Latest / Crime and Horror / She disappeared in a Massachusetts gift shop - MrBallen

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She disappeared in a Massachusetts gift shop - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: On an evening in September of twenty seventeen, a woman
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Speaker 1: living in Massachusetts came home from work to an empty house.
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Speaker 1: Her boyfriend was gone, but she saw that his wallet
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Speaker 1: and his phone were still right there on the counter,
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Speaker 1: and also on the kitchen table were three fairly conspicuous envelopes. Confused,
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Speaker 1: she walked over to the envelopes and she began to
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Speaker 1: open them. One of them was her boyfriend's last will
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Speaker 1: and testament, another was a note that was for her,
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Speaker 1: and the third was a letter that was addressed to
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Speaker 1: the family of a woman who had been murdered twenty
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Speaker 1: five years earlier. But before we get into today's story,
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Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
0:37
Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place,
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Speaker 2: Also, please subscribe to our channel.
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Speaker 1: of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story.
1:24
Speaker 1: On the afternoon of April fifteenth, nineteen ninety two, a
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Speaker 1: twenty four year old woman named lisa' Zegert drove through
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Speaker 1: the quiet suburban streets of Agawam, Massachusetts, and eventually she
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Speaker 1: pulled into a shopping plaza in the center of town,
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Speaker 1: which was full of shops and restaurants and bars. So
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Speaker 1: Lisa was a teacher's aid at the local middle school,
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Speaker 1: and while teaching was definitely her passion, the reality was
1:47
Speaker 1: being a teacher's aid did not pay very well, so
1:50
Speaker 1: to earn some extra money, she also worked the evening
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Speaker 1: shift at a store called Britney's Card and Gift Shop,
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Speaker 1: which sold things like birthday cards and stuffed animals and
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Speaker 1: music boxes. As she drove through the law looking for
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Speaker 1: a parking space, she passed by a chicken restaurant where
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Speaker 1: her friend Ed Burgotti worked. So Ed shared a house
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Speaker 1: with Lisa's boyfriend, Blair Masoya, as well as Lisa's sister Lynn,
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Speaker 1: so the four of them were all pretty close and
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Speaker 1: so as Lisa found her spot and parked her car
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Speaker 1: and got out, she thought about popping into the restaurant
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Speaker 1: to say hi to Ed, who was also working that day,
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Speaker 1: but when she checked her time, she thought better of it,
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Speaker 1: and instead she just walked straight to the gift.
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Speaker 2: Store to start her shift.
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Speaker 1: A few hours later, around seven pm, Lisa sat behind
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Speaker 1: the counter at the gift store, humming along to the
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Speaker 1: song that was playing on the overhead speakers. Lisa was
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Speaker 1: the only employee on duty during the evening shifts, and
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Speaker 1: she was there until the store closed at nine pm.
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Speaker 1: And working alone so late at night definitely made her
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Speaker 1: a little bit anxious. And you know, she did every
2:48
Speaker 1: now and again have issues with problem customers, and so
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Speaker 1: she was just always kind of a bit on edge,
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Speaker 1: especially considering, you know, some rowdy people often came out
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Speaker 1: of the pool hall that was just a few doors down,
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Speaker 1: and they sometimes came in the shop and were just
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Speaker 1: kind of a handful. And on top of all that,
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Speaker 1: there was something else going on that Lisa actually couldn't
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Speaker 1: quite explain. Lately, she'd been having this weird feeling that
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Speaker 1: somebody was watching her through the windows of the store.
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Speaker 1: So as Lisa is sitting behind the counter, feeling very
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Speaker 1: anxious and sort of stressed about the night, she hears
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Speaker 1: the sound of the door to the shop opening. There
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Speaker 1: was a bell above the door that jingled every time
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Speaker 1: the door opened, and so she whipped around to see
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Speaker 1: who it was, and she was very relieved to see
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Speaker 1: that it was actually just her older sister Lynn, not
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Speaker 1: some random customer who might be a problem. Lisa was
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Speaker 1: really close with Lynn and sometimes her sister would just
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Speaker 1: stop by to chat and keep Lisa company, especially during
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Speaker 1: her evening shifts. So Lynn walked in and asked Lisa
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Speaker 1: how things were going, and Lisa said it was fine,
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Speaker 1: and then eventually she sort of shifted the conversation to
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Speaker 1: how Lisa was still sort of upset that she had
3:54
Speaker 1: not been able to land a full time teaching job yet.
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Speaker 1: She told Lynn that what she really wanted here was just,
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Speaker 1: you know, a teaching job that paid better than what
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Speaker 1: she had now, so that she could quit this gift
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Speaker 1: store job, not only because this late night shift really
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Speaker 1: creeped her out, but also because she'd be able to
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Speaker 1: spend more time with her boyfriend Blair if she just
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Speaker 1: had this full time teaching job instead of splitting these
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Speaker 1: two jobs. And so the two sisters continued to chat
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Speaker 1: for about a half an hour, and then Lisa walked
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Speaker 1: into the door and waved goodbye, and as Lisa watched
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Speaker 1: her sister drive away in her car. Lisa suddenly became
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Speaker 1: aware of the fact that the parking lot of this
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Speaker 1: plaza was really full tonight and there were lines of cars,
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Speaker 1: you know, of people honking at each other trying to
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Speaker 1: get you know, the few remaining spots. And as Lisa
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Speaker 1: stood there in the gift shop store away, she looked
4:40
Speaker 1: over and saw that the owner of the carpet shop
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Speaker 1: next door, James Dent, was closing up. And James, he
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Speaker 1: looked over, saw Lisa, and he made a comment about
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Speaker 1: how crazy the parking lot was tonight, and Lisa was like, yeah,
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Speaker 1: it gets pretty busy at night, but this is even,
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Speaker 1: you know, crazier than usual. After that, the two said
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Speaker 1: goodbye and they went their separate ways, and Lisa she
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Speaker 1: turned right around he went back inside the gift store.
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Speaker 1: About an hour later, around eight twenty pm, Lisa rang
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Speaker 1: up a customer at the counter.
