June 20, 2009
Into Thin Air
A Mother Disappears Leaving Behind A Mystery That Would Take Her Daughter 30 Years To Solve
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Play CBS Video Video Into Thin Air In Full: A mother disappears leaving behind friends, family, and a mystery that would take 30 years to solve. Richard Schlesinger reports.
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Video More From ADA Bob Kaiser Assistant District Attorney Bob Kaiser talks more about Jeanette Zapata's disappearance, and the case against her former husband Eugene.
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Eugene and Jean Zapata (Wisconsin State Journal)
Eugene's detailed notes were the evidence prosecutor Bob Kaiser had been hoping for. In a written statement sent to 48 Hours, Eugene says he was just building a case to help him win custody of his children.
But Kaiser believes the notes show Eugene's obsessive state of mind when his wife filed for divorce. "Was he going into her pants and sniffing the crotch of her pants to see if it smelled like spermicidal jelly? Yes. That's what he was doing. Breaking into her house, looking through everything in the house," Kaiser says.
But it's hard to prove a murder case in front of a jury without a body, so police were hoping their cadaver dogs would find Jean’s remains in that huge landfill Eugene had visited on his last trip to Wisconsin. They looked for five days and turned up nothing.
So Kaiser went with what he did have - circumstantial evidence that Jean was murdered. And 30 years after the case began, Kaiser ordered police to arrest Eugene Zapata.
Linda's father was charged with killing her mother, and on Sept. 4, 2007, Eugene went on trial for first-degree murder.
Once again Linda would play a major role in the case against her father. She became the first witness for the prosecution. Asked what was going through her mind as she was on the witness stand, Linda says, "Mainly, although I never regret for a second doing it, I felt bad."
The judge ruled testimony about what the dogs found was unreliable and threw it out. So prosecutors had to rely on evidence of Eugene's movements, and those notes he tried so hard to conceal.
Eugene's one big mistake, argues the prosecution, was answering the phone on the morning of Oct. 11, 1976, a morning he was barred by court order from being at the house.
It takes the defense less than one hour to present their case. They argued that the prosecution failed to connect Eugene to any crime.
"But you will not leave with proof, and certainly not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. I ask you to find Eugene Zapata not guilty," defense attorney Steve Hurley said in closing arguments.
Eugene never talked in court, and never talked to 48 Hours.
"We had come so far from nothing. We were asking a lot of a jury to convict without a body and convict without DNA," Statz says.
But anyone looking for answers to this 30 year-old mystery would have to keep looking. Because behind closed doors, the jurors argued and debated, but even after four days they could not decide what happened to Jean, no matter how hard they tried. They left the judge no choice: he declared a hung jury.
On Sept. 17, 2007, Eugene walked out of court a free man. But the father of three who kept silent during his trial was about to stun everyone.
Produced by Brian Leonard, Daria Hirsch, and Sara Ely Hulse
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This is more example of how our society has let the criminal get off easy. The poor victim hasn''t been able to live her life the past 30 years while her killer has been free to live his. Is this justice?!!!
finally has the answer to her Mothers disappearance.
It sounds like the siblings and his current wife
want to keep their heads in the sand.
It would be really hard to find out your father had murdered your Mother. I cant even imagine how horrible that would be. I hope they all can find peace now.