True Crime Collection

Mia Zapata

Mia Katherine Zapata was born 25th August, 1965. Mia was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky and attended high school at Presentation Academy. Mia learned how to play the guitar and the piano by age 9, and was influenced by punk rock as well as jazz, blues, and R&B singers such as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, Hank Williams, and Sam Cooke.

In 1984, Mia enrolled at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio as a liberal arts student. In September 1986, she and 3 friends formed the punk rock band The Gits. In 1989, the band relocated to Seattle, Washington. Mia found a job at a local bar and the 4 band members moved into an abandoned house they called "The Rathouse." The band released a series of well received singles on local independent record labels from 1990 to 1991. As the Gits were making a name for themselves in the local music scene, they often played shows with their friends' band, 7 Year B****. In 1992, the band released its debut album Frenching the Bully. Their reputation progressively increased within the grunge scene in Seattle, before the band began work on their second and final album Enter: The Conquering Chicken, released in 1993.

Mia came from an affluent family but often lived without material comforts. As her father described it: "Mia lived in two different worlds. She lived on two different sides of the street - the straight side on one, with parochial schools, an affluent family, and tennis clubs. But when she crossed the street, material things didn't mean anything to her." Mia's music often led to a rejection of financial comfort, but regardless of status, Valerie Agnew describes Mia as "commanding respect and interest immediately".

Mia was well connected to her community. Peter Sheehy recalls: "Mia was the hub of several social circles; a magnetic personality who drew all sorts of people together who otherwise might never have met." On his way to her funeral, Mia's father became lost and recalls many people carrying yellow roses: the admission ticket to her service.

Around 2am on 7th July, 1993, Mia left the Comet Tavern in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. She stayed at a studio space in the basement of an apartment building located a block away, and briefly visited a friend who lived on the second floor. This was the last time Mia was seen alive. She may have walked a few blocks west, or north to a friend's apartment, or may have decided to take the long walk south to her home.

Mia's body was discovered near the intersection of 24th Avenue South and South Washington Street at around 3:30am, located in Seattle's Central District. She had been beaten, raped, and strangled. It is believed she encountered her attacker shortly after 2:15am. Her body was not initially identified as she had no identification on her when she was found. An episode of the cable television show Forensic Files revealed that she was identified after the medical examiner, who was a fan of the Gits and had been to their concerts, recognised her. According to the medical examiner, if she had not been strangled, she would have died from the internal injuries suffered from the beating. According to court documents, an autopsy found evidence of a struggle in which Mia suffered blunt impact to her abdomen and a lacerated liver.

Mia is interred at Cave Hill Cemetery in her hometown of Louisville. The Seattle music community, including its most famous bands - Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden - helped raise $70,000 to hire a private investigator for 3 years. The funds dried up without any major breaks in the case, but the investigator, Leigh Hearon, continued to investigate on her own time. In 1998, after 5 years of investigation, Seattle police detective Dale Tallman said "We're no closer to solving the case than we were right after the murder."

In 2003, Florida fisherman Jesus Mezquia, who had come from Cuba in 1980 in the Mariel boatlift, was arrested and charged in connection with Mia's murder based on DNA evidence. A DNA profile was extracted from salvia found in Mia's body and kept in cold storage until the STR technology was developed for full extraction. An original entry in 2001 failed to generate a positive result, but Jesus' DNA entered the national CODIS database after he was arrested in Florida for burglary and domestic abuse in 2002. Jesus had a history of violence toward women including domestic abuse, burglary, assault, and battery. All of his ex girlfriends, and his wife, had filed reports against him. There was also a report of indecent exposure on file against him in Seattle within 2 weeks of Mia's murder. However, there was no known prior link between Jesus and Mia.

Jesus never testified in his own defence, and still maintains his innocence. The theory is that he saw Mia leave the bar and followed her a short distance before he attacked. Her headset covered her ears so she would have been unaware of any danger until he grabbed her and dragged her to his car, where he assaulted her in the back seat. Jesus was convicted in 2004 and initially sentenced to 37 years, which he appealed. He was then sentenced to 36 years. Jesus has been in prison since January 2003.

In the aftermath of Mia's murder, friends created a self defence group called Home Alive. Home Alive organised benefit concerts and released albums with the participation of many bands, including Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Heart, and the Presidents of the United States of America. Joan Jett also recorded an album with the surviving members of the Gits called Evil Stig. The Home Alive group's instructors offered a range of courses, from anger management and use of pepper spray to the martial arts.

In 2005 a documentary film, The Gits Movie, was produced about Mia's life, the Gits, and the Seattle music scene. Its first showing occurred at the Seattle International Film Festival in May of that same year. Another version of the film appeared 2 years later at the 2007 SXSW Film Festival.