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Speaker 2: She handed the customer's.
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Speaker 1: Change in his receipt and told him to have a
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Speaker 1: good night, and then once he was gone, she went
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Speaker 1: into the back room to take inventory before closing. After
5:16
Speaker 1: such a long and stressful day, Lisa was really glad
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Speaker 1: that her shift was nearly over in about forty minutes.
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Speaker 1: She was going to close up the shop and then
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Speaker 1: maybe walk over to see if Ed was still working
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Speaker 1: at the restaurant, chat with him for a bit, and
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Speaker 1: then head home. But just then Lisa heard the sound
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Speaker 1: of that bell on the door, which meant somebody was
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Speaker 1: coming in, so she stepped out of the back to
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Speaker 1: see who it was. The next morning, so April sixteenth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, Detective Wayne Macy of the Agawam Police
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Speaker 1: Department stepped into Brittany's card in gift shop. When he
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Speaker 1: got in there, he saw that there were already officers
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Speaker 1: from his department putting up crime scene tape and taking
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Speaker 1: photos of the scene. One of the officers came over
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Speaker 1: to Macey to fill him in, and they explained that
5:59
Speaker 1: that morning, one of the employees from this gift shop
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Speaker 1: had called nine to one one. And what she said
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Speaker 1: is she got to work that morning to start her
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Speaker 1: shift at the gift shop, and right away when she arrived,
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Speaker 1: she noticed something odd. She saw one of her co workers,
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Speaker 1: Lisa Ziegert, who normally worked the night shift and closed
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Speaker 1: the shop down. She saw her car was out in
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Speaker 1: the parking lot, and so that was odd because she
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Speaker 1: shouldn't be here she works at night. And then this
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Speaker 1: woman who ultimately called nine one one, Her name is Sophia.
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Speaker 1: She went up to the storefront and found the door
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Speaker 1: was unlocked, and also when she stepped inside, all the
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Speaker 1: lights were on and the overhead speakers were still playing.
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Speaker 1: And so you know, Sophia's thinking, that's odd, like is
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Speaker 1: Lisa working this morning or something. But she searched the
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Speaker 1: whole store and Lisa was nowhere to be found, even
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Speaker 1: though all her belongings were still in the store, and
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Speaker 1: so ultimately.
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Speaker 2: She called the police.
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Speaker 1: The officer also told Macy that they had already spoken
6:52
Speaker 1: to the man who owned the shop right next door,
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Speaker 1: the carpet shop, and the owner of that store said
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Speaker 1: he had actually spoken to Lisa the night before, or
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Speaker 1: around maybe seven thirty pm, and at the time, she
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Speaker 1: was acting totally normal, seemed very happy. They were just
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Speaker 1: talking about, you know, how hectic the parking.
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Speaker 2: Lot was that night.
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Speaker 1: Detective Macy asked the officer if anyone had been in
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Speaker 1: touch with any of Lisa's family or friends to see
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Speaker 1: if anybody had heard from her or seen her, and
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Speaker 1: the officer said that they had been in touch with
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Speaker 1: those people and that no no one had seen or
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Speaker 1: heard from her since last night. Additionally, the officer said
7:25
Speaker 1: that Lisa's roommate had said Lisa never came home, and
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Speaker 1: she also had not shown up to her other job
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Speaker 1: at the middle school that morning, where she was a
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Speaker 1: teacher's aid. At this point, the officer told Macy that, hey,
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Speaker 1: you just got to come in the back of the
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Speaker 1: store because what we found in there make it really
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Speaker 1: obvious that what we're dealing with here is foul play.
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Speaker 1: So Macy said, all right, you know, lead the way,
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Speaker 1: and he followed this officer into the back room of
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Speaker 1: the shop, and as soon as he looked inside, his
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Speaker 1: heart sank.
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Speaker 2: There were all these cardboard.
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Speaker 1: Boxes in the back room that had been sort of flattened,
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Speaker 1: like one or maybe multiple people were laying on all
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Speaker 1: the boxes, and there was blood all over the boxes.
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Speaker 1: And so based on this, you know, it seemed pretty
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Speaker 1: apparent to Macy and the other officers that you know,
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Speaker 1: if Lisa is not here right now, but our things
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Speaker 1: are here, her car is here, like she didn't disappear voluntarily,
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Speaker 1: like all the initial evidence suggests that she was taken
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Speaker 1: away by force, as Macey was walking around this small
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Speaker 1: back room, he noticed there was actually a back door
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Speaker 1: that had been left partially open that no officers had touched,
8:28
Speaker 1: so this is how it was left. And he walked
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Speaker 1: over and he opened this door, and he saw this
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Speaker 1: door led to this narrow back alley that ran behind
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Speaker 1: the building. Also, as Macey was looking at this back door,
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Speaker 1: he looked down and he saw what appeared to be,
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Speaker 1: you know, pretty obvious scuff marks across the ground, as
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Speaker 1: if maybe somebody had been dragged and their shoes had
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Speaker 1: sort of scuffed the ground on the way out. And
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Speaker 1: so Macy stepped into this back alleyway to see if
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Speaker 1: there was any nearby security cameras that could have potentially
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Speaker 1: captured whatever happened the night before, but he didn't see any,
9:03
Speaker 1: so he left the alley and he went to the
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Speaker 1: front and he began going to the other stores in
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Speaker 1: this plaza to see if any of them had cameras
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Speaker 1: that potentially faced like the front of the shop. But
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Speaker 1: Macy was very disappointed to learn that none of these
9:16
Speaker 1: shops had security cameras, so there was going to be
9:20
Speaker 1: no footage of whatever happened here.
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Speaker 2: And so at this.
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Speaker 1: Point Macy knew this was going to be a really
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Speaker 1: challenging case to solve because he had no eyewitnesses, at
9:28
Speaker 1: least not right now, and no security camera footage. It
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Speaker 1: meant there was no clear, easy way to try to
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Speaker 1: figure out what the assailant looked like, or what their
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Speaker 1: car could have looked like, or even what direction they
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Speaker 1: might have gone like, he had nothing, and so Macy
9:44
Speaker 1: went right to his car.
