a lot of people might be familiar with this this is where Dave Chappelle resides there's one hell of a
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Brewing Company in Yellow Springs as well she moved up there in 1984 to attend college and then in 1986 she with
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three friends formed a punk rock band called The gets this included guitarist Andrew Kessler drummer Steve Moriarty
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and bassist Matt Dresner now Antioch college is a liberal arts college and there was actually a pretty big venue
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there before called Peaches I don't know if it's still there played a couple gigs
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there and my day but it was more popular in the in the early 90s yeah and I'll tell you what uh their band was around
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for a few years before they decided to move off to Seattle now the thing here is Captain
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you and I both know from having played in Columbus Columbus obviously being a very big uh college town you know not
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only the capital of the state but we have the Ohio State University here so you and I know that if if you have a
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certain level of talent and a certain level of Showmanship it's not real hard to be a successful College Band would
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you agree with that yeah I mean you have to have drive and and obviously this band had Drive enough drive to say hey
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we might have outgrown um Yellow Springs Ohio and maybe we should take our talents to a bigger a
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bigger town and not even just moving you know 40 some minutes to Columbus but hey
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let's just go where some real stuff is happening uh in Seattle yeah and the thing here is Captain it's
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not in my opinion too terribly hard to get a large following when you play in a college town because the the college
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itself and the students and your friends that you have in the area if you have the talent it creates a natural
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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
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I'd say today it would be a way different it'd be way harder so they decide to take their talent to Seattle
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now at the time Seattle I mean is just booming with with musical talent and great bands coming out of there yeah we
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all know the big ones you know uh sound garden Pearl Jam Nirvana Alice in Chains
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Reverend Horton Heat uh and there's probably many other great ones that we're leaving out but this is really
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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
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last a few years together you know they say that they started as friends first and then became a band that's how most
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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
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and then to decide to strike it out on your own in an area so competitive uh with great music like Seattle is really
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a brave thing to do well it probably made their bonds stronger as on a personal level I think you're right you
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know you you have to become even closer Friends by that point because you're kind of your your band mates kind
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of become your last line of defense when you take it that far away from from where you've started off well and
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they're also doing um a lot of touring as well and and it's it's a very weird connection
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um and and we have this with our high school going into college band I mean it's almost like um there's still a
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group of people that associate me with the other three guys or the other guys with the other three guys we're forever
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linked in some people's minds right I mean I get asked more about ex-band members than I do like family members
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uh the thing here is Captain when out in Seattle um what kind of band were was the gets
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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
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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
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Nicks uh maybe even a Joan Jett the thing here I didn't when I when I watched and listened to the music
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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
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when people were writing that that they were trying to compare her voice and vocals to those artists and I I think
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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
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little more in your face than some of those people she's more Patty Smith than Janice Joplin it's but she certainly
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um certainly the type that very artistic and the the vocals and the lyrics I thought very well done
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um but to describe her she's kind of a um you know you would see her and cut off shirts and cut off shorts and uh
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very much the grunge look one thing that's really cool Captain is that we all know that when it comes to Hard Rock
