Nearly 30 years ago, Jeanette ""Jean"" Zapata vanished and the Madison Police Department were unable to explain her disappearance. They questioned all the right people and followed all their leads, but were left with a cold case.
On Monday, however, Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard announced murder charges against Eugene Zapata for the Oct. 11, 1976, disappearance of his wife. The 67-year-old Zapata, currently living in Henderson, Nev., will soon be extradited to Madison.
""This case is a reminder that homicide does not have a statute of limitations,"" Blanchard said.
Madison police reopened their investigation of Jean Zapata's disappearance in 2004 after receiving an unexpected tip from former friend Peg Weekley. Then living in Oklahoma, Weekley told detective Mary Lou Ricksecker about Eugene and Jean Zapata's extremely troubled marriage.
According to Weekley, Eugene Zapata posted ""gynecological"" pictures of his wife in a 1975 adult magazine with detailed contact information attached. He also opened a post office box in her name at about the same time that matched the address on the pictures.
A 26-page criminal complaint released Monday details further marital troubles between Eugene and Jean Zapata. Leading up to her Oct. 11, 1976 disappearance, Mrs. Zapata had begun seeing other men and frequenting a local bar. She described her husband to one boyfriend as being ""perverted"" and complained to others that Mr. Zapata had begun having sex with other men in front of their children. According to the criminal complaint, Mrs. Zapata had grown afraid of her husband by 1976 and wanted a divorce.
For his part, Eugene Zapata stalked his wife from the time divorce proceedings began in May 1976 until her disappearance five months later. In a journal he kept locked away in a safe deposit box in Nevada, he also described searching his wife's purse for phone numbers and contraceptives and claimed that their children were unhappy living with her. Mr. Zapata asked in his will that the journal be destroyed upon his death without being read.
Citing modern forensic technologies and the evidence gleaned from Mr. Zapata's journal, the criminal complaint states that police had good reason to reopen their investigation.
Using corpse-sniffing dogs, Madison police quickly found evidence of ""decomposing human remains"" in three of Mr. Zapata's former Madison homes.
Also, according to the complaint, corpse-sniffing dogs found evidence of human remains in a Wisconsin landfill where Mr. Zapata left 60 lbs. of material shortly after learning that his wife's disappearance was again under investigation. Mrs. Zapata weighed 135 lbs. when she disappeared. Police have yet to find her body.
