48 Hours - The Unending Search for Sara Anne Wood

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

Investigators are locked in a 30-year cat and mouse game with a child serial killer to find the body of 12-year-old Sara. 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty reports. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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I have visible holes in my memory from when I was a kid. You know, trauma. And it's a different kind of trauma because there's a monster involved. It's 30 years later. I can't imagine many things that are as terribly life-changing. I was two weeks away from my 17th birthday. What could I have done? What could I have done? Okay, I've got the command post on the phone.

That's the nurse. She's down there. A week ago today, Sarah Wood, a 12-year-old, left this church and was traveling a short distance, about a mile to her home. She made it about halfway, and we found her bicycle at around 4.30 that afternoon. I am Dusty Wood.

I am Sarah's older brother. I was 16 when she was abducted in 1993. We need to know where Sarah is. Please help us find her. When I got a call from my sergeant that there was a missing girl, they didn't say runaway, he said missing child, which was unusual. So I immediately drove up there.

This is a church that Sarah's father was pastor at at the time. The day that this happened, she was here doing schoolwork. Tell me where she rode. She would have gone right out here and right down this road. So this is where she took a turn. Yep, her house is not too far up here on the left. This is the area where the bicycle was found. I remember that moment.

I'm standing next to my mother, and that's when you know it's all over. It's all over. Come in, Post-Trend. We set up a station there. We could do everything out of that church. There were troopers from all over the state there. Days went by. Weeks.

Months. Right. Would either one of you have ever guessed the turn this case would take on January 7, 1994? No. And this was still back in the day where teletypes would come across. One came over about an abduction or attempted abduction in Massachusetts. Twelve-year-old Rebecca Savarese, she's simply walking to school. She's approached by a stranger who puts a gun to her, and that broke the entire case. She's the key. She's the linchpin. She's what

made it all happen. She got away. Okay, that's what put us out to Lewis Lent. Lewis Lent came across as just kind of an ordinary guy. He was a handyman. I don't think anybody would have ever conceived that he was doing what he was doing. I'm Julia Cowley, retired FBI agent and profiler. He was prepared with duct tape. He had a gun with him. He had a knife with him. He had rope with him. So he was always ready. He is a child predator. He enjoyed going out and driving around and, in his words, hunting for children. He killed Sarah Inwood.

He did confess to it. But we don't have Sarah's body. Finding the body is important because then my mother could know where she is. Do you think Louis Lent will give that up? I don't know. If he does, it won't be out of the goodness of his heart. He does have a lot to hide.

Aaron Moriarty reports the unending search for Sarah Ann Wood. My sister's life ended, and I couldn't stop that. Someone hurt her and took her life. I know at the time I felt like I could have done something, but I couldn't. She was an exuberant person. She was excited to be alive. It's been a little over three decades since his 12-year-old little sister disappeared. But for Dusty Wood, memories of Sarah have not faded with time. Morning, Sarah.

What? Morning. Good morning. You ready to eat? No. I want to stay here and play video games. Every picture you see of her, it's like a big beaming smile, those bright blue eyes.

Dusty says the two of them had a lot in common. I'm an extrovert. She's pretty extroverted. She's not a person in the background. She stuck out. Hey, Dad. Dad, over here. She was funny. I imagine she would be funny now. She was funny. I imagine she would be funny now. On August 18, 1993, Dusty, then just 16 years old, was enjoying a lazy summer day with his family in Sequoia, a small town in central New York. That day we had gone shopping, we had come home, we just hung around the house. We lived in the country, so there wasn't a lot of stuff to do.

Sarah had made plans to ride her bike to Vacation Bible School at the church where her father was a pastor. It was just about a mile down the road. The last time I saw her, she was singing Dolly Parton. Do you remember what song she was singing? Working 9 to 5. She and I were at the front door, and so I was listening to her as she's working 9 to 5. And then she got on her bike and was like, see you later. When Sarah didn't return home later that afternoon, Dusty and Sarah's parents began to worry. So I remember getting a phone call from my parents at my friend's house.

