Disappearance of Sara Anne Wood

Sara Anne Wood (born March 4, 1981) is an American missing person who disappeared near her home in Litchfield, New York on August 18, 1993, when she was 12 years old.[1][2]

Sara Anne Wood
Born(1981-03-04)March 4, 1981
DisappearedAugust 18, 1993 (aged 12)
Litchfield, New York, U.S.
StatusMissing for 29 years, 8 months and 28 days
NationalityAmerican
Height5 ft 0 in (1.52 m)

In 1996, a man named Lewis S. Lent Jr. was charged with abducting and murdering both Wood and 12-year-old Jimmy Bernardo of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Lent pled guilty to both murders, receiving a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment for Bernardo's murder. He also received a sentence of 25 years to life for Wood's murder, despite recanting his confession and Wood's body having never been found.

Background

Sara Anne Wood was born on March 4, 1981. At the time of her disappearance, Wood was 12 years old and resided in Litchfield, New York with her parents, brother, and sister.

Disappearance

Wood was last seen at 2:30 pm on August 18, 1993, riding her bicycle on a quiet road in Frankfort, New York near her home after leaving her church in Sauquoit, where her father was a pastor.[3] At the time of her disappearance, Wood was wearing a pink T-shirt with the words "Guess Who" embroidered on the front, turquoise blue shorts, and brown sandals. On the evening of Wood's disappearance, her bicycle, coloring book, and crayons were discovered hidden in an area of brush off of Hacadam Road.

Investigation and developments

Hours after Wood's disappearance, hundreds of troopers and volunteer firefighters searched cornfields and forests for dozens of miles. More than 1,000 leads were established. A month after Wood's disappearance, the reward for her return had swelled to more than $150,000.[4]

Lewis S. Lent Jr.

In 1996, three years after Wood's disappearance, a 45-year-old man named Lewis S. Lent Jr. was charged with her abduction and murder. Lent confessed not only to the abduction and murder of Wood, but also that of 12-year-old James Bernardo, which occurred in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1990. Lent abducted Bernardo from a movie theater where he worked as a janitor.

Lent claimed to have buried Wood's body in a clearing near Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains, in or near the town of Inlet. Extensive searches in the area proved fruitless; Lent subsequently admitted that Wood had not actually been buried there. He refused to disclose the actual whereabouts of her remains, claiming that he had buried another body nearby which he did not want to be found.[5]

Though Lent later recanted his statements, he was convicted of Wood's murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Lent also received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for Bernardo's murder.

In 2013, Lent confessed to the 1992 murder of 16-year-old James Lusher, whose body has also never been found. Lent has yet to be charged in connection with Lusher's case.

A search for Wood's remains in 2015 proved unsuccessful.[6]

Aftermath

Following her disappearance, Wood's family founded the Sara Anne Wood Rescue Center, later renamed the Mohawk Valley Branch of The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children.[7]

As of 2023, Wood's remains have yet to be found.

See also

References
  1. "Sara Anne Wood". The Charley Project. July 16, 2013. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  2. Jones, Charisse (January 13, 1994). "Town Prepares to Mourn In Search for Girl's Body". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 27, 2017. closed access
  3. "Sara Anne Wood". www.nampn.org. Archived from the original on July 1, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2023 – via Wayback Machine.
  4. "Take a long, hard look". Daily News. New York, New York. September 24, 1993. p. 14. Retrieved May 3, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  5. "Killer Declines to Tell Where Girl Is Buried". The New York Times. April 12, 1997. Retrieved May 3, 2023. closed access
  6. "Sara Anne Wood case: Search resumes in unsolved cases related to serial killer Lewis Lent". syracuse.com. May 12, 2015. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  7. "851DFNY - Sara Anne Wood". The Doe Network. May 18, 2022. Retrieved May 3, 2023.
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