Going West: True Crime - Sara Anne Wood // 430

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

In August of 1993, a 12-year-old girl vanished while riding her bicycle home from the Upstate New York church where her father worked as a pastor. Police dove into her case, fearing she’d been abducted, but came up empty…until the perpetrator struck again just a few months later. And he had more than one child’s blood on his hands. This is the story of Sara Anne Wood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host teeth and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to going west Hello, everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in today and thank you so much to Rebecca for Ramecking. Thank God. Ramecking today's case. Recommending today's case. Rebecca, Rebecca. Thank you, Rebecca. Should we say Rebecca again? Rebecca recommending. Thank you so much. Today's case actually, there's a few different stories intertwined in this one. And this case was kind of a catalyst for other ones getting solved so this story is absolutely wild appreciate you guys tuning in today and also just a PSA Heath and I will not be in the studio this coming Friday because we are taking our first vacation in a very long time like over two years yeah so yeah we

never took a honeymoon last year after we got married in September and we just decided we're going to England. Yeah, we're gonna go to England and also we're moving this week too. So it's kind of a, it's gonna be a very, very busy next two weeks. So, but we will be back on Tuesday. Yeah, we're just taking like a little prep day on Friday

for the trip and for moving in all this madness that's happening right now. So anyways, we will see you next Tuesday after this one. But without further ado, let's dive in. All right, guys, this is episode 430 of Going West. So let's get into it. Looking for a change of scenery? Come on over. Let us give you the tour.

Grab a paddle and explore. Hit the trails and go. When you're ready, kick back and call it a night. New Brunswick, always inviting. Visit tourismnewbrunswick.ca. This episode is brought to you by LEGO Fortnight. LEGO Fortnight is the ultimate survival crafting game found within Fortnite. It's not just Fortnite Battle Royale with minifigures. It's an entirely new experience that combines the best of LEGO Play and Fortnite, created

to give players of all ages, including kids and families, a safe digital space to play in. Download Fortnite on consoles, PC, cloud services, or Android, and play LEGO Fortnite for free, rated ESRB E10+. In August of 1993, a 12-year-old girl vanished while riding her bicycle home from the upstate New York church where her father worked as a pastor. Police dove into her case fearing she had been abducted, but came up empty until the perpetrator struck again just a few months later, and he had more than one child's blood on his hands. of Sarah Ann Wood was born on March 4, 1981 to Frances and Bob Wood, and she was the youngest

of three, joining older siblings Dusty and Nikki. They grew up in the hamlet of Sequoia, New York, which is upstate between Albany and Syracuse. Her father Bob was a pastor, and they were a very respected and beloved family in the community with Sarah in particular being remembered as bright, funny and kind. Sarah loved the arts and had a penchant for poetry, singing and dancing. She also had a flair for country music and particularly loved Dolly Parton. As the end of summer of 1993 drew near, Sarah was looking forward to starting seventh grade.

On Wednesday, August 18th, 1993, she was attending a summer Bible study at the church where her father was a pastor, which was the Norwich Corners Church on Roberts Road. And when it finished up for the day, she got on her bike to head home, which was only a mile or 1.6 kilometers away, around the corner from the church on Hackadam Road. She was last seen leaving the church at 2.30 p.m. But when she didn't arrive home that afternoon, her parents grew concerned immediately, because firstly, it was a very short ride, as I just just said and one that she was accustomed to taking frequently and Secondly, Sarah was only 12 years old and she was usually super responsible and reliable

So they couldn't figure out why she wouldn't have come home as time ticked by her parents grew Increasingly panicked and called the police and because she was so young and there was no sign of her, nearly a hundred state police officers, firefighters and community volunteers swarmed the lush and sprawling countryside where she'd gone missing from in search of her. Around nightfall, which was shortly before 8 p.m., meaning about six hours since she'd left the church, the investigation was met

with its first shocking discovery. They came upon Sarah's pink and white 10-speed mountain bike only about a half mile or 0.8 kilometers from her church. The bike had been stashed in a bush alongside Hackadam Road, and surrounding the bike were discarded papers and crayons from her summer Bible course. So obviously this looks weird for multiple reasons. One, Sarah is nowhere in sight. Two, her bike is like hidden a little bit. And three, all of her stuff is just scattered all over the place.

