The girl DISAPPEARED right out of the store. 25 years later, everyone found out the GRUESOME truth.

The girl DISAPPEARED right out of the store. 25 years later, everyone found out the GRUESOME truth.

A 24-year-old girl disappeared from the store where she worked the evening shift. Police found traces of blood in the back room and signs of a struggle, but it was definitely not a robbery; the unknown perpetrator had left a full cash register.

A few days later, the girl’s body was found five kilometers from the store. The investigation of this terrible case dragged on for nearly 25 years. It was not until a quarter of a century later that it became known what had happened to Lisa Siegert.

Lisa Marie Seeger was born March 24, 1968, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. She grew up in a close-knit family with three other children besides her; they lived in a town called Agawam.

From an early age, the girl loved music and learned to play several instruments. For a while, she was even a member of the school music group. After high school, Lisa went to Westfield State University, where she received her teaching degree in 1990.

As an intern, she worked several shifts as a counselor at a children’s camp and also taught Sunday school at her church. After that, she took a job as a teacher’s aide at Agawam High School, where she had once studied herself.

She spent most of her time working with a group of children with special needs. At the age of 24, she understood her students better than any other teacher. At the same time, she was very professional and tried to make sure that each of her students got the best education possible. She also worked part-time at the local card and gift store in the evenings.

On Wednesday, April 15, 1992, she finished her shift at school at about half past five and went to the store, where she was at work until 9:00 PM. At about 5:30 PM, her sister Lynn came into work with her briefly. According to her recollection, Lisa was in a good mood that evening, and nothing foretold trouble.

The next morning, saleswoman Sophia Maynard arrived at the store and was scheduled to begin her shift at nine o’clock. To her surprise, Lisa’s car was in the parking lot. It was strange because the girl worked at school in the mornings and was not supposed to be in the store during class hours.

There was a light on inside and a sign on the door that was open. Sophia thought that Lisa might have been out for the morning shift; due to the approaching Easter, they were planning to inflate balloons for sale for that holiday.

Sophia walked into the store and called Lisa by name, but there was no response. When she approached the counter, she saw her things there, including her wallet and car keys. It all looked very strange, so she decided to call the police.

A squad arrived at the store and began their inspection. Everything looked normal in the main part of the premises, but there was a creepy opening in the back. The officer saw several crushed boxes with traces of blood on them. Later, they found several cards scattered on the floor, which also had blood on them.

They also found a small dent in the door, which they thought might have been left by a heel strike. Despite all this, they were unable to find any useful leads on the store premises.

It soon became known that Lisa had also failed to show up at school this morning. The principal even called her mother to ask if everything was okay, but her mother did not know where her daughter was either. The news of Lisa’s disappearance quickly spread through the small town, and within hours all of her friends, relatives, and acquaintances were on the case.

The first thing the police did was to work up a theory of robbery, but that theory immediately fell away. No one had touched the money in Lisa’s cash register or wallet; all the merchandise was also there.

Subsequently, detectives began to reconstruct the chronology of events that evening. They learned that Lisa’s sister had left the store at about 6:00 PM. After talking to employees at neighboring stores, they obtained more information: at about 7:20 PM, Lisa spoke with the owner of the carpet store next door.

They discussed a pressing problem with the local parking lot, which was being occupied by bowling alley customers. The owner told her that he himself would not risk voicing his displeasure with the drivers who parked in front of their stores because many of them, he said, were crazy and dangerous. He and Lisa talked for about 15 minutes, after which he went home.

After examining the cash register, police determined that the last time money had been deposited into it was 8:20 PM. Detectives also found a woman who entered the store around 9:05 PM. The door was open, but the clerk never came out. The woman thought she heard some noise from the back room, but she decided to just leave.

Thus, the police established the approximate window of Lisa’s disappearance: at 8:20 PM, she served her last customer, and by nine o’clock, something had happened to her. The detectives were to find out what had happened in those 40 minutes.

The local investigators were assisted by the FBI and State Police. Together, they organized a massive search. Foot squads combed the area surrounding the store, and several helicopters searched the more distant terrain. Police dogs were also brought to the store in the hope that they could pick up Lisa’s trail. Unfortunately, none of this yielded any results.

Investigators understood that Lisa had clearly not left the store of her own free will, so on April 17th, the head of the local police announced a reclassification of the case. While it had previously been a missing person case, two days after her disappearance, the police were already investigating a kidnapping.

On Sunday morning, April 19th, all local churches prayed for Lisa to be found alive and unharmed. It was Easter, but there was no holiday spirit at all.

At about 2:00 PM, the police received a call. A man was walking his dog on the outskirts of town near Highway 75. Walking along a wooded area, he noticed a woman’s body and immediately contacted law enforcement.

Officers arrived on the scene and identified Lisa Siegert. They found multiple wounds on her body from a sharp object. Later, medical experts determined that the girl had also been assaulted. Her body was about five kilometers from the store, which meant that the perpetrator most likely drove the girl here in a car.