Hey, did you see Sarah? And me being like, no. And so at that point, we rode our bikes and came home, didn't see her. And so at that point, we rode our bikes and came home, didn't see her. Soon after, that's when a neighbor came across Sarah's bike hidden in the bushes on the side of the road, less than a half mile from the family's home. Police were called. Around 6 p.m., New York State Police Trooper Timothy Blaze, who is now retired, arrived at the scene. So, Tim, where was her bicycle found?

It was off the grassy area. It was in where the shrubs are. And there was also some school paperwork that was around. Some papers were blown around. And at the time, did anyone remember seeing a truck or a child being grabbed or anything? I mean, she just vanished. Well, as you can see, I mean, there's nobody here really to see anything, you know? By early evening, the massive search for Sarah began.

We'd be out in the woods searching for her at midnight, 1 o'clock in the morning, hoping that we'd find her in maybe a hole or she fell down in something. 48 Hours was invited by Sarah and Dusty's parents, Bob and Francis Wood, to witness those early days of the investigation in hopes that the media attention would help find Sarah. Hold for an officer and I'll be right with you.

It would become one of the largest searches for a missing child during that time. The first day was the worst, the first night. We're just trying to see if anybody has any information on the Sarah Woods case. First night, of course, you know, I was up on the road all night, out in the woods all night. Second day, I was on the road all night watching Bob Woods tiny church was turned into a state police command post more people we can reach early on while the thing is still fresh in their minds the better

chance we stand of maybe turning something up that'll help us the big thing as far as the uniform troopers are concerned is the door-to-door. Anything out of the ordinary in the past week or so? Can that be done with a chopper? The thing that keeps everybody going is the uncertainty. Not knowing whether she's dead, whether she's alive, whether she's a mile away, or whether she's 120 miles away. So now all I'm doing is praying and encouraging people

because they're doing all the work. We've expanded the search operation. We're probably in the area of 600 square miles. I'm getting in fresh crews. I've got more crews coming in from different parts of the state. We're going to be crawling on our hands and knees. It's really thick once we get down in there. Let's fight that guy, buddy. Let's go.

When you're dealing with a child, if it hits you personally, it hits me personally, you tend to devote 110%. Let's go. I hope we find this girl. Thank you, Lord, for this day, and we thank you now for the good food that we have. We do ask that you would be with Sarah, nourish her, protect her.

Please bring her home to us tonight. How's it going, guys? Sarah's father. Doing a good job out there. It's like, you know, I'm on a precipice and there's a deep, dark cliff there. Hi, how you doing, hon? I'm glad you're here. I really am.

And if I step over and self-pity and start to go down there, I may not be able to get back up. Frances is strengthening daily. She's in the Bible a lot. Dusty, he's strong. He's real strong. Tell me about yourself. Oh, myself? Yeah. I don't know.

What we need is a break, a good, solid lead that we can take and finish this case up with. And Bob believed police were going to get that break. We're doing the state of Texas. If enough people could see his daughter's face. Somebody stops one of these stores and gases up up ten minutes later you see my daughter they could make the phone call we need to get. See this little person here this is my baby whatever I have to do I'm gonna do to find this little girl here. Sarah's mother Frances made a public plea. I don't hate you. I don't hate you. I just want my daughter back. That's all. I just

want her here, right here with us. Investigators were determined to find out what happened to Sarah, and they did not shy away from looking anywhere or at anyone. Our entire family was focused on getting Sarah back. So you want to investigate me? I'm okay with that. Sarah's got to come home. We'll do whatever it takes. Period. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved.

From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free, starting October 29th on Amazon Music. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. When this happened, people realized this could happen to anybody. It could be their children. Retired New York State Police detectives Reese Treen and John Fallon were state troopers when Sarah Wood disappeared in 1993.

