Cold Case Files - Murder By Moonlight

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

The body of 24-year-old Lisa Ziegert is found stabbed to death in a field in Agawam, Massachusetts on Easter Sunday of 1992. The investigation yields several leads, but there is no prime suspect. After more than two decades, DNA phenotyping puts a face to the killer. Check out our great sponsors! KiwiCo: Get 50% off your first month plus FREE shipping on ANY crate line with code COLDCASE at KiwiCo.com  SimpliSafe: Get 40% off your order when you visit SimpliSafe.com/coldcase  Progressive: Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 27 million drivers who trust Progressive.

An A&E original podcast. This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. The thing with Lisa was that she drew people to her because she always had a smile. And when Lisa giggles, everybody giggles. She was such a good person, why wouldn't they just let her go? After the first couple of years,

do I think that the light burned as bright in my soul that it would be solved? It dimmed at times. I'm human. But my faith is stronger than that. And so I just said, nope, we're going to just keep on hoping. And if we don't get them here, God will get them there. There are 120,000 unsolved murders in America.

Each one is a cold case. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It's a cool afternoon in Agawam, Massachusetts, on April 15, 1992. 24-year-old Lisa Ziegert shows up on time like she always does for her shift at Brittany's Card and Gift Shop. Her sister, Lynn Rogerson, stops by the shop. That night, I had just popped into the store just to check in, just to say hi, just to catch up. We were talking about her being a teacher.

Lisa was student teaching during the day, and then she worked at Brittany's at night. At the time, she had some worry and frustrations that teaching was the right path for her because she was still waiting to get a full-time position. Just regular sister talk, you know, that get it off your chest so I can feel better kind of conversation. And then we just said our cheerful, normal hug and kiss goodbyes and I went home. The next morning, early in my day, I hadn't been at work very long. I got a phone call because Lisa had not shown up to work at the school, and that was highly unusual. Minutes after that call, Lynn's phone rings again.

It's another one of Lisa's coworkers, and they're concerned about Lisa. My friend worked at the same card and gift shop. She had come for her morning shift, and the store was found open. Lisa's car was in the parking lot and her belongings were still on the counter. My friend knew something was not right and that's when she called the police. I had just been there the night before. Everything seemed normal. None of it made any sense. After receiving the two phone calls,

Lynn drives over to her mother, Dee's, office. She said, Mom, Lisa's missing. The heart starts racing. I panicked. She said, come on, we're going to go to the store. Lisa was responsible. She might have gone somewhere, but she would have locked the door and set the alarm before she left.

She didn't just leave. Dee and George were married in 1966. They were blessed with four beautiful children. Lynn came along first, followed by Lisa and then David and Sharon. Lynn and Lisa were very close in age, and they bonded immediately. Lisa and I are 15 months apart.

We always did everything together. She was one of my best friends. Lisa was always the giggly one and she was mischievous too. When Lisa was in the sixth grade, she met Kimberly Souders, who would become her best friend. There was a boy sitting between the two of us, and we were kicking the boy under the desk with our feet, kind of playing footsies, and Mr. Pascarella yelled out, Souders and Ziggert, make out on your own time. And we were absolutely mortified. From that moment on, we were thick as thieves.

At school, Lisa excelled in art. She loved to draw, but she thought that she wasn't good enough, despite her art teachers always telling her otherwise. After graduating from high school, Lisa was accepted at the University of Bridgeport as an art major. At the very last minute, Lisa changed her mind and decided that she instead wanted to become a teacher. She graduated from college with a degree in education, returned to Agawam, and accepted a role as a teaching assistant at Agawam Middle School. Lisa continued to take our classes and used it in teaching. She had a great rapport with kids, and they loved Ms. Ziegert. She was drawing. She was, you know, teaching.

