Mia Zapata

Mia Zapata
Background information
Birth name	Mia Katherine Zapata
Born	August 25, 1965(1965-08-25) Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Died	July 7, 1993(1993-07-07) (aged 27) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Genres	Punk rock
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1986–1993
Associated acts	The Gits

Mia Katherine Zapata (August 25, 1965 – July 7, 1993) was the lead singer for the Seattle punk band The Gits.

Life and career

Zapata was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. Zapata learned how to play the guitar and the piano by age nine, and 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, Zapata enrolled at Antioch College located in Yellow Springs, Ohio as a liberal arts student. In September 1986, she and three friends formed the punk rock band The Gits. In 1989, the band relocated to Seattle, Washington. The band released a series of well-received singles on local independent record labels from 1990 to 1991. 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.

Murder

At around 2:00 a.m. on July 7, 1993, Zapata 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 she was seen alive. She may have walked a few blocks west, north to a friend's apartment, or may have decided to take the long walk south to her home.^[1]

She was beaten, raped and strangled in the Central District of Seattle. It is believed she encountered her attacker shortly after 2:15 am. Since an employee at the Comet remembered her wearing her headset as she left, it is believed she was listening to music from her walkman and thus was unaware of the attacker approaching.^[2]

According to the cable television show Unsolved Mysteries, a man two blocks from the Comet Tavern heard a scream around 3:00 a.m. A woman discovered her body in the street at around 3:30 a.m. near the intersection of 24th Avenue South and South Washington Street in the Central District. According to the medical examiner, if she had not been strangled she would have died from the internal injuries suffered from the beating.

Mia Zapata is interred at Cave Hill Cemetery in her hometown of Louisville.

Legacy

In the aftermath of her murder, friends created a self-defense group called Home Alive, which disbanded in 2010. Home Alive has organized benefit concerts and CDs with the participation of many of Seattle's music elite, such as Nirvana (one of lead singer Kurt Cobain's final public appearances), 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 ("Gits Live" backwards). The Home Alive group's instructors offered a range of courses, from anger management and use of pepper spray to the martial arts.^[3]

In 2005, a documentary The Gits Movie was produced on her life, The Gits and the Seattle music scene. Its first showing occurred at the Seattle International Film Festival in May of that year. Another version of the film appeared two years later at the 2007 SXSW (South By Southwest) Film Festival, and the final cut of the film was released theatrically in over 20 North American cities on July 7, 2008, the 15th memorial anniversary of Zapata's death. The following day saw the film released on DVD along with a Best of the Gits CD (both from Liberation Entertainment).

Following Zapata's death, Joan Jett and Kathleen Hanna wrote a song called "Go Home" that was later released on Jett's 1994 album Pure and Simple. Later a video for "Go Home" was released which depicts a woman being stalked and attacked but is then able to defend herself against the attacker.

The murderer

Florida fisherman Jesus Mezquia was linked to the crime in 2003 when a DNA profile was extracted from a saliva sample left on Zapata's body. It had been kept in cold storage until technology was developed for full DNA extraction. An original entry in 2001 failed to generate a positive result, but Mezquia's DNA entered the national databank CODIS after Mezquia was arrested in Florida for burglary and domestic abuse in 2002.

Mezquia was born in Cuba and lived in Seattle at the time of the murder, his home address was about three blocks from where Zapata's body was discovered. He had a history of violence toward women, including domestic abuse and assault and battery. A report of indecent exposure had been filed against him in Seattle within two weeks of Zapata's murder. However, there was no known prior link between Mezquia and Zapata.

Mezquia never testified in his own defense and still maintains his innocence. A jury convicted Mezquia of Zapata's murder on March 25, 2004, and sentenced him to 36 years in prison. The case was featured on Investigators; Forensic Files; Unsolved Mysteries; American Justice; City Confidential; I, Detective; and 48 Hours. His sentence was overturned by the Washington Court of Appeals but, in 2009, Mezquia was again sentenced to 36 years.

See also

• 27 Club

Notes

1. ^ Tizon, Alex. "Who Murdered Mia Zapata?" -- No Arrests, Few Clues 5 Years After Slaying." Seattle Times, Sunday, August 23, 1998.
2. ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/05/48hours/main706348.shtml CBS news July 9, 2005
3. ^ Mia Zapata: Home Alive

References

• Johnson, Tracy. "11 years later, justice for slain singer Zapata". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. March 26, 2004.

External links

• The Gits Movie official website
• The Gits official website
• Music Videos
• Photo of Mia Zapata's grave

Persondata
Name	Zapata, Mia
Alternative names
Short description	American singer
Date of birth	August 25, 1965
Place of birth
Date of death	July 7, 1993
Place of death