Take Back the Night
For many of us who lived through it, the "grunge era" in Seattle didn't die in Kurt Cobain's garage in April of 1994, but on the streets of south Capitol Hill ten months earlier, when Mia Zapata was found raped and murdered. Zapata, age 27, was the lead singer for local favorites the Gits - a feisty garage punk group that embodied the genunie grass-roots quality that kept the scene from going stale even amid the floodlights of national publicity. In the two-degrees-of-seperation Seattle scene, nearly everyone under 25 knew people who knew Zapata, and her loss was a huge blow to the community. Even worse were the circumstances. Zapata was walking home from a bar we all went to, through a neighborhood where we all lived, on streets we thought were our own. Not her talent, not her popularity, nor even her growing notoriety could protect her from the random violence of some predatory scumbag. Who among us then was safe?
As the months and years dragged on since her murder, the crime remained unsolved. The "grunge" moment passed into history and Zapata's death became almost a piece of urban folklore - a tragedy of youth, fading into the past. Now comes word from Florida that DNA tests have produced a credible suspect. Perhaps, after all this time, justice will be finally be served. But, as always, it will never be enough to undo the harm.
2:24:21 PM 
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