Frankie Zappia, last known person to see Las Vegas murder victims alive, arrested in Tennessee on theft charges
September 6, 2023. Frankie Zappia, a convicted prostitute and stepdaughter of retired Las Vegas Metro Police (LVMPD) Officer Daniel ‘Dano’ Giersdorf was arrested on August 30, 2023, in Chattanooga, TN. and charged with theft of property, and a firearm.
According to the LVMPD, Zappia was the last known person to see Sydney Land and Nehemiah Kauffman alive on the night of October 25, 2016. On October 27, 2016, Land and Kauffman were both found shot in the head in their Southwest Las Vegas apartment.
The murders are unsolved.
Separate and apart from my reporting, the ‘Nevada Current’ in a June 7, 2018, article reported, “In an exclusive interview with the Current, Aryanne (Zappia) admits she told police that her sister, Frankie Zappia, likely let the killer(s) into Kauffman’s apartment. Frankie Zappia denies she was present and says she had no part in the crime. Frankie Zappia is identified in court documents as a prostitute working for alleged pimp Dominique Thompson. Aryanne, a former prostitute, and her sister Frankie are the stepdaughters of retired LVMPD officer Dano Giersdorf. A Metro spokesman identified Frankie Zappia and Thompson as suspects in the double murders.”
Doug authored over 135 articles on the October 1, 2017 Las Vegas Massacre, more than any other single journalist in the country. He investigates stories on corruption, law enforcement and crime. Doug is a US Army Military Police Veteran, former police officer, deputy sheriff and criminal investigator. Doug spent 20 years in the hotel/casino industry as an investigator and then as Director of Security and Surveillance. He also spent a short time with the US Dept. of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration. In 1986 Doug was awarded Criminal Investigator of the Year by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia for his undercover work in narcotics enforcement. In 1992 and 1993 Doug testified in court that a sheriff’s office official and the county prosecutor withheld exculpatory evidence during the 1988 trial of a man accused of the attempted murder of his wife. Doug’s testimony led to a judge’s decision to order the release of the man from prison in 1992 and awarded him a new trial, in which he was later acquitted. As a result of Doug breaking the police “blue wall of silence,” he was fired by the county sheriff. His story was featured on Inside Edition, Current Affair and CBS News’ “Street Stories with Ed Bradley”. In 1992 after losing his job, at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Doug infiltrated a group of men who were plotting the kidnapping of a Dupont fortune heir and his wife. Doug has been a guest on national television and radio programs speaking on the stories he now writes as an investigative journalist.