Arpana Jinaga was murdered following a Halloween party at her Washington state apartment complex in 2008.
Arpana was born on November 3, 1984 in Hyderabad, India. Her parents are BC and Nirmala Jinaga. BC worked as a professor of computer engineering and Nirmala was a stay at home mother. Arpana has a younger sister, Pavitra.
Arpana’s family have said that she loved art, writing and gymnastics as a child. As she grew up, she was said to have become very interested in technology. As a teen, she participated in an IEEE Hardware Design Contest which drew attention from universities and potential employers.
In June 2005, when she was 20, Arpana was featured in the New Indian Express, in an article titled “Young Inventors.”
In June 2005, when she was 20, Arpana was featured in the New Indian Express, in an article titled “Young Inventors.”
After she graduated from high school, Arpana had attended university in India and she decided to move to the US after that, for her post-graduate studies.
She attended Rutger’s University in New Jersey and got her Master’s Degree in electrical and computer engineering in December of 2007.
After she graduated, instead of returning to India. She took a job with tech company EMC (now known as Dell EMC) and she moved to Redmond, Washington. She worked there from March 2008. Her co-workers said that she was hardworking and was considered a ‘rising star’. Arpana was promoted in October 2008 – just seven months after she began with the company.
Arpana was living at the Valley View Apartment complex in Redmond at the time of her murder.
She did not know anyone in the area but quickly made friends. She also purchased a motorcycle and volunteered at the Redmond Fire Department, and animal shelters. She participated in Taekwondo classes and integrated herself into her new community.
October 31, 2008 was a Friday. Arpana went to work as she would have any other day. She told coworkers that there was a party being held that night at her apartment complex.
After work, Arpana purchased some decorations for her apartment and she went home to put them up.
That night, Arpana dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood. She and at least three other neighbors in her complex opened their apartments up for the party. More than two dozen people attended throughout the course of the night. Some reports indicate that most of the guests left Arpana’s apartment by 9pm and they moved onto another apartment in the complex.
Witnesses have said that Arpana got into a verbal fight with a man that night. This was said to be ‘ race related’ after the man made inappropriate comments. Arpana was said to have quickly moved on after the fight and she seemed to enjoy the rest of the night.
The complex party finally ended at around 3am. Arpana was seen heading back to her apartment on the third floor.
According to the Unresolved Podcast, neighbors would report hearing what sounded like sounds of consensual sex coming from Arpana’s apartment – they said they heard muffled moaning at around 3am.
One of Arpana’s neighbors (Kyle R.) would later remark that at around 8:00 AM, he was awoken by a “horrible growling” sound, which persisted for about 20 seconds and was punctuated with a solid thud sound. He then heard the sound of running water in Arpana’s apartment, which lasted for about an hour, but wouldn’t give these bizarre sounds any second thoughts in the days to come.
After October 31, Arpana did not answer any calls from her family, which was very out of character.
Monday rolled around and Arpana did not show up for work. One of her co-workers tried to call her but was unable to get through.
Arpana’s family in India called a family friend named Jay, and asked him to go and check on her as they were not able to get in touch.
Jay got to the complex at around 9am on Monday. Jay ran into a neighbor of Arpana’s – we will call this person ‘CJ’.
Just to give some background on CJ, he lived next door to Arpana and said he had a close relationship with her. They previously hung out often but had drifted in the months prior to the incident due to Arpana’s busy schedule. CJ will play an important role in this story ongoing.
Together, Jay and CJ decided to obtain access to Arpana’s apartment to check on her.
When they knocked on the door, it swung open. They could tell that the door had at some point been forced open and the jam had been broken.
The two people found Arpana’s body on her bedroom floor and Jay called 911.
This information about the scene is from Reddit:
The two discovered her locked door had been kicked in. They found her nude body on her bedroom floor, face-down on the carpet and partially covered with cloth. Jinaga had been gagged with her underpants and duct tape, brutally beaten around the head. There was evidence of rape. She is suspected to have died from strangulation from a bootlace. Her hands were covered in blue toilet-bowl cleaner, her body and other items were covered in motor oil. Her finger and fingernails were cleaned. Burn marks on her body and apartment suggest somebody tried to burn her.
Condition of the apartment: Jinaga’s bed had been stripped, a fleece blanket was partially burned and her comforter was found soaked in the bathroom bathtub. In the apartment, there was a strong smell of bleach, and also bleach stains were found.
In the apartment complex’s trash bin, was a bag containing Jinaga’s Halloween costume, a bloodied robe, a discarded bottle of motor oil, and the bootlace.
When police arrived, they found a bottle of Castrol motorcycle oil in the complex’s dumpster. It was thought that the offender had sprayed this oil all over the scene and over Arpana’s body.
