She and her daughter had been living in a women\u2019s shelter in San Francisco\u2019s gritty Tenderloin neighborhood. Nancy had recently left her husband, a computer programmer named Patrick Galvani, accusing him of attempting to kill her by placing a pillowcase over her face and punching her, according to a 2014 Los Angeles Times report<\/a>.<\/p>\n After leaving the upscale Pacific Heights home she shared with her husband, she filed a restraining order against Patrick and planned to divorce him. While living in the women\u2019s shelter, she and her husband were involved in a nasty custody dispute over Alison, who spent weekends with her father and weekdays with her mother. <\/p>\n A runner jogs on a coastal trail with the San Mateo Bridge in the background. (AP Photo\/Marcio Jose Sanchez)<\/p>\n Alison, now the founding director of the Yale Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis and a professor of epidemiology at the university in New Haven, Connecticut, still recalls the battle over which parent would keep her, saying in a recent interview that she remembers her father yelling, \u201cI\u2019ll kill you before you get custody of Alison,\u201d SFGATE reported.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Aug. 8, 1982, Nancy was at the shelter when she received a call from Patrick. He reportedly demanded that she come and pick Alison up that night instead of the agreed-upon time of Monday morning.<\/p>\n She was never seen alive again. <\/p>\n Patrick Galvani, 81, a resident of San Francisco, was arrested in connection with his wife\u2019s 1982 murder on Nov. 24, 2025. (Foster City PD)<\/p>\n After her mother\u2019s murder, Alison was with her father when police arrived at their Pacific Heights home. <\/p>\n She told The Times that investigators showed her a photo of a sleeping bag that looked wet. It was the same sleeping bag\u00a0that she and her mother sat on during a recent picnic at Golden Gate Park to celebrate her graduation from kindergarten. <\/p>\n Patrick was placed in handcuffs and arrested after investigators found Nancy\u2019s 1973 Buick Apollo in the garage. He was charged with Nancy\u2019s murder, but the charges were later dismissed, the San Mateo County District Attorney\u2019s Office saying at the time that there was not enough evidence in the case. <\/p>\n Police officer accused of stealing cash from L.A. motorists during traffic stops <\/a><\/p>\n As she matured, Alison grew wary of her father\u2019s possible involvement in her mother\u2019s death, though it wouldn\u2019t be until 2008, shortly after she became a mother herself, that she would tell her father, \u201cYou killed my mother,\u201d according to The Times. <\/p>\n It was after that visit that she began her campaign to have her mother\u2019s case reopened, even filing a wrongful death civil suit against her father, SFGATE reported. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fca12f7369f998cad7d149df17999ede.jpeg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/e0f987b14c0e1b0773c1e4062e62e914.jpeg\"\/)
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