Anita Elizabeth Fagiani Andrews, a 51-year-old Caucasian woman, was brutally murdered on July 10, 1974, in Napa, California. She was a single mother who worked tirelessly to provide for her daughters, Donna and Diana. Anita co-owned Fagiani’s Cocktail Lounge with her sister, Muriel Fagiani, after inheriting the establishment from their father. In addition to managing the bar, she also worked as a secretary at Napa State Hospital.
On the night of her murder, Anita was last seen tending to the bar near closing hours, with a stranger still present on the premises.
The following morning, Muriel discovered Anita’s lifeless body in a pool of blood on the floor of the bar. The 51-year-old Caucasian woman had been raped, her clothes torn apart, and her throat slashed. She had also suffered multiple stab wounds inflicted with a screwdriver. Her Cadillac Eldorado was missing, and investigators found several clues at the crime scene, including a cigarette butt in an ashtray, a partial bloody fingerprint on a rear staircase, and fingerprints on a bottle and an open cash register. Despite these leads, the case remained unsolved for decades.
In 2010, a breakthrough occurred when Napa Police investigator Don Winegar submitted evidence from the 1974 crime scene to the California Department of Justice crime lab. Lab technicians successfully extracted DNA evidence and entered it into the national DNA database, CODIS. The DNA profile matched Roy Allan Melanson, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence at Fort Lyons Correctional Institute in Colorado for another crime. Melanson, a drifter and con artist, had a long history of violent offenses, including burglaries, rapes, and multiple murders across several states.
Following the DNA match, a special Napa County grand jury indicted Roy Allan Melanson for the murder of Anita Elizabeth Fagiani Andrews. The hearing included testimony from 13 witnesses, including former investigators, a bar patron present on the night of the murder, and Anita’s former neighbor. Melanson was extradited to Napa in September 2010, and he was ultimately found guilty of first-degree murder. His conviction brought long-awaited justice for the 51-year-old Caucasian woman, whose tragic death had remained a mystery for decades.