My daughter was only five miles from there when this happened at her grandparents' house at three years old. It's home. Treen and Fallon were part of the army of investigators from around the state assigned to search for Sarah. We had no vehicle. She didn't just go into thin air. They would join Frank Lawrence, one of the lead detectives. Something or someone had to have taken her. There it is, right there. Sarah, Channel 2. Yet despite the weeks of media attention that Sarah's case received,

Lawrence, now retired from the New York State Police, says law enforcement still had very little to go on. Somebody took her. We didn't know. So when you don't know, you have to eliminate everything, every possibility, and you start local. And that included questioning the people closest to Sarah, her brother and her parents. You had to look at the woods.

The woods were looked at. And wasn't that tough, though? It's very, it's always difficult to do that, you know, especially in this case, because they're such good parents. Bob Wood was there every day. I'm glad you're here, though. You're helping out a lot. Every day. Investigation isn't over. This is one fast... I had a hard time going there every day. Investigation isn't over. This is one fast...

I had a hard time going there every day. Once the Woods were eliminated, Lawrence says they turned their attention to investigating known and suspected sex offenders. Each and every one of them had to be spoken with and eliminated. And we did. We did.

And they still had nothing. We got this section done. Despite the long hours and heavy manpower. Until a bitterly cold day in January 1994, five months after Sarah disappeared, Officer Timothy Blaze was working in the command center when a message came in via teletype, a device that police departments used at the time to share information. One came over about an abduction or attempted abduction in Massachusetts that I handed off to Frank. that I handed off to Frank.

Another 12-year-old girl named Becky Savarese was almost abducted as she walked to school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 100 miles away. Becky didn't respond to 48 Hour's most recent request for an interview, but back in 1994, she did speak with me and told me her remarkable story. I was coming up here. It was 7.10 in the morning on January 7th at one of the busiest intersections in town. I was listening to my music. He was on the side of me.

Like where I am? Yeah. He was saying stuff before. I didn't know what he was saying, so I took my earphones out to hear what he was saying. And then he said, do you see the gun I have? I was like, yes, I see the gun you have. He's like, just do everything I say. Everything would be perfectly okay. I was like, alright. He had it up against you? He had it about an inch away from me. Were you scared? No. You weren't scared? I wasn't scared. We turned down here to where his truck was parked.

Now he wants you to go in the truck that's over there. Right. You're not intending to go into that truck. No. If I got away, I didn't care if you shot me. I just knew I was not going to get into that truck. Why did you know that? Was that something someone had told you or? I just felt it inside me. I knew I was not going to get into that truck. That's when Becky came up with an idea that possibly saved her life. She faked an asthma attack. I started to fake that I was losing breath. When I was trying to take my backpack off, he tried to grab for me.

He got my backpack and said, and I just ran. he tried to grab for me. He got my backpack and said, and I just ran. Becky ran into a man clearing snow off a sidewalk who called the police. At about the same time, a witness called in with three digits from the truck's license plate. Investigators began searching for the vehicle. I remember it well because it was a blizzard. Despite the snowstorm, a Pittsfield officer spotted a truck with those three digits in its license plate sitting in a driveway in a residential area. The officer quickly called for backup. And they knocked on the door and said, yeah, who was driving this truck earlier. The homeowner told the officers a friend named Louis Lent had borrowed the truck, and he just happened to be sitting in the kitchen. When police entered the house to question Lent, he denied knowing about Becky,

but willingly agreed to come down to the police station. Had Louis Lent, that name, Louis Lent, ever come up before? No, not in our investigation. Had he ever been connected to a disappearance of a child? No. But he had a criminal history? Yeah, some minor things like bad checks and forged checks, things like that, but nothing that approaches this. And when investigators searched Lent's vehicle, they knew they had the right man. They found Rebecca's backpack. They found the gun. They found duct tape and clothesline rope.

