12x07 - The Day the Music Died

[bunniefuu]

For years,
no one in Seattle knew

who k*lled this rock singer.

The evidence sat
waiting in a freezer

until a computer identified
a suspect 3,000 miles away.

In the early 1990s
Seattle, Washington

was home to a revolution
in rock music.

Some people called it grunge.

Others called it sub pop.

It was hard, it was edgy, and
it drew thousands of people

to the area.

- Musicians were moving here
from all over the world to play.

And there were fans
moving here just to watch,

just to see live music.

Because you could
go to a small club

and see pretty much
what people thought

would be the next big thing.

- Back in the early 1990s, there
were a million emerging bands.

And they all had the same
kind of grunge sound.

Ground zero
for this rock revolution

was a part of downtown
Seattle known as Capitol Hill.

Rents were cheap,
dr*gs were plentiful,

and crime was rising.

Early one morning,
around 3:20 AM,

a pedestrian found
a woman's body

on the deserted city street.

- And they tried to
resuscitate her.

She was still warm.

It appeared that she had expired
literally just a few minutes

before.

The victim was a young
woman with no identification.

She'd been strangled with a
cord from a sweatshirt bearing

the name of a local
rock band, The Gits.

The body's location
made it look like there

was a possible religious
link to the crime.

- On either side of her, or
either side of the street

are religious buildings.

One is a Catholic
church and the other

is a Catholic services
community area.

- She was laying on her back,
her feet were close together,

and her hands were
out to her side,

a sign kind of in a crucifix.

At the victim's autopsy,

something unexpected happened.

The medical examiner
recognized here.

- He liked to go to the clubs
and listen to independent music.

He knew who Mia Zapata was.


Zapata was the lead singer

and songwriter of The Gits,
one of the most popular bands

to emerge from the
Seattle music scene.

- The local rock music
community is saddened tonight

by the death of a Seattle
band's lead singer.

- The young woman was
m*rder*d and police

are searching for her k*ller.

The motive is unknown.

- We had been on tour
on the west coast.

We were to be home for
three or four days before we

were to leave on the road again.

We had a US tour,
a European tour,

and another US tour
planned consecutively.

Investigators
tried to reconstruct

Mia's activities
before her m*rder.

According to friends, she
spent most of the night

at a local bar.

- Mia was at The
Comet Tavern having

some drinks with friends.

I believe she was there
till about midnight.

From there she
visited the apartment

of a friend who lived nearby.

She left there on
foot around 2:00 AM.

- Mia really liked to
walk and Seattle's

a great area to walk around in.

And so I think that's why
she chose not to take a cab.

Her body was
discovered about an hour

and a half later on a deserted
stretch of road, less than half

a mile from a
friend's apartment.

- So we know that in
that 80 minute gap

she had been accosted,
att*cked, kidnapped, brutalized.

So her k*ller was quite
busy in those 80 minutes.

We had a very clear and
limited timeline here.

- I don't believe that Mia
intentionally went in,

or voluntarily went
into anybody's car.

And the reason is that
all of her friends

were adamant on the
fact that's something

that she simply would not do.

Unfortunately, the k*ller

left very little
forensic evidence.

- I thought it could
be some ex-boyfriend.

It could be a random creep.

I could be a woman.

It could be a g*ng.

It could be anybody.

The death of up and
coming rock star Mia Zapata was

big news in Seattle, Washington.

- I think a lot of people are
really deeply hurt by her loss,

by losing her.

And um, I just think
everyone really

wants to find out who did it.

And even though that
won't bring her back,

at least that will give
somebody a sense of justice.

Friends put up
posters all over town asking

for information
about the m*rder.

Police were deluged with tips.

- And right now, police have
absolutely no suspects?

- At this point they say no.

And in fact, they said dr*gs
don't appear to be involved.

She was not into dr*gs
or anything like that.

It's still very much
a mystery tonight.

- I think at that time since
there were so few answers,

a lot of people were just,
you know, speculating.

Who could have done this?

Was it someone she knew?

Was it a complete stranger?

The case had serious problems.

There were no witnesses.

And since the body
was dumped, there

was no evidence at the scene.

- When you broke down all the
forensic evidence, or more

accurately the lack
of evidence, this

became a frustrating crime.

At Mia Zapata's autopsy,

the medical examiner
found she had been beaten,

strangled, and
sexually assaulted.

- The ME said that the blows
to her abdomen, and a kicking,

and a kneeing, she would have
died eventually on the scene

had he not strangled her.

It was brutal.

The medical examiner noticed

a bite mark on Mia's breast.

He swabbed the area and sent
it to the forensic lab hoping

the k*ller left his saliva,
a possible source of DNA.

- DNA is being sloughed
off from the cells

from your cheeks inside your
mouth, and also your gums.

And within those cells
is the nucleated cells

that have the DNA present.

To determine if
the material on the bite mark

was saliva, the
swabs were tested

for the presence of amylase.

This is an enzyme in saliva
that breaks down food.

A solution extracted
from the swab

was placed in a
perforated Petri dish

containing a starch-based gel.