Yeah, it is definitely an eerie sign. Well, the FBI was brought in the very next day to aid in the investigation, with scent dogs roaming alongside searchers on foot as helicopters scoured the landscape from above. Police established a command post that they called the Sarah Wood Rescue Center at the church where they were fielding hundreds of tips a day. By the end of the day on Thursday, August 19th, just over 24 hours after Sarah disappeared, the community had printed over 250,000 missing flyers for distribution. So they are getting on it right away and printing all these flyers.

Yeah, it seems like everybody just wants to help. Exactly. I mean, it's a really beautiful thing to see. And an upstate New York billboard company donated 20 billboards to the cause, a $10,000 reward was crowdfunded, and her disappearance was featured on episodes of America's Most Wanted and 48 Hours. So yeah, they are getting her face and her name out there. Between the FBI and the state police, a radius of about 50 miles or 80 kilometers was searched meticulously,

starting from where Sarah had disappeared. But despite five days of intense efforts, the area yielded no further clues after her bike. The search was called off and Sarah's parents were left reeling from the loss of their youngest child. Many residents remember the entire landscape of the community changing after Sarah's disappearance. You know, this was normally a very safe and quiet rural community that's now just left grappling with a heinous crime, and also the fact that there's probably a killer on the loose. After Sarah went missing, it was less and less common to see kids out playing on their

own, waiting for the bus or riding their bikes. But her parents refused to give up their search for answers and continued to mount their efforts behind the Sarah Wood Rescue Center, printing millions of flyers with the help of donations and distributing them all over the country. They were even interviewed on daytime talk shows like Donahue and the Oprah Winfrey Show. So yeah, like Daphne said, they are truly getting her face out there, but sadly, after months of this, they saw no sign of their daughter.

But thankfully, Sarah's parents would not have to wait long for a person of interest to reveal himself, because he had been lurking in the area for years. On January 7th, 1994, so five months after Sarah went missing, another 12-year-old girl, Rebecca Savarese, narrowly escaped abduction in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which is a two and a half hour drive east

of where Sarah disappeared from, which again was Sequoia, New York. Now, Rebecca, who went by Becky, was making her way to Notre Dame Middle School, which was a mile and a half or 2.4 kilometers from her house on that chilly winter morning. She remembers listening to Smashing Pumpkins on her Discman as a blue pickup truck rolled up and parked across the street from her. A man that she described as thin, dirty, and disheveled emerged from

the truck and quietly pulled out a gun, sidling up to her and threatening to hurt her if she didn't get in the car with him, saying, quote, You see the gun I have? Becky said later, quote, I knew if I got in that truck everything would be over and This next part is extremely impressive on Becky's part Oh, yeah I mean remember she is 12 years old and she is thinking so quickly of what she can do in this situation Knowing she should not go with this man knowing that he's dangerous. So acting very swiftly Becky collapsed.

She faked like an asthma attack to buy herself some time. And because she did this, her abductor let go of her arm momentarily so that she could collapse and fake this asthma attack. And when she did, she was able to get up and flee, slipping out of her backpack and running to the first person she saw on the street of this residential area that she had been walking in. The man raced back to his truck and drove away from the scene, so he didn't try to abduct her again after that, he knew that it was over, but not before Becky and another

witness were able to take down a partial license plate number and a description of the vehicle. This truck was linked back to a man named Phil Shallies in Lanesboro, Massachusetts, which is just over the state line from New York. At this point, Phil was blind and could no longer drive the vehicle, but he frequently allowed a friend to borrow it, telling police that his friend's name was Louis Lent Jr. Well, get this, inside the truck, they recovered Becky's backpack and a loaded gun, proving that this was the vehicle

that she had been stopped by. When police arrived at the house of Louis Lent Jr., he was inside, casually eating a tuna sandwich, and interestingly, 43-year-old Lewis had a spotless record. And in fact, he was known to be well-liked in his community. He was known for, you know, being like this God-fearing man who volunteered for his church, and was friendly with the local children. I mean, this guy really is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Once we get into the details of this guy, you're gonna be like, holy shit, he is a piece of shit. Yes, so true because some people had their, like, slight ideas about him, but overall, he was not looked at as this creepy dude, but he really was one. So, when Lewis was arrested and questioned about the attempted abduction of Becky Savarese, detectives quickly deduced that he was hiding

more infractions behind his very unsuspecting exterior and that he was not the guy that everybody thought he was. Well, it's kind of funny when you look at photos of this guy, he is, he's kind of the picture perfect like serial killer. Like he's got that look. When you look at him, you're just like, ugh. He does. You know who?

