The Murder of Mia Zapata
As the front woman for Seattle-based rock band The Gits, Mia Zapata was building herself a promising career before she was killed on July 7, 1993. Her killer would walk free for ten years before finally being linked to her brutal murder.
Born Mia Katherine Zapata on August 25, 1965 in Chicago, Zapata was the daughter of two television executives. Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, she took interest in music at a young age, learning guitar by the age of nine. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at Antioch College in Ohio as a liberal arts student.
In September 1986, Zapata met guitarist Andrew Kessler, drummer Steve Moriarty, and bassist Matt Dresdner. The four formed The Gits soon after they met and played shows in the Ohio region. Seeing the promise Seattle offered to bands, they decided to move across the county in 1989.
Despite the fact The Gits weren’t exactly grunge like many of the other bands in the Seattle music scene they quickly fit into the scene. Zapata became friends with many of the local female musicians and was beloved by the Seattle feminist community.
In 1992, The Gits released their first album titled Frenching the Bully. The band toured throughout the United States and Europe soon after the release of the album. In July 1993, the band had just returned to Seattle after touring the west coast. On the evening of July 6, 1993, she went out to the Comet Tavern celebrating the band’s recording of their second album: Enter The Conquering Chicken.
Once Zapata left the Comet Tavern, she walked one block east towards Pike Street. She first went to a recording studio, then the apartment of a friend who lived in the same building as the studio. At about 2 a.m. on July 7, 1993, Mia told her friend she was going to hail a cab and then left.
Although her next movements aren’t certain, it is believed Zapata either walked a few blocks west, north to a friend’s apartment, or walked the long way home to the south. She wore a headset and was listening to music as she walked throughout the city.
At 3:30 a.m., Zapata was found dead on the sidewalk of a dead end road. She was dressed, but there was evidence of sexual assault. Her bra and underwear were found in her pockets. When she was found, there was no identification on her. She was allegedly identified by the deputy coroner because he was a fan of The Gits.
Her autopsy revealed that she was brutally raped, beaten, bit, and then strangled with the cords of her hooded sweatshirt. The coroner noted that if she hadn't died from the strangulation, the blunt force trauma she received would have likely killed her. Police at the time had no way of testing the saliva found on Zapata’s body.
The outpouring of grief from the local community was swift. Fliers of the location of her wake were plastered throughout Seattle. Many friends and fans came to her wake holding a single yellow rose. It is estimated at least 1,000 people came to her funeral. Zapata is interred in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.
As the community mourned, police turned their investigation towards her friends and family. They believed she would have been killed by someone she knew.
Zapata’s surviving bandmates alongside famous bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam raised $70,000 to hire a private investigator for three years. Alongside raising funds for a private investigator, multiple benefit concerts were held. Funds dried up in 1996, but the investigator Leigh Hearon continued to investigate.
In 1998, Seattle police announced they were no closer to finding a suspect than they were the morning of her murder. In 2002, police entered the saliva found on Zapata’s body into CODIS (combined DNA index system) to find a potential match. They found their potential match in fisherman Jesus Mezquia of Florida. Between 1992 and 1994, Mezquia lived in Seattle. In 2002, he was on parole for possession of burglary tools.
In December 2002, the FBI told Seattle police they found a match for Zapata’s killer. Mezquia was swiftly arrested and faced extradition to Washington. On January 10, 2003, Seattle officers flew to Miami and took him to Washington.
Although he lived with a woman in Seattle, she was out of town on July 6 and 7. Past partners of his testified about the abuse they suffered at his hands. Mezquia lived only about a mile from Zapata. Despite denying he killed Zapata he was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to 37 years in prison. He appealed his first-degree murder sentence but was denied. His sentence would be overturned, but then he was re-sentenced to 36 years in prison. Mezquia died in prison in January 2021.
In her memory, Zapata’s bandmates formed Home Alive, a nonprofit which taught self-defense classes at little to no cost. They wanted to allow musicians, bartenders, sex workers, and the unhoused to be able to defend themselves instead of the usual advice: never walking alone at night and dressing conservatively. Home Alive taught various martial arts, anger management, and how to use pepper spray. The group formally disbanded in 2010 due to financial issues, but currently is a loose network of volunteers which still teaches classes at high schools. Their curriculum is now housed on their website for all to use.