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there's not a whole lot of female uh that females that front a band well there's a lot more now but especially in
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the early 90s I mean this is pretty Alanis Morissette yeah and this kind of brought in a new crowd to some of that
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Seattle music scene a lot of the uh female fans became big fans of Mia's and in 1990 after the band moved to Seattle
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the gets were they were very successful they went on a successful International tour spreading the word about the band
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all without the support of a record label and just to show how big they were I mean they had groups like uh back you
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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
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released an independent album titled Frenching the bully uh this had some hits on it yeah that's the strange
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Frenching the bully Frenching the bully but you remember I mean like tonguing the bully like I guess if there's some
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guy that's picking on a bunch of people you yeah no you run up and shove your tongue down his throat and then he
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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
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it some independent hits uh one titled another shot of whiskey another titled Second Skin
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um and you know they we say punk rock band but they were very much a part of this growing very quickly growing grunge
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scene that was coming out of Seattle a lot of people would argue like Nirvana for example has more Punk Tendencies you
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know so yeah I think they fit right in well on the thing with rock and roll music Captain is that uh it's it's let
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me tell you let me tell you about rock and roll this is Behind the Music VH1 with the with your buddy the colonel
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um the thing with rock and roll music it's like a lot of other things that we see
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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
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then there's all these things that when the smoke is rising when the explosion is hitting there's all these things that
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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
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have a band like what are you talking about well what I'm talking about is you have bands like Alice in Chains you have
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uh sound garden Nirvana coming out of that same area well what happens then is you have record labels flocking to that
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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
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of that Talent well and possibly one of the reasons why the gets moved there in in the beginning but the gits were very
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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
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were in the conversation uh they were having talks with some wreck record labels the one that I heard rumored the
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most would have been Atlantic Records well been really cool if Jimmy iveen would have got a hold of him did what he
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did with Patty Smith I don't know who coined the phrase you remember the phrase the best band you never heard of
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was that Rolling Stone magazine that that always like every year they've got a new best band you've never heard of
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thing yeah um you're the best podcasts you've never heard of uh the gets would have been
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kind of one of those bands that you might lump into some kind of conversation like that now if this is
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hitting your ears and you're out there going what do you mean never heard of the gets I full disclosure I didn't hear
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I hadn't heard of the gets until a couple months ago when when this case came onto our radar but again I was not
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in Seattle in the early 90s I was but a but a small boy wandering around Ohio at
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that time um still a small boy wandering around Ohio but these are this is one of those
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bands that would have been lumped into that group because this they were playing with big names at the time they
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were on the verge of a potential record contract they were touring like we said they had a successful International tour
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they were working on another album um this one was going to be called the Conquering chicken they spent most of
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1993 working on that album one we were talking off air earlier about one of her friends saying that Mia looked like a
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chicken well and that's probably why the name the Conquering chicken for the second album you know she she was a a
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force this woman uh she she was artistic and she was going to be a force in the scene and if you'd seen her on stage you
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know the footage I've seen um she that's the best way to describe her she was a four she couldn't take
