As It Mourns, Bucolic Valley Also Knows Fear

Standing outside the small church, the Calistoga police chief slowly surveyed the crowd of 350 townspeople assembled to mourn the death of the young civil engineer slain Halloween night in her Napa home.

The unsolved stabbing deaths of Calistoga native Adriane Michelle Insogna and her roommate, former South Carolina beauty queen Leslie Ann Mazzara, both 26, have brutally disrupted the bucolic tranquillity of California’s Napa Valley.

With the killer still at large, Police Chief Mike Dick, a tall, squarely built man who watched Insogna grow up in this close-knit spa town, was taking no chances. Dick asked newspaper photographers for their business cards on the remote chance that the killer, whom police believe knew one or both of the victims, had come to the Tuesday afternoon memorial service at the Community Presbyterian Church and had been captured in one of the photographers’ frames.

A roommate who escaped from the two-story tract home where the three single women lived together is the only witness in the case. Flanked by bodyguards, she sat quietly through the emotional service. As a protective measure, Napa police have not released her name.

Violent crimes are rare in the Napa Valley, home to about 100,000 people. The last homicide in the city of Napa, sparked by a dispute between two men at a quinceanera party, was more than three years ago. This is a place of tree-shaded lanes, slow-moving wine trains and leisurely lunches in the sun-dappled countryside.

When violence strikes here, it is as incongruous as snowfall in San Clemente.

To calm the jittery populace, Napa police have met with several hundred citizens in a series of public meetings. Hoping to quell fears that the killings were random, police chief Richard Melton announced he believes the crime was a “specific, targeted” crime.

But so far, police say, they have not identified anyone as the person who entered the wood-frame home around 2 a.m. Halloween night, climbed the stairs to bedrooms where Insogna and Mazzara slept and, after a struggle, stabbed both women to death. No weapon has been recovered.

Awakened in her downstairs bedroom by her whimpering dog and the sound of the struggle in the upstairs rooms, the roommate, also 26, fled the house and called police on her cellphone. A police officer, patrolling nearby streets, arrived at the scene minutes later.

Napa Police Cmdr. Jeff Troendly said authorities immediately formed a major crime investigation team, pooling resources from nearby police departments, the Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol. Twenty officers canvassed the neighborhood for hours but came up empty-handed.

Other than announcing that they have submitted a “significant piece of evidence” to FBI labs in Quantico, Va., police officers have not said what makes them believe that the killer knew at least one of the victims.

They continue to say they do not have a suspect. Earlier in the week, they issued a general appeal to all citizens to report any suspicious behavior on the part of co-workers.

“We are presuming that the suspect could have been injured in the struggle,” Troendly said.

“We want the public to have a heightened awareness of any new injuries or change in behavior, such as missed work, unplanned vacations, events not attended or any unusual anxiety.”

On Friday, the police announced that community leaders have offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer.

Until the case is solved, the unfamiliar tension continues to grip Napa and surrounding towns, particularly among the many young single women who live in the valley and work in the tourist, restaurant and wine industries.

“It freaked me out,” said Carla Garrison, 29, who tends bar at the Rutherford Grill. “I live alone with my sister in Napa, and we haven’t had a murder in years.”

“I’m completely terrified,” said Carolyn, 27, a Napa bartender who knew both victims and who asked that her full name not be used. “I moved here because I thought it was a safe place for my 7-year-old son. Before this happened, I never even locked my door. Now I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat.”

As part of the police investigation, detectives interviewed Carolyn the day after the killings. She said the police asked her what Insogna and Mazzara were like, if they were ever involved in confrontations and if there were any men who regularly hovered around them in a popular downtown bar.

“I told them of course there were men around. These were super-intelligent, beautiful women. Everyone really liked them,” Carolyn said.

Both victims were widely known in the valley. Outgoing Insogna was a star volleyball player in high school who still worked out with local teams and refereed games. After graduating with a degree in civil engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, she came back home to work, landing a job as an assistant engineer with the Napa Sanitation Department.

Mazzara, former Miss Williamston in the Miss South Carolina beauty pageant, was a popular concierge and sales representative at Francis Ford Coppola’s Niebaum-Coppola wine estate in Rutherford, Calif. In letters to relatives, Mazzara reported excitedly that she went to Thursday night dances at the winery attended by the famous “Godfather” director and dreamed of “being discovered.”

A 2003 philosophy graduate from the University of Georgia and a longtime ballet performer, Mazzara had only worked six months at Niebaum-Coppola. However, winery Chief Executive Jay Shoemaker said she “made an amazing impression as a woman of style and grace and poise.”

Shoemaker said the winery held a private memorial service and set up several grief counseling sessions to help distraught co-workers deal with the loss. Coppola renamed a company personnel program the “Mazzara Safety Initiative” and ordered a plaque honoring the slain worker installed on a winery wall.

Shoemaker said several employees flew to Anderson, S.C., to attend a Wednesday memorial service for Mazzara. Anderson Independent-Mail reporter Nicholas Charalambous reported that 250 people attended the service.

Mazzara had been active in local campaigns to prevent child abuse and won many friends through her ballet dancing and participation in beauty pageants.

Though the killings took place in Napa, the pain was felt even more strongly 30 miles up the road in the small town of Calistoga, population 5,500.

Amid the showcase wineries, tony restaurants and luxury retreats of Napa, Calistoga stands out as the valley’s last traditional small town, going to great lengths to avoid the invasion of millionaires and the rampant gentrification that has changed the face of St. Helena and other neighboring towns. Several years ago, the townspeople rose up en masse to block a planned Taco Bell outlet. The City Council has limited growth to less than 2% a year.

“This is Main Street USA,” said Dick, the police chief. “Everybody knows each other, from the city officials to the workers in the fields.”

Practically everyone in Calistoga knew Insogna as the athletic student, particularly good in math and drafting, whose mother, Arlene Allen, has served for years on the Calistoga school board. As a senior in high school, Insogna also attended board meetings as the student representative, recalled schools Supt. Jeff Johnson, a longtime family friend.

Calistogans suffered with Insogna in 1994 when she was injured in a serious automobile accident. They celebrated with her when she achieved her dream of studying engineering at Cal Poly.

And earlier this week they filled the church and stood forlornly under the sycamores and mulberry trees outside the chapel to mourn her loss.

“The town that you grew up in is now covered in a cloud of gloom,” friend Kara Mulinix told the mourners.

During the service, the funeral home showed a video of Insogna as she progressed through youth sports, Girl Scout activities, high school social life and adulthood.

When it was finished, friend Jeanette Pauls, 31, wrestled with her two small children and summed up her feelings.

“Watching the video was like viewing the life of every child growing up in Calistoga,” Pauls said.