Essentially a food source.

To simulate the
conditions for digestion,

the dish was placed
in an incubator

and set at body
temperature for 24 hours.

When the dish was removed
there were large white spots,

proof there was
saliva on Mia's body.

- Our positive result
is a colorless area.

So an area that's not blue.

And this is due to the fact
that the amylase is binding

and breaking up the
starch molecules.

At the time, the sample

was too small for DNA testing.

So it sat in a storage freezer.

In their search for
suspects, investigators

began with Mia's ex
boyfriend, Robert.

Apparently, they had broken
up shortly before the m*rder.

- Some people have said that
she was a little bit upset

about a recent breakup
with her boyfriend.

There was some
talk that she might

try to find him that night.

But Mia's boyfriend said, if
she stopped by his apartment

he knew nothing about it.

He claimed he was
out with his friends,

an alibi that checked out.

- Robert, her boyfriend,
cooperated fully.

He always appeared when asked.

He took a lie detector test.

- He had an airtight alibi.

Very, very good,
no creases in it.

So he was eliminated
immediately.

Investigators
couldn't find anyone

who had a motive
to k*ll Mia Zapata.

And her circle of friends and
acquaintances was fairly broad.

- Mia had a far ranging
group of friends.

A lot of these friends
had criminal histories.

A lot of these people had
v*olence in their past.

A lot of people were
somewhat obsessed with Mia.

- These people aren't the groups
you're going to find at the PTA

meetings or a the
Rotary Club meetings.

Unfortunately, none of
this yielded any new suspects.

- And it got to the
point where there

was nobody left to look at.

And at that point, that's
when you get concerned.

Frustrated because
the case hasn't been solved,

Steve Moriarty, The Gits'
drummer and a friend of Mia's

since college, joined
with band members

to take a more active
role in the investigation.

- We decided to hire our
own private investigator.

And we didn't have money, but
we were going to find the money.

And we were going to
make sure that this,

this got solved immediately.

Moriarty and the
band hired Leigh Hearon.

Her first step was to
re-interview virtually

everyone the police
had talked to.

- There were no eye witnesses.

And believe me, I tried.

I mean, I went out
a couple of nights

with another investigator and
talked with every prost*tute

on the street to see if
anybody knew anything.

I talked with all the
neighbors in the area.

People saw a car drive away, but
they didn't see anybody in it

around that time.

Eventually, Leigh Hearon

came to the same
conclusions as the police.

- I think that most people
thought that this was

going to be an
unsolved case forever.

And I know that I thought that
the only way it's going to be

solved is either someone talks
or they get some DNA evidence.

The case went cold again,

this time for nine years.

Until this man won
the Nobel Prize

and changed forensic
science forever.

Just two months
before her m*rder,

Mia Zapata wrote a song
about her own death

at the hands of a stranger.

- We were in the
studio, and I was there

when she was writing the lyrics.

And she said, I want to write
a song about a serial k*ller.

I'm like, why do
you want to do that?

She goes, because it's
happening so much.

The song was
entitled, "Sign of the Crab."

The words were eerily
similar to how Mia was k*lled.

- And it just seemed
that that summer there

was a lot of horrible,
horrible crimes happening.

And it affected Mia, and
it affected her writing.

And it ended up being prophetic
in that it happened to her.

For nine long years,
Mia's m*rder went unsolved.

Frustrations mounted.

- I never thought that it
would go unsolved for so long.

And so as the days, and the
months, and the years went by,

I knew that lots of
other people were

losing faith that
it would get solved.

Mia's m*rder happened in 1993.

And something else
happened that year too.

Kary Mullis won the
Nobel Prize in chemistry

for inventing a technique known
as Polymerase Chain Reaction,

or PCR.

This made it possible
to perform DNA

testing on very small samples.

- Well, with PCR what you have
is this chemical photocopier.

So we were able to amplify
that small piece of DNA

up into large enough pieces
that we can actually detect.

The potential genetic
sample in the Zapata case

was so small that analysts,
fearing the sample could still

be destroyed, waited until
the PCR process was so refined

that microscopic amounts
could be used for testing.

In 2001, the swab from Mia's
autopsy... the swab that

might contain the
k*ller's DNA... was

finally tested with
PCR technology.

The process amplified, or
increased, the sample size,

making it large
enough for testing.

And it worked.

- What I did develop
was a mixed profile

that contained Mia
Zapata's DNA along with,

at the time, an
unknown male profile.

The male DNA profile
was isolated,

then entered into CODIS,
the nationwide computerized

database that is
designed to store the DNA

profiles of everyone
in the United States

who has committed a felony.

Unfortunately,
there was no match.

- So the good news is,
there's the genetic profile.

You're on pins and needles.

Who does it match?

No one.

Was it possible the k*ller

had never committed
another crime?

Was he dead?

Had he left the country?

- It was amazing to me that
there was so little evidence.

I mean, clearly there was just
nothing there except for one,

one piece of saliva that
was found on Mia's breast.

And that was it.