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your eyes off of her when she was an artist so um you know she was a victim in this horrible crime and we're going
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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
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before the brutal crime yeah during the time uh right around the time of her murder they like we said they were
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working on their second album and they had just come back from a successful tour and they were gearing up for
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another tour um the way I understand this this was going to be like a West Coast USA tour
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and this was going to be with the band and many people probably heard of them Seven Year [ __ ] was a band that I
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believe they had some MTV success uh when we were younger I couldn't name a song of theirs but I remember seeing
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them on TV quite a bit um and that night this would be in July of 1993. uh Mia was with several band
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members and several band members of the band Seven Year [ __ ] they were at this
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local club called the comet Tavern uh and then this is in Capitol Hill right yeah the Capitol Hill area of Seattle
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there there this is going to be a celebration they are excited about the upcoming tour you know touring means
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money means more fans means getting your name out there uh potentially getting that record contract that you're after
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and they're they're going to be out celebrating they're you have a few drinks shoot some pool hang out at the
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bar it's but this was a typical this was a typical hangout spot uh for band members in this area well Mia would
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leave the bar around midnight she was there from about 10 a.m I'm sorry 10 p.m till midnight and then she went to a
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friend's house uh somebody that lived just blocks away from the comet she stayed there till about 2 A.M now
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her friend says that she tried to talk Mia into staying the night Mia says that she's going to get a cab and she's going
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to head home for the night um it's around 3 15 to 3 30. that there's a woman walking near the
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intersection of 24th Avenue and South Washington Street and she sees the body of a woman a young woman in her mid to
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late 20s and she happens to be near a fire department so this woman that's that sees a victim on the ground decides
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to run to the fire department and she reports what she has found now the when the fire department arrives according to
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their report Mia is the victim and she is still warm at this time uh her body's still warm
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the fire department tried to resuscitate her however they were unsuccessful the fire departments then going to call this
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into the police department yeah and so when the when the police department arrives uh the first thing they know is
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how the body is found um they describe it as like a cross-like formation so her arms are both out to
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the sides um and she has her legs crossed with the right leg over top of the left leg well
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like the crucifixion yeah so it'd be more like more like Jesus on the cross you know so uh and and most the
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crucifixion poses they have a foot on top of the other foot she was wearing a hoodie and the the hood had been pulled
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down over her face one of the strings or the string from the her hoodie was wrapped around Mia's neck
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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
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Two Churches or a uh I should say a Catholic community services building and a church so she's kind of lying between
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these two religious areas and she's in this cross formation and a possible religious pose correct now as far as the
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investigation goes one thing we have to talk about here Captain is when you talk
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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
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about this is King County so King County has been they had to deal with Ted Bundy
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at one point uh at this point the Green River Killer investigation is still going on so this is something that
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they're very accustomed to and probably something that's always in the back of their minds anytime they're finding a
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victim especially a female victim well the police are going to find her bra and panties stuffed into Mia's Pockets
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there's a portion of her bra that is missing and of course on the serial killer Theory here Captain that's one
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thing that they took note of because they wondered you know did the did this killer take some kind of trophy or
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something to remember this act or event with him after he dumped the body now we
