“The uncertainty has haunted me for decades.” though, and these words from Alison Galvani, a professor of epidemiology at Yale University, speak directly to the heart of a mystery that combines the haunting quality of a cold case with the personal tragedy of a crime of family treachery. Alison Galvani’s 81-year-old father, Patrick Galvani, has just been arrested and charged with the 1982 murder of her mother, Nancy Galvani, a crime that went unsolved for over forty years.
Nancy’s body was found in August of that year, floating in a sleeping bag beneath the San Mateo Bridge in Foster City, California. She and Patrick were living apart at the time; she had filed for divorce, obtained a restraining order, and moved out of their Pacific Heights house. Prosecutors say that Patrick tricked Nancy into coming out to retrieve Alison a day early, as he had planned, according to People Magazine. Nancy disappeared that night, and Alison’s yellow Buick was found in Patrick’s garage. Alison, just five years at the time, is convinced that her father “used me as bait to lure my mother to her death.”
He has previously been considered a suspect, but charges had been removed because no witnesses and usable evidence could be found. His lawyer, at the time, cited that he had passed a polygraph test, while Patrick, in legal documents, asserted that “Nancy had mental illness.” This case has previously resurfaced several times, only to be dormant until recently when evidence became available, enabling authorities to continue. This is according to San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe, who said, “the circumstances surrounding his motive for the crime, how he did it, and where he kept her during the time period,” and that some witnesses who couldn’t previously testify are now ready.
Cold case breakthoughs can turn around an investigation. It has been seen, through psychological studies carried out over many years, that witness memories and evidence may weaken, yet loyalty may change, and witnesses who hesitated before may come forward. Technological gains, media campaigns, and reinvestigations have resulted in the resolution of several cases which were otherwise considered insoluble. But in this case, it was Alison who kept the investigation alive, as she felt that her pleas were falling through deaf ears.
The emotional cost of this experience on the rest of the family is extreme. To grow up knowing that one’s parent is under suspicion of violent behavior can result in serious long-term psychological damage: a lack of trust, a hypervigilant lifestyle, and an identity crisis are just a few possibilities. In the case of this particular family, the emotional legacy of the father’s suspected violence is revealed in the fact that on the day of her wedding, Alison instructed her father to walk ahead of her so she would not have to touch him. In 2008, she confronted him: “You death my mother.” His response: “It wasn’t my fault.”
The trauma of betrayal trauma specifically focuses on how a trusted person can have an even more profound psychological effect on victims than the crime that occurred. The victims of trauma are left to cope with not only a trauma but a complete disruption of belief systems that lead to an entire lifetime of sufferance of depression and an inability to form intimate relationships. The legal system may have to rehash all of the trauma through court dates and media exposure.
For families who lose someone through homicide, it’s essential to acknowledge grief and avoid clichés. In Surviving When Someone Dies by Murder, as in other support guides on the subject, never indicate “closure” or that it’s time to “move on.” They will never be over, because homicide loss is a lifelong crime. In Alison’s situation, there is finally the possibility of legal closure in the murder charge, but in terms of emotional processing, it’s more complicated than that.
Meanwhile, the present lawyer for Patrick Galvani, Douglas Horngrad, insists that his client remains innocent: “This murder charge was filed against him years ago and the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. As I understand it, the evidence is the same, and we believe the outcome will be the same. Mr. Galvani will be exonerated again.”
says Horngrad. The prosecutors, however, are confident that they now possess sufficient evidence to secure a conviction. With the court date looming on the fifteenth of January, this is a case that is both a tribute to the tenacity of investigative journalism and also a bitter reminder of the human toll that is hidden beneath the headlines of cold cases. For Alison, seeking justice is not merely an end but an aim toward restoring the truth of her mother’s life and possibly finding some peace within a story that has defined her since she was a child.