She was happy with her boyfriend, Blair. She loved him and was convinced that, you know, someday that they would marry and have children. After the phone calls, Lisa's family reports her missing. Agawam police arrive at the card shop in minutes. Immediately, they notice something suspicious. Underneath the counter, they find all of Lisa's belongings. Lisa wouldn't have left work without her bag or purse. They scour the rest of the shop and determine that nothing has been stolen,

including money inside the cash register. Trooper Noah Pack describes what happened next. Today we might check video cameras and surveillance in the area, but there was no such thing at the time. But there were some signs that a struggle had occurred, especially in the back office area. The responding officers find a spot of blood on top of the refrigerator door in the back room. They continue their search for evidence and find what appears to be a scuff mark from a shoe on the door to the back room. The back room of the shop leads to an alleyway behind the building. The door is typically locked, but officers discover that it's unlocked. Things are growing more suspicious and concerning by the minute, so officers contact state police, who arrive at the shop with canine units. The investigators from state police canvas

the neighborhood and the alleyway, searching for any evidence that could lead them to Lisa. They checked the alley behind, they checked businesses nearby, dumpsters nearby, see if there was any type of evidence that might have been found there. And they started talking to people from the nearby businesses, trying to track down anyone who might have witnessed something. The Massachusetts State Police send up a helicopter to hover overhead as Agawam Police conduct a foot search. Detective Sergeant Mark Pfau interviewed Lisa's relatives to try and ascertain if there was anybody who would want to bring her harm.

The store was crawling with policemen. The detectives asked, was she having trouble with anybody? We were unaware of anybody having any interest in harming Lisa. I kept thinking, why would anyone hurt her? She was such a good person. Why wouldn't they just let her go? News about Lisa's disappearance spread through Agawam like wildfire. Stephanie Berry, investigative reporter

for the Republican newspaper, remembers the response well. People were scared for Lisa. News spread really, really fast. And the search efforts included people from the community in addition to law enforcement. The hours eventually turn into days and there's still no sign of Lisa. By day four, her family is losing hope. I couldn't concentrate. My mind kept going a hundred miles an hour in different directions.

Just the stress of wanting to fix it and not knowing how. I still had faith, but I'm a realist too. And everyone knows the longer someone's missing, the less likely you are to have a happy ending. Easter Sunday, we went in an early mass, came home, and it was quiet. No one was there that morning. It was just George and myself. I was around on 30, 32 o'clock. Car pulled up, and I heard a little knock at the door.

The lead detective on the case stood there, and he looked at me. And I said, you found her, didn't you? On Easter Sunday, and the day after the incident, the family was in the house. The family was in the house. On Easter Sunday, an Agawam resident is walking behind his property when he approaches a clearing in the woods. He sees that there's something on the ground. As he gets closer, he can see that it's the nude body of a woman.

Police respond to the scene, and they immediately identify that the deceased woman is Lisa. I dropped almost to my knees. I didn't even want to know what happened. It didn't matter. She was gone. My life was changed forever. Lisa's body is found around a mile away from Brittany's

card shop where she disappeared. The area is off the beaten path in a clearing near a dirt road. Lisa, she was a young kid. She had her whole life ahead of her. The investigators were upset. There was police officers upset. It hurt. Lisa's autopsy confirms that she has been stabbed to death. Lisa had significant injuries, including at least half a dozen knife wounds. And there was evidence that she had been in a fight for her life. Lisa's clothing was found in a manner that suggested there had been a significant struggle. Buttons had been ripped off of her blouse. Her clothing was torn.

Lisa's autopsy also shows that she has been sexually assaulted. There are multiple deposits of forensic evidence, and DNA analysis shows a single-source male DNA profile. But DNA was in its infancy in 1992. At that time, there was no DNA database that we had access to. It wasn't easy to develop a detailed profile of somebody and compare it to an existing database the way there is today. Word of Lisa's murder travels fast,

and a handful of new witnesses emerge to help build a timeline of the hours leading up to her disappearance. A witness was found who had been shopping in the card shop at 8.20 p.m. on the night that she was taken. Another witness was found who came into the card shop at about 9 p.m., and Lisa was not there. Investigators theorize that Lisa was abducted from the card shop at about 9 p.m., and Lisa was not there. Investigators theorize that Lisa was abducted from the card shop sometime between 8.20 and 9 p.m.