9:45
Speaker 2: He grabbed his radio, and he called dispatch.
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Speaker 1: And he told them to right now, send out search teams,
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Speaker 1: police dogs, and scour every inch of this area for
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Speaker 1: any sign of Lisa. After that, Macy went back inside
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Speaker 1: the shop to check the cash register. He figured if
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Speaker 1: this was a robbery, that very likely the money would
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Speaker 1: be missing, But when he got in there and he
10:05
Speaker 1: opened it up, the cash was still inside. But Macy
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Speaker 1: knew that violent attacks by random strangers was pretty rare.
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Speaker 1: More often than not, people who get killed or people
10:16
Speaker 1: who get kidnapped, their perpetrator or perpetrators are people they know.
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Speaker 1: At some point, Macy pressed a few buttons on the
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Speaker 1: cash register and it began to spit out this paper
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Speaker 1: log of all the most recent transactions, and Macy saw
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Speaker 1: that the last purchase, at least as reflected on this register,
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Speaker 1: was made with cash at eight twenty pm the night before,
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Speaker 1: and for the first time, Macy actually felt a surge
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Speaker 1: of optimism about this case because this was a very
10:44
Speaker 1: helpful clue. Since the gift store closed at nine pm,
10:47
Speaker 1: this narrowed down the time window significantly. It meant the
10:51
Speaker 1: attack likely happened in the forty minutes between that transaction
10:55
Speaker 1: at eight twenty and closing at nine pm, a time
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Speaker 1: when very few of the other their businesses in the
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Speaker 1: plaza were open except for the restaurants and pool hall.
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Speaker 1: That afternoon, Detective Macy knocked on the door of Lisa's
11:15
Speaker 1: parents' house. The search at the shopping plaza was now
11:18
Speaker 1: fully underway, and a team of officers was already searching
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Speaker 1: Lisa's apartment across town for clues, and in the meantime,
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Speaker 1: Macy wanted to speak to Lisa's family and see if
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Speaker 1: they knew anything. When Lisa's mother opened the door, she
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Speaker 1: looked frantic, but she also seemed relieved that a police
11:34
Speaker 1: officer was finally there to fill her in on what
11:36
Speaker 1: was happening, and so she told Macy to come in,
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Speaker 1: and Macy stepped into a house that was absolutely buzzing
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Speaker 1: with activity. As the detective entered the dining room, he
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Speaker 1: saw that at least a dozen people, most of them
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Speaker 1: around Lisa's age, were gathered around the table. They had
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Speaker 1: this big map spread out on the table and were
11:54
Speaker 1: talking about maybe organizing their own search effort, and then
11:57
Speaker 1: when they saw Detective Macy, they all sort of flocked
12:00
Speaker 1: around him and began peppering him with questions about what
12:02
Speaker 1: happened to Lisa?
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Speaker 2: You know, where is she?
12:04
Speaker 1: Macy told the group, which consisted mainly of friends and
12:07
Speaker 1: some family, that he would speak to all of them
12:09
Speaker 1: one by one, but in an orderly fashion, and he
12:12
Speaker 1: would start with Lisa's mother. The group seemed to understand
12:15
Speaker 1: this and kind of naturally throttled back, and then at
12:17
Speaker 1: that point Macy took Lisa's mother. They went into the
12:20
Speaker 1: living room and they sat down to talk. The first
12:23
Speaker 1: question he asked her was you know, do you know
12:25
Speaker 1: of anybody out there who might have wanted to harm
12:28
Speaker 1: your daughter? And Lisa's mother immediately said like, no, no way.
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Speaker 2: You know, Lisa did not have any enemies.
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Speaker 1: She was quite friendly, very hard working, and really just
12:37
Speaker 1: stayed out of trouble, and for the rest of this interview,
12:40
Speaker 1: which lasted, you know, another thirty minutes or so. I
12:43
Speaker 1: mean that really was the sentiment that Lisa's mother communicated
12:46
Speaker 1: that this was like totally unheard of, that anything would
12:49
Speaker 1: happen to Lisa, like she never did anything wrong, she
12:52
Speaker 1: had no problems, she had no enemies, like I don't
12:54
Speaker 1: know what happened.
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Speaker 2: And so Macy, after.
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Speaker 1: Speaking to the mother, would also speak to Lisa's father,
12:59
Speaker 1: her two sisters, and her roommate, and then also he
13:02
Speaker 1: would speak to her boyfriend Blair, and Blair's roommate Ed Borgatti.
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Speaker 1: Blair seemed really broken up about his girlfriend's disappearance. When
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Speaker 1: Macy asked where he had been the night before, Blair
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Speaker 1: said he was at his mother's home for most of
13:14
Speaker 1: the night, except for.
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Speaker 2: A quick trip to CBS.
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Speaker 1: He said he didn't remember the exact time he went there,
13:20
Speaker 1: but he definitely had the receipt back at home.
13:22
Speaker 2: And when Macy spoke to.
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Speaker 1: Ed So, Blair's roommate, Ed also seemed really upset about
13:27
Speaker 1: what happened to Lisa. He told Macy that he and
13:30
Speaker 1: Lisa were definitely good friends and they worked near each
13:32
Speaker 1: other in that shopping plaza, and he said he'd actually
13:35
Speaker 1: been working at the Chicken restaurant around the same time
13:38
Speaker 1: of Lisa's disappearance. Again, most violent attacks are not committed
13:43
Speaker 1: by strangers. They're committed by people who know they're victims.
13:47
Speaker 1: And like here was a potential suspect who not only
13:50
Speaker 1: knew Lisa very well, but was also just a few
13:53
Speaker 1: hundred feet away when she was attacked and potentially abducted.
