- Arpana Jinaga, 24, wore a Red Riding Hood costume to a Halloween party that would be held at her apartment block.
- She decoratedd her flat as a haunted forest and several neighbours attended there and other themed areas throughout the block.
- By 3am, Arpana returned to her unit to go to bed.
- Two days later, Arpana’s lifeless body was found face down on her carpet, naked but partially covered with a cloth. She’d been murdered.
- Emanuel Fair was arrested for Arpana’s murder and had been in prison for nine years before a trial found him not guilty and he was released.
- Arpana Jinaga’s murder remains unsolved.
In her Little Red Riding Hood costume, complete with cloak and basket, Arpana Jinaga looked the part for the Halloween party.
It was October 31, 2008, and the 24-year-old was excited to hang out with her neighbours and friends.
She’d decorated her apartment, where she lived alone, as a haunted forest, and there were three other themed areas throughout the apartment block where the guests could drink, dance, and take photos in their costumes.
Arpana loved to let her hair down like most 20-somethings, but she was also incredibly accomplished.
Read more: Her besties made her popular… then she murdered them

Born in India, her father – a head professor in engineering there – had encouraged her move overseas a few years earlier to study software engineering. She was a rising star at the tech company where she worked.
She had many other interests, too. She was part of a motorcycle club where she’d met her boyfriend, she practised taekwondo, and volunteered at both the local animal shelter and the fire department.
But that Halloween night was all about having fun.
The party began with drinking, dancing and photos. There was a little scuffle and a couple of people were asked to leave, nothing out of the ordinary for a boozy night.
By 9pm, everyone had left Arpana’s place and were hanging out in a different apartment.

At around 3am, Arpana went to her place to go to bed.
Two days later, her father in India grew worried that he hadn’t heard from his daughter. He contacted a family friend, Jay Bodicherla, who lived near Arpana, and asked if he could check on her. Jay arrived at her building and met a neighbour, Cameron Johnson, who showed him to Arpana’s unit.
Immediately, they noticed the front door had been kicked in.
Entering, they found Arpana’s body, face down on the carpet, naked but partially covered with a cloth. She’d been gagged with duct tape, seemingly beaten around the head, and burn marks were visible on her body.
There’d been attempts to contaminate the scene with cleaning products and motor oil. An autopsy revealed Arpana had been raped and her cause of death was strangulation, likely with a boot lace.
Arpana’s loved ones were shocked and devastated.
Investigators looked at photographs from the party and interviewed those who’d attended. Arpana’s boyfriend hadn’t been there that night and had an alibi, so was ruled out.

Neighbour Cameron Johnson reported hearing what he thought sounded like consensual sex coming from close to Arpana’s apartment not long after 3am, followed by the sound of running water.
Another neighbour and party attendee, Kyle Rose, reported hearing “horrible growling” at around 8am, which lasted only around 20 seconds and was followed by a thud.
Physical evidence from the scene was sent to a lab.
One neighbour was a suspect at first – he’d allegedly been infatuated with Arpana and had inexplicably driven to cross the border the next day and attempted to cross it without a passport, but was denied entry.
Records also showed he’d called Arpana at around 3am, and he claimed not to remember why. But there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him.
It was two years before investigators announced they’d arrested a man named Emanuel Fair and charged him with Arpana’s murder. Fair, 27, didn’t live at the apartment block, but had been staying with a resident named Leslie Potts, and had attended the party.

He had a long criminal history that included drug- and firearms-related crimes, and sexual offences, including rape of a minor a few years earlier.
At the time of the murder, he’d been floating between homelessness and prison, hence his stay at Leslie’s place on the night of the crime and his attendance at the party.
In court, in February 2017, Fair pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors alleged his DNA had been found on the tape used to gag Arpana, on Arpana’s neck, and on a bloody robe that had been found in a bin close to the crime scene.
In his defence, Fair said he’d met Arpana at the party and had been in her bedroom to look at photographs and eat pizza, claiming this explained his DNA at the scene.
He claimed he’d gone back to Leslie’s at 1.30am to sleep, but data from his phone revealed he called multiple women between 2am and 5am, including a local sex worker.
Fair’s defence argued that, as a black man – in fact, the only black man at the party – he’d been treated unfairly by investigators and that the DNA of multiple men had been found at the scene because of the nature of the Halloween party.

Prosecutors also suggested Fair may have acted with an unnamed accomplice, but it was just Fair who was on trial for murder with sexual motivation.
The trial ended in a hung jury. At a retrial in 2019, Fair, then 35, was found not guilty of murder and within hours he was released from prison.
Fair had been in prison for nine years awaiting his fate and later sued the police department, the lead detective, and the prosecutor in the case – the outcome of which is yet to be decided.
“I always knew I was going to get out; I just didn’t think it would take as long as it took,” Fair said. “I felt like I was kidnapped.”
Arpana Jinaga’s murder remains unsolved.