Yale Professor’s Mother Nancy Galvani Case Solved With Her Father Arrested
Nancy Galvani’s Case Was Championed by Her Daughter Alison Galvani
The Sleeping Bag Murder: After 43 Years, a Yale Professor’s Quest for Justice in Her Mother’s Brutal Killing May Finally End
For 43 years, the image has haunted Alison Galvani: her mother’s body floating in San Francisco Bay, stuffed inside a sleeping bag like discarded trash. She was only five years old when Nancy Galvani vanished in August 1982, but the trauma of that loss—and her growing suspicion about who was responsible—has shaped every day of her life since.
Now a renowned epidemiology professor at Yale University and founding director of the Yale Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis, Alison has spent decades carrying a burden no child should bear: the belief that her own father used her as bait to lure her mother to her death.
This November, that decades-long nightmare took a dramatic turn when Foster City police arrested 81-year-old Patrick Galvani at his San Francisco home, charging him with the murder of his estranged wife in a case that has chilled the Bay Area community for generations.
The Crime That Shocked Foster City
On August 8, 1982, Nancy Galvani received what seemed like a routine request from her estranged husband: could she pick up their daughter Alison a day early from their scheduled custody arrangement? The 36-year-old mother, who had recently filed for divorce and obtained a restraining order against Patrick, agreed to the change. She disappeared that evening.
Days later, a fisherman made a gruesome discovery near the San Mateo Bridge: a body floating in a sleeping bag, weighed down with a cinderblock. Nancy Galvani had been brutally murdered, her body disposed of like garbage in the waters she had once loved.
The yellow Buick she had been driving was found in Patrick’s garage. He was immediately identified as the prime suspect, but the case against him crumbled. Key witnesses had moved away and couldn’t be located. Evidence was scarce. Despite investigators’ strong suspicions, then-District Attorney Keith Sorenson dropped the charges, believing he couldn’t secure a conviction.
Patrick passed a polygraph test. His attorney claimed Nancy suffered from mental illness. The case went cold, leaving a five-year-old girl to grow up with unanswered questions and a growing certainty about what had happened to her mother.
A Daughter’s Obsession
Alison Galvani never stopped seeking answers. As she built an impressive academic career, studying infectious diseases and mathematical modeling, she simultaneously conducted her own investigation into her mother’s death. She hired private investigators. She spoke with relatives and detectives. She researched the case independently, all while harboring the devastating belief that her father had used her as a pawn in her mother’s murder.
The suspicion poisoned every aspect of their relationship. On her wedding day, Alison couldn’t bear to have her father walk beside her, instead asking him to walk ahead so she wouldn’t have to touch him. In 2008, during a visit to her Connecticut home, she finally confronted him directly: “You killed my mother.”
According to Alison, Patrick’s response was chilling in its ambiguity: “It wasn’t my fault.”
Breakthrough After Four Decades
The Foster City Police Department never officially closed Nancy Galvani’s case, keeping it in a permanent “inactive” status while hoping for new developments. This year, those developments finally materialized. While authorities have been tight-lipped about what specific evidence prompted Patrick’s arrest, San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe has indicated that previously unavailable witnesses have now come forward.
“We think we have enough to convict and we have an ambitious prosecutor who can accomplish that,” Wagstaffe told the Los Angeles Times, adding that the new evidence helps establish “the circumstances surrounding his motive for the crime, how he did it, and where he kept her during the time period.”
The district attorney noted that investigators now believe Nancy’s body wasn’t disposed of immediately after her death, suggesting Patrick may have kept it somewhere for several days before dumping it in the bay—a detail that adds another layer of horror to an already brutal crime.
The Legal Battle Ahead
Patrick Galvani, now 81, is being held without bail at the San Mateo County Jail. His attorney, Douglas Horngrad, maintains his client’s innocence and argues that the case against him is built on the same insufficient evidence that failed to secure a conviction 43 years ago.
“This murder charge was filed against him years ago and the case was dismissed for lack of evidence,” Horngrad said. “As I understand it, the evidence is the same, and we believe the outcome will be the same. Mr. Galvani will be exonerated again.”
But prosecutors disagree. They claim to have assembled a compelling case that addresses the gaps that doomed the original prosecution. The district attorney’s office has not disclosed whether the new evidence includes forensic breakthroughs, witness testimony, or other investigative developments.
Patrick’s next court appearance is scheduled for January 15, 2026, when more details about the prosecution’s case may emerge.
Justice Delayed, But Not Denied?
For Alison Galvani, the arrest represents validation of her decades-long quest for justice, though she knows the legal battle is far from over. In her first public statement since her father’s arrest, she expressed gratitude to the investigators and prosecutors who refused to let her mother’s case remain unsolved.
“With an extraordinary combination of compassion and resolve, they are working tirelessly to ensure that light is shone upon even the darkest of cases,” she wrote in a text message to the Los Angeles Times.
The case has become a testament to the evolution of cold case investigations and the determination of law enforcement agencies to pursue justice regardless of how much time has passed. It also highlights the devastating long-term impact of unsolved murders on families, particularly children who grow up with unanswered questions about their lost loved ones.
As Patrick Galvani faces trial for a murder allegedly committed when Ronald Reagan was president and the Cold War was still raging, the Foster City community watches with a mixture of relief and apprehension. After 43 years, they may finally learn the truth about what happened to Nancy Galvani on that August night in 1982.
For Alison, the daughter who has lived with the weight of suspicion for most of her life, the trial offers a chance at closure—but no verdict can restore the childhood innocence stolen from her on the day her mother disappeared, or erase the haunting image of a body in a sleeping bag, floating in San Francisco Bay, waiting to tell its story.
Anyone with information about this case is urged to contact the Foster City Police Department Detective Bureau at (650) 286-3300 or the Tip Line at (650) 286-3323