Mia Katherine Zapata (August 25, 1965 – July 7, 1993) was an American musician who was the lead singer for the Seattle punk band The Gits.

[4] Zapata learned how to play the guitar and the piano by age nine, and was influenced by punk rock as well as jazz, blues, and R&B singers such as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, Hank Williams, and Sam Cooke.

Their reputation progressively increased within the grunge scene in Seattle, before the band began work on their second and final album Enter: The Conquering Chicken, released posthumously in 1994.

"[6] Zapata's music often led to a rejection of financial comfort, but regardless of status, Valerie Agnew describes her as "commanding respect and interest immediately".

Peter Sheehy recalls: "Mia [was] the hub of several social circles; a magnetic personality who drew all sorts of people together who otherwise might never have met.

"[8] On his way to her wake in Seattle, Zapata's father became lost and recalls many people carrying yellow roses: the admission ticket to her service.

[8] The Gits, who included guitarist Andrew "Joe Spleen" Kessler, drummer Steve Moriarty, and bassist Matt Dresdner, met in Ohio in 1986.

After Zapata's death, the band continued to make music and found success in their second album with singles such as "Seaweed" and "Precious Blood".

[2] She stayed at a studio space in the basement of an apartment building located a block away, and briefly visited a friend who lived on the second floor.

An episode of the cable television show Forensic Files revealed that she was identified after the medical examiner, who was a fan of the Gits and had been to their concerts, recognized her.

[12] According to court documents, an autopsy found evidence of a struggle in which Zapata suffered blunt impact to her abdomen and a lacerated liver.

The Seattle music community, including some of its most famous bands – Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden – helped raise $70,000 to hire a private investigator for three years.

"[11] In 2003, Florida fisherman Jesus Mezquia, who had come from Cuba in 1980 in the Mariel boatlift,[14] was arrested and charged in connection with Zapata's murder based on DNA evidence.

[2] An original entry in 2001 failed to generate a positive result, but Mezquia's DNA entered the national CODIS database after he was arrested in Florida for burglary and domestic abuse in 2002.

Home Alive organized benefit concerts and released albums with the participation of many bands, including Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Heart, and the Presidents of the United States of America.

"[citation needed] Margaret O'Neil Girouard, who wrote her thesis on Zapata, believes she is an example of female artists being classified based on the perceived motivations behind their art.

"[24] It has been speculated that this association may be due to her presence as a "charismatic female musician" in the Northwest, who was performing throughout the emergence of the riot grrrl movement.