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say dumped the body because the first thing that the police were dealing with here is they were convinced that their
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this area where she was found they saw no sign of a struggle there was nothing to point to them that that this murder
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had occurred here that she was attacked there and killed killed there they firmly believed that she was killed
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elsewhere and brought to this location and laid there in this pose now they did find tire tracks that would suggest that
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maybe somebody had pulled her out of a car placed her on the ground and then sped off one that makes you wonder did
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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
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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
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is found at roughly I have 3 19 a.m listed here so that means we're dealing with 80 90 minutes so we have a short
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period of time that that is unaccounted for that me is unaccounted for well the police are also going to find scuff
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marks on her shoes you know kind of evidence that maybe she was dragged I think this would be kind of difficult
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because especially like in the 90s I mean I don't think I had a shoe without scuff marks on it well it's 90s and the
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grunge scene uh people you know dressing in tattered clothes in that scene and and from the video footage I've seen uh
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that was kind of her outfit was tattered clothes right but but there could have been more evidence that pointed like you
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know fresh scuff marks or something uh now the thing here she didn't have any identification on her uh so she it
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wasn't like once they brought her to the medical examiner's office that they were
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able to just open up a purse or pull out uh identification from her pockets and know immediately who she is
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um but the somebody working in the medical examiner's office was familiar with the local music scene and was
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familiar with the band The gets and I also believe that on her hoodie that it was a band hoodie so since they have
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this information they're able to start retracing her steps and start questioning people pretty quickly and
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like the captain said the first thought is did she get in a cab you know this was somebody that was known to take cabs
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lots of cabs were used in this area she told her friend she was going to take a cab and go home days before Ubers so you
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have to wonder what happened to her during this 80 minute time period the other the other rumor around this too
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was that she just recently had breakup while police could find no evidence or no proof that she got into a cab that
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night and then regarding the boyfriend they basically say that he he assisted as much as anybody possibly could in the
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investigation he answered all their questions he was eager to come forward and talk with police he submitted
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himself to any test that they asked for yeah I believe he took a lie detector test there was also a thought that maybe
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that she was going to try to drop by his house that night you know like maybe based on conversations that you know she
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had a couple drinks or whatever and she was feeling bad and maybe wanted to make
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amends or who knows but uh there was no evidence to show that she went to his house and he also had a I think a pretty
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solid Alibi as well so how did Mia die how was she killed well she was she was brutally beaten uh
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she was raped and she was strangled she was strangled obviously with the the string from her hoodie
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um the medical according to the medical examiner she had she not been strangled she would
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have died from internal injuries suffered from the beating um it was that bad they found the
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autopsy found evidence of a struggle in which Zapata suffered from blunt impact to her abdomen and a lacerated liver so
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had she not been strangled she would have probably lied there in and passed away eventually from those that attack
00:24:18
we'll dive right back into the initial investigation of Mia Zapata right after this quick beer break
00:24:24
foreign [Music] [Music] cheers mates I want to quickly thank everybody that has left a five-star
00:24:48
review it really helps the show we're discussing the murder of young Mia Zapata she was 27 years old found dead
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July 7 1993. this was about 3 30 in the morning when she was found now police have been
00:25:03
investigating as we said they already spoke to her boyfriend but this is going to bring them to her Inner Circle you
00:25:10
know talking to her friends family band members people in the area that she that
00:25:16
she knew and one thing that's going on here is that it's clear during the course of this questioning to her
00:25:24
friends and band members that Not only was she brutally beaten attacked and strangled
