A Life of Exuberance, Caring Recalled

Friends, Kin of Zapp Gather in Charlestown

Author:  Peter DeMarco, Globe Correspondent, and Jenna Russell, Globe Staff
Date: 7/21/2002
Page: B1 Section: Metro/Region

Friends and family of Alexandra Zapp gathered under cloudless skies yesterday, surrounded by the water she loved, to remember a "free spirit" who wore funny hats to upscale nightclubs, craved adventure, and devoted countless hours to good causes. A private memorial service for the 30-year-old, killed early Thursday at a highway rest stop in Bridgewater, was held at the edge of Boston Harbor at the end of Pier 4 in the Charlestown Navy Yard. Sailboats glided past as about 100 people - friends from Boston and Rhode Island and family members from the West Coast - shared stories. The focus was firmly on Zapp's life, with few mentions of her violent death.

When the service was delayed an hour because of heavy traffic, those waiting on the pier were waved into a tent to sip champagne - exactly what Zapp would have wanted, friends said.

"A little Grateful Dead and champagne would summarize my sister to a T," said Caroline Kahn, Zapp's younger sister.

An Oregon native who moved to Boston five years ago, Zapp first came east to attend boarding school in Connecticut and told her mother she was worried she wouldn't fit in on the East Coast. "It's quite obvious she did fit in," Andrea Casanova, her mother, said yesterday, looking out at her daughter's many friends.

Zapp spent the last night of her life cruising Boston Harbor at sunset to benefit charity and dancing at a concert. She was on her way home to Newport, R.I., early Thursday when she was attacked and stabbed to death in a rest stop bathroom on Route 24 in Bridgewater, allegedly by Patrick Leahy, 39, of East Bridgewater, who was arrested at the scene and charged with her murder.

Despite her small size, police said, Zapp fought to escape her assailant and pleaded in vain for her life.

According to those who knew her, hers was a life devoted both to giving and living exuberantly. Friends described Zapp's unique style and party escapades, as well as her devotion to diverse causes. She called her mother several times a day and talked often to her sister, ending every conversation with "I love you."

An avid sailor who worked until recently for US Sailing in Portsmouth, R.I., Zapp moved to Newport a year ago but had just bought an airline ticket to New Zealand, where she hoped to find a job with the forthcoming America's Cup races.

Mother and daughter had just purchased matching Apple computers so they could e-mail each other when Zapp was in New Zealand, said her stepfather, Stephen Stiles. He joked that Alexandra "didn't put her socks away, but she could manage 4,000 things and do a crossword puzzle in a picosecond."

Zapp helped raise funds to pay for free boating lessons for hundreds of children, said Bryan Peugh, executive director of the Courageous Sailing Center in Charlestown.

"She was always offering to help. She was incredibly generous. Every time I asked her for something, she'd say, `No problem - done,' " Peugh said yesterday.

Greg Nourjain, a friend and member of the sailing center's board, recalled two weeks ago when Zapp was helping him with a fund-raiser and a storm blew in, the wind whipping the sides of the tent, the band sitting in water. It was "close to a disaster, but across the tent, on so many occasions, as big as the sun, there was Allie's smile," he said. "We miss her."

Before she got her new Volvo, friends said, Zapp drove a red Jeep with no roof, doors, or windows, and called it "the runt." Jim Kelly, a close friend, said he would always remember the image of Zapp driving up in the Jeep wearing a mink jacket, a cowboy hat, and flip-flops. "I couldn't believe she would drive around like that," he said.

Her father, Ray, and stepmother Linda Zapp came from the West Coast. It was not a memorial service where many people wore black: Guests dressed in pinks and yellows, Bermuda shorts and boat shoes, instead. There were tearful moments but plenty of laughter.

Cynthia Frederick remembered how her teenage son watched football with Zapp at a Thanksgiving Day party - she was a passionate fan of the University of Oregon team, which she attended. He later told his mother that Zapp "knew more about football than any girl he'd ever met."

"Girls like that come around like Halley's comet - they come around only every once in a while," Frederick told him. "You hope you can catch them."

A petite woman with sparkling eyes, Zapp made lifelong friends with strangers, such as former roomate Erin Kelleher, whom she met on a cigarette break.

"She did not live an incomplete life," said Christina Nenov. "She lived a complete life, and she helped complete a lot of people's lives."

Leahy, who worked in a Burger King restaurant at the rest stop, was convicted of rape in 1987, served 13 years of a 15-year sentence, was released, and soon landed back in prison. He was released in November 2001. Under a three-year-old law designed to contain likely reoffenders, a hearing had been scheduled next month to determine if Leahy should be committed to a state-run treatment center for sex offenders.

Prosecutors' initial request to commit him was rejected by a judge in January.

A funeral service for Zapp is planned for 11 a.m. today at St. Mary's Church in Newport, R.I., where Zapp was a member.

The Alexandra Zapp Memorial Fund has been created at Fleet Charitable Trust Services, 100 Federal St., Boston 02110, to benefit the causes Zapp supported.

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