Bio

Lewis Stephen Lent Jr. was born in 1950 and later lived in North Adams, Massachusetts. He worked quiet, low-profile jobs, including as a janitor at the Pittsfield Plaza Cinema Center. People who knew him described him as quiet and ordinary. After his arrest, investigators said they found signs that he had been planning more child abductions.

Lent came to police attention in January 1994 after he tried to abduct 12-year-old Becky Savarese in Pittsfield. She escaped and helped police identify him. During the investigation, police connected Lent to the disappearance of 12-year-old Jimmy Bernardo, who had vanished from the theater where Lent worked.

Lent later confessed to killing Jimmy Bernardo and Sara Anne Wood. He pleaded guilty in both cases, but he refused to reveal where Sara’s body was buried. In 2013, he also confessed to killing Jamie Lusher, but later recanted. Lent is serving life in prison in Massachusetts. His case remains known because Sara Anne Wood and Jamie Lusher have never been found.

Murder story

Lewis Lent’s confirmed murder history began with the disappearance of 12-year-old James “Jimmy” Bernardo. On October 22, 1990, Jimmy was last seen outside the Pittsfield Plaza Cinema Center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Lent worked there as a janitor. According to investigators, Lent later said he lured Jimmy by offering him money to help clean the theater, then overpowered and kidnapped him.

Jimmy’s body was found on November 21, 1990, in a wooded area near Newfield, New York, about 200 miles from Pittsfield. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court later summarized evidence that the body was found with a rope around the neck and that tape was found at the scene, believed to have been used to bind the victim. Lent eventually pleaded guilty to Jimmy’s murder and received life in prison without parole.

On August 18, 1993, 12-year-old Sara Anne Wood disappeared while returning home from Vacation Bible School in rural New York. Her bike was later found hidden in brush near the road, but Sara was missing. Her disappearance led to a large search effort and became one of New York’s best-known missing child cases.

After Lent was arrested in January 1994 for trying to abduct Becky Savarese, investigators questioned him about Sara. He confessed to kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and murdering her. Detectives said he knew details about Sara’s clothing and bicycle that had not been publicly released. Lent drew a map and claimed Sara was buried near Blue Mountain Lake or the Raquette Lake area in the Adirondacks, but searches did not find her.

Lent later pleaded guilty to Sara’s kidnapping and murder. On April 11, 1997, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in New York. At sentencing, Sara’s family and the court asked him to reveal the location of her body, but he remained silent. He was sent back to Massachusetts to continue serving his life sentence for Jimmy Bernardo’s murder.

In 2013, Lent confessed to killing 16-year-old Jamie Lusher, who disappeared in 1992 while riding his bicycle in Westfield, Massachusetts. Police searched areas connected to Lent’s statement, but Jamie’s body was not found. Lent later recanted, and authorities did not charge him, partly because they hoped he might still provide information that could lead to Jamie’s remains.

Lent’s case remains unresolved in important ways. He is legally convicted of two child murders, but investigators have continued to examine whether he may be connected to other disappearances. As of the latest confirmed reporting, Sara Anne Wood’s body has never been recovered.