00:25:31
um but Mia was raped uh when she was attacked and this was something that they were asking the people that they
00:25:38
were questioning to keep to themselves this was not something that they had released to the general public but I
00:25:44
just wonder why they were doing that um I I think that here's here's the speculation I got for you
00:25:52
um part of her attack was they found bite marks on her chest and breast area um and this would have been something
00:26:00
that would not have been known um I think that they were probably keeping that especially to themselves
00:26:07
where maybe they were able to question these people and talk about the the rape or that she was sexually assaulted
00:26:13
without including that portion of it there's a couple things here one that's something that only the killer would
00:26:21
know and you and I know from talking about these cases so often that when you have when you have Crazies come out of
00:26:27
the woodwork and somebody comes up and confesses to this well they have to know certain details about the crime the
00:26:34
other thing too is if they can get somebody to slip up during the course of questioning and
00:26:39
reveal information that they've not revealed right then they know they're on the right path right that leads to the
00:26:44
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
00:26:51
singer of a band that their the band was you know had some success going and that
00:26:56
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
00:27:02
crazy what if it was just like some obsessed fan that comes out and admits to the murder for no reason yeah and you
00:27:10
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
00:27:16
friends because we're we're talking about like you know we said Mia's kind of in your face aggressive person when
00:27:22
she's on stage you you've seen these crowds uh the people that would have gone and seen her bands they're not
00:27:28
people that like to sit on their hands and go well we're not doing anything about this uh our our friend was was
00:27:36
killed in she was raped and we're not allowed to talk about it and that can be hard for any Circle but I'm guessing
00:27:42
maybe especially hard for this circle of friends alright so the evidence that we
00:27:47
have right now is that we know that Mia was she was raped she was sexually assaulted now we have no DNA evidence of
00:27:53
this right we have no DNA left over right there is no semen found correct that kind of goes nowhere
00:28:03
um the police don't want her friends talking about that but now we have these bite marks that we have no definitive
00:28:09
Impressions so we can't match it up with somebody else's you know teeth right but
00:28:14
we possibly have some DNA evidence there uh there's also they the police found some metal pieces like debris almost
00:28:22
like small bits of metal uh either on or around her body uh they they never really give any kind of conclusion to
00:28:32
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
00:28:40
Walkman everywhere she went the old Sony Walkman um and for those of you not old enough
00:28:45
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
00:28:51
and listen to all your favorite music and cassette tapes um great advertisement well nobody's
00:28:58
selling those anymore so nobody cares uh but I'm guessing that they these items this metal bits and pieces wouldn't have
00:29:08
come from that Walkman uh it very well could have because it's a small device however you know there's no no mention
00:29:15
that it was destroyed in the attack yeah and I think what investigators were questioning here is that we like we said
00:29:21
before we have you know you start speculating she's she's her body is dropped by this church and by this uh
00:29:29
Catholic you know Community Center and her body's in this pose of maybe a crucifixion you start wondering is there
00:29:37
some meaning behind these metal objects the other thing that's weird to it during this time period as far as like
00:29:43
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
00:29:50
or something so some odd types of jewelry so maybe that was part of you know just something
00:29:56
that she was wearing uh or was it just in the area that her body was dumped yeah I remember people used to make
00:30:03
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
00:30:11
like that that's a possibility I also wonder though if you know they they say that she was killed elsewhere and then
00:30:19
brought there yeah well because here's the weird thing so she's at her friend's house then our bodies found you know a
00:30:27
good hour and a half later and only a half mile from that friend's house right so you know one is there an alley or
00:30:37
anything that that she could have been attacked with and I'm sure that law enforcement looked into that and if they
00:30:43
didn't see any signs you know there are other crime scenes right that maybe that's why they're saying hey we believe
00:30:50
that she was taken somewhere else and but my first thought would be is at some point during this attack she was
00:30:59
on the ground um and this could these pieces of metal could it simply been something that was
00:31:08
picked up by her clothing well she necessarily didn't have to be on the ground she could have been you know in a
00:31:15
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
00:31:24
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
00:31:30
floor of a car um and could have been transferred to this area through that manner
00:31:38
um or through the process of was she drugged to this area did somebody drag her to this area you know we mentioned
00:31:45
the scuff marks on her shoes but there was also additional scuff marks there was some bruising on her side which
00:31:52
which is hard to determine whether that was part of the attack or maybe part of being dragged to this area uh there was
00:31:59
also some scuff marks on her belt as well so we don't know how much of her was being dragged when transported and
00:32:07
placed at this location well and look I mean depending on the the surface area that she's being dragged on I mean it
00:32:15
could have been that she was dragged three three feet and got those scuff marks so it's kind of hard to tell there
00:32:21
but what's interesting here is you know she's leaving and then the question is you know if law enforcement believes