He kind of reminds me of, um. Ed Kemper. Yes. OK. He is very Ed Kemper-esque. Like super similar qualities. Exactly. He's got those really thick glasses.

He's got that weird mustache, he just looks like a fucking serial killer. He really does, like he matches the kind of prototype, I guess, to a T. So if you guys know what Ed Kemper looks like, just picture him. And obviously I hate to judge a book by its cover, but I mean, he just kind of fits it too perfectly.

But let's talk a little bit about Louis Lent, Jr. So he was born and raised in upstate New York, the son of Louis and Louis Sr. Louis, Louis, Louis. Yeah, a lot of L's there. And of course, Isses. Well, his father was an alcoholic and he was physically abusive to his children, including Louis and his two sisters and younger brother. Louis once told a friend that his head had been slammed into a wall by a family member,

though he didn't say whether or not it was his father. So it's definitely possible that there were other abusive members in his family, but it may have just been his dad. A cousin of his recalled that Lewis Sr. would lock his children up in a room when he was fed up with having to watch them and wanted to smoke and drink without being bothered. God, what a shithead. Yeah, so the apple doesn't fall far from the shit tree. Well, ironically, Lewis's little brother George had disappeared when he was a toddler, but luckily for the Lent family, George was returned home safely. The same could not be said for Lewis's victims.

Lewis and Lewis Sr. split up when he was young and his mother remarried and his father moved down to Florida. As a teenager, he was never remembered as a troublemaker. In fact, his principal at Watkins Glen High School in Watkins Glen, New York, described him by saying, quote, He was a little country boy who never got into trouble. But before long, Lewis dropped out of high school and moved down south to be with his shithead father, picking up a lot of his negative traits from him. Neither of the men ever had any formal job training or stayed at a job very long, and for a while Lewis worked as a self-taught mechanic under his dad's wing.

He worked odd jobs moving around frequently for the rest of his life, which is why many also described him as a loner and a pretty simple man, known as odd even by those closest to him. He had a pet rattlesnake, uh, strange. I mean, yeah, it's just kind of a weird, like I get having a snake as a pet but a rattlesnake strange And he was also known to cook psychedelic mushrooms and he didn't have very many friends But did maintain contact with his extended family namely his cousins who he had inappropriate relationships with

His family remembers him asking numerous girls and young women to marry him, and he seemed pretty desperate for female attention at any cost. In his mid-twenties, his closest friends were his female cousins, who were between the ages of 12 and 13. And get this, guys. He proposed to his favorite of the three, Kelly, when he was 26 and she was just 14. Yeah, so it's not like he was just doing this when he was a kid and didn't know better, just like how, you know, you have a girlfriend in kindergarten, you know, stuff like that, and

maybe don't understand that this is your family member, but like, he was a fully-ass-fledged adult. Yeah, grown-ass- Trying to marry his cousin. Grown-ass dude trying to marry his 14-year-old cousin. Ugh. Ugh, it's so gross. So after she obviously turned him down, he started distancing himself from her. And strangely, his father was actually somewhat of a hero figure to Lewis, despite the years of abuse and alcoholism.

But he did die in 1992, the year before Sarah's abduction, which left Lewis distraught at this loss. I'm sure psychologists have a lot to say about why. Oh, absolutely. But eventually, Lewis moved back up north, settling in western Massachusetts, near the borders of New York and Vermont. He got a job working as a janitor for the Pittsfield Cinema Center, and liked how close he could get to children, who knew him as somewhat of a big brother figure.