Detectives immediately cordoned off the area and moved in a single line so as not to compromise potential evidence. It was raining in those days, and there were several tire tracks on the soaked dirt road. Unfortunately, the police were unable to find the weapon or any other tangible evidence.

The news that Lisa was the victim of an unknown brutal killer quickly spread throughout the city. A farewell service was held at the church where the girl taught on Sundays; it was attended by nearly a thousand people.

Residents of the small town, accustomed to a quiet and safe life, fell into a state close to panic. Many shopkeepers eliminated single shifts, and colleagues walked each other to their cars. Self-defense sections were overcrowded in a matter of days. In addition, about 300 women applied for permits to own firearms. The whole town feared that an unknown criminal might strike again.

The police and FBI were working on the case almost around the clock. Soon it became known that they had managed to get a DNA sample from the crime scene that might belong to the killer.

They worked out the theory that Lisa’s boyfriend was involved, but he had an alibi and his DNA did not match the sample they found. Friends, co-workers, and relatives of the girl also had DNA testing done, and again, no matches.

The police also received many tips from local residents. Some reported seeing a suspicious car on the night of Lisa’s murder; others assured that they knew the name of the culprit. But all these leads led nowhere, and detectives sifted them out.

From the tire tracks on the road near where the body was found, the police determined that they had been left by a van or large SUV. Detectives questioned all drivers of similar vehicles and again were no closer to catching the perpetrator, but they were able to find a witness who may have seen the same vehicle.

An employee of a store near where Lisa worked was driving home at about 9:15 at night. Standing at a traffic light, she saw a large SUV pulling off the road and heading toward the place where Lisa’s body would later be found.

The woman could not describe the car in more detail because it was dark outside; she only noted that she believed there was a man and a woman in the car. She added the odd fact that when the car pulled into the dirt road, the woman’s head was twitching unnaturally, as if she were asleep or unconscious. Alas, this information also did not help lead to the suspect.

Any leads had since come to an end. The police continued to work on the case, but with each passing month, hope of solving this macabre mystery faded. A year and a half passed before Lisa’s family and friends were given a new chance to discover the truth.

In October 1993, national television aired an episode devoted to the case. The popular program filmed stories about unsolved cases, which drew enormous attention to them. Sometimes this led to new witnesses coming forward to the police, and the case got a second wind.

Lisa’s case was no exception. Within an hour of the broadcast, the police received several hundred calls from people who had some kind of information. As is usually the case, most of these leads led nowhere, but the police worked through each and every one of them. According to the detectives, they were able to identify a few valuable leads, but they did not specify which ones. Unfortunately, it also went nowhere.

As the years went by, the chances of solving the case steadily declined. Lisa’s family went to great lengths to ensure that her legacy was not forgotten. Although her teaching career was cut short early on, Lisa’s relatives made a major contribution to the Agawam education system.

In 1995, her parents donated eleven thousand dollars to the science division of the school where Lisa worked. These funds went to buy equipment and support genetics classes. The parents also set up a fund to help gifted students, which distributed about thirty-five thousand dollars in awards.

10 years had passed since Lisa’s murder. Her mother had not given up hope that the case would ever be solved. She went to great lengths to support the memory of her daughter. Her mother took part in every interview and answered reporters’ questions, and every year she gathered hundreds of people to honor Lisa’s memory and light candles.

Meanwhile, police had only one piece of significant evidence on their hands: a DNA sample from the alleged killer. They kept checking it against known criminal databases, hoping that the right person would get caught sooner or later, but year after year, it didn’t happen.

In September 2016, 24 years after Lisa’s murder, investigators decided to try a new method: DNA phenotyping. Its essence is the following: based on the information embedded in a person’s DNA, experts determine the features of their appearance and build an assumed portrait.

At the moment, using DNA, specialists can find out sex, approximate age, and eye and hair color. The portrait generated from this data is not always accurate, but sometimes the coincidence with the face of a real person is amazing.

Based on the DNA of Lisa’s alleged killer, experts presented two portraits of the suspect: age 25 and 50. When the police department published these portraits, they received more than 170 calls. These people reported seeing a similar man, but most of these leads also led nowhere.

And only a year later, on September 18, 2017, police suddenly made a high-profile announcement: the perpetrator had been arrested. It turned out to be a 49-year-old man named Gary Schara.

The news instantly went viral throughout the American media. Cases when the police find the killer after a quarter of a century are very rare, so such stories immediately attract a huge amount of public attention.

Immediately after Schara’s arrest, investigators revealed how they had managed to track him down. It turned out that the man was considered a suspect back in 1993, a year after Lisa’s murder.

Remember that program on national television after which the police received hundreds of calls with potential leads? One of the callers was a lawyer from Seattle. He told detectives that his client might have information about Lisa’s murder. She was a woman who was in the process of divorcing her husband; they lived in a town called Longmeadow, which was near Agawam.

According to the woman, her husband was showing increased attention to Lisa Siegert’s case. If this murder was on television, he would run into the room and stare blankly at the screen, totally unresponsive to those around him.