00:32:28
that she was taken somewhere else well how did she get there she she obviously left her friend's house she's obviously
00:32:35
on the street okay so now how does she get into the vehicle because this individual Mia does not seem like
00:32:42
somebody that would go hey uh girl I got some candy and she'd go hey let me jump
00:32:46
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
00:32:54
the attacker get her into the vehicle I would I would have to guess if if she ended up in a vehicle or ended up in an
00:33:02
apartment and and why do you say you know Nick Captain why do you immediately jumped a car or apartment that's the
00:33:08
area that we're talking about that would be the quickest method of getting somebody into a secluded area to do this
00:33:15
type of attack and you have we have no eyewitnesses you know if this were attacked to me that that were out in the
00:33:22
open you know out on the street what did we say that was the near the intersection of 24th and South
00:33:28
Washington if that attack would have taken place there she was found by somebody that was walking by she was
00:33:35
found by a pedestrian there would have been eyewitnesses in my mind right and so there's zero eyewitnesses I mean we
00:33:43
don't have it we don't even have an eyewitness of seeing a girl dragged into a car or out of a car right so this to
00:33:50
me looks like a very quick attack um where somebody was able to to grab her attack her and abduct her and pull
00:34:00
her either into a car or a nearby building or apartment well and she was badly beaten so you wonder if you know
00:34:09
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
00:34:15
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
00:34:21
listeners in a park and they're listening to our our show why they run and all I think is why are you doing
00:34:29
that I mean I appreciate you listening to the show but uh when you're not familiar with the surroundings
00:34:35
especially at two o'clock in the morning and it's super dark and you're walking walking home you blast that music you're
00:34:42
cutting off one of your sensors yeah so I don't know it's a scary thing and and I do it too I mean I'll bike at night
00:34:49
and I blast some music and take off on my bike but I don't think we're not in constant fear that we're going to be
00:34:56
attacked and to the the possibility is that her attacker could have you know been several inches away from her
00:35:03
without her possibly knowing so she's blasting this music maybe you know he hits her from behind and then grabs her
00:35:11
she could have potentially been followed uh shortly after leaving her friend's apartment and who knows how long she
00:35:19
could have been followed for before she was attacked like you said I mean she's walking in the dark most likely with her
00:35:26
headphones on um it's it would be I hate to say this because it sounds like I'm on the bad
00:35:32
guy side which everybody knows I'm not but it would be an ideal way to track somebody or follow them
00:35:38
meaning what are you saying well she's walking alone in the dark without without her ears like you said you're
00:35:44
taking away one of your senses you could potentially follow that person for several blocks uh and they might not
00:35:51
even notice that you've been you've been trailing behind them at some distance for some time waiting for this potential
00:35:57
victim to walk into an area that would be uh a better situation for the attacker
00:36:04
um well it's really frustrating with this area this Capitol Hill area with there being there no eyewitnesses right
00:36:11
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
00:36:20
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
00:36:26
close here right and then you know we're we're talking about one uh different parts of the country but we're also
00:36:32
talking about different times in history so who knows but you would assume that you know there'd be some pedestrians out
00:36:40
walking getting cabs in their cars you know getting home from bars around two o'clock well she walked often she took
00:36:47
cabs often this is an area that I've been told in from what I've read the scenario like we said the cabs were
00:36:54
frequently used in this area um I no disrespect to the good people of Seattle but the way Capitol Hill has
00:37:01
been described to me is an area that has um you know girls working the streets and we have a good amount of drug
00:37:10
activity going on are they selling lemonade that's right some of the best lemonade you've ever had my friend uh
00:37:17
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
00:37:23
90s that's what was going on in this area this it was this is what this area was thought of and what right and then
00:37:31
law enforcement then has to start thinking okay well she's out with some friends did a friend come and drive by
00:37:37
and see her and say hey do you need a ride now we got now we're going down a whole different area but then that
00:37:43
friend you know that'd be like the friend stalking her to get the opportunity that my other question here
00:37:51
is was the attacker you know here's an easy way to get her in the car you you pretend that you're a taxi right
00:38:00
and she gets in the car so that's a possibility as well it's certainly a possibility
00:38:08
um you know with no eyewitnesses the the other thing Captain we have not mentioned yet they had a um when I say
00:38:16
they I mean the gets had a rehearsal space uh and I'm a little unclear as to what exactly the space was I've heard it
00:38:24
described as a studio I've read that it's was simply a rehearsal space or maybe a hangout space yeah well
00:38:31
sometimes it's it's deceiving it's all three well sometimes it's deceiving because people will say hey come down to
00:38:38
my rehearsal studio and when you hear the word Studio you think you know mixing board and big monitors and and
00:38:46
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
00:38:52
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
00:38:59
in this area that that was used by either Mia or and or or the band and one thing that came up early in the
00:39:08
investigation was they had wondered maybe had she dropped by there after leaving her friend's apartment or this
00:39:15
