Lisa Ziegert, a 24-year-old special needs teacher, was raped and murdered in 1992. The case went unsolved for over 20 years until her killer left a disturbing note to his girlfriend confessing to the crime.
The man responsible for the brutal rape and murder of a 24-year-old special needs teacher left a note describing the sick compulsion behind the crimeof a 24-year-old special needs teacher went unsolved for over 20 years, and was only solved after her killer left a disturbing written confession addressed to his girlfriend.
Lisa Ziegert worked at Agawam Middle School, in the small Massachusetts town of Agawam. But to make ends meet she also worked evening shifts behind the counter at a local gift shop. Lisa had mentioned to friends that she sometimes felt someone was watching her as she worked alone in the small store.
, explains that on the evening of April 15, 1992, Lisa's sister Lynne had popped into the shop for an hour or so to keep her company: "Lisa told Lynne that what she really wanted was a teaching job that paid better than what she had now, so that she could quit this gift store job. Not only because this late night shift really creeped her out, but also because she'd be able to spend more time with her boyfriend Blair.
"But it would be the last time that Lynne saw her sister alive. When Lisa's co-worker arrived at Brittany's Card and Gift Shoppe to open up the following morning, she found the store deserted and unlocked. All of the lights were still switched on, and there was music playing, but while Lisa's car was still in the parking lot there was no sign of her. Lisa Ziegert had apparently vanished into thin air.
A police investigation identified bloodstains and signs of a struggle in the store's stock room, suggesting that someone had taken Lisa from the shop by force. But with no security cameras covering the rear of the store, it was impossible to identify who the assailant or assailants might be.
But because Lynne had met with her sister on that evening, she had been able to give a detailed description of what Lisa had been wearing, which included a distinctive charm bracelet. While search teams were sent out across the small town, no clues were found until three days later, when a man who had been walking his dog in nearby woodland reported a gruesome discovery in a small, muddy clearing.
Detective Wayne Macey of the Agawam Police Department led a team out to investigate the dog-walker's report: "And in the clearing," John says, "Macey and the others saw clothing items scattered all over the place. At this point, it was starting to get dark and so Macey pulled out his flashlight and he shined it around in this clearing and at some point his beam of light landed on a woman's body lying right next to a tree.
"She was partially naked and some of her clothes that she still had on had been pulled down, so it seemed fairly obvious that she had been sexually assaulted before she died. "Also, there were clearly multiple stab wounds all over her body, including one to her throat. And then when Macey crouched down next to her to get a better look, his flashlight reflected off of a charm bracelet on her wrist.
"The sodden ground where Lisa's body had been found, combined with days of poor weather, had degraded her body and the scene around it, Macey said. "It was frustrating. There were so many contradictions in that investigation," he complained.
"If it wasn't for bad luck then we wouldn't have had any at all. " Back in 1992, forensic DNA techniques were still in their infancy, and while samples were collected they could only be matched up with pre-existing samples from suspects. A number of men were eliminated from police enquiries, including Lisa's boyfriend Blair, but with no success.
In such a small town, Lisa's horrifying death remained a major topic of conversation for years, but despite innumerable tips being called in by members of the public, no arrests were made. John explains: "No matter how far-fetched the tips seemed, Macey's team looked into each and every one.
For example, there was a woman who worked at the all-female gym that Lisa used to go to who had called in and said there was this man who showed up at their gym every day at 3:00 p.m. and he would buy frozen yogurt from the juice bar. But while he ate the yogurt, he would just stand there and eat it, sort of staring out at all the women.
And this woman, this employee, felt like he could be the killer.
"Another tipster had called in and said they actually had seen a police car parked right near the gift store around the time Lisa was abducted," John added, "and when Macey heard this, he ordered a DNA test from every single officer in the department, but none matched. "There was also another wild theory that Lisa's boyfriend Blair apparently had a secret romance with his roommate, Ed, and Ed had apparently killed Lisa because Lisa found out about it.
"Somebody else had called in and said that their friend had borrowed their car on the day Lisa was killed, and when they returned the car, apparently there were blood stains in it. So they were basically saying, 'Look into my friend.
' Also there were several women who called in saying their husbands did it. Macey continued to work on the case for more than 11 years, sometimes putting in 20-hour days and taking extraordinary measures, even on one occasion having a potential witness hypnotised. On his retirement, he expressed his bitter regret that he had never been able to crack this case.
But newly-appointed Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni, who had grown up hearing about the Lisa Ziegert case, reactivated the investigation in 2017, ordering a phenotype DNA test to offer a partial description of the suspect. That description led detectives to re-investigate Gary E. Schara, who had been identified as a person of interest in the homicide as early as 1993.
His wife had been one of the many women who called the police tip line at the time, but her suspicions had been discounted because the couple were going through a divorce at the time, and she was suspected of having a drink problem. Schara realised that the police were closing in, and that it was only a matter of time before he was arrested.
Planning on ending his own life, he left his last will and testament on the kitchen table of the home he shared with his new girlfriend, as well as a confession that explained his sick compulsion. He wrote: "I've never really been, or even felt, normal. From a very young age I was fascinated by abduction & bondage. I could never keep it too far from my mind for long.
On that fateful day, I let myself do something terrible. "
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