Arrest made in San Francisco cold case murder

Nancy had attended a party at her San Francisco apartment complex and then driven to meet Patrick, which is where prosecutors believe the murder occurred. Within days of that murder, prosecutors believe Patrick Galvani then dumped her body in the Bay, Wagstaffe said. 

Charges were originally brought against Patrick in 1982, soon after the time of the murder, but dropped after a review found insufficient evidence to take the case to trial. Wagstaffe, who worked on the original case, declined to state why it was originally dismissed. 

On Monday, however, the Foster City Police Department announced that Patrick Galvani had been arrested and booked with no bail following “recent developments” in the case, per a press release Nov. 24. Wagstaffe declined to comment on what those developments were, but said a review by himself and his homicide team made him confident the case could now be brought to trial. 

“It was pretty amazing when it was brought to my desk,” he said. 

Nancy and Patrick Galvani’s daughter, Alison Galvani, has long been an advocate seeking justice for her mother and filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her father in 2010, she shared in a 2014 profile with the Los Angeles Times. 

Per the Times, that lawsuit was dismissed on statute of limitations concerns, but Alison remained persistent, asking the Foster City Police Department to continue looking into the case, Wagstaffe said. 

“The daughter has, for all these years, tried to push for justice for the murder of her mother, and kept on pressing FCPD to do it, and they would make those efforts,” Wagstaffe said. “This time around, I have confidence the evidence is enough.” 

As an upcoming key witness in the prosecution’s case, Alison Galvani declined to comment on the filed charges. 

Patrick Galvani will go to court Nov. 25, and charges will be formally brought against him then, Wagstaffe said.