Basically, his kidnapping abduction kit. Although the attempted abduction was 100 miles away in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, everyone wondered if Lent could have also taken Sarah. I got a call from the lieutenant. He says, well, go home and pack a bag and you're going to Pittsfield. Almost 12 hours after the attempted abduction of 12-year-old Becky Savarese, New York State Police Detective Frank Lawrence struggled through a snowstorm and finally arrived at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, eager to speak to Louis Lent. But he would have to wait his turn.

There's similarities, but it's a Pittsfield case, okay? They would talk to him, then we'd get him in between. And he was willing to talk to you? Yeah. He talked to us. And during their conversations, Lawrence says he and two other New York investigators made sure Louis Lent understood why they were there. I actually showed him this poster, and I said to him,

Lou, this is who I'm here to talk to you about. So he knew that eventually we were going to be talking about this, okay? How did he react, did he? He was flat. Flat? Yeah, he was flat through the whole thing. Did that make you think he had no idea who she was? I didn't really care.

I was going to find out. That's what we were there for. But getting Lewis Lent to admit anything was not going to be easy. Although Becky Savarese and a witness picked him out of a lineup, it took Lent until the next morning to admit he had tried to take her. Lewis Lent was arrested and charged with kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. But New York investigators were not done with Lent. They started to ask him questions about other missing kids.

We talked to him. We spent a lot of time with him. And that's when Lawrence says he and New York investigators came up with a strategy. We found out that he was religious. So he says they brought a Bible into the interview room. That Bible sat on the table in front of him. Any time he would wander, okay, we would use the Bible. And we'd go, Lou, you gotta tell the truth. And this comes from the heart.

You gotta tell us the truth. We would go back to the Bible. And we go, Lou, you got to tell the truth. And this comes from the heart. You got to tell us the truth. We would go back to the Bible. And Lawrence says the strategy appeared to be working because as the hours went by, Lent started to reveal things about himself and some very disturbing plans for the future that involve kidnapping young victims. He told us about his master plan. Once he found the acceptable vulnerable individuals, he was going to bring them back to his house and put them in like a queue, like I describe it as a coffin, but keep them alive so he could use them and have them whenever he wanted them.

Investigators would later find the beginning of his horrifying construction project when they searched Len's bedroom and found this wooden partition wall. And things only got worse. He wanted to talk about Jimmy Bernardo. Jimmy Bernardo was a 12-year-old boy who had gone missing three years earlier in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A month later, hunters would find his body. The case had stumped local investigators for years, but now Lent was about to tell everyone what had happened to Jimmy. He was riding his bike through a strip mall in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Louis Lent was a janitor at the cinema center

there in Pittsfield. When Jimmy stopped in front of the cinema to wait for a friend, that's when Lent said he offered him money to help him clean the movie theater. Jimmy agreed. And then once Lent got him inside, he overpowered him and kidnapped him. Lent told investigators he drove Jimmy 200 miles to a rural

and isolated area near his hometown of Reynoldsville, New York. Then he said he strangled Jimmy to death and left him there. He had details that only the killer and the police knew. As horrific as that revelation was, investigators kept pressing him about Sarah Wood. The more we talked about Sarah, we're probing, he's responding. And then, five months after she went missing, Lewis Lent finally confessed. Lent admitted that he had kidnapped, raped, and then murdered Sarah M. Wood.

She was vulnerable. He was hunting. And he found the victim. And just like Jimmy Bernardo, Detective Lawrence says Lent's account matched details only known to investigators. Lent knew specifics about what Sarah had been wearing and details about her bike that had not been made public. He knew that the chain on the bike was broken. And he also said that the bike was a little bit big for her.