Ew. Eww, knowing what we know. Yeah, yeah, and get into the next creepiest part. Yeah, I mean, like he would sneak the kids into movies for free, give them coins for the arcade games, and once even pitched a tent in the lobby and had a sleepover there with a young boy. Okay, I just don't understand who like

Who let who let him do this? Yeah, you know who is signing off on this? I feel like if you're a nice man And you have no ill intentions and you want to let the movie there or let the kids go see a movie for free or give Them coins like that's like a cute nice thing to do. Yeah, sure, but like this is not that that's like way too far It's like how did the guy that owns the cinema notanoch go like, oh you want to like have a sleep over with a young boy in the lobby of this theater? Like no, you fucking weirdo. It's so weird, especially knowing what even more of what we're going to learn in a bit

about him and what he's done or what he did. This behavior is just off for somebody with the intentions that he has. Yeah, I mean he's an absolute monster. Well, despite all of this, Lewis was able to operate nefariously for years undetected because, again, of his unassuming exterior. His friend Phil Shallies, who loaned him the car or the truck that he tried to abduct Becky with, said of him later, quote, He was different. He was always nice.

He came here just wanting to help. He didn't want money. His wife and another female friend agreed with this testament, saying, quote, He was quiet and polite, gave unselfishly of his time, never aggressive. Police spent three days interrogating Lewis, convinced that he was guilty of more than just the attempted abduction of Becky. I mean, knowing that he would go up to a child on the street with a gun, like, you've done some shit.

Or you've wanted to. Right, exactly. This is probably not the first time that this has happened. Well, and, you know, state police are working various unsolved murders and disappearances of children all over New York and Massachusetts. So they're bringing these cases to the interrogation room, hoping to connect him to the crimes. When he was asked about Sarah Ann Wood's case, Lewis not only admitted involvement,

but he offered a detail that had never been released to the public. Sarah had been walking her bike that day because the chain had come off, and investigators determined this themselves after, of course, recovering her bike from the bushes and seeing that the chain was off. But they were withholding this information in hopes that it would eventually lead them to their perpetrator. And here's Lewis giving them that hidden detail. So New York State Police Captain John Wood explained, quote, I dispatched an investigator

out to Massachusetts to interview him in the event that he knew something about Sarah Ann Wood. And it was right down at that time that he admitted it, and he admitted that he'd seen her pushing her bicycle because the chain was off. And that's when we knew we had our guy. You always hold something back that only you and the perpetrator would know, and in this instance it was the chain off the bicycle. You would have had to have been there. Shockingly, Lewis also admitted to another unsolved murder, though in this case, investigators

had recovered a body. Looking for a change of scenery? Come on over. Let us give you the tour. Grab a paddle and explore. Hit the trails and go. When you're ready, kick back and call it a night. New Brunswick, always inviting. Visit tourismnewbrunswick.ca. Bye. Shop Best Buy's ultimate smartphone sale today.

Get a Best Buy gift card of up to $200 on select phone activations with major carriers. Visit your nearest Best Buy store today. Terms and conditions apply. On Monday, October 22nd, 1990, 12-year-old James Bernardo, who went by Jimmy, headed out on his bike to meet friends in his hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which remember is where Lewis worked and where Becky was almost abducted from in 1994. So four years after this. Jimmy was last seen riding his mountain bike across a field near a shopping plaza. Later, after he failed to return home and his parents reported him missing. His bike was pulled from a pond.

A month later, on November 21st, 1990, the day before Thanksgiving, his body was found by hikers in a heavily wooded area of Newfield, New York, which is four hours away from where he disappeared from. And for those of you guys who are wondering, it's about two hours away from where Sarah Ann Wood lived in Sequoia. Detectives had reason to believe that he had been alive for the transport between Pittsfield and Newfield and that he wasn't killed until he was taken to the scene of his discovery. Jimmy had been blindfolded, gagged, and strangled, and just like with Sarah's disappearance, his devastated family was left without answers. Also having felt safe in their small community.

