Lewis Lent

Case record: Lewis Lent (NAME: Lewis Lent)

Status and sentence

Lewis Lent was sentenced to life in prison without parole in Massachusetts in 1995. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in New York in 1997.

The offence: kidnapping, sexual assault, and killing of Sara Anne Wood

Sara Anne Wood was a 12-year-old girl who disappeared in August 1993 while riding her bicycle to summer Bible school about a mile from her home in Norwich Corners, a rural community about 15 miles south of Utica. She disappeared on a quiet road near her Frankfort, New York, home.

Lewis Lent confessed to kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and killing Sara Anne Wood. He refused to disclose where he buried her body. Her body was never recovered.

Lent drew police a map to the area where Sara’s body was buried. Despite two massive searches—one in the dead of winter under brutal conditions, and another after the spring thaw—Sara’s body was never found.

Sara’s mother, Mrs. Wood, described Lent’s conduct in her testimony during the sentencing: she said Lent kidnapped Sara, forced her into the woods, struck her with a tree limb, and buried her in a shallow grave without checking to see if she was indeed dead. Mrs. Wood also showed Lent photos of Sara, describing Sara’s love of dancing and poetry, and her faith in God. She told Lent: "This is probably a waste of time trying to express to you that she was a person. You are her murderer."

During Lent’s interactions with the court, Judge Patrick Kirk offered Lent a second chance to reveal Sara’s whereabouts. Lent’s only words were yes or no answers to the judge’s questions.

Lent had told police: "I didn't check to see if she was breathing because I don't like to touch dead bodies."

Investigation and search efforts for Sara Anne Wood

In a winter search in the Adirondack Mountain area near Raquette Lake, New York, 165 police, National Guardsmen, and volunteers scoured a remote field sifting for any clue that might yield the grave of Sara Anne Wood. Search efforts were led to the spot by Lewis S. Lent Jr. Police said his body location information did not lead to Sara’s body being found.

At Robert Wood’s request, volunteers sent out posters for two other missing girls.

Earlier case: attempted kidnapping and related conviction involving Rebecca Savarese

In Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on January 7, 1994, Lent menaced then 12-year-old Rebecca Savarese with a gun and tried to force her into his borrowed pickup truck. Rebecca pretended to be suddenly out of breath, which Lent was fooled by for a crucial moment. She ran, shrugging out of her backpack when he grabbed for her; this left her backpack and Lent behind. When another man appeared to help her, Lent gave up the chase and drove away.

Police arrested Lent after they found the truck with the backpack and a loaded gun inside. The truck’s owner was blind and told police he often loaned it to Lent.

During interrogation after the arrest, a cascade of revelations followed. Lent confessed to murdering two children. Lent claimed he was subject to blackouts and memory lapses. One Associated Press report said he blamed this on a 1974 close encounter with UFO occupants in Virginia. Lent’s lawyers argued that police coerced their mentally unbalanced client into confessing. A judge ruled otherwise and allowed most of his statements into evidence.

On Thursday, January 12, 1995, Lent was convicted of several charges in relation to the attack: kidnapping, larceny, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery. Becky (Rebecca) testified against him at the trial and identified him in court.

Rebecca told NEWSWEEK: "I knew if I got in that truck, everything would be over," and: "I knew if I got in that truck, everything would be over."

Earlier case: murder of Jimmy Bernardo in Pittsfield, Massachusetts

One of the alleged victims in Lent’s confession was 12-year-old Jimmy Bernardo. Jimmy disappeared from a Pittsfield, Massachusetts movie theater where he worked as a janitor. Lent worked at the theater at the time but was not considered a suspect then. Jimmy disappeared on October 22, 1990. Lent abducted Jimmy from the theater.

According to Lent’s confession, he encountered Jimmy Bernardo outside the theater and used a hunting knife and death threats to force Jimmy to come along. Back at his apartment, Lent taped the boy to a bed, cut his clothes off, and assaulted him. The next morning Lent killed Jimmy by hanging. Lent claimed it was his intent to kill Jimmy Bernardo all along. Jimmy’s nude body was found in Newfield, New York, far away from where he was abducted, but only a short distance from Lewis Lent’s childhood home.

Lent was sentenced to life without parole in Massachusetts for the Bernardo murder in 1995.

Connection to Sara Anne Wood case: abduction and killing as described by confession

The August 18, 1993 disappearance of 12-year-old Sara Anne Wood occurred while Sara was riding her bicycle home from church. The bike and some papers were found by the road less than a mile from her home.