One of the witnesses reported to investigators that he had seen a suspicious person lurking across the street before Lisa had been taken. The guy was kind of moving back and forth in a strange way. The witness actually thought he was going to break into a car. He described him as a relatively tall, slender man wearing a dark army-style jacket. As investigators interview Lisa's friends,

they learn that the suspicious man may have been spotted before. One night, we were at the store. We were standing in front of the big windows, and Lisa said that she just sometimes got the feeling like she was being watched. There may be a couple cars in the parking lot, but there was nobody in them. I said, there's nobody out there, Lisa. You're fine. And then I remember the night I went to visit her at the store the Thursday before she went missing. There was a customer in the store, and I remember him staying for a while. I thought it was

odd that he was hovering. I remember her saying that, you know, he comes in sometimes to look at the collectibles, trying to, you know, figure out which one he wants to buy someone. So I knew that the person was somebody that she had seen in the store before. And I just remember him staying for a long time and wishing he would leave. I did tell the police about the man in the store before. And I just remember him standing for a long time and wishing he would leave. I did tell the police about the man in the store and his description. I remember him being a tall, thin, dark-haired man. He was wearing a black jacket.

Kimberly's description of the man is a mere match to the description of the man seen outside the card shop on the night Lisa vanished. To try and find the man, investigators decide to stake out Lisa's funeral. Sometimes in murder cases, the killer will make an appearance at their victim's funeral. It can be a way for them to relish in their crime or relive it, or it can be a way to mock investigators

for their inability to capture them. During the wake in the funeral service, the investigators felt it'd be possibly helpful if they set up surveillance to see if there was anybody suspicious that just didn't fit in. But the investigators didn't see anything out of the ordinary. At the funeral, investigators only see

the pain and grief of Lisa's loved ones. We had to have the clothes casket, of course, but they fixed her up so we could see her, if we wanted to go in and see her. So we did. She was so cold when I kissed her for it. That's a memory you don't want to have, but at least I got to kiss her.

There was so many people that came just to say we're sorry. There were some of the kids that came too. And the kids had a tough time. The support was amazing. But there's also a fear that was around her death, not knowing who had done it, knowing that they were still out there. The town was paralyzed.

Lisa's murder terrifies the community. Many women start to take self-defense classes as the threat of an unidentified killer looms over. Gone are the days where locals leave their doors unlocked and windows open. Instead, they find themselves double-checking if their homes are secure enough each night before bed. I worked at a Friendly's restaurant. I was a late teenager.

The staff was made up mostly of a lot of young women. We weren't allowed to go to our cars alone. I remember some parents wouldn't let their daughters go to work. Everybody was terrified. And the conventional wisdom is, if you can't get a line on a killer inside of a few days, the chances diminish that you're going to find that killer. Statistically, most people are killed by somebody that they know. So part of the early investigation included looking at all of Lisa's male associates and friends.

Investigators interview Lisa's boyfriend, Blair Masoya, as standard procedure. He has an alibi. He was with his mother around the same time Lisa vanished. But still, investigators take a long, hard look at him. They impounded Blair's car. They had him back and forth for questioning. They took DNA. They continue their investigation of Blair and question Lisa's friends and family about the couple's relationship.

There were no concerns about domestic violence. By all accounts, it sounded like a loving relationship. I remember Blair went out to go look for her. He didn't want to stop searching. Blair just didn't want to give up. Investigators speak with other people who would have been with Blair around the same time frame. Eventually, his alibi and his DNA profile

rule him out as a suspect. Blair cared a lot about Lisa, and he was good to her, and he was such a support when we lost Lisa. He was there, you know, for us when he was hurting himself so badly. Despite investigators' best efforts, the case drags on, and anxiety in Agawam reaches a fever pitch. This affected the community to such an extent that the phones in our detective bureau were just ringing off the hook with potential leads. They actually brought in extra phones

so they could handle the call volume. When these phone calls came in, they ran the gamut. I saw a strange person at a gas station, or I saw a man in a dark coat walking down the street nearby. I was at the local bar on Friday night, and there was a guy that looked suspicious. Scorned ex-wives, girlfriends, calling to say that they felt that their boyfriend or their ex-husband behaved in a weird way when they were together and they thought he might have done it.