Based on Lewis's interrogation, detectives believe that he had lured Jimmy into the movie theater where he worked, offering him money in exchange for helping him out with a task. And remember, they're discovering this over three years later. But now they're putting all these pieces together and finally believing that they have someone on the hook for Jimmy's murder, Sarah's abduction and likely murder, and Becky's attempted abduction, and believe that he had more victims to his name. While in questioning, Lewis drew up a map for state police indicating the area where he had buried Sarah, which was a wooded area

of the Adirondack Mountains surrounding Racket Lake, which is 80 miles or 128 kilometers northeast of where she disappeared from. Despite the snow and frozen ground of January, investigators wasted no time digging to look for Sarah's body, but sadly, an 11-day excavation yielded no sign of her. Heavy snow and extreme temperatures as low as 50 degrees below zero Fahrenheit with wind chill or 45 degrees below zero Celsius forced state police, forest rangers, and volunteers to call off the search prematurely. But they vowed to search the area again when the weather warmed up.

Because obviously, this is a really hard thing to do. You know, it's a lot of snowpack, it's freezing cold outside, the ground is extremely hard, so it makes digging very, very tough. Yeah, it's always so sad when they have to do this when the weather conditions are not good enough to search in, but unfortunately that's just like the way it goes. Yeah, exactly. Well, in the meantime, on April 25th, 1994, New York Governor Mario Cuomo introduced the Sarah Ann Wood Child Protection Agenda, which were seven bills that sought to prevent similar tragedies and disappearances from occurring. After resuming searches around

Racket Lake on May 2, 1994, searches of the perimeter were conducted for nearly a month. On June 1, 1994, the search was again called off with Timothy Howard, a state police commander, announcing quote, Sarah Wood is not here. And New York State Police Captain John Wood spoke of the major frustration that was speaking with Louis Lent and the wild goose chase that they feared they were being led on saying quote, you could interview Mr. Lent for probably three, four, five hours and he would lead you along the path making you think that he was all set to tell you something, and then he'd look at you and say,

I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know Sarah Ann Wood. Of course this asshole would do something like that. So annoying. But regardless of his unwillingness to share the location of Sarah's body, or any more details about other unsolved murders or disappearances to which he was connected, his trial moved forward. any more details about other unsolved murders or disappearances to which he was connected, his trial moved forward, knowing that the state could at least prosecute him for his involvement in Sarah's and Jimmy's deaths and Becky's abduction.

And this is what is so frustrating about it is, like we had already said, he told them, oh yeah, I was involved in Sarah Ann Wood's murder, and I even know this hidden detail about her bicycle. And then to turn around and say, I don't know her, I had nothing to do with that. We're gonna get into why some people think he was saying this and going back and forth, but it's just really, really disheartening. But in a rare moment of honesty,

Lewis explained that he had been driving in his van along back roads with the intent to find a child to assault and kill. You know what's really interesting about this guy is that he does not really have an MO. Like he usually when we see child predators and abductors and killers they usually pick you know one gender They're usually stick with a female or or male children, and he's killing both young boys and young girls Yeah, seems like he doesn't really have a preference They are all white and they're all about the same age, and they're all out by themselves I think he just like like again. He's just driving and oh, there's a kid yeah

Yeah, exactly he'll take what he can get which is so sick and horrific But I think one of the other details was that he went after children with brown hair as well Which is kind of a strange detail. Yeah, I don't know but it does make sense as well again, we talked about this in a lot of different cases of serial killers, but He was abused as a child and that is such a common trait. So he's basically again, he's saying that he was driving around the back roads looking for a child to assault and kill and that's when this kind of crime of opportunity came up when he saw Sarah walking her bike along the side of the road. So threatening her with a hunting knife, he coerced her into the van and taped her hands together

He says that he drove her upstate into the Adirondack Mountains So he claimed where he assaulted her and beat her to death with a tree branch He said he buried her body alongside the tools that he used and disposed of her quickly and get this this is absolutely Disgusting he says I didn't check to see if she was breathing because I don't like to touch dead bodies. What? What? Yeah, jinx, you owe me a soda. Anyway, that's insane to say that

because you just killed someone. Yeah, like maybe don't murder then? What? Yeah, that's crazy. Well, Lewis had a very surprising defense here get this guy's he claimed that he had been abducted by UFOs in Virginia in 1974 and that it altered his brain chemistry and perception of reality I hate that like alien abduction stories are so you just so many people look at that and they're like oh you're crazy but like are they yeah