According to Lent’s confession, he was driving his van along back roads with the specific intent of finding a child to molest and kill when he came across Sara Wood. He used a hunting knife to force her into the van and used tape to bind her hands. He drove her farther upstate into the Adirondack mountains where he raped her and clubbed her to death with a heavy tree branch. He buried her body using tools brought along for that purpose.

Lent was charged with killing Sara, but the prosecution’s ability to prosecute was described as uncertain due to the case resting on his confession and his refusal to disclose burial location.

Court proceedings and sentencing details in New York

Lewis Lent walked out of court without telling where he buried Sara’s body.

Judge Patrick Kirk sentenced Lent to 25 years to life in state prison. The sentencing occurred in Herkimer County Court.

Before handing down the sentence, Judge Kirk said he often wondered if he was capable of imposing the death penalty. Judge Kirk told Lent: "You have answered that in the affirmative." The judge also said Lent was not eligible for capital punishment.

Lent’s sentencing was expected to occur two months earlier after Lent admitted last October to kidnapping and killing Sara. Judge Kirk agreed to a two-month delay after the request of Sara’s parents, in hopes Lent would disclose the whereabouts of Sara’s body.

The Woods tried to persuade Lent to change his mind, using stories about their daughter and verses from the Bible. Robert Wood said: "Whether you accept and repent or go to hell and damnation with Satan, that's your choice," and: "What you will do will have no effect on us, because we will be reunited with Sara in heaven."

While the Woods spoke, Lent stared vacantly ahead, nodding only when they repeated their belief that Sara was in heaven. He grimaced as Sara’s mother recounted part of Lent’s confession.

Prior convictions and current status

Lent had been sentenced to life without parole in Massachusetts for the 1990 slaying of 12-year-old Jimmy Bernardo in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

He was also serving life without parole for the 1990 Bernardo murder and would be returned to Massachusetts after being sentenced in New York.

Lent’s mother, Lois Wood, continued to claim Lent was innocent. She said that he did not speak out because he was terrorized and tortured in jail. She told reporters: "They sentenced an innocent man."

Other suspected cases and police investigations

Lent was suspected in a number of other child kidnapping cases, but police said he had only been charged in two murders and had not been tried or convicted in either of those besides those for which he was sentenced.

A task force of police and FBI agents followed possible leads regarding Lent’s involvement in other child disappearances and murders. The task force followed his movements throughout his life and exchanged information with other police agencies around the country. Investigators were unable to develop links to the point where charges could be filed against him. The task force was disbanded in the summer of 1994, though some individual agencies involved continued to investigate.

Attempted linkage to other missing persons and names surfaced upon arrest

On January 14, 1994, the investigation into possible victims of suspected serial killer Lewis S. Lent Jr. widened to include two Capital Region youngsters, though police said chances were remote that Lent was involved in their disappearances.

The investigation included inquiries about Monique "Pebbles" Santiago, who disappeared in Albany in March 1990 when she was 12. Monique missed a bus on March 29, 1990, near what was then her family’s Washington Avenue home in Albany. She was not heard from again. Her mother insisted that Monique was abducted and would not have run away. Saratoga Springs Senior Investigator Neal Older said: "It's a remote possibility but we have to look into it. We have to look into every lead we can come up with. I'm been doing this for eight years and I'd like to solve it tomorrow, but I don't hold much hope." Deputy Albany Police Chief Robert Grebert said: "I would guess that it's remote" that Lent can be linked to Monique’s disappearance. Grebert said Lent appeared to be targeting white kids from rural or suburban areas and that Monique was Hispanic from an inner-city neighborhood, but police could not rule it out. Grebert added: "The guy certainly spent a lot of time here in the city, and we're looking into that," including pawn shops where he might have left stuff behind. Grebert also said: "We're checking them out to see what might turn up."

The investigation also included Tammie McCormick, who was last seen in April 1986 when she was 13. Tammie skipped school on April 29, 1986, and told kids in the school she was going to a friend’s house and leaving with that friend for Florida. She was last seen leaving Saratoga Springs Junior High School for the friend’s house by Saratoga Lake. Older refused to identify the friend. Tammie’s mother, Nancy Hieber, reported her daughter missing two days later on May 1, Older said. Older said Saratoga Springs police had tracked leads about Tammie in Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and California. Older said: "It's a remote possibility but we have to look into it. I'm been doing this for eight years and I'd like to solve it tomorrow, but I don't hold much hope."