13:58
Speaker 1: It just seemed like almost too obbos. So Macey made
14:01
Speaker 1: a note to be sure to look into Ed very
14:04
Speaker 1: thoroughly and see if any of Lisa's friends knew about
14:07
Speaker 1: maybe any tension between those two. However, as Macey would
14:12
Speaker 1: go around and question all of Lisa's friends who were
14:14
Speaker 1: at the house, none of them had anything negative to
14:17
Speaker 1: say about Ed or Blair, and none of them knew
14:20
Speaker 1: anything useful about Lisa's disappearance. However, one of Lisa's friends
14:24
Speaker 1: did say that about a week earlier, Lisa had told
14:27
Speaker 1: her about this feeling she had of being watched while
14:30
Speaker 1: she was at the store, but Lisa hadn't actually said
14:33
Speaker 1: anything about why she felt that way or who she
14:36
Speaker 1: thought was watching her. So even though it was an
14:38
Speaker 1: interesting lead, Macy knew it would be virtually impossible to
14:42
Speaker 1: actually follow up on, and at this point he was
14:45
Speaker 1: just getting a little frustrated because not only did he
14:48
Speaker 1: have no eyewitness or security footage of Lisa's abduction, it
14:52
Speaker 1: seemed absolutely no one even had a motive to harm Lisa.
14:56
Speaker 1: In fact, the only useful piece of information he got
14:59
Speaker 1: from all the interviews was from Lisa's sister, Lynn, who
15:03
Speaker 1: said she had stopped by the store about an hour
15:05
Speaker 1: or two before Lisa disappeared. She was able to give
15:08
Speaker 1: Macy a very detailed description of what Lisa was wearing,
15:12
Speaker 1: a denim skirt, boots, and a charm bracelet. And so
15:15
Speaker 1: by the time Macey was leaving the home, he felt
15:17
Speaker 1: really disappointed by how little he had uncovered. He just
15:20
Speaker 1: hoped that the officers in charge of the search effort
15:23
Speaker 1: were maybe having more luck. Three days later, on the
15:30
Speaker 1: afternoon of Sunday, April nineteenth, Detective Macy parked at the
15:33
Speaker 1: edge of the woods off Route seventy five, less than
15:36
Speaker 1: a mile from the gift store. Seconds later, another police
15:39
Speaker 1: cruiser pulled up right behind him. So earlier that afternoon,
15:42
Speaker 1: a man had been out walking his dog in these woods,
15:46
Speaker 1: and he had unfortunately come across a dead body and
15:48
Speaker 1: had called it in. And so Macy, when he heard this,
15:51
Speaker 1: had driven straight over here, you know, thinking this could
15:53
Speaker 1: be Lisa's body. And now as he got out of
15:56
Speaker 1: his cruiser, he saw there were tire tracks that the
15:59
Speaker 1: man who had called in the body had said he
16:00
Speaker 1: had also seen. He said there were tracks near the body,
16:03
Speaker 1: and so Macy's thinking, okay, I got to follow these
16:06
Speaker 1: tracks and it will likely bring me to this body.
16:09
Speaker 1: And so Macy, along with three other officers, began following these.
16:12
Speaker 2: Tracks into the trees.
16:14
Speaker 1: But Macy, who was at the front of this group,
16:16
Speaker 1: only took a few steps before his feet literally sank
16:19
Speaker 1: down into the mud to the point where it was
16:21
Speaker 1: up to his ankles. This area would turn out to
16:24
Speaker 1: be extremely swampy, to the point where the officers actually
16:28
Speaker 1: had to walk in each other's footprints in a single
16:30
Speaker 1: file line just to try to navigate this mud. And
16:33
Speaker 1: so into the woods they went, carefully walking in this
16:36
Speaker 1: straight line until the tire tracks began to fade. At
16:39
Speaker 1: this point, Macy and the others looked around and there
16:42
Speaker 1: was no body where they were, and there was no
16:44
Speaker 1: sign of any body or anything unusual, But the man
16:48
Speaker 1: who had found the body had said these tracks sort
16:50
Speaker 1: of aimed in the direction of where the body was found,
16:54
Speaker 1: and so Macy and the others just continued in that
16:57
Speaker 1: single file line, sort of just trudging directly into the
17:00
Speaker 1: woods for hours, until finally they did reach the small
17:05
Speaker 1: out of the way clearing, and in the clearing, Macy
17:08
Speaker 1: and the others saw clothing items scattered all over the place.
17:12
Speaker 1: At this point, it was starting to get dark, and
17:14
Speaker 1: so Macy pulled out his flashlight and he shined it
17:17
Speaker 1: around in this clearing, and at some point his beam
17:20
Speaker 1: of light landed on a woman's body lying.
17:23
Speaker 2: Right next to a tree.
17:24
Speaker 1: She was partially naked, and some of her clothes that
17:26
Speaker 1: she still had on had been pulled down, so it
17:29
Speaker 1: seemed fairly obvious that she had been sexually assaulted before
17:33
Speaker 1: she died. Also, there were clearly multiple stab wounds all
17:37
Speaker 1: over her body, including one to her throat, and then
17:41
Speaker 1: when Macy crouched down next to her to get a
17:42
Speaker 1: better look, his flashlight reflected off of a charm bracelet
17:46
Speaker 1: on her wrist. Less than an hour later, Detective Macy
17:52
Speaker 1: had to shield his eyes as a floodlight clicked on
17:55
Speaker 1: and threw blinding light all over this clearing he was in.