But I mean in this guy's in this case though It's like he's we know he's using this as an excuse because he's a dirtbag, you know Yeah for sure well he claims that he had been prone to blackouts and lapses in his memory His defense team said that he was mentally unstable and that his confession was coerced But a judge ruled against this and most of his statements were made admissible in court said that he was mentally unstable and that his confession was coerced, but a judge ruled against this and most of his statements were made admissible in court. On Thursday January 12th 1995, Lewis Lint Jr. was convicted of larceny, kidnapping, and assault and battery, and assault with a dangerous weapon for the

attempted kidnapping of Becky. She bravely faced him again in court, testifying against him and identifying him as her attempted kidnapper. And remember, at this point, she was just a year older, so she was 13 years old. For this, Lewis was sentenced to 17 to 22 years in prison. Then, in 1996, he was finally tried for the murders of both Jimmy Bernardo and Sarah Ann Wood, though he later recanted his confession of Sarah's murder. Again, so this guy is like all over the place. Yeah, absolutely. Her poor family having to learn that he says this and he says this and he says this and he says this. He's just like flipping like a coin. Yeah, I mean at this point just lock him away.

It just needs to be done with. So in October of 1996, while in court receiving his sentence for Jimmy Bernardo's murder, Bernardo, sorry, he told his attorney that he wished to reinstate his confession to Sarah's murder. Ugh. But when he saw Sarah's parents, he refused to provide any more details or information as to her whereabouts. He pleaded guilty to Jimmy's murder and nine days later pleaded guilty to Sarah's. He received life in prison for Jimmy's abduction and murder

and 25 years to life to be served concurrently with his other sentences for the abduction, rape, and murder of Sarah Ann Wood. Sarah's family requested that the judge grant the family an extra two months to wait between the sentencing for Jimmy's murder and the sentencing for Sarah's murder in hopes that Lewis would reveal where he buried her body, but sadly he continued to refuse to do so. So, you know, he's pleading guilty here, but not giving them the crucial information that they need. Sarah's family was allowed to address Louis Lent directly in court, and Bob took the opportunity to do so. Looking directly at Louis, Bob said, quote, August 18th you took my little girl you kidnapped my daughter Sarah and you terrorized her and to this day You refused to tell us where her body is and

Lewis basically just stared back blankly from behind a pair of very thick glasses not showing any emotion The Herkimer County District Attorney Michael Daly added quote From all the people in this community that you've hurt and all of the people in this community that you've hurt and all of the people in this community that you've changed their lives, our message to you, Lewis, is burn in hell. Love that quote. And actually the judge even gave Lewis his choice

of where he wanted to go to prison if he would agree to reveal where Sarah's body was buried, but he declined to accept. I mean, at this point, I don't even think it matters to Lewis. Like, he knows he's going to prison for the rest of his life. And I don't know why. I just don't understand. You already confessed to these murders. Why can't you just give the family some peace of mind? And even Lewis's mom defended him to the end, telling reporters after his conviction, quote,

they sentenced an innocent man. Yeah right, lady. Keep living in denial there. Yeah, that's delulu. So she claimed her son was being coerced and blackmailed from jail and that he was covering for the real killer. Like lady, he is the real killer. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Well, in 2013, Lewis confessed to another murder.

That of 16-year-old Jamie Lusher from Westfield, Massachusetts, who had been en route to Blandford, which is just over an hour southeast of where Lewis lived in North Adams. So his name was James, but he did often go by Jamie. So Jamie was headed to his grandmother's house to watch a bike race and he was making the 12 mile or 19 kilometer journey on the new Huffy brand mountain bike that he had just received as a birthday present three weeks prior. And by the way, just depending on how fast he was going, this would have taken him like 30 to 60 minutes to bike this distance.