Arpana’s motorcycle was missing from the scene. Other missing items included one of her ID cards, her Blackberry and her digital camera.
Arpana’s autopsy was conducted by the King County Medical Examiner and the results were released on November 6, 2008.
It was determined that Arpana had been strangled and asphyxiated to death, around two days before her body had been found. This means she likely died on the morning of November 1, 2008 – after she returned from the Halloween party. It was estimated that she had died between 3am and 8am on November 1.
Arpana suffered other injuries including multiple blunt force blows to the head and several of her teeth were broken. She had been gagged with her own underwear and her killer had used duct tape to keep the gag in place. She had also been raped.
Lt. Brian Coats would later tell reporters about the crime scene:
“It was a scene where the suspect or suspects spent a considerable amount of time covering the evidence of crime.”
“It was a brutal scene. It was just gruesome. I hope I never have to investigate a case like this again.”
Police investigated and came across a person of interest named Emanuel Fair. Emanuel was not a permanent resident of the complex but had been staying with a resident and had attended the party.
Emanuel had been arrested almost a dozen times previously and had served sentences for drug and firearms crimes, as well as sexually motivated offenses.
Emanuel kept questionable companions, including a man named Omar Norman. Omar is a convicted murderer. He is serving a 52-year sentence for killing a man in October of 2005.
Years before Arpana was murdered, Emanuel had been arrested and charged with raping a minor. He was convicted and was sentenced to four years in prison in 2004. He was released by the end of 2006 and was labeled as a level one offender – meaning he was least likely to re-offend.
After his release, he had no fixed address and this is how he came to be staying at Arpana’s apartment complex with a friend named Leslie during Halloween 2008. Leslie initially lied to police and said that she was home alone at the time of the party. Police established that Emanuel was there after reviewing photographs from the night.
Authorities were also able to establish that Emanuel had spent time with the neighbor named CJ, who we mentioned previously. CJ was one of the people who discovered Arpana’s body.
On November 21, 2008, Emanuel admitted that he had been inside of Arpana’s apartment during the Halloween party. He said they had gotten along well and their interaction had been brief.
Police kept investigating the case and in October 2010, they announced that they were charging Emanuel with the murder of Arpana. They declared that they found Emanuel’s DNA at the crime scene and on several pieces of evidence that they believed the killer had touched. This included the tape used to gag Arpana, DNA on her body and a bloody robe that had been found at the scene.
Authorities also said that there had been several inconsistencies in Emanuel’s version of events.
This info is from the Unresolved podcast:
Even though he claimed to have gone home to his friend’s apartment at around 1:00 AM to sleep, cell phone records indicated that Fair made dozens of phone calls to numerous women between 2:00 and 5:00 AM; including several calls to Leslie, the woman whose apartment he claimed to have been sleeping at. Prosecutors implied that Fair had been lying about where he was during these vital hours, which remained unexplained nearly two years later.
Speaking to the press, King County’s Sr. Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Baird claimed:
“The defendant opened the locked door to Jinaga’s apartment, attacked her, stripped off her clothing, gagged her, assaulted her and finally strangled her to death.”
Emanuel’s defense team started to prepare their case. They claimed that he had been treated very differently to other POIs in the case due to his race – Emanuel is a black man. They alleged that investigators had been particularly hostile towards Emanuel, more so than they had been to other suspects.
The defense also raised the issue of a discrepancy within forensic evidence in the case. TrueAllele was used extensively by investigators in this case.
This info about the software is from the Unresolved podcast:
TrueAllele is a genotyping software developed by a company named Cybergenetics, which is utilized by law enforcement agencies all over the country. Specifically, it is a software that uses thousands of algorithms to read DNA and translate it, essentially, into evidence that investigators and prosecutors can then use. Utilizing almost 200,000 lines of code, TrueAllele can analyze evidence with more than a half-dozen contributors, and determine who the most likely culprit is based on how many genetic markers are left on the evidence and where.
As the Seattle Weekly would point out, the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab found that Fair was 1,000 times more likely to have committed the crime than an unrelated African American, but TrueAllele found him to be 56.8 million times more likely. As you can imagine, this analysis was seen as invaluable to the prosecution, who saw this as being ironclad proof of Fair’s guilt.
Emanuel Fair’s defense attorneys, on the other hand, didn’t see it that way. They argued against the analysis performed by TrueAllele; at least, until they were able to look through the source code of the software to determine just how, exactly, the program had come to this consensus. Until such a time, they had to take the program and its parent company, Cybergenetics, at their word.