There were dozens, if not hundreds, of men whose name had come up in a similar way. Investigators log each tip that comes in, and there are more than 400 people of interest that need to be looked into. To chip away at that extensive list, investigators turn their attention to DNA testing. The difficult part is getting everyone on the list to volunteer a sample of their DNA. At the time DNA profiles were predominantly developed by taking a significant sample of somebody's blood. DNA technology hadn't advanced to the point where we could do some of the alternative testing methods

that we can do today. This meant that investigators couldn't discreetly test a suspect's discarded coffee cup like they're able to do today. If somebody refused to provide a DNA sample to investigators, there wasn't much they could do. They continued to follow up on leads, but even the promising ones dry up, and eventually the case goes cold. Time continues to drag on for Lisa's family, and before they know it, it's the one-year anniversary of Lisa's murder.

It was difficult at times to attend the same church and see them sitting there. And as you're coming back from communion, you're walking by them and you don't have the answer. You know, it was difficult. My heart breaks for them and nobody deserves this. It deeply impacted people. Lisa was Agawam's daughter, and I think everyone recognized that. While the case has gone cold, investigators haven't tabled it or allowed it to collect dust. The fact that there is an individual out there who had committed a particularly brutal and heinous murder is never far from their minds.

District Attorney Anthony Galluni is hopeful that the case will one day be cracked. But with the level of technology that was accessible in 1993, there was just not a means with which to solve this case at that time. However, we had our thumb on the development of forensic and DNA technology. We were gonna find him.

This case was solvable. We had a excellent single source male DNA profile, and the key task to solving this case was going to be to figure out who that belonged to. It was now 10 years since Lisa was murdered and no one has been charged. In the days that followed her murder, investigators compiled a long list of potential suspects. In 2002, investigators are once again chipping away at this list of names. They're eliminating the potential suspects one by one

as they provide DNA samples. With the advancement of DNA technology, collecting samples is far less intrusive than it was during the early days of the investigation. But still, there are a handful of potential suspects that refuse to provide a voluntary DNA sample. There was an individual who refuses to provide DNA on a voluntary basis because he was concerned with cloning.

Without sufficient evidence for a DNA search warrant, investigators stick with interviewing their persons of interest, but the interviews lead nowhere. When you lose a loved one, especially a child, your first fear is that she'll be forgotten. We were determined that that wouldn't happen. We set up a memorial fund for Lisa on her 10th anniversary. We donated $10,000 to the children's section of the library because books, kids, Lisa's passion. extreme belief and manipulation we both have childhood cult experiences and we're here to debunk the myths about people who join them and show that anyone can be manipulated our past interviews include survivors and former members of the manson family nexium ms-13 teal swan

heaven's gate children of god and the branch davidians join us every week as we help you spot the red flags get new episodes of trust me every wednesday on podcast one or wherever you get your podcasts. Over the years, investigators leave no stone unturned. But months turn into years and another decade passes. The community feels that Lisa's killer will never face justice. In January 2015, the state's youngest ever district attorney, Anthony Galluni, takes office. DA Anthony Galluni is a blessing. He said, Lisa, she's my top priority right now. This case is solvable and we're going to get there.

D.A. Galluni and his team start fresh on the case with a newfound energy. I had never heard of this case before. My initial impression is that it was massive. Hundreds or thousands of witnesses and persons of interest had been spoken to, thousands of pages of reports. But we were certainly hopeful that at some point in the course of the 25-year-long investigation that the perpetrator, that person's name was there. Fortunately, when I take office in 2015, forensic technology was moving forward rather rapidly. Parabon Nanolabs developed phenotyping, the process by which observable characteristics

is identified from DNA. We thought that DNA phenotyping could provide some characteristics of this individual, like hair color and eye color, skin tone, that could narrow the course of our investigation. In 2016, D.A. Galluni's team submits the killer's 24-year-old DNA sample for analysis. A short time later, they receive a composite sketch of the individual. It shows a Caucasian man with brown or hazel eyes, dark hair, and moderate skin tone. This enables them to eliminate

a substantial number of potential suspects. They circle back to the remaining persons of interest in their files. I started looking at people who had been contacted by investigators in the past and who had refused to provide a DNA sample. We went back to these people and just by explaining what we were doing, a good percentage of them gave their DNA samples. So at the end of that process, we were able to identify 11 people. Investigators whittle the list down from 400 names to 11 names.