But he never made it to his grandmother's house that day, which was November 6, 1992. In the days following his disappearance, his parents were unsure whether he had been abducted or left of his own volition, and his parents had divorced that year, so Jamie was apparently not adjusting well to that change and that's why they were kind of going back and forth on which they believed was true. He was living with his father at the time, but they were known to have difficulties getting along, so that just made it a little bit more foggy as well. Now, Jamie's dad, James Lusher, recalls a troubled relationship with his son, and describes him as immature and moody,

and claimed that he disliked going to school and had a hard time making friends. Two days after his disappearance, a server at a local friendlies restaurant claims to have seen him, and a few days after that, a neighbor girl of his claims to have seen him, and a few days after that, a neighbor girl of his claims to have seen him and spoke to him, remembering that she asked him why he was hiding, and that quote, he said he's afraid he's in trouble. However, these sightings were not confirmed and the implication that he may have been a runaway definitely hindered the investigation. When Jamie's bike was found abandoned near a pond in a wooded area, the pond was

dredged but led to no further developments. An extensive ground search and searches via helicopter also yielded no results, so the investigation utilized canine units and even psychics, and still, nothing was found. Lewis admitted to abducting and killing Jamie and said that he dumped him in Greenwater Pond in Beckett, Massachusetts, which is about 25 minutes away from where Jamie was supposed to end up at his grandmother's in Blandford. But despite Lewis's confession and tip off of the general

area where police would need to look, no sign of Jamie has ever been found. And Lewis, of course, no surprise, has refused to be of any assistance in the investigation. Jamie's own father was on the fence about the possibility of foul play, but after Lewis's confession in 2013, he said, The same year that he confessed to Jamie Lusher's murder again in 2013, Lewis was brought to New York in an attempt to convince him to lead investigators to Sarah's body. But, as always, Louis played cat and mouse with detectives until they backed off. The Herkimer County District Attorney said, quote, Every time we go and see him, we learn more.

You sit with him, and it's like talking to the devil himself. Louis is believed to have between two and eight victims, though the actual number could be even higher. One suspicious death that took place in Florida during the time that he was living there is widely thought to be attributed to him. And here's that story. So on April 22nd of 1981, 14-year-old Gordon Ierley

was found hanging from the tree fort near his home in DeLand, Florida. And though an investigation was conducted, his death was found to be either an accident or suicide. His devastated family couldn't believe the sudden turn of events in the life of an otherwise happy and well-adjusted teenager, so suicide really didn't make any sense to them. And at the time, Lewis Lent was living just 50 yards from where Gordon was found, in a trailer with his cousin.

His death was never officially attributed to Lewis, but his involvement is very plausible. Detectives have openly spoken about how unlikely it is that Lewis only managed to murder twice in his 43 years of freedom, so it's very possible that there are more victims attributed to him. His three confirmed victims, Jimmy, Sarah, who were walking by themselves on a quiet road and fell prey to a crime of opportunity as Lewis was on the prowl, searching for a convenient next victim. The cousin that he lived near in Florida, Renee Lizenby, later said, quote, I'd fry him. Nobody has the right to mess with little children.

I don't care if he's my cousin. Yes, Renee. Yeah, but she also does kinda make an excuse for him. Renee also shared after her cousin's arrest that she believed Lewis may have developed a split personality disorder and that his evil alter ego had killed the kids. Well, I don't think that's necessarily an excuse

because it could be true. Like, this is a real psychological disorder that he could have which is kind of what I was or is what I was hinting at earlier when I said that this could is believed to be why maybe he doesn't necessarily know where the bodies are hidden because that's his other personality you know what I mean? I mean yeah it's definitely possible I'm not saying it's not, but... But I do think that this is kind of a way to... kind of pass guilt off on him, you know?

Um, and this so-called personality was a disciplinarian father named Steven, which is Lewis's middle name. However, there was never any indication that Lewis didn't know what he was doing when he was committing these murders, and he was found mentally fit to stand trial. Yeah, so who knows if this is true. Obviously, he is still a very evil person. But yeah, if he was if he was found mentally fit to stand trial and they couldn't find actual evidence of that, then we will assume that it's not true. Right, right.

Well, in a further desperate ploy for answers, Lewis was even put under hypnosis for four and a half hours in hopes that he would reveal where his other victims bodies were concealed. But Lewis continued to decline to share, saying that there were other bodies buried there as well and that he didn't want to implicate himself in those cases. But it's also possible that he just enjoys having somewhat of a leg up on investigators like he kind of likes this cat and mouse routine. The hypnotist actually shared with police that Lewis knew exactly where Sarah's body was and that he was absolutely guilty of her murder. Yes, and I definitely believe this is true.

