Paul LaRosa - Nightmare in Napa. The Wine Country Murders

When the painful reality set in, when those living in the city of Napa truly understood what had happened that Halloween night of 2004that an unnamed intruder had broken into a home in their quiet little town and murdered two defenseless young womenresidents were left almost speechless. Mayor Ed Henderson sums up the feelings of many when he says: Bad things happen in paradise, and we live in paradise. I am so sorry that this has happened.

Todd Shulman, a detective with the Napa City Police Department, agrees: This has robbed a lot of people of the sense of security they have. People are searching for a reason why this happened. Ive talked to some longtime cops whove been here for thirty years and they think this is the most violent crime theyve ever seen here. Its a once-in-a-career type thing.

How in the world could something like thisa vicious double murder reflective of the darkest, most base elements of human behaviorhappen in a place dedicated to the good life? This isnt supposed to happen in Napa, says Marsha Dorgan, a longtime reporter for the Napa Valley Register. Its safe here, you know? Were not Oakland. Were not Vallejo, were not even American Canyon, which is just south of us. People here feel safe, and I think now people feel violated. Besides being afraid, people were violated because this is not supposed to happen in Napa.

But it is a clich to say that Napa is the type of place where murder doesnt happen. In twenty-first-century America, murder occurs everywhere and that old saw cannot be trotted out every time something horrific happens in a small town. And Napa, make no mistake, is a small town with a population of only about 70,000 people. Crime does occur in Napaeven murder (the last murder had occurred in 2001)but before Adriane and Leslie were murdered, twin killings were exceptional. Ive been here twenty years, and I cant think of a double homicide weve had, says Commander Jeff Troendly, who is the public voice of the Napa City Police Department.

Marsha Dorgan begs to differ but only slightly. She says the last double homicide was in 1999 but agrees with Troendly that Napa has a very low crime rate and most Napans dont give it a second thought. Its just not what everyday life is all about. In Napa, many peopleand this is a reality, not just a clichdo not lock the doors on their homes or their cars. People feel connected to each other because they are connected: your next-door neighbor could be your sisters ex-boyfriend or your mothers best friends daughter. And then there is the glorious weathersome eight months of sunshineand the picturesque countryside.

Napa is a beautiful place to live, says Dorgan. Its got vineyards. Its got hotels. Its got upscale restaurants. We get tourists from all over the world who come here and they come to sample the wines and ride the wine train. Weve got those hot air balloons, and its really quite a tourist place, but the people who live here dont think of it like that. This is just where we live, where we work, and its a very small community in a lot of ways.

Dorgan is onto something, the dichotomy between what Napa actually is and what we think it is. There really are two Napas: tourist Napathe one that exists in our collective virtual memoryand then the real Napa. For those who live there, Napa is a small, former blue-collar and agricultural town trying to cope with an influx of very big money and highbrow pretensions. Napa is the anchor for the Valley, says Shulman. The workers who work in the fields live here, and it still has a small-town feel to it. You meet people you know all the time in the stores. It has a great farmers market on Wednesday when they close down part of downtown and sell crafts and food. It has the same feel to it that it had thirty years ago.