The case went cold again.

And this time, there
was little hope

that it would ever be solved.

But the CODIS computer program
kept running night and day.

And 12 months later, the
CODIS system reported a match.

The DNA was from Jesus
Mezquia, a Cuban exile

living in Florida.

And he was no stranger
to violent crime.

- Who is this man?

We found out that he's in the
United States courtesy of Fidel

Castro from the Mariel Boatlift.

We know that he was kicked out
of Cuba because he was a felon.

- We had a criminal history
in Florida and Arizona,

nothing in Washington.

And that bothered us
because we figured,

well if he was here, why
wasn't he messing up here?

Seattle investigators
decided to question Mezquia,

who was out of jail
and on probation.

His last known address
was in Marathon, Florida.

Police there told their
counterparts in Seattle

they wouldn't let Mezquia
out of their sight.

- U.S. Marshals from Seattle
contacted the people

in Florida, can you
check this guy out?

They said, we'll bird dog him.

But when Seattle
investigators got to Florida,

Jesus Mezquia was gone.

- We get to Marathon and there
ain't no... Jesus isn't around.

You've got to be kidding me.

For 10 years,
Mia Zapata's m*rder went

unsolved until a DNA database
identified 48-year-old Jesus

Mezquia as the perpetrator.

When Seattle police went
to Florida to question him,

he was gone.

- When we do get to his home
in Marathon, he's not there.

He's inexplicably gone.

Your paranoia once
again takes over,

and you think,
oh, he's on to us.

He's going to escape.

But a few days
later Mezquia returned home.

He said he had been
working a temporary job

on a fishing boat in Miami.

Seattle investigators asked
him if he was willing to answer

a few questions and he complied.

He had no idea they
were setting a trap.

- So he's being cooperative.

And we put five
pictures of people

that we'd worked on on murders.

And we had Mia
Zapata's picture there.

Now, you've seen Mia's picture.

Mia's not your
average librarian.

She stands out.

Mezquia said he didn't recognize

any of the women in
the photo lineup.

- I said, what if
I told you, you've

k*lled one of these ladies.

He says, no, no k*ll.

And he jumps up,
he puts his hands

out there, look, no shake.

I said, OK, you're
a human polygraph.

Sit down now.

If Mezquia
said he knew Mia Zapata

or spent time with
her, then there

might be a plausible
explanation for why

his saliva was on her body.

But when he said no,
he sealed his fate.

- He denied ever knowing
her, ever seeing her, ever

having anything to do with her.

And his saliva is on her breast.

I think the man's got a problem.

A fresh sample of Mezquia's DNA

was compared to the sample
from Mia Zapata's autopsy.

Again, there was a match.

- And that was the smoking g*n
that we were able to solve

this case with, was that saliva.

Had he not done this,
we'd have nothing.

A decade after Mia
Zapata's death, the k*ller

was finally charged.

- It really hasn't sunk in yet.

So I'm still in a sort of
state of shock about it.

I just hope that this is real.

Investigators
learned that Jesus Mezquia once

lived in Seattle,
just three blocks

from where he left Mia's body.

When Mezquia was arrested
from Mia's m*rder,

one Seattle resident
called police

to say she recognized his
picture in the newspaper

as a man who had once
exposed himself to her.

- I mean, the defense was
screwed at that point.

We've now got somebody who can
testify... a live person who

can testify... to what
a sick puppy he is.

Prosecutors believe
Jesus Mezquia was out cruising

the streets of
Seattle when he saw

Mia Zapata walking home
shortly after 2:00 AM.

According to friends,
Mia had been drinking.

Since she was wearing a Walkman
headset listening to music,

she most likely never heard
Mezquia's car approach.

Prosecutors think
he abducted her.

Then took her to a
deserted location.

The DNA evidence proved
he left his saliva

on her body, then
strangled her to death.

He dumped her body
on a deserted street

just blocks from where he lived.

Investigators don't
think the location

had any real significance.

- And he just opened a car
door, grabbed her hands, drug

her out, laid her there,
and that's how she landed.

Just happen chance.

In 2004, 11 years
after Mia Zapata's m*rder,

Jesus Mezquia was tried and
convicted of her m*rder.

He was sentenced to


There was justice, thanks
to an alert medical examiner

who preserved forensic
samples even though they

couldn't be tested at the time.

- Thank god that the medical
examiner saved the one piece

of DNA evidence that
existed in this case.

It took more than a decade,

but that tiny piece of
evidence and DNA technology

finally caught up to a k*ller.

- This case did come
down to a single swab.

And that forward thinking
by the medical examiner

paid off more than we
could ever have imagined.

- I'm fascinated by
DNA science now.

And it's also
fascinating and amazing

that this medical examiner had
the foresight to collect DNA

on a sample that wouldn't be
viable for another 10 years.

- Those swabs, I mean, were
better than a smoking g*n.

You know, I mean, I
don't care... I'll take,

I'll take DNA over smoking
g*n and eyewitness any time.

And it was the whole case.

It was the entire case as far
as being solved was that swab.