In August 2017, they present a grand jury with probable cause about those 11 individuals. Person by person, they detail why they think each individual could have killed Lisa. The grand jury voted to ask the court to compel these 11 individuals to provide a DNA sample. The following day, D.A. Galluni gets a phone call. Around 6.30, I got a phone call that a woman had gone into a state police barracks in Westfield and had claimed that her boyfriend authored some documents that she provided to the troopers. The documents turn out to be a confession and an apology to the Ziegert family. The woman came home to discover the letter and her boyfriend gone. What she thought was a Dear John letter breaking up with her was something far worse.

The man writes that he took Lisa from her family and that he will never forgive himself. There have been a lot of promising leads over the life of this investigation, but nothing like this. We knew right away this was going to break the case right open. We all went to the Westfield State Police barracks, and sure enough, four pages of handwritten notes. One was a letter written to his girlfriend at the time,

essentially telling her that she was going to find out some bad news about him. In the letter, the man confesses that 25 years earlier, he had kidnapped, raped, and murdered a young woman. He wrote that he believed that there was a warrant out to obtain his DNA and that his DNA would put him in jail for life. He was either going to take his own life or face the music. Investigators interview the woman whose boyfriend wrote those letters. She described him as docile.

He just seemed like an average, nice guy. She would never in a million years suspect would be capable of doing something like this. She tells investigators her boyfriend is 48-year-old Gary Shara. Shara was one of the 11 names that investigators had taken before the grand jury, and the night before, they had gone to his home to serve him the paperwork of the court

hearing. Shara wasn't home at the time, but investigators spoke with his roommate and asked him to tell Shara to call them. Once I read the letters, I was like, we gotta find this guy. But we didn't know where he was. The girlfriend didn't know where he was. Investigators aim to find Shara as quickly as possible. As they ping his cell phone, D.A. Galluni combs through his file. He learns that Shara first became known to investigators in regards to Lisa's murder in March of 1993, some months after she was killed.

He was going through divorce proceedings with his wife at the time, and throughout those proceedings, she reported to her attorney, who then called the Agawam Police Department, that she thought he might have been involved in the murder of Lisa Zeger. Gary Sherrill was one of dozens, if not hundreds, of men whose name had come up in a similar way. His ex-wife said that he was very interested in the case. He would always run into the room when the news came on about this case. She also said that she thought that he had purchased a music box at Britney's card shop within the days or weeks before Lisa was taken.

The tip was taken seriously, but the source of the tip was a factor. Their divorce proceedings were very contentious. There were loaded allegations being made by both sides to try to cast doubt on the credibility of the other. Gary's side was alleging that she shouldn't be believed. There was enough for Shara to be considered a person of interest, but there was nothing that could elevate him to a main suspect. Shara was never interviewed by investigators at the time, but years later, they asked him to provide a DNA sample. Investigators speak to Gary Shara in 2002.

He refused to provide his DNA voluntarily at that time. In 2008, investigators again speak with Gary Shara. That particular interview is video recorded. The date's October 9th, 2008. It's about 5.20 p.m. Conversation turns to Shara's knowledge of Lisa. Whether he knew her, whether he had any familiarity with Brittany's card shop. Did you know Lisa at all? That's my knowledge of her.

Shara is very conscious of not providing a DNA sample, either intentionally or accidentally. He refused to touch the table and wouldn't take the water that was provided to him by the investigators. He was asked to provide a DNA sample, but refused, claiming that he was afraid of cloning. There was certainly nothing illegal about one's refusal to provide DNA. That didn't necessarily signal something nefarious. But at the end of the day, there just wasn't enough there for them to move forward with him as a suspect at that time. Three hours after reading Shara's confession letter,

they get a lead on him. They're able to determine his location by pinging his cell phone. They track him to Stafford Springs, Connecticut. His cell phone pings beside a hospital, and investigators find his car in the parking lot. Gary Shero had been admitted after having consumed a large amount of over-the-counter medications in what appeared to be an attempt to commit suicide.

