Lewis Lent was convicted for murdering two children in Massachusetts and New York, including 12-year-old Sara Anne Wood. But investigators still don’t know where he buried her.
Here’s a timeline of this decadeslong saga.
James “Jimmy” Bernardo, 12, goes missing. He was last seen outside the Pittsfield Plaza Cinema Center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, around 5 p.m. Jimmy never came home, and his parents called the police later that evening.
Hunters come across Jimmy Bernardo’s body off a dirt road in rural Newfield, New York, about 200 miles away from Pittsfield. Evidence at the scene showed he was murdered.
Jamie Lusher, a 16-year-old with disabilities, was last seen in Westfield, Massachusetts, while biking to his grandmother’s house. Jamie’s bicycle was discovered six days later in a field off a dead-end road in Westfield.
Sara Anne Wood, 12, was last seen making the short trek home from Vacation Bible School in the rural area of Sauquoit, New York. Her family began looking for her after she failed to return home.
Later in the day, Sara’s bike was discovered by a neighbor hidden in the brush off the side of road about a half mile down the road from the Wood family’s home. Police were called and by early evening a massive search effort began.
Five months after Sara’s disappearance, a man attempted to abduct 12-year-old Becky Savarese as she was walking to school through downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Becky escaped the attack and later that day a 43-year-old suspect named Lewis Lent was questioned by police.
While being questioned, Lewis Lent tells police he used to work as a part-time janitor at the Pittsfield Plaza Cinema Center, the last place Jimmy Bernardo was seen in 1990. Authorities suspected they may have more than a one-time offender on their hands and Lent was later arrested on charges relating to Becky Savarese’s case.
A teletype was sent out to law enforcement agencies across the region, including the New York State Police who arrived in Pittsfield later in the evening to question Lent about Sara Wood.
After hours of questioning over the next two days, Lewis Lent confesses to the murders of Sara Wood and Jimmy Bernardo. Lent also told them chilling details about his “master plan”. He was building a large wooden partition in his bedroom to lock his victims in after abducting them.
A large, statewide search party descends upon an area near Raquette Lake in New York’s Adirondack Mountains to search an area using Lent’s description and hand drawn map of where he claimed to have buried Sara Wood. After more than 50 days of tedious searching through deep snow, authorities halted the effort.
On the same day, Lewis Lent is arraigned in Massachusetts on charges of kidnapping, armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon in the Becky Savarese case and pleads not guilty.
More than three years after Jimmy Bernardo’s death, Lent is indicted by a grand jury for kidnapping and murdering the boy. He was arraigned on the same day and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
A year after Becky Savarese escaped, Lent is found guilty of her attempted kidnapping after a four-day trial. The next day, he is given a sentence of 17 to 20 years.
Sara Wood’s father Bob Wood and brother Dusty Wood arrive in Washington D.C. after biking 600 miles from upstate New York to raise money and awareness for missing children and abduction prevention. This ride was turned into an annual shortened version that still continues.
The day before his trial was set to begin for the murder of Jimmy Bernardo, Lent makes a surprise reversal and pleads guilty. This would not be the last time Lent surprises a courtroom. The judge immediately sentenced Lent to life in prison without parole.
Within days after pleading guilty to the murder of Jimmy Bernardo, Lent arrived in a bullet proof vest to a media frenzy in Herkimer County, New York, to face charges for the kidnapping and murder of Sara Wood. However, it would take months before justice can be served.
Sources from that time say Lent intended to plead guilty at his court hearing, but changed his mind and pleaded not guilty. “It’s my understanding that when he entered the courtroom, he saw certain members of the public, especially I think her family, so he decided on that day he did not want to enter a plea,” the current district attorney of Herkimer County, Jeffrey Carpenter, told “48 Hours.”
Lent decided to plead guilty to the kidnapping and murder of Sara Anne Wood. However, authorities say Lent continued to deny the Wood family closure by not giving up where Sara’s body is.
At Lent’s sentencing hearing, the Wood family and the then-district attorney of Herkimer County gave impact statements. Despite all the requests to reveal where he buried Sara, Lent remained silent. He was sentenced to 25 years-to-life for the kidnapping and murder of Sara Anne Wood. He was sent back to Massachusetts to serve the rest of his life in prison. But the job was not finished for investigators, who continued to visit Lent in prison in hopes he would reveal where he buried Sara and perhaps disclose the murders of other victims.
At a press conference in Westfield, Massachusetts, authorities announce Lent confessed to the murder of Jamie Lusher. In the days following this press conference, investigators searched Greenwater Pond in Becket, Massachusetts, where Lent told them he disposed of Jamie’s body. However, the search effort was unsuccessful and Jamie’s body remains missing.
As he has done many times before, Lent would later recant his confession. Authorities decided not to charge Lent with Jamie’s murder, hoping that one day he will lead them to his body.
That same month, New York authorities were granted permission to bring Lent back to New York to point out where he said he placed Sara Wood’s body. But after three days and more than 600 miles of driving, the operation ended without finding Sara and Lent was sent back to Massachusetts.
Based on information Lent provided investigators, another search was conducted in Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont, just across the Massachusetts border. The search effort, this time once again for Sara Wood, also ended with no body found.
“48 Hours”‘ cameras joined Sara Wood’s brother, Dusty Wood, and other participants in the annual bike ride called the Ride for Missing Children. Refusing to let a family tragedy slow him down, Dusty pours his energy into honoring his sister and spreading awareness to help prevent the abduction of children.
Authorities search a property in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, connected to Lent. This property had been searched before in the 1990s and belonged to a then-friend of Lent. Lent had done some work in the basement of the house.