17:58
Speaker 1: A forensics team had just arrived and fired up their
18:01
Speaker 1: generators so they could work through the night with lights,
18:04
Speaker 1: and also overhead, a helicopter now circled the woods, taking
18:07
Speaker 1: aerial photos of the scene. These woods, at least from
18:10
Speaker 1: Macy's perspective, were such a maze that it seemed very
18:14
Speaker 1: likely that the killer must be a local who knew
18:17
Speaker 1: this area well. And also if they'd driven through all
18:20
Speaker 1: that mud, Macy figured that whoever they were looking for
18:24
Speaker 1: likely was driving a vehicle with four wheel drive, like
18:26
Speaker 1: a truck or a jeep, So he told the forensics
18:29
Speaker 1: team to make a cast of the tire tracks that
18:31
Speaker 1: were left behind near the edge of the road to
18:34
Speaker 1: see if there was anything else they could find out
18:36
Speaker 1: about the vehicle. And then Macy also quietly was sort
18:39
Speaker 1: of crossing his fingers that this forensics team would also
18:42
Speaker 1: be able to hopefully find a trace of the killer's
18:45
Speaker 1: DNA on Lisa's body. A few days later, Macy was
18:51
Speaker 1: sitting at his desk at the police station. The phones
18:54
Speaker 1: in the bullpen were ringing more than usual that day,
18:56
Speaker 1: but Macy was doing his best to shut the noise
18:59
Speaker 1: out and just focus on the reports that were on
19:01
Speaker 1: his desk. The forensics team had found DNA on Lisa's body,
19:05
Speaker 1: and so now Macy had to make a list of
19:08
Speaker 1: all the potential suspects that he would need to collect
19:11
Speaker 1: DNA samples from to see if any of them were
19:14
Speaker 1: a match to the DNA.
19:15
Speaker 2: Found on Lisa's body.
19:17
Speaker 1: Lisa's boyfriend, Blair, seemed like an obvious suspect, even though
19:21
Speaker 1: none of Lisa's friends or family had known about any
19:24
Speaker 1: problems in their relationship. Blair also had handed over that
19:28
Speaker 1: receipt from CBS that confirmed he was there around the
19:31
Speaker 1: same time that Lisa was abducted, but it would have
19:34
Speaker 1: only taken about, you know, maybe three minutes to drive from.
19:36
Speaker 2: The CBS to the gift store.
19:38
Speaker 1: So it seemed, you know, completely possible to Macy that
19:41
Speaker 1: you know, Blair could have attacked Lisa while he was
19:44
Speaker 1: out and just also grabbed this CBS receipt to sort
19:47
Speaker 1: of build an alibi, but a shaky one. Another strong
19:50
Speaker 1: suspect was actually Blair's roommate ed His alibi was that
19:54
Speaker 1: he'd been working at a restaurant right next to the
19:57
Speaker 1: gift store when Lisa was kidnapped, which just it seemed
20:00
Speaker 1: way too convenient, and so Macey thought, you know, it
20:03
Speaker 1: was entirely possible that Ed during his shift, could have
20:06
Speaker 1: snuck over to the shop, you know, maybe killed Lisa
20:10
Speaker 1: right there in the store and then left her there
20:12
Speaker 1: and then, you know, after his shift was over, because
20:14
Speaker 1: he knows no one's going to be back in that
20:16
Speaker 1: gift shop, he could have gone back over, grabbed the body,
20:18
Speaker 1: disposed of her in the woods, and nobody knows. And
20:21
Speaker 1: on top of that, Ed just so happened to own
20:25
Speaker 1: a jeep. So now Macy clearly needed to get DNA
20:28
Speaker 1: samples from both Blair and Ed, and also Macy planned
20:31
Speaker 1: to analyze the tires of both of their vehicles to
20:34
Speaker 1: see if either of them matched the tracks from the woods. Suddenly, though,
20:38
Speaker 1: the constant ringing of the bullpen phones just became too
20:42
Speaker 1: much for Macy to ignore, and so he stood up
20:44
Speaker 1: from his work sort of annoyed, and he walked over
20:47
Speaker 1: to see, you know, what was going on. You know,
20:48
Speaker 1: why are there so many calls happening right now? And
20:51
Speaker 1: one of the officers that was out there said all
20:53
Speaker 1: these calls were for the Lisa Zegert tip line. Macy
20:57
Speaker 1: was sort of surprised to hear that he knew the
20:59
Speaker 1: tip line had been set up, but for the past
21:02
Speaker 1: few days there really.
21:02
Speaker 2: Hadn't been many calls.
21:04
Speaker 1: But the officer told Macy that, you know, the floodlights
21:07
Speaker 1: in the forest and the helicopters flying over the woods
21:09
Speaker 1: the night before had really caught the attention of the
21:12
Speaker 1: local news, and as soon as word got out that
21:15
Speaker 1: Lisa's body had been found out there, almost everyone in
21:18
Speaker 1: Agawam seemed to have a theory about what had happened,
21:21
Speaker 1: and now they were calling in their theory. But he
21:24
Speaker 1: said that these tips were sort of all over the map,
21:27
Speaker 1: and there were already dozens of different descriptions of suspicious
21:31
Speaker 1: vehicles or suspicious people that you know, could be suspects.
21:35
Speaker 1: Mazy told the officer to keep doing his job and
21:37
Speaker 1: to make sure you log all the tips that come in,
21:40
Speaker 1: and that Macy and his team would look through them
21:42
Speaker 1: one by one when they had a chance. And as
21:45
Speaker 1: Macy turned and walked back towards his office and he
21:47
Speaker 1: continued to hear all these phones ringing, he realized his
21:51
Speaker 1: team might have to do a whole lot more DNA
21:53
Speaker 1: comparisons than he'd originally planned on, because this was the
21:56
Speaker 1: early nineties, there was no way to have one DNA
21:59
Speaker 1: sample like you would find on a body, let's say,
22:02
Speaker 1: and then just put it into a bank and see
22:04
Speaker 1: what turns up that didn't exist. And so what he's
22:07
Speaker 1: saying is he needs to compare this sample directly to
22:10
Speaker 1: basically all these potential people and hope one of them
22:13
Speaker 1: lines up. One full year later, on a morning in
22:22
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, Detective Macy dug through a cardboard box
22:26
Speaker 1: full of police reports and interview notes. There were dozens
22:29
Speaker 1: of boxes just like this one stacked all over his office,
22:32
Speaker 1: and they were all full of files on the Lisa
22:35
Speaker 1: Ziegert investigation. Macy and his team of detectives had spent
22:39
Speaker 1: the entire past year basically working around the clock on
22:42
Speaker 1: this case, digging into one lead after another, and it
22:46
Speaker 1: had been exhausting. Since Agawam was such a small town,
22:50
Speaker 1: Lisa's murder was all anyone could talk about, and the
22:53
Speaker 1: detectives had received hundreds of tips on Lisa's case. The
22:56
Speaker 1: police station even had to install extra phones to handle
22:59
Speaker 1: all the and no matter how far fetched the tip,
23:02
Speaker 1: seemed Macy's team looked into each and everyone. For example,
23:07
Speaker 1: there was a woman who worked at the all female
23:09
Speaker 1: gym that Lisa used to go to who had called
23:12
Speaker 1: in and said there was this man who showed up
23:14
Speaker 1: at their gym every day at three pm and he
23:17
Speaker 1: would buy frozen yogurt from the juice bar. But while
23:20
Speaker 1: he ate the yogurt, he would just stand there and
23:22
Speaker 1: eat it, sort of staring out at all the women.