His condition was stable, and he was going to recover. Investigators speak with Shara at his hospital bed. He is cooperative but subdued, almost as if he had been waiting for this day to come and he was finally caught. But once his Miranda rights were read to him, he requested an attorney, so there was no interview conducted. I asked him if he'd be willing to provide a consensual DNA sample. He declined again. The letters were a huge development, but we needed to get Gary's DNA, a sample, to compare it to the profile that we developed in this case. We wrote a search warrant for his house.

We seized a number of items that were likely to have his DNA on them. One item was his toothbrush. Toothbrush was taken to the state police crime lab. The investigators are waiting patiently for the results when Detective Sergeant Pfau's phone begins to ring. We learned that the profile developed from Gary's toothbrush matched the single-source male DNA profile obtained in 1992 from Lisa Ziegert's killer. We made contact with the Ziegerts.

We went to their house pretty early on a Sunday morning. Mom's like, I think you want to be there. I think we need to all be together. And they said, we got him. It matches. And it was like, it took a while to sink in. It's a weird thing to say, but the joy in the room when that was shared with us, it was a no way moment.

I have never felt anything like the feeling of relief from Dee when we were able to tell her that at least she finally had an answer. It was, without a doubt, one of the most meaningful moments of my entire life. Gary Shara is charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated rape, and first-degree murder. Despite his confession letter, Shara pleads not guilty. That is really sort of par for the course. Most criminal defendants will plead not guilty with the advice of their lawyers, regardless of the state of evidence and regardless of any expressed responsibility for the crimes.

In the run-up to his trial, Shara doesn't say a word about the case in public or to investigators. Investigators know that they have a very strong case. Not only do they have the confession letter, but they have the DNA evidence that connects Shara to the murder of Lisa. We were never able to demonstrate or prove that Gary and Lisa knew each other, but we believe that Gary Shera bought a music box from Britney's card shop sometime prior to Lisa's death, and there was a possibility that Lisa was working in the store

when Gary Shera bought that item. Shara's confession letter hints that meeting Lisa stirred his darkest fantasies. It opened with the fact that he had been mesmerized by bondage and abduction fantasies since he was a young boy, and those dark fantasies were never far from his mind. On April 16, 1992, we believe that Gary Shera entered Brittany's card shop

sometime around 8.30, then took Lisa to the area where she was ultimately found, and there he assaulted and murdered Lisa. Diego Looney prepares to take his case before a jury, but he never gets the chance. 27 years after Lisa's murder, Shara finally breaks his silence. Tell me then in your own words why we're here. We're here to make a change of plea. To guilty to murder in the first degree. Do you understand that?

Yes, sir, I do. Mr. Shara, the court has accepted your plea of guilty to indictment 17-600, count one, charging murder in the first degree. The court orders you to serve a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole. For Lisa's family, an almost three-decade-long nightmare is finally over. They had anticipated being put through a lengthy trial,

but the change in plea prevented them from further heartache. It was a long and a hard day. All of our family heard for the first time how hard she fought, and I was so proud of her. I can't imagine that she would have been any other way. And when you think about it, Lisa's been gone longer than she was here. But Lisa continues to influence in many ways.

I know Lisa influences me a lot. When I get a little down, I honestly feel a proverbial kick in the butt to say, come on, Mom, can't do that. And that's after 30 years. So she made such a difference in so many that she touched. So if you need a bright spot in your life, think of her.

If you see a bright blue sky, think of her bright blue eyes. And if you see the sun, think of her bright, warm smile. Cold Case Files is hosted by Paula Barrows. It's produced by the Law and Crime Network and written by Eileen McFarlane and Emily G. Thompson. Our composer is Blake Maples. For A&E, our senior producer is John Thrasher, and our supervising producer is McKamey Lynn. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Maite Cueva, and Peter Tarshis. This podcast is based on A&E's Emmy-winning TV series,

Cold Case Files. For more Cold Case Files, visit AETV.com. All this month, celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Pluto TV. Watch movies with the biggest stars like Eugenio Derbez in No Eres Tú, Soy Yo and Luis Gerardo Méndez in Camino a Marte. Plus, Pluto TV has thousands more movies and TV shows and over 45 channels in Spanish, all for free. So download the Pluto TV app on all your favorite devices and start streaming today.

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