The investigation also included Karen Wilson, a University at Albany student who last was seen on March 27, 1985. Wilson, 22, had been at a tanning salon in Colonie that night preparing for a trip to Florida for spring break. State Police Colonel Robert B. Lew was a lieutenant in charge of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation at Troop G in Loudonville at that time. Lew said: "She took her tan at 7 p.m., and we feel she left the tanning hut at 7:20 p.m. We feel she got a bus down the street from the tanning hut near the Butcher Block restaurant (on Central Avenue) and got off at Fuller Road and walked south on Fuller (toward the campus). And, we feel that she was somehow accosted and grabbed right in front of the Six-mile Waterworks," opposite the entrance ramp to Interstate 90 westbound and the Northway. Investigators from Troop G with the task force were looking into a possible connection between Lent and Wilson’s disappearance.

Other missing people whose names surfaced in connection with the Lent arrest

The following additional missing people were listed as names that surfaced since Lent’s arrest:

• Karolyn A. Lonczak, 18, of Brunswick, who was apparently abducted in January 1988 at a Cohoes group home where she was worked. Her body was discovered seven weeks later near the Tomhannock Reservoir in Rensselaer County. She had been stabbed to death.
• Bobby Gutkaiss, 15, of Stephentown, whose body was found in July 1983 in a wooded area. He was last seen at a farm picking strawberries.
• Sean Googin, 15, whose body was found July 4, 1992, in Cazenovia Lake, Madison County.
• Kari Lynn Nixon of Au Sable Forks in Essex County, who disappeared in 1987.
• Holly Piirainen, 10, of Grafton, Mass., who was abducted Aug. 5 near Sturbridge, Mass. Her body was found Oct. 23.
• Sarah Pryor, 9, abducted in 1985 from Wayland, Mass.
• Jimmy Lusher, 16, missing since Nov. 6, 1992, in Westfield, Mass.

Bennington, Vermont incident

Police in Bennington, Vermont, said an 11-year-old Hudson Falls girl told them that a man closely fitting Lent’s appearance tried to grab her on Dec. 30 while she was shopping with her family. Police said the man turned and walked out of the store when the girl’s father realized what was happening. The girl’s parents searched the Bennington shopping plaza and adjacent stores, but they found no trace of the man or a car. Lent was picked out of a six-person photo lineup by the girl and her father. Bennington police Officer Hank Haverkoch said this selection occurred.

Additional names and case listings included with the record

The record also included the following list of missing or deceased children with ages and statuses:

• Sara Ann Wood, age 12, missing since Aug. 1993
• Karen Wilson, age 21, missing since 1985
• Sean Googin, age 15, missing since 1992
• Jimmy Bernardo, age 12, found dead in 1990
• Carry Lynn Nixon, age 16, missing since 1987
• Karolyn Lonczak, age 18, found dead in 1988
• Bobby Gutkaiss, age 15, found dead in 1983
• Holly Piirainen, age 10, found dead in 1990

Other details: character, interrogation, and comparison claims included in the narrative

In the months immediately prior to Lent’s arrest, Lent was described as acting oddly: he took to wearing dark sunglasses and the quality of his work at the movie theater declined so far that he was fired.

Two days before the failed attempt to kidnap Becky Savarese, Lent built a false wall in his apartment, creating a space large enough to keep a child prisoner. Police claimed he intended to put a child there. Lent apparently told a friend he was going to put in an aquarium.

Neighbors in North Adams, Massachusetts, described Lent as quiet, not sinister. Ralph Gould said: "You know how some people are just kind of there? He was one of those people." One neighbor, Bob Johnson, recalled that Lent was kind and that he often helped with fixing a broken-down car and helped a youngster or a blind friend. Johnson also recalled: "And though Johnson describes Lent as "kind," he also recalls a gun bolstered to his side." Police reported that during interrogation Lent wrote a letter of apology to Becky Savarese and appeared disturbed or upset when he talked about killing Jimmy Bernardo.

An episode of 48 Hours profiled Lent. It included comparisons to Westley Dodd, who was executed at Walla Walla prison in Washington on January 15, 1993, for the murders of three little boys. The narrative said Dodd recorded a diary of daily searches for victims. It also said Dodd kept one of his victims alive over night and hanged him in the morning.

The record included discussion that Lent’s alleged driving around back roads with the intent to abduct a child was similar to Dodd’s diary searches, and that Lent’s alleged use of a weapon and restraints showed forethought.