23:24
Speaker 1: And to this woman, this employee, she felt like he
23:28
Speaker 1: could be the killer. Another tipster had called in and
23:31
Speaker 1: said they actually had seen a police car parked right
23:33
Speaker 1: near the gift store around the time Lisa was abducted,
23:36
Speaker 1: and when Macy heard this, he ordered a DNA test
23:39
Speaker 1: from every single officer in the department, but none matched.
23:43
Speaker 1: There was also another wild theory that Lisa's boyfriend, Blair,
23:47
Speaker 1: apparently had a secret romance with his roommate Ed, and
23:51
Speaker 1: Ed had apparently killed Lisa because Lisa found out about it.
23:55
Speaker 1: Somebody else had called in and said that their friend
23:58
Speaker 1: had borrowed their car on the day Lisa was killed,
24:00
Speaker 1: and when they returned the car apparently there were bloodstains
24:04
Speaker 1: in it, so they were basically saying, look into my friend.
24:06
Speaker 1: And then also there were all these women who called
24:09
Speaker 1: in basically saying their husbands did it. You know, whether
24:11
Speaker 1: or not there was merit there, you know, wasn't clear,
24:14
Speaker 1: but lots of husbands were getting accused.
24:16
Speaker 2: There were also dozens of.
24:18
Speaker 1: Tips that were just too vague to do anything with,
24:21
Speaker 1: like people saying that they saw a man in a
24:23
Speaker 1: dark coat or a guy at a bar who looked suspicious.
24:27
Speaker 1: And so at the end of the first year of
24:29
Speaker 1: this investigation, Detective Macy had looked into four hundred people
24:35
Speaker 1: of interest, but none of those leads went anywhere. To
24:39
Speaker 1: Macy's disappointment, Blair and Ed, who were really the two
24:42
Speaker 1: most obvious suspects, were actually ruled out very quickly. Their
24:46
Speaker 1: tires from their vehicles ultimately didn't match the tracks found
24:49
Speaker 1: in the woods, and they'd both given DNA samples which
24:52
Speaker 1: did not match the DNA found on Lisa's body. And
24:55
Speaker 1: it was hard to get samples from all, you know,
24:57
Speaker 1: the rest of the four hundred other suspects, especially because
25:01
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety three you needed a pretty significant amount
25:05
Speaker 1: of DNA to run a test. So the police typically
25:08
Speaker 1: made suspects come in and get their blood drawn, and
25:10
Speaker 1: a lot of the suspects just said no to that
25:12
Speaker 1: because they just didn't want to go through the hassle.
25:15
Speaker 1: And since most of the tips that had led to
25:17
Speaker 1: these people of interest were pretty flimsy, Macy didn't have
25:20
Speaker 1: probable cause to get a warrant to force them to
25:24
Speaker 1: do the blood draw. But of the hundreds of suspects
25:27
Speaker 1: who did give their DNA, none matched the DNA found
25:31
Speaker 1: on Lisa's body. And again, there's no bank to just
25:35
Speaker 1: run the sample through to see who else it could
25:37
Speaker 1: be like, if you don't have somebody to compare it to,
25:40
Speaker 1: you couldn't do it in the early nineties, So, as
25:43
Speaker 1: Macy stood there looking at all those boxes of files
25:46
Speaker 1: that he'd spent months pouring over, he had the sinking
25:49
Speaker 1: feeling that maybe the answer was not in there after all.
25:53
Speaker 1: At this point, it was like every tip he had
25:55
Speaker 1: gotten had led him down like an entirely different path
25:57
Speaker 1: than he was on, and he was just more lost
26:00
Speaker 1: and confused than ever. And so he felt like if
26:03
Speaker 1: he was going to actually find Lisa's killer, he needed
26:07
Speaker 1: new evidence where he needed an eye witness to help
26:10
Speaker 1: point him in.
26:10
Speaker 2: The right direction.
26:11
Speaker 1: And so as daunting as it was for Macy to
26:14
Speaker 1: think of this, he knew what he really needed now
26:16
Speaker 1: was actually even more tips. Six months later, in the
26:24
Speaker 1: fall of nineteen ninety three. So now we are about
26:26
Speaker 1: a year and a half after Lisa's Siegertz murder. Detective
26:30
Speaker 1: Macy stood in the corner of a massive call center
26:32
Speaker 1: in Burbank, California. All around him, dozens of workers sat
26:35
Speaker 1: in cubicles with computers and headsets, and Macy waited with
26:40
Speaker 1: nervous anticipation as one by one, their phones began to ring.
26:44
Speaker 1: Macy knew that the very popular TV show Unsolved Mysteries,
26:48
Speaker 1: which told real stories of unsolved cold cases, was actually
26:51
Speaker 1: airing a segment about Lisa's murder at that very moment,
26:55
Speaker 1: but he wasn't actually watching the show. Instead, he was
26:58
Speaker 1: in the studios call center to monitor the tip line
27:01
Speaker 1: in case any viewers at home called in with valuable
27:04
Speaker 1: information on Lisa's case, And sure enough, within a few minutes,
27:08
Speaker 1: every single phone in the call center was ringing off
27:11
Speaker 1: the hook. Macy began to walk around the room and
27:13
Speaker 1: peek over the shoulders of the workers as they took
27:16
Speaker 1: notes on these calls that were coming in. And Macy
27:19
Speaker 1: admittedly was frustrated by what he was seeing. Most of
27:22
Speaker 1: the callers were just repeating this old rumor that Ed
27:25
Speaker 1: Borgatti was the killer, and that more than that, the
27:29
Speaker 1: police knew about it and were covering it up. So
27:32
Speaker 1: the reason for that is Ed actually had been ruled
27:35
Speaker 1: out by DNA evidence pretty early on in the investigation,
27:39
Speaker 1: but the police had decided not to announce that publicly
27:42
Speaker 1: until the.