This would ultimately lead to a long and drawn-out dispute through the court system, as Cybergenetics CEO Dr. Mark Perlin refused to divulge the source code of his program, believing that doing so would bring risk to his company’s trade secrets. Even though Emanuel Fair and other defendants all over the country began to demand access to the software’s underbelly, Dr. Perlin was willing to take the issue to court to preserve his company’s share in the burgeoning forensic analysis market, having already scored deals with law enforcement agencies all over the country.
Emanuel’s trial would finally begin in February 2017, more than eight years after Arpana had been murdered.
Prosecutors announced that they were seeking more than the recommended sentence – which meant 45 years + in prison.
The prosecution alleged that Emanuel met Arpana at the Halloween party and became infatuated with her.
They claimed that Emanuel said he had gone back to his friend Leslie’s apartment at 1am on the night of the party. Between 2am and 5am, he made almost 24 phone calls to three different women.
One of the women testified and said that Emanuel had called her three times at around 4.45am and that his calls had gone straight to her voicemail. When she listened to the messages, the woman said she could hear movement but no voices. Emanuel claimed to have no recollection of these calls and said he had likely called the numbers accidentally.
Prosecutors also claimed that Emanuel’s DNA was found in places that only the murderer would have been able to leave evidence – the gag tape and the bloody bathrobe found.
The analysis of this evidence had been performed by TrueAllele, making it the first criminal trial in Washington state that this was done; it had been used in prosecutions from other states – as well as exonerations in Washington – but never in this manner.
It was also alleged that Emanuel may have acted with the other neighbor, CJ.
“… the State’s position is that [C.J.] may have participated in the crime with Fair and that evidence implicating [C.J.] does not exculpate Fair. Rather than an ‘other suspect,’ [C.J.] can also be characterized as an uncharged accomplice.”
This summary from the scene is from the Unresolved Mysteries subreddit.
There was DNA from 2-3 males found at the crime scene.
Emanuel Fair’s DNA was found on Jinaga’s neck, a piece of duct tape used to gag her, a piece of toilet paper or paper towel found at the crime scene, and was mixed with Jinaga’s blood on her bathrobe robe (left in the apartment complex trash bin).
Jinaga’s neighbor CJ showed up to the party in Jinaga’s unit late. He appeared drunk and brought liquor. DNA was found on a discarded bottle of motor oil (same bag as robe)
It is reported in Seattle Times that a third male’s DNA was found on the bootlace, but it is not reported as such in the court documents.
Emanuel’s defense then argued that if they were counting DNA as a large part of the evidence in the crime, then CJ should have definitely been considered a suspect. This is due to him living next door to Arpana and having a close relationship with her.
DNA from multiple people had been found at the crime scene. Some of the people who had DNA found had not even attended the Halloween party. The scene was hard to investigate as more than a dozen people had been inside Arpana’s apartment during the Halloween party.
It was also revealed that Emanuel had been involved in a minor accident at one point which had resulted in him getting a bloody lip inside of Arpana’s apartment. It was said that he cleaned up his injury in Arpana’s bathroom and this could explain how his DNA was found there.
The defense also spoke about gaps in the investigation. They pointed out that it had taken authorities two years to identify Emanuel as a suspect. They had been so stuck in the case that they had even hired a psychic at one point.
The defense also claimed that evidence found in the dumpster which implicated Emanuel was found two days after Arpana’s body was discovered. This meant that the dumpster had been available to others during that time and evidence may have been tampered with.
The trial ran for about two months. It ended with a hung jury. There were 12 jurors in the case and they had originally leaned 9-3 in favor of Emanuel being acquitted. They were sent back to keep deliberating. They ultimately return with a split decision – 6-6 in favor of guilty/not-guilty, 5 of whom believed that “C.J.” might have been involved). The jury was unable to come to a consensus and this meant that a mistrial was declared.
The prosecution quickly declared that they intended to retry Emanuel. They set a court date for just a few months later, September 2017.
Just a few days before the retrial was due to begin, proceedings were placed on hold by the Court of Appeals.
Through 2017 and 2018, the state started to build their case. They were alleging that Emanuel had acted with an accomplice, but that the second person was not being charged with anything at the time.
Emanuel’s attorneys argued that this was unjust. Attempting to convict him and someone who was uncharged was unconstitutional. They could try each of the men separately or together, but couldn’t try one for the potential crimes of both.
Emanuel’s attorneys continued to argue that though his DNA had been found at the scene, so had evidence belonging to other people, including CJ.
CJ has never been charged with anything in relation to Arpana’s murder but he was interviewed multiple times and investigators even prepared probable cause paperwork to apply for his arrest – which never happened. CJ admitted to authorities that he had stopped taking his psychiatric medication in October 2008, but they never asked for further details about what his medication or mental illness history was.