I didn't know that. I found out later that it was. little bit big for her. I didn't know that. I found out later that it was. Then Lawrence says Lent drew them a map showing where he said he buried Sarah's body. This is just a copy, obviously. Right, but this is actually what Louis Lent did. He drew that. I handed him a piece of paper, and this is what he drew. And where did he say he put her? Off Route 28, up by Blue Mountain Lake. Blue Mountain Lake is located in a remote woody area near Racket Lake in New York's Adirondack Mountains. And within hours, police from all over New York State were dispatched and searched the area. Bob Wood was there, along with Dusty, who was a senior in high school.

It was very cold. It was ridiculous. And it was tons of snow. Remember, a lot of helping. A lot of people. How you guys doing for tarps up here? Was that a time when you thought you might be able to bring Sarah home? Yeah.

For over 50 days, they searched for Sarah in the Adirondacks. It was 30 below zero. We could only stay outside for 20 minutes at a time. We were in waist-high snow. We had shovels.

We're digging. We're looking for any evidence at all having anything to do with Sarah. We were hoping somebody would come up with something that had something to do with her. It just didn't happen. As investigators continued to look for Sarah's body, Lent would face murder charges in both Massachusetts and New York.

It was a rare occasion where everyone was laser focused on one event, was find Sarah bring him to justice in the Pacific Ocean halfway between Peru and New Zealand lies a tiny volcanic island it's a little known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of them. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years,

I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+.

Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The best idea yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk takers who brought them to life.

Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening,

you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. It's just The Best Idea Yet. Before Lewis Lent could be tried for Sarah Wood's murder in New York, he first had to face charges in Massachusetts. In 1995, Lewis Wendt went on trial and was ultimately convicted for Becky Savarese's attempted kidnapping and was

sentenced to 17 to 20 years. Almost one and a half years later, after taking a plea, he was given a life sentence for murdering Jimmy Bernardo. Television, radio, and newspaper outlets... And then, on June 6, 1996, Lewis Lent arrived at Herkimer, New York, to a media frenzy. And the district attorney wanted justice for Sarah Ann Wood and her family. Jeffrey Carpenter is Herkimer County's district attorney. He wasn't in office when Sarah Wood was murdered, but he has studied Lewis Lent's case files. He says the DA's office thought Lewis Lent was going to plead guilty to killing Sarah. But without warning, Lent changed his mind.

Sarah, but without warning, Lent changed his mind. It's my understanding that when he entered the courtroom and he saw certain members of the public, especially, I think, her family, he decided on that day he did not want to enter a plea. Days later, Lent would change his mind again and finally entered a guilty plea. What do you remember of him sitting there? I couldn't believe how small a man, you know, I couldn't believe it. Not imposing. Almost four years after Sarah Wood was abducted and murdered, Lewis Lent was sentenced to 25 years to life. He was sent back to Massachusetts

to serve the rest of his life in prison. He will never cause harm to anyone else. But it was not over for the Wood family and New York State Police investigators. They still needed to find Sarah. He changes his story so often, it's hard to tell what's the truth and what's fiction. In fact, Detective Treen says Lent's original story, that he buried

her in the Racket Lake area, turned out to be a lie. He cashed a check on August 18th in Pittsfield at 6.18 p.m. So he did not physically have time to abduct Sarah at around 2.30 p.m. and then drive to the Adirondacks, dig a grave, bury her, and then drive back to Pittsfield to cash a check. So investigators continued to visit Lent in prison, hoping that over time he would reveal where he buried Sarah and perhaps even disclose the murders of other victims. even disclose the murders of other victims. Detectives Fallon and Treen say they visited Lent in prison about 20 times. Isn't it difficult at times, though, for the two of you not to just jump across the table and grab him? No. One of the things you have to do is you have to leave hate outside of the room when you go in.

They didn't push him, but during their conversations, Lent revealed that he often suffered from blackouts and claimed he had an evil alter ego that he called Stephen. He has this dichotomy, is the word he used. He has a really good side that studies the Bible and actually was a traveling minister. Then he has this evil side, and he has these uncontrollable compulsions, is the way he put it, to do terrible things that he could not stop.