I am sure that he is just being, like you said, playing that cat and mouse game and just wanting to torture everybody because obviously he's an evil person who has done many evil things and it wouldn't be a surprise to know that he wants to just continue to hurt people. Yeah, he just kind of wants to mess with people and this... It's so funny because Daphne and I have been watching Dexter again lately and we were talking about the... or they were talking about the ice truck killer and how this guy, Neil Neil Perry was apparently the killer and I get the same kind of sense, you know Neil Perry was trying to

Essentially do this ruse with police. Yeah, like have this upper hand on police and say oh I know these intimate details and all this stuff, but obviously you know in this case It's very clear that he is the killer and that he enjoys this notoriety like a lot of serial killers Really enjoy this game that they get to play Yeah And it's not just like he is Falsely saying he did something that he didn't to take credit like he really did it and he wants to continue to mess with people He's an evil son of a bitch. He really is like I said a monster well on August 18th

1994 which was the one year anniversary of Sarah's disappearance her father Bob walked 125 miles or 200 kilometers from where she disappeared in Sequoia to the Pittsburgh New York home of Kaylee Ann Poulton who is a four-year-old girl that disappeared in May of 1994 just hoping to raise awareness for missing children. And two years later, Kaylee's neighbor, Mark Christie, would confess to killing her. Bob's journey would inspire his entire community

to follow suit, and after his effort to bring awareness to Sarah's and Kaylee's cases, the community began organizing annual rides between Albany and Utica, visiting schools and just talking about stranger safety with school-aged kids, which is an amazing thing. Now, Sarah's ride for missing children morphed into the ride for missing children. With posters of missing local children being spread around the state and the country,

due to Francis and Bob's focus on finding their daughter and preventing this from ever happening to another family again. And just by the way, Sarah's ride has raised millions of dollars over the years. In 1999, Sarah's classmates would graduate high school without her, but she was honored at the graduation ceremony that she should have been a part of, and the yearbook was inscribed with a memory of her that read, quote, We rarely saw Sarah without that beautiful smile on her face. This smile is forever engraved in our memories. Her twinkling, slightly mischievous blue eyes are forever remembered in our hearts. In November of 2023, New York State Troopers searched 29 acres of Vermont wilderness after

they received new information about Sarah's whereabouts. Unfortunately, a three-day search of southwest Vermont's Green Mountain National Forest yielded no sign of her. It has now been 31 years since Sarah's disappearance. Louis Lent is still in prison in Milford, Massachusetts and is now 74 years old. Sarah Ann Wood was five feet tall and weighed about 96 pounds. She wore prescription eyeglasses with tortoise shell frames.

And at the time of her disappearance, she was wearing a pink t-shirt with Guess Who embroidered on the front, along with turquoise shorts, a headband, and brown sandals. If you have any information about the whereabouts of Sarah Ann Wood, please call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 800-843-5678. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. Remember, Daphne and I are not going to be coming out with an episode on Friday because we are getting ready to head to England for our, well, kind of a quasi honeymoon situation.

And on top of that, we're also moving. We're not moving states, though. We're just moving houses. Just moving houses. Nothing too dramatic, but it is a lot. It is going to be a lot. We're just trying to stay on top of things, stay ahead so that we can enjoy this vacation. But we love you guys so much. Sorry about all the cursing in this episode, by the way.

This guy was just such a monster. I had to let it all out. We love when you let it all out. But yeah, thank you guys so much. If you wanna see photos from this case and every other case that we cover, head over to our socials. We're on Instagram at GoingWest Podcast,

Twitter at, oh my God, that was such a reflex that was such a reef we don't even use Twitter anymore you can go check it out but there's not really any posts on there I do miss Twitter but we're also on Facebook we have two groups a discussion group which is like a private group and then we have like a main page so yeah head on over there and we will be back in a week with a crazy new story for you guys. All right guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. I'm just a little bit of a wimp, but I'm just a little bit of a wimp you