It was revealed that CJ showed up late and intoxicated to the Halloween party. According to the Unresolved Podcast, he told investigators of Arpana “She looked really good… I hadn’t seen her for months, I’d never thought about her like that [prior to the night of the Halloween party]…”
CJ’s version of events was that he had left the party at midnight and gone back to his apartment to sleep. When police looked at his phone records, they found that he had called Arpana twice – at 2.56am and 3.02am. These were the last calls that Arpana would ever receive. When CJ was questioned about the calls, he claimed to have no recollection of making them. When he was shown the log of phone records that police had obtained, he apparently said ‘ oh crap’ and refused to give any further info.
CJ’s original story was that he fell asleep at 3am and woke up at 10am. His phone logs show that this was a lie and that he had tried to contact Arpana, right around the time that she likely died.
A witness came forward and said that at around 3am they had been returning from work. This person said they saw a ‘non-black’ individual standing near Arpana’s doorway at 3am. The person the witness saw resembled CJ more than Emanuel. When CJ was asked if he had gone to Arpana’s apartment after making the phone calls, he said ‘ I don’t think so.’
CJ’s phone and tech records also showed that around 10am on the morning after the party, he had printed out maps for local pawn shops (remember that Arpana’s phone and camera were taken from the scene). He then drove to the Canadian border, where he attempted to cross into Canada. He told authorities that he was ‘ kind of wanting to explore.’ He was turned away by border officials as he did not have a passport.
CJ attended another party later in the day on November 1. His friends said that he arrived at the party with a limp. During the party, there was some wrestling and CJ would later tell investigators that he was injured during the play fight and that is how he got the limp. The timing did not match up though – as people said he arrived at the party, limping.
CJ also apparently told people that he had gone over to Arpana’s apartment at some point in his sleep. He even asked people if they thought he had killed Arpana.
CJ’s DNA was found on the bottle of motor oil and also on the bloody robe (as was Emanuel’s).
Despite all of this, as we mentioned, CJ has never been charged in relation to this case.
Emanuel’s second trial began in 2019. The jury were given no details about the first trial/mistrial. His attorneys tried to emphasise the reasonable doubt that existed in the case – they highlighted CJ’s possible involvement.
CJ was called to the stand during the second trial but was limited as to what questions he could be asked, due to his privilege against self-incrimination.
CJ’s limited testimony seemed to be the lynchpin in the case due to the reasonable doubt that it created.
The jurors began deliberating on June 6, 2019. They were originally deadlocked – 4 innocent, 4 guilty and 4 undecided. They worked together, and five days later, they gave their verdict to the court – Emanuel was not guilty.
One of the jurors later spoke to the media and gave their reasoning for the verdict. They said that the state’s inability to reconcile the charges against Emanuel with the evidence implicating CJ had played a large role in their decision.
Speaking to the Seattle Times, this juror recalled:
“I think that was the biggest reasonable doubt and no one could eliminate him [as the killer]… We found [Fair] not guilty because of reasonable doubt, not because we thought he was completely innocent.”
After nine years of awaiting his fate, Emanuel was released from custody.
As of October 2025, Arpana’s murder remains unsolved. There are some other theories in the case – besides CJ and Emanuel being possibly involved.
Marc Patrick O’Leary is a convicted rapist and home invader. He was known to have committed crimes in the area where Arpana lived. He was later linked to at least five violent rapes in multiple states.
Marc would eventually be caught and sentenced to life in prison. During the investigation, a hard drive containing 75GB of information was found. The drive was encrypted and has not been able to be cracked by authorities. Investigators believe that the drive may hold information about more of Marc’s victims.
Serial killer Israel Keyes has also been mentioned in relation to Arpana’s murder. He was known to have committed at least 11 murders before his 2012 prison suicide. He was familiar with Washington and was apparently in the Seattle area on the weekend of Arpana’s murder (around 35 mins away from her apartment).
On October 31st, 2008, Israel Keyes flew from Anchorage to SeaTac and was in the Seattle area until November 2nd, when he then flew from SeaTac to Boston. His reason for making this trip has never been uncovered.
A redditor drew comparisons between Israel Keyes’ usual MO and Arpana’s death:
Her murder took place during the early hours of the morning, which was his preferred time to strike.
She was brutally raped and strangled with a shoelace, he had a pattern of rape and strangulation.
Her body and apartment supported evidence of an attempted arson, which he frequently committed.
Her body was doused in chemicals, he previously mentioned dousing chemicals on the Curriers after he murdered them.
SOURCE LIST
https://unresolved.me/arpana-jinaga
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_and_Colorado_serial_rape_cases