Though mentioned in brief yesterday in Day Around the Bay, it's time to turn our full attention to the fact that Napa seems to have gone from quiet to crazy in the span of about 72 hours. The latest grisly discovery: For the second time this week Napa police were called to do a welfare check and what they found was a body. This time, the naked body of a 54-year-old man was found in a large horizontal freezer. The Napa Valley Register reports that foul play is not suspected, and if that seems shocking, the LA Times clarifies that "there were some mental health issues" and this seems to have been a suicide.
So that means the guy got in that freezer himself. And left his front door unlocked. Ugh.
This story follows on what might have been a murder-suicide, or dual suicide, or double homicide at an apartment complex in downtown Napa. The Register in this case spoke to police who say it's being investigated as "a suspicious death." Those bodies were discovered after a welfare check on Monday afternoon, and had already begun to decompose.
There was also an officer-involved shooting last Friday in which 41-year-old James Richard Jimenez was shot by Napa police after a brief pursuit following a drug warrant. Jiminez had a history of violence and narcotics convictions.
On to the craziest story of them all: Winery owner and entrepreneur Robert Dahl shot and killed, execution-style, 48-year-old Emad Tawfilis after a business negotiation that went awry. The shooting occurred after a chase through Dahl Vineyards in which Tawfilis called 911 and said Dahl had already shot him once and was trying to kill him.
As the Register reports, Tawfilis, of Los Gatos, had previously alleged that Dahl had misled him into investing $1.2 million into one of his ventures, and the two had already fought in court. Authorities say they watched as Dahl "appeared to execute" Tawfilis at the intersection of Solano Avenue and Hoffman Lane after Tawfilis had fallen to the ground. [Update: The New York Times clarifies that Dahl did not pursue Tawfilis on foot, but followed him methodically in his SUV as Dahl ran through the vineyard. There's also some clarification there about their business deal, and the fact that "all Emad did was invest in [Dahl's] company."]
Dahl then fled in his SUV and was pursued by police until he became trapped on a dirt road in the forest off Wall Road and the Oakville Grade, where he apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
This is, very seriously, the most violent/death-filled week Napa has seen in many years, if not ever.