For 36 years, the stabbing death of Anita Andrews in a Napa bar owned by her sister has been an endless source of controversy and speculation in this small city.
Defying a renaissance of new development downtown, the two-story building on Main Street where Muriel Fagiani discovered her sister's bloodied and partially-clad body looks pretty much as it did in 1974.
Over the years, some in the city of 77,000 considered Fagiani's decision to seal off the building a touching testament to a sister's broken heart. Others criticized it as an example of a person not knowing when to let go and move on.
And then a few days ago, a Napa detective showed up at Fagiani's home bearing startling news: police, with the help of DNA evidence, have a prime suspect in the case.
Police identified him Monday as Roy A. Melanson, 70, and said he is serving a life sentence in Colorado's Fort Lyon Prison for the murder of a young female hiker in Gunnison County around Aug. 30, 1974, about 50 days after Andrews' murder.
Fagiani has had her hopes dashed before, which might explain her muted reaction to this latest news. She also said it won't bring back her sister.
"It would be a mistake to say it's closure," she said. "It's a bit of information."
But for the Napa community, the news is a shocker, as many can recite the circumstances surrounding Andrews' slaying as if it happened yesterday.
Andrews was killed the night of July 10, 1974 as she was wrapping up her shift at Fagiani's Cocktail Lounge.
Witnesses reported that a man about 35 years of age - the same age Melanson would have been at the time of the murder - remained inside the bar while Andrews closed the lounge for the evening.
The 51-year-old woman was stabbed repeatedly with a screwdriver and left partially clothed in a room at the rear of the bar, which overlooks Veterans Park.
Police said Andrews was sexually assaulted. Her 1967 tan Cadillac was last seen the night of the murder at a Sacramento service station, where the killer used her credit card for gas.
Fagiani discovered her sister's body the morning following the slaying.
After decades of false leads, Napa police turned the cold case over to Det. Don Winegar in 2006.
He examined the forensic evidence collected as part of the initial investigation, and in November of 2007, sent several items to the California Department of Justice's Bureau of Forensic Services for DNA testing.
Among the items originally gathered at the crime scene were cigarette butts, beer bottles, flesh samples, hair and blood.
Napa Police Cmdr. Andy Lewis on Monday declined to say specifically what items were sent to the state lab for review. However, he said they were different from items police had previously sent to the lab for similar tests.
In September 2009, the state agency notified police of a DNA match with Melanson. Lewis attributed the two-year delay in the notification to the lab's backlog and the fact the Andrews case was so old.
In a prison interview with detectives last November, Melanson denied any involvement in Andrews' murder and denied ever being in Napa, police said.
Investigators obtained a DNA sample from Melanson to compare with the earlier match received from the state forensics lab. That sample confirmed the results, police said.
"This DNA puts him at the scene," Lewis said. "We're doing additional follow up to see where that leads us."
But Lewis did not go so far as to say police believe Melanson is the person responsible for Andrews' death.
"I can't be so provocative as to say this is the killer," Lewis said. "This is our suspect right now."
He said police went public with their suspect hoping that the information might jog a memory for someone who may have seen Melanson in Napa around the time of the murder, or whether other law enforcement agencies might spot similarities with their own cold cases.
Lewis said Melanson was a drifter at the time of Andrews' slaying, which he labeled a "crime of opportunity."
DNA also played a role in connecting Melanson to the murder of Michele Wallace, who was reported missing by her mother on Sept. 3, 1974. Her skeletal remains were not found until 1992 in Colorado's mountains.
Melanson was identified as a suspect in that case after he was found with Wallace's identification and property. But not until DNA evidence proved that the remains were that of Wallace were authorities able to establish a definitive link and prosecute Melanson for the woman's murder.
Lewis said Napa police will turn their investigation over to Napa County prosecutors to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to charge Melanson with Andrews' slaying.
A conviction would bring some measure of comfort to Fagiani, who was forced to sell the Main Street building in 2007 after the city passed a seismic retrofit ordinance aimed at getting owners to strengthen unreinforced masonry.
The building remains unoccupied, a reminder of a slaying that until recently seemed fated to remain a mystery.
"If they have DNA and a person, I don't think they make too many mistakes with that," Fagiani said.
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