Inside Lisa Ziegert’s murder and how THREE notes led to Gary Schara’s conviction as Dateline airs The Music Box

THE 1992 rape and murder of 24-yr-previous Lisa Ziegert remaining investigators puzzled for decades till the keys to fixing the situation fell into their laps out of nowhere.

Lisa was abducted from the reward shop she labored at times in advance of her partially nude body was found in a wooded area.

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The violent nature of the crime sent shockwaves by the compact, tight-knit neighborhood of Agawam, Massachusetts.

“Well I grew up in this city and we in no way had just about anything like this occur,” Benjamin Oz instructed WWLP.

“I cannot remember there at any time becoming a murder until finally it transpired and every person was all of unexpected so suspicious of every single other and it definitely did tear the town aside,”

The scenario remained unsolved for decades when, in 2017, the girlfriend of Gary Schara gave investigators incriminating evidence.

“There ended up a few independent letters,” mentioned State Law enforcement Trooper Noach Packer in an interview with Dateline.

“One of them was essentially a confession letter. A further just one was a previous will and testomony. He also still left a letter of apology for the Ziegert spouse and children.”

Investigators straight away searched Shara’s property, obtaining DNA proof that matched the criminal offense scene.

“We knew that we were gonna fix this scenario with a DNA match,” explained Packer. “We did not hope to resolve this situation by any individual producing confession letters.”

Lisa was a modern college graduate and teacher’s assistant when she went lacking on April 15, 1992.

Her car or truck, keys and coat had been remaining at the keep and authorities have been informed that she didn’t clearly show up to her occupation at Agawam Middle School the following working day.

Her system was identified on Easter Sunday off the aspect of Route 75, surrounded by trees and leaves. 

It was disclosed she had been sexually assaulted and her result in of death was from a single stab wound to the neck.

Schara was a man or woman of desire in the murder considering that 1993.

He pleaded responsible to to start with-diploma murder in September 2019, putting an end to one particular of the most well known cold scenarios in Massachusetts history. 

He was sentenced to lifestyle in prison devoid of the possibility of parole.

NBC will air an episode of Dateline about Lisa’s murder.

The Music Box will air on Saturday, July 9, 2022, at 9pm.

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