As you may have realized, this man was Gary Schara. He was 24 years old at the time, was in a very troubled marriage, and had a one-year-old son. He and his wife were constantly fighting and had already begun divorce proceedings shortly after the birth of their child.

According to the police statement, they had worked out the theory that Gary was involved back in 1993, but found no evidence to support it. On the contrary, his ex-wife as a source of information raised doubts. The fact is that she had a whole list of mental disorders as well as a long history of alcohol abuse.

Moreover, during the divorce, Gary obtained custody of their son through the courts, but his wife secretly removed the child to another state.

Another important fact to add here: this was by no means the first time that former or current wives had called the police saying that their husbands might be involved in Lisa’s murder. Surprisingly, there were indeed many such calls, so the detectives thought that Gary’s case was just one of those.

Even so, they questioned him, but the man denied his involvement and refused to give a DNA sample. No one could legally force him to give a sample, so the police essentially had no other options.

Later, detectives compiled a list of all the men questioned in the case who refused to give a DNA sample. Gary was among them, and the police called him in for questioning several more times.

During the third interview in 2008, it was apparent that Gary was trying not to touch anything, not even the table. He was offered a bottle of water, but he refused. He looked as if he had only one thing on his mind: how the cops wouldn’t get his DNA sample.

By 2017, detectives had a list of 11 suspects on their hands, including Gary. All of them had been interviewed at various stages of the investigation and refused to voluntarily submit to DNA testing.

In fact, there were many more suspects on that list, but through DNA phenotyping, investigators were able to weed out unsuitable candidates. They did not match some of the characteristics that experts determined from the DNA sample of Lisa’s killer.

In August 2017, detectives gathered all available information and went to court. They asked for an order compelling all the list members to provide DNA samples, and the court agreed.

On September 13 of that same year, police went to Gary’s apartment to notify him of this obligation, but the man was not home. The door was opened by his neighbor, with whom they shared an apartment. The detectives left him their business card and asked him to give the information to Gary urgently.

The very next day, something unexpected happened. Gary’s current girlfriend came to the police station and reported that he had left three letters in her apartment. To the researchers’ surprise, among them was an apology to the Seeger family and a detailed confession of Lisa’s murder.

On two sheets, Gary wrote that he had had violent and uncontrollable desires in him since childhood; he was obsessed with thoughts of kidnapping and abuse. That evening, as he drove past Lisa, Gary—as he himself articulated in a letter—allowed himself to do something horrible.

The man specified that he did not plan to kill Lisa, but events allegedly got out of his control. Gary wrote that he wanted to surrender to the police hundreds of times, but could not do so because of cowardice. He stated that he had lived with self-loathing all these years. At the end of the letter, he stated that he planned to end his life.

Police immediately began searching for Gary, and soon his car was spotted in the parking lot of a hospital in Stafford Springs. There was another suicide note on the windshield. It turned out the man had ingested some powerful drugs, but got in his car immediately afterwards and rushed to the nearest hospital, where his stomach was pumped.

As soon as the doctors were finished helping him, the police arrested Gary and took him to the station. At the same time, a judge issued a search warrant for his apartment as well as his girlfriend’s apartment. There, the police seized several objects containing his DNA.

The result of the analysis surprised no one: a complete match with the sample of the killer. Along with that, detectives uncovered several other potentially significant leads.

Gary’s wife, who had reported suspicions about him back in 1993, passed away in 2014. However, investigators were able to find documents drafted by her lawyer where the woman revealed many gruesome details.

One day, Gary told her in plain language that he could not engage in intimacy with her unless he had a knife in his hand. The day after Lisa’s murder, the woman called her sister and told her that Gary had come home late at night, was extremely disturbed, and his body was covered with scratches.

He also gave his wife a music box and said that he had bought it at the very store where Lisa worked—except, according to Gary himself, it was an older woman with gray hair who sold it to him. The problem is that no such employee has ever been there. It is not clear why all these details were not reported to the police in 1993, and it is impossible to find out now.

While in custody, Gary suddenly proclaimed his innocence and refused to confess to what he had done. In all likelihood, he was driven by simple fear, but with that kind of evidence, there was no chance of getting away with it. The only thing he was able to achieve was a postponement of his sentence.

The trial was not to begin until two years later, but Gary, who had been in a cell the whole time, suddenly decided to confess. On September 21, 2019, he appeared before a judge and pleaded guilty to the murder of Lisa Siegert.

This charge qualified as first-degree murder, and in Massachusetts, a defendant on such a sentence faces life in prison without parole.

Lisa’s family was present in the courtroom. Her mother, who had hoped for 25 years to learn the truth, spoke. She thanked everyone involved in the investigation, as well as the ordinary, concerned people who had supported her family all this time.

As a result, the killer went to live out the rest of his life behind bars. One of the state’s longest-running criminal cases was officially closed.

Despite the fact that it took a quarter of a century, the bitter truth in such a case is better than endless ignorance.