Somehow, Lent managed to hide that evil side from nearly everyone he knew. Lewis Lent spent the last year... Back in 1994, 48 Hours correspondent Richard Schlesinger interviewed some of Lent's friends. The sidewall here, it was caving right in. Right. And he helped you with that too, huh? Oh, yes. To Phil Schallies, who is legally blind, Lent was a good Samaritan.

Just came over and said, well, I'd be glad to give you a hand. I hear you're doing work on your foundation. He said, I'd be glad to help you out. We built a border all the way around. We put in probably hundreds of hours working together in that salary. It was definitely hard work. And he did that all out of the goodness of his heart? Yes, he did. To Frank Collette, the dean of students at a Bible school that Lent attended, he was a gentleman. He was intelligent. He was unassuming. He was quiet. One thing about Louis that everyone remembered was he always had his hand out to shake your hand when you were meeting one. And if you didn't watch out, he'd give you a big bear hug. He had a lot of children with him,

young kids. The kids would play video games, and then they would come and go to the movies, and he would bring them home. To Richard Baumann, who employed him, Lent seemed like a mentor to children. They called him the big brother. They did? Oh, yeah. The kids? Yes. Baumann owned the movie theater where Lent worked as a janitor for six years, movie theater where Lent worked as a janitor for six years and he thought he knew Lent very well. I hired him. I worked side by side with him. What's... what's... tell me what's going on.

I just feel as though I may have missed something that he might have said or done that would have keyed me. That would have let you know. Just give me a clue that there's something wrong with this guy. People have trouble understanding that you can have this very religious, God-fearing, nice, polite man in contrast that to his other side where he is hunting and preying on and killing children. Those can exist in one person. Julia Cowley is a retired FBI agent and profiler who worked on cases like the Golden State Killer. She now hosts a true crime podcast called The Consult, Real FBI Profilers. This podcast is about criminal profiling.

Callie has never met Lewis Lent, but at our request, she reviewed his background and studied his confessions. She says that what appeared to be Lent's desire to help people could actually have served a selfish purpose. By helping all these people, this is a way to maybe hide who he really is, to gain people's trust. When you do that, you can manipulate them. You can control them. It's strategically motivated as opposed to being motivated by true emotion. Just like other serial killers she has studied, Cowley says Lent is completely self-centered. His needs come before anybody else's, obviously. He had no regard for his victims. He has no regard for victims' families.

Something Rhys Treen says he has seen firsthand. He knows what emotions are that other people have, but he doesn't feel them himself. One of the things that he said in the past is that the murders ruined his life. He's remorseful that he got caught, that it ruined his life, but he doesn't think in terms of it ruined anybody else's life. He just doesn't think that way.

Lewis Luntz so quickly admits to kidnapping and killing Sarah Wood. Why not tell it all? Why not give all the details? It's just a secret he wants to hold on to. It's his. It's the only thing he has that's his own that he can control. And a bit of sadism. Knowing that family members want answers, continuing to hurt them is something I think that he feeds off of. There's some enjoyment in there. Most killers don't tell us everything. They rarely give the full story. Instead, Lent reveals what he wants, when he wants, on his own timetable.

And in 2013, he revealed something new. I've described it as speaking directly to the devil. He really is the devil. it as speaking directly to the devil. He really is the devil. How do you warn your loved ones about child predators? For an in-depth look at the case, go to 48hours.com. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous

secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access,

I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. As detectives Fallon and Treen continued to question Lewis Lent about Sarah Wood and other possible victims, in 2013, he made yet another confession. He ended up admitting to killing Jamie Lusher.