is the even more scary thing could this have potentially been an area where she would have been attacked would she have
00:39:21
been attacked inside of this rehearsal space right and there's no evidence that she was intact attacked inside of this
00:39:28
space you're exactly right what led them to the conclusion was a the proximity and B I guess there was an item or two
00:39:35
um that were items that they considered that they considered them to be items that she normally would carry on her
00:39:44
person uh well and these were items that were later found at the rehearsal space
00:39:49
but like you said there would have been she's brutally attacked she's brutally attacked there is a scuffle a struggle
00:39:57
that happened at some point and I think there would have been obvious signs of that in this space well yeah and then
00:40:05
the other question too is if she was taken away why would you if as the attacker right
00:40:12
why would you attack an individual pull them away right uh attack him somewhere else murder him
00:40:21
somewhere else and then when you go to drop them off drop them back in the same location that you found them
00:40:28
you'd think you would want to drop them further away because therefore maybe people wouldn't recognize the victim
00:40:35
yeah and one of her friends in an interview said you know and this is a very good point
00:40:40
is you know she's a vocalist she is she is the leader of of this band of this Punk Heavy band you know so she's not
00:40:52
just a vocalist a singer but a screamer a yeller yeah I think their drummer Steve was talking about that saying look
00:40:59
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
00:41:07
extremely surprised and I think we all should be at the fact that there was no eyewitness coming forward saying that
00:41:13
you know oh I heard screams and then I've then a block later I saw this um there was there was a guy there was a
00:41:23
a man sleeping in an apartment near this area that did say he heard some screams
00:41:29
around 3 A.M that morning so this would have just been about 19 20 minutes before she was found
00:41:37
um could it be how did they say mail screams or female screams or um clear on that I'm I'm definitely not
00:41:44
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
00:41:52
uh her Mia's friend's house that she had left um this very likely could have been MIA
00:41:59
like we said you know she when she was found they were trying to resuscitate her there was a chance there uh she
00:42:06
might have been she may have been dropped at that location just minutes before The Pedestrian walking by found
00:42:12
her yeah I wondered this I couldn't find this anywhere maybe you know the answer
00:42:17
do you know where they found her wallet because she had no ID on her right I don't know where they found that
00:42:24
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
00:42:30
uh either where she was living whether where she was staying um I get the I get the impression that she
00:42:38
didn't bring extra things with her when when unnecessary the bar that she went to that night was a place that she had
00:42:45
been many times would not have required an identif an ID uh to get into the bar or to drink at the bar yeah those were
00:42:52
the best bars right when you just walk in and he's walking hey Phil Tim what's up the best is when you don't have your
00:42:59
wallet and you just go put it on my tap yeah or Tom where's that 50 you owe me yeah the guy collect the money before
00:43:06
you start drinking no seriously Tom I want my 50 bucks but while we're on the subject of of the bar scene and drinking
00:43:15
with friends this is what's haunting to me and I heard several of her friends say it and read several of her friends
00:43:22
say this in interviews and this is something that really hits home for all of us is it they a lot of them believed
00:43:30
you know this was a brutal attack she's found out in the open uh you all almost feel like when you hear how how brutally
00:43:38
she was attacked she's found out in the open in the middle of the night your first thought is this is probably
00:43:45
something that could be solved very quickly that they might be able to apprehend this person he left something
00:43:51
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
00:43:57
able to apprehend this guy we're going to have a face for the monster that did this to our friend and when days go by
00:44:04
and then days turn into weeks and then to months will you start you start wondering where
00:44:11
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
00:44:18
our Circle was it somebody that was involved in the Seattle music scene whether it be uh from another band or
00:44:26
somebody that followed the the music yeah it could I mean first with almost every case I mean you start looking at
00:44:34
ex-lovers right but those ex-lovers I mean we know this with bands from being in one but it's like you know your band
00:44:42
mates you know all their girlfriends and then or in this case a boyfriend so so you know that if it's one of them you
00:44:51
met this psycho before right and so you have that but then you also got you know
00:44:55
was it another jealous band or a jealous singer I mean because think about how many times do you play a gig
00:45:03
with the band and there's just that [ __ ] band where you you might like them but you're never going to say that
00:45:08
you like them because they're kind of your rival band so was there any of that going on and like you said now it's
00:45:16
weeks later you're drinking you're not on tour because because of this horrible crime
00:45:21
and you're sitting around the scene and hanging out at bars and thinking you know is the is the murderer here am I
00:45:30
having a beer with the murderer it is the guy that did this sitting four stools for me you know well and and the
00:45:37
other thing the one of the reasons that law enforcement really thought this had to be somebody that she knew was there
00:45:43
they're implicating the idea that um she was strangled and what was her voice or what what was her instrument
00:45:51
her instrument was her voice yeah and that the fact that she was strangled that somebody was trying to maybe
00:45:57
destroy her Talent her gift and so maybe that would lead to some sign that you know this was some uh jealous uh
00:46:05
