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Investigators credit the persistence of the victim’s daughter for keeping the case alive
Andrea CavallierThursday 01 January 1970 01:00 BST
CloseFoster City man arrested in wife's cold case killing
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More than four decades after a woman’s body was discovered floating inside a sleeping bag in San Francisco Bay, the cold case that has haunted her family has taken a step toward resolution.
On Monday, 81-year-old Patrick Galvani was taken into custody on suspicion of murdering his estranged wife, Nancy Galvani, in 1982, Foster City Police Department announced.
His arrest marks a dramatic break in a case that seemed destined to remain unsolved.
On August 9, 1982, fishermen spotted a sleeping bag drifting near San Mateo Bridge. Inside, police discovered a woman’s body, dressed only in underwear, bound to a cinder block and showing signs of strangulation. The body was identified a short time later as Nancy Galvani, a 36-year-old mom of a five-year-old girl, Alison.
At the time of her death, Nancy Galvani was in the midst of a contentious divorce from husband Patrick and had filed a restraining order against him two months prior. The mother was seeking custody of her young daughter and had moved into a residence hotel in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district for safety. Friends later recounted her fears that Galvani might harm her if she got custody.
open image in galleryOn Monday, 81-year-old Patrick Galvani was taken into custody on suspicion of murdering his estranged wife, Nancy Galvani, in 1982 (Forest City Police Department)On August 8, 1982, Nancy Galvani had been having dinner at her hotel, when she received a call from her estranged husband, asking her to pick up Alison early, SF News reported. Her car was later found in the garage of his Pacific Heights home.
Galvani was initially charged with the murder of his estranged wife but the investigation stalled and prosecutors dropped the case. Keith Sorenson, San Mateo County District Attorney, told the San Francisco Examiner at the time that the case was too circumstantial, and prosecutors would have less than a 50 percent chance of winning a conviction.
Over the decades, the case grew colder as investigators at the Foster City Police Department struggled with limited resources. But for the past 15 years, it has been Nancy’s daughter, Alison, that has been the driving force in pushing for answers.
“The daughter has, for all these years, tried to push for justice for the murder of her mother, and kept on pressing [the Foster City PD] to do it, and they would make those efforts,” the current San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told the San Mateo Daily Journal this week.
Alison took an interest in her mother’s case when she was a teenager and later immersed herself in a search for answers. She told the LA Times that she spoke to relatives about what they knew, used social media to raise awareness, met with detectives and eventually hired her own private investigator.
In a recorded 2010 call with his daughter, when asked about her mother’s death, Galvani denied killing Nancy, according to the Los Angeles Times. But reportedly said that he would have killed her but “someone beat him to it,” adding that it was the “best thing” that could have happened to her.
A wrongful-death lawsuit that Alison Galvani filed in 2013 was dismissed because too much time had passed.
On Monday, she was notified of her father’s arrest. “She was so grateful that people had listened to her, she began to fear that perhaps people were not listening,” DA Wagstaffe said.
open image in galleryOn August 9, 1982, fishermen spotted a sleeping bag drifting near San Mateo Bridge (pictured). Inside, police discovered a woman’s body, dressed only in underwear, bound to a cinder block and showing signs of strangulation (Getty/iStock)Prosecutors now have evidence they did not possess in the 1980s, including witness testimony that had previously been unavailable, the DA said.
“We had a couple of witnesses who were not available. They couldn’t be found,” Wagstaffe told ABC7. “They’ve talked to us, and we believe they will be important witnesses in the trial.”
The DA added that the new evidence strengthens the narrative around motive and opportunity, along with critical gaps that once undermined the prosecution against Patrick Galvani.
“We think it creates the circumstances surrounding his motive for the crime, how he did it, and where he kept her during the time period because the body, we don’t believe, was disposed of for a couple of days,” he said.
“So we think we now have evidence that sort of establishes where that was, how he did it, where it came up and why he did a few things that we previously didn’t know.”
Galvani’s attorney, Douglas Horngrad, maintained his client’s innocence.
“Mr. Galvani is 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,” he told ABC7.
The Foster City Police Department said the investigation remains active and ongoing.
Galvani is being held at the San Mateo County Jail and is due back in court December 5.