Nine months before Sarah was abducted, Jamie Lusher, a 16-year-old teen with disabilities, disappeared in Westfield, Massachusetts, just 40 miles from the Pittsfield area. His bicycle was later found in a wooded area close by. Lent told investigators that after he kidnapped and murdered Jamie, he discarded the teenager's remains in Greenwater Pond in Beckett, Massachusetts. We had divers go actually with the Massachusetts State Police divers and they all dove the pond, and nothing was found. As he has done many times before, Lent would later recant his confession. Authorities decided not to charge Lewis Lent with Jamie's murder, hoping that one day he will lead them to his body.

At this point, we're not interested in further prosecution. He's not going anywhere. At a press conference shortly after the confession, Jamie's sister talked about the grief she endured since her brother went missing. Anybody that knows me knows I talk about this. I think about this every day. It's this searing heartache, in part, that keeps authorities motivated to find the missing. So soon after Lent confessed to killing Jamie, DA Jeffrey Carpenter got permission to take Lent, who was serving his life sentence in Massachusetts,

out of prison and back to New York. This time they drove him around, hoping he would reveal anything that would help them find Sarah. So, really, what did we have to lose? We had to do it. We drove to the Massachusetts border. We drove to the Vermont border. He took us to where she was abducted. He took us to where he claimed he murdered her. But after three long days and over 600 miles of driving, Carpenter says New York authorities ended the operation. The consensus was he absolutely knew where she was. He just was not going to tell us. Before Carpenter sent Lemp back to Massachusetts, he recorded this conversation with him.

You know, we've spent some time here the last couple of days. Hope you feel you were treated with respect. Oh, all the way. Yeah? Treated well? Yes. Well, that was our end of the bargain, right? Yeah. Right?

Yeah. What was your end of the bargain? We were very best they can to find Sarah. Yeah? Yeah. Is that what we've done? That's what we've done that's what we've done i would say that that i tried

i was absolutely sure that i knew the route when it came down to it i could only get partial but well actually where i actually went what was going through your head when you were talking to him? Anger. He does not forget details. He recalls details. He recalls many things until he wants to pretend he doesn't remember. A decade after that fruitless search, in November of 2023, investigators were back out looking again, this time at the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont. After Detective Treen identified an area with landmarks that Lent had talked about during their many conversations. Just too many things matched up. A lot of boxes were checked. What's more, search and rescue dogs taken to the area had alerted to a possible body there. So we were hopeful, optimistic that we would find something there, and we never found anything.

But authorities kept looking. Earlier this year, detectives went back to the cellar that Lent worked in with Phil Chalice to see if they missed something in 1994. The search turned up. No new evidence. Do you feel in a way that you might be running out of time? Louis Lent is in his 70s. It's a concern, but that's one of the things we can't control.

Regardless of the challenges, authorities say they will never stop looking for Sarah Wood and Jamie Lusher. Dusty Wood says he chooses not to think about Lewis Lent. Every day I'm less angry because I devote my energy to positive things. Every year, Dusty

and some family members participate in the Ride for Missing Children. Ready? Rolling! A 78-mile bike ride that was created in Sarah's honor by Bob Wood. The riders wore jerseys that were turquoise and pink,

the colors that Sarah wore when she was abducted. Riders stop at schools along the way to talk about abduction prevention. The most important thing for us as a family is to protect kids and make sure that if there's anything that can be done to protect them from monsters like Lewis Lent, that it be done. Riders pay silent tribute to those children whose families hold out hope that they will be found alive

and to children who went missing and are never coming home like Sarah M. Wood. Dusty says he and his family are grateful to their community who have supported them since the beginning. There will be never a way to repay the kindness of strangers that opened up the possibility of giving the best chance to my sister. He's not sure if they will ever find his sister's body, but he is at peace. I'm waiting for the day I see Sarah in heaven,

and I know that day is coming, and that makes me feel good. If you have information about where Sarah Wood or Jamie Lusher are, please reach out to New York State Police Troop D Headquarters at 315-366-6000. To learn how to educate children about abduction prevention, please go to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, missingkids.org. the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, missingkids.org. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com

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