musician or other band person or more what I think more likely would be maybe even a an obsessed fan yeah
00:46:15
um you know the the thought of her as that vocalist as that singer and only saw her as that I've never had an
00:46:22
obsessed fan um I don't Nick was the singer quote-unquote singer of our band so you had a lot more I don't know that
00:46:34
I did yeah I didn't pay any attention oh yeah there there'd be all these girls that would come up and say uh I just
00:46:40
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
00:46:46
never happened most of those girls told me that the captain sang better than I did so
00:46:52
yeah I think there's playing games with all of us they were tone deaf so so obviously just like we said at the start
00:46:59
of this show there the the lack of leads there was a there was there was no leads
00:47:05
there's no leads evidence what kind of evidence do we got here Captain we got very little to almost no evidence at all
00:47:12
well yeah we had a lot of speculation a lot of speculation but so little evidence to the point where after they
00:47:18
interview friends and people in her Inner Circle and they have to release some information to get information back
00:47:24
from them they're asking them to be quiet and not talk about this stuff so well right but then as far as law
00:47:31
enforcement goes because I mean they were doing their due diligence right right they were collecting all this
00:47:36
stuff they were you know there's a lot of law enforcement officers that would walk up onto the scene and not realize
00:47:43
that she might have been posed or or recognized where she you know where the body was dropped right you know that's
00:47:50
all I'm saying so they're doing their due diligence and then every turn it's like okay we know she's sexually
00:47:56
assaulted but we don't have any DNA evidence but let's go back to those bite marks again we have bite marks but we
00:48:02
don't have the it's not enough to you're not gonna be able to match those to any
00:48:06
kind of dental records or anything like that they're basically getting uh what they would refer to as uh teeth
00:48:13
scrapings from um which would provide some form of DNA evidence for them this is going to be basically little bits of
00:48:21
saliva that they're going to find on her person and they know they can they can determine that whoever put that saliva
00:48:29
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
00:48:36
to be you know we unfortunately you know I sigh when I say this but unfortunately
00:48:42
we have had to cover so many cases that we've seen uh you know maybe the police department or investigators don't know
00:48:51
exactly what they're dealing with or are unable to handle a certain case that's not this case this case they did their
00:49:00
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
00:49:07
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
00:49:13
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
00:49:22
can get from the saliva that we found the problem is it's such a minuscule amount that if we test it
00:49:31
is a huge problem we're very likely going to destroy it and never be able to test it again right so if that's a
00:49:40
mistake right if that happens I've heard several investigators State regarding this crime that if they don't have DNA
00:49:47
evidence at this point in the investigation they have nothing so one thing that I think is brilliant here
00:49:54
that they decide you know what rather than throw rather than push all of our chips in and risk it all
00:50:02
unfortunately we're gonna have to put this on the shelf right we're going to have to hold back and we're going to
00:50:07
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
00:50:15
use this and test it appropriately one think about her friends and her family uh and the band members at this point
00:50:21
right they're hearing all these updates and they're going okay well so you have DNA evidence right right well we'll test
00:50:27
it right and then and think about this too especially one of your loved ones is brutally murdered and you have this
00:50:34
evidence I mean there's a part of you that wants to take the gamble right oh I would think so I would definitely think
00:50:40
so and so they're kind of faced with this tough thing you know do you put pressure on law enforcement to try to
00:50:45
get them to test it what do you do but I think in this case and we're and I one of the main reasons why we're covering
00:50:52
this is to to point out something that you can do and the secret weapon in this case is going to be her bandmates the
00:51:00
gets right and and they're going to really come to the Forefront and almost champion this case keep her name in the
00:51:07
spotlight and and try to get answers and closure for her family yeah and it's it's strange how
00:51:15
how life can you know even death can reflect life in a way and and I and I applaud the gifts for sticking by their
00:51:25
their fallen uh friend because you know they could have very easily gone one of two ways you know we had this whole
00:51:34
thing going on we were riding this roller coaster and it was on its way up and our dreams got crushed not only did
00:51:41
I lose a friend but my dream got crushed too this is too much for me to take I'm
00:51:46
out of here or or you can you can try to carry on you can try to carry on and you
00:51:51
can continue to do your music thing but at the same time about that but I think they stepped up and said look this is an
00:51:58
individual that we loved and we're gonna fight to get answers well and a lot of times Captain the reason why a good
00:52:04
performer a good artist is able to stand on stage and have a voice in front a band is because they have friends behind
00:52:12
them playing instruments that have their back right and just just like in her life
00:52:18
as goes her death with the investigation these guys the gets they had her back [Music]
00:52:32
and remember me as Zapata was not just a victim she was an artist she was a Creator check out her work and check out
00:52:41
her band that gets all right I'm fired up let's let's stick around and get to part two I agree and that's why if
00:52:48
you're listening and you haven't subscribed already sometimes we drop these episodes early so make sure you
00:52:52
subscribe until next time be good be kind and don't live thank you [Applause] [Music]