27:43
Speaker 2: Case was closed.
27:44
Speaker 1: So the locals came up with a conspiracy theory to
27:47
Speaker 1: explain why Ed, who looked so suspicious from the outside,
27:51
Speaker 1: had never been arrested, that somehow the police were covering
27:54
Speaker 1: it up.
27:54
Speaker 2: Macy had hoped that by having this case be.
27:57
Speaker 1: On Unsolved Mysteries that it would lead to a fresh
28:00
Speaker 1: tip from a credible witness who maybe hadn't come forward yet,
28:04
Speaker 1: but instead all he was getting was just more rumor
28:07
Speaker 1: and more speculation. In the end, the show generated two
28:10
Speaker 1: hundred and twelve tips and none of them led anywhere.
28:13
Speaker 1: And so as the years went on and still no
28:16
Speaker 1: new information came in, Lisa's case just continued to get
28:20
Speaker 1: colder and colder. By the time Detective Macy actually retired
28:24
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three, it had been eleven years
28:26
Speaker 1: since her murder, yet still the murder was unsolved. Almost
28:31
Speaker 1: twenty three years later, in January of twenty fifteen, Anthony Galooney,
28:35
Speaker 1: the newly elected District Attorney, walked down the hallway at
28:38
Speaker 1: the Agawam Police headquarters. He found the door he was
28:41
Speaker 1: looking for and he knocked, and a few seconds later
28:45
Speaker 1: a detective named Mark Fow opened the door. Galooney introduced
28:48
Speaker 1: himself and then asked to see all the files on
28:51
Speaker 1: the Lisa Zegert investigation. Galuney told the detective that he
28:55
Speaker 1: had grown up near Agawam and he vividly remembered watching
28:58
Speaker 1: the news coverage of Lisa's murder when he was just
29:01
Speaker 1: twelve years old, and now that he was the DA,
29:03
Speaker 1: solving the cold case was one of his top priorities.
29:06
Speaker 1: Forensic technology had advanced a lot since the early nineties
29:10
Speaker 1: when this case was in its full swing, so Galooney
29:13
Speaker 1: suggested they just send the DNA sample from Lisa's killer
29:16
Speaker 1: to the lab for phenotyping, which is basically using DNA
29:19
Speaker 1: markers to figure out what a person could look like.
29:23
Speaker 1: So this is not the same thing as putting the
29:25
Speaker 1: DNA into a huge bank and getting an exact match back.
29:28
Speaker 1: It's sort of like building a profile of who this
29:31
Speaker 1: belongs to. And so the DA was very confident that
29:34
Speaker 1: through this process, if they could build a really accurate
29:38
Speaker 1: physical profile of the suspect and cross reference it against
29:42
Speaker 1: the hundreds of names they had collected over the years
29:44
Speaker 1: in this case, maybe they could finally close in on
29:48
Speaker 1: Lisa's killer. It would take over a year and a
29:51
Speaker 1: half for this process to be completed, but in September
29:54
Speaker 1: of twenty sixteen, DA Galooney held a press conference to
29:58
Speaker 1: announce the results of the phenotyping, and so during this
30:01
Speaker 1: press conference, a composite sketch of the killer appeared on
30:04
Speaker 1: the screen behind the DA and all it showed was
30:07
Speaker 1: a Caucasian man with dark hair in either brown or
30:11
Speaker 1: hazel eyes, which does seem like not a whole lot
30:13
Speaker 1: of new information, but remember this is sort of like, definitely,
30:18
Speaker 1: this person looks this way.
30:20
Speaker 2: This is not like we think he looks this way.
30:22
Speaker 2: This is what he looks like.
30:23
Speaker 1: And even though none of the investigators on the case
30:26
Speaker 1: actually recognized the face in the sketch, Glooney hoped that
30:30
Speaker 1: somebody in the public, you know, from this press release
30:33
Speaker 1: would recognize him. So after the press conference, Galooney went
30:37
Speaker 1: back to the police station and with the help of
30:39
Speaker 1: a state trooper, they began sorting through the massive cabinets
30:43
Speaker 1: full of files.
30:44
Speaker 2: On Lisa's case.
30:45
Speaker 1: They put together a list of every person of interest
30:49
Speaker 1: who had previously refused to give a DNA sample, and
30:52
Speaker 1: they were able to narrow it down to eleven suspects
30:55
Speaker 1: who fit the phenotype profile who didn't give their DNA sample.
30:59
Speaker 1: At that point, Gallooney pulled together all the evidence that
31:02
Speaker 1: he had against those eleven people and he used it
31:05
Speaker 1: to secure warrants forcing each of them to actually give
31:09
Speaker 1: their DNA. But before those DNA results even came back,
31:13
Speaker 1: Galooney got a very unexpected phone call, and as he
31:16
Speaker 1: listened to the voice on the other end, his heart
31:19
Speaker 1: began to pound because he knew, after you know, two
31:22
Speaker 1: and a half decades, here he finally knew exactly who
31:26
Speaker 1: had killed Lisa's Eigert. Based on a written confession and
31:33
Speaker 1: DNA evidence, this is what police believe happened to Lisa's
31:36
Speaker 1: Eigert on April fifteenth, nineteen ninety two, around eight thirty pm.
31:49
Speaker 1: The killer parked in the alley behind Britney's.
31:51
Speaker 2: Card and Gift Shop.
