For Palms Inn resident, discovering a neighbor’s decomposing body adds to a lifetime of trauma

In his years living on the street, Steven Singleton has seen his share of death.

But the death that troubles him most is that of 58-year-old Katherine Zagainoff.

“I saw her the weekend before she was trying to find a bike,” said Singleton, one of Zagainoff’s neighbors at The Palms Inn, a motel just south of Santa Rosa that has been converted to permanent housing for homeless people.

“I walked her back to her home and that was the last time I saw her,” Singleton said.

Four days later, Singleton and his partner, Michelle Last, began to notice a foul smell coming through the door of Room 203 at The Palms, he said.

At first, they thought it might be trash hoarded by a neighbor. But he later he realized it was likely the smell of death. He accompanied paramedics during a wellness check and discovered Zagainoff’s body, he said.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said.

Singleton told the story to Press Democrat reporters during a two-month investigation into widespread health and safety issues at Palms, which has been held up as a model for combating homelessness in Sonoma County, but which faces a number of serious health and safety issues.

Last year, four people died of overdoses on the property. On at least two occasions, bodies went undiscovered for days, according to law enforcement reports and resident interviews.

Zagainoff was found dead in July 2021 with drugs and paraphernalia, according to a Sonoma County Coroner’s investigation report. The report does not describe the body’s condition but lists her cause of death as “acute and chronic methamphetamine abuse.”

An incident report from Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office references a male witness whose age matches Singleton’s, though the name is redacted.

Another resident delivered a letter to property management soon afterward describing Zagainoff’s body as “putrefied,” according to the text of the letter provided to The Press Democrat by Burbank Housing, the nonprofit in charge of the property at the time.

The author of the letter suggested at least one other resident had been left dead for weeks two years prior. The Press Democrat did not find a record matching that death, but it did obtain a July 2020 coroner’s report for 69-year-old Frank Sena.

The report said Sena’s body was “in a state of decomposition.”

An July 2020 incident report from the sheriff’s office obtained through a public records request stated Sena had not been seen or heard from for two weeks before the discovery of his body.

The owner of the Palms, Santa Rosa-based Akash Kalia, said the facility houses the county’s most vulnerable members, and deaths have been something both he and the Palms community have had to grapple with. He added that some Palms residents live alone, and he thought it’s not necessarily uncommon for people who die in that situation not to be immediately discovered.

Kalia said he was not familiar with deaths in which bodies weren’t found for days or weeks. Those were questions for Catholic Charities and the Department of Veterans Affairs, who provide case management for residents at the site, he said.

Catholic Charities officials declined to discuss the specifics of resident deaths, citing privacy concerns. The VA also declined to comment about the circumstances of the deaths.

“I don't care what they say,” said KaLani Raposa, a Palms resident who knew Zagainoff. “I mean, that is just pure neglect.”

Singleton provided The Press Democrat an April letter from his psychiatrist citing the discovery of his neighbor’s body as a “recent trauma” in a life full of traumatic experiences on the street.

“In the context of his trauma history, Mr. Singleton has displayed symptoms that have limited his functioning, including excessive worry, difficulty focusing, recurrent intrusive memories of the trauma, hypervigilance, and reliving the trauma,” the psychiatrist wrote.

Read the Press Democrat’s full investigation into the Palms here.

You can reach Staff Writer Ethan Varian at ethan.varian@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5412. On Twitter @ethanvarian

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @AndrewGraham88