Woman buys stunning Napa winery her fiance owned 30 years after his horrific murder-suicide

An engaged couple carved their names into the concrete of the winery they owned in 1993. Tragedy struck two weeks later, killing one of the lovers and leaving the other to flee and grieve.

Now she’s returned to the scene of the murder.

A woman has revealed she bought her husband’s beloved winery near Napa Valley more than 30 years after his father killed him in a horrific murder-suicide there.

Former auto executive Karen Francis DeGolia quietly purchased her husband’s winery, Limerick Lane Cellars in Healdsburg, in 2022.

She did so despite its tragic history related to her then-fiance, Tom Collins’ death in 1993. His father shot-and-killed him in a horrifying murder-suicide at the winery that Tom’s brother Michael said occurred in a “fit of rage.”

DeGolia had been working with her husband at the winery until he died, which she said turned her world upside down. The couple had even carved their names into concrete of the winery. “Tom & Karen 1993,” it said.

“I felt that I had this beautiful movie playing, then someone took the scissors and cut the film, and all of a sudden, the screen went white,” Degolia said.

She then moved to Nashville and then Detroit, becoming an auto executive for Oldsmobile.

“I worked really hard to shut out the pain,” she said.

She purchased the winery from fifth-generation winemaker Jake Bilbro, who had bought it from Toms’ brother Michael. Michael had been battling cancer and sold the winery in 2012.

DeGolia had returned to the winery before. In 2004, she tried to become Michael’s partner at the winery and learned the business. But she determined that the job wasn’t the right fit at the time.

Just a year later though, she bought Ricci Vineyard next door. She ran it as a side hustle while working in Silicon Valley.

DeGolia had become acquainted with Bilbro enough that she even contemplated selling her winery to him once she got out of the business.

“In my head, I always said, ‘If I ever want to sell this vineyard, I’ll just sell to him,'” she said.

But she reinvested into the area again, buying a vacation rental on Limerick Lane in 2021.

Drawing closer to her old winery, she expressed interest in buying it, but it was under an exclusive contract. The contract excluded her from purchasing it at the time.

But then a prospective buyer required changes perceived as off the table, which gave DeGolia an opportunity to buy it. Bilbro was ecstatic to give her the opportunity.

“He said, ‘Karen, I haven’t slept for weeks because this should be yours. I think my role for the last 10 years has been keeping it until you’re ready to come back.'”

With the added luck, she bought the winery in early 2022.

She admits that she could’ve picked a better time to buy as wine heads into an economic downturn, and is “working harder than expected” to keep the winery alive.

DeGolia is hoping her marketing background will give her an edge. She’s offering stays and venues for small events at the vineyard to attract customers. Customers will gaze at the property’s pool, shaped like a wine bottle, and a field of Zinfandel vines.

Zinfandel vines produce a smoky red wine that used to be popular in the area but has since been overtaken by the Californian Pinot Noir.

The winery owner hopes she can make people live a wine “experience,” and not just taste it.

“When people leave here,” she said, “we want them to feel like they got to experience it, not that they were just a visitor.”