31:53
Speaker 1: Then they walked around to the front of the store
31:55
Speaker 1: and hid behind a car and stared in the window
31:58
Speaker 1: and just watched Lisa. The Killer had always been fascinated
32:01
Speaker 1: by abduction and bondage ever since they were young, and
32:05
Speaker 1: they had done their best to try to, you know,
32:07
Speaker 1: keep those fantasies inside and not act on them. But
32:11
Speaker 1: when they had met Lisa, it was like their urges
32:13
Speaker 1: became just too powerful to control. So on this night,
32:17
Speaker 1: when they saw Lisa disappear into the store's back room,
32:20
Speaker 1: the Killer you know, steeled themselves, then took a deep
32:23
Speaker 1: breath and stormed into the shop, just as they.
32:26
Speaker 2: Had imagined doing for so long.
32:28
Speaker 1: They had thought about this and fantasized about what this
32:31
Speaker 1: would be like, and now it was actually happening. And
32:33
Speaker 1: so they ambushed Lisa with a knife right as she
32:36
Speaker 1: was walking out of that back room, and they kind
32:38
Speaker 1: of grabbed her and wrapped their arm around her neck,
32:40
Speaker 1: and they sort of stumbled into the back room and
32:43
Speaker 1: Lisa she began fighting back, and so they're struggling, and
32:46
Speaker 1: they knocked over that huge pile of cardboard boxes, and
32:50
Speaker 1: at some point Lisa tried to wrestle the knife out
32:52
Speaker 1: of the killer's grip, but after this intense struggle, the
32:56
Speaker 1: killer gained the upper hand and dragged her out the
32:59
Speaker 1: back and into the alley. They shoved her into their
33:02
Speaker 1: vehicle and then drove a mile down the road and
33:05
Speaker 1: turned onto a dirt path that led into the woods.
33:08
Speaker 1: And then after they drove for a while, they reached
33:10
Speaker 1: a secluded spot in the forest, at which point they stopped.
33:14
Speaker 1: They pulled Lisa out of the back of the car
33:16
Speaker 1: if they threw her to the ground, and then they
33:18
Speaker 1: sexually assaulted her, and then after they were done, they
33:21
Speaker 1: stabbed her to death. And then they just left her
33:24
Speaker 1: and they got back in their vehicle and they drove away.
33:26
Speaker 1: By the time the killer got back to their own home,
33:28
Speaker 1: they were still buzzing with adrenaline. I mean, this was
33:32
Speaker 1: every bit as incredible as they thought it would be. However,
33:35
Speaker 1: when they actually walked into their house and they heard
33:38
Speaker 1: a familiar female voice calling out from the other room,
33:41
Speaker 1: asking where they'd been, the killer looked down and suddenly
33:45
Speaker 1: realized there were cuts all over their hands. But at
33:48
Speaker 1: this point, you know, it was too late to do
33:50
Speaker 1: anything about these cuts. Like if they left to go
33:53
Speaker 1: clean up, they would just seem really suspicious to the
33:56
Speaker 1: woman in the next room. So the killer just took
33:59
Speaker 1: a deep breath and continued into their own house, hoping,
34:03
Speaker 1: you know, she wouldn't notice the cuts, and pieced together
34:05
Speaker 1: the awful truth. The killer's name was Gary Scharra, and
34:09
Speaker 1: he was a young man whose only connection to Lisa
34:12
Speaker 1: was that he had been a customer at the gift
34:14
Speaker 1: store where she worked. And so, you know, the police
34:16
Speaker 1: had sort of begun the investigation with this idea that
34:19
Speaker 1: this really couldn't have been a random attack of sorts,
34:22
Speaker 1: but in reality, it sort of was. Police believed that
34:25
Speaker 1: just a few weeks before the murder, Shera had visited
34:28
Speaker 1: the shop just to buy a music box for his wife,
34:31
Speaker 1: like that actually was the reason he was going. It
34:33
Speaker 1: was not to scout for a victim. He just went
34:36
Speaker 1: into the store to buy this gift. But when he
34:39
Speaker 1: saw Lisa working there, he sort of immediately became obsessed
34:43
Speaker 1: with her, and then that obsession ultimately turned into murder.
34:47
Speaker 1: In January of nineteen ninety three, Schera's wife, who was
34:51
Speaker 1: the woman in the other room who called out to
34:53
Speaker 1: him asking where he had been on the night.
34:55
Speaker 2: Of Lisa's murder.
34:56
Speaker 1: She the wife, ultimately called in a tip suggesting that
35:00
Speaker 1: her husband might have been involved in this murder, but
35:03
Speaker 1: the police decided the tip was not credible because Shera's
35:06
Speaker 1: wife was one a alcoholic and two Shara and his
35:11
Speaker 1: wife were in the middle of this heated divorce and
35:13
Speaker 1: so it seemed like this could be revenge.
35:16
Speaker 2: And then also.
35:16
Speaker 1: Remember there were all these other women calling in basically
35:20
Speaker 1: suggesting their husband was the killer. So this is like
35:22
Speaker 1: one of many, and they had to filter some of
35:25
Speaker 1: them out.
35:25
Speaker 2: This one got filtered out.
35:27
Speaker 1: So ultimately Shara's name sort of got buried amid the
35:30
Speaker 1: hundreds of other suspects until twenty five years later when
35:33
Speaker 1: police served him a warrant for a DNA sample. He
35:36
Speaker 1: was one of those eleven people who fit the phenotype
35:39
Speaker 1: who had not given a sample, and realizing he was
35:42
Speaker 1: about to get caught, he left his girlfriend a letter
35:45
Speaker 1: confessing to the murder and actually tried to end his
35:47
Speaker 1: own life, but he survived. Following his failed attempt to
35:51
Speaker 1: take his own life, Gary Schara was tracked down at
35:54
Speaker 1: the hospital and arrested on September sixteenth, twenty seventeen. Two
35:58
Speaker 1: years later, he pleaded guilty to first degree murder and
36:01
Speaker 1: was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
36:11
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
36:13
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
36:15
Speaker 1: the comments, and remember, we have a whole playlist of
36:18
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Speaker 1: so click here and give them a watch.
36:23
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya,