Adriane Insogna and Leslie Mazzara Are Murdered in Napa
(“Good as Gold,” Forensic Files)
Eric Copple surrendered to a blind fit of anger and ended up killing two women and ruining his own life. The murders of Adriane Insogna and Leslie Mazzara were the subject of a 2008 episode of Forensic Files.
“Good as Gold” trumpets the way investigators identified the murderer with the help of an advance in DNA analysis.
Bad romance. The testing not only revealed that the killer was a white male but also provided other specific clues about his appearance and what part of the globe his ancestors came from.
While the DNA drama was suspenseful, it didn’t tell viewers anything about Copple’s emotional underpinnings.
Something made him fear being alone so much that he killed his girlfriend’s bff as well as one of her roommates, and the reason had nothing to do with his eye color or ethnic heritage.
Lily Prudhomme, a contract supervisor from Napa County, had ended her engagement to Copple, age 25, at some point before the murders happened, and he was caught up in anguish over the breakup.
Home invasion. For this week’s post, I dug around for any hints from Copple’s childhood that might explain his psychology, and also looked into where he is today.
But first, here’s a recap of “Good as Gold,” along with additional information from internet research:
After midnight on November 1, 2004, a volleyball coach named Lauren Meanza awoke to the sound of her dog growling. She heard the screams of her roommates, Adriane Insogna and Leslie Mazzara, both age 26.
The three women shared a house on Dorset Street in the city of Napa, California.
Massive investigation. Meanza found Mazzara, a tour guide at the Niebaum-Coppola Winery, and Insogna, a civil engineer for the Napa Sanitation District, bleeding from multiple stab wounds.
She saw a male fleeing but couldn’t give a description because it was dark.
No motive was evident. The assailant didn’t sexually assault the women or steal anything from the house.
Detectives followed all sorts of false leads, like the fact that the father of Mazzara’s former boyfriend had become infatuated with the onetime Miss South Carolina pageant contestant.
The police gathered 218 DNA samples and conducted approximately 1,000 interviews, with no payoff.
Revealing genes. In the meantime, Copple and Prudhomme reconciled and got married in February 2005. She had no idea her new husband was a murderer.
At some point during the 11-month-long investigation, detectives turned their attention toward the DNA on some Camel Turkish Gold cigarette butts found outside the house.
Since none of the roommates smoked, perhaps they came from the attacker.
Asked if the roommates knew any smokers, Meanza casually named Copple, although she apparently didn’t suspect him at that time. (He had helped the women move into their apartment. He also attended Mazzara’s and Insogna’s funerals.)
As mentioned, the latest breakthroughs in forensic science allowed investigators to obtain specific details from the DNA on the cigarettes. The smoker probably had blue or green eyes, light-colored hair, and a northwestern European ethnicity, according to the test results.
Remorse and woe. Once that information became public, Copple turned himself in to the police and confessed.
Copple’s appearance matched the physical specs the test had indicated, so that part of the investigation was a success.
But he wouldn’t give a motive for the homicides or reveal what he did with the knife.
Later, at his sentencing, he said he suffered from depression and had been suicidal throughout his life.
In men, depression often manifests itself in anger, and Prudhomme’s cancellation of their initial plans to get married in Hawaii probably didn’t help.
Jealousy and anger. With the wedding off, Prudhomme and Insogna had been planning a trip to Australia together.
Insogna, who had a degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, was interested in structural engineering and wanted to climb Sydney’s Harbor Bridge.
Although Copple didn’t exactly say so, some sources told investigators that he suspected Prudhomme’s friendship with Insogna had contributed to the broken engagement. The women worked together at the Napa Sanitation District and were close.
Bloodbath upstairs. Copple and Prudomme had argued about their broken engagement at a party they both attended (separately) on Halloween 2004, the night of the murders.
Seething with resentment, Copple later went to the house that Mazzara, Insogna, and Meanza shared. He reportedly killed Mazzara first, then Insogna.
Meanza, who occupied a bedroom downstairs, didn’t cross paths with Copple, so she escaped the attack. Her dog, Chloe, who was in the bedroom with the door closed, also was unharmed.
Contrition spoken. In court, Copple seemed like the rare defendant who regretted his actions, not just getting caught. He described himself as “broken man” and expressed remorse, as reported in the Napa Valley Register by writer Marsha Dorgan:
“I cannot fathom an explanation for my sinful deeds … the terrible agony inflicted upon a great number of people…My relationship with Lily was (in jeopardy) and crashing. It was all like it fertilized the seed of anger in my heart… There was rage inside me. If I had only listened to those who pleaded with me to get the help I needed.”
He also admitted to trying to cope by abusing alcohol.
At the sentencing hearing on January 12, 2007, Arlene Allen, the mother of Adriane Insogna, told the court:
“My baby never wore a turtleneck sweater in her life, and yet she had to be buried in one — and still — it could not hide the extent of her wounds.”
Prudhomme seemed unwilling to completely condemn the man who killed her friends. She spoke of him at the sentencing hearing as someone who had a “gentler side.”
Copple received life without parole.
Insecurity and worry. As far as what made Copple, a surveyor for a civil engineering company who had no prior criminal record, so obsessive about his relationship with Prudhomme, the only clue that turned up was pretty minor.
A book about the case, Nightmare in Napa: The Wine Country Murders by Paul LaRosa, mentions that Copple’s family moved around a lot because of his father’s career in the military. So maybe he felt desperate for a sense of stability.
The book also discusses an alternate theory that Leslie Mazzara was the real threat to his relationship, that he had made a pass at Mazzara and he was afraid she’d tell Prudhomme about it.
That’s all the information that turned up about Copple’s motive and emotional constitution.
Friendship preserved. As far as epilogues for the cast of characters, Copple resides in Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California. His status is LWOP, life without parole. End of story.
Leslie Mazzara’s mother, Reverend Cathy Harrington, and her two sons built a cottage in Mazzara’s memory at the Calvary Home for Children in Anderson, South Carolina.
Adriane Insogna’s mother, Arlene Allen, who appeared on Forensic Files, remained close to Lily Prudhomme after the murders. Allen has discussed her grief in the media.
No match for FF. Today, Prudhomme, who holds a master of science degree from the University of Edinborough, lists her job as an administrative assistant at the Napa County Office of Education on her LinkedIn profile.
NBC’s Dateline Mystery produced an episode about the double homicide, “Nightmare in Nap.” It’s drawn-out and a bit tiresome. But hey, not every true-crime show can rise to Forensic Files’Â level.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
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Thanks, RR. Missed this ep. An incomprehensible act — though many are — and indicative of a dangerous man, resorting to murder through anger, frustration, etc, and must therefore be too unsafe ever to release. I’d be interested to know if mental illness were cited in mitigation by the defence. Prudhomme herself may have been a near miss, had she angered him sufficiently… Very sad indeed.
It looks as though he accepts that prison is where he belongs — there’s no evidence he’s trying to appeal or overturn.
Copple distinguishes himself from many perps by acting purely out of malice. Other perps did it for insurance money, or other personal gain. No killer is good, but from the outside, Copple raises special disgust, and deserves the chair for being a loser. They all do, but there are subtleties, and that’s what makes Forensic Files such a fantastic show. I love the way this blog helps me get in touch with my emotions!
Thanks Bruce — so true, Copple didn’t put a lot of brain power into his plan.
I think ultimately Eric’s motives are incomprehensible to anyone who isn’t Eric. His untreated depression and alcohol abuse contributed to this nightmare.
I wonder if his family’s religious views inadvertently helped keep him away from psychological treatment. Some churches, while not explicitly anti-medicine overall, counsel people with mental illness struggles to ‘pray it away’ rather than seek medical help because too often they don’t see mental illness as a medical problem but rather as a ‘spritual problem.’ And his family is religious. I was acquainted with his mother Robin. Quiet lady, but apparently belonged to one of those apocalyptic loving churches. Her car had a “Get Ready Napa Jesus Is Coming” bumperstickers.
New and interesting aspect of the story — thanks much for writing in. I can relate. There was a group who used to meet in my apartment building. Nice people, but so extreme that they believed people with serious mental illnesses should stop taking their medication and give themselves over to God. Yikes.
Camas and RR: You’re right – but such religious groups are few and certainly considered extreme, thankfully. Scientologists, of course, believe that psychiatry and its meds is evil (I think similarly of Scientology…) I don’t know what the perp’s background is… On the other hand, maybe it’s too easy to ‘medicalise’ fury and assume he must have a screw loose.
Bruce has a point that a murder for no material gain, rather fury/hatred, etc. is in some sense worse and scarier, as such endogenous motive could arise spontaneously if such a person were ever released…
He has a personality of someone that was abandoned. Believe me, I know. He couldn’t stand losing Lilly, only thing he felt secure with, but at the same time pushed her away. Alcohol is a drug to a person like that. He would never do that again, it happens and no excuses, but good people do bad things sometimes…
While I’m sure repetition would be pretty unlikely, violence could well be. Never say never! The man’s shown capacity to do the worst: there’s no denying that CAPACITY, at least – something that thankfully the great majority of us simply don’t have.
Citing alcohol as instrumental or causative is irrelevant to future action – if it was relevant to the instant action – as there’s no way of knowing if it would be consumed in the future.
I don’t quite share your optimism about his character… To me he’s a dangerous psycho – period.
All these posts, always so “clinical” as if there is some unknown “ingredient” with these murderers that “make them” do what they do. Why are the vast majority of mass shooters white males between 19 + 35? Dunno? (I do know the gun didn’t do it any more than the knife in this case). Humans are animal, mammals. Why do dogs chase cats? It’s just part of their instinct sometimes. Truth is we’ll never really understand why sometimes people do bad things to other people. There will be no “Terminal Man” solution!
Not sure I agree. What you’re getting at is – if you’ll pardon the mouthful – biopsychosocial reductionism: the notion that behaviour can be reduced to its discernible components, perhaps infinitely. There’s nothing much of interest there, ‘cos it’s the ‘that’ and ‘how’ X did it, not the *ultimate* ‘why’ that interests criminal law. I say not the *ultimate* ‘cos of course we’re interested in discernible motive – although that’s not the be-all-and-end-all: if it’s known absolutely that X shot and killed Y in cold blood, we don’t need to know why: X is going down…
The short response is no, of course there’s no one or more necessary and identifiable ingredients (causes) that bring about murder. But while we can’t specify ingredients we *can* say that when a number of variables converge, murder results. Thus, variable 1 – opportunity; variable 2 – desire or motive; variable 3 – means. These can much further be broken-down: eg, desire or motive could be psychological – mental illness – or moral – greed… into infinity.
Why are people wicked/evil? Who can say, if that’s understood as a moral category rather than a psychological one? If psychological, it seems reasonable to ask what conditions of nature/nurture might converge to create the state of mind that is ready/willing/able/desirous of taking another’s life.
The moral question is necessarily speculative; the psychological, less so, and surely worth asking even if in the final analysis the variables of moral and psychological disposition are interacting in determining whether we kill or not: eg, I know this is considered very wrong; I even believe it to be very wrong (likely moral imperatives); but I’m nonetheless impelled by the desired pleasurable outcome to do it anyway (likely psychological imperative (but philosophically debatable)).
PS The gun and the knife didn’t ‘do’ the crime… but they presented themselves as attractive means – and the gun, at least, was ‘created’ to do harm, thus lending a certain cultural/psychological legitimacy to its use. While it’s probably too late for the gun genie to be re-bottled, how much damage it’s done to US society doesn’t bare thinking about…
This is probably going to sound dumb, but is Lily still married to him? I mean, she seems to be a poor judge of character — ignoring her friends’ advice that she could do better, reconciling and marrying him, and defending his character in court as “gentle” while he’s on trial for her best friend’s murder. I could see her being one of those weird, spacy women who stay with their killer husbands after the way she acted.
I remember when the case first broke in the news. I thought it was horrifying! Anytime victims are stabbed, it spells to me an inconceivable scenario of panic, pain and terror. Coppel is a psychopath. Pure jealousy alone does not impel people to murder, in my view. I’m glad he confessed and is now in prison for life. Unfortunately, there are other Coppels out there in the world. God help us all!!
It is. On the bright side, I’m pretty sure he has 0% chance of exiting prison on two feet.
I was working overnight right over the freeway the night this happened. For a year, no one knew who could be standing behind you at Safeway. Then after the trial, I was working at Rubicon when the families came out to see Leslie’s bench and where she’d worked. I didn’t know who they were at first, but everyone was either crying or very somber. It may have been one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen, her little grandparents and family going over to that bench. This